Christopher G. Worley (CEO), Thomas Williams (PwC Strategy LLP), Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explain how agile organizations continuously adjust to changing circumstances by, for example, launching new products or eliminating old ones, entering new markets or exiting underperforming ones, or building new capabilities. This requires management processes that can support adaptability over time.
Working Papers
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
Aligning Research and the Current Practice of Performance Management
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO), George Benson (U Texas), Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) discuss how the debate over eliminating performance ratings addresses many important theoretical and practical issues.
A Study of Cutting-Edge Performance Management Practices: Ongoing Feedback, Ratingless Reviews, and Crowd-Sourced Feedback
Three cutting edge performance management practices – ratingless reviews, ongoing feedback, and crowd-sourced feedback – have received tremendous attention from the business press, but there has been almost no research that can guide the design and implementation of these practices.
The Search for Global Competence: From International HR to Talent Management
This article by Wayne F. Cascio (University of Colorado Denver) and John W. Boudreau (CEO) describes the evolution of the search for global competence through a fifty-year content analysis and review of published research in the field of International HR Management (IHRM), and more recently, Talent Management (TM), with special emphasis on the Journal of World Business.
Human Resource Management: The Role of Boards
Jay A. Conger (CEO and Claremont McKenna College) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) – Along with the intellectual and knowledge property they create, human capital has become the most important intangible asset that most corporations possess. Yet surprisingly little corporate boardroom time is spent on human capital issues.
Cutting Edge Performance Management: What About Rewards?
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO), Edward E. Lawler III (CEO), George Benson (U Texas)
With support from WorldatWork, the Center for Effective Organizations has conducted a survey study of 244 organizations that have adopted one or more of three cutting edge practices: ongoing performance feedback, ratingless reviews of performance, and crowd-sourced feedback.
Talent Management of Nonstandard Employees
Wayne F. Cascio (U Colorado Denver) and John W. Boudreau (CEO) discuss how more and more workers are operating outside the traditional confines of regular, full-time employment. They may be “free agents” or “e-lancers” (that is, freelancers in the digital world) who work for themselves, or they may be employees of an organization a firm is allied with, employees of an outsourcing or temporary-help firm, or even volunteers.
Changing Tires on a Moving Car: Management Processes that Support Agility
The term “agility” gets tossed around a lot these days. Strategists tout the virtues of strategic agility, fast strategy, and resilience.
Corporate Boards and HR
John W. Boudreau (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO)
As boards face growing pressure to step up their understanding of strategic options, risk management, change management and globalization, it is particularly important that they have good data about the human capital issues that organizations face.
From Performance Management to Forward Focus – How DIRECTV Revolutionized the Process, Experience, and Culture of Feedback
This paper by Jennifer Jaffe, Maren Dollwet, Traci Conner, Katelynn Duffel, and Matthew Lucy (DIRECTV, LLC.) provides a unique case study on how DIRECTV has taken a holistic perspective on performance management and demonstrated data-driven and innovative ways to drive employee engagement through performance management.
Making Talent Analytics and Reporting Into a Decision Science
John W. Boudreau (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explain how talent analytics and reporting must shift from a focus on cost-efficiency and process effectiveness, while familiar and important, to a balanced combination that also extends to strategic measures that enhance talent and business decisions.
Agility’s Dirty Little Secret
Christopher G. Worley (CEO), Thomas Williams (PwC Strategy), and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO)
The Agility Pyramid describes how the four agility routines and management processes work together to keep an organization’s capabilities effective and refreshed.