articles 1 to 15 of 25
One Social Entrepreneur's Aid for Egypt's Poor: Finding Them Jobs and Acceptance
Egypt's poor are among the worst-off in the Middle East, often shut out from finding better-paying work in one of the region's largest economies. Raghda El Ebrashi has sought to close that gap, pushing the private sector to employ more from the country's lower ranks, while showing ordinary Egyptians how to become more upwardly mobile. The social entrepreneur tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton, "I hate lines that separate people, and I hate boundaries."
Published: February 19, 2013
'More than Coffee Chats and Emails': Sustainable Networking Requires Effort, Authenticity
It's a common refrain in the business world: Networking is the key to success. Building relationships is pivotal. It's not what you know, but whom you know. Yet successful networking goes far beyond handshakes and business card exchanges, noted speakers at the recent 14th Annual Wharton Women in Business Conference.
Published: December 11, 2012
In Yemen, a Different Kind of Battle: Getting People Trained and Finding Good Bureaucrats
Shawki Ahmed Hayel Saeed was the chief financial officer of his family's multinational business before he was tapped to become the governor of a southern Yemeni province. Saeed has his work cut out for him -- the country topped Forbes' "World's Worst Economies" list. But the 51-year-old tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that he can get things moving. He has the regional contacts to tap for funding and wants to get people ready to work in more stable jobs. What he needs are training programs and enough dedicated civil servants to get government working better.
Published: September 18, 2012
Seems Awkward, Ignores the Rules, but Brilliant: Meet the Maverick Job Candidate
Elliroma Gardiner, an organizational psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, found that employees with maverick personalities could be secret weapons for making a business successful. By encouraging creative, independent thinkers to come up with innovative, brilliant ideas and giving workers the support and time to pursue their projects, companies could introduce the next Angry Birds or Google News to the marketplace. Gardiner tells Arabic Knowledge@Wharton that in an economic climate where employees are being asked to do more with fewer resources, hiring that maverick employee may be the way a company can increase its profits.
Published: June 26, 2012
Shrouded in Mystery: Chinese Executive Compensation and the Numbers Behind the Numbers
Since China opened up to the world with its sweeping economic reforms and growth of private-sector enterprises, the model of executive compensation in the country has increasingly mirrored ones in the United States and Europe. So why are Chinese executives paid only a fraction of the compensation earned by their American counterparts in companies of equal size in the same industries? Or are they?
Published: May 14, 2012
Hold That Password: The New Reality of Evaluating Job Applicants
Reports that some employers are asking job candidates to provide their Facebook logon information has generated intense outrage from some circles, along with a bevy of legal and privacy-related questions. But these recent events only highlight a new reality: The identity that individuals create in the world of social media is quickly becoming an important factor in hiring decisions and in people's broader professional lives.
Published: April 16, 2012
Will a Shortage of Qualified Labor Derail the Brazilian Economy?
Brazil is booming. In contrast to the economies of the U.S. and the Eurozone -- where a mix of debt woes, dysfunctional politics and consumer weakness has conspired to dampen economic growth -- Brazil is on track for yet another year of above-average GDP performance. However, while outsized economic growth brings the promise of greater national prosperity, it also poses a host of new challenges, some of which the country may not be fully prepared to address. Chief among them is a shortage of qualified labor.
Published: January 24, 2012
Just How Thin is the Glass Ceiling for China's Businesswomen?
For many of China's businesswomen, the country is a hotbed of opportunity. Many Chinese corporate high-flyers report little if any of the gender inequality holding back their counterparts in other countries. Yet despite the admirable stride forward, signs are emerging that businesswomen in China should temper their optimism with a large dose of caution. Their presence in the workplace may be growing, but experts wonder whether they're getting the same crack at key corporate leadership roles as their male colleagues.
Published: November 08, 2011
Gross Domestic Happiness: What Is the Relationship between Money and Well-being?
What exactly is the relationship between money and happiness? It's a difficult question to pin down, experts say. While more money may make us happier, other considerations -- such as whether you live in an economically advanced country and how you think about your time -- also play into the equation. An increasing number of economists, sociologists and psychologists are now working in the field, and most agree that there is a strong link between a country's level of economic development and the happiness of its people.
Published: February 08, 2011
Not a Lost Generation, but a 'Disappointed' One: The Job Market's Impact on Millennials
Members of Generation Y -- a group of approximately 70 million young people between the ages of 15 and 30 -- are starting their careers in perhaps the worst job market since the Great Depression. Experts say the experience creates both immediate and long-term negative impacts, including lower salaries now and in the future. And while their reduced spending power is not expected to have a lasting drag on the U.S. economy, it does have significant repercussions for how these young people conduct their adult lives and careers.
Published: November 16, 2010
You've Come a Long Way, Baby ... or Maybe Not: Why Women are Losing Ground on Wall Street
Consider these recent reports in the financial press: Even though women hold a minority of financial sector jobs, five times as many women as men were laid off after the start of the recession. Meanwhile, the pay gap between men and women in the industry actually widened between 2000 and 2007. The result is that while women in the broader work force have made significant progress toward pay and opportunity parity, they have actually lost ground on Wall Street. Is the financial services industry just an inhospitable place for women, or are there better opportunities elsewhere? Wharton faculty and others weigh in.
Published: November 16, 2010
Stubborn Obstacles: What's Hindering Female Engineers?
In China, 40% of engineers are women, and in the former USSR, women accounted for 58% of the engineering workforce. But in Western countries, and in a large number of emerging economies, the feminization of engineering continues to be very slow, and now seems to have reached a growth limit. Experts have pointed out factors in engineering education that discourage female students, but workplace inequalities are also real reasons why there aren't more women in engineering.
Published: November 16, 2010
Rethinking the Power of Money: How Has the Financial Crisis Affected HR Management in China?
The job market for white-collar workers in China is buoyant once again if rising salaries and attrition rates are anything to go by. That's leaving HR professionals facing many of the same hiring and retention headaches they grappled with in the pre-financial crisis days. But while the overall challenges are old, HR strategists say much has changed -- particularly for companies that tarnished reputations with big job cuts and office closures during the economic downturn -- and they now need a new plan of action to attract and retain the best employees.
Published: October 05, 2010
'Upsetting the Natural Order': Managing Employees Old Enough to Be Your Parents
If one looks at the research on older workers, one finds what Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, calls "an incredible amount of discrimination, bigger even than discrimination against race or gender." Older people, he says, often find it difficult to get a job, partly because relatively young supervisors are reluctant to hire and then manage employees who are decades older, even though these employees are the type of worker many employers say they want. In a new book titled, Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, Cappelli and Bill Novelli, former CEO of AARP, analyze this phenomenon.
Published: September 21, 2010
India's Next IT Upgrade: To Better Align Employee Performance with Rewards
During the high-growth phase of the Indian information technology (IT) industry, human resources management was all about hiring in large numbers and lowering attrition. The recent slowdown, however, has made organizations more demanding of their employees. The focus has shifted to building competencies and increasing productivity, and employees are now being evaluated more stringently on the value they bring to the table. But experts warn that with the economic recovery gathering pace, the lessons of the downturn could soon be forgotten.
Published: September 07, 2010
