E. Lawler and D. Finegold discuss that one approach to attracting, retaining, and motivating employees is to individualize the relationship they have with an organization.
Working Papers
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Pay Strategy – New Thinking for the New Millennium
Ed Lawler argues that it is time for new thinking, new practices and more strategic direction in the pay systems of organizations.
Resolving Communication Dilemmas in Database-Mediated Collaboration
Michael E. Kalman, Peter R. Monge, Janet Fulk, and Rebecca Heino discuss how in organizational settings, a communication dilemma exists whenever the interests of a collective (i.e., team, organization, interorganizational alliance) demand that people voluntarily share privately held information, but their individual interests motivate them to withhold it instead.
To Stay or to Go: Voluntary Survivor Turnover Following an Organizational Downsizing
This paper by Gretchen M. Spreitzer and Aneil K. Mishra examines how survivor reactions to a downsizing influence their retention with a firm two years following a downsizing.
Preserving Commitment During Downsizing: Examining the Mitigating Effects of Trust and Empowerment
Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) stress theory, Gretchen Spreitzer and Aneil K. Mishra hypothesize that the negative effects of downsizing on commitment can be mitigated when trust and empowerment are high.
Consulting to Team-Based Organizations: An Organizational Design and Learning Approach
S. Mohrman and K. Quam discuss how team-based organizations follow a different logic from traditional hierarchical organizations that rely primarily on individuals as the primary performing unit.
Pay System Change: Lag, Lead, or Both?
Edward Lawler explains that changes in an organization’s pay system are usually high visibility, high impact and difficult to execute. As a result they are often considered “hot” change levers that potentially can derail as well as support an organizational change effort.
Designing the Innovating Organization
Innovation is one of those curious phenomena which is universally desirable. Jay R. Galbraith argues that when it comes to creating it inside of existing organizations, innovation is one of the most difficult things to produce let alone to master.
Breaking the Code of Change: The Role of Formal Structure and Process
This chapter by Jay R. Galbraith will argue that under many circumstances, the change to formal organizational structures and systems is central to the success of the overall change process.
The Contexts for Geographically Dispersed Teams and Networks
Sue Mohrman discusses how in this era of global integration, electronic connectivity, and network and partner structures, work is with increasing frequency performed and integrated by geographically dispersed, or distributed, teams and networks.
Rethinking Organization Size
Ed Lawler III argues that before we reach the conclusion that large, complex organizations are obsolete dinosaurs and likely to disappear, we need to look much more closely at the advantages and disadvantages of organization size in today’s business environment.
The Road to Empowerment: Seven Questions Every Leader Should Consider
Robert Quinn and Gretchen Spreitzer argue that while many contemporary organizations recognize the need for empowered employees, they frequently run into problems attempting to implement empowerment programs.