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In most organizations, the employee appraisal process causes more tension than any other aspect of personnel management. Despite the good intentions behind it, a 360º Feedback system does little to quell the fear that performance evaluation tends to instill. But is it possible to design a 360º Feedback system that is both comfortable and constructive for employees? This technical note discusses the challenges of and opportunities for creating a system that improves performance effectiveness and enhances career success.

Incompetent people don't perform up to speed, don't recognize their lack of competence, and don't recognize the competence of others.

As major purchasers of health care, corporations have almost as much of a stake in maintaining employees' health as employees themselves do.

Henry Jenkins, the director of comparative media studies at MIT, talks about the influence of video games in and on the workplace.

A young female manager must decide whether to terminate two poorly performing managers who work for her. Shows the practical and ethical issues involved in firing decisions.

Supplements the (A) case.

All companies value leadership--some of them enough to invest dearly in cultivating it. But few management teams seem to value one engine of leadership development that is right under their noses, churning out the kind of talent they need most. It's the complicated, overburdened but very rich lives of their minority managers. Minority professionals--particularly women of color--are called upon inordinately to lend their skills and guidance to activities outside their jobs. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, who heads the Center for Work-Life Policy, and her co-authors, Carolyn Buck Luce of Ernst & Young and Cornel West of Princeton, present new research on the extent to which minority professionals take on community service and other responsibilities outside the workplace and more than their share of recruiting, mentoring, and committee work within the workplace. These invisible lives, argue the authors, can be a source of competitive strength if companies can learn to recognize and further cultivate the cultural capital they represent. But it's hard to convince minority professionals that their employer respects and values their off-hours responsibilities. A lack of trust keeps many people from revealing much about their personal lives. The authors outline four ways companies can leverage hidden skills: Develop a new level of awareness of minority professionals' invisible lives; appreciate the outsize burdens these professionals carry and try to lighten them; build trust by putting teeth into diversity goals; and, to finish the job of leadership development, help minorities reflect on their off-hours experiences, extract and generalize the lessons, and apply what's been learned in other settings.

A family-owned business, Acindar was one of the most important steel companies in Argentina. After the 2001-2002 Argentine economic crisis, it yielded its controlling stake to a new investor--Belgo Mineira, a Brazilian company of Austrian origin. Arturo Acevedo Jr., the founder's grandson, kept his managerial position as company CEO and president. Acindar Foundation, through the initiative of the company's founder Arturo Acevedo (grandfather) and in its capacity as corporate social policy enforcer, engaged in comprehensive educational, health, and environmental activities for 40 years. Depicts the changes resulting from the incorporation of the new shareholders to the company and how they reflected on the foundation's management and the corporate HR area. The triggering factor was an initiative to develop a corporate volunteer program similar to the one Belgo Mineira had implemented in Brazil--a project that integrated foundation, corporate, and HR management efforts at each production plant.

Frank Heberer, a human resources manager at Medignostics, has proposed a long-term HR strategy for the German midsize pharmaceutical company. All his research points to trouble on the horizon: In just 25 years, more than a quarter of the country's population will be over age 65. What will happen to the firm when workers start retiring in droves? How will it attract smart new hires from a much smaller talent pool? But the executive team is focused on cutting costs here and now. In fact, to save money, Medignostics recently withdrew from an early-retirement program sponsored by the German government. Meanwhile, age-related tensions at the company are growing. A 58-year-old account manager, angry about being forced to resume full-time hours and report to a jargon-happy tyke, has been taking lots of sick days and otherwise disengaging from his job. Heberer believes it is only a matter of time before other employees stage unofficial "strikes," too. Heberer is convinced that, for Medignostics to stay competitive, its leaders have to start thinking strategically about the demographic shift. He's trying to sound the alarm; he's even put together plans to create a child care center to help attract working parents--but his boss has summarily rejected the idea as a luxury Medignostics can't afford. How can Heberer persuade his boss and the other executives, all nearing retirement age themselves, to take the long view? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0510A and R0510Z are Norbert Herrmann, an HR consultant in Bad Endorf, Austria; Barbara D. Bovbjerg, the director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.; Dietmar Martina, the director of Groupwide Performance Measurement at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, Germany; and Eileen A. Kamerick, the CFO of Heidrick & Struggles International, headquartered in Chicago.

