249 Posts found for Source: Stanford University

Psychologists know false stories thrive in situations of heightened anxiety. Chip Heath, a Stanford-trained psychologist, is doing research to try and explain why, in more normal times, people tell each other rumors and urban legends on a day-to-day basis.

Content: Article | Author: Chip Heath | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Organizational Behavior

For those entrepreneurial types who aren’t keen on starting a company from scratch, creating a search fund to buy an existing business may be the way to go.

Content: Article | Author: Meredith Alexander | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance

It’s been said that no one is a prophet in his own land, but can anyone be a prophet in his or her own organization? Apparently, the ancient adage seems to hold true even in our modern temples of commerce, says Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer. People in most companies, he has found, value knowledge possessed by outsiders more than they do knowledge possessed by members of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Organizational Behavior

One is a popularity contest. Another is a number cruncher’s dream. As business school rankings proliferate, readers wonder: What do they actually measure?
And whom do they serve?

Content: Prospective MBA Content | Author: Jennifer Reese | Source: Stanford University | Subject: MBA Program Rankings

To many, the principal-agent model is the obvious lens through which executive pay should be viewed. Such a sentiment sits uncomfortably with a large number of empirical studies suggesting that the process of determining executive pay seems to be more readily explained by recourse to arguments of managerial power and influence. This paper investigates the micro-underpinnings of boardroom behavior in order to explain this departure … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Brian G.M. Main, Charles A. O’Reilly III | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Corporate Governance

Being able to get a job is more important than stable prices to people’s sense of satisfaction and happiness. So says research on the effects of inflation and unemployment by Justin Wolfers, assistant professor of political economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His findings, based on analysis of over half a million individual surveys, show that unemployment outweighs inflation by a ratio of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Justin Wolfers | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Economics

Nobody really believes that it’s an ethical precept that you obey every law. If you obey a law that requires you to do something that is unethical or amoral, I think everybody in the room would agree it’s a proper human behavior to break that law as long as you’re willing to accept the responsibility for that. That was the justification for conscientious objection during … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Ethics, Legal

In globalization we can come closer together, but we still don’t know one another. We can start up a new business fast, but growing wise in the way of life takes a long time. It’s never complete, never right, and never perfect. An ethic is deeper than morality or custom. It comes out of our deepest desire to make meaning out of our lives and … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Culture, Integrity

It’s hard to know what is meant by business ethics. Only people, not businesses, have ethics. Ethics is me, the individual, as a person. I’m ethical or unethical. If I’m employed in a business that I think is unethical, I have a clear choice. I can get out of that business and find something else to do. It doesn’t seem to me it’s ethical for … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Ethics

Many of the more conventional books on leadership show leaders as mythic and heroic figures. Students want their leaders to be perfect and without any personal blemishes. What they fail to realize is that sometimes the very qualities that make someone imperfect also help explain their tremendous drive to succeed and energy to focus on one narrow realm of achievement.

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Leadership

People do care about the truth of an idea, but they also want to tell stories that produce strong emotion, and that second tendency sometimes gets in the way of the first.

If we could understand what kinds of stories succeed beyond all expectations, even when they are not true, we might be able to take legitimate information, about health for example, and change people’s behavior … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Communication, Organizational Behavior

Markets are the most potent antipoverty engine there is – but only where they work well. The caveat is crucial.

Left to themselves, markets can fail. To deliver their full benefits they need support from a set of rules, customs, and institutions. They cannot operate efficiently in a vacuum. If the rules of the market game are inadequate, as often they are, it is difficult … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Economics

Organizations are characterized by inertia and there are good reasons for this. Reliability and accountability are valued attributes of organizations. These qualities are strengthened by predictable routines and structures, which create inertia as a byproduct.

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Ian Davis, managing director of the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., in a wide-ranging View from the Top lecture sponsored by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Content: Thought Leader | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Management | Industry: Consulting

If you want to learn the secrets of success, it seems perfectly reasonable to study successful people and organizations. But the research of Jerker Denrell, an assistant professor of organizational behavior, suggests that studying successes without also looking at failures tends to create a misleading-if not entirely wrong-picture of what it takes to succeed.

Content: Article | Author: Jerker Denrell | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Best Practices, Organizational Behavior

Managers rely on systems, leaders rely on people. Managers work on getting things right, leaders work on the right things. The answer to every problem, choice, or opportunity in our company is known to someone or some team in the company. The leader only has to find that person, listen, and help them effect the change.

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Leadership

The day you become a leader, it becomes about them. Your job is to walk around with a can of water in one hand and a can of fertilizer in the other hand. Think of your team as seeds and try to build a garden. It’s about building these people.

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Leadership

Not all societies weave achievement stories into their cultural fabric, but in modern-day democracies most of us are taught to want to climb. Hierarchies provide brightly illuminated ladders that are quite consistent with our meritocratic parable: “Work hard, young person, and no matter your origin or pedigree, you too can reach the top.” That story remains largely true. Hard and good work really does help … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Culture, Organizational Behavior

How can firms understand and appreciate culture without overemphasizing or stereotyping it? Research conducted by Business School faculty members Michael Morris and Itamar Simonson shed new light on this question and uncover how traditional ways of studying cultural influence have led to misconceptions among management and marketing researchers.

Content: Article | Authors: Itamar Simonson, Michael Morris | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: International, Organizational Behavior

In this video clip, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, offers ideas for entrepreneurs.

Content: Thought Leader | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Management