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Describes the initial entry challenges faced by Dennis Hightower after being assigned the task to revitalize and reposition Walt Disney Co. of Europe in preparation for 1992. Allows students to consider the challenges of cultural heterogeneity, Disney traditions, and the culture of local autonomy in each of the European franchises. Students will be asked to develop an action plan for changing the direction and the working relationships in Europe.

Describes the "Leadership Through Quality" effort undertaken by Xerox in the 1980s. Includes the history of Xerox in the 1970s and its need to make major changes in quality by the 1980s. Most of the remainder of the case details the step-by-step process by which Xerox created and designed the strategy called "Leadership Through Quality" to change its basic culture and its performance on quality from 1983-86.

Describes 15 years of change at Navistar. Highlights changes in strategy, name, products, services, size, human resources policies, and programs. Underscores the brisk pace and scope of changes. Students are asked to categorize the types of change, evaluate them, and consider how well Navistar is positioned to deal with future change challenges.

Describes the major challenges associated with managing change. Highlights the focus for change, the different degrees and types of change, when change is to be introduced, what factors enable that introduction, and what reactions change evokes. Underscores the paradoxes and tensions inherent in managing change effectively.

Semco S/A is a manufacturing company in Brazil where workers make corporate decisions, set their own hours, and have access to monthly financial figures. The company's management philosophy is antihierarchical and perhaps unorthodox, but its profits are handsome. The company operates on the basis of three key principles: work force democracy, profit sharing, and free access to information. Democracy lets employees set their own working conditions; profit sharing rewards them for doing well; information tells them how they are doing.

In Women's Quest for Economic Equality, Victor R. Fuchs argues that women's continued economic inequality is a reflection of the conflict they experience between family and work. He is encouraged by the number of women investing in their careers, but alarmed by the country's low birthrate and the number of children whose futures are at risk. In the Second Shift, Arlie Hochschild finds that women do most of the "second shift" work of caring for children and home. She looks at how and why and suggests ways to improve hours at home for everyone. Both authors support public policies to help children and working families. They challenge readers to examine some prevailing norms.

This is an enhanced edition of HBR article 98301, originally published in May/June 1998. John F. Welch, Jr. believes that GE must operate with the flexibility and agility of a small company. In this interview he explains how he is building a revitalized "human engine" to match GE's "business engine." Welch champions a companywide drive to eliminate unproductive work and energize employees and leads a transformation of attitudes at all levels. The centerpiece of this process is "Work-Out"--an intense multiyear program through which representatives of GE's 14 businesses meet regularly to identify sources of frustration and inefficiency and to overhaul evaluation and reward systems.

The Salvation Army's effectiveness is characteristic of the best nonprofit organizations; in motivating knowledge workers and raising their productivity they are pioneers. In successful nonprofit enterprises amateurs are being replaced with unpaid staff members, many of whom are managers and professionals in their for-pay jobs. They volunteer because they believe in the mission; they stay because they are given responsibility for meaningful tasks, held accountable for their performance and rewarded with training and the chance to take on more demanding assignments.

Executives who don't usually interview candidates for management positions can benefit from first writing a job description specific enough to cover the position's details but general enough to cover its managerial aspects. This exercise forms the basis of a written interview guide which helps the interviewer elicit the most pertinent and useful information in each interview. Focusing on applicants' past performance and framing questions in a way that calls for revealing answers is the best approach. Revelations about past behavior are in any case the best indicator of future performance.

Growing a global organization is like growing a garden: there must be a proper fit between organization and environment. Achieving that fit means starting by decomposing the corporate center. Global companies need several regional headquarters. They must also make sure their far-flung managers have a shared identity, which comes from instilling a shared set of values. Global competitors invest in markets for the long haul. The shortsightedness of governments or the short-term setbacks of a downturn shouldn't prevent a company from considering the whole world a garden, ready for cultivation.

Jacobs Suchard, the Swiss-based coffee and chocolate producer, is preparing for the common market and EEC 1992. At the time of the case, the company is still organized toward independent, local country markets, and believes it must move toward a more global organization structure. The case covers actions taken to date and plans for the future.

Follow-up to People Express (A). Describes what happened to People Express Airlines after 1985.

In this case, presented in the form of two memos, a grocery store prepares for renegotiating a contract with the Grocery Workers International Union. The grocery store wants to discuss issues including high employee turnover rates and problems presented by the store's new service-intensive products. The union has issues involving management trying to sidestep seniority. Carol R. Goldberg, president and COO of the Stop & Shop Companies and CEO of Bradlees Department Stores; Gerald L. Good, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia; James T. Boyle, business representative of Local 464A, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union; and David Lewin, professor of business and director of the Industrial Relations Research Center, Columbia University Graduate School of Business, discuss how the grocery store and its union can deal with a problematic confrontation.

A brand new hotel has opened with a new service strategy: import to America Asian-style service using a butler-like employee group called the personal valets. To achieve this high level of service, the hotel has paid great attention to its human resource policies, believing that the quality of its service will depend on the quality and motivation of the people, It articulates a series of employee "rights," which it tells employees are enforceable in court. Upon opening employees are excited and highly motivated but soon morale and quality problems develop. The students must evaluate the hotel's human resource management theory and practice in light of these problems.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 489104.

The new general manager of Warner Cable's Medford, Massachusetts complex faces a number of turnaround challenges in 1985, including service deficiencies, customer complaints, high turnover, and low employee morale. By 1988 he has turned the situation around, but some employees and superiors question his turnaround style. Their concerns have broad implications for career systems at Warner. Teaching objectives include the understanding of human resource management tradeoffs in a turnaround situation, and the appropriateness of individual management styles over time as a company improves its productivity and communications.

Describes the view of corporate officers regarding the changes made by General Manager Bruce McKinnon.

The resolution of Warner Cable (A) and (B).

Too many managers do not understand what it is that makes experts so valuable to their organizations. Experts combine analytical reasoning with intuitive judgment, sharpened by long experience. The result is problem-solving ability that cannot be taught or easily learned. Few organizations are structured to recognize the worth of experts financially or through advancement. Companies should make room in the reward system for honoring expertise.

Women managers cost more to employ than men. Turnover is higher, and they are more apt to plateau or to interrupt their careers. Career primary women are effective managers and serve as beacons for younger women. Career-and-family women are willing to trade ambition for the flexibility to raise their families; their willingness to forgo advancement but still give their best can greatly upgrade middle management. Opportunity, flexibility, and family support are the keys to retaining the best women and eliminating the extra cost of employing them. McKinsey Award Winner.