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Supplement to Knowledge Sharing at REMA 1000 (A). Chief Human Resources Officer Tore Høylie was proud of REMA 1000 (REMA)'s strong employee engagement with Workplace, Facebook's corporate social media platform, however some users complained that the corporate social network had disrupted hierarchical structures, and that the site was overloaded with information. To begin to remedy these problems, Høylie's team modified the group architecture and issued guidance for platform use.

This public-sourced case is based on a 2017 blog post by a former Uber employee, Susan Fowler, in which she was brutally honest about the sexual harassment, the sexism, the bro culture, and the failures of HR and in senior management at the ride-share company. All thoughts by and conversations between the characters in this case are entirely fictional, but the events described are drawn from Fowler's post, which went viral within hours of her posting it. Fowler was forced to disable the comment section because there were too many, positive and negative, to keep up with. The accusations hit Uber's management like an earthquake, and the press covered every development. Students are placed directly in the case as Uber's recently hired CHR, within days of a company-wide meeting to discuss the post. They will be expected to sit side-by-side with Ariana Huffington-founder of the Huffington Post and the only woman on Uber's board-and with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. The meeting was billed as "self-reflective," as being about "clearing the air" and "being honest." This fictional narrative based on a real-life experience offers the opportunity to discuss organizational culture, gender, power, leadership, and difficult conversations with superiors.

Supplement to case SMU413. This case is a two-part series on the value of faculty teaching forums and peer coaching programmes in resolving conflicting pedagogical philosophies. Case A is set in September 2009, shortly after James Nelson, assistant professor at Singapore Management University sought guidance from practice associate professor Harry Denon on the issue of declining student ratings of his teaching performance. Den then observes Nelson's lectures, and has in-depth discussions with him on his teaching style. The discussions prove very helpful to Nelson, who is now able to decide how he should approach his class and to what extent he needs to alter his teaching approach. The case looks at the value of feedback received by faculty through various lenses: students, peer and self-reflection. It is highly suitable for faculty development and executive education courses that cover different pedagogical philosophies and the effectiveness of student appraisal processes. In Case B, Nelson reflects on his peer coaching experience and how his thought process has evolved through the course of the coaching programme. He also describes some of the changes he made in his instructional strategy and course assessment methods, and reveals how he has refined his teaching philosophy.

The only female senior partner at a boutique management consulting firm has found out that she is paid less than half of what male partners were making who were younger, less experienced, and contributing less overall to the business. When she presented her case to the senior partners and explicitly asked if the pay discrepancy is become she was a woman, they would only respond to her through lawyers. The case is designed to bring students' instinctive decision-making tendencies to the surface. Thus, it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

In 2018, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof and his wife, former Times writer Sheryl WuDunn (HBS '86) who worked in finance, were planning for their next book. The couple's earlier books had given rise to social movements around gender equity and poverty issues. They hoped the next book would be equally powerful. What should the book focus on? What additional content should they create to make sure their writing had an impact?

In March 2017, a training manager at IndCo, a large Indian manufacturing conglomerate, faced a pressing problem. She had been asked by one of IndCo's general managers to design and implement a customized training program on strategic thinking for his departmental team. Because she had prior commitments and had never conducted a training module on this topic before, the training manager sought to outsource the program to an external expert-a professor from a reputable business school. Although this arrangement seemed promising, the professor's training proposal presented certain challenges, including cost and availability. The training manager needed to assess whether the proposal met IndCo's requirements, and whether she had made the right decision in outsourcing this task. She had to choose her next steps very carefully to avoid displeasing any of the involved parties, while also satisfying IndCo's budget constraints and ensuring the ultimate delivery of a high-quality training program.

Are a salesperson's struggles her own fault or the result of a problematic job design? Anna George works as a salesperson at Verona Group, a company that designs and wholesales high-end women's apparel. She had spent nearly 20 years in sales with another fashion label and was well regarded in the industry. Verona Group hired her to bolster its small but growing presence in the western United States. In her first two years with the company, however, George has missed her sales targets and received mixed scores from customers in Verona Group's annual customer service survey. When Emilio Chao, the head of Verona's sales force, looks at George's performance review and discusses George's situation with Catherine Edwards, Verona Group's head of human resources, he wonders whether the company should give George additional support that would help her be more successful. Or is George not a good fit for the company?

On December 5, 2017, Tony Mun-Gavin, the business unit head for Personal Care at Unilever South Africa, was leading an immersion experience for new team members in the Soweto township of Johannesburg. The immersion was part of an effort to continuously embed a culture of inclusive growth with new employees, and it aligned with the corporate social responsibility commitment of the parent company, Unilever Pty. Ltd. Mun-Gavin faced a conflict in marketing the company's personal care brand, Lux, which had always been associated with glamorous female celebrities but that was no longer in line with the company's commitments to sustainability, inclusive growth, and women's empowerment. His team had to work to re-position the brand to celebrate the diverse roles of women in the 21st century. Would the re-positioning work, and would it be consistent with the company's goals of embedding a culture of inclusive growth and ensuring sustainability across the organization?

In 2015, nine black Americans were killed in a racially motivated shooting spree. The incident fuelled ongoing racial tensions in the United States and launched a conflict over the presence of Confederate memorials in public spaces. When the push to remove Confederate memorials began, the task for Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, was to deal with the city's notable Confederate monuments and the conflict they engendered in a city divided along racial lines demographically, economically, and historically. On May 19, 2017, Landrieu addressed the public. Students have the opportunity to evaluate the speech, consider why Landrieu chose this occasion to address the public, and determine what the speech reveals about his leadership character.

When Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he inherited a firm fading toward irrelevance, plagued by internal fights and inertia. Earlier that year his wife, Anu, had given him a best-selling book by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck entitled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, suspecting it might give Nadella some ideas for Microsoft. He adapted the idea to encourage employees to shift from Microsoft's historical "know-it-all" culture to embrace a "learn-it-all" curiosity. The case study provides background on Nadella's challenges and context, as well as how he and his leadership team executed their culture change effort.

At the age of 42, in the midst of a successful and lucrative career as the owner of an international retail consultancy, Andrew Thornton realised he had nothing more to give to his business. He quit the agency in 2006 and used his buy-out money as a down-payment for two Budgens supermarkets in north London. When profits at one store fell in 2010, he reached crisis point. With a deep conviction that companies should have a broader focus than profit alone, he founded Heart in Business, a consultancy focused on unlocking the potential of employees, and used his Belsize Park store as a testing ground. By 2016, like-for-like sales were growing at 5% - while neighbouring stores' figures were in decline - and the average length of service at Thornton's Budgens was 54% longer than that of the control store. Andrew's conviction that freeing people's potential and creativity delivers tangible business results now had strong evidence to support it: his sales figures provided that. But even better evidence was on the way, from the global assessment and training organisation BEING at Full Potential , whose Human Potential Assessment tool measured how much human potential the store was utilising and compared it to a 'control' store in a neighbouring postcode. Thornton's Budgens rated higher on every single measure. Through investing in his people with specialised coaching, Andrew had won not just their dedication, engagement and commitment, but their whole hearts and minds. By purposely trying to weave authenticity, cohesion, empathy, self-leadership, enquiry and creativity into every fibre of the business, Andrew not only raised levels of engagement - and profit as a result - but ignited the spirits of all who worked for him. In fact, it was precisely the harnessing and utilisation of his people's passions that led to their increased productivity.

Cowen Inc.'s broker-dealer, Cowen and Company, LLC, boasted a number of analysts who had made prescient stock calls on the basis of creative data analysis. Now Cowen Inc. had opened a new subsidiary, Kyber, which would attempt to monetize new data science products. Robert Fagin, head of research, had to consider what Kyber's risks were, even as the unit opened the possibility up for new revenue streams. How could Cowen continue to exploit its competitive advantage with data?

This case focuses on DTE Energy's transformation into a high-performing positive organization. When the case opens in 2010, DTE Energy has not only survived the 2008 recession but has had one of its most successful financial years in the company's history. CEO GerryAnderson had asked people to contribute ideas to save the company and avoid layoffs, and they had willingly done so. But now that the crisis is over, he wonders: can that energy be sustained? What can he, as a leader, do to maintain the momentum? The case traces the birth of DTE's new vision and execution of it, particularly with regard to HR practices, authentic communications, and metrics. The case covers 2010-2015 and includes exhibits of the tools the organization used. This is Case B of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

This case describes DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson's transformation from a hard-nosed, "old school" leader to an authentic, purpose-driven leader implementing positive change. Students follow along as Anderson begins re-thinking his approach to leadership from a cost-focus to a more holistic view that employees are not "simply factors of production" and that management by edict was not sustainable. But just as Anderson is slowly earning employees' trust, the recession of 2008 hits and DTE faces a potential loss of $175 million. Anderson is confronted with the biggest challenge of his career: should he lay off a large portion of the workforce to save the company? Such a move would undermine all he had been working toward in his new leadership style and would destroy the trust he had been trying to build in the company, but his management team sees no alternative. What should Anderson do? This is Case A of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

This case depicts how DTE Energy expanded its internal momentum as a positive organization to encompass improving the broader community as well. The case opens at the end of 2015, with DTE's stock price having tripled since 2008 and the company having won Gallup's Great Work Place awards. DTE Energy CEO Gerry Anderson has articulated the vision of DTE as being a "force for growth and prosperity in the communities where we live and serve," but he wonders how he can operationalize such an expansive, intangible vision, particularly given its external focus. The case describes DTE's work with the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, detailing the characteristics of positive leadership, applying authentic leadership, connecting to purpose and calling, and DTE's Positive Organization Framework. Students will be challenged to think of additional ways that for-profit organizations could become transformational forces for positive social good. This is Case C of a three-case series which can be taught sequentially or as stand-alone cases. The cases describe the organizational transformation of energy utility company DTE Energy into a positive organization, focusing first on the personal transformation of DTE's CEO, Gerry Anderson (Case A); then on the transformation of the company (Case B) and finally on DTE Energy's advancement to the "next level" - positive social issues to improve the wider community and societal context in which the company operates (Case C).

Note: This case contains language that some people may find offensive. It is left exactly as it was spoken in the real situation portrayed precisely because it is pertinent to how the situation affected those involved. "Overheard at the Office," based on a true story, presents the case of an African-American woman who works as an accountant for the league office of the team owners of one of the four major US professional sports. One day, she is yelled at offensively by a team owner, who mistook her for a players' union employee, perhaps because the players and their union staff are predominantly African-American, in contrast to the majority white team owners and their staff. She has to decide whether and how to respond. The case is designed to surface students' instinctive decision-making tendencies. Thus, it is short enough to be read and responded to in class. Students are assigned readings and assignments related to the case after class discussion in which they are encouraged to reflect on their initial responses. The case is quite flexible and would work in any course that deals with leadership, ethics, difficult conversations, decision-making, organizational behavior, human resources, implicit bias, and related topics. It is appropriate for a range of levels and audiences, including undergraduate, MBA, and executive education.

In October 2016, the chief executive officer of Bidcorp Baltics, a food services company operating in the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, faced a dilemma. He needed to decide whether to expand the warehouse depot in Lithuania or in another location, and whether the company should diversify into products other than fresh fish and seafood. Because the company was part of the larger Bid Corporation Limited group, headquartered in South Africa, he had scheduled a teleconference with the head office. His challenge was to present a persuasive case for the parent company's capital investment in Bidcorp Baltics. What contextually relevant factors did the chief executive officer need to consider?

The chief executive officer of Daimler Trucks and Buses China Ltd. was on an expatriate assignment in China. In November 2016, he faced a discomforting situation that could bring an abrupt halt to his career; an unfortunate incident in which he lost his temper led to fierce outrage in local Chinese and worldwide media. The media reaction threatened China's prominence as a major source of revenue for Daimler, and sent Daimler's share price on a downhill spiral. How should Daimler react, and what could it do to restore the company brand image?

Today layoffs have become companies' default response to the challenges created by advances in technology and global competition. Yet research shows that job cuts rarely help senior leaders achieve their goals. Too often, they're done for short-term gain, but the cost savings are overshadowed by bad publicity, loss of knowledge, weakened engagement, higher voluntary turnover, and lower innovation, which hurt profits in the long run. This article looks at better ways to handle changing workforce needs that make sparing use of staff reductions and ensure that if they do happen, the process feels fair and the affected parties have a soft landing. Most successful approaches begin with a philosophy that spells out a firm's commitments and priorities, establish methods for exploring layoff alternatives (such as furloughs, retraining, and reassignments), and determine options for three scenarios: a healthy present, short-term volatility, and an uncertain future. As firms like AT&T, Michelin, Honeywell, and Nokia have learned, thoughtful planning helps organizations address workforce transitions and cope with a shifting economic landscape far better than layoffs do.

After two years of constant work on their start-up, "DressingRm AR," Natsumi Nakano and Bridget Ellery were at a crossroads. Two investment offers were on the table. Neither offer provided as much money as the start-up needed, and both came with constraints that made Nakano and Ellery wary. But they were running out of money, and without new investment, they'd have to shut down. Nakano still hoped that they'd eventually find an investor who appreciated the real value of their ideas and accurately perceived their competence. Ellery, meanwhile, was disillusioned after two years of unexpected obstacles. Their ideas were good, she knew, but the marketplace was uglier and more ruthless than she'd anticipated. She no longer believed that it was a meritocracy. If one more man spoke to her with a patronizing tone or hit on her during a meeting, Ellery feared she would snap. Together, they had to decide what to do.