1405 Posts Found

One of the biggest challenges for A players is their inability to set boundaries for themselves. Ordinary people usually know how to step back from situations where vague requests make them uncomfortable; but insecure overachievers typically exceed expectations because they are prepared to operate outside their comfort zones in their efforts to win recognition.

Content: Quotation | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Sales force deployment and compensation are among the most powerful means a company has to improve growth, market share, and profitability. Yet few companies take the time to align their payout systems with current strategy. That often translates into misallocation of resources in pursuit of the wrong selling mission. The author demonstrates the consequences of not aligning sales force compensation with strategy. He then explains … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Paul Gordon | Source: “Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” | Subjects: Human Resources, Marketing / Sales

Every HR professional faces the inevitable need to terminate an employee. It is essential to have a plan in place and follow very specific guidelines about the incidents leading up to the termination and the actual termination meeting. In this article, MedZilla asks the experts to provide important tips on best termination practices that help employers avoid lawsuits and other negative consequences.

Content: Article | Source: “MedZilla” | Subject: Human Resources

In this article, the author describes her reaction to presentations that HR directors made to boards on which she sits. “I found the performance of HR professionals embarrassing,” she writes. More astonishing, she continues, was the fact that board members didn’t ask the key HR people to explain and quantify HR’s contribution to the company’s strategy. In outlining a model she has developed, the author … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Monica Belcourt | Source: “Ivey Business Journal” | Subject: Human Resources

Lord Acton said we should judge talent at its best and character at its worst. For example, if you write one great book and ten bad ones, you still count as a great writer, or at least, a better writer than someone who wrote eleven that were merely good. Whereas if you’re a quiet, law-abiding citizen most of the time but occasionally cut someone up … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “ChangeThis” | Subjects: Human Resources, Personality / Behavior

It is a truism that firms can increase their profitability by motivating managers. However, research surprisingly reveals that increased pay and lower risk aversion are not necessarily motivating factors. So what are the major motivational drivers within organisations, and how can Human Resources identify and use them? In their working paper, “Managerial Motivation Dynamics and Incentives,” Ayse Kocabiyikoglu and Ioana Popescu investigate the drivers of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Ayse Kocabiyikoglu, Ioana Popescu | Source: “INSEAD Knowledge” | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Classifying employees by their role in the success of your business rather than by their function can improve the effectiveness of recruiting, staff development, and deployment.

Content: Article | Authors: Dominique Turcq, Jeffrey Joerres | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

Diagnosing motivation accurately is one of the easiest management tasks to do poorly and one of the most difficult to do well. Most managers have lots of experience at diagnosing another’s wants, but though the admission comes hard, most are just not very accurate when trying to figure out what another person wants and will do.

Content: Quotation | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Management, Motivation

Vendors often try to change what the buyer wants or which class of benefits he or she responds to most strongly. My view of motivation suggests that such an approach is almost always unsuccessful. Selling strategy needs to work with the buyer’s motivations, not around them.

Content: Quotation | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Motivation

Future leaders will define diversity management as “making quality decisions in the midst of differences, similarities, and tensions.” This definition will allow them to deal with all kinds of discussions involving differences, similarities, and tensions and to see themselves as engaged in diversity management.

Leaders cannot help becoming aware of the craft’s ability to assist in unraveling and creatively conceptualizing complex situations. As a result, they … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Leader to Leader” | Subjects: Diversity, Management

Paying the person rather than the job has its most significant impact on organizational culture and employees’ motivation to change. Instead of being rewarded for moving up the hierarchy, people are rewarded for increasing their skills and developing themselves. This can reinforce a culture in which personal development and a highly talented workforce are receptive to change. It can be especially helpful when an organization … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Ivey Business Journal” | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Finding the Best and Brightest proposes an approach to choosing leaders based on a set of criteria designed to align individual qualities with organizational or institutional goals. Peg Thoms challenges the popular trend in theory and practice toward “transformational” or “visionary” leadership, arguing instead that leadership must be developed in context; many organizations, for example, don’t need visionaries as much as they need “operational” leaders, … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Peg Thoms | Subjects: Human Resources, Leadership

Companies that understand the value of talented people in generating brands, reputations, and other intangibles often spend considerable time recruiting such workers but drop the ball in providing them with opportunities to develop and grow.

Content: Article | Authors: Claudia Joyce, Leigh M. Weiss, Lowell Bryan | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subject: Human Resources

A Gallup survey reveals what workplace diversity really means to employees, managers, and the balance sheet.

Content: Article | Author: David C. Wilson | Source: “Gallup Management Journal” | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

In the first preliminary analysis of data on 100 firms collected by the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies (SPEC), researchers James Baron, Diane Burton, and Michael Hannan identify four distinct models of how young firms approach human resource issues. They call these models star, engineering, commitment, and factory and they can have a significant impact on a firm’s future.

Editor’s Note: this is an … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Cathy Castillo | Source: “Stanford University” | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Firing an employee can be painful, emotional and, if done incorrectly, costly. Following some basic procedures and acting as a corporate humanitarian rather than a corporate assassin can help you avoid the agony of a legal battle.

Content: Article | Author: Carol Orsag Madigan | Source: “Business Finance Magazine” | Subjects: Human Resources, Legal

Education for adults is basically experience understood in tranquility. In other words, you have the experience and then you can go away to a place of tranquility like a school or a course and reflect with the help of people who give you some concepts on what you’ve learnt or what you’ve experienced. Then you go off and do it hopefully better next time. And … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Ivey Business Journal” | Subjects: Education, Training & Development

Although companies have begun to use standard assessment tools to help select employees, most are unwilling to invest in technology that requires them to alter their existing recruiting process. This article suggests that the easiest way to leverage the benefits of these tools without requiring major changes is to upgrade the interview process. [BNET Annotation]

Content: Article | Author: Charles Handler | Source: “Electronic Recruiting Exchange” | Subject: Human Resources

In most organizations, interviews are the most important selection tool used to make hiring decisions. Companies who rely heavily on the interview often miss out on hiring the best person for the job because they don’t realize that unstructured interviews and some types of structured interviews (behavioral interviews, competency interviews, etc.) can be problematic and out of date. It’s important to understand the weaknesses of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Stephen Jackson | Source: “HR Strategy” | Subject: Human Resources

The 360-degree feedback tool was originally used to determine professional development needs, but quickly gained popularity as a performance appraisal tool. The 360-degree review aims to provide employees with feedback on their performance from those above, below, and at the same level in the company. With managerial support, employees are expected to analyze the feedback to identify their strengths and weaknesses and then develop a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: “ManyWorlds” | Subjects: Human Resources, Management