Postage Due: The Financial Crisis at the United States Postal Service

Publication Date: June 1, 2022

In October 2020, the Inspector General of the United States Postal Service (USPS) conducted a survey of the American public and found that despite service challenges largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic—employee absenteeism, mail, and...

Briefing Sheet: “Be SURE” You Are Prepared to Negotiate WELL

Publication Date: May 6, 2022

This briefing sheet reviews a four-step “Be SURE” negotiation preparation framework. It was developed to complement educational and resource materials accessible through the HKS SLATE Negotiate WELL (Work, Education, Life, and...

Embracing the Uphill Struggle: Marc Morial’s Quest for Corporate Diversity

Publication Date: October 25, 2021

As incoming President and CEO of the National Urban League in 2003, Marc Morial believed that promoting racial equity in corporate America was a natural part of the organization’s remit. In the latter third of the 20th century, the NUL had...

Casa Pueblo: Community-Based Electricity Resilience in Puerto Rico

Publication Date: March 28, 2022

Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 ravaging the Island. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported that all customers were without power unless they had their own generators. However, in the mountain town...

When Gender Matters in Organizational Negotiations

Publication Date: March 18, 2022

Learning Objective:The overarching learning objective is to help students recognize the situational circumstances that moderate gender effects in negotiation. Core lessons include: (a) A person’s gender is not a reliable predictor of their...

An Intractable Challenge? HIV Among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Zambia

Publication Date: March 4, 2022

This multimedia case is set in the Southern African country of Zambia, where the rates of HIV new infections, especially among adolescent girls and young women, remain high in spite of recent government efforts. After laying out the history of...

The Making of a Public Health Catastrophe: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Flint Water Crisis

Publication Date: January 12, 2022

The Flint water crisis, which began in 2014, is widely regarded as a textbook example of structural racism and injustice. This teaching case provides a close examination of the building blocks of the catastrophe, some all-too-familiar in...

Power and Social Change

Publication Date: December 6, 2021

The concept of power has often been viewed very narrowly by public leaders. In this 30-minute video, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Archon Fung lays out a broader vision of how power works in our society. Public leaders need to understand...

OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain Epilogue

Publication Date: October 20, 2021

This epilogue accompanies HKS Case 2233.0. The blood supply chain is under pressure from COVID-19. How should the 3rd largest blood bank in the US, OneBlood, respond? Is adopting an agile supply chain philosophy an effective...

OneBlood and COVID-19: Building an Agile Supply Chain

Publication Date: October 20, 2021

The blood supply chain is under pressure from COVID-19. How should the 3rd largest blood bank in the US, OneBlood, respond? Is adopting an agile supply chain philosophy an effective approach? The case provides an overview of the...

United States Department of Education: Launching the College Scorecard, a Digital Service

Publication Date: October 20, 2021

The goal of the case is to understand how to design, build, and engage with digital technologies as they relate to civic participation, equity, governance, and accountability. Delivering critical services to the public requires building...

“A Difficult Lady”: Shutting Down Pollution in Kampala, Uganda Practitioner Guide

Publication Date: October 15, 2021

This practitioner guide accompanies HKS Case 2231.0. In 2011, sanitation and environmental management expert Judith Tumusiime joined the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), where she and KCCA Executive Director Jennifer Musisi quickly became...