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By January 2022, approximately 100 employees from Microsoft Corporation’s (Microsoft) HoloLens division, which had pioneered augmented reality (AR), quit. Most joined Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook), despite the company’s recent controversies. Meta was seeking talent for metaverse technology that required AR and virtual reality (VR) expertise. Metaverse talent was scant industry wide. Meta offered double salaries to poach talent from Microsoft, its partner for different projects. The executives leaving Microsoft were key employees of the HoloLens division. Microsoft’s choice to not hire more engineers after the US Army contract led employees to question Microsoft’s commitment toward HoloLens, a part of metaverse technology. However, Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, confirmed Microsoft’s commitment toward metaverse technology, though some employees disagreed. What could Nadella do to retain HoloLens employees? With an increasing demand for metaverse-related skills, how could Nadella attract more talent? Was Meta’s employee poaching likely to bring any good news for Microsoft?

<p align="justify">When vaccines became widely available in 2021, Dr. Bonnie Henry—the provincial health officer of British Columbia (BC)—was tasked with the monumental mission of immunizing all BC residents against the COVID-19 pandemic. By November 19, 2021, almost 91 per cent of eligible residents had received their first dose of the vaccine, and 87 per cent had received their second dose. At the same time, the pediatric vaccine for children aged five to eleven was approved by Health Canada; however, polling suggested that BC parents were hesitant to vaccinate their young children. Henry faced the new challenge of creating a plan to convince parents and caregivers that vaccinating their children was both necessary and safe.<p>

In September 2019, the project manager of Washington, DC, technology company Zinthro found a serious calculation error in her company’s bid for a major government project. When she discovered the mistake, the bid had already been accepted and the project was well under way. The issue threatened her working relationship with several key individuals related to the project, including the executive overseeing the project, the client representative, the team that put together the original bid for the project, fellow project managers, and team leaders. Although she was not the one who made the mistake, she was the one who had discovered it and had to decide what to do next. Who should she talk to about the error? Who should be told first? How should she deliver the bad news?

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a skilled actor, but that’s not what makes him an invaluable leadership role model for his people and the rest of our troubled world.

Bengaluru Airport began an expansion project worth US$2 billion in 2018, but by mid-2020 COVID-19 had severely impacted the aviation industry and reduced passenger volume at the airport by half. Although the airport’s leadership team had detected the crisis early and taken swift action, with no cure for the virus in sight business continuity and staff safety were in jeopardy. The next board meeting was in August 2020, less than seven weeks away, and the pandemic threatened to derail the expansion plans. Among other pressing questions the leadership team had to address—including whether to continue with the expansion plan, reduce its scope, or delay it—was whether they had done enough throughout the crisis to inspire confidence.

Presentation to accompany product W25430.

The notion of “quiet quitting,” or only fulfilling the bare-minimum requirements of one’s job, achieved zeitgeist status in 2022. When someone quietly decides to no longer go the extra mile for their employer, two ingredients of a healthy working relationship—trust and clear communication—are typically missing. And while many factors beyond a manager’s control might contribute to an employee reaching this point, three particular issues tend to drive workers into a “quiet quitting” experience. First, a lack of transparency at an organization—including managers keeping employees out of the loop of organizational realities—can lead to quiet quitting. Second, a lack of direction can lead to quiet quitting, because workers are not mind readers and can hardly deliver results when they don’t have clear guidelines. Third, a lack of boundaries can contribute to quiet quitting, especially in toxic corporate cultures that demand too much from workers. When any of these core values are weak or missing in an organization, employees may appear to be limiting engagement and commitment as part of some new trend. But when you take a real look at quiet quitting (and its counterpart, “quiet firing”), it’s really a symptom of failed business leadership. The solution, of course, is to be serious about proactively building these values into your workplace culture to foster trust and an authentic rapport with employees, which increases engagement and decreases the need for morale-depleting practices like clock watching.

On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, founder, chief executive officer, and chair of Facebook Inc. (Facebook), announced Facebook’s name change to Meta Platforms Inc., reflecting his vision for the company’s transition to metaverse technology. At the same time, Facebook was plagued by multiple scandals related to a data privacy breach, the spread of misinformation on the social media platform, employee whistle-blowing, and surveillance-style marketing and advertising. Trust in Zuckerberg’s leadership was diminishing. Zuckerberg controlled 58 per cent of Facebook’s voting shares, and stakeholders, critics, and regulators were calling for distributed leadership. How could Zuckerberg restore trust in his company and his leadership? What did he need to change to become a more effective leader?</p>

In January 2020, Philippe Isler, director of the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation (Alliance), was preparing for the Alliance’s steering group meeting that spring. He needed to set forth a plan on how to scale Alliance operations to deliver on current and proposed projects. The Alliance had only three years left in its current funding cycle, and a long list of projects to complete. Isler knew that meeting the funding governments’ expectations with the current structure would be a challenge for the Alliance. He thus faced a complex organizational design challenge and had to reflect how to develop the efficiency of the Alliance. Isler considered three options to scale Alliance operations: growing organically, adding several arms-length implementing partners, and adding a new implementing partner into the Alliance secretariat. Alternatively, he could dial back the Alliance’s current growth plans.

In 2022, the newly appointed general manager (GM) of the global cookie business at Groupe Aliments Choix must build his business unit in the throes of a major corporate shift in strategy and structure. The newly announced corporate changes are a challenge to the GM because of his unit’s traditional country-centred approach to business. He is under added pressure because he has been given just forty-five days to develop an action plan. His recommendations will include structural changes and targets for building new organizational capabilities. As a new leader in a new position, the GM also needs to assess his own capabilities relative to the challenging tasks ahead.

In June 2020, the vice-president of Ginjalrein India Corporation was meeting with three members from the client organization Nierejia Care. The meeting was to discuss the deteriorating relationship between the two companies. The relationship between the two companies had been difficult for most of 2019, something which had threatened the contract between the two partners. These initial issues had been resolved in March 2020 following high-level interventions and collaborations between key members from both organizations. <br><br/>Unfortunately, the subsequent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 threatened to derail the partnership once again. Both organizations faced significant challenges as a result the pandemic; lockdowns and pandemic measures forced escalated costs, increased uncertainties on various fronts, and threatened the survival of both organizations. Ginjalrein India Corporation was required to make manufacturing operations decisions that Nierejia Care viewed as a breach of contract. The upcoming round of negotiations in June 2020, as these companies sought to find middle ground and yet support their own interests, would be critical for both parties.

Instructor Spreadsheet to accompany product W26682.

Student Spreadsheet to accompany product W26681.

Role play assignments for product W26681.

lebua Hotels & Resorts, based in Bangkok, Thailand, and headed by chief executive officer Deepak Ohri, is a much awarded luxury hotel chain. Since the early 2000s, it exposed the traditionally slow-moving luxury hospitality industry to a slew of path-breaking innovations. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohri had taken unorthodox paths to defining luxury hospitality. However, as the pandemic began to ebb, he had to convince the industry of his vision of what luxury hospitality was and should continue to be. His positioning strategy for lebua had been very effective, and having won numerous awards in the luxury category, Ohri was contemplating, with his executive team, the next level of innovations needed to bring the company to the top of its post-pandemic peer group.

Jeff Henry, owner of and creative visionary behind Schlitterbahn Waterparks & Resorts, created one of the most sought-after water park companies in the United States. He was confident in his ability to create the best attractions and dominate the industry with his unique inventions. Then, at his facility in Kansas City, Kansas, a fatal accident took place after the construction and design of the Verrückt, a waterslide Henry hoped would set new world records. How should Henry have responded to the tragedy?

Pete Anderson, the general manager of Mumbai Dairy Company, is facing several difficult but related challenges. Revenues and profits at the Mumbai, India–based joint venture are in decline. At the same time, worker strikes and disruptions across India have become a major issue. Internally, employees seem to be unmotivated and many—particularly Anderson’s direct reports—appear to be taking him for granted. Employees blame seasonal conditions as the cause of waning performance. Others are complaining that their compensation is too little given the contributions they are making. Anderson needs a plan of action for his upcoming meeting with his Singapore-based boss.

The case highlights the challenges encountered by Laura Williams, founder and owner of Williams HR Law, a firm based in Toronto, Ontario, providing a full range of legal services on labour, employment law, and human resources (HR) matters. Demand for the firm’s services grew exponentially in 2020 following the tragic death of George Floyd and due to the ongoing workplace challenges encountered during the global pandemic. Williams faced decisions regarding the best and most sustainable ways to address increasing demand. She had solidified her reputation in the marketplace as an “advocate-of-choice” and was mindful of ensuring that her growth decisions did not negatively affect her brand or impact the organizational culture she had proudly developed. She was committed to ensuring that her growth aligned with her purpose—to provide best-in-class legal support that enabled clients to make informed decision-making and diffuse workplace issues before they escalated.

A 24-year-old female employee landed her first career job at Exeter Group only a few months after graduating from university. The employee worked as an assistant to the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer. A few months after the employee began her new job, her boss began making work requests that seemed personal and then began making repeated sexual advances, which made the employee feel increasingly uncomfortable. The employee tried to curb the boss’s behaviour on several occasions, but she felt caught between dealing with harassment from her boss and trying to develop her career.<br><br>One late evening during a business trip, the boss drunkenly and forcibly disrupted the employee in her hotel room and attempted to coerce her into having sex with him. The employee evaded the advance by locking herself in the bathroom of her hotel room. As she sat on the floor of the bathroom, she wondered how she had found herself in this extremely difficult situation and how she would get out of it.

Alice Moore worked remotely as a full-time senior data associate for Bloom Inc., a global technology firm in the United States. The department in which Moore worked was restructured while she was on maternity leave; yet despite having a strong performance record, Moore received neither a promotion nor a pay increase, while some colleagues did. She returned from her maternity leave in June 2018, and regardless of more than a year of emails and meetings with managers, Moore’s concerns about her role in the restructured department were not resolved. In August 2019, Moore was preparing for her final meeting with a manager and needed to decide how best to advocate for her career concerns within Bloom.