Business has always been a team sport, but over the past two decades, teams have become a much more central concern for managers. Pushed by the automation of repetitive tasks and pulled by the need to innovate, many senior executives now believe that their future depends largely on the performance of their teams. But although technology is advancing, people are not. A recent survey among MBA students and degree holders shows that only 29% said that their teams were organized in a way that gave them a three-quarter shot at success.
What is Causing the Gender Payment Gap Among Top Executives?
Will two executive-level people doing the same job with the same education background and experience be paid differently? The answer is yes. And unsurprisingly, one of the two is female. How big is the gender pay gap at the executive level? Professor Huang Rong at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, who studied a sample of over 34,000 executives from US publicly traded firms using data spanning an 18-year period, found women executives are paid 31% less than male executives. Although it can partly be explained by objective considerations such as title, experience, company size and performance, a 19% gap still exists.
Is China Pumping the Brakes on its Transition to a Services-Based Economy?
The World Bank estimates that up to 77% of jobs in China could be made redundant by machines in the long term. Investing in robots will become more attractive for manufacturers. The Chinese government also pledges to make China a “world factory” of robots. But real changes are much slower. Reports say that large numbers of workers are still used on production lines doing repetitive tasks such as scrubbing speaker systems with toothbrushes. Despite the fact that China’s labor costs are six times higher than 10 years ago, workers are often still cheaper than robots in short term.
Do Smartphones Make Us Smarter?
Are smartphones making us smarter? Bosses are especially concerned about this at the workplace because people check their phones as often as 150 times a day–meaning we may be distracted more than 50% of the time at work and have lower productivity. However, our devices are good for relationship building, and having a good friend at work tends to extend an employee’s stay at a job. In addition, smartphone use helps ensure that the workday never really ends and work time can extend into evenings and weekends. This could be both good and bad news because long hours can translate into lower productivity and, eventually, illness.
Managing Millennials in the Workplace
For most of human history, integrating a new generation into society has been pretty straightforward: The youngsters were shown what needed to be done, they did it as well as they could (or faced serious consequences if they didn’t), and, over time, earned a place for themselves in society. But things are different now. Executives all over the world have reported that they have difficulty not only managing this new generation but even understanding them. These young employees, their managers say, are responding differently from prior generations to everything, from assignments to incentives. Can managers cope with a new generation?
The End of the Office: Managing Remote Workers and Other Challenges
Management was never easy—“like herding cats,” as the old joke puts it—but in the old days, the cats were at least in the same alley. Today, management may be more challenging still, as executives must lead an ever-changing stream of employees and independent contractors—who may or may not be in the same building or even in the same city—as they navigate through an ever-changing technological landscape, and deliver on objectives that may also shift. So what are the positive and negative aspects of working remotely? How is the employee mindset and the management style of employers affected?
So long, Cube Farmer: Telecommuting, Co-working and the End of the Office
Do you like to work in a café like Starbucks or do you prefer staying in your cubical at the office? Today, fewer people are working in traditional offices, as most administrative work is either being automated or outsourced to cheaper markets, reducing the need for the in-house typing pools and IT services that once took up a lot of room. Young professionals, instead of being assigned to a desk, like to choose where they sit and work. The ideal place should be comfortable, with an open, cozy coffee-shop style. A boss-less office space is becoming increasingly popular.
Talent Management, an Interview with Edward E. Lawler III
Business has changed, specifically the relationship between management and employees. Once upon a time, companies offered careers—long-term, stable employment wherein the employee filled a narrowly-defined role. In past generations, it was common to spend an entire working lifetime at a single company, but now most millennials are ‘less loyal’ to employers, they go where their talents are valued. Edward E. Lawler III, Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California, expounds on the new model, which he terms “talent management”, a new paradigm focuses on the critical needs of a business, and finding the right people that can fulfill them.
The Wizards of Zhongguancun: The Rise of Online Vocational Schools in China
Youngsters in China are looking for a more pragmatic approach to education that will lead to more money and a part to play in China’s much ballyhooed rise to a country of innovators. A 2014 report from iResearch, estimates that the number of online education learners in the country will surpass 120 million in 2017, an almost 80% increase in student numbers from 2013, and that online education revenue will more than double over the same period. Of all the sub-sectors within the online education industry, vocational education stands out as one of the key drivers of the industry’s future success.
Firing the Annual Performance Review
Why are more and more companies—from Accenture to Deloitte—jettisoning the dreaded practice of the annual performance review.
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