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Black Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving, marked the official start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. It was a day that generally brought smiles to the executives of retailing giant Nordstrom, Inc. (Nordstrom). However, on November 28, 2014, Nordstrom had to deal with the tragic loss of a seasonal worker at a Nordstrom store in downtown Chicago. She had been killed in a workplace violence incident involving her former boyfriend. The event was a reminder of an earlier incident involving an Indianapolis-based employee who was terminated in November 2013. Even though Nordstrom had been a strong advocate for workplace safety, the retailer had endured public scrutiny after terminating the employee, who was victimized by her ex-boyfriend. These two workplace violence incidents made it necessary for Nordstrom's management to determine how best to protect all Nordstrom stakeholders in the future.

This case describes a challenging decision faced by Dr. Elizabeth Clarke, Chair of the Surgery Department, regarding what to do about Dr. Jamie Thompson, an employee causing disruption within the organization. Clarke recently hired Thompson to work as a surgeon in her department but is now getting complaints from many other staff about Thompson's behavior. Thompson is delivering excellent results but ignores systems and processes, and frustrates coworkers. Clarke, who hired Thompson on the recommendation of a colleague, must now step in and address this issue. Students are asked to evaluate the situation Clarke faces and recommend the best course of action.

"Womenomics in Japan" profiles Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vigorous attempts to revive Japan's economy, specifically by advocating for a larger role for women in the economy--not as a matter of social policy or gender equity per se, but as an essential element of any solution to Japan's persistent low economic growth. Several decades of economic stagnation led Abe to spearhead a multi-faceted reform effort to shake off deflation and come to grips with Japan's large national debt and rapidly aging society. "Womenomics"--the promotion of economic empowerment for women--has been a key element of this effort. Since taking office in late 2012, Abe has advocated for women in myriad ways: through sustained rhetoric at home and abroad, by naming women to key cabinet and party positions, and by setting ambitious numerical targets for expanding their professional ranks. To support these efforts at effecting institutional change, Abe also has overseen rapid growth in daycare facilities for the children of working mothers, and has worked intensively to encourage Japan's business associations to increase hiring, promotion, and empowerment of women among member firms. At issue is how effective such measures have been, and whether they can successfully be sustained.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 717408.

HBA Job Offer Negotiation is a role play between a job applicant who is graduating from an undergraduate business school and a recruiter from a global consulting firm. It is intended to illustrate the importance of preparation and planning; integrative negotiation in the context of job offers, and specific behaviors that contribute to effective negotiation. To be used with W16897.

Supplement to case W16896.

In May 2013, iGATE Corporation suffered a major blow after terminating its president and chief executive officer, Phaneesh Murthy, as a result of allegations of sexual harassment. Murthy had previously been forced to step down from Infosys Limited for similar reasons. After Murthy's unceremonious exit, iGATE struggled to fill its top leadership position. Finally, in September 2013, a new chief executive took over and outlined a plan of action that differed completely from his predecessor's strategy. However, the company, which had been poised to achieve big ambitions, had lost momentum and appeared directionless. Had iGATE made a mistake by hiring Murthy as its top executive just 18 months after he had been fired from Infosys? Why did iGATE not conduct due diligence on its talent acquisition and management, especially for the critical position of chief executive officer? How could other organizations turn around a position of vulnerability to become resilient?

Earls Restaurants, Ltd., a Canadian restaurant chain headquartered in Vancouver, was facing a communications crisis in April 2016, when it changed its sourcing policy with regard to beef. In a bid to appeal to millennial consumers, who were conscious of animal welfare standards, it decided to source beef from a U.S. farm that had its beef independently certified as humane. This cut out the restaurant's traditional supply sources among Canadian ranchers, most specifically in Alberta, where the restaurant chain had been founded. The backlash was immediate. After discussing the situation with his core management team and asking a consultant for help formulating a communication strategy, the company's president had to decide how to proceed to restore the company's reputation. Should Earls do nothing and wait for the attention to die down, go back to sourcing its beef through Canadian suppliers, or continue to serve humane beef in its restaurants?

In July 2014, the managing partner and co-founder of Netherlands-based Expatica Communications B.V. (Expatica) received tragic news. His close friend and business partner had been travelling on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine. The two partners had worked closely together at Expatica for over 15 years. Three days after receiving the news of his friend's sudden death, the surviving partner found himself alone in his office trying to work out how to cope with the situation and, in particular, how to deal with the employees who were due to return to the office the next day. How should he prepare himself for the next morning? How should he approach the meeting with the employees, and what should he say? What actions should he take regarding the firm in the short and medium term?

Intervention, such as that performed via surgical procedures, is necessary when a board of directors is not functioning as it should. Unlike medical procedures, members of a board of directors have to perform surgery on themselves for change to occur. Board surgery might require resizing the board, invoking term limits, establishing conflict of interest policies, and increased emphasis on board member competencies. This article describes the symptoms leading to the need for surgery and suggests that it is better to perform elective surgery rather than letting problems reach the point of requiring emergency surgery.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review Article. When faced with an emerging technology, many companies have trouble responding - not because they don't recognize how it impacts their business, but because they have difficulty managing the uncertainty around the new technology's competitive viability. And when the technology significantly disrupts the company's existing business, it can create structural impediments to pursuing opportunities.

