Working Papers

Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations

Building a Collaboration Capability for Sustainability: How Gap Inc. is Creating and Leveraging a Strategic Asset

Christopher G. Worley (CEO), Ann E. Feyerherm (Pepperdine University), and Darryl Knudsen (Gap Inc.) share how organizations are being challenged to find socially acceptable and ecologically proactive solutions while fulfilling economic expectations.

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The Organizational Sustainability Journey: Introduction to the Special Issue

Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) and Christopher G. Worley (CEO) share how sustainability has become a prominent topic in the popular press, corporate boardrooms, political arenas, and academia. Conversations and debates about what it is, why it is important, what should be done about it, and how quickly we should act are pervasive.

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Impact of Recession: What Has Happened to HR?

Edward E. Lawler III (CEO), Jay Jamrog (i4cp, Inc.), and John Boudreau (CEO) ask the question “What has been the effect of the recession on HR?” There is a lot of speculation about how it has affected the function, but little data exist on what has happened. Let’s look at two scenarios about might have happened and then look at some data that show which one seems to have occurred most frequently.

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What is the Best Way to Design Your Employees’ Jobs?

Different jobs and businesses require professionals with different skills. Michael Gibbs, Clinical Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Alec Levenson, Research Scientist at the USC, explain the advantages and disadvantages of two opposite, yet complementary, approaches used to design employee jobs.

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HRM in IPOs

Want to Make Money on the New Initial Public Offerings? Learn about their Human Resource Management Strategies. This article by Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO) reports critical information for firms planning to go public and those going through high rates of change.

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Raising Skill Demand: Generating Good Jobs

Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) and George S. Benson (University of Texas) discuss how there have been profound changes in the global economy and corporate landscape over the last 40 years but advocates of “high road” management approaches that emphasize highly skilled and involved employees continue for several reasons.

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Rethinking Retention Strategies: Work-Life Versus Deferred Compensation in a Total Rewards Strategy

This paper by Alec R. Levenson (CEO), Michael J. Fenlon (PwC), and George Benson (University of Texas) explains a rethinking of the meaning of total rewards that led to changes that produced lasting reductions in turnover and direct bottom-line benefits.

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The Multi-Dimensional and Reconfigurable Organization

In this paper Jay R. Galbraith argues that multi-dimensional organizations like Procter & Gamble’s Four Pillars structure are a new form of organization.

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CHROs and Boards: A Missing Link

Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) states that it’s not a pretty picture – in fact, it is not much of a picture at all! The relationship between corporate boards and CHROs is often so distant as to be of little practical significance from a board and organizational effectiveness perspective.

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Built to Change Organizations: Industry Influences and Performance Implications

Christopher G. Worley (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) define organization agility as “an evolving change and design capability, a leadership challenge that is never finished, only approached over time, but which yields consistently high levels of sustainable effectiveness.”

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Built to Change Organizations and Responsible Progress – Twin Pillars of Sustainable Success

Christopher G. Worley (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) propose an integration called “responsible progress” and suggest that is represents an important new stream of organization development theory.

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Where Counting Counts: Data Document a Dramatic Turnaround in Employee Relations among Accounting Professionals

This paper by Michael J. Fenlon (PwC) and Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) describes PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PwC) situation starting in the early 2000’s, when a serious problem with turnover was costing the firm “approximately $40 million annually.”

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