3605 Posts Found

The frames people use to view the world and process experiences can make a critical difference to professional outcomes. Many studies suggest that optimists see life more realistically than pessimists do, a frame of mind that can be crucial to making the right business decisions. …Optimists, research shows, are not afraid to frame the world as it actually is—they are confident that they can manage … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Joanna Barsh, Rebecca A. Craske, Susie Cranston | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

A number of studies have shown that women who promote their own interests vigorously are seen as aggressive, uncooperative, and selfish. An equal number of studies show that the failure of women to promote their own interests results in a lack of female leaders. Until one of these conditions changes, sponsors, we believe, are the key to helping women gain access to opportunities they merit … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Joanna Barsh, Rebecca A. Craske, Susie Cranston | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Women in Business

The quick, invisible shift from information overload to information assault has created, almost ironically, at least one, significant deficit: In every organization today, attention is a scarce resource. That scarcity has serious implications for leaders, managers and front-line staff. Reflecting on our own experience may be the best indication of how serious this problem is for any business. Do you know anyone who isn’t becoming … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: John C. Beck, Thomas H. Davenport | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

Content: Quotation | Author: Robert Louis Stevenson | Subject: Communication

Continually ask yourself: ‘Why the hell should anyone want to read what I am writing?’ If you can’t give at least three good reasons, stop writing and start thinking. Otherwise, you will be wasting everyone’s time – principally your own.

Content: Quotation | Author: Philip Yaffe | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Communication

Every person who works for an organization wants the answer to two questions. First, What is it that you expect of me? Second, How am I doing at meeting your expectations?

Content: Quotation | Author: Dick Grote | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

A committee is a group of men who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide that nothing can be done.

Content: Quotation | Author: Fred Allen | Source: The Conference Board Review | Subjects: Bureaucracy, Decision Making

In a world where trust is more perishable than ever—where one negative experience can color a buyer’s perceptions forever—businesses must figure out how to effectively capitalize on the trust they have built while at the same time protecting their hard-won reputations. They must also learn how to harness the democratization of information—particularly the Web-based input and unfiltered opinions of self-anointed “experts” and dissatisfied customers—to help … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Karen Crennan, Marcia A. Halfin, Paul F. Nunes | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Reputation, Trust

Companies should not presume to treat all employees—or customers, for that matter—in a single country as having the same culture or national identity, even in developed nations. Many of today’s employees have spent long periods of time in more than one country, creating sustained connections that deeply affect spending and consumption (for example, continued remittances to family in home countries), social ties, gender roles and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Karen Crennan, Marcia A. Halfin, Paul F. Nunes | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Culture, International

The originator of multiple intelligence theory prescribes a code of ethics for business.

Content: Article | Authors: Howard E. Gardner, Lawrence M. Fisher | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, People

When companies evaluate strategic decisions, three conditions frequently create agency problems. One is the misalignment of time horizons between individuals and corporations. …Another problem that can generate harmful deceptions is the differing risk profiles of individuals and organizations. …The final agency issue arises from the likelihood that a subordinate knows much more than a superior does about a given issue. Higher-ranking executives must therefore make … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Dan P. Lovallo, Olivier Sibony | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

If we…create pictures [by] breaking down any problem and its corresponding picture into distinct “who,” “what,” “how much,” “where,” and “when” elements, we can convey the “how” and “why” to anyone in a way they will understand.

Content: Quotation | Author: Dan Roam | Source: Sun Microsystems | Subjects: Communication, Creativity

This article identifies the Trybaby Syndrome as a performance challenge and introduces a “Performance Influence-Importance Matrix” to help managers identify the differences between so-called Trybabies, Spinners, Pass-Timers, and Corperformers. Two real-world examples of trybabies, followed by five countermeasures, are offered to help guide managers, coaches, and employees in handling the performance challenge referred to as the Trybaby Syndrome.

Content: Article | Author: Charles D. Kerns, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Leaders have to achieve psychological independence to enable them to apply their talents to the work at hand. This independence frees the leader to expand on his or her talents and thereby become an object to allow subordinates to identify with and to cultivate and apply their own talents in the interests of meeting and even expanding on objectives.

Content: Quotation | Author: Abraham Zaleznik | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Leadership, Personality / Behavior

Venkat Rao talks about why existing models of talent management have been undermined to the point that they are completely unworkable today. Besides X and Y, there are no less than nine schools of thought that he’s been able to find. These theories drive actions in all aspects of talent management – acquisition, retention, turnover-management and development, and apply to managing people down, up or … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Venkatesh Rao | Source: ribbonfarm | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The test of a good story isn’t its respon­sibility to the facts as much as its ability to provide a satisfying explanation of events.

Content: Quotation | Author: Phil Rosenzweig | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Storytelling

A consistent leadership philosophy is the hardest thing to ensure in companies that turn over as frequently as Western companies do and that have such a short-term orientation toward their returns.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Liker | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

When a learning organization takes a leap forward — for example, when it makes a breakthrough internally or with a new product — its people then slow down to see what they can gain in understanding from what they’ve just done. The only companies that are going to be able to learn in that way are those with an organizational structure that stresses a continuity … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeffrey Liker | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Learning, Organizational Behavior

Most companies are operated in ways that downplay the importance of people. They have bureaucratic structures that optimize the value of financial capital, machinery, equipment, and natural resources, at the expense of talent development and the opportunity for people to use their skills. Work processes are designed with simplified, standardized jobs, and individuals are controlled through well-defined hierarchical reporting relationships, highly monitored bud­gets, and close … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Edward E. Lawler III | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, People

The frequently occurring challenges to innovation and new ventures in large corporations are:
1. the lack of vision at the executive level
2. the initial magnitude of the opportunity
3. the internal competition
4. the availability of resources
5. the isolation of the innovative function

Content: Article | Author: Roy Serpa | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior