Watch Out for These 3 Gender Biases in Performance Reviews
Three kinds of bias often creep into the performance-review process, in ways that disproportionately affect women, especially when they choose to take advantage of the flexibility offered by hybrid and remote work. These biases are experience bias, which leads reviewers to overvalue tasks that are easy to define; proximity bias, which leads them to think that people in their immediate orbit do the most important … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources, Women in Business
Workplace Friction: How to Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder
Stanford professor and acclaimed author Bob Sutton shares insights on how to eliminate unwanted friction in your organization — starting at the top.
Content: Article | Authors: Robert I. Sutton, Stanford Seed | Source: “Stanford University” | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Fear factor: Overcoming human barriers to innovation
Worries about failure, criticism, and career impact hold back many people from embracing innovation. Here’s how to create a culture that accounts for the human side of innovation.
Content: Article | Authors: Alex Morris, Erik Roth, Laura Furstenthal | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Best Practices, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
How a “Pay-to-Quit” Strategy Can Reveal Your Most Motivated Employees
Companies often have a hard time determining how motivated or committed their employees are, because employees know it goes against their own interests to declare themselves unmotivated or uncommitted. The solution to this problem is for companies to put incentives in place that encourage employees to reveal how they actually feel. In this article, the author, a behavioral economist, describes an incentive plan that has … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Uri Gneezy | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Compensation, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior
An Innovation Culture That Gets Results
This article presents some practical guidelines for executives seeking to design a high-impact innovation culture. It also outlines four areas of focus that offer a clear path for change, drawing on examples from leading innovators.
Content: Article | Authors: David Blanchard, Deborah Lovich, Hannah Lu Schmitt, Johann D. Harnoss, Justin Manly, Robert Werner | Source: “Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” | Subjects: Culture, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
4 Types of Employee Complaints — and How to Respond
Complaining can have both positive and negative effects on organizational communication. Constructive complaining — or structured opportunities for employees to voice their concerns — offers valuable feedback to improve work processes, products, and services, and thus should be encouraged. Venting and chronic complaining have both advantages and disadvantages for the individual and the group and should be given the right space and time, rather than … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Alyson Meister, Nele Dael | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior
Follow the Leader: How a CEO’s Personality Is Reflected in Their Company’s Culture
There’s no ideal personality type for executives — but businesses need the right one for success.
Content: Article | Authors: Audrey Kim, Charles O’Reilly, Donald Sull, Xubo Cao | Source: “Stanford University” | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Culture, Organizational Behavior
The algorithmic trade-off between accuracy and ethics
In The Ethical Algorithm, two University of Pennsylvania professors explain how social values such as fairness and privacy can be designed into machines.
Content: Article | Author: Theodore Kinni | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Ethics, IT / Technology / E-Business, Organizational Behavior, Social Responsibility (ESG)
Lessons on motivation from the odd friendship of Maslow and Frankl
Recently I was surprised to discover that two men whose philosophies I’ve compared and contrasted for years to help explain modern motivation science had a relationship where they did the same thing during their lifetime. We can all benefit from the relationship between Abraham Maslow and Viktor Frankl.
Content: Article | Author: Susan Fowler | Source: “SmartBrief” | Subjects: Human Resources, Motivation, Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior
Pay for Performance: When Does It Fail?
The consensus in social psychology is that monetary incentives for performance have a detrimental impact on individual performance. Yes, under certain specific and limited conditions, rewards can reduce performance. Yet pay for performance schemes are ubiquitous. How can we resolve this divergence between theoretical recommendations and observed practices? Nirmalya Kumar and Madan Pillutla recommend solving the problem by designing smarter incentives that avoid these detrimental … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Madan Pillutla, Nirmalya Kumar | Source: “Management and Business Review (MBR)” | Subjects: Compensation, Human Resources, Motivation, Organizational Behavior
5 Habits To Maximize The Effect Of Recognition
Unlike pay and other financial rewards, being praised and recognized is an expression of care, and this—and not money—affects the hearts in people. Here are five habits leaders must develop in order to maximize the effect of recognition and thereby derive its greatest benefits.
Content: Article | Author: Mark C. Crowley | Source: “Chief Executive” | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior
Smart Rules: Six Ways to Get People to Solve Problems Without You
Companies clearly need a better way to manage complexity. In our work with clients and in our research, we believe, we’ve found a different and far more effective approach. It does not involve attempting to impose formal guidelines and processes on frontline employees; rather, it entails creating an environment in which employees can work with one another to develop creative solutions to complex challenges. This … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Yves Morieux | Source: “Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior
Guide: Understand team effectiveness
Much of the work done at Google, and in many organizations, is done collaboratively by teams. The team is the molecular unit where real production happens, where innovative ideas are conceived and tested, and where employees experience most of their work. But it’s also where interpersonal issues, ill-suited skill sets, and unclear group goals can hinder productivity and cause friction.
Following the success of Google’s … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “re:Work” | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Teamwork
Design Your Organization to Match Your Strategy
An organization is nothing more than a living embodiment of a strategy. That means its “organizational hardware” (i.e., structures, processes, technologies, and governance) and its “organizational software” (i.e., values, norms, culture, leadership, and employee skills and aspirations) must be designed exclusively in the service of a specific strategy. Research suggests that only 10% of organizations are successful at aligning their strategy with their organization design. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Jarrod Shappell, Ron Carucci | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Strategy
Author Talks: Turn your work enemies into allies
Whether you’re being interrupted in meetings or challenged at every turn, Amy Gallo shares tactics for getting value out of difficult work relationships.
Content: Article | Authors: Amy Gallo, Roberta Fusaro | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Personality / Behavior
Intellectual Honesty Is Critical for Innovation
Here’s how to balance psychological safety and intellectual honesty for better team performance.
Content: Article | Author: Nathan Furr | Source: “INSEAD Knowledge” | Subjects: Culture, Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Inclusion Isn’t Just Nice. It’s Necessary.
Improving employees’ experience of inclusion in the workplace is one of the most actionable levers companies have to attract and retain talent. When done right, inclusion can slash attrition risk in half.
In today’s fiercely competitive environment, inclusion is akin to a hidden superpower, so why do so few companies view it as a business necessity? The answer is simple: workplace inclusion is hard to define, … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Alex Zborowski, Ashley Dartnell, Gabrielle Novacek, Gretchen May, Mario Farsky, Nadjia Yousif, Seema Bansal | Source: “Boston Consulting Group (BCG)” | Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior
Adaptive Space: Shifting from Structural to Social Design
One of the biggest challenges facing organizations today is the need to be agile. To achieve this goal, leaders must seek a deeper understanding of the power of social interaction in furthering the flow of ideas, information, and insight. Michael Arena explains how building relational structures that foster 4D connections, discovery, development, diffusion, and disruption, can usher in the new, innovative ideas and concepts necessary … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Michael J. Arena | Source: “Management and Business Review (MBR)” | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior
Using neuroscience to make feedback work and feel better
Research shows that using feedback is how organisms — and organizations — stay alive. Here’s how leaders can make the most of the anxiety-producing process.
Content: Article | Authors: Beth Jones, Chris Weller, David Rock | Source: “strategy+business” | Subject: Organizational Behavior
Stop Overcomplicating It: The Simple Guidebook to Upping Your Management Game
Russ Laraway’s book When They Win, You Win, weaves together tons of existing management studies from top-notch sources like Gallup, his own primary research, as well as thoughtful stories from his own decades-long career.
From the Marines to software to VC, Laraway has spotted a pattern that frequently crops up and muddies the waters for managers everywhere. “People have become far too focused on all the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: Russ Laraway | Source: “First Round Review” | Subjects: Human Resources, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior