3590 Posts Found

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

A world with outsiders and insiders implies some kind of test for distinguishing between them. And the trouble with most tests for selecting elites is that there are two ways to pass them: to be good at what they try to measure, and to be good at hacking the test itself.

So the first question to ask about a field is how honest its tests are, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Organizational Behavior

The eminent feel like everyone wants to take a bite out of them. The problem is so widespread that people pretending to be eminent do it by pretending to be overstretched. The lives of the eminent become scheduled, and that’s not good for thinking. One of the great advantages of being an outsider is long, uninterrupted blocks of time.

Content: Quotation | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Success / Failure

According to Henry Mintzberg, an organization’s structure is largely determined by the variety one finds in its environment. For Mintzberg, environmental variety is determined by both environmental complexity and the pace of change. He identifies four types of organizational form, which are associated with four combinations of complexity and change.

Content: Article | Author: Fred Beshears | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

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

We attempt to treat everyone fairly, but treating people fairly is not the same as treating them equally. People are not equal. And I think people don’t want to be equal for many reasons. Most people want to be individuals; they want to excel at something. And the definition of excelling means, “I’m going to prove just how unequal I am.” I don’t think there’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Babson Insight | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

If you can put a box around each person, their role and their relationships – if you can actually draw a diagram with boxes and arrows – that’s a far more simplistic model than a company full of very passionate, very creative people all bringing their backgrounds, experiences and visions to a project, and having them all rowing the boat in the same direction.

Content: Quotation | Source: Babson Insight | Subject: Organizational Behavior

You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.

Content: Quotation | Source: Help Desk Institute Austin | Subject: Trust

The evidence of women’s success in the corporate world is plentiful. But two professors from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis wondered whether women’s evident prowess in business is something that most people generally recognize when making investment decisions. Their conclusion: perceptions of female business leaders aren’t keeping up with reality.

Content: Article | Authors: Judi McLean Parks, Lyda Bigelow | Source: Discovery@Olin | Subject: Women in Business

Organizations are effective to the extent that they attempt to satisfy the interests of participating individuals. It is only when persons feel that their own interests are protected by some equitable distribution principle that they may value the overall attainment of a collective outcome or goal.

Content: Quotation | Source: Graziadio Business Report | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Resistance to change is one of the most powerful drivers of human behavior, and the key to dealing with it effectively is to understand both its physical and emotional components.

Content: Article | Author: Anne Riches | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

Of all the people you work with, who would you least like to be stranded alone with on a desert island? While your worst nightmare is an unlikely scenario, problem people are permanent workplace fixtures, leaving you nowhere to run. Learning some emotional survival skills can help ease the pain of close encounters you can’t avoid.

Content: Article | Author: Carol Orsag Madigan | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

There is no surer way of putting problems across than to present them in a form as close as possible to that in which they actually occur, and the greater vividness and realism thereby secured will stimulate the ensuing thinking and discussion.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Decision Making, Problems / Solutions

Most organizations are not structured with the intent of allowing people to develop themselves and to find satisfaction and fulfillment in their work. They are designed for the convenience of the managers or they’re designed for the convenience of the customer in some cases; but too few of them take into account the really basic needs of the workers. And workers have psychological needs, they … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Since organizations get the behaviors they reward, organizations that wish to perform well and change effectively need to create systems that reward both performance and change. This sounds simple, but it is not easy to do. It is also not what most organizations do. All too often, they reward stability more than change, seniority more than performance and job size more than skill development.

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

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

Employee engagement has three related components: a cognitive, an emotional, and a behavioral aspect. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement concerns employees’ beliefs about the organization, its leaders, and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organization and its leaders. The behavioral aspect of employee engagement is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Emotional Intelligence (El) has been embraced by many practitioners and academicians without clear empirical support for the construct. This paper highlights the importance of using methodologically defensible scientific criteria for conducting or evaluating research. It reviews literature demonstrating that El models are beset with problems concerning their validity and show that support for the El construct may be based more on tangential speculation than on … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: John Antonakis | Source: University of Lausanne | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

It is not the job of a CEO to make employees listen to what you have to say; it is about setting up the system so that people want to listen. The combination of the right environment and a culture that creates wants instead of requirements places few limits on what employees can achieve.

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’

Content: Quotation | Source: USTelecom dailyLead | Subjects: Communication, Leadership, People, Personal Development