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Abraham Zaleznik wrote about "The Dynamics of Subordinacy" more than four decades ago. Fifteen years ago, Jack Gabarro and John Kotter published a piece called "Managing Your Boss," in which they advocated: (1) understanding your boss and his or her "goals and objectives, pressures, strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, and preferred work styles"; (2) understanding yourself and your needs, including "strengths and weaknesses, personal style, and predisposition toward dependence on authority figures"; and (3) developing and maintaining a relationship that is centered around such things as frequent communication, an understanding of mutual expectations, dependability and honesty, and selective use of "your boss's time and resources." Now Barbara Kellerman in her new book, Followership , asks where leaders would be without good followers. This question may be particularly significant in an age when followers find it easier to organize,...

Writing in the Spring 2008 issue of MIT - Sloan Management Review , George S. Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker talk of vigilant leaders. Vigilant leaders are those who make a practice of being abundantly alert and deeply curious so that they can detect, and act on, the earliest signs of threat or opportunity. They seek to nurture equally vigilant employees by modeling such behavior and by providing incentives for managers to look for — and interpret — weak signals. While such icons as Andy Grove and Jack Welch exemplify vigilant CEOs, the trait remains in short supply. That is a conclusion the coauthors reached after surveying 119 global companies about their overall capacity for diligence. Among their findings: Just 23% of the businesses were run by CEOs who tried to pick up weak signals from the periphery. Most leaders, they theorize, rise to the top by demonstrating superior operational skills. To help leaders recognize and develop the habit of vigilance, the researchers examine in det...

If you’ve found yourself putting off important tasks over and over again, it’s time you consult a psychologist. Going by a new study, you may be suffering from a condition that can require therapy. A team of international researchers has found that procrastinators are impatient people. In fact, they have traced a clear link between the two opposite traits which are “actually different aspects of the same condition.” “Procrastination seriously affects our productivity at work and can cost people considerable amounts of money as they postpone work indefinitely. “People don’t want to procrastinate — it is just that their impatience gets in the way, researcher Ernesto Reuben of the Kellogg School of Management told The Daily Telegraph . — PTI Ref: http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/11/stories/2008021156502000.htm For the full paper, send a mail to manedge@gmail.com

It’s critical to distribute information quickly and reliably throughout an organization. Today, e-mail is the primary means of information dispersal, but is it the most efficient? In their paper titled Productivity Effects of Information Diffusion in Networks, t he authors – Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson and Marshall W Van Alstyne – analyzed 10 months’ worth of e-mail (more than 125,000 messages in total), as well as five years of revenue data and employee interactions at a mid-sized executive recruiting firm. They identified two types of information that employees shared with one another. The first was “event news”: simple, declarative messages, about such news as forthcoming layoffs or a significant change in top management, that were spread both vertically and laterally throughout the organization in a rapid and pervasive manner. The information moved quickly among employees with little regard to reporting relationships. The second type was labeled “discussion topics”: more specific...

As every company knows, employees are its greatest resource. It's more than a shame, then, that many workers are either not encouraged or afraid to speak up and communicate ideas at work. Employers are losing valuable knowledge and experience, and their companies are weaker for that loss. Latent voice episodes and Upward voice Latent voice episodes describe those moments at work when someone considers speaking up about an issue, problem, or even an improvement opportunity. How do people think about speaking up? The episodes are called "latent" because they are potential communications that may or may not in fact occur. Understanding the factors that encourage or inhibit people speaking up at work with the relevant ideas and concerns they have is the focus of this research. Upward voice refers to communications directed to someone higher in the organizational hierarchy with the perceived power or authority to take action on the problem or suggestion. T...