3605 Posts Found

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

Content: Quotation | Source: 43 Folders | Subjects: Communication, Leadership, Management, Training & Development

If executives are to create and use a vision effectively, they must develop a precise understanding of what this involves. In other words, they need a clear vision of vision. This Models & Methods article conveys a few of the major definitions and models of corporate visions. These agree on the basics, according to which a good vision defines what we stand for (values) and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: ManyWorlds | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

So far, the single most important discovery in happiness research is the idea of hedonic adaptation. Put simply, we take things for granted after a while. Experiences are so much harder to get used to because they are unique events. When you buy a car, for a few months you cherish it, but within a year you’re totally used to it.

The more you can do … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Personality / Behavior

Teams rarely manage to improve their performance wholly outside their active working environment, so short-term workshops, no matter how attractive the setting or how heart-felt and candid the members’ exchanges may be, aren’t likely to change their mode of working. Structured self-discovery and reflection must be combined with decision making and action in the real world; the constant interplay among these elements over time is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Teamwork

When it comes to ethics in business, many accept that standards can not only be different from, but even lower than, ethics in everyday life. That should definitely not be so, argues this author. In fact, he says, a corporation’s obligations to its stakeholders bind it to those stakeholders, in turn creating new and specific moral obligations.

Content: Article | Author: Robert Phillips | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Ethics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

There’s a latent productivity in people; they’re just waiting for someone to remind them of their capacity.

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Productivity / Work Tips

The failure of many transformation efforts is caused not so much by people’s resistance to change or by the details of “implementation” as by a deficient understanding of the interplay between organization and behavior.

Content: Article | Author: Yves Morieux | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

Successful people tend to have a high need for self-determination. In other words, the more leaders commit to coaching and behavioral change because they believe in the value of the process, the more likely the process is to work. The more they feel that the change is being imposed upon them–or that they are just trying it out–the less likely the coaching process is to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

Managers often confuse two terms that appear to be synonymous but are actually quite different: simple and easy. We want to believe that once we understand a simple concept, it will be easy to execute a plan and achieve results. If this were true, everyone who understood that they should eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly would be in shape. Our challenge for getting … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

That the terrain of decision making is mined with moral hazards has never been much in doubt. But the real question for executives is this: Just how can you make your conscience your guide? This author has suggestions and strong advice that, when taken, can help restore public confidence in business leaders.

Editor’s Note: discusses the author’s concept of teleopathy…

Content: Article | Author: Kenneth E. Goodpaster | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

Gender is not a good predictor of negotiation performance, but ambiguous situations can trigger different behaviors by men and women. Here is how to neutralize the differences and reduce inequities.

Content: Article | Authors: Dina W. Pradel, Hannah Riley Bowles, Kathleen L. McGinn | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Negotiation, Women in Business

The logic behind the use of options as managerial incentive is flawed once you consider what behaviors are actually rewarded. Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s business school and one of the co-founders of the strategy consulting firm Monitor, noted the problems of mixing the measuring and rewarding of performance in an expectations market – the stock market – with the measuring and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Compensation, Organizational Behavior

Corporate culture is the core of organization behavior. This paper will focus on how W. L. Gore’s two key principles of making money and having fun help to develop committed individuals and teams and how the organization translates core values into individual and enterprise behaviors. Additionally, the paper will focus on how Gore aligns underlying assumptions, core values and organization behaviors to create the environment … [ Read more ]

Content: Case Study | Authors: Bruce Arnold, Gail Sacconey Townsend | Source: OD Network 2005 Annual Conference | Subject: Organizational Behavior | Company: W. L. Gore & Associates Inc.

Strategy and structure are fundamentally about attention. After all, in the world of everyday decision-making, what are strategy and structure? Both strategy and structure are mental constructs, important not in themselves, but for their impact on the people in the organization. There is no absolute reality of a firm’s strategy or its structure, or at least not one that we can all agree on. Rather, … [ Read more ]

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

Organizational structure is the plan for, and the reality of, how power and responsibility are distributed across an organization. We humans are social animals. So, inside our groups, we focus on hierarchy; outside, we focus on the identifiable groups or individuals who represent opportunity or threat. Thus, organizational structure is a powerful vehicle for focusing employees’ and external stakeholders’ attention on a particular aspect of … [ Read more ]

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

I don’t know whether to call it hypocritical or a crime or simply being blind, but the one thing I’m certain of is that the developed countries must open up their markets. It makes no logical sense to try and help developing countries develop their productive capacity and then deny them access to markets. It makes no sense to spend $300 billion a year on … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Economics, Politics

Moral purpose is especially powerful when it prompts leaders to take radical steps that others would not take, and thus change the basis of competition in their industries. That is why moral purpose is a critical, if often unseen, element of strategic breakthroughs. A moral purpose can give a company the collective courage and persistence to strike out from the pack.

A moral purpose’s effectiveness depends … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Nikos Mourkogiannis | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy

Don’t cross the line between enough and too much accountability. To what degree are we able to be accountable? Don’t have people accountable for things not under their control or purview as this comes across as unfair. Our managers ask for the impossible and we complain – that’s normal but not optimal. Measure the right things and draw the line between enough and too much … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: 800-CEO-READ (8CR), ChangeThis | Subjects: Accountability, Management

What makes people great at small talk? However quickly they can transcend the meaningless chitchat about the weather and what company they work for and engage their conversation partners in discussions about stuff that really matters – like their favorite hobbies, their troublesome teenage children, their frustrations at work, their family relationships that really put a strain on them. Only when you talk with someone … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: 800-CEO-READ (8CR), ChangeThis | Subjects: Communication, Personal Development

The higher up the corporate ladder an executive climbs, the more important it becomes for that individual to operate effectively and to do so reliably. Organizational effectiveness involves more than the sum of the effectiveness of individuals, but must be built on top of this foundation. Self-improvement books have been an American tradition for decades, but one of the most popular and enduring is Stephen … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: ManyWorlds | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personal Development