articles 1 to 10 of 139
Balancing the Pay Scale: 'Fair' vs. 'Unfair'
Whether you are a shelf stocker at Walmart or an equity analyst at an investment bank, you may feel that you are not adequately compensated for the work you do -- in other words, you are underpaid. But underpaid relative to what? How do employers determine whether compensation is fair, and if it's not, what consequences can that have for the organization?
From: May 22, 2013
Productivity in the Modern Office: A Matter of Impact
More than 50 years after management guru Peter Drucker first wrote about the difficulty of defining and measuring the productivity of knowledge workers, management experts say many companies still do a poor job of it. To get a better gauge of how much employees are accomplishing, experts say managers need to remember that quality is often as important, if not more so, than quantity, and that blanket policies rarely remedy such a highly individualized issue.
From: May 08, 2013
Is the Party Over? The Unintended Consequences of Office Social Events
The office holiday party, the company softball league and the baby shower for the woman who sits three cubicles away are all part of the social rhythms and obligations of the modern workplace, ostensibly meant to help us form and maintain close relationships with our colleagues. But according to new research coauthored by Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard, while these seemingly innocuous teambuilding activities can yield positive results in some cases, they also can have unintended consequences for members of racially diverse teams.
From: March 27, 2013
How Disruptive Behavior by Employees Can Devastate a Workplace
To Jody Foster, disruptive people in any type of organization -- from a big corporation to a major health center -- can poison the atmosphere for everyone with whom they interact. Foster, who is chair of the department of psychiatry at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia and who also has an MBA, talked with Knowledge@Wharton about different types of unprofessional behaviors -- from bullying to compulsive micromanaging to narcissism -- and what organizations can do about them.
From: March 27, 2013
When Working at Home Is Productive, and When It's Not
There are numerous tasks -- and just as many distractions -- competing for a worker's time these days. But will ending the practice of allowing employees to work from home, as Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently did, really make workers more productive and more likely to come up with innovative new ideas? Such a policy may help on some fronts, Wharton experts and others say, but it's no cure-all.
From: March 13, 2013
A Smaller Slice of the Pie: Why Technology Is No Longer Creating Jobs
Can technology set off a new boom in job creation? It's an important question given that policy makers in Washington often look to the technology sector to pick up the slack in the employment market. But four prominent economists who took part in a recent panel discussion on Wharton's San Francisco campus were generally bearish in their outlook, some even suggesting that technology increases unemployment and adds to other problems in the U.S. economy.
From: March 13, 2013
Why Being the Last Interview of the Day Could Crush Your Chances
When trying to get into graduate school or land a new job, applicants expect to be evaluated against the relative strength or weakness of the entire pool of candidates. But a recent paper co-authored by Wharton professor Uri Simonsohn suggests that perhaps they should also be worried about the timing of their interviews.
From: February 13, 2013
Anne-Marie Slaughter: Forget 'Having It All' -- Own What You Want
When Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter published an essay in The Atlantic titled, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," in July 2012, she touched a nerve across generations and set off a renewed public debate on women's progress and work-life balance. In an interview with Stewart Friedman, director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, Slaughter shares what it was like to draw back the curtain on her life as someone perceived to "have it all" and suggests how companies can make life better for both women and men. (Video with transcript)
From: February 13, 2013
Passed Over for a Promotion? How Companies Can Retain the Runner-up
Losing out on a promotion is tough, and being passed over for a high-level position in favor of another candidate -- either external or internal -- can be a deal breaker for even the most loyal company soldiers. According to experts at Wharton and elsewhere, keeping employees happy after they fail to get a promotion is an important part of protecting a company's most important asset -- its high-performing talent -- and it is one that too many firms overlook.
From: January 30, 2013
Why Anxiety Makes You a Sucker for Bad Advice
Individuals are regularly faced with weighty, anxiety-wrought decisions, and most will seek at least one person's advice before deciding what to do. But, according to recent research by Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer, anxiety -- and the hit to an individual's self-confidence that accompanies it -- can make a person more likely to take advantage of outside help and less equipped to discern between useful tips and poor guidance.
From: December 19, 2012
