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In Differences at Work: Sam (A) HBS Case No. 9-408-021 Sam is one of the few minorities working at his company at the analyst level. He refuses a request from Human Resources to fill the "Asian spot" in his firm's diversity video.

In Differences at Work: Allie (A) HBS Case No. 9-408-037 Allie's boss demands that she and a colleague skip planned company meetings and "meet him at the beach in their bikinis" while on a business trip.

In Differences at Work: Ben (C) 9-408-044 Ben shares the remark with his bosses who let Ben decide whether to report the incident to Human Resources. He decides not to, but several years later he still regrets his inaction.

In Differences at Work: Erica (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-048, Erica discovers that both she and the client are African-American. She reflects on why she has been invited to attend the dinner.

In Differences at Work: Martin (B) HBS Case No. 408052 Martin leaves the firm partially because of the incident but he does not tell his firm the reason for his departure.

In Differences at Work: Sam (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-054 Sam receives an informal apology from Human Resources which leaves Sam feeling unsatisfied as it is not an official company response. Sam leaves the company for unrelated reasons shortly thereafter but still continues to think about the incident.

This note presents some basic concepts and findings from social science research that can help you anticipate and manage some of the complexities of differences at work.

In Differences at Work: Alex (A), HBS Case No. 9-408-011 Alex has been asked an inappropriate question by the interviewer at an interview for his dream job. How will Alex handle the situation? Should he accept the position is offered?

In Differences at Work: Ben (A) HBS Case No. 9-408-012 one of Ben's professional colleagues unexpectedly makes an anti-Semitic remark during a casual conversation. What should Ben do?

In Differences at Work: Alex (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-042 turns to his uncle, an employment lawyer, to discuss the situation. After receiving a matching offer from his current firm, Alex decides to stay with his firm but concedes that he did not have to make any hard ethical decisions. He wonders what he would have done if he had not received the matching offer.

In Differences at Work: Ben (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-043 Ben shares his colleague's comment with another colleague who empathizes with Ben's discomfort but dismisses the remark as a joke, leaving Ben to decide whether he wants to confront his colleague.

In Differences at Work: Will (B), HBS Case No. 9-408-045, Will describes how decided to respond to the question so that his colleague could tell from his answer that Will was a gay man.

In Differences at Work: Allie (B) HBS Case No. 9-408-055 Allie and her colleague initially refuse to go but when her boss makes a scene they reluctantly agree to accompany him to the beach despite his inappropriate behavior. Later back at company headquarters they tell their boss' boss about the incident who tells the women that he will support them if they decide to file a sexual harassment claim.

In Differences at Work: (C) HBS Case No. 9-408-056 Allie decides not to pursue a sexual harassment charge and instead remedies the situation by transferring to the marketing division in her company. She reflects on how powerless the situation made her feel and how it has made her extremely cautious about workplace interactions.

An abstract is not available for this product.

A marketing team, asked to compile a marketing deck in response to an urgent request by the head of a business, has completed the task. Still the team leader is concerned about the dynamics he observed during the meeting of his marketing group team. He has noticed that a recent recruit to the team, an African American, is being ignored when he contributes to the discussion although his ideas are solid ones. The leader is left with some nagging questions: What happened to this recruit in the meeting? Why wasn't he more integrated into the team? How was he feeling about the meeting? And most important, was there any way to make the collaborative process more effective the next time around?

Examines how Tyco and its board recovered from its corporate scandals. Describes how its CEO and board set out to institute processes, guidelines, and a culture that would make Tyco into a company widely recognized for its world class corporate governance.

Teaches students to diagnose the circumstances under which time pressure can facilitate or hinder creativity. A team's creative "genius", Miles Grady, who previously conceptualized a revolutionary material for an important new product, must now significantly change that material so that the team can create an entirely new business. This early new business development project, while supported by management, has a looming deadline for proof-of-concept. The deadline has already been extended, but the team does not seem close to the breakthrough it needs. The team's leader, Stanley Carmine, who has managed to get a few weeks' extension from management, needs to figure out how best to manage Grady under the looming deadline. He studies Grady's past "daily laboratory logs" to discover the connections, if any, between time pressure, other circumstances, and Grady's level of creativity.

Innovation is as important in services as it is in manufacturing. However, competing on innovation in services demands a different organizational approach. Relative to innovation in manufacturing, innovation in services has five distinctive characteristics--it is: distributed throughout the organization; fluid, that is, more continuous than discrete; broadly relevant to hiring and promotion decisions; influenced by reward systems and culture at the firm-wide level; and enabled by leadership. The foundations--both cultural and structural--for competing on innovation in services must operate pervasively throughout the organization. Examines innovation in investment banking and discusses its implications for competing on innovation in other service industries.

Someone suffering from Munchausen by proxy, a psychological disorder, fabricates or induces illness in another to win attention and praise as a caregiver. A similar pathology in the workplace leads employees to create or exaggerate problems in order to get credit for solving them. Here are some questions to help managers recognize such behavior.