3605 Posts Found

There truly is a world of difference between organizations that view their challenge as better managing complexity and those that want to better manage simplicity. The design sensibilities – and their implications – are profoundly different.

The sociology of complexity is every bit as important as the technology of complexity. The problem, as everyone who’s tried to do it well knows, is that it’s very … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Turning complex issues and opportunities into effectively simple – as opposed to simplistic or easy – constructs is truly the managerial art form of this new millennium. Instead of seeking “best” or “optimal” solutions to managerial problems, organizations and the people who run them have to become more creative about how they manage clarity and simplicity. Spending an extra two or three weeks on making … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Change Management, Communication

Successful companies are creating high-performance IT organizations in part by changing what people do. And they are not only seeing compelling short-term results. These companies also are laying the groundwork for long-term success by creating IT organizations that are inherently agile-learning, growing and changing as the business evolves.

Content: Article | Authors: Stephen D. Page, Susan R. Pearson | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Organizational Behavior

How do you go from developing great ideas about ethics and what they mean, to an organization that actually lives those values? This article lays out general principles for how to do that.

Content: Article | Author: Bruce A. Hamm | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Ethics

Is that ticking you hear a clock or a time-bomb? Employees who abuse time will sap a business’s morale and operations. Problem is, these can also be your best employees.

Content: Article | Author: Steven Berglas | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Please accept the fact that the human race is split three ways: some people can take in information by looking at figures, some by looking at graphs, and a third group only by touching it, feeling it, or writing it.

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

Men involved in technical innovation in a corporation confront a situation in which the need for action is clear but the action itself is not…. So long as this situation exists, the corporation cannot function effectively, because it is not designed for uncertainty – a situation in which there are no clear objectives to reach, no measures of accomplishment, and no proper concept of control. … [ Read more ]

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

“For six years, my research team at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business carried out an extensive investigation of business breakdowns—not just missteps, but major business failures…At almost every one of the 51 companies we investigated, we were able to interview people who could give us firsthand accounts of what happened. In all we conducted 197 interviews of CEOs, former CEOs, other top executives, and midlevel … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Sydney Finkelstein | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The team at the top may be the most difficult to manage and lead. Rivalries, strong personalities and different notions of the future make it a tough job indeed. But if the teams are structured right, they can be of immense value to the company.

Content: Article | Author: David A. Nadler | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Organizational Behavior

New case studies in Denmark highlight the value which is lost when managers fail to tackle the human challenge of the corporate intranet.

Content: Article | Author: Jens Gammelgaard | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Knowledge Management, Organizational Behavior

Dr. Michael Leiter, director of the Centre for Organizational Research and Development (COR&D) at Acadia University, says that there are things that management can do to help reduce stress in the workplace. He identifies six areas of worklife that need to be in balance in order to help avoid workplace stress and build engagement with work: workload, sense of community, control, reward, values and fairness. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Laura Churchill | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Show me a [person] who is afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a [person] you can beat every time.

Content: Quotation | Source: FinanceProfessor.com | Subjects: Competition, Personality / Behavior

A few decades ago, our lives were centered in places. We had the most in common with our village or city neighbors, with the people geographically closest to us. Place formed our connections to the social groups that mattered most: our tribes, churches, jobs, and schools. The defining politics — and so, defining values — were those rooted in physical communities.

Today, place has lost relevance … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Culture, Trends / Analysis

Empowerment is one of the buzzwords of the ’90s. Yet most organizational empowerment efforts fall short of making any substantive impact. Why? We believe alignment is the key. Empowerment without alignment is dysfunctional. It doesn’t help. In fact, it often exacerbates existing conflicts and counterproductive behaviors. Well-intentioned, committed people make escalating errors and become progressively more frustrated and disenfranchised. And then the leadership responds by … [ Read more ]

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

From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more successful in whatever they set out to do – whether it’s win tennis games, ace their exams or become CEO of their company. But goal-setting also has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bambi Douma, Lisa Ordonez, Maurice Schweitzer | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subject: Ethics

While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.” To support this almost counterintuitive proposition, Surowiecki explores problems involving cognition (we’re all trying to identify a correct answer), coordination (we need to synchronize our individual activities … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: James Surowiecki | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

If you look at a lot of the fraud cases, before fraud there was terminal incompetence. When we teach the governance and ethics course [at HBS], the point I make is that you can have great values, but if you don’t have the competence [to implement them], forget it. You need both character and competence. If you don’t have the competence, you’re going to get … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Competence, Ethics

Why do so many smokers keep smoking, despite decades of health warnings? Why do Harley Davidson motorcycles and Ralph Lauren clothing engender such loyalty among very specific types of people? Why do teens and parents always seem to fight, and never seem to hear what the other is saying? Wharton marketing professors Lisa Bolton and Americus Reed have found through their research that judgments linked … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Americus Reed, Lisa Bolton | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Organizational Behavior

The serious pursuit of knowledge in organizations will be challenged by an anti-intellectual orientation in the United States that has been present since the days of the frontier.

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Culture, Knowledge

Individuals become members of the executive team through a multiyear process of selection. While it is dangerous to generalize, those selected for executive teams in the companies we have observed tend to be high achievers and aggressive seekers of power. They also have histories of distinguishing themselves through individual achievement, rather than for their work with or through teams. Thus, in many United States-based companies, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork