The outline of CLA2 a) Introduction – A brief intr.docx

The outline of CLA2:
a) Introduction – A brief introduction of what I learned in
general from the course.
b) Detailed discussion about the important concepts learned:
· Interpersonal competencies: Define the concept of
interpersonal competencies and
discuss how the interpersonal competencies play a role in the
development of organizational
behavior.
· Techniques for problem-solving: Introduce different
kinds of techniques that are used for
problem-solving. Talk about one specific and widely-used
technique in detail.
· Theories of Motivation: Define the motivation in the
workforce and discuss how
motivation in my workplace can be stimulated.
· Leadership effectiveness: Define the concept of
leadership effectiveness and discuss
how it will affect the organizational performance.

c) Apply two or three concepts in the above to my work
setting and provide solutions
regarding the implementation of the concepts.
· How I will use the interpersonal competencies to interact
with team members and gain
support from them.
· How I will use the techniques to solve some problems
that I encountered during my
work.
d) Findings from PA1, CLA1
· Crowdsourcing: Crowdsourcing is a new business model
including a variety of thinking
from various sides and can solve the problems faster (Aitamurto
el, 2011). Through the
crowdsourcing, many companies like Threadless, have achieved
great success.
· Leadership style: there are too many leadership styles.
None of them are the same and
can be simply copied from organization to organization. The
leadership style has to fit and
adapt to the situation of the organization and the followers.
e) Place-holders

· How to evaluate the steps involved in implementing
teams, and develop an
understanding of how teams can outperform the performance of
individuals.
· How to recruit and maintain talented employees.
· Findings from PA2.
Reference:
Aitamurto, Tanja & Leiponen, Aija & Tee, Richard. (2011). The
Promise of Idea
Crowdsourcing – Benefits, Contexts, Limitations. Nokia Ideas
Project.
Baldwin, T., Bommer, B., & Rubin, R. (2013). Managing
organizational behavior: What great
managers know and do (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 978-0073530406
Final Research Paper: Instructions & Requirements
Students are required to conduct a literature review on the

following research question/topic:
How stakeholder engagement affects IT projects?
Part of this literature review, some of the items that need to be
addressed are:
of stakeholder management
The purpose of this literature review is to provide an in-depth
overview of research pertinent to
the subject topic. You will need to identify current relevant
research papers (i.e. published since
2015); classify your selected papers; and use your references to
“tell the story” (i.e. how other
researchers support this topic). The focus of the literature
review must be on IT projects.
Your final research paper should contain a title page, an
introduction, an overview of literature
review, a results/discussion section, a section on conclusion and
recommendations, and a
reference page.
Introduction
The introduction of this literature review should include the

research question and purpose, scope
of the literature review, significance of the topic study, and
background information. This section
sets the theoretical framework for your research paper.
Overview of Literature Review
This section of your literature review should summarize the
findings of relevant studies that you
have identified and selected. For each study, you should briefly
explain its purpose, procedure
for data collection and major findings. In addition, discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of
particular studies.
Remember that a literature review should not be a listing of
articles or researchers but rather a
flowing article incorporating both prose and citations.
Results/Discussion
This section should synthesize and analyzes the literature with
focus on central ideas relevant to
the topic; critically evaluate sources and perspectives; highlight
any consensus or disagreement
on the topic; identify gaps and controversies, as well as study

limitations if relevant.
Conclusion and Recommendations
This section should briefly summarize key literature review
results and provides a compelling
argument/conclusion that is appropriately qualified (given study
limitations). In addition, provide
recommendations for future research.
The final research paper will be graded as per the following
breakdown:
Introduction -------------------------------------------------15 points
Overview of Literature Review ---------------------------20 points
Results/Discussion------------------------------------------35 points
Conclusion and Recommendations-----------------------10 points
Clarity, Organization, Grammar and Spelling----------10 points
APA Style and Referencing-------------------------------10 points
Total -------------------------------------------------------- 100
points
The length of final research paper must be at least 1200 words
(not including title or reference
pages.) Use double-spaced APA style. The paper must include a

minimum of six APA-compliant
references and corresponding in-text citations. At least four of
your references must be scholarly
peer reviewed articles. Most references must be current/recent,
published since 2015. The
University of the Cumberlands Library provides myriad of
online resources to assist students
with proper research. Recommend taking advantage of this
highly useful source for your
research.
Check for plagiarism BEFORE submitting!! Safe Assign will be
used to analyze your paper for
any plagiarism. For guidance to avoid plagiarism, please check
Content>Week 1: Getting Started
folder.
Please submit your final research paper via your assignment
folder as a Microsoft word
attachment in the week 7 folder by the end of week 7 session.
Recommended Readings
In addition to the Graduate Writing Resources provided under
the Week 1: Getting Started

folder, you will find the following sources/links useful in
conducting and writing your literature
review:
http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/guides/researching/litreview.htm
l
https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/maguire81.ht
m
https://libguides.csuchico.edu/c.php?g=414315&p=2822687
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/resources.htm
l
http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/guides/researching/litreview.htm
l
https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring81/maguire81.ht
m
https://libguides.csuchico.edu/c.php?g=414315&p=2822687
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/resources.htm
l

DOCTOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM
BUS 730
Management Strategy for Performance
Hybrid
Syllabus
BUS 730 Hybrid Syllabus

2 of 33
Table of Contents
Westcliff University Mission Statements
........................................................................................ 3
Welcome to Management Strategy for Performance – BUS 730
................................................... 4
Course Description
...............................................................................................
........................... 6
Course Assignments At-A-Glance
...............................................................................................
... 7
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) Linked to Program
Outcomes ............................................... 8
CLA Linking Table
...............................................................................................
.......................... 9
PA Linking Table
...............................................................................................
............................. 9
DQ Linking Table
...............................................................................................
............................ 9

Detailed Description of Each Grading Criteria:
............................................................................ 10
Rubrics
.............................................................................................. .
............................................ 14
Detailed Course Outline
...............................................................................................
................. 19

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Westcliff University Mission Statements
Westcliff University
Westcliff University’s mission is to educate, inspire, and
empower students from around the
world to acquire the competencies to excel personally and
professionally through innovative,
high-quality distance and campus programs.
College of Business Mission Statement
Westcliff University’s College of Business mission is to deliver
a high-quality business
education that can improve the lives of students, personally and
professionally. The College’s
teaching philosophy is to vitalize business concepts by offering
a curriculum in a pragmatic and
relevant framework. Through the use of innovative teaching
methods, students are enabled to

enhance their business acumen in an ethical and socially
responsible way.
DBA Program Mission Statement
The mission of the Doctor of Business Administration program
is to present advanced business
concepts to graduate students through the exploration and
discovery of new knowledge. The
program creates meaningful learning experiences that develop
practitioner-based scholars who
from a leadership perspective can apply creative and innovative
concepts pragmatically to
complex and diverse business problems. It promotes leaders
contributing to the field of business
using sustainable practices in an ethical and professional
manner.

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Professor: Dr. Fathiah Inserto
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: By Appointment only
University Phone Number: 888-491-8686
Welcome to Management Strategy for Performance – BUS 730
Hello Students and Welcome to Class:
I am looking forward to working with each of you as we embark
on this journey together. Please

feel free to contact me anytime with questions about the course
and the assignments described in
this syllabus. I am also happy to provide additional clarification
of any assignment, so please do
not hesitate to ask questions.
I will generally return e-mail messages within 24 hours.
Communication between Students and
Instructors is paramount to the overall quality of a course.
Assessing the individual needs of a student will make the
difference between a mediocre and
successful experience, therefore each Professor at Westcliff
University has a unique and personal
instruction style that focuses on increasing Student knowledge.
As an Instructor, I try to foster an
open learning environment that leads to problem solutions
through concept application. My goal
is to show students the many different possibilities available
through research and study while
providing my own professional insight. It is my sincere desire
to assist you in rising to the
rigorous challenge presented by this course.
Additionally, if you are unable to participate in class discussion
during a particular week, or are

unable to meet a deadline, I require that you contact me in
advance to discuss this matter.
5 of 33
Instructor Biography
Dr. Fathiah holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Human
Development degree, a Juris
Doctor degree, a Master of Arts in Human Development degree,
a Master of Science
in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy degree, and a Diploma
in Social Studies. Prof.
Fathiah has been an educator and administrator for several
years. She has served as

