The Harvard Business Review last Thursday announced...

The Harvard Business Review last Thursday announced the hiring of Joel Kurtzman as its new executive editor. He succeeds T. George Harris, who had been hired as editor only four months ago following a period of internal strife under the previous editor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

Harris, former editor of Psychology Today and American Health, helped recruit Kurtzman, 45, who was a business editor at the New York Times, apparently with the understanding that Kurtzman would be the No. 2 editor. Kurtzman, however, told reporters that he would be the top gun, and that Harris would be a consultant.

By Friday morning, the Review staff and its public relations people still didn’t know what was going on. Only late Friday did Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., the Review’s parent company, announce that Harris was on his way out.

Ruth McMullin, president of the parent firm, in a memo given to the staff Friday afternoon, wrote, “George and I had not intended to tell you about the new role George is assuming until after our own discussions had concluded.”