Societal expectations concerning gender and leadership attributes pull women leaders in opposite directions: if strong, they are criticized for not being empathetic or likeable; if empathetic, they are criticized for not being strong enough. The best women leaders thrive by managing these tensions through a paradox mindset.
Building on their own research and case studies, as well as the research of others, three experts in organization studies build a framework for organizational culture as a lever for change. At the heart of the framework is the concept of organizational culture as a ‘toolkit’ of resources.
While high external performance expectations often improve performance, they can also have the opposite effect. Research shows that high-performance expectations can increase the embarrassment of those who experience early setbacks, reducing their motivation to persist and leading, ultimately, to failure.
An experimental study of the decision-making process in cross-functional teams reveals the impact of leadership, or lack thereof, on the quality of the teams’ decisions and the satisfaction of team members with those decisions.
Research-based on Norway’s pioneering quota for corporate boards reveals the positive impact of demand-side pressure to resolve the gender gap in corporate top leadership—and the contribution gender differences bring to corporate strategies and outcomes.
Mentees with a growth mindset, mentors driven by empathy and a desire to give, and program administrators who invest in training for mentors and mentees on how to best leverage mentoring relationships are leading success factors for entrepreneurial mentorship programs.
Management controls can be used to overcome the challenge of aligning conflicting corporate strategies with functional tasks, such as new product development.
The best entrepreneurship education and training (EET) programs for women, especially in developing countries, focus not only on the program goals and its contents or curriculum but also on often-overlooked human factors — e.g. the intentions of the participants — and the contextual environment in which the entrepreneurs will be working.
Women mentors and mentees both benefit from their involvement in mentoring programs, acquiring a range of cognitive, skill-based, and affective-related learning — and to a lesser extent social networking skills.
Five practices for cross-functional teams, using a visual or conceptual illustration as a starting point for dialogue and solution-seeking, help team members share knowledge without emphasizing their differences.
A new study based on male teacher reactions to female principals — based on 40 years of data — sheds light on continued biases against female leaders in all industries and sectors.
Executives often flounder, unable to execute a strategic vision and lead their people as they battle other executives over conflicting goals and priorities. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries shows how group coaching instills a team culture among executives that breaks the deadlock, creates alignment, and helps them fulfill their roles as leaders.
Although a health care organization improved its services significantly, and its reputation as a result, key stakeholders continued to mistrust the organization. A research study based on in-depth interviews revealed the disconnect between transactional-driven reputation and relational-driven trust.
Although a health care organization improved its services significantly, and its reputation as a result, key stakeholders continued to mistrust the organization. A research study based on in-depth interviews revealed the disconnect between transactional-driven reputation and relational-driven trust.
Narcissistic tendencies in leaders can be productive as well as non-productive. A new study shows that non-productive narcissistic tendencies have an impact on turnover intention and job satisfaction, although this impact can vary depending on gender and position in the company.
More employers are discovering the benefits of the four-day working week, including increased productivity and employee satisfaction. Many employers, however, continue to express concern over the difficulty in implementing and managing the four-day working week, as well as its impact on customers.
Diversity will fail to yield higher performance if leaders don’t take steps to disarm negative perceptions of diversity as an initiative that destroys unity and cohesion, rather than contributing important new perspectives and insight.
Many organizations ignore the collaborative demands of agility and are then surprised when agile teams fail to produce the expected results. Four collaborative practices based on organizational network analysis takes full advantage of social networks to enhance the success of agile initiatives.
Inspiring the human desire to help others, customer contact sparks the collective energy of employees, leading to better company performance. Transformational leadership is vital, however, to capture the benefits of customer contact.
CEOs and CFOs with a high promotion focus, who are afraid to miss opportunities and willing to experiment, are more likely to lead a company to growth than low promotion-focused CEOs and CFOs, who are more aware of potential risks. The best strategic decisions, however, seem to come when the two executives have clashing levels of promotion focus.
The largest survey ever conducted of management practices in U.S. firms confirms that structured performance-oriented management practices and techniques are vital to corporate performance — and that the extent to which firms integrate these management practices and techniques varies widely.
Companies typically have either generally tight or generally loose cultures. Mergers in which a mix of these two types of cultures must come together may fail if they don’t negotiate their cultures.
Addressing perceived workplace danger from robots through immersive virtual environments helps employees overcome their fears and collaborate effectively with robots in the workplace.
While competition between individuals is a fact of life in the world of business — people vying for that newly opened promotion, for example — a recent study explores the conditions that can turn healthy competition into dangerous conflict.
A new study confirms that authentic leadership inspires creativity, organizational citizenship and individual performance. The study also explores how creativity and organizational citizenship explains the impact of authentic leadership on individual performance.
A recent study exploring the world of work in 2028 based on today’s trends reveals the growing power of small vs. big, the vital importance of truly allowing mistakes (and not just talking about it) and the tension in communication strategies between the connection of face-to-face vs. the convenience of digital meetings.
Nice guys do finish last, according to a series of studies that show agreeable men earn significantly less and have less opportunity for advancement than disagreeable men. Agreeable women aren’t faced with the same backlash, supporting the assumption that agreeable men are being punished for not living up to their stereotypical gender roles.
As leaders and organizations strive to increase engagement, new research shows different nuances to disengagement that undermine the engagement effort. Some teams are pseudo-engaged, with individuals behaving as if they’re engaged but only interested in their own welfare. Others are contented rather than being disgruntled, deciding they want to do the minimum and no more.
