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Competence is more than a list of skills; it encompasses how employees define their work. How people understand their jobs affects how they carry them out.

After nine years of leading First Community Bank (FCB), BankBoston's unique venture targeting low- to moderate-income communities, and finally gaining recognition and respect for her efforts, Gail Snowden must once again faces the challenge of justifying FCB's value, this time, as part of the umbrella group, Community Banking Group (CBG), formed in 1996 due to a merge with BayBank, she must justify it to a new parent company, Fleet Bank. To successfully integrate CBG/FCB into the mainstream organization, Snowden faces many organizational and cultural hurdles.

In June 1998, the senior management team at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream faced a number of internal and external difficulties that were some of the most challenging problems the company had ever faced. Problems included profitability issues, record-high butterfat prices, aggressive discounting by competitors, higher margin better-for-you segment collapse, severance of Ben & Jerry's distribution contract, and management health issues. Given a mandatory and necessary financial restructuring of the company, the senior management team faced some tough employee issues and needed to make very significant decisions to overcome their difficult times.

Over the past decade, 360-degree feedback has revolutionized performance management. But one of its components--peer appraisal--consistently stymies executives and can exacerbate bureaucracy, heighten political tensions, and consume lots of time. For ten years, Maury Peiperl has studied 360-degree feedback and has asked: under what circumstances does peer appraisal improve performance? Why does peer appraisal sometimes work well and sometimes fail? And how can executives make these programs less anxiety provoking for participants and more productive for organizations? Peiperl discusses four paradoxes inherent to peer appraisal: 1) In the Paradox of Roles, colleagues juggle being both peer and judge. 2) The Paradox of Group Performance navigates between assessing individual feedback and the reality that much of today's work is done by groups. 3) The Measurement Paradox arises because simple, straightforward rating systems would seem to generate the most useful appraisals--but they don't. 4) During evaluations, most people focus almost exclusively on reward outcomes and ignore the constructive feedback generated by peer appraisal. Ironically, it is precisely this overlooked feedback that helps improve performance--thus, the Paradox of Rewards. These paradoxes do not have neat solutions, but managers who understand them can better use peer appraisal to improve their organizations.

This leadership exercise asks students to reflect on their family values and to begin to write them down. The exercise is useful in a leadership or career-management course when students need to consider their own values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations about the way the world should be and then reexamine them. The exercise builds on the work of Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and his notion of transcender (the Evolving Self) and Richard Dawkins's concept of memes. The results of the exercise can be used as a springboard to discuss students' becoming transcenders as opposed to those who simply live out the values imprinted on them early in life. The exercise includes a table with examples to help students get started.

Describes three performance measures for "plants" or businesses: cost centers, revenue centers, and profit centers. Discusses what should be done if a function outside of the "controllability" of the manager affects the performance measure and therefore compensation.

Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation faces a serious threat to survival from the deep pockets of media mogul Ted Turner and Time-Warner, Inc. McMahon must tackle management, business, and ethics challenges when Turner tries to lure the WWF's top star, Bret the Hitman Hart, away from the WWF.

Supplement to case IN1075. Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation faces a serious threat to survival from the deep pockets of media mogul Ted Turner and Time-Warner, Inc. McMahon must tackle management, business, and ethics challenges when Turner tries to lure the WWF's top star, Bret the Hitman Hart, away from the WWF.

Supplement to case IN1075. Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation faces a serious threat to survival from the deep pockets of media mogul Ted Turner and Time-Warner, Inc. McMahon must tackle management, business, and ethics challenges when Turner tries to lure the WWF's top star, Bret the Hitman Hart, away from the WWF.

In 1991, Deloitte & Touche got a wake-up call about its efforts to retain women professionals. While it was recruiting almost as many women as men, the company had a much higher turnover rate for women. Many in the firm thought Deloitte was doing everything it could to retain talented women, but when they looked harder, they found otherwise. Most women weren't leaving to raise families; they were leaving after having weighed their unpromising career options in Deloitte's male-dominated culture. CEO Mike Cook led the way in making a business case--not a moral or emotional one--for change. Next, the company held mandatory, two-day, intensive workshops for its 5,000 U.S. managers. Case vignettes and discussions brought out subtle gender-based assumptions about careers and aspirations that had discouraged high-performing women from staying. Deloitte's gender gap in turnover has now nearly vanished, and the number of women partners and directors is the highest among the Big Five. These cultural changes weren't easy, but they've enabled Deloitte to grow faster than any of its competitors.

Presents a synopsis of High Flyers, by Morgan McCall. Offers a method for identifying and training managers with potential--to build management bench strength.

We've all worked with highly competent people who are held back by a seemingly fatal personality flaw. At best, people with these "bad habits" create their own glass ceilings, which limit their success and their contributions to the company. At worst, they destroy their own careers. The authors suggest concrete tactics they have used to help people recognize and correct the following six behavior patterns: The hero, who always pushes himself--and subordinates--too hard to do too much for too long. The meritocrat, who believes that the best ideas can and will be determined objectively and ignores the politics inherent in most situations. The bulldozer, who runs roughshod over others in a quest for power. The pessimist, who always worries about what could go wrong. The rebel, who automatically fights against authority and convention. And the home run hitter, who tries to do too much too soon--he swings for the fences before he's learned to hit singles. Helping people break through their self-created glass ceilings is the ultimate win-win scenario: both the individual and the organization are rewarded. Using the tactics introduced in this article, managers can help their brilliantly flawed performers become spectacular achievers.

On February 3, 1997, the east zone of the Manila Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) was taken over by the Manila Water Co. (MWC), a newly created joint venture between the Ayala Corp., a large Filipino conglomerate; Bechtel Enterprises, Inc., an American engineering and construction firm; and United Utilities, a British utilities firm. At the time of privatization, MWSS was an inefficient, ineffective, and corrupt government agency. MWC must develop the employees and the assets acquired from MWSS to build a profitable firm. This case describes MWSS, the three partners in MWC,and also introduces Filemon Berba, the new CEO and president of MWC.

On August 1, 1997 the Manila Water Co. took control of the east zone of the newly privatized Manila Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System (MWSS). At the time of privatization, MWSS was an inefficient, ineffective, and corrupt government agency. MWC must develop the employees and the assets acquired from MWSS to build a profitable firm. This case describes the changes made to the organization.

The A case describes the career of Fairfax County (Virginia) Executive Robert O'Neill, who runs one of the highest-per-capita-income counties in the United States. The case discusses the events leading up to his hiring by Fairfax County, his experience as County Executive, and the situation at the end of the case, including the results of his efforts, the political environment, and a job offer. Students gain insight into the complex aspects of county government, including financial, legal, political, public relations, and strategic business management, as well as into O'Neill's leadership strategy. The B case (UV3179) describes his decision and rationale and a few subsequent events in the county.

The A case (UV3177) describes the career of Fairfax County (Virginia) Executive Robert O'Neill, who runs one of the highest-per-capita-income counties in the United States. The case discusses the events leading up to his hiring by Fairfax County, his experience as County Executive, and the situation at the end of the case, including the results of his efforts, the political environment, and a job offer. Students gain insight into the complex aspects of county government, including financial, legal, political, public relations, and strategic business management, as well as into O'Neill's leadership strategy. The B case describes his decision and rationale and a few subsequent events in the county.

More and more, the task of the HR department is one of identifying and articulating primary strategic values of the corporate culture. As an example, Texas Instruments shelved its cumbersome approach to updating HR policy and switched to a system that allowed the rapid response needed in a fast-changing environment. In companies with a strongly articulated value-based culture, the challenge is to apply that culture to the formulation of specific HR policies. Doing so requires that HR policies be examined for relevance to the current business environment, connection to strategic goals, adaptability to changing circumstances, applicability across the firm's theater of operations, familiarity to employees, ease of interpretation and application, specification of the bounds of acceptable employee behavior, and extent of commitment to policies by employees. The process of designing HR policies in a value-based culture is illustrated by the experiences of Texas Instruments, Bell Atlantic, and Unisys.

Hewlett-Packard's Greeley Hard Copy Division is the market leader in the production of desktop flatbed scanners for personal computers. The division has been working to develop a portable scanner product for the past five years with mixed results. The new general manager, Phil Faraci, faces mounting pressures in the flatbed scanner markets, but is also presented with a new technology that has the potential to be a breakthrough for portable scanners. Faraci must decide whether or not to pursue the new portable technology, and if so, how to structure the organization to make product development successful where it has failed in the past.

Supplements the (A) case.

Supplements the (A) case.