Organizational Capabilities Matter: Organization of the Future: Designed to Win

Organizational capabilities have a major impact on long-term corporate performance, and none matter more than behavioral aspects. But behavioral attributes can have a high impact only when they’re backed by strong structural capabilities. A new BCG Focus explains what organizations can do to develop the appropriate sets of capabilities.

Editor’s Note: I see many weaknesses in the approach and methodology employed for this study and thus … [ Read more ]

Kill Your Performance Ratings

Neuroscience shows why numbers-based HR management is obsolete.

The Quest for Better Layoffs

Professor Sandra Sucher wants to change the way business thinks about workforce reductions. “We want people to learn about the forces they unleash in the firm when they institute layoffs.”

How to Develop and Select Your New Leadership Profiles

The Blue Ocean Leadership Grid can be used to identify what leadership acts and activities should be eliminated, reduced, raised, and created in pursuit of high impact at low cost.

Wharton’s Adam Grant on the Key to Professional Success

The author of Give and Take explains why generosity in the workplace continues to be more effective than selfishness and why it is critical for personal fulfillment.

Anaïs Nin

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.

Does Your Company Keep Its Promises?

Despite best intentions, many businesses struggle with “commitment drift.”

Power at Work

Four predictors of power, five factors that help the powerful stay that way and six red flags are identified by the authors after reviewing hundreds of studies on the psychology of power in organizations.

Leadership Character and Corporate Governance

When it comes to selecting and assessing CEOs, other C-suite level executives or board members, the most important criteria for boards to consider are competencies, commitment and character. This article focuses on the most difficult of these criteria to assess – leadership character – and suggests the eleven key dimensions of character that directors should consider in their governance roles.

Katherine Milkman on Why Fresh Starts Matter

The Wharton professor says moments when you wipe the slate clean can help you meet your goals.

Daniel J. Boorstin

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance–it is the illusion of knowledge.

What Maslow’s Hierarchy Won’t Tell You About Motivation

Maslow’s idea that people are motivated by satisfying lower-level needs such as food, water, shelter, and security, before they can move on to being motivated by higher-level needs such as self-actualization, is the most well-known motivation theory in the world. There is nothing wrong with helping people satisfy what Maslow characterized as lower-level needs. Improvements in workplace conditions and safety should be applauded as the … [ Read more ]

Proverb

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

Bertrand Russell

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.

Doing Business Where Governance Is Weak

Eight principles for succeeding in markets prone to ethical and legal risks.

Bertrand Russell

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Frank A. Clark

We find comfort among those who agree with us, and growth among those who don’t.

John Rawls

The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.

Why Gender Diversity at the Top Remains a Challenge

McKinsey’s survey of global executives finds that corporate culture and a lack of convinced engagement by male executives are critical problems for women.

Trends Reshaping the Future of HR: Talent Management Meets the Science of Human Behavior

Dramatic breakthroughs are being made in the study of brain function and human behavior. Recent advancements in talent analytics also have been extensive. The net effect is new opportunities for human resource organizations to improve workforce performance and business outcomes by concurrently leveraging science-based insights and emerging technologies.