By nature, I go out of my way to help colleagues with no thought of personal gain, but for some reason, I seem to continually find studies that depict altruism as a behaviour for yokels and rubes, certainly not the way to win friends and influence enemies. Sure enough, here are researchers from the Kellogg School of Management who report, based on three studies, that altruism is a double-edged sword. “On the one hand, generous individuals are admired for their kindness, compassion, and willingness to help. On the other hand, they may be perceived as feeble ‘bleeding hearts’ who lack the guts to make tough decisions that might advance the goals of the organization.” Read the article
Well, this is progress, I guess: A growing number of HR directors are clawing their way onto their company Boards. In many cases, they’re doing a decent job, even chairing remuneration committees, right at the heart of strategy. They’re also becoming trusted confidants of the CEO, probably because they are the only directors not gunning for the top job. And that’s the truth: You’re more likely to see a vegan at an Aussie barbeque than an HR director as a CEO. Read the article
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Physiology has arrived to the world of organizational behaviour, a world that up to now has been ruled by psychology. “We have focused more on what we think — our psychology — and how that can affect behavior in organizations,” says one leading-edge researcher. “But we’ve left out a critical link: how does what we think as well as how our bodies respond together affect behavior in organizations?” That means studying hormones, cardiovascular reactivity, and video of “micro-expressions.”
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Leaders and managers are two different types of creatures, right? Leaders motivate and inspire, managers solve problems and exert control. But it’s a dead-end distinction, a red herring — whatever metaphor you want to come up with — that shrouds who leaders and managers really are.
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photo credit: Linden Tea
I recently profiled Queen’s Universty School of Business accounting professor Pamela Murphy and her work on the psychology of fraud. Prof. Murphy is doing excellent work in helping us understand how people rationalize unethical or fraudulent behaviour. “Everyone does it” and “no one gets hurt” are popular rationalizations that people use to avoid guilt or self-condemnation while committing fraud.
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In search of the entrepreneur’s risk-taking mentality, a professor of corporate strategy undertakes intensive field test. . . at the casino. His lesson: lousy at Baccarat, lousy in the boardroom. Read the article
Organizations are hollowing out their middle manager ranks. Pity: these folks have a greater impact on company performance than almost any other part of the organization. Their influence stems from their role in project management: allocating resources, imposing deadlines. Not sexy stuff but critical for effective operations. Read the article
Between LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networking sites, it’s easier than ever to reconnect with colleagues and friends from your distant past. Maybe you’d rather keep those connections in the past. But there’s a good case to be made that dormant ties can be even more valuable than current ties. “Insights from dormant ties tend to be more novel, and more efficient to get, than those from current ties.” Read the article
They are too infrequently performed, though they can help employees immensely. When they are done, they can be biased or focus on the wrong metrics. Can performance reviews be redeemed? Turns out, feedback loops and other innovations are giving performance reviews new life. Read the article
When it comes to being effective negotiators, women have it tough. Either they’re reluctant to push their interests or, if they do, are tagged with being pushy for asking too much. What to do? One, the female negotiator should get smart by learning what others in the organization are doing to advance themselves. Two, she should practise negotiating with shopkeepers or family memebrs. Third, she should “pay more attention to the style and impression that she is creating so she makes sure she doesn’t come off as being too aggressive.” Easier said than done. Read the article
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A new box is being pencilled into org charts: chief operating officer for HR. The motivation: to coax more performance improvements from the talent pool. Business leaders may not be getting the HR services they want, but shouldn’t the existing HR leadership be able to solve this problem? The debate continues. Read the article
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By rights, solid knowledge management techniques should help work teams avoid reinventing the wheel. In fact, new reseach shows that when project teams have access to stored organizational knowledge, they complete tasks more quickly, but the quality of their work doesn’t necessarily improve. Teams that are most likely to show increases in both efficiency and quality are those dealing with constantly changing projects. Read the article
Losing employees, even solid performers, can end up strengthening your organization in the long run, at least in the topsy turvy world of the fashion industry. The trick is to keep up the connections to your long departed employees and their gold-plated networks.
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It’s easy to blame corporate culture for all manner of ills. But if you’re seeking change in your organization, you’ll need to use the existing culture to change the behaviors that matter most. Over time, the culture you have will evolve into the culture you need.
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Over the past decade, neuroscientists have come a long way in figuring out how ideas form in the human mind. As it turns out, their findings contradict how most companies understand and organize innovation. The new model of the brain is based on “intelligent memory,” combining analysis and intuition and requiring a different form of brainstorming.
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Women are entering higher education on par with their male counterparts but few are making it into the executive suites and boardrooms during their subsequent careers. For all the gains women are making, there remain two significant gaps: pay and leadership.
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