This paper by William Pasmore, Ph.D. (Center for Creative Leadership), Stu Winby (Spring), Sue Mohrman, Ph.D. (CEO) traces the evolution of sociotechnical systems design from its origins in the coal mines of Great Britain to the present day and beyond, into our digital future.
Working Papers
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Workforce Work Engagement is Worth Pursuing
Benjamin Schneider (CEO) discusses how there is considerable debate about whether employee engagement in the work they do has long-term benefits for the companies in which they work.
How Companies Can Really Impact Service Quality
Benjamin Schneider (CEO)
Fall 2017
How Companies Can Really Impact Service Quality
A new paper by Ben Schneider in People + Strategy. Abstract: Over time, my colleagues and I have developed, tested, and refined measures of a climate for service quality that can actually predict three years out company corporate market value (Tobin’s q), as well as performance on the American Customer Satisfaction Index. When improvements in service quality can deliver those types of returns, most senior executives want to know what really makes the difference.
Untangling Engagement and High Performance
Alec Levenson (CEO) and Alexis Fink (Intel) explain how employee engagement and performance are supposed to be closely related, and there is both empirical and conceptual support for a strong relationship.
Human Capital Analytics: Why Are We Not There?
John Boudreau (CEO) and Wayne F. Cascio (University of Colorado, Denver) explain that while human capital analytics (HC analytics) recently has developed enormous interest, most organizations still find themselves struggling to move from operational reporting to analytics.
Organization Development and Talent Management: Beyond the Triple Bottom Line
Edward Lawler III (CEO) shares how there is a growing movement to broaden the definition of organizational effectiveness. Fewer and fewer countries and societies are willing to accept that financial performance is all that matters when it comes to organizational effectiveness.
Workplace Fatigue is a Systems Problem
Alec Levenson (CEO) explains that workplace fatigue is traditionally treated almost exclusively as an individual issue, and it certainly is the case that individual differences lead some individuals to experience fatigue and, ultimately, to burn out more than others. Yet not enough attention has been paid to factors arising from work design and organization strategy.
Human Resource Consulting
The field of human resources (HR) consulting is large, extremely diverse, and highly dynamic. This introductory update to the 2005 chapter by Gerald E. Ledford (CEO), Edward Lawler III (CEO), Susan A. Mohrman (CEO) provides an updated view of the HR consulting marketplace and the types of individuals and consulting firms that occupy it, as well as the organizational actors who purchase and consume HR consulting services.
Building Human Capital Advantage in Initial Public Offerings (IPOs): The Effect on Long-Term Firm Survival and Performance
Using survey data collected from the firms’ leadership teams in the beginning of the year following their IPO, Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO) and Kyle Gibson (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) test the effects of their approaches to human capital on long-term (10-year) firm survival and performance.
Measuring and Maximizing the Impact of Talent Development
Alec Levenson addresses the issue that talent development is critical for organizational success. Certainly, if you don’t have the right talent then your business strategy will fail. But what does having the right talent really mean? How do we know when we have it? And if it’s something different than what we’ve always thought it to be, how do we go about developing it?
The Case for Employee Resource Groups: A Review and Social Identity Theory-Based Research Agenda
Despite their prevalence in the business world, there has been a scarce amount of theorizing and research focused on ERGs. To help facilitate the development of this work, the authors (Theresa M. Welbourne, Skylar Rolf, and Steven Schlachter) introduce a theoretical framework using social identity theory, as well as propositions that can serve to spur additional research on a critical topic for today’s businesses.