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The promotions committee at Meeker, Needham & Ames, a long-established law firm, met to discuss the candidacy of three associates up for partner. The vote was split on the candidacy of Julie Ross, who, although she had exceptional skills and an ability to bring in new business, worked only part-time as an associate. The meeting minutes and the expert commentaries that follow discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a part-time partner.

In 1989, the performance measurement systems and compensation policies of Nordstrom Department Stores unexpectedly came under attack by employees, unions, and government regulators. The case describes the "sales-per-hour" monitoring and compensation system that many believed to be instrumental in Nordstrom's phenomenal success. Illustrates how rapid company growth, decentralized management, and unrelenting pressure to perform can distort performance measurement systems and lead to undesirable consequences. This product can be used with the free Job Design Optimization Tool (JDOT), available at: hbsp.harvard.edu/jdot

Spreadsheet supplement for case 191-002.

As Symantec grew from a small, upstart software development company to a major player in the software development industry, the channels of information flow and the internal communication needs of the company became more complex. The geographically-dispersed structure of the company, in which product development groups stayed together, lead to the development of great products but hindered information flow. The top managers set out to facilitate information flow across product groups and within the company as a whole through both improving the information technology systems and bringing together employees in certain functional areas for regularly-scheduled meetings. A challenge for Eubanks, the CEO, was to balance the implementation of certain formal systems, and the maintenance of employees' entrepreneurial spirit and development of employees' managerial skills.

In many companies, strategic thinking has outdistanced organizational capability. Often these companies make the mistake of adopting elaborate organizational matrices that actually impair their ability to implement sophisticated strategies. Keeping a company strategically agile while still coordinating its activities across divisions, even continents, means eliminating parochialism, improving communication, and weaving the decision-making process into the company's social fabric. The goal is to build a matrix of corporate values and priorities in the minds of managers and let them make the judgments and negotiate the deals that make strategy pay off.

At Cypress Semiconductor, management systems track corporate, departmental, and individual performance so regularly and in such detail that no manager can claim to be in the dark about critical problems. The systems give managers the capacity to monitor all levels of the organization, anticipate problems, and intervene when appropriate without creating layers of bureaucracy.

A paper company whose subsidiary, a mill, was on the verge of bankruptcy turned the mill into a profitable operation within a few years. It used a multiyear learning process in which employees developed four progressively more sophisticated problem-solving loops: fix-as-fail; prevention; root causes; and anticipation.

Motorola began a program of skills training in 1980 to teach its work force statistical process control and other quality improvements techniques. After many problems, Motorola changed the program from a narrow emphasis on specific techniques to one including everything from reading and English comprehension to graduate work in computer-integrated manufacturing. The company forged partnerships with local schools and colleges to provide elementary education as well as business courses. The result is Motorola University. McKinsey Award Winner.

Attention to how much CEOs are paid diverts public attention from how they are paid. A statistical analysis of executive compensation concludes that top executives are not receiving record salaries and bonuses; annual changes in executive compensation do not reflect changes in corporate performance; and with respect to pay for performance, CEO compensation is getting worse. Compensation policy not only shapes how top executives behave, it also helps determine the kind of executives an organization attracts. Boards of directors must reform their compensation practices and adopt systems that reward outstanding performance and penalize poor performance.

This hypothetical case, set in 1995, excerpts part of Dominion-Swann (DS) Industries' employee handbook. In 1990 DS implemented a personnel program using the latest advances in surveillance technology and subliminal persuasion to increase productivity and sales. Joseph Moderow, senior vice president and general counsel, UPS; Shoshana Zuboff, associate professor, Harvard Business School; Bill Howard, vice president of information technology, Bechtel Corp.; and Karen Nussbaum, executive director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, discuss DS's use of technology to support and control employees.

