People management professionals are often exhorted to become more knowledgeable about business strategy but many are discouraged by the jargon and the apparent complexity of the field. While it is true that a radical rethink of your organization's strategy involves creativity and specialized skills, most regular strategic planning exercises do not require that level of sophistication.
In this current difficult economic climate, many organizations are facing the unfortunate necessity to downsize and streamline. Astute executives and HR managers, many of whom have been through previous rounds of downsizing, realize that they must approach it carefully because both research and experience have shown that there are many negative consequences to this process. …
Downsizing Your Organization? Lessons from the Trenches Read More »
Unions often feel uneasy about employee ownership, Dr. Beatty says. But in these cases drawn from her research, they learned to love it, embracing it as a potent strategy for saving jobs, keeping plants open, and building better union-management relationships. Surprising fact: in 2002, unionized workers made up a larger percentage of U.S. employees holding …
What do top leaders want from HR professionals? The following information, drawn from the author’s ongoing research, provides valuable insight into what CEOs think HR managers are doing well and what competencies need developing. In general, the CEOs agreed that their HR departments did a good job in the transactional aspects of their work but …
Employee ownership (EO) usually generates two extreme reactions: EO is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or EO is hopelessly idealistic. Queen’s IRC Director Dr. Carol Beatty spent seven years studying 10 companies with employee ownership and published what she learned in the highly entertaining book, “Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage.” In …
The managers who gathered around the table to plan a large budget cut didn’t look much like a cohesive team. In fact, they resembled competing animals around a shrinking watering hole. Each had his or her own staff and mandate to protect. And everyone realized how high the stakes were: if the downsizing wasn’t done …
What skills need to be mastered for an academic team to succeed? The most important are the ability to establish effective team management practices, and developing advanced communications and problem-solving skills.
This review of the academic literature considers the prevalence of work teams in industry, and what factors influence whether self-managing teams become high-powered, or low-performing.
This customer service case study looks at change at a large telecomm and telephone company in the process of being privatized.
Research has revealed that often, mergers mean high failure rates, sinking profits and negative human resources impacts. This study identifies success factors and provides advice for managers for navigating a merger successfully.
In this paper the authors look at the evidence of increased employee ownership in Canada. Employee ownership of a company may involve a 100 percent buyout to avoid closure, a transfer of ownership to employees (e.g., at the retirement of the owner), or the establishment of a company stock purchase plan. The paper looks at case studies of seven employee-owned firms in Canada. The studies show that employee ownership has meant survival, a return to profitability, and in many situations continued growth for these companies.