From the executive summary: ‘Returning monkeys to their rightful owners seems even more difficult today than it was in the late 20th century. For one thing, managers have come under increasing pressure to generate measurable results faster than ever. Some managers’ fear being viewed during tough economic times if they...
From the executive summary: ‘The 360-degree feedback tool combines input from supervisors, peers, and direct reports to provide a broad perspective on an employee's strengths and developmental needs. It has insinuated itself into the performance appraisal processes at an increasing number of companies. But as some firms are discovering, the...
From the executive summary: ‘Every time a firm pursues an existing or new strategy by reusing, redeploying, or recombining aspects of its people, networks, culture, structures, or processes, rather than destroying them and recreating them from scratch. Thus, instead of downsizing, it is essential to redeploy the people's talents. Rather...
The emerging trend of switching jobs has become widely prevalent in corporate world. It has been observed that employees are changing jobs like dumping old clothes and wearing new ones. The process has put the position of many companies in jeopardy. Most organizations are finding difficulty in finding an appropriate...
One suspect that the mistakes happen when firms choose managers at any level from CEO to business unit head to project manager based on what we call "right stuff" thinking. Many search committees and hiring executives classify candidates by right-stuff attributes. Managers who have successfully worked their way up the...
This article is a case study about two companies. It was seen that Teradyne was successful. Hewlett-Packard was not. The paper writes about how two companies had such different results with disruptive innovation. In the early 1990s, both Teradyne and Hewlett-Packard identified new technologies that had enormous potential to cause...
The article affirms that there are ways to measure ROI on the investments one makes in people. Sure and doing so provides one with insights on how to spend your limited resources more effectively. The ultimate objective is to be able to evaluate a firm's entire portfolio of human capital...
Most people misconstrue the task that lies before them in the job interview. Some think the interview is a kind of test, and to pass it they must answer all the questions correctly. Others imagine that it's all about finding out the interviewer's secret passion for fly-fishing and spending the...
It has been observed that most organizations consist of people from all walks of life. The people from diverse cultural backgrounds might find difficulty in adjusting to the norms of the organization. The cultural and language differences also hamper the smooth flow of communication within the organization. The paper elucidates...
Boards of Directors often botch up the job of finding a replacement CEO. They understand that selecting a CEO is a major responsibility; they help the CEO set realistic performance expectations; and they develop a deep understanding of the company’s strategic position. Firing a CEO rarely pays off in terms...
For effective management of a work process, it is imperative to measure it. Measurement provides an insight into the dynamics of the process and, therefore, facilitates the management of the same. The Balanced Scorecard BS is a comprehensive framework that translates the organizational vision and strategy into a coherent set...
A decade of organizational restructuring has produced employees who are more exhausted than empowered, more cynical than self-renewing. CEOs must rethink how they use their people. And yet, a decade of organizational delayering, destaffing, restructuring, and reengineering has produced employees who are more exhausted than empowered, more cynical than self-renewing....
In “Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices”, the authors combine the latest thinking from the biological and social sciences to lay out a new theory on human nature. In the organizational context, the four-drive theory implies that every person, from the CEO to the most junior employee will bring...
Letting people go is never pleasant, it is an emotional event. It's an emotional time for the employer as well as the employee. But the employees who survive the cutbacks also need reassurance about their own future and an understanding of the strategic goals behind the cuts. The article provides...
Research showed their R&D groups' creative performance to be in a prolonged slump following a corporate downsizing therefore these ill effects have to be countered. If downsizing is a necessity, managers must understand the long-term impact on creative output and do everything possible to expedite the process and return the...
The article starts with the example of the camels. A committee designs the animal. Taking a closer look at the features that allow this oddly shaped creature to survive in harsh desert conditions, one can draw a much kinder conclusion about the power of groups to develop and execute truly...
