3590 Posts Found

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible but for what we do not do.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Accountability, Leadership

In thinking of the mind as a set of cognitive capacities, it helps to distinguish the ethical mind from the other four minds that we particularly need to cultivate if we are to thrive as individuals, as a community, and as the human race. The first of these, the disciplined mind, is what we gain through applying ourselves in a disciplined way in school. Over … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Ethics, Personality / Behavior

It’s important to clarify the distinction between the respectful and the ethical mind, because we assume that one who is respectful is ethical and vice versa. I think you can be respectful without understanding why. But ethical conceptions and behaviors demand a certain capacity to go beyond your own experience as an individual person.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Ethics

Andrew Cassel discusses the research of Alan Fiske, a professor of anthropology at UCLA, who has studied communities all over the world. Fiske concludes that just as every human language is composed of the same grammatical elements (subjects, verbs, etc.), all relationships are built from exactly four kinds of interactions: communal sharing, equality matching, authority ranking and market pricing. [Hat tip to Brad Feld)

Editor’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Andrew Cassel | Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

People are very open-minded about new things – as long as they’re exactly like the old ones.

Content: Quotation | Source: Unknown | Subjects: Change Management, Personality / Behavior

Logic is a system whereby one may go wrong with confidence.

Content: Quotation | Source: Unknown | Subject: Decision Making

Effective executives strive to manage their firms using sound management practices. However, there are managers who may mean well, but whose styles are anxious and idiosyncratic. Their neurotic styles tend to undermine and obliterate the effectiveness of their organizations and people and lead to reckless results.

Content: Article | Author: Kurt Motamedi, Ph.D. | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Most executives concede that culture can do a great deal to enable (or disable) an organization’s ability to change or to embrace new ideas and technologies. But when asked what can be done to enhance a culture’s positive effects (or diminish negative effects), they either shrug or offer a complicated explanation ending with the caveat that “it takes a long time.” But culture doesn’t have … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Chi T. Pham | Source: Accenture | Subject: Organizational Behavior

I have found that language is a great window into culture. Most expatriates aren’t in a country long enough to become fluent, but it’s certainly worthwhile to make an effort to learn the language. It becomes a way to understand a country’s customs and gain some insight into how things work.

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Culture, International

In his book, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki turned conventional wisdom upside down when he showed that the average opinion of a crowd is frequently more accurate than the opinions of most of its individual members. In this article, in addition to pointing out the strengths and weaknesses in that book, Scott Armstrong considers whether or not traditional face-to-face meetings are an effective way … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: J. Scott Armstrong | Source: Foresight | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Women have three basic things that help them cope with stress. First is collaboration–working as a team. Second, harmony–working together in cooperation. Third, communication–sharing so that everyone knows what’s going on inside everyone else. These processes actually cause women’s bodies to produce a hormone, which is their best way to deal with stress. The best stress-protection mechanism for men is testosterone. It makes them feel … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: MBA Jungle | Subjects: Personality / Behavior, Women in Business

After months of drafting vision statements and rearranging organizational boxes, many companies have bogged down in the muddy terrain that separates theory from implementation, change on paper from change in reality. What went wrong? In their eagerness to unlock the creativity of the worker, some companies neglected a most valuable and necessary player in any change process – the middle manager.

Editor’s Note: written in early … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeanie Duck | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Futureorg is a site with the goal of providing a coherent and innovative line of thinking that provides direction for the future of organizational development. The organizers want to develop this line of thinking in a book based on input by MBA students and researchers from around the world. If you have an interest in OB/OD and want to contribute, visit the site.

Content: Online Resource | Source: Futureorg.org | Subject: Organizational Behavior

What passes for a conversation in most organizations is not a conversation about facts, but a conversation about competing interpretations of the facts masquerading as a conversation about facts. So, here it is the job of a leader to encourage people to make the distinction between their observations and their interpretations of their observations.

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

The data that we observe, whether personally or organizationally, is selected, filtered, and interpreted through our assumptions and beliefs. To a great degree we “see what we believe” and are unable to perceive data that lies outside our existing mental models. Our current way of thinking, whether it be personal or collective, governs our perception of reality and thus holds great influence in our ability … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Personality / Behavior, Thought

We tend to underestimate the cultural dimension of managerial processes, techniques and tools…Just because something is best practice in one country does not make it necessarily transferable to another. This can be impossible when such practice is the product of the western culture, values and relationships embedded within an organization, and is significantly different from those emerging in China. Best practice and the management techniques … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Emerald Now | Subjects: Culture, International

Effective communication demands the recognition that individuals organize information in different ways. The first step to communicating effectively is to become aware of the way we take in and process information. As you become more aware of what goes on in your mind and in the minds of the people with whom you communicate, you’ll be able to make better use of their skills. Having … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Chief Learning Officer | Subject: Communication

The really tough choices . . . don’t center upon right versus wrong. They involve right versus right. They are genuine dilemmas precisely because each side is firmly rooted in one of our basic, core values. Four such dilemmas are so common to our experience that they stand as models, patterns, or paradigms. They are:
– Truth versus loyalty
– Individual versus community
– Short-term … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: DQI, Leadership and Decision Making | Subjects: Decision Making, Leadership

Interpersonal Deception Theory (“IDT”) attempts to explain the manner in which individuals while engaged in face-to-face communication deal with, on the conscious and subconscious levels, actual or perceived deception. IDT proposes that the majority of individuals overestimate their ability to detect deception. This paper examines the theory and offers 10 suggestions for dealing with deception in negotiations.

Content: Article | Author: James Hearn | Source: Mediate.com | Subjects: Negotiation, Organizational Behavior

The value-adding task of filling the gap between work prescriptions and actual situations creates stress. Without recognition, stress becomes distress, and people stop investing the intelligence and energy that make the whole difference in quality. Only recognition can make doubt, anxiety, and fear meaningful – “My pain was not in vain” – and help reorient stress toward the positive building of one’s working identity. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior