Birds of a Feather Management
Regulars readers of this blog will recall late last year we ran a post entitled the best person for the job.
In it we discussed a recent finding that managers tend to hire people like themselves.
Since then, some anecdotal evidence points to the idea that managers aren’t just hiring employees with whom they would like to spend time. They are also hiring subordinates who dress like them and perhaps even resemble them. Thus we have birds of a feather management
Do Quotas Work on Corporate Boards?
Into the debate about women on corporate boards Boris Groysberg has introduced a new dimension. He has found wide differences in opinion about quotas for women on corporate boards of directors. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: corporate executives, employee attitudes, female executives, gender parity, management, work-life balance
The Status of Women at the Top (of Fortune 500 Companies)
Despite high-profile news about pay parity, education for women and an increasingly higher profile for some female executives, for the vast majority of women aspiring to top leadership positions in corporate America the outlook is less rosy according to the 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors and 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Executive Officers and Top Earners. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: female executives, leadership
No Let Up in Employee Stress
Towers Watson the global human resources consulting firm is out with a new survey today. Its findings won’t surprise any employee who is experiencing stress on the job. It’s a trend that is being noticed by many employers as well and it is continuing unabated. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employee attitudes, leadership, management
An Office with No Boss
For anyone who has every considered the possiblity of a boss less office, there is an interesting explanation this week from Knowledge at Wharton. Knowledge at Wharton. Read the rest of this entry »
Peter Cappelli and Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs
Longtime readers of this blog will recognize Peter Cappelli. He was interviewed here in December 2010.. And now he’s back with a new book called Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
The Era of the Independent Worker
Within the last few weeks new stories have been appearing about the temp workforce.
Jody Greenstone Miller and Matt Miller have a piece about the The Rise of the SuperTemp in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review. Ms. Greenstone Miller runs the Business Talent Group which places well-pedigreeed consultants in short term assignments. Matt Miller is best known as a commentator and writer.
In a recent Preoccupations in The New York Times Sunday Business section Alexandra Levit who identifies herself as a generational workplace consultant and author wrote about the new staying power of independent workers.
Certainly temporary work is not new. As the country emerged from the dot.com bust in 2004 I wrote a story in The New York Times entitled Your Next Boss Could Be a Temp. Then it was an emerging trend, now it is a universal one.
And, its a universal trend that has wide-ranging consequences for the independent workers and those who manage them. It will have implications for how managers are perceived, compensated and evaluated for promotions. In the coming weeks we’ll examine what those are and what they mean to companies, managers and the independent workers themselves.
The Case for Promoting from Within
According to Matthew Bidwell an assistant professor of management at Wharton, external hires are paid more and perform less well than internal candidates. A summary of his findings are here at the Knowledge at Wharton website. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employee attitudes, job creation
Taking People With You, Part Three
David Novak says that leaders need to recognize that they cast what he calls a “shadow of leadership.” And he says, whether the know or acknowledge it, subordinates emulate the behavior of leaders because they want to move up the ranks of the organization. Read the rest of this entry »
Taking People With You, Part 2
David Novak is clear. Leadership is a privilege and he says leaders need to be passionate about their employees. “Companies go awry when they think about profit first,” he says. Instead they get focused on the end goal, rather than employees and customers.
Tags: leadership, management
