Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith
The survival of many organizations depends on teams capable of engendering superior innovation in business processes. Successful teams always have two things in common. They are…
Abstract
The survival of many organizations depends on teams capable of engendering superior innovation in business processes. Successful teams always have two things in common. They are strongly committed to a shared purpose and specific performance goals.
Head count reduction, downsizing, and the elimination of middle management jobs—“Is that all there is?” To many middle managers, Peggy Lee's classic ballad rings painfully true…
Abstract
Head count reduction, downsizing, and the elimination of middle management jobs—“Is that all there is?” To many middle managers, Peggy Lee's classic ballad rings painfully true today. The good news is that a growing number of folks‐in‐the‐middle are defying that image and making a big difference in the growth and performance of their colleagues and their companies. We call them Real Change Leaders (RCLs), and you can learn a lot from them.
As the dot‐coms crumble and the cash machines that funded them merge, suddenly all the urgency about finding and keeping the best people seems so … not urgent. That means you…
Abstract
As the dot‐coms crumble and the cash machines that funded them merge, suddenly all the urgency about finding and keeping the best people seems so … not urgent. That means you might not need to race out to buy the books in this Stack. All of them advocate working to change an entire organization to make it employee friendly—an “employer of choice” in the lingo—which now seems so … too much work. And as for the idea that companies exist for the workers, we think that went out with socialism.
No matter what the organization's activity, or country, the better the decisions of its managers and leaders, the more likely that the organization will thrive.
This model integrates proven management tools such as Total Quality Management, benchmarking, customer‐satisfaction measurement, and cross‐functional team building into an…
Abstract
This model integrates proven management tools such as Total Quality Management, benchmarking, customer‐satisfaction measurement, and cross‐functional team building into an innovative process reengineering program.
Riding on the coattails of TQM and reeengineering, teams seem to have become the organizational structure of choice. But is a team always the best choice for the job? What happens…
Abstract
Riding on the coattails of TQM and reeengineering, teams seem to have become the organizational structure of choice. But is a team always the best choice for the job? What happens when teams fail? What is management's role in team success or failure?
Give teams clear goals, a model for success, and constant support.
Information, whether it is acquired from an external source or generated internally, is subjected to perceptual filters made up of the organization’s norms, procedures, and…
Abstract
Information, whether it is acquired from an external source or generated internally, is subjected to perceptual filters made up of the organization’s norms, procedures, and beliefs that influence what information the organization attends to and ultimately accepts. This paper examines the role which these organizational filters play in unlearning; viewed here as a specialized form of organizational learning. Unlearning is defined as the “process by which firms eliminate old logics and make room for new ones” by Prahalad and Bettis. The author argues that firms which engage in unlearning activities are better able to cast aside established routines in order to replace them with ones that ultimately result in superior value to their customers.
Details
Keywords
Just imagine … you are sitting down to a quiet, restful dinner after a hard day at the office. Your food is ready, and all thoughts of work are banished. Until the phone rings. To…
Abstract
Just imagine … you are sitting down to a quiet, restful dinner after a hard day at the office. Your food is ready, and all thoughts of work are banished. Until the phone rings. To ignore it is out of the question. Why? Because you are a member of a hi‐tech, 24‐hour virtual team who must be available as and when required by other group members. The concept of virtual teaming has been around for over 20 years, but with the upsurge of globalization and the recent wave of technological developments it has taken on a new impetus. So what has changed? And is this type of teaming really as effective as some organizations claim?