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In the seemingly never-ending revelations of corporate scandals that have been exposed since the fall of Enron, the media, politicians, and the general public have taken to characterizing such leaders as "bad people," even to the point of considering them evil. The rest of our leaders have become suspect, as corporate executives are tied for dead last with used car salesmen in terms of public trust. These overly simplistic notions of "good leaders" and "bad leaders" only serve to cloud our understanding of the nature of leadership in the business world and how good leaders can lose their way. Teaching Purpose: To outline how and why leaders lose their way.

This note provides a brief review of the Muslim religion, including the geographical representation of its believers, a description of its basic tenets, and a sketch of its historical development. Also provided is a brief synopsis of the Prophet Muhammad, and a distinction is made between the Sh'ia and the Sunni faiths. The note was written to complement the teaching of any case that assumes knowledge of Islam.

The spate of corporate misdeeds revealed to the American public in 2001 to 2002 prompted corrective action in many quarters of the U.S. economy. The note summarizes some of the steps taken by lawmakers, regulators, law-enforcement officials, companies, investors, professional associations, and educators to restore public trust in U.S. capital markets and the U.S. system of corporate governance.

An overview of issues relating to and factors affecting the concept of balance between work and personal life including the history of work-life balance and employer/employee perspectives.

How do you deal with overly aggressive or excessively passive people? When should you push and when should you hang back? Should you ever show your anger, or is it wise to keep it inside or express it differently? The answers to these questions can mean the difference between derailing your career in management and going all the way to the top. If you learn what appropriately assertive behavior is and then practice ways of expressing yourself (when the occasion calls for it), your level of assertiveness will match the situation. This technical note examines interactions that fall on a continuum of assertiveness, from abusive to overly passive.

This note provides detailed guidance for analyzing a complex business problem using the systems thinking tools: reference behavior patterns, systems archetypes, causal-loop diagrams, and stock-flow maps. The step by step guidance helps a systems thinker create a clear, organized presentation for a client or professional modeler. Successfully communicating one's views and hypotheses and making relevant, supported recommendations are an outgrowth of using the writing process to support a systems analysis.

This note provides detailed guidance for analyzing a complex business problem using the systems thinking tools: reference behavior patterns, systems archetypes, causal-loop diagrams, and stock-flow maps. The step by step guidance is intended to help a systems thinker arrive at a clear, organized outcome, such as a presentation to a client or a professional modeler. The writing process provides a framework for approaching a problem whereby the logical transition from each part of one's thinking to the next is in place. Successfully communicating one's views and hypotheses and making relevant, supported recommendations are an outgrowth of using the writing process to support a systems analysis.

This technical note introduces students to the basic techniques of conjoint analysis.

Human beings are driven by reasons and emotions. On the one hand, as rational choice theorists assert, human beings are resourceful and evaluative as they strive to maximize their own interests. An individual's interests can converge or diverge from the interests of the organization. Thus, to bring the resourcefulness of individuals to benefit the organization, control systems must be designed to align the interests of the organization and the individual. On the other hand, it has long been recognized (and reinforced by contemporary research on the human brain) that human beings are also driven by emotions. Emotions can be in accord with rational behavior (e.g., when fear evokes caution in the face of danger, or pride motivates greater effort). But emotions can also be at odds with rational behavior (e.g., when pain avoidance leads to an unwillingness to confront difficult decisions, or shame leads to cover-ups, or hubris leads to excessive optimism). Understanding the importance of both reason and emotion is, thus, critical to designing organizations, control systems, and governance structures that promote desired behaviors. Teaching Purpose: Some model of human nature, implicitly if not explicitly, guides any manager's actions. It is useful for students to be aware of these underlying assumptions and attentive to ways reason and emotion shape their own behavior and those of others around them.

This case presents a simple model of the drivers of profitability in a professional service partnership and conducts an empirical exploration of the determinants of profitability among AmLaw 100 firms over the period 1994 to 1999.

This technical note provides an introduction to quality management tools, with a focus on the concepts of process control and process capability.

This appendix supplements the multimedia case, "Hugh McColl and NationsBank: Building a National Footprint through M&A". The instructor can use this appendix as a supplement for the convenience of the reader. This document is not intended to substitute for the digital case. Note that Darden Business Publishing also makes available an Appendix that contains 68 pages of printed material drawn from the case: UVA-F-1420. In contrast, this document is an abbreviated supplement that contains only tabular material of financial information. **************************************** This appendix supports student preparation of the associated multimedia case study. See the abstract and teaching note for that case to obtain a summary of the teaching purpose, subject, issues, and classroom applications. Information contained in this appendix is a subset of the information available in the multimedia case and is prepared mainly for the convenience of the student. In particular, this appendix would be useful in executive education settings and where the student needs hard-copy reference to the material in the case. Generally, students who are heavy computer users will find this appendix redundant. Thus, the instructor's use of this appendix is entirely optional and should be linked to the needs of the student.

Describes the considerations entering into a long-term debt rating.

This case provides a definition of strategy, distinguishes between corporate and practice strategy, and discusses how and why developing and implementing strategy for professional service firms is different from developing and implementing strategy for commercial firms. The case discusses how practice strategy involves positioning the practice on a spectrum of services and aligning the organization and its professionals to the position. Practices are subjected continuously to forces that move their positioning. To be successful, practices must dynamically reposition or realign themselves. The csae concludes with a discussion of the corporate strategy challenges facing multipractice professional service firms.

This case describes the varied instruments that have evolved to facilitate investments in foreign corporations, emphasizing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and cross-border listings. It describes the different types of ADRs and the regulatory requirements foreign corporations must meet to list their shares on U.S. stock exchanges. It examines the evolution of cross-border listings as well as recent developments, such as Globally Registered Shares. It also reviews the academic research on the motivations for cross-border listings and provides information on managerial views on the advantages and disadvantages of cross-border listings.

This case describes the two types of client conflict--conflict of duty and conflict of service--that professionals manage. It delineates how the management of these conflicts affects the scale and scope of service that professionals provide.

Describes some of the classic conflicts managers face in trying to live and work by their personal values and uses Hirschman's "exit, loyalty, and voice" framework to suggest ways for resolving these conflicts.

Serves as a brief introduction to incentive design and implementation. The analysis first locates incentive strategy within the larger structure of organizations and markets and then helps to define the central components and difficulties of incentive design. Focuses on the principal difficulties in implementing incentive systems, including the tradeoff between objective and subjective performance metrics, how to design incentive systems in team environments, and the inherent problems with designing incentive systems in environments where workers are involved in multiple activities. A rewritten version of an earlier note.

Legal policy has a long history of protecting confidentiality of negotiations that are designed to produce settlement. However, within the past several decades there has been a significant push toward openness. Compelling arguments support confidentiality: It helps promote candid discussion when sensitive material is involved and may make settlements possible. On the other hand, ethical concern where public health and safety are involved has prompted some states to pass laws requiring the disclosure of settlement agreements or to revise their procedures governing confidentiality of discovery, protective orders, and sealing of litigation records. This case summarizes the legal and ethical debate. It identifies the major issues surrounding confidentiality in settlement negotiations and illustrates them with several examples.

This Wine Industry Note examines the wine industry as the basis for discussing how competitive advantage is created and how advantage can be lost when innovative strategies challenge the incumbent players. The wine industry in 2003 was in a state of transition. Historically, a plethora of products and fragmented international markets made it nearly impossible for a company to establish a dominant international position. In addition, because wine was an agricultural product and subject to the vagaries of the weather, reliability of supply was unpredictable. However, well-capitalized international winemakers were emphasizing global presence and brand recognition. The tremendous success New World producers had experienced in markets traditionally dominated by European winemakers was leading to increased emphasis on creating recognized brands, stable distribution arrangements, and focused advertising campaigns. Only time would tell if the wine industry remained one where terror and the mystery of the wine prevailed, or global brands displaced the local and regional winemakers.