Describes Ruth Linsky''s charges of sex discrimination against Triton, where she is a sales manager. Ruth believes that she has been denied promotion because of an institutionalized system of sexual discrimination. Barbara Smith, Triton''s personnel director, must weigh the issues: Where does the law draw the line? Does the company personnel policy favor men? Why didn''t the affirmative action policy work? A panel of experts from business and the .....more

Affirmative action is based on a set of premises that badly need revising. White males are no longer dominant at every level of the corporation, while decades of attack have noticeably weakened racial and gender prejudices. Our traditional image of assimilating differences--the melting pot--is no longer valid. It''s a seller''s market for skills, and potential employees are refusing to be melted down. Companies must manage unassimilated diversity .....more

GlassHouse Research identified accounting red flags at Catalent. Fiat Lux Partners countered most of GlassHouse''s claims. Who was right? This update explores the aftermath of the short seller duel.

This case examines factors contributing to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March 2023, an event as unpredicted as it was quick. SVB funded nearly half of all U.S. venture-backed startups and at the end of 2022 held $173 billion in deposits, largely comprising the venture capital those startups had raised. On February 28, 2023, Moody''s warned SVB about a potential credit rating downgrade, reflecting concerns over "funding, liquidity, .....more

Laura Wollen, group marketing director for ARPCO, was about to recommend her best product manager, Charles Lewis, for a position in the London office. Yet David Abbott, Wollen''s counterpart in the United Kingdom, admitted that Lewis looked good on paper, but doubted he would fit in with the team and adjust to the British market. Wollen finally understood that Abbott''s reservations were because Lewis was black. Wollen was wary of promoting Lewis .....more

In this three-part case, the authors explore how an HIV-infected employee should be managed over time. Manager Greg van de Water must make a series of decisions regarding Joe Collins. Three AIDS-in-the-workplace experts recommend action to Greg at each decision point. They are: Lee Smith of Levi Strauss; Jim Nichols of American Security Bank (where he is on long-term disability leave as a result of HIV infection); and Jonathan Mann of the Harvard .....more

Discusses a manager''s responsibilities in reporting and ending sexual harassment. Jerry Tarkwell discovers that one of his employees is being sexually harassed by a colleague. When he tells the harassed employee that he has reported the incident to the company equal employment opportunity officer, she asks him not to pursue the matter because she is afraid her career might be ruined by an investigation. Tarkwell is torn between his duty to keep the .....more

Although the number of women managers has grown, they are still usually found in junior positions. Many companies hire women only to ensure mere adequacy and avoid litigation. In addition, most companies ignore child care and other family concerns. At the same time women have demonstrated their competence in the best business schools, their ambitions and energies are stifled by businesses. Top managers must support their female employees by: 1) acknowledging .....more

In this fictional case study, Vision Software was an interesting and exciting company--on the cutting edge of computer technology and a leader in its field. CEO John Clark was proud of its enlightened human resource policies, including efforts to hire and promote women. Yet something was wrong. In just two years, four top women had resigned after working at Vision for many years. Liz Ames, Director of Consumer Marketing, blamed sexism at Vision, and .....more

In this fictional case study, Adam Lawson is a promising young associate at Kirkham McDowell Securities, a St. Louis underwriting and financial advisory firm. Recently, Adam helped to bring in an extremely lucrative deal, and soon he and a few other associates will be honored for their efforts at the firm''s silver anniversary dinner. George Campbell, vice president in mergers and acquisitions, is caught unprepared when Adam tells him that, after .....more

In this fictional case study, Diane Bryant, who is pregnant, is up for a significant promotion at Hunter Peripherals, a director''s position overseeing environmental testing and product compliance. But Jim Serra, vice president of engineering at Hunter, is concerned that Diane won''t be able to handle the combined challenges of her new job and new baby. Hunter is planning a critical product launch in six months, and Diane is due in four months. Jim .....more

By 2018, Netflix had been credited for revolutionizing how viewers consumed entertainment-shifting from ad-fueled linear network programming to a highly personalized, on-demand, all-you-can-consume, ad-free model. The company was riding a long wave of revenue and subscriber growth as it expanded internationally and into original production. From its earliest days, Netflix leadership had fostered a workplace characterized by such values as excellence, .....more

For 20 years, Elizabeth Rowe was a world-renowned principal flutist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But in 2024, Rowe decided to leave her position to pursue a new full-time career as a leadership coach. At 50, Rowe was well under the typical retirement age, and, by all accounts, playing more beautifully than ever. But she had begun developing her coaching practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was excited by the growth and human connection .....more

This technical note introduces the confusion matrix as a foundational tool in artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) for assessing the performance of classification models, focusing on their reliability for decision-making. A confusion matrix displays true positives, true negatives, false positives, and false negatives, providing a comprehensive view of a model''s predictive strengths and weaknesses. Key performance metrics-such .....more

The Outward Bound raft trip in 1977 was meant to build better teamwork and teach the art and techniques of survival under difficult conditions. Over the week that followed, the five people on Raft No. 4 created a supportive atmosphere. Everyone was required to take a turn at the helm, a challenge that the men embraced but that the women tried to avoid and then carried out badly. On the fifth day, with one of the women at the rudder, the raft overturned .....more

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Diversity efforts in the workplace have been undertaken with great goodwill, but, ironically, they often end up fueling tensions. They rarely spur the leaps in organizational effectiveness that are possible. Two paradigms for diversity are responsible, but a new third .....more

This case explores the political campaign of Shelane Etchison, a pioneering U.S. Army veteran and double-degree Harvard graduate who ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina''s Ninth Congressional District in 2024. Seeking office for the first time, Etchison ran as an unaffiliated candidate, without major-party support. Etchison saw a unique opportunity to challenge an entrenched Republican incumbent by tapping into broad discontent .....more

This note provides background information on the U.S. presidential transition process, including the history of presidential transitions, the modern transition process, and the responsibilities of the executive branch. It includes a brief overview of the primary laws that guide this process.

This brief note explains the other elections that occur in the United States at the same time as the presidential election.

American institutions of higher learning have long played a disproportionate role in supplying leadership talent to the world''s business and professional organizations. New research by William Bowen and Derek Bok, former presidents of Princeton and Harvard respectively, suggests that the experience of these institutions can provide insight on how to create diverse organizations that succeed. The first insight has to do with clarity of mission. It .....more