Frank Heberer, a human resources manager at Medignostics, has proposed a long-term HR strategy for the German midsize pharmaceutical company. All his research points to trouble on the horizon: In just 25 years, more than a quarter of the country's population will be over age 65. What will happen to the firm when workers start retiring in droves? How will it attract smart new hires from a much smaller talent pool? But the executive team is focused on cutting costs here and now. In fact, to save money, Medignostics recently withdrew from an early-retirement program sponsored by the German government. Meanwhile, age-related tensions at the company are growing. A 58-year-old account manager, angry about being forced to resume full-time hours and report to a jargon-happy tyke, has been taking lots of sick days and otherwise disengaging from his job. Heberer believes it is only a matter of time before other employees stage unofficial "strikes," too. Heberer is convinced that, for Medignostics to stay competitive, its leaders have to start thinking strategically about the demographic shift. He's trying to sound the alarm; he's even put together plans to create a child care center to help attract working parents--but his boss has summarily rejected the idea as a luxury Medignostics can't afford. How can Heberer persuade his boss and the other executives, all nearing retirement age themselves, to take the long view? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0510A and R0510Z are Norbert Herrmann, an HR consultant in Bad Endorf, Austria; Barbara D. Bovbjerg, the director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.; Dietmar Martina, the director of Groupwide Performance Measurement at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, Germany; and Eileen A. Kamerick, the CFO of Heidrick & Struggles International, headquartered in Chicago.

Frank Heberer, a human resources manager at Medignostics, has proposed a long-term HR strategy for the German midsize pharmaceutical company. All his research points to trouble on the horizon: In just 25 years, more than a quarter of the country's population will be over age 65. What will happen to the firm when workers start retiring in droves? How will it attract smart new hires from a much smaller talent pool? But the executive team is focused on cutting costs here and now. In fact, to save money, Medignostics recently withdrew from an early-retirement program sponsored by the German government. Meanwhile, age-related tensions at the company are growing. A 58-year-old account manager, angry about being forced to resume full-time hours and report to a jargon-happy tyke, has been taking lots of sick days and otherwise disengaging from his job. Heberer believes it is only a matter of time before other employees stage unofficial "strikes," too. Heberer is convinced that, for Medignostics to stay competitive, its leaders have to start thinking strategically about the demographic shift. He's trying to sound the alarm; he's even put together plans to create a child care center to help attract working parents--but his boss has summarily rejected the idea as a luxury Medignostics can't afford. How can Heberer persuade his boss and the other executives, all nearing retirement age themselves, to take the long view? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0510A and R0510Z are Norbert Herrmann, an HR consultant in Bad Endorf, Austria; Barbara D. Bovbjerg, the director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.; Dietmar Martina, the director of Groupwide Performance Measurement at Deutsche Telekom in Bonn, Germany; and Eileen A. Kamerick, the CFO of Heidrick & Struggles International, headquartered in Chicago.

This sequel accompanies the case 1800.0. In January, 1997, the Rhode Island Department of Public Health inaugurated KIDSNET, an effort to harness the power of information technology to ensure that all children in the state received proper preventive care. The medical "informatics" system was designed to track essential public-health data-such as immunizations-and make it accessible to the health care providers and public health programs across the state. "Informatics," in other words, was to improve child health by making sure that any doctor or emergency room in the state could quickly and conveniently become aware of key aspects of any child's medical history. The system was to be fully operational by the year 2000. The marriage of computer records and public health did not go smoothly, however, and, in late 1999, a consultant found that the system was "grossly underutilized." KIDSNET was tracking immunizations for but 43 percent of infants and only 31 percent of the clinics and doctors' offices in Rhode Island were submitting immunization data. HKS Case Number 1800.1

In January, 1997, the Rhode Island Department of Public Health inaugurated KIDSNET, an effort to harness the power of information technology to ensure that all children in the state received proper preventive care. The medical "informatics" system was designed to track essential public-health data-such as immunizations-and make it accessible to the health care providers and public health programs across the state. "Informatics," in other words, was to improve child health by making sure that any doctor or emergency room in the state could quickly and conveniently become aware of key aspects of any child's medical history. The system was to be fully operational by the year 2000. The marriage of computer records and public health did not go smoothly, however, and, in late 1999, a consultant found that the system was "grossly underutilized." KIDSNET was tracking immunizations for but 43 percent of infants and only 31 percent of the clinics and doctors' offices in Rhode Island were submitting immunization data. HKS Case Number 1800.0

An abstract is not available for this product.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Describes ongoing reform efforts in the area of human resources at the School District of Philadelphia. Portrays the challenges and opportunities facing the district's new senior vice-president of human resources, Tomas Hanna, as he attempts to reinvent the district's existing, and primarily "transactional," human resources department into a group that can lead and execute a districtwide human capital management strategy. Provides the opportunity to evaluate Hanna's efforts to date and diagnose critical tasks going forward.

To get frontline employees to work as a team, solicit performance rankings from customers and employees, not bosses.

To maximize information exchange among employees, don't reward individual performance.

Highlights critical gaps between research and practice in the field of strategic human resources management. Also, aims to debunk some myths and preconceptions that general managers bring to their HR decisions. Before class, participants fill out a true-or-false questionnaire for subsequent class discussion.

A junior consultant at a large consulting company, based in Boston, has accepted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in a divisional office in Toronto. Having vacated her apartment and with her personal belongings in transit, she finds out that the Toronto office will be closing in the near future. She must decide whether she should proceed with her to move, knowing that once this office is closed, she will be out of work or whether she should remain in her current position.