Kerstin Berger (B)
Confounding all expectations, Tina Orton returns to L-Bank several months after her breakdown /burnout. Her former colleague Kerstin Berger is now her boss. Berger, Orton and the entire L-Bank IT organization have to learn to deal with the complex and potentially embarrassing situations associated with burnout and re-integration, and more importantly, to try to head off other such situations in the future. By the end of the case, with support from Berger, Orton has become a highly-valued project manager and a mentor to others. She particularly dedicates herself to improving the company’s recruitment and induction processes.
To see that people in even the most difficult situations can recover and grow; to illustrate that any HR process is only as good as the people that implement it; to test assumptions about what it means to be successful, to burn out, to be resilient, and to learn.
2006
Cranfield University
Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK
Tel +44 (0)1234 750903
Email [email protected]
Harvard Business School Publishing
60 Harvard Way, Boston MA 02163, USA
Tel (800) 545-7685 Tel (617)-783-7600
Fax (617) 783-7666
Email [email protected]
NUCB Business School
1-3-1 Nishiki Naka
Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0003
Tel +81 52 20 38 111
Email [email protected]
IMD retains all proprietary interests in its case studies and notes. Without prior written permission, IMD cases and notes may not be reproduced, used, translated, included in books or other publications, distributed in any form or by any means, stored in a database or in other retrieval systems. For additional copyright information related to case studies, please contact Case Services.
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
“I am done. I feel like staying in bed until the next holiday” a leader said to me last month, slumping into his chair at the end of a long meeting. “And it pains me, because my example is needed more than ever.” Over the past year, I have heard v...
Social networks play a role in exacerbating or ameliorating inequality. The persistence of network-based inequality is well documented. However, the mechanisms that disrupt this unequal access to resources remain poorly understood. This study inve...
Frontline employees (FLEs) often encounter unpredictable customer requests and operational inconsistencies, forcing them to improvise and deviate from standardized procedures to provide high-quality service. Although the potential benefits of this...
On paper, everything with the project looked fine. Deadlines were being met, the work was on track, and meetings ran efficiently. But beneath the surface, this high-performing manager told us, “I was holding it together on the outside, yet inside,...
Walk into almost any organisation and you will hear the same refrain: ‘We promote on merit here.’ Yet the data keeps telling a different story. Women are still underrepresented in senior roles, even in sectors where they make up most of the workfo...
Microaggressions are subtle, often unintended slights that quietly undermine confidence, belonging, and performance. Their cumulative impact erodes trust and psychological safety, slowing careers and driving attrition. This article examines how mi...
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
in Academy of Management Journal 30 January 2026
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
in Journal of Service Research 25 December 2025, https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705251399830
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
in I by IMD Magazine September 2025, no. 19, pp. 78–79
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications