Research led by Dr. Theresa Welbourne, Steven Schlachter, and Skylar Rolf focused on the leaders of ERGs and identified 5 key themes of interest on the dynamics of these groups. Using semi-structured interview techniques with ten ERG leaders in three different organizations, Welbourne, Schlachter, and Rolf sought to shed light on ERGs from a leader’s perspective.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Investing in People: Financial Impact of Human Resource Initiatives, Third Edition
The demand for organizational accountability has never been greater. The future of work, talent, and employment are changing at an unprecedented pace, and organizational decisions about how to invest in people are under increasing scrutiny. Leaders realize their decisions about human resources are crucial in an uncertain and interconnected world, yet decisions about people remain among the least systematic and evidence-based, compared to resources such as money and technology. Investing in People draws upon state-of-the art practice and research across disciplines including psychology, economics, accounting, and finance to provide HR professionals and leaders with proven guidelines for evaluating key HR initiatives.
Reinventing Jobs: A 4-Step Approach for Applying Automation to Work
Your organization has made the decision to adopt automation and artificial intelligence technologies. Now, you face difficult and stubborn questions about how to implement that decision: How, when, and where should we apply automation in our organization? Is it a stark choice between humans versus machines? How do we stay on top of these technological trends as work and automation continue to evolve?
2018 Sponsor Meeting Presentations
Downloadable PowerPoint Presentations in PDF format at the 2018 Sponsor Meeting at the Portofino Hotel in Los Angeles.
Adapting to Disruption: Frameworks and Lessons from the Field
In this webinar, Chris Worley and Sue Mohrman from USC’s Center for Effective Organizations and Beth Gunderson, Senior Director of Organization Capabilities at General Mills, will present field based learning and new frameworks for continual transformation. General Mills, like all processed foods companies, has been exposed to severe industry disruption. Beth will discuss approaches they have taken through the lens of the new models and frameworks that are needed to routinely respond to disruption.
2019 Europe Sponsor Meeting Presentations
Downloadable PowerPoint Presentations in PDF format from the 2017 Sponsor Meeting at the Portofino Hotel in Los Angeles.
Becoming Agile: How the SEAM Approach to Management Builds Adaptability
Becoming Agile: How the SEAM Approach to Management Builds Adaptability illustrates the process of becoming an agile organization. Reflecting the principles presented in The Agility Factor, readers are taken on a real-world journey of transformation and change. This...
Janice Schonwetter (AlignOrganizations): Organizational Design Refresher Webinar, 2/26/2013
Janice presents a case dealing with the redesign of HR in a large, global engineering design and services company. A very systematic example of working through the issues of leveraging services across businesses and across regions and how to organize for that.
So you Want to be Agile? Find a Balance Between “Fat” and “Muscle”, 1/10/2013
In this webinar, Chris Worley and Sue Mohrman will describe their learnings about designing organizations for agility. There are many paradoxes inherent in such designs. Agility requires accepting a certain amount of slack that absorbs the risk of investing in their future while relentlessly driving down costs in present operations; experimenting on the one hand while systematically incorporating what is learned on the other; and developing people to be ready for the future while making them expert in the present. In agile organizations, change is routine.
HR and Sustainability, 11/27/2012
Ed Lawler, Sue Mohrman, and Chris Worley took a first look at data from a new study on sustainable organizations. A just-completed CEO study focused on HR’s role in corporate sustainability activities. It looked at what HR does and what it would like to do in regards to sustainability.
Exploring the Interface of Organization Design & Work System Design – Creating Sustainably Effective Organizations, 7/17/2012
Sue Mohrman and Chris Worley examine the relationship and the full system of capabilities required to create a sustainably effective organization. Both work system design and organization design are needed and must be orchestrated in order to align the resources and activities of the organization with strategy, and to ensure that valued high quality services and products are reliably and affordably delivered to the customer.
Network Designs For Sustainable Effectiveness—What Does it Really Take to Get Beyond the Constraints of Hierarchy and Segmentation?, 9/26/2011
To get a glimpse into the network design of the future, Sue Mohrman and Chris Worley shared a framework and case examples from our research on “Organizing for Sustainability.” Guest Speaker: Sally Breyley Parker, President, Currere, Inc.