“Management Strategy and Beyond” with Raffaella Sadun
- May 22, 2019
Join us for three stand-alone, interrelated lunch seminars taught by Raffaella Sadun on the role of management practices—and managers—for organizational performance. The sessions will include an overview of studies documenting the variation in the adoption of management practices across firms and countries, as well as its impact on firm performance. We will explore the reasons for the variation in management, and conclude with a session exploring the role of management in the public sector.
Raffaella Sadun is the Thomas S. Murphy Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on the economics of productivity, management and organizational change. Her research documents the economic and cultural determinants of managerial choices, as well as their implications for organizational performance in both the private and public sector (including healthcare and education). She is among the founders of the World Management Survey and the Executive Time Use Study. Professor Sadun's work has appeared in leading peer reviewed journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Economic Journal, and has been featured in the business press, including The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Faculty Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, Research Affiliate at the Center for Economic Policy Research and Research Associate in the Ariadne Labs Program in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She was also nominated as a Junior Faculty Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation.
Wednesday, May 22: 12-1pm
Does management matter?
This session will review the evidence on the quality of management practices across firms, focusing on both variations across firms and their effect on firm performance. We will review findings emerging from “big-data” documenting the adoption of management practices across and within countries, as well as experimental studies aiming at identifying causal effects.
Thursday, May 23, 12-1pm
Why does management vary across firms?
This session studies why the quality of management varies across firms, focusing on the role of “complements”. We will explore contextual factors (e.g. competitive pressure) as well as internal choices (e.g. decentralization and incentives), which shape the returns to structured management practices. We shall also study emerging evidence on the relationship between leadership behavior and management practices.
Friday, May 24, 12-1pm
The role of management in the public sector
This session will consider the extent to which management affects the performance of public sector organizations. We will explore emerging evidence from a wide variety of sectors, focusing in particular on healthcare.
All seminars take place from 12 to 1 p.m. in Harper Center, Room C25 (5807 S Woodlawn Ave)