Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, Fourth Edition

chapter FOUR

Structure and Restructuring

Larry Summers took the helm as president of Harvard in 2001. An economist and former U.S. treasury secretary, Summers concluded that the venerable university needed an overhaul. From the president’s office, he issued a series of authoritative new directives. He attacked the undergraduate grading system, in which half of the students received A’s and 90 percent graduated with honors. He stiffened standards for awarding tenure, encouraged more foreign study, and asked faculty (especially senior professors) to spend more time with students. He stepped across curricular boundaries to call for an emphasis ...