Managers have tried various strategies and perks to boost employee engagement--all with little impact on long-term retention and performance. But now, neuroscience offers some answers. Through his research on the brain chemical oxytocin--shown to facilitate collaboration and teamwork--Zak has developed a framework for creating a culture of trust and building a happier, more loyal, and more productive workforce. By measuring people's oxytocin levels in response to various situations--first in the lab and later in the workplace--Zak identified eight key management behaviors that stimulate oxytocin production and generate trust: (1) Recognize excellence. (2) Induce "challenge stress." (3) Give people discretion in how they do their work. (4) Enable job crafting. (5) Share information broadly. (6) Intentionally build relationships. (7) Facilitate whole-person growth. (8) Show vulnerability. Ultimately, Zak concludes, managers can cultivate trust by setting a clear direction, giving people what they need to see it through, and then getting out of their way. In short, to boost engagement, treat people like responsible adults.

What executive hasn't dreamed of transforming an organization by achieving seemingly impossible goals through sheer force of will? Indeed, in countless business narratives, the practice of setting such objectives has been celebrated as a key source of achievement. But in practice, stretch goals rarely work out, the authors' research shows. Consider Yahoo. When Marissa Mayer took the helm of the ailing internet giant, in 2012, she announced a number of wildly ambitious targets, including the exceptionally difficult objective of achieving double-digit annual growth. Five years later, she'd fallen far short on them all, and Yahoo was still struggling. The problem is that organizations that would most benefit from stretch goals--those with recent wins and slack resources--seldom employ them. But businesses in trouble often adopt them in a desperate attempt to turn things around--and they nearly always fail. This is the stretch goal paradox. In this article the authors explain how to determine whether stretch goals are right for your organization and, if they are not, what alternative strategies you can pursue.

By pooling their know-how and resources across internal boundaries, organizations can solve problems more creatively, increase their productivity, and reap higher profits. But collaboration is not easy, given how time-pressed managers are, how reluctant they are to cede control over projects and relationships, and how tough it is for them to stop working in silos when they've been doing it for ages. About 10 years ago, leaders at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute realized that the growing complexity of the problems its experts were charged with solving meant their fiefdoms couldn't last forever. In developing a case study about Dana-Farber, Gardner saw firsthand how difficult it was for the organization to move away from a star-based system to one that got researchers working together across specialties and facilities. She demonstrates that its story has clear parallels with business and outlines how executives can pull the levers of change in a wide range of companies.

This compact case describes a scenario where a new human resources manager overhears an exchange between a male and female employee at an off-site party that he believes may constitute harassment. Students are asked to place themselves in the position of this individual as he reviews the course of action he needs to undertake. When it comes to analyzing interpersonal interactions, intentions versus actual behavior may not align. This is particularly true when culture, perception and interpretation intersect in diverse and multicultural environments; here the nuances associated with interpreting ambiguous activities came be further complicated by the differing cultural lens that participants may bring to bear as they work through both identifying and eliminating harassment and abuse. This compact case describes one such "gray" situation, which is further complicated by the fact that the described incident occurred at an off-site social event.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 1, the authors highlight the importance of effective internal communication and outline historical approaches to corporate structures and communication in the workplace. They then outline five emerging trends that are shaping internal communication practices, including employee engagement, technological advancement, ethics and value communication, leadership communication, and measurement and evaluation.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 2, the authors argue that managers must understand and organize their employees in order to communicate effectively with them. They call employees and the groups they form "internal publics," writing that employee communications should be targeted at subsets of the employee population by segmenting employees based on demographic characteristics and common interests. Segmenting employees based on an organization's hierarchical structure can also be useful in devising targeted communications, as each level has different needs, responsibilities, and methods of communication. The authors also cover Grunig's situational theory of publics and summarize characteristics of today's workforce, which include multigeneration, diversity, globalization, powered by technology, and an emphasis on work-life balance.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 3, the authors illustrate a model for internal communication based in ethical decision making. They discuss the central role that an organization's governance and regulations have in establishing an ethical workplace culture. They write that public relations divisions have the resources to understand stakeholder values and therefore can most effectively use these to develop a corporate conscience. The authors also highlight a deontological ethical framework for guiding internal relations and provide a step-by-step model that organizations can use to make principled decisions, which includes actions that promote honesty, candor, dialog, collaboration, respect, and good intention with stakeholder communities. They also emphasize the power of leaders in modeling ethical behavior and creating a culture where this is the norm.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 4, the authors discuss both senior leadership communication and supervisory leadership communication. They highlight the power that leaders have to set the tone for internal communication and influence the organization's reputation in the eyes of both internal and external stakeholders. The authors also write that senior leaders should rely on face-to-face communication and social media to have meaningful communication with employees. Supervisors are tasked with communicating their competence and effectiveness. The authors write that supervisors should aim to create a climate characterized by two-way, transparent communication. The chapter also summarizes research-driven principles that can inform leaders at all levels as they communicate with employees.

Excellence in Internal Communication Management is a 10-chapter book published by Business Expert Press in 2017 and written by Rita Linjuan Men, Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Florida, and Shannon A. Bowen, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Southern California. The authors combine theories, research insights, practices, as well as current issues and cases into a comprehensive guide for internal communication managers and organizational leaders on how to communicate effectively with internal stakeholders, build ethical organizational cultures, and engage employees in a rapidly-changing business environment. In Chapter 5, the authors discuss communication channels that organizations can use to communicate with internal stakeholders. They highlight face-to-face communication, print publications, videoconferencing, e-mail, social media tools, intranet, blogs, SNSs, and social messengers. They write that face-to-face communication is the most preferred channel because it is instant, interactive, and personal, but they acknowledge the benefits of each mode of communication. The chapter also discusses criteria that companies and leaders can use to choose channels for certain messages and audiences. These criteria include audience needs, available resources, delivery speed, sender objectives, message attributes, channel attributes, and characteristics of receivers.