Organization design is a critical organizational capability in today’s world of rapid change, global competition, and frequent market and product realignments.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
The sustainable effectiveness model: Moving corporations beyond the philanthropy paradigm
In this article, Ed Lawler and Jay Conger share how there is increasing agreement that we are at a moment in history when business as usual is inadequate.
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.
Human Resource Slack, Human Capital Risk, and Firm Performance: Should Firms Grow Employees Faster Than Sales?
Varkey Titus Jr. (University of Nebraska) and Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO) utilize a sample of firms that are at a critical moment of growth: after going public. Analysis of 1,437 firm-year observations comprised of 330 initial public offerings (IPO) tracked over the course of five years indicates that the relationship between HR slack and profitability is curvilinear (inverted-U shape).
Employee Resource Groups: An Introduction, Review and Research Agenda
Employee resource groups (ERGs) are within-organization groups, staffed by employee volunteers, which have evolved since their inception in the 1960s. In this paper, Theresa M. Welbourne (CEO), Skylar Rolf (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and Steven Schlachter (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) provide an introduction to ERGs, review the literature that exists to date, and provide ideas for a research agenda.
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.
Data-Driven Storytelling, 5/7/15
Theresa Welbourne discusses how Data-Driven Storytellers help leaders use HR data to have highly interactive dialogues that lead to decisive action that fuels high-impact and measurable business results.
Can Technology Save Performance Management?
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. (CEO) and Edward E. Lawler III (CEO) explain how performance management, long the most unpopular HR process, has received increased criticism in recent years.
Organization Agility and Talent Management
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.
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.