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Describes Jan Carlzon's actions on assuming the CEO's responsibility at SAS in a time of financial and organizational difficulty. After tracing Carlzon's development as a manager, it focuses on the way in which he developed, then communicated a clear and motivating strategic mission to become "the world's best businessman's airline." After a spectacular turnaround, organizational problems re-emerge, and the case concludes with Carlzon wondering if his "second wave" can provide the same impetus that he gained on his first wave. Highlights the power of a clear and well-communicated strategic mission (strategic intent), but also explores problems and limits that can arise. Specifically, focuses on the common problem of motivating middle managers who often feel disenfranchised by front line empowerment.

Summarizes Carlzon's new focus externally on building alliances and acquiring travel service companies. Describes the financial problems resulting from the recession and the Gulf War crisis. Designed as an in-class handout to highlight the long-term management commitment required to realign and inspire an organization to a new strategic mission. Allows a more balanced appraisal of Carlzon's leadership abilities and limitations.

Managers are right to break down the boundaries that make organizations rigid and unresponsive. But once the traditional boundaries of hierarchy, function, and geography disappear, a new set of boundaries becomes important. These new boundaries are psychological rather than tangible and they reflect the dimensions of authority, task identification, politics, and personal identity encountered by all employees in any company.

Globe Metallurgical Inc., a $115 million supplier for specialty metals, is best known as the first small company to win the Baldrige Award in 1988. But there is more to this company than total quality. During the 1980s, Globe transformed itself from a rust-belt has-been on the verge of bankruptcy into a high-technology, high-quality industry leader. The company also underwent a management-led leveraged buyout, embraced flexible work teams, adopted a high value-added niche marketing strategy, and took its business global. Leading the way was Chief Executive Arden C. Sims, who is interviewed here.

Describes how Joline Godfrey, an intrapreneur at the Polaroid Corp., introduced and developed a project that could help Polaroid move to a more service- as opposed to product-oriented focus. Also depicts the mentor-protege relationship between Godfrey and Gerald Sudbey, a senior executive in the company. Addresses two issues: intrapreneurship and mentor-protege relationships. Allows the students to explore the process of intrapreneurship, what it takes to effectively be a change agent in an organization. In addition, provides them with a textured understanding of mentor-protege relationships--the various stages they go through, and the challenges and benefits they represent.

Supplements Joline Godfrey and the Polaroid Corp. (A).

Follows Kevin Simpson, a second-year Harvard Business School 1990 student, through his job search to his final decision between two very attractive but different job offers: a job as an international marketing manager at Eli Lilly and Co., a leading multinational health product corporation; and a position as the assistant to the president of Haemonetics, an entrepreneurial company in the biomedical equipment field. Addresses the factors Simpson should consider when making job choices as well as the issues he faces as an African-American professional.

Describes a conflict that has arisen between an account manager and a creative director at Tassani Communications, a Chicago-based advertising agency which is making the transition from entrepreneurial to professional management. The client, the marketing director of a muffler repair chain, has called the account manager to complain about the creative director's behavior. The account manager must figure out what to do. The object is to provide students with an opportunity to grapple with the challenges of managing relationships with peers and superiors. Students can discuss managing 1) cross-departmental relationships, 2) interpersonal conflicts, and 3) creativity.

Supplements the (A) case.

Successful managers are born with the potential to be good strategists, but they must develop their natural talents. CEOs and top management can help by identifying and promoting such talents in their employees. A questionnaire has been developed to help measure strategic management competence. Strategic managers provide subordinates with general guidelines, just as the Prussian military strategist Helmuth von Moltke issued directives to his officers. Outstanding entrepreneurs and managers create a corporate culture in which their vision, philosophy, and business strategies are implemented by employees who think independently.

Describes the total transformation of a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegon, one of the largest insurance companies in the Netherlands, which deals in the sale of financial instruments, such as annuities, savings, and investment products. The new managing director forms a management team, and together they segment the market, introduce a variety of distribution methods, and increase sales by dramatic amounts while keeping the number of staff constant. Looks at team building, market segmentation by focusing on customer values, distribution strategy, and management philosophy. An ECCH award winner.

An analysis of the problems of interpersonal communication, as viewed from a human behavior standpoint. Real communication occurs when one listens to another person's viewpoint with empathic understanding. It is possible to facilitate achievement of this communication breakthrough by summarizing the speaker's thoughts and feelings to his or her satisfaction before presenting a rebuttal. This procedure leads to the reduction of defensiveness and gradual achievement of mutual communication. A second analysis deals with communication in an industrial context. An example illustrates how differently two supervisors interpret an employee's reaction to a suggestion. This article, first published in 1952, is reprinted to include a retrospective commentary by John J. Gabarro.

Presents a framework for understanding organizational vision. "Vision" is a term frequently used by academics and practicing managers, but there has been a scarcity of clear concepts and useful tools--in short, the absence of a coherent conceptual framework. This article develops a framework that removes the fuzziness surrounding the topic of vision yet at the same time preserves the magic--the spark--that is an essential quality of vision.

Examines the principles that apply in any persuasive business situation. Describes how to analyze the goals and audience; how to devise a persuasive message; and how to execute a persuasive strategy in writing, presentations, and larger corporate communication tasks.

Competitive success depends on learning, but most people, including professionals in leadership positions, are not very good at it. Learning is a function of how people reason about their own behavior. Yet most people engage in defensive reasoning when confronted with problems. They blame others and avoid examining critically the way they have contributed to problems. Companies need to make managers' and employees' reasoning patterns a focus of continuous improvement efforts.

This note contains a modified version of Christie and Geis's (1970) Machiavellianism Scale, which measures leadership and interpersonal style based on opportunism, self-interest, and manipulation. The instrument is designed to be used in conjunction with the technical note "Machiavellianism: Understanding the Person and the Situation."

This note summarizes several major theories of leadership. It is intended to provide a quick overview of the major concepts and points rather than an in-depth understanding of the theories. It includes the Great Man theory, charismatic leadership, and the approaches of McClelland, Winter, Bennis, Burns, Fiedler, Hersey and Blanchard, Path-Goal, Mintzberg, Kotter, Maccoby, and Schein.

This case can be used to teach students about individual behavior, Type A behavior, time and priority management, balancing work and family life, managing performance, managing energy in professional life, organizational behavior, and leadership. John Wolford, a new general manager of a technology manufacturing company, finds his role so stressful that he undergoes medical tests.

This case can be used to teach individual behavior, Type A behavior, time and priority management, balancing work and family life, managing performance, managing energy in professional life, organizational behavior, and leadership. In this C case, a business analyst who reports to John Wolford has given him a discouraging report regarding the results of a survey taken by the employees of his company.

This note introduces basic principles of organizational design and the advantages of several common organizational structures. The principles of design are fit, differentiation, integration, technology, size, span of control, staffing, unity of command, and line versus staff. The structures diagrammed and described are functional, product, customer, geographic, divisional or M-form, matrix, amorphous, and hybrids. The note also discusses the new emerging Information Age organizational forms, which the authors call "infocracies."