3590 Posts Found

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

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

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

“When I am asked for material to read on managing paradigmatic change, I respond with a very unlikely source: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by the late Thomas Kuhn. This book is a staple at the doctoral level in business schools, but it rarely appears on airport bookshelves, and it is not about business at all.

This book grew out of Kuhn’s research on the history … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Thomas S. Kuhn | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

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

Unethical practices such as bribery and kickbacks are business as usual in some countries, and U.S. companies are sometimes tempted to adopt a “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” mind-set. That attitude is dangerous in light of tightening laws against corruption at home and abroad. Finance executives should review their exposure and take steps to protect their company.

Content: Article | Author: Fay Hansen | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Ethics, Legal

This exercise presents you with 15 situations that you might well experience (depending upon the nature and level of your job) in everyday working life. Management students of Professor Burke Pease at California State University, Monterey Bay have kindly helped with the 15 situations and alternative answers. All created on the basis of real life.

The objective of the exercise is to enable you to think … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Burke Pease | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Ethics

Jensen’s 1986 Free Cash flow paper showed that too much cash is bad. Now he shows that a stock price can be too high. Why? “A stock price that is overvalued is caused when investors have overly optimistic expectations. Thus, if the investors were to learn the truth, the stock price would fall. This creates an incentive to hide information from investors. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Michael C. Jensen | Source: Social Science Research Network (SSRN) | Subjects: Ethics, Finance

To avoid long-term failure while focusing on short-term success, business professors Tushman and O’Reilly present their views on the “ambidextrous organization.” This is defined as having internally consistent structures and an internal operating culture that provides for excelling today while also planning for the future. This paradoxical state of dealing with incremental changes in the here and now while at the same time emphasizing the … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: Charles O’Reilly, Michael Tushman | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

A venture capitalist is happy if two out of every 10 tries work. Everyone gets rewarded-even those who made the eight investments that failed. But big companies are unhappy if two of 10 tries fail. Those involved in the failures are demoted or sidelined when it comes to promotions. That means big companies focus on small, low-risk, incremental improvements and miss the big, but risky, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Risk Management

For as long as there have been large companies there have been smaller ones that have succeeded in knocking off their larger foes using innovative ideas. Can large companies create a systematic and sustainable approach to innovation? After studying companies like GE, Texas Instrument and IBM, Dean Mark Rice answers: “Yes, through commitment, clarity of focus, a dedicated organizational structure, portfolio management methods, and building … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Mark P. Rice | Source: Babson Insight | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

The Harvard University Library Open Collections Program mines Harvard’s large number of libraries to create digital collections of primary historical materials for use by teachers, students, and researchers. Women Working is OCP’s first project, a searchable archive of materials to be drawn ultimately from 2,200 books, 1,000 photographs, and 10,000 pages of manuscript collections. The site can be searched by keyword or browsed by topic. … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subjects: History, Women in Business

Processes don’t do work, people do. Look closely at the inner workings of any company and you’ll discover gaps between official work processes — the “ideal” flows of tasks and procedures – and the real-world practices behind how things actually get done. These gaps are not problems that need fixing; they’re opportunities that deserve leveraging…We’re not arguing against business processes per se. The challenge is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Process

“Say you’ve just been appointed the CKO – Chief Knowledge Officer – of your organization. You are responsible for managing the company’s knowledge capital, including how it is created, maintained, and used. You understand the principles of learning organizations and believe that effective learning is the pathway to accelerated performance improvement. Now you need to know what the pathway looks like and how you can … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Nils H. Bohlin, Paul Brenner | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Knowledge Management, Organizational Behavior

What does it really mean to be good with people? This Harvard Business Review excerpt examines the “relational” aspect of business.

Content: Article | Authors: James Waldroop, Timothy Butler | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

…if you pit a good performer against a bad system, the system will win almost every time.

Content: Quotation | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Increasingly, the top team is essential to the success of the enterprise. Research shows that merely bringing in a new chief executive officer to reshape an organization has mixed results. In reality, long-term success depends on the whole leadership team, for it has a broader and deeper reach into the organization than the CEO does and its performance has a multiplier effect-a poorly performing team … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Colin Price, Erika Herb, Keith Leslie | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

CEOs get it: Diverse work forces make for better companies. The question is, how do you get there?

Content: Article | Author: Jennifer Pellet | Source: Chief Executive | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

In the pressure to produce more with less, every manager explores a variety of fixes. Among the first of these is that often-used, complex, and heart-wrenching solution – the structural reorganization. Because aspects of the business are not right – profit is off, customer complaints are increasing, performance is below standard, employee morale is low, or simply that “something” is wrong – managers decide … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Danny G. Langdon, Kathleen Whiteside | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior