Monday 28 March 2011

Why Leaders Don't Learn from Success - Harvard Business Review

The annals of business history are full of tales of companies that once dominated their industries but fell into decline. The usual reasons offered—staying too close to existing customers, a myopic focus on short-term financial performance, and an inability to adapt business models to disruptive innovation—don’t fully explain how the leaders who had steered these firms to greatness lost their touch.

In this article we argue that success can breed failure by hindering learning at both the individual and the organizational level. We all know that learning from failure is one of the most important capacities for people and companies to develop. Yet surprisingly, learning from success can present even greater challenges. To illuminate those challenges—and identify approaches for overcoming them—we will draw from our research and from the work of other scholars in the field of behavioral decision making, and focus on three interrelated impediments to learning.

The first is the inclination to make what psychologists call fundamental attribution errors. When we succeed, we’re likely to conclude that our talents and our current model or strategy are the reasons. We also give short shrift to the part that environmental factors and random events may have played.

The second impediment is overconfidence bias: Success increases our self-assurance. Faith in ourselves is a good thing, of course, but too much of it can make us believe we don’t need to change anything.

Περισσότερα στο άρθρο του Harvard Business Review.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Reactions to Organizational Change

Reactions to Organizational Change

By Cynthia Nalevanko, Editor, Management INK
Change Recipients’ Reactions to Organizational Change: A 60-Year Review of Quantitative Studies“, by Shaul Oreg of the University of Haifa, Isreal, Maria Vakola of Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece, and Achilles Armenakis of Auburn University, Alabama, was recently published in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Professor Armenakis has provided a brief reflection on the article:
Who is the target audience for this article?
The target audience for this article is organizational change researchers, in particular, researchers who have focused in their work on explaining employees’ reactions to change. This includes Ph.D. students who might be researching the topic of organizational change for dissertation topics as well as organizational scientists/consultants interested in conducting research for organizational change projects. The information on the 79 quantitative research articles we reviewed can be used to stimulate testable research questions/hypotheses as well as provide guidance in selecting assessment scales and experimental/quasi-experimental designs that have been used in organizational change research.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Researcher Job in Thessaloniki [short term contract – 5 months]


Dr. Anthony Montgomery (University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki) is looking for a researcher for a short term project (5 months). The project will start in October 2011 and the pay will be 1,000 Euro per month [You need to deduct taxes and health insurance from this figure] . The position will be located in the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki.
Ideally, the position would suit an applicant with an MSc in health psychology or organisational psychology. The position is connected to a larger European project concerning organisational culture and job burnout among healthcare professionals. See the following website for more detail; http://orcab.web.auth.gr/orcab/Index.html
The position will involve data collection, data analysis and report writing. There is the possibility to develop the position into a full time PhD with Dr. Montgomery.Please send a 2-page CV (12 font) and highlight what experience you have in scientific writing in English. CV’s that are longer than 2 pages will be rejected. The closing date for submission of your CV is 31st March 2011. Email your CV to antmont@uom.gr


Ο Dr. Anthony Montgomery (Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη) ψάχνει για έναν ερευνητή για ένα μικρό χρονικό διάστημα (5 μήνες). Η έρευνα θα ξεκινήσει τον Οκτώβριο του 2011 και ο μισθός είναι 1,000 ευρώ/μήνα (συμπεριλαμβανομένου του φόρου και ασφάλεια). Η θέση που προσφέρεται είναι στο Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη.
ιδανικά, η θέση σχετίζεται με κάποιον που έχει μεταπτυχιακό στην Ψυχολογία της Υγείας ή Οργανωτική Ψυχολογία. Η θέση σχετίζεται με ένα μεγαλύτερο Ευρωπαικό project πάνω στην οργανωτική κουλτούρα και επαγγελματική εξουθένωση στους επαγγελματίες υγείας. Παρακάτω σας στέλνω το link http://orcab.web.auth.gr/orcab/Index.html για περισσότερες πληροφορίες.
Η θέση συμπεριλαμβάνει συλλογή δεδομένων, ανάλυση δεδομένων και σύνταξη αναφορών. Υπάρχει η δυνατότητα να εξελιχθεί η θέση σε ένα διδακτορικό με τον Dr. Montgomery.