THE MAGAZINE

How to Manage Virtual Teams

Teams are the typical building blocks of an organization. Dispersed teams can actually outperform groups that are all in one place. To succeed, however, virtual collaboration must be managed in specific ways. Businesses will have to emphasize teamwork even more than before, a global culture is more important than ever, and don't expect face-to-face meetings to disappear. Read more »
Also in the new Business Insight: learn lessons from the developing world, what managers really do, how to be a smart protégé, and much more.

The Merit of Making Things Fast

By Roger W. Schmenner

AN AUTO PARTS MANUFACTURER in Northern Europe started to slip in profitability. For historical reasons, manufacturing was organized in a very disjointed way with facilities scattered over the countryside, each managed independently and concentrating on only a part of the full production process. Consolidation seemed advisable to regain profitability and the managing director pondered which [...]

Manufacturing Innovation: Lessons from the Japanese Auto Industry

By Michael A. Cusumano

SEVERAL STUDIES published in the 1980s indicated that Japanese firms, led by Toyota, have achieved the highest levels of manufacturing efficiency in the world automobile industry. Physical productivity, which reflects the “throughput” speed for completing products and the amount of labor required, has been significantly higher than in most U.S. plants (although differences vary by [...]

Organizational Socialization and the Profession of Management

By Edgar H. Schein

I CAN DEFINE MY TOPIC of concern best by reviewing very briefly the kinds of issues upon which I have focused my research over the last several years. In one way or another I have been trying to understand what happens to an individual when he enters and accepts membership in an organization. My interest [...]

From The Magazine

Fall 2009

Special Report: Sustainability

8 Reasons That Sustainability Will Change Management

Michael S. Hopkins

Transparency, accidental innovation, trust, collaboration — as sustainability affects how the world works, so will it affect how business works in the world.

Intelligence: Management

Debunking Management Myths

Martha E. Mangelsdorf

In this interview, Henry Mintzberg questions some of the conventional wisdom about managerial work.