President, Dean, and Adjunct Faculty and has taught classes in
organizational
development, change management, human resource
management, training and
development, psychology, sociology, cultural diversity and
other areas related to
human behavior and development. She has developed
curriculum in human
development and business at undergraduate and graduate levels
and has served as chair
and mentor of doctoral candidates.
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Course Description
COURSE NAME Management Strategy for Performance
CODE BUS 730
UNITS 3
CAMPUS Irvine
TERM Spring 2020 Session 3
LENGTH OF CLASS 8 weeks
SESSION START January 6, 2020
SESSION END March 1, 2020
LECTURE (Day/Time) Tuesday 6:30-8:30 PM
DISCUSSION (Day/Time) Tuesday 8:30-10:00 PM
INSTRUCTOR Dr. Fathiah Inserto
CONTACT INFORMATION [email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION People are the most important and
valuable resource within an
organization, and as such must be incorporated in any
functional
business strategy. This course examines strategic principles
related to
achieving maximum performance from managing people;
creating and

fostering environments for creativity, efficiency, and innovation
are
explored
REQUIRED TEXT Baldwin, T., Bommer, B., & Rubin, R.
(2013). Managing
organizational behavior: What great managers know and do (2nd
ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill ISBN: 978-0073530406
METHOD OF
INSTRUCTION
The course is conducted in a hybrid modality. Students interact
with
each other and with the faculty in a classroom setting and in an
online
learning system. Learning will be facilitated through lecture-
discussions, presentations, cooperative learning, and case
studies.
SCOPE Student outcomes are measured through professional
individual
assignments, discussion postings, comprehensive learning
assessments, and class participation. This ensures that the scope
of this
course will be a closed cycle.

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Course Assignments At-A-Glance
Week Assignment Deadline
Week
1
Discussion Question (AC) Response
Discussion Question Peer Responses
Applied Learning Assignment (Current Events)
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm

Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
2
Discussion Question (DQP) Response
Professional Assignment 1 (PA1)
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
3
Discussion Question (Standard DQ) Response
Applied Learning Assignment (Personalized CLO)
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm

Week
4
Discussion Question (DQC) Response
Comprehensive Learning Assessment 1 (CLA1)
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
5
Discussion Question (DCQP) Response
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
6
Discussion Question (DQP) Response

Professional Assignment 2 (PA2)
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
7
Discussion Question (Standard DQ) Response
Applied Learning Assignment (Topic Videos)
Exam
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Monday -Sunday by 11:59pm
Week
8
Discussion Question (Summary & Critical Thinking)
Response

Comprehensive Learning Assessment 2 (CLA2)
Comprehensive Learning Assessment 2 Final PPP
Thursday by 11:59pm
Sunday by 11:59pm
Sunday - the last day of the Session, by
11:59pm
Last Day of Lecture
8 of 33
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) Linked to Program
Outcomes
Learning outcomes are statements that describe significant and
essential learning that learners
have achieved, and can reliably demonstrate at the end of the
course. Learning outcomes identify

what the learner will know and be able to do by the end of a
course – the essential and enduring
knowledge, abilities (skills) and attitudes (values, dispositions)
that constitute the integrated
learning needed by a graduate of this course. The learning
outcomes for this course summarize
what you can expect to learn, and how this course is tied
directly to the educational outcomes of
your DBA degree.
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
DBA
Program
Outcomes
(K)
Knowledge
(S) Skill
(A) Attitude
1. Determine how people-skills and evidence-based management
play
a role in the development of Organizational Behavior.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7
K
2. Explain all the facets of becoming an effective manager.
3, 4, 5, 6 S
3. Evaluate techniques for problem-solving, generating
alternative
solutions, and effective bias-free decision making. 1, 4, 5 S, A
4. Develop a working framework for the theories of motivation
in the
workforce, what motivational problems exist, and how they may
be
remedied. Value a motivational work environment.
1, 3, 6, 7 K, S, A
5. Assess what leadership effectiveness is and what it entails,
especially in the framework of comparing and contrasting
styles,
while applying a methodology of improving leadership skills.
1, 2 K, S
6. Evaluate the steps involved in implementing teams, and
develop an
understanding of how teams can outperform the performance of
individuals. Describe the various managerial, team, and

leadership
tactics to increase the creative abilities within an organization.
1, 2, 3 K, S, A
7. Critique the various models of change discussed in class and
in your
course materials. Assess a plan for change initiatives within an
organization, evaluate the change initiatives, and develop a
strategy
to incorporate change within the strategy of the organization
1, 4, 5 K, S, A
9 of 33

CLA Linking Table
Comprehensive Learning Assessments (CLAs), Professional
Assessments (PAs) and
Discussion Questions (DQs) directly measure Course Learning
Outcomes and indirectly
measure MBA Program Outcomes. The following table shows
how all those are linked
together.
Comprehensive Learning
Assessments (CLAs)
Course Learning Outcomes
(CLOs)
DBA Program Outcomes
CLA1 (Week 4)
1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
CLA2 (Week 8)
5, 6, 7 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

PA Linking Table
Professional Assessments (CLAs)
(CLOs)
MBA Program Outcomes
PA1 (Week 2)
3 1, 4, 5
PA2 (Week 6)
6 1, 2, 3
DQ Linking Table
Discussion Questions (DQs)
(CLOs)
MBA Program Outcomes
DQ1 (Week 3)
4 1, 4, 5

DQ2 (Week 7)
7 1, 4, 5
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Detailed Description of Each Grading Criteria:
What are Grading Rubrics (Metrics)?
Westcliff University makes use of Grading Rubrics for scoring
of grades in many
assignments. Grading or scoring rubrics are used as a tool used
to delineate criteria and

expectations pertaining to assignments and to establish an
objective consistency in grading.
Typically, rubrics are divided into components so as to allow
for a more direct and precise
measurement and interpretation of assignments. Hence, rubrics
are designed to provide
guidelines for grading assignments and represents a systematic
appraisal of student-work
only from this perspective. The final grading of all assignments
will have a subjective
component that typically includes the instructor’s
interpretations, judgments, and any policies
pertaining to assignments.
A. Grading Criteria for Class Participation and Attendance
For students participating in a Hybrid course, students will
receive two weekly Participation
grades:
(1) On-Campus Class Session Discussion:
Students are expected to attend their On-Campus Class Session
(OCS) each week.
Preparation for class involves reading the materials and working
through, in some detail, the
case preparation for class in advance. By preparing these

questions, students will get the most
learning out of the class. While in class, more participation will
lead to increases in the
quality and rigor not only of the class but of other student’s
learning modalities as well.
Westcliff University provides an open forum environment.
There is no limit on the
discussion in which you may involve yourself.
(2) Online Discussion Board Discussions
Each week, students will be assigned 1-3 Discussion Questions.
For each Discussion
Question, students must post an answer in the Discussion Board
on their course Global
Academic Portal (GAP) by the assigned deadline each week.
Students must then post a Peer
Response for each Discussion Question by the deadline that
same week. The GAP can be
accessed online at gap.westcliff.edu.
You are expected to answer each discussion question critically
by using your textbook,
LIRN-based research, and the Internet and actively participate
in class. All discussion
responses should be at least 1 paragraph in length with

significant, rigorous content. Your
response should reflect your ability to conduct research and
should include citations. You
should also present your analysis and back it up with specific
examples. Responses to other
learners' analyses should add substance, request clarification,
provide a different perspective,
or challenge the assertions made by providing real or
hypothetical scenarios that the original
analysis does not adequately address. It is also good practice to
provide normal, supportive
comments. Everyone appreciates this feedback. Remember, the
purpose of course
discussions is to stimulate academic debate.
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At the graduate-level, discussion questions can be based on any
one (or combination) of the
following resources:

● Textbook, current and previous chapter(s)
● Other readings
● Research (journals, periodicals, and other electronic
resources)
● Lecture
The University makes a concerted effort to promote a variety of
discussion questions that
related to the current course and/or its content as it relates to
the field in business in general.
In assigning grades to class discussion, faculty will focus
primarily on the quality of your
input; however, it usually takes at least some quantity of
participation for us to make that
evaluation.
Good case discussions take the group farther than any one
individual or study group can go
on their own. However, it takes at least a certain quantity of
participation to make that
evaluation. Instructors will develop grades and scores based on
the quantity and quality of
your contributions.
In general, the instructors’ criteria are:

1. Are points made relevant to the discussion?
2. Do they go beyond a mere recitation of case facts, and are
implications clearly
drawn?
3. Is there evidence of analysis rather than expression of
opinion?
4. Are comments linked to those of others?
5. Did the contribution further the class’ understanding of
issues?
Students who neglect to submit their Class Participation
responses (either answers to
discussion questions or responses to classmates/faculty) by the
stated weekly deadlines will
be deducted up to 15% of the online participation points
possible for that week. Discussion
Boards close on Sunday of each week at 11:59pm at which time
students are no longer able
to post responses and receive no credit for missed posts.
Technological issues are not
considered valid grounds for late assignment submission.
Students are responsible for
printing their own assignments, when necessary. Unless an
‘Incomplete’ grade has been
granted, assignments submitted after the last day of class will

not be accepted
B. Grading Criteria for Professional Assignments:
In Weeks 2 and 6 students will write a 2-3 page paper in
response to a case study or similar
assignment provided by your professor. Student answers are to
be clear, well-organized, and
specific. Provide a concise, cogent argument and include
details to support your response.
Please refer to Expectations of Student Assignments and the
Formatting Requirements
for Written Assignments on page 10 of the University Policies
for a detailing of specific
expectations for how to format and write your paper.
Additionally, you may refer to the PA
and CLA Grading Rubric found on page 12 of the syllabus.
C. Grading Criteria for Quizzes
12 of 33

In Week 7 you will have a quiz. Quizzes will cover the
chapters assigned and discussed
during the previous week(s). Your access to the quiz begins on
Monday and closes on
Sunday at midnight. All quizzes are strictly closed book.
Some Quizzes will be chosen for proctoring. Please see the
Proctored Examination Policy on
Pg. 11 of the University Policies.
Grading Criteria for Comprehensive Learning Assessments
(CLAs):
CLAs are comprehensive assignments that provide evidence of
how well students have
mastered the course content and test the students on all the
Course Learning Outcomes.
CLAs measure student achievement of CLOs in a way that goes
beyond rote memorization
and gauges true understanding and mastery of course content.
CLAs can include assignments
such as case study analyses, research papers, and/or student
presentations. The answers
provided to graduate level CLA’s must demonstrate a broad
view of organizational
performance factors from the general management perspective

that demonstrate concepts
pertaining to effective leadership and management in the 21st
century globalized business
economy. One of the grading criteria requirements is that
answers provided exhibit skills that
promote and integrate program outcomes and should include
decision-making, strategic
management, creativity and innovation, leadership, problem-
solving and real-time business
application. Answers must also demonstrate the student’s ability
to research and demonstrate
a graduate writing level.
D. Comprehensive Learning Assessment (CLA 1)
In Week 4 students are to write a 4-6 page minimum APA
formatted paper in response to a
case study or similar assignment provided by the professor.
Students must reference at least
6 sources beyond the course materials. Students’ answers are to
be clear, well-organized,
and specific. Provide a concise, cogent argument and include
details to support your
response. CLA 1 focuses on assessing course foundations and
the student’s ability to define

and understand its main concepts.
E. Comprehensive Learning Assessment (CLA 2)
Written Paper Criteria:
In Week 8 students complete CLA2, which is the logical
culmination of the course. Your
CLA2 submission (cumulative report) should be a minimum of
4-6 pages in length. The CLA
assignments encompass the learning outcomes for this course
and are designed to
demonstrate what has been learning or achieved by the student.
CLA 2 measures the
student’s competency and mastery of the course concepts,
particularly the application of
those concepts.

13 of 33
F. Comprehensive Learning Assessment (CLA 2) Presentation
CLA2 Presentation Criteria:
In addition to your CLA2 report, please prepare a professional
PowerPoint presentation
summarizing your findings for CLA2. The presentation will
consist of your major findings,
analysis, and recommendations in a concise presentation of 18
slides (minimum). You should
use content from your CLA2 report as material for your
PowerPoint presentation. In addition,

you should include learning outcomes from all your major
assignments. This would include
PA1, CLA1, PA2, and of course, CLA2 (unless otherwise
specified by your Professor). An
agenda, executive summary, and references slides should also
be included. Please keep in
mind that the university is moving towards a more digital
footprint for our students. This
means that your final CLA2 presentation may be recorded, so
that you may include it in your
“e-portfolio” (graduating students should have all of their CLA2
presentations on a flash-
drive, in addition to student biography, resume, interests, and so
forth). Students will present
their PowerPoint during the last week of class in either the On-
Campus Class Session or the
online Virtual Class Session, as determined by the professor.
Presentations should not exceed
18 minutes.
Each CLA2 and presentation will become a part of the student’s
digital portfolio. Upon
completion of the program, the student’s digital portfolio will
demonstrate the student’s

mastery of the course and program learning outcomes.
14 of 33

Rubrics
GRADING METRICS FOR WEEKLY ONLINE DISCUSSION
Exemplary Proficient Needs Progress Unsatisfactory
Points 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0 Weight of
Grade
Answering
Discussion
Questions
Student answers or responds
to all questions completely,
demonstrating knowledge
and understanding of key
concepts, ability to think
critically, and has included
original examples in his/her
response. It is required that
the textbook and/or scholarly
research be included to justify
and/or solidify any argument

or reasoning.
Student answers or
responds to all discussion
questions, but lacks some
demonstration of
understanding of key
concepts, or ability to think
critically, or does not
include examples and/or
textbook or scholarly
research.
Student answers or responds
to at least one, but not all
discussion questions, and/or
lacks some demonstration of
critically, or does not include

examples.
Student fails to answer or
respond to discussion
questions assigned and/or
does not demonstrate
critically, or does not include
examples.
30%
Points 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0
Response to
Peers
Student’s responses are well
conceived, offering insight
and original examples.
Student incorporates or
builds off of the ideas of

others and provides analysis
of concepts discussed.
Student responds to
classmates’ postings but a
few responses are not well
conceived, or do not offer
insight, or original
examples. Student might
not incorporate or build off
of the ideas of others in a
meaningful way and may
lack analysis.
Student responds to
classmates’ postings, but
does not meet the minimum
number of responses
required, and some
responses are not well

conceived, or do not offer
insight, or original examples.
Student might not
incorporate or build off of
the ideas of others in a
meaningful way.
Student neglects to respond
to classmates’ postings or
responses are not well
conceived, do not offer
insight, or original examples.
Student does not
incorporate or build off of
the ideas of others.
30%
Points 25 22.5 20 17.5 15 12.5 10 7.5 5 2.5 0
Preparation
Student brings in outside

examples and is able to
examine a problem or
situation from a variety of
perspectives.
Student demonstrates an
concepts, but offers only
some analysis or original
thought.
Student responds to
questions and postings with
verbiage copied directly
from textbook, rather than
in their own words.
Student fails to
demonstrate knowledge or
understanding of the
assigned reading.

25%
Points 15 13.5 12 10.5 9 7.5 6 4.5 3 1.5 0
Accountability Student posts answers and
responses on time.
Student is late in posting
and/or responding to
postings, but has a viable
excuse and has notified the
professor in advance.
Student is late posting either
answers or responses.
Student fails to post answers
and responses on time. 15%
Total Possible 100%

15 of 33
Assignment Components
Originality and
Content
30% 30
Argument 25% 25
Organization 10% 10
Grammar and
Spelling
10% 10
Formatting 5% 5
Effective Research 10% 10
Quality Resources 10% 10
100% 100
DBA PROGRAM
Professional Assignment (PA) Comprehensive Learning
Assessment (CLA) Applied Learning Assignment (ALA)
Grading
Rubric
Exemplary Proficient Needs Improvement Unsatisfactory

Percentage
of Overal l
Grade
Poi nts
Pos s i bl e
The paper is content rich, all
questions and their parts have been
answered demonstrating:
*critical analysis
*application of learned concepts to
real world
*research-based evidence
*originality with a maximum
similarity index of 20%.
The paper is content rich, most
questions and their parts have been
answered demonstrating