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As functional effectiveness increases, the greatest opportunity for corporate performance improvement will come from cross-functional integration. Organizations worldwide are recognizing how departments that strive for their own optimal performance can combine to produce sub-optimal results for the business.

Interestingly enough, the focus of management improvement trends in this century follows a similar pattern, from task efficiency to functional excellence to cross-functional integration. The logical next step … [ Read more ]

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

“Oorganizational silence” is a potentially dangerous impediment to organizational learning and change. It can hamper the development of truly pluralistic organizations – ones that value and allow for the expression of multiple perspectives and opinions. But to date, there has been little systematic academic exploration of why “organizational silence” is pervasive, or of the consequences of widespread silence – even in an era in which … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Elizabeth Wolfe Morrison, Frances J. Milliken | Source: STERNbusiness (NYU) | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Cognitive biases and mental shortcuts can lead managers into costly errors of judgment.

Content: Article | Author: Edward Teach | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Organizational Behavior

We hew to laws against stealing because there is already cultural consensus that stealing is wrong, rooted in the fact that the thief deprives the good citizen of the stolen property. To copy an idea does no such thing; wrote Jefferson, “he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.” It does indeed deprive the original author of the ability to monopolize … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Darwin Magazine | Subjects: Ethics, Legal

Psychologists and managers may be surprised to discover that the origins of the world’s most widely used psychometric instrument lie in pre-modern systems of knowledge.

Editor’s Note: this article offers good insight and background on the four elements of astrology and how these along with alchemy played into Jung’s work.

Content: Article | Authors: Garry Phillipson, Peter Case | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Organizational Behavior

Implementing a sustainable corporate governance code needs to reflect workforce attitudes to corporate propriety. A snapshot of the UK employee population suggests there are major challenges ahead.

Content: Article | Author: Glen Peters | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Ethics

Like so many other management concepts…the value of the fact-founded approach depends on the degree and effectiveness of its use. My observations convince me that only the most successful companies really use facts adequately and with full effectiveness in developing strategic plans and making decisions. Too many executives get fixed attitudes on common issues, typifying the cliché, “My mind is made up-don’t bother me with … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The business with high ethical standards has three primary advantages over competitors whose standards are lower:
1 . A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence. When there is any doubt about what action to take, they can rely on the guidance of ethical principles. Inner administrative drive emanates largely … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Ethics, Organizational Behavior

The results of organizational planning are pictured in organizational charts, with their boxes and lines of authority. But organizational planning really deals with the actions, ambitions, emotions, and personal effectiveness of people. Whether or not the actions of individuals are effectively harnessed to achieve the purposes of the business depends largely, I believe, on how well the plan of organization is fashioned and how resolutely … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Many organizations have recently initiated competency programs. However, it is important to be current on what works and what doesn’t in the definition and use of competencies.

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

Organizational planning is concerned-in management jargon-with the duties, responsibilities, authority, relationships, and personal requirements of positions. This kind of planning harnesses and legitimizes power. It also helps to contain illegitimate power.

Even a perfect organizational plan won’t control all the imperfections of human nature. But a defective plan can be counted on to bring out the worst in people and to raise costly havoc in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

The founder and CEO of the premier consultancy dedicated to women’s marketing, Quinlan has personally interviewed 3,000 women — uncovering profound and enlightening truths that can’t be learned from traditional research.

Content: Article | Author: Mark Fortier | Source: CEO Refresher | Subjects: People, Women in Business

To be sure, an organizational plan is restrictive. In fact, all managing processes are restrictive, for their purpose is to guide people’s efforts toward effectively attaining the objectives of the group, and in a sense all guidance is restrictive. If people are to pull together rather than work at cross-purposes, some harness is needed-and better a planned harness than a tangled one. With a soundly … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

In a well-managed enterprise, it is understood that people who fail in a new job, especially after a promotion, may not be the ones to blame.

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

History teaches that to get lasting results from a change program, it is vital to begin with a vision of the future and create incentives that motivate people to achieve those ends.

Editor’s Note: focuses on the “Conflict of Visions” view of economist Thomas Sowell (Unconstrained vs. Constrained View)

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey W. Bennett | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

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While the notion that people learn differently is hardly new, it has been David A. Kolb, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Weatherhead School of Management, who has encapsulated the idea in recent years. Initially on his own and then working with Roger Fry, Kolb put forward a cycle of learning. This article, which serves as an introduction to theworkingmanager.com website offers a nice overview … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: The Dean | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Education, Organizational Behavior | Industry: Education / Training

Semler, the Brazil-based CEO of Semco, believes corporations and employees can become successful by bucking tradition and thinking wildly outside the box. He attempts to explain Semco’s success (a company with $212 million in annual revenue and “no official structure… no organizational chart… no business plan or company strategy”) and how its principles can be applied in other companies to make working environments more appealing … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Ricardo Semler | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy