Issues related to diversity in the workplace have been at the forefront of management research in recent years. Numerous studies have highlighted the benefits of, for example, including more women on boards, combating institutional racism, employing a diverse workforce, etc. Age diversity has also received much attention, with many countries enacting legislation to regulate ‘ageism’ […]
Read More… from Age Diversity and Performance: Negative Stereotypes and HR Policies
It is important to draw a distinction between over-confidence and over-optimism in business. The former can be seen as a pejorative term, linked to arrogance and hubris, and the latter as more ‘neutral’. Over-confident managers underestimate the risks of their decisions; over-optimistic ones are biased towards larger growth projections than the figures suggest. So is […]
Read More… from Reasons to Be Cheerful: Positivity Linked to Profitability
Perhaps at one time, ‘corporate burnout’ was attributed to few, mostly C-suite executives. Now, it is much more commonly experienced by employees at all levels of an organization. Increased competition and market pressures means organizations frequently take on more in terms of activities, goals, technologies, etc. than they can handle for a sustained period of […]
Seasonal depression is well-known and has traditionally been easy to recognize: difficulty concentrating, low levels of energy, etc. — all related to bleak winter weather conditions. So naturally, it follows that we assume the opposite in weather conditions leads to positive outcomes. Indeed, some previous studies have found this link to be true, linking good […]
Troubled manufacturing company the KSV is at crisis point. Its Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) program has failed to deliver the expected benefits, and two of its biggest customers, Avobus and Ecotech, are threatening to defect. Senior members of staff are divided, and, after a particularly difficult meeting, managing director James Grader, brought in to […]
Read More… from Calling in the Consultants: Risks and Rewards
Economic theory tells us that human capital, i.e. employee ability, is positively linked to productivity and that high performers should be rewarded. Strong financial incentives for performance, however, can carry unexpected costs for companies. (The financial crisis was but the most vivid demonstration of this.) A recent study of a private Polish retail bank suggests […]
Recently, faculty from Kenan-Flagler Business School and Robert H. Smith School of Business looked at the relationship between egotistic (or narcissistic) CEOs and firm performance by measuring ego by the size of signatures on yearly SEC filings. They looked at about 400 CEO signatures from the annual SEC filings from companies in the S&P 500, […]
Read More… from Narcissistic CEOs – A Signature for Poor Performance
Performance and risk are actually two sides of the same coin. Although they have traditionally been reported and managed by different organisational functions, there is a growing tendency to link them – for example, by integrating risk indicators into the company’s performance scorecard. Separate risk reporting zooms in specifically on the risk aspect of the […]
Read More… from Reporting Risk When Reporting Performance to the Board
CEOs are often put under the spotlight, with everything from how they spend their time to their leadership style closely scrutinized. But what about managers and supervisors lower down in organization hierarchies? These are the people that most employees directly work with, yet their ‘value’ is less discussed, which is surprising considering more often than […]
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 […]
