48 Posts found for Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer

Great leaders and teams are masters of the obvious—a rare talent.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Why do traditional power structures have such staying power? One reason is that hierarchies still work. Jeffrey Pfeffer writes that “relationships with bosses still matter for people’s job tenure and opportunities, as do networking skills.” He notes that research shows hierarchies also deliver practical and psychological value, in part by fulfilling deep-seated needs for order and security. Another is that individuals who believe in their … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Power / Authority

In a world where a junior staffer can tweet to the CEO, the lines that traditionally delineated power and influence have been blurred. So much so, in fact, that when Jeffrey Pfeffer teaches about corporate America’s hierarchical power structure, his students often push back. That model of power isn’t relevant anymore, they insist. Such 20th-century thinking. They’re wrong.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Organizational Behavior

A professor of organizational behavior argues that “human sustainability” may pay off too.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Human Resources, Social Responsibility (ESG)

It’s time to broaden our focus on environmental sustainability practices and social responsibility to also include organizational effects on employee health and mortality.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Forbes | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

There is mounting evidence that giving people more responsibility for making decisions in their jobs generates greater productivity, morale, and commitment. Yet, in spite of the substantial economic returns to decentralization and delegation, many American managers resist such practices in favor of traditional command-and-control approaches to managing people.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Many of us learn the need to be liked by everyone early in our lives — it’s something to get over if you are going to negotiate a path to power.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Power / Authority

Jeffrey Pfeffer discusses the difference between treating certain career building activities as tasks versus skills.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: BNET | Subjects: Career, Personal Development

[Chip Conley believes that] for most people, networking, building social relationships with strangers at, for instance, events and functions, was seen as a task. That mindset held true for many of the other actions required to build power–they were tasks. Tasks, he said, are things like taking out the garbage. You don’t try to develop your “skill” at taking out the garbage, you don’t think … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Chip Conley, Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: BNET | Subject: Best Practices

Although we might wish that the rules for attaining power were different, or different for women, they aren’t. There’s no question that women are as qualified as men to hold positions of power. I would argue that we need them to do so. The question is: when will they step up to the pursuit of power, vigorously and strategically?

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Women in Business

Jeffrey Pfeffer serves on a compensation committee and discovers first hand why the pay process is so dysfunctional.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: BNET | Subject: Corporate Governance

Markets can and do allocate resources efficiently, of course. But only under appropriate conditions—when there is lots of competition and information, for instance, and when people can make individually rational choices. Many market-solutions-for-everything advocates seem to have overlooked the point that such conditions don’t always exist.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Economics

There are two things to say about downsizing: It seldom works and is often done incorrectly.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

New leaders want to put their stamp on an organization — but it’s often better for their egos than for their companies. Change for its own sake causes cynicism and resistance among the rank and file. And all too frequently, it’s harmful or worse for organizational performance.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: BNET | Subjects: Change Management, Management, Organizational Behavior

Achieving competitive success through people involves fundamentally altering how we think about the workforce and the employment relationship. It means achieving success by working with people, not by replacing them or limiting the scope of their activities. It entails seeing the workforce as a source of strategic advantage, not just as a cost to be minimized or avoided. Firms that take this different perspective are … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Academy of Management Executive | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

If companies genuinely want to move from knowing to doing, they need to build a forgiveness framework – a tolerance for error and failure — into their culture. A company that wants you to come up with a smart idea, implement that idea quickly, and learn in the process has to be willing to cut you some slack.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Innovation, Management, Organizational Behavior, Success / Failure

Leaders have far less control over organizations than people believe, but they can be more effective if they understand leadership myths and use them to their institutions’ advantage.

Content: Article | Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Think you’re a great leader? Try doing the work of those you lead.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Subjects: Best Practices, Management

A key challenge for today’s companies – and for the individuals within them – is to build a culture of action, says Jeffrey Pfeffer. He describes some of the common obstacles that can get in the way of knowing what needs to be done, and actually doing it.

Editor’s Note: this is one article of the entire Fall 2003 issue in this .pdf file – find … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Rotman Magazine | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The best organizations have the best talent…Financial incentives drive company performance…Firms must change or die. Popular axioms like these drive business decisions every day. Yet too much common management “wisdom” isn’t wise at all but, instead, flawed knowledge based on “best practices” that are actually poor, incomplete, or outright obsolete. Worse, legions of managers use this dubious knowledge to make decisions that are hazardous to … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Robert I. Sutton | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior