Organizational culture

In a word--self-preservation. And they're just as afraid to share innovative ideas as to blow the whistle.

Network groups for black and Hispanic employees had been an unqualified success. Now a Christian group was forming—and Bill Thompson didn’t know what to think about it.

Joe Ryan turned a small-town cosmetics company into a national powerhouse, making employees happy and shareholders rich in the process. Does it really matter that he cheats on his wife?

When companies cause emotional pain through nasty bosses, layoffs, and change, a certain breed of “healing” manager steps in to keep the gears moving. They are toxic handlers—unsung corporate heroes who save the day, but often pay a high price.

Four keys to making sure the message gets across.

“That was dreadful. Not only was I bored, everyone else was bored too. Disengaged. I’m terrible at facilitating these kinds of meetings. But they’re so important. I’ve got to get better at it. I need to find a better way.” I wrote that in a journal entry about seven years ago. I still remember the […]

It was fascinating to read of HP’s plan to acquire services and consulting giant EDS. In a lot of ways, the idea makes eminent sense. EDS has formidable strengths in the kind of stem-to-stern solutions that many of HP’s corporate customers crave. And HP itself offers a broad array of complementary products that allow for […]

Working parents aren’t the only ones who need flex time.

As the 1990s overtake us, public interest in ethics is at a historic high. While the press calls attention to blatant derelictions on Wall Street, in the defense industry, and in the Pentagon, and to questionable activities in the White House, in the attorney general’s office, and in Congress, observers wonder whether our society is […]

At least, the successful ones are.

You're probably familiar with lab experiments in which mice are conditioned to behave in a certain way by receiving sugar pellets for "good" behavior...

If the CEO sits in the hot seat, the CFO’s chair is positively smoking. According to analysis conducted by the CFO Executive Board, annual CFO turnover at the largest 162 global companies between 1995 and 2003 was 17%—even higher than for CEOs—and three out of four current Fortune 500 finance officers have been in their […]

Three strategies to make them worth people's time.

[This post is part of Creating a Customer-Centered Organization.] The customer’s voice has a new champion sitting at the highest levels of power in companies. Whether firms call the position Chief Customer Officer (CCO) or some other label, these individuals serve as top executives with the mandate and power to design, orchestrate, and improve customer […]

Good leadership is about preventing incidents - not just responding to them.

As anyone with the slightest interest in the consulting business knows by now, the SEC has brought civil charges against Rajat Gupta in the Galleon insider-trading case. What makes the matter fascinating to industry watchers, approximately their equivalent of the Charlie Sheen supernova, is that Gupta served three terms as managing director of McKinsey & […]

Joseph Jett’s account of his tumultuous career on Wall Street isn’t just a story of racism and greed. It’s also a cautionary tale for knowledge workers.

If, as customer service gurus insist, a complaint is a gift, then I'm a remarkably generous customer. (I've documented - complained? - elsewhere of my...

Trust among team members is good—usually. But with some teams, too much trust can actually depress performance, finds Claus Langfred, a professor of organizational behavior at Washington University in St. Louis. Langfred surveyed 71 self-managing teams of MBA students to measure levels of trust, self-monitoring, and autonomy within them. The teams worked for four months […]

Early in their lives most markets go through a short period of dizzying growth that defines the competitive landscape. Heed the advice of a person who has survived the ride: If you don’t make the right moves then, you won’t get a second chance.