3588 Posts Found

My own doctrine of organization is that any body of people coming together for a purpose (whatever it may be) should consist of persons wholly wedded to said purpose and should consist of nobody else. If the purpose be Cannibalism (preference for Ham a la Capitalism) then nobody but a Cannibal should be admitted. There should be plenty of discussion and disagreement as to how … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Benton MacKaye | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Does corporate purpose influence firm performance? More than two decades ago, the scholars Christopher A. Bartlett and Sumantra Ghoshal argued that purpose, not strategy, structure or systems, was the essential precursor to effective management. Since then, the public discourse on purpose has gone up substantially. And while there’s a growing body of research on related topics — from CSR to ESG — when it comes … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Claudine Gartenberg | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Best Practices, Management, Organizational Behavior

Unstructured meetings are a waste of time. Remember, time is your most precious resource as a manager — and wasted time harms yourself and your team.

Content: Quotation | Author: Karen Rhorer | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Productivity / Work Tips

Successful people are often particularly skilled at coming up with reasons for continuing workplace behaviors that in fact no longer serve them. In What Got You Here, Marshall [Goldsmith] showed how their resistance is often rooted in what he calls the success delusion—the belief that because you’ve been successful, not only do you not need to change, you probably should not change. Because if you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Marshall Goldsmith, Sally Helgesen | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Businesses looking to make an external social contribution should, paradoxically, look inside: improving workers’ job satisfaction could be the single most important thing they do.

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Schaninger, Tera Allas | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

There are upsides and downsides to making decisions in a group. The main risks include falling into groupthink or other biases that will distort the process and the ultimate outcome. But bringing more minds together to solve a problem has its advantages. To make use of those upsides and increase the chances your team will land on a successful solution, the authors recommend using seven … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Duncan Rooders, Torben Emmerling | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Great workplaces are not created through a particular set of benefits, are not unique to a particular industry, or limited to public or private organizations. Instead, universally, a Great Place to Work is one where employees trust the people they work for, have pride in the work they do, and enjoy the people they work with. […] Our latest research shows, however, that this general … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael C. Bush | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Organizational Behavior

By aligning the pursuit of business objectives with the meeting of human needs, companies can tap into powerful emotional forces in their current cultural situations.

Content: Article | Authors: Carolyn Black, Chad Gomes, Jon R. Katzenbach | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Genius is always recognized in hindsight, with the benefit of positive results in mind. We “cherrypick” the good results of divergent thinkers, but forget that we use the results to decide who’s a genius and who isn’t. Thus, tolerating divergent, genius-level thinking requires an ability to tolerate failure, loss, and change if it’s to be applied prospectively.

Content: Quotation | Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

We have to reengineer how we evaluate people, particularly in risky contexts. Rather than “you are your numbers,” take a holistic performance view. How do we make sure noble failures get rewarded and dumb luck does not?

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Bradley | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Risk Management

Dan Lovallo is a professor who works in applying psychology on biases to management topics. A simple test he did at an investment bank showed that if you applied the CEO’s risk tolerance to all the investment decisions made at lower levels rather than the more junior decision makers’ risk tolerance, the decisions would have had a 32 percent better outcome. So, there is this … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Chris Bradley | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Risk Management, Strategy

The popularity of assessment tools designed to measure a person’s talents in dozens of competency areas indicates that both companies and employees are taking a positive approach to on-the-job feedback. […] There are two problems with companies’ excessive focus on the positive. First, not all strengths are of equal importance. What you’re good at might not be what your firm needs you to be … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Carter Cast | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Career, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

We must find a way to reap the blessings of bureaucracy — precision, consistency, and predictability — while at the same time killing it.

Content: Quotation | Author: Gary Hamel | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Bureaucracy, Organizational Behavior

Complexity is insidious and often chokes off growth. Here’s how to reap the benefits of scale without succumbing to its dark side.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Leibs | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Bureaucracy, Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

For teams to run effectively, the number of layers within a hierarchy and the number of direct reports on a leader’s team must be carefully determined based on two factors: the type of work people are doing and the amount of coordination that work requires. Highly complex or high-risk work […] often requires extensive coordination to execute effectively. Therefore, it makes sense to keep a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ron Carucci | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork

Quality roles are designed around desired outcomes, and not around people. When companies build roles around people, they are unintentionally defining their value by the sum total of whatever the person in that role is capable of doing. As a result, a role is seen as important only when a superstar is in it — regardless of how vital it is to the company’s performance. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ron Carucci | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Long live product management – but not as it has been conceived up till now.

Content: Article | Author: Ayman Jawhar | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Some leaders tend to have a large circle of concern: They’re thinking about the effects of their decisions on a large group of people, now and into the future. Others think in a smaller circle: who they have to please and how to get it done. A leader’s ability to be strategic is a function of having bigger circles of moral concern. But that quality … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Annette Simmons | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Ethics, Leadership, Management, Personal Development

Cultivate your network and think strategically to rise in your career.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Career, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

I don’t really understand how you have an organization where managers review all their reports, but reports don’t review their manager. Frankly, if I had to have one, I would rather have all reports reviewing their manager than the other way around.

Content: Quotation | Author: Max Ventilla | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior