The single most valuable player in almost any company is its chief executive officer. Given that, most firms surely have succession plans ready to go when Mrs. CEO steps off to another opportunity or the Board decides to go in another leadership direction. Right? Um, not so...
Most medical professionals take an oath that charges them to consider the broader implications of their actions on society. Business leaders, of course, take no such oath. Until recently, it was commonly accepted that the only interests they served were those of shareholders and, to a lesser...
It may not be right, but we often overlook unethical behavior in others. In a recent working paper, Harvard Business School professor Max Bazerman and colleagues explain the psychological reasons why this is so, and what companies can do about it. The paper, See No Evil: When...
Your mama told you that good deeds will be rewarded. But in the emerging area of corporate social responsibility, or CSR, it's far from clear that socially responsible companies are rewarded financially in the marketplace, according to researchers. "While doing good doesn't appear to destroy shareholder value,...
We've heard a lot recently about what to do with toxic assets, but perhaps a closer-to-home question is, how should we handle a toxic boss? You know this creature from a hundred yards away-- their yelling at subordinates usually carries that far. It's the boss who dumps...