I’ve been a fan of taking public transportation for many years (I’ve also lived in places where public transportation is safe and clean), but these days my commuter train is so packed with people it’s hard to find a seat sometimes. A year ago I was often one of five people in a train car which holds fifty. A recent article in Business Week seems to have come across the same phenomenon. Suddenly It’s Cool to Take the Bus takes a look at how people are changing their commuting habits and liking it. It seems like in Boston people are also making the change in the article Gas Prices Pushing Boston Drivers Out Of Cars, Into Public Transportation.
According to a paper written for the National Bureau of Economic Research entitled The Macro-Foundations of Microeconomics by GSB Professor Paul Oyer, MBAs can expect up to a decade of decreased salaries after an economic downturn. An article in The Stanford Daily takes a look at job prospects for soon to graduate MBAs. Read what MBAs have to say and what the bloodbath is all about in MBAs Crafting Careers Despite Downturn.
According to an article in the December issue of Jungle (Dec 2007, page 31) women don’t want what men want when it comes to work. There is a distinct difference between male and female populations of MBAs as to what they view as important when looking for a job. Women look for a company that fosters a diverse workplace and is committed to social responsibility. They also want a place that offers them at least a semblance of a personal life. The article lists 100 ideal employers for women. Read more (the full article is in the print issue in the Library.)
A blog by GSB Professor Bob Sutton notes a recent HBR piece that argues female corporate superstars are importable across firms, their male counterparts less so. Sutton points to Harvard Professor Boris Groysberg's article 'How Star Women Build Portable Skills' in the Harvard Business Review, that makes the case for the transferability of women superstar employees. Groysberg writes that there are at least two explanations for this discrepancy ... Well, you'll need to read the article. Or at least Bob Sutton's blog. The issue is on our current periodical racks in Jackson Library (or, if you are a member of the Stanford community, go to the Business Source Complete database.)
"Why can't a woman be more like a man?" complained Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. Springing off this quote, the cover story of the December Jungle issue, Women Taking Charge, focuses on differing perceptions of male and female aggression in the workplace. The article includes mention of a 2007 Catalyst report 'The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned If You Do, Doomed If You Don't' in reflecting on women's challenges for advancement. In today's workplace, author Gwenda Blair notes, male assertiveness is accepted as normal, while an assertive female can be labeled with the 'b' word (it rhymes with 'hitch'). The article goes on to suggest how women can fight stereotyping. In the same issue is a Top 100 'Ideal Employers of Women', with companies like Google, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs and Nike leading the list. Read the article online or see the issue in Jackson Library.
Struggling with an abusive creep in your workplace? GSB Professor Bob Sutton offers more suggestions on dealing with the perennial office brat on his blog, with his contribution Latest Tips for Surviving Workplace Assholes. Sutton, whose bestseller The No Asshole Rule recently won a Quill Award for best business book, constantly receives emails about personal experiences and case histories from his readers, and incorporates at least some of these into his blog. If you are fighting the good fight against a demeaning coworker or obnoxious supervisor, Sutton advises, "Escape, if you can!" No place to run? Read on for more tips.
Deficient in the academic literature involving knowledge management is consideration of organizational ecology: the role that physical settings play in various types of learning. Static work environments, tall walls, closed doors, and space governed strictly by rank and status, for example, tend to impede innovation.
Drawing in part on the work of Pfeffer, Hargadon and Sutton, Professor Franklin Becker (Cornell University) notes that “knowledge intended to foster creativity and innovation depends not just on a free flow of information …, but on the recombination of non-obvious knowledge in ways that trigger novel solutions to complex problems.” According to Becker and his colleagues, within organizations productive processing (of sometimes 'crazy ideas') tends to occur face-to-face in non-official “neutral zones”, as opposed to in faculty offices, for example. Findings like these have utilitarian, managerial, and structural implications for the workplace. From Becker's ecological point of view, flows that bolster innovative ideas and performance can often be improved by (re)designing workspaces to better enable chance encounters.
Following 25 years of research and consulting, Becker's arrived at five propositions ('neutral zones' among them) for "link[ing] how workspace is designed, used, and managed in dynamic organizations ..." Explore them in the California Management Review (Winter 2007). Or for condensed coverage of his 'big five' see the Fall issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review (both items available at Jackson Library).
For all you 600-pound gorillas: Jungle magazine (August / September) tackles the proverbial office 800-pound gorilla. Its cover story "Alpha Force" highlights alpha males in every company, and how to (ahem) ape them for power and profit. These are the high-octane corporate captains who set the company terror alert to Code Orange -- enough to keep underlings motivated without causing permanent coronary damage. Included are examples of 'bad' alphas (e.g. Harvey Weinstein, Martha Stewart) as well as warnings about trying too hard (e.g. territorially marking subordinates' desks instead of using the washroom, replacing Casual Fridays with 'Casualty Fridays', where someone gets fired.)
Also included in the issue are various tips on handling busy work, interviewing observations from a recruiter at Google, ways to spend a million bucks, wine recommendations, laying out a churrasco barbecue, interview survival strategies, and the 100 Most Desirable MBA Employers (Google is # 1 -- surprise!) Read it all in Jackson Library.
Tom Peters blogs about a book by his 'Cool Friend', author and columnist Penelope Trunk : Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. Trunk muses that management is buying mass orders of the book to understand how to recruit Generation Y. She is full of counter-intuitive advice, and her own career choices have been featured in Time magazine. On Peters' blog you can read an interview with Trunk, who in former phases of her life slaughtered chickens in France, worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and answered fan mail for 1940s swim star Esther Williams. Now if all that doesn't qualify one to write about success, I don't know what does. (NOTE: Jackson Library has a copy on order.)
The article in August issue of Inc. magazine is all about bringing fun into a workplace. You can even call it making fun a company’s policy. It looks like many successful companies find that some happy times at work greatly benefit their companies in business sense. You can find out some of the real-life practices the companies employ create an atmosphere where the employees and customers feel comfortable and happy. Such as in the words of Paul Spiegelman, the CEO of Beryl Companies (call-centers), “Employees don’t always love the work. But they sure love coming to work.” The article is interesting and, actually, fun to read. Find it in on display in the periodicals section of Jackson Library.
Tom Peters' blog highlights the book Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett ( When the Bough Breaks, The War Against Parents ). Hewlett has been researching transitions in and out of careers and women in the workplace. Check out the interview of Hewlett as she talks about the male competitive model of work, eldercare, loss of female talent in the workplace, the 'unwritten rules' of organizations, and special programs reaching out to women at different companies.
Looking for a job change? HR Magazine July 2007 issue features its latest 50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work for in America. The list includes data on Employees, Staffing, Employee Training, Paid Leave, Health Care, and 401(K) or 403(B) plans for each company. Also included are cameo articles on the top firms, such as Badger Mining Corporation, Triage Consulting Group, and Holder Construction. You can find the issue in Jackson Library. Or go online to read last year's list.
Black Enterprise in its July issue offers its third annual survey of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity. Included are breakdowns such as the 15 best firms in marketing diversity, supplier diversity, senior management diversity, workplace diversity and more, as well as brief summaries of pack leaders and programs they have created to foster a diverse workplace. As the piece notes, corporations have long moved past simply discussing diversity; today, African-Americans lead Merrill Lynch, Aetna and Time Warner. Read a short version online, or the full piece in the issue in Jackson Library.
Want to toss your boss? For good reason? GSB Professor Bob Sutton ( The No Asshole Rule ) reports on his blog that Gawker is holding an Evil Boss Competition, focusing on bad NY bosses. If it applies, perhaps you should get your vote in and add your own comments to this growing catalog of horrors. Otherwise, watch from a distance -- and be grateful. Sutton cites it approvingly as part of the (growing?) movement to stigmatize the monsters among us and build a better workplace.
