Managing People

Permalink Gallery
Diversity networks in organisations: are they really (net)working for equality?

Diversity networks in organisations: are they really (net)working for equality?

In recent years, the use of diversity networks in organisations has increased tremendously. Diversity networks, also referred to as ‘employee resource groups’ or ‘affinity networks’, are initiated to inform, support and advance employees with similar social identities. In many organisations, diversity networks are part of a larger diversity management agenda and an increasingly popular practice to promote equality, diversity […]

November 26th, 2018|Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Between a person-focused rhetoric and the harsh realities of people management

Between a person-focused rhetoric and the harsh realities of people management

Human resource management (HRM), both in practice and as taught in business schools, appears to display a gap between its soft person-focused rhetoric and the harsh realities of people management. While ‘good’ people management is likely to contribute to organisational performance, HRM has also been called out on occasion for promoting untested assumptions and fads, lacking a solid evidence […]

October 2nd, 2018|Management, Managing People|1 Comment|

Permalink Gallery
Our inherent vulnerability and dependence on others in the workplace

Our inherent vulnerability and dependence on others in the workplace

“It is hard to see for an outsider that you become friends with these people—business friends. You trust them and their work. You have an interest in what they’re doing outside of business” (An interviewee quoted in Uzzi, 1997)

As members of organisations, human beings remain inherently vulnerable, facing threats and obstacles stemming from uncertainty, information asymmetries, and even potentially […]

July 27th, 2018|Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Pay transparency: policymakers love it, but employees not so much

Pay transparency: policymakers love it, but employees not so much

On average, women still earn less money than men in most developed countries around the world according to the OECD. In the US and UK, for example, women are paid between 82 and 85 cents for every dollar a man earns. As a potential remedy to this issue, many legislators and organisations have begun to adopt pay transparency policies. […]

July 23rd, 2018|Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Misfit: what do you do when you can’t be yourself at work?

Misfit: what do you do when you can’t be yourself at work?

The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. — Steve Jobs
Most of us, like Steve Jobs, have come […]

July 9th, 2018|Labour, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Single and no kids? Who is work-life balance for?

Single and no kids? Who is work-life balance for?

Work-life balance has been a hot topic for organisations and HR practitioners for many years – linked to range of individual and organisational benefits. The shift from the terms ‘family-friendly’ and ‘work-family balance’ to the more inclusive ‘work-life balance’ around 2000 indicated a shift in rhetoric that all employees, regardless of domestic situation, deserved a suitable balance between the […]

June 28th, 2018|Management, Managing People|1 Comment|

Permalink Gallery
The ethical downside of hiring based on internal referrals

The ethical downside of hiring based on internal referrals

Increasingly, organizations are turning to referral-based methods to hire new employees (i.e. “recommend a friend/acquaintance”). In fact, these practices are estimated to account for up to 50 per cent of new hires and some organizations pay up to $20,000 to people referring someone they know for a job. The practice itself is relatively simple – it consists of a hiring manager […]

June 19th, 2018|Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Being the boss is not always good: power taints how we interact with others

Being the boss is not always good: power taints how we interact with others

Lord Acton’s quote that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” probably conforms to most of our experiences with powerful people. People who feel powerful tend to be self-focused, less empathetic, a little more rude or pushy, and just generally difficult to deal with. While most people generally understand that power makes others more difficult to deal with, one […]

June 1st, 2018|Career & Success, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Mismanaged souls: why does employee engagement remain stubbornly low?

Mismanaged souls: why does employee engagement remain stubbornly low?

You would have to have been in solitary confinement in a particularly remote location during recent years not to be aware of the tidal-wave of interest there has been in employee engagement. High levels of engagement have been associated with a host of important benefits to both employers in terms of raised performance and productivity, and for employees in […]

April 25th, 2018|Katie Bailey, Management, Managing People|2 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
A managerial orthodoxy dominates organisational life since the Thatcher/Reagan era

A managerial orthodoxy dominates organisational life since the Thatcher/Reagan era

As organisation consultants, we have met many people, in many different fields, who are bewildered and oppressed by the apparent insanity of much of what goes on in large organisations. There are seemingly endless reorganisations and restructurings. Leaders seem to feel bound to disturb people and organisations. People are sometimes not sure what unit they are part of, or […]

April 10th, 2018|George Binney, Gerhard Wilke, Management, Managing People, Philip Glanfield|1 Comment|

Permalink Gallery
Nilofer Merchant: Ideas can now spread and scale through networks, rather than hierarchies

Nilofer Merchant: Ideas can now spread and scale through networks, rather than hierarchies

As a former executive at Apple and Autodesk, and consultant for a number of other Silicon Valley companies, Nilofer Merchant has a pretty good idea of how to move things forward in the business world. One key ingredient, if you ask her, is collaboration. How to get people to collaborate, and companies to value collective work more than hierarchy, […]

April 2nd, 2018|Career & Success, Managing People, Nilofer Merchant|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Is race a taboo topic in the workplace?

Is race a taboo topic in the workplace?

Helen feels uncomfortable chatting to Sasha, her work colleague, beyond exchanging pleasantries. She is concerned that she might say the wrong thing and cause offence to Sasha, who is black, and so she avoids spending time with her even though she likes her. Sasha is aware that Helen is awkward around her, but she’s unsure why, and she also […]

March 15th, 2018|Allyson Zimmermann, Career & Success, Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
When firms break promises, employees may ‘pay it forward’ to colleagues and clients

When firms break promises, employees may ‘pay it forward’ to colleagues and clients

When organisations break their promises to their employees, who suffers the consequences and why? Intuition, and indeed research, tells us that those who are harmed seek to redress the balance by harming their perpetrator, with this being either one’s organisation or one’s boss, for example. However, in a three-study design within the medical field, our research finds this to […]

February 27th, 2018|Department of Management, Hong Deng, Jacqueline Coyle-Shapiro, LSE Authors, Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Beyond the ‘Scrum’: the value of individual work

Beyond the ‘Scrum’: the value of individual work

Imagine walking into an open plan office. In the middle of the room there is an animated meeting of six or seven people. They are clearly working on a project together. Ideas are being energetically shared, a steady stream of suggestions being offered, keyboards are enthusiastically tapped, notes made. There is a buzz of achievement, of a team at […]

February 20th, 2018|Alessandro Di Fiore, Management, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Discrimination at work: a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Discrimination at work: a self-fulfilling prophecy?

When we think of discrimination we often think of barriers that minorities face in the hiring process or impediments to receiving equal pay for equal work. We may typically think that this stems from antipathy towards minorities, or what we economists call “taste-based” discrimination. But it may also derive from priors that people have about the average productivity of […]

February 14th, 2018|Amanda Pallais, Dylan Glover, Management, Managing People, William Pariente|1 Comment|

Permalink Gallery
What Greek mythology teaches us about love in organisations

What Greek mythology teaches us about love in organisations

In a letter written in 1856, the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy wrote, “One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love.” Love is crucial in everyday people’s life, work and business experiences. However, our common understanding of organisational life tends to treat work and love largely as non-overlapping fields, fuelling the […]

February 9th, 2018|Management, Managing People, Stefano Tasselli|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
AI and the democratisation of judgement and decision-making

AI and the democratisation of judgement and decision-making

Qualitative judgement – the ability to make considered business decisions based on a personal interpretation of the context and facts — has never been more important (or overlooked).

There are three main reasons why judgement will remain central to the practice of management and leadership in the years to come. First, qualitative judgement is the last preserve of humanity in […]

January 15th, 2018|Alessandro Di Fiore, Information & Technology, Managing People|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Mindfulness and the art of managing people as people, not ‘resources’

Mindfulness and the art of managing people as people, not ‘resources’

Mindfulness has become a buzzword in the corporate world. Google, Starbucks, and many other corporate behemoths wish to infuse it in their employees to reengage them. In many ways this approach to mindfulness may be mindless. It assumes that people are resources and that you need to get the MOST out of them. This viewpoint also often assumes that employees do […]

January 4th, 2018|Management, Managing People, Michael Pirson|0 Comments|

Permalink Gallery
Emotionally intelligent employees are a competitive advantage

Emotionally intelligent employees are a competitive advantage

In today’s hypercompetitive world, it is more important than ever to have highly engaged, committed workers. Employees with high job satisfaction and organisational commitment have higher job performance. Satisfied people are more productive. Moreover, employees with high job satisfaction and organisational commitment have lower turnover intentions. This can keep costly turnover down and help organisations retain knowledgeable, well-trained, and […]

December 13th, 2017|Chao Miao, Management, Managing People, Ronald H. Humphrey, Shanshan Qian|0 Comments|