Scientific Management

Does an ethical CEO matter?

Some would say that top management, your CEOs, COOs, VPs, etc., are so removed from the daily lives of front-line workers that unethically behavior by top management will never affect regular employees.  Sure, top management affect front-line employees, those managers can make good, or bad, decisions that allow the company to give out bonuses, or that drive the company into bankruptcy.  But does the ethical, or unethical, behavior of a top manager have any effect on the employees at the bottom of the org chart?

For a manager knowing a good leader when you see one is an important skill, and one that most of us like to think we have down.  And why not?  We’ve all spent plenty of time working with other people, and for good and bad leaders, and should be able to know a leader when we see one.

However, what we see may not be what we get.

If you're hiring, here's what you need to look for

While not quite as hard as getting hired in this economy, hiring right now is extremely difficult.  Why?  Because there are so many people who are not right for your position applying for the  job.

The best way to know if someone will be good at a particular job is to look at that person’s previous history… at that job.  This works well if you’re hiring someone from the competition, but it means nothing if you are looking to bring someone into a job they haven’t had before.

The next best, and quite a bit better than any other selection method, is to test for intelligence.

If you’ve experienced theft by employees in your company, then I don’t need to tell you how big a problem it is.  Billions of dollars are lost every year due to employee theft, and one study estimates that half of employees with easy access to cash and sellable merchandise steal.

There are many reasons employees steal, but one often overlooked, and quite important, is a sense of justice.  Sometimes employees feel taken advantage of by their company, and that as a single employee they cannot change their situation.  So, to balance out the scales of justice, as the employee sees it, he or she steals from the company.

In negotiations, the first move is key

The first mover advantage is important in business.  But one place where it isn’t usually acknowledged is negotiations.  One set of studies found that making the first offer in a negotiation significantly affected the final outcome.

Your bad mood may help the group

Business managers and leaders have to worry about a seemingly innumerable number of things – hiring, firing, motivating the troops, etc.  Add to the list mood.  And a leader can’t simply assume he or she needs to try and be in a good mood all the time – research shows that there are different benefits that come from a happy leader and from a grumpy leader.

Something will go wrong.  It always does.  So, now the question is: what do you do?  Do you fess up? Do you apologize?  Or do you deny, deny, deny?

Luckily for you, academia new this moment would come.  The researchers of the world knew you were going to mess up royal – so bad that their collective intellect couldn’t find a way to stop you from doing whatever it is you did.  But, they decided to figure out what you should do next.

Which rewards kill motivation and which create it?

One of my favorite parts of reading academic papers is seeing how an argument unfolds over years and decades.  One such debate is that of the affect of rewards on motivation, specifcally intrinsic motivation.

Brainwriting: the superior way to generate ideas

Brainstorming is supposed to be the way for groups to come up with lots of new ideas.  Everyone calling out their thoughts is supposed to allow others to work off of them in creating new ones.  No idea is supposed to be too weird or dumb to be accepted, since it may inspire someone else.  That’s what brainstorming is supposed to do.

However, studies have found that this is not what brainstorming actually does.

Anyone can learn to be a better leader

Some think that leaders are born, not made.  That the best you can do is to try to hire those naturally good at leading.  While there are probably some characteristics of a great leader that can’t be taught, research has shown that it is possible to train people to be better leaders.  The amazing part is not that leadership is something that can be trained, what is amazing is how little training is necessary to affect profits and performance.