3590 Posts Found

Listen to people talk about how they break the rules, in other words, and you’ll figure out what they consider the important rules in the first place.

Content: Quotation | Author: Graeme Wood | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

This book collects and updates articles written over the past three decades by one of the foremost proponents of what might be termed—though probably not by its practitioners—the psychoanalytic school of leadership. It’s the second in a trilogy whose not completely felicitous subtitle gives away the author’s bias: “On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries.” [s+b annotation]

Content: Book | Author: Manfred Kets de Vries | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Employee orientation programs ought to be less about the company and more about the employee, according to new research by Daniel M. Cable, Francesca Gino, and Bradley R. Staats.

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

You can develop a high-performance organization by making the company stronger every time you move an employee, either via a promotion, a lateral move, or when a person leaves the organization.

Content: Quotation | Author: Randall J. Beck | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

Companies waste a lot of time when they try to set up a development plan to make people become someone they’re not.

Content: Quotation | Author: Randall J. Beck | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior, Training & Development

You should hire for talent from day one. If you are just hiring based on experiences and don’t have a good handle on the level of your company’s talent needs, it becomes a lot harder to prepare employees for leadership roles.

Content: Quotation | Author: Randall J. Beck | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

To eminent systems therapist David Kantor, learning to recognize the hidden patterns in conversation is the first step toward more effective executive leadership.

Editor’s Note: see a related video by David Kantor, which describes how leaders can uncover hidden patterns in conversation in order to more effectively inspire their teams, and shape group conversations.
Content: Thought Leader | Author: David Kantor | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

[The hubris] hypothesis was proposed by a famous professor of finance to explain why so many mergers and acquisitions among large firms fail. The idea is that you look at the other firm, and it seems to be floundering. So you think, “Oh, those managers are inept — I could do better.” That motivates you to buy their company, usually at an inflated price, because … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Kahneman | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior

The results of our encounters are rarely neutral; they are almost always positive or negative. And although we take these interactions for granted, they accumulate and profoundly affect our lives. Great managers know this and see every interaction as an opportunity to engage.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Jessica Tyler, Tom Rath | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Communication, Leadership, Management

The biggest threat to an organization’s success isn’t necessarily the competition — often, it’s the fear that lives within its own walls. That fear leads to all sorts of problems and causes people to believe that they need to create walls and barriers to protect themselves, even though those walls and barriers make it harder for others in the organization to succeed.

Content: Quotation | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Three keys to creating a system that eliminates costly variation in employee performance.

Content: Article | Author: Glenn Phelps | Source: Gallup Management Journal | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

A variable remuneration scheme can create value or, if it is poorly designed and implemented, destroy it. When it discourages rather than motivates employees, not only do you fail to achieve the expected results, but you pay extra for something that is detrimental to the company. IESE’s Pablo Maella offers recommendations aimed at strengthening the incentive effect.

Content: Article | Author: Pablo Maella | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

It’s easy to convince yourself you know something until you have to explain it to someone else. Then the truth comes out.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jason Fried | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Communication, Education, Knowledge, Learning

The diversity of identities and personalities in today’s knowledge workplace complicates a leader’s task. However, knowing what factors shaped and still influence those identities can help a leader understand – and predict – why certain personalities behave in certain ways. Made aware and sensitized, a leader comes to respect those identities. In turn, followers come to respect the leader.

Content: Article | Author: Michael Maccoby | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

Analysis of informal networks offers a potent leadership model for the C-suite: Make top teams the hub of the enterprise, and watch performance improve.

Content: Article | Authors: Jon R. Katzenbach, Rob Cross | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Organizational Behavior

I’ve met two types of leaders. The first is like Tom West, the leader of the computer-building team at Data General in The Soul of a New Machine. West says in the book that success is like pinball. If you win with one project, you get to play again. I think a lot of senior executives are just that kind of person: They like to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

Data is heavy. It wants to go down, not up, in an organization. In other words, most employees, just by the nature of their responsibilities, don’t want to provide data to their bosses. When there’s a problem, they want to solve it and tell the people above them that they solved it. Information about problems thus sinks to the bottom, out of the eyesight and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Clayton M. Christensen | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Decision Making, Information, Knowledge, Management, Organizational Behavior

In today’s economic environment—where most of us, even those who are succeeding—face pressure and uncertainty in our business, there’s an increasing emphasis on rewarding results. And why shouldn’t there be? Why shouldn’t we disproportionately direct praise, resources, and rewards to those who produce bottom line results? The answer is that—in the long run—doing so may empower lesser-valued employees, punish our future stars, and undermine the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Eric C. Sinoway, Howard Stevenson | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior

The modern corporation has long been the central focus of the field of organization design. Such firms can be likened to nation-states: they have boundaries that circumscribe citizen-employees, and they engage in production and trade. But individual corporations are no longer adequate to serve as the primary unit of analysis. Over the years, systems of distributed innovation – so-called business ecosystems – have become increasingly … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Carliss Y. Baldwin | Sources: Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Organization Design | Subject: Organizational Behavior

It is taken for granted in the knowledge economy that companies must employ the most talented performers to compete and succeed. Many firms try to buy stars by luring them away from competitors. But Boris Groysberg shows what an uncertain and disastrous practice this can be.

After examining the careers of more than a thousand star analysts at Wall Street investment banks, and conducting more than … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Boris Groysberg | Subjects: Career, Human Resources, Management, Organizational Behavior