This article by Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and Christopher G. Worley (CEO) uses case studies on Netflix and oDesk to show that organizations can create an agile workforce by adopting a set of talent management practices that encourage employees to learn and develop, and by reducing the transaction costs associated with changing the skill sets in their workforce.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Eliminating Performance Appraisals
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) asks the question “Should organizations stop doing performance appraisals?” The argument in favor of eliminating them is that they frequently do more damage than good.
Individualizing Organizations: What it takes
Forty years ago, Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) wrote an article arguing that organizations could be more effective and provide a better quality of life for their employees if they would individualize their relationship with their employees.
Executive Team Member Needed
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) shares how in order to survive, organizations have had to keep pace with the changes that have occurred. In the future they will have to keep up with an increasingly rapid rate of change in order to survive.
Talent Analytics Measurement and Reporting: Building a Decision Science or Merely Tracking Activity?
John W. Boudreau (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) ask the question “Is the use and effectiveness of talent and HR reporting progressing from a focus on cost-efficiency and process-effectiveness, and toward a balanced combination that includes them, but extends to strategic measures than enhance talent and business decisions?”
Using Motivation Theory to Improve Gamification
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explore the topic of gamification. Today, the purposeful use of games in work settings is growing rapidly. Organizations are rapidly embracing the systematic use of “gamification,” which brings game-like elements to core managerial processes.
Pay Strategy Fundamentals Course with Ed Lawler on Lynda.com
One of the world’s leading experts on pay, Ed Lawler explains the strategic role of pay in attracting and retaining employees and in organizational design and culture.
Revised Employee Involvement: Research Foundations
George S. Benson (University of Texas) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) share that high-involvement management practices (defined as an integrated set of Human Resource and work design practices that are designed to give all employees the skills, information, power, and rewards to make decisions in the workplace) have generated enormous interest among researchers in many different disciplines and geographies.
What HR Executives Need to Know
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explains that talking about HR as a business partner certainly does not help the situation. Asking to be a business partner just does not get the “job done”. This is what HR should be, and in most cases, it should make a very strong argument to be positioned as a major strategic contributor.
Strategic Role of HR
What is the relationship between the design and management of the HR function and HR’s role in organizational strategy? This is the key design question and one that can be answered by examining the research evidence from John W. Boudreau’s (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler’s III (CEO) international survey of hundreds of HR leaders that has been done every three years since 1995.
Sustainable Effectiveness Governance Model: Moving Corporations Beyond the Philanthropy Paradigm
This article by Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and Jay A. Conger (CEO) argues that the ‘sustainable effectiveness’ model of how organizations should operate is a stark contrast to the philanthropic.
The Crucial-and Underappreciated-Role of HR in Sustainability
Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) explain that companies that perform well with respect to sustainability can be distinguished from those that don’t by an array of organizational design features.