Meritocracy is an ideal that today’s organizations strive for. However, the practice of meritocracy doesn’t often live up to the aspiration. For example, studies continue to show that women and minorities are paid less than their white male counterparts. A study from MIT and Berkeley offers one explanation for why companies and organizations are not […]
Read More… from Divergent Views of Merit Complicate Merit-Based Corporate Practices
Teamwork is never easy, and cross-functional teamwork is especially challenging given the starkly different experiences, knowledge and perspectives that team members bring to the team. To span the divisions, participants on cross-functional teams are often asked to acquire identify and confront the differences among them. The authors of an-depth research study argue against this time- […]
Read More… from 5 Practices to Avoid Knowledge Differences in Cross-functional Teams
Milton Friedman notwithstanding, maximizing profit (and thus shareholder value) is no longer considered the one and only purpose of a corporation or business. The truly successful business is driven by a greater purpose that benefits society and our world and inspires a firm’s leaders and employees by giving their work meaning. The inspiration and commitment […]
Past research has demonstrated the benefits of collaboration in creative endeavours. A new study drills down into the issue of collaboration and creativity by asking the question: does the quality of the collaborator make a difference? The results of the study are unequivocal: collaborator quality makes a difference in the outcome of creative innovation efforts. […]
Read More… from To Become a Creative Star, Collaborate with Stars
When research-based companies hire new scientists to join their research teams, they are looking for two benefits. The first benefit involves output: what the new scientist can produce. This direct, individual benefit is accompanied by more indirect, organizational benefits — for example, the new scientist might boost the productivity of other colleagues through new knowledge, […]
Read More… from Learning by Hiring: The Challenge of Teaching Entrenched Incumbents
Social capital research has established the performance advantages of networking. However, we know surprisingly little about the strategies individuals employ when networking and, in particular, the underlying agency mechanisms involved. Research undertaken at INSEAD has analysed the networking strategies employed by newly promoted professionals at two professional service firms to address two closely related limitations […]
Read More… from Constructive Networking: The Strategies of Players and Purists
Social category diversity — diversity of race, gender or political leanings, for example — has been shown to enhance creative thinking in groups, and leads to more effective decision-making that takes into account a wider range of perspectives. The downside, according to previous research, is that the relationships among members of diverse groups are not […]
Read More… from Diversity in Teams: Tasks, Not Relationships Drive Performance
Cynicism to change (CTC) is often studied at the individual level — how employees react to change. Indeed, employee CTC will impact whether or not change can be successfully implemented in any organization. However, according to Katherine A. DeCelles of University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, Paul E. Tesluk of the University of Buffalo […]
Read More… from Resistance to Change: Overcoming Multilevel Cynicism
There is a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that should be in the lexicon of every aspiring business: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever”. Yet many firms shy away from innovation. Sticking with what they know, they fail to see the benefit of a lifelong learning […]