Affirmative action is based on a set of premises that badly need revising. White males are no longer dominant at every level of the corporation, while decades of attack have noticeably weakened racial and gender prejudices. Our traditional image of assimilating differences--the melting pot--is no longer valid. It's a seller's market for skills, and potential employees are refusing to be melted down. Companies must manage unassimilated diversity and get from it the same commitment, quality, and profit they once got from a homogeneous work force. We need to work not merely toward culture- and color-blindness but also toward an openly multicultural workplace that taps the full potential of every employee.

Describes the innovative approach to organizing and managing employees by People Express and describes the company's eventual demise. This material can be used to inform about leading edge human resource management practices and to raise questions about what went wrong. Why did People Express succeed in its early years and why did it ultimately fail?

Describes how the IRS's collection operations changed from a largely manual system (COF) to an automated system (ACS). A central aspect of ACS was the electronic scheduling and maintaining of work. While with ACS the IRS accomplished significant improvements in the task efficiency of its collection operations, the system also led to greater turnover and lower employee morale. This raises questions of how the system could be redesigned. The primary teaching objective of the case is to show how information technology, control systems, and organization design are intertwined and how any change effort must address all three aspects simultaneously.

Ostensibly a case about employee turnover in a small construction component company, Wood Structures, Inc. is actually a snapshot of the whole company. In particular it addresses issues of leadership, morale, and teamwork (or the lack thereof) in a company dependent on a highly seasonal and cyclical industry. Operating in "final fighting mode" owner/founder Bill Alcorn has difficulty setting a long-term course. He also feels ambivalent about delegating authority to a management group he fears may not have the same commitment to the company that he has. The case can serve as a good vehicle for diagnosis and action planning around several sets of tensions: plant to plant and shift to shift rivalries; management-labor, management-union versus rank and file; and management in a difficult industry.

Provides a brief analysis of issues in the design of an effective compensation system, with particular emphasis on incentives. Provides an analytic framework for thinking about compensation. Topics covered include the composition of the pay package, fringe benefits, and training. The analysis of incentives discusses the trade off between incentives and risk, the problem of performance measurement, and the use of promotions as incentive compensation. Designed for use with a teaching module on compensation.

Managerial hierarchy is the most natural and effective organization form that a big company can employ. As organizational tasks range from simple to complex, there are jumps in the level of responsibility. As the time span of the longest task assigned to each managerial role increases, so does the level of experience, knowledge, and mental stamina required.

Describes four basic organizational forms--hierarchy, division, matrix, and cluster. Diagrams of each are included. Their strengths and weaknesses under different business environment conditions are detailed. There is a table comparing the forms on several key organizational dimensions and a second table that describes key management practices in each form.

As corporations restructure for greater flexibility and innovation, radical changes are taking place in managerial work. Collaborative work is increasing, hierarchy fading. Signs of change include more channels for instigating action, fewer differences between managers and those they manage, and the increasing importance of external relationships as sources of power and influence. Managers must master change in power and motivation; they accomplish things by building relationships and brokering deals. And because loss of hierarchy has deprived them of some capacity to guarantee promotion or direct work, they need new motivational tools.

Business and family are at odds in the United States. Whereas women once stayed home to care for the sick, the young, and the elderly, most now work outside the home. Yet people seem to manage and everybody gets taken care of. Nevertheless there are four reasons why business should worry about the family: 1) companies will have to compete for workers on the basis of family programs and flexible schedules, 2) both men and women want more time with their families and are blaming companies when they don't get it, 3) company inflexibility on family issues decreases productivity, 4) children are the future work force and they're not getting the personal and educational attention they need.

Details the design and implementation of an incentive bonus plan for video store managers. The problem for top management of the chain is to induce the store managers to "sweat the details," to keep the stores neat and well organized, and to deal courteously and efficiently with customers. The design of the bonus plan is simple: rather than try to measure the neatness of the stores or the quality of customer service directly, give the managers a fraction of the revenue from the store and let them worry about the details themselves. The case ends after a six-month experimental period with the new plan, and leaves the top managers of the chain saying that although revenues have increased, the store management has not improved in terms of managing the details.