Let me start by making a fundamental point about behavior at work. People's attitudes are caused by how they perform, and they determine their performance. In short, they are both a cause and a consequence of behavior.

For decades, researchers have studied the relationship between attitudes and work behavior. Literally,...

Job interviews are the most frequently used selection device, most organizations depend on them for making critical hiring decisions. Given their wide use, one might think that they are extremely valuable. The truth of the matter is that they are a high cost, damaging and ineffective selection device. This is...

The research I have done on organizational change clearly shows that programs which are focused on organizations improving their performance in areas such as quality, costs and customer service are rarely successful. They may produce short-term positive results, but they lose momentum relatively quickly and performance returns to the bad...

There is no question that the U.S. has lost an enormous number of manufacturing jobs to lower wage countries. These countries include mega economies like China and a number of smaller countries such as Vietnam that have large numbers of workers willing to work for low wages. Given the current...

Surveys measuring employee engagement have become increasingly common. Most major corporations now regularly survey their workforces. There is no doubt that their surveys can yield useful information about employee attitudes and behavior. In many cases, however, the data are misinterpreted, misunderstood, and result in wasted time and money.

Most engagement...

Corporations in the United States have been widely criticized for their approach to executive compensation. This approach has produced extremely high levels of compensation that are highly dysfunctional.

Considerable research shows that today's high level of executive compensation has created an enormous societal gap between the top earners in the...

For decades, most U.S. corporations have practiced pay secrecy. They may be forced to release the pay of senior executives, but they work hard to keep secret everyone else's pay. We recently had our annual pay increase exercise at my university and it did a number of things, including hand...

Every three years since 1995, my research center has done a survey of how the HR functions in major corporations are operating. The just-published results of our 2010 survey are in my new book, Effective Human Resource Management: A Global Analysis. The results clearly show what HR needs...

Performance appraisals are one of the most frequently criticized talent management practices. The criticisms range from their being an enormous waste of time to their having a destructive impact on the relationship between managers and their subordinates.

Criticizing performance appraisals has a long history. For decades, the literature on talent...

Like many before it, this spring has seen a high level of outrage over the executive compensation payouts in some large corporations. Among companies that have been the target of corporate governance activists this spring are Citigroup, Barclays, and Chesapeake Energy.

The debate over what to do about excessive and...

The economy is getting stronger, and as a result, more and more individuals are looking for better jobs. A recent survey by Lloyds found that executives believe a talent shortage is the number two risk facing business today, up from twenty-second place in 2009. There is no doubt...

Going green can be profitable -- that is the conclusion of multiple studies that have looked at the financial outcomes of corporate efforts to improve their environmental impacts. By reducing emissions, packaging materials, and waste, Walmart, Unilever, and many other companies have been able to reduce their costs and improve...

Capitalism is under fire. At the recent Davos conference, a major topic of discussion was whether capitalism is still a viable economic model. The Financial Times, Time Magazine, and Business Week have all run multiple stories in the last month that focus on capitalism. And of course, there are the...

Executive compensation in the United States has risen dramatically in the last 30 years. The difference between the lowest-paid employees in major corporations and top executives has gone from approximately 100 to 1 to over 500 to 1. As a result, executive compensation has gone from having no noticeable effect...

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, the road to top jobs in major corporations is shifting. The article, which details research findings relative to "The New Path to the C-Suite," discusses how the functions of marketing, finance and human resources (HR) are evolving. But perhaps the...

Sustainability is not a high priority for most companies, and it is not becoming one -- that is the conclusion of a just-released survey of global executives by the Sloan Management Review. Explanations for the lack of corporate focus on sustainability include the poor economy and the difficulty...

Criticism of the performance appraisals that are done in most organizations is never-ending. It is claimed that they do more damage to the individuals being reviewed than good and that they are a waste of time and effort. This has led numerous "experts" to recommend that organizations simply stop doing...

The U.S. auto industry and the UAW union are negotiating their new collective bargaining agreements. For decades they have had a dysfunctional and adversarial relationship that nearly led to the demise of the U.S. auto industry. It has driven all U.S. auto companies, except Ford, either out of the business...

With more than 14 million people seeking work in the U. S. there is clearly a critical need for more jobs. Numerous politicians have stated that the number one concern of the U.S. government should be to focus on this initiative, particularly within the manufacturing sector. But is manufacturing really...

As the economy remains shaky, many business leaders are continuing to focus most of their attention on profits, placing all expenditures under the microscope. Some leaders are questioning the investment value of environmental responsibility, or "being green," but consider this: green can be profitable. According to recent data, it may...