個案總覽

This case describes the experience of five MBA students beginning their two-year residential program. The students are members of a learning team, and each is experiencing challenges orienting to the new program and to her or his teammates.

NBA Superstar Dirk Nowitzki was unsure whether the 2018-19 season would be his last as an NBA player. He had not faced such uncertainty since 1998, when he had navigated a difficult decision regarding the timing of his move to the NBA. He also did not know what he would do when he ultimately retired, as playing basketball was all he had known for his entire adult life. His foundation in Dallas and in Germany provided grant money and strategic support to youth programs; he could become more directly involved in the foundation's work. The Dallas Mavericks had made it clear that they would be open to Nowitzki transitioning to a role as some type of executive or coach, helping the Mavericks make decisions and/or develop their young players. Nowitzki was also intrigued by the idea of becoming an independent mentor for young, amateur players; after all, his mentor, Holger Geschwindner, had been instrumental in his development, and he liked working with young people. Keeping his various options in mind, how should Nowitzki plan for the next phase of his life and career?

In 2012, JD.com had emerged as the biggest business-to-consumer e-commerce retailer in China. The company's founder and chief executive officer, Qiangdong Liu, realized that he had to strengthen the company's internal management in order to sustain rapid growth. In 2011 and 2012, he recruited several chief officers, including Yu Long, who became JD.com's chief human resources officer and general counsel. Case A describes the challenges Long faced when joining the company in August 2012 and invites students to think about what her priorities should be when tackling these challenges.

Supplement to case W19373 Case B describes what Long decided to do and how, in the first year, she executed her priorities, which primarily consisted of two improvement projects: culture consolidation and talent review. Case B asks students to set priorities on tackling the remaining HR problems in the coming few years.

Between 1998 and 2018, JD.com Inc. (JD.com) transformed from a compact disc (CD)-burner shop into a technology-driven group of service companies (JD Group) and China's largest retailer by revenue. Yu Long joined the Group in August 2012 as chief human resources (HR) officer and general counsel. Over the years, Long launched various initiatives to strengthen the HR team and improve its practices to support the Group's rapid growth and transformation. This case describes the new challenges that faced the Group's HR management committee headed by Long.

In 2018, the leaders of Cisca Engineering Ltd. (CEL), a small engineering firm in Waterloo, Ontario, faced a decision about whether to go beyond their normal pay scale in order to hire a mechanical engineering candidate they desperately wanted. The company was struggling to attract top talent since its normal base salary capabilities were thought to be lower than those of larger firms. Considering the trade-offs, the company president weighed the potentially negative effect on overall employee morale with the advantages of having a needed new employee. Should he offer the candidate the pipe stress analyst position at a lower salary and risk being turned down? Should he offer the salary the candidate wanted and risk upsetting his other employees if they found out? Should he revamp his compensation system and increase salary levels for all of the company's engineers?

Danish-born Bjarke Ingels is regarded as a giant in the field of architecture. He started his firm - the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) - in 2005 in Copenhagen. Fourteen years later, the firm has additional offices in New York City, London, and Barcelona and employs over 500 people. BIG is known for what Ingels calls "hedonistic sustainability," and its designs include a waste-to-energy treatment plant replete with a ski slope, and a multi-storied residential building where residents can bike to their apartments. In 2019, the firm is experiencing growth pains. Demands on Ingels and the firm's infrastructure are intensifying. Ingels and BIG's CEO Sheela Maini Søgaard, along with the firm's other partners, know the firm needs to adapt - organizationally and operationally - to be successful in the future. The case study provides background on Ingels, the creation and evolution of BIG, and the challenges the firm and its leadership face.

In October 2018, Mike Bogan, CEO of LandCare, a nationwide commercial landscaping firm, was concerned about the significant headwinds facing not only LandCare but the entire landscaping industry at the time. As LandCare struggled to hire and retain employees who could prove their legal working status in the United States, it faced fierce competition from small firms, which frequently did not play by the same rules. Hoping to attract and motivate the right workers, Bogan enacted significant organizational change at LandCare after he became CEO in 2014; these changes included new practices and systems to improve performance, increase employee satisfaction, and drive cultural shifts within the organization. When Bogan saw positive results from his initial round of changes, he continued to expand. Readers are presented with Bogan's decision of whether to implement two additional organizational design elements: "jersey technology," which would allow him to accurately track individual movement and performance of his frontline landscape teams, and a daily pay system, which could potentially provide his lower-income workers with money on a more regular basis. Students must use their emerging understanding of the organizational design model (ODM) to consider each of these new systems and debate whether either system should be implemented.

In 2018, a dealership facilitator needed to decide whether to continue implementing the Thumbs Up application (app) at Lakeside Automotive Ltd., a family-owned car dealership in the Greater Toronto Area. The Thumbs Up app was a digital tool that enabled employees to recognize each other's good work by sending digitalized badges. The dealership facilitator had introduced this app in an effort to "future-proof" the organization by leveraging information technology such as digital communications. The move toward more digital communication was also a strategic activity in light of the company's upcoming relocation and expansion. While some employees acknowledged the value and convenience of this digital tool, others believed it was "a waste of time." How should the dealership facilitator decide on the future of the Thumbs Up app? If she decided to retain the app, how could she improve its effectiveness?

Quess Corp Limited acquired Magna Infotech, an IT contract staffing company in 2009 to go beyond general staffing and get into professional staffing. Magna, founded in 1997 by Pradeep Mittal had achieved the status of being the market leader in IT staffing in India by being highly entrepreneurial, consistently focused on business development, delivery and automation of core staffing processes. Quess carried out a thorough diagnosis of Magna after acquisition. The diagnosis helped identify specific areas where potential for performance improvement existed. Priorities were worked out and systematic efforts were taken up to focus on those areas. Planning and execution of action steps created effective alignment of thought processes among key stakeholders and high levels of engagement and employee motivation. The various interventions resulted in Magna tripling its revenues; the operating profits grew six-fold. But by 2017, the business context had changed for Magna and there were totally new set of challenges that confronted the organization. The case presents a story of an acquisition where despite taking over a successful high-performing company with high levels of motivation, the new leadership team still managed to substantially improve both the topline and bottom line performance through effective execution of a carefully planned change agenda. In the following 8 years, the company retained its market leadership and become much larger. But it now confronted far-reaching changes in business context. How should the leaders reignite the entrepreneurial zeal in a much bigger, more stable and more successful organization?

Individuals and organizations cannot learn perpetually. Managers should be aware that unlearning becomes necessary to discard obsolete and outdated mental models, assumptions, behaviors, or routines. We investigated new product development teams and interviewed change consultants to explore the phenomenon of unlearning in real-life contexts. We particularly focus on examples of cases in which these steps have been used and implemented successfully. In order to make room for new knowledge and foster innovations more efficiently, we identify and suggest four critical steps managers can introduce to help their employees unlearn: creating situational awareness, providing islands of temporal and spatial freedom, encouraging an error-forgiving and stop-doing culture, and reducing the influence of old knowledge over time. Fostering unlearning can prevent rigidity and stagnation while opening up room for innovation. This article adds an important practical dimension to the mainly theoretical ideas in the field of unlearning and provides strong implications for managers and other practitioners.