Happy at your job? Got perks? Like your colleagues? Fortune highlights The 100 Best Companies to Work For. You can look up the January 22 issue in Jackson, or read the Web version. Leading the pack? Google, where 11 on-site restaurants on the company campus are business as usual; employees sample Irish oatmeal at the Plymouth Rock Cafe, tapas at Cafe Pintxo, and roast quail at Cafe Seven. (Rumor says company heads mandated that no worker be more than 150 feet away from a food source.) And to work off the calories, 'Googlers' can climb, play beach volleyball, and swim -- without leaving the office. Other firms in the top 10 include Genentech, Whole Foods Market, Network Appliance and Boston Consulting. Highlight articles cover super-perks, top benefits, and diversity. Your firm not on the list? Find out how the other half lives.
Safeway is 'Cultivating Female Leaders'. That's the title of the February cover story of HRMagazine. According to a 2004 study by Catalyst, a research group that targets women's issues, Fortune 500 firms with the highest percentages of female corporate officers saw a 35.1 % higher return on equity, on average. While the rate of women entering the upper echelons of American business seems to have slowed, some companies are making significant progress in diversity. Safeway is such a company. 70% of its customers are women, and the company wanted to reflect that base in its structure. Among the resources available to women is a women's leadership network, which sponsors events like the 'Women's Road Show', presentations that highlight female success stories from the company. Read more about how Safeway, in the words of CEO Steve Burd, approached gender diversity as a business issue -- "just like we do any other important objective."
Included on the Web is a link to Catalyst survey data.
Looking for a new job? You're not alone. In a recent CNNMoney.com poll, almost 49% of respondents said they were looking to change jobs in 2007. Where to look? Seekers could start with the Fortune Best Companies to Work For 2007, or go straight to the favorite Google #1 on Fortune's list. Perks n' pay were the overwhelming motivation for a job change, though "yucky boss" also inspired desire for change. Read the full story from CNNMoney.com.
Guy Kawasaki on his blog delves into the hot career promotional tool LinkedIn. 'Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn' lists how you can turn this network to your advantage when considering a potential job change. Among his tips: checking references of a person to find out who worked at their firm at the same time, learning the tastes and background of the people you will be interviewing with, assessing the turnover rate of the firm in which you are interested, tracking folks who are initiating startups, and more. If you have been thinking of that job or career change, learn how LinkedIn can work for you.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on 12/6/06 that because of the rising cost of health care, firms are being more aggressive in encouraging their employees to "get fit". the L.L. Bean company for example increased the prices of burgers and lowered the price of salad in their cafeteria in an effort to push healthier eating alternatives. So stand up back away from your desk and give me "50"!
Ed Batista blogs a short meditation on work with 'The Inner Game of Work: Who are You Working For?' He reflects on Tim Gallwey's book 'The Inner Game of Work', recalling a dialog in the final chapter: 'I am not a slave to anything. I do not work under pressure. I am someone who has something to reveal and who wants to reveal it. I am free and only work freely.' Brave and confident words from this voice that seems so faint and gentle. It appears so much smaller than the voices demanding that I must get my work done. It is distinctly different from the voice of obligation and duty that counsels me to meet my responsibilities to others. That voice comes through loud and clear. The one I am listening to now has another tone and another message ... 'I work for myself. I love what I do. I consider work one of the most wonderful opportunities of being alive. Work is my play. But it is play with a purpose. The purpose is mine ..."
Batista denies that choosing to work for yourself implies self-centeredness: 'I wholly agree with Glen Sartain that "in meeting other's needs we find true happiness." But there's a paradox here that we each must confront and resolve in our own way: We need to listen to our inner voice and work freely for ourselves without simply giving in to indulgent whims. And we need to be of service and to create value for others without simply responding to external demands and obligations.'
You can find the book 'The Inner Game of Work' at Jackson Library. Call number: BF481 .G27 2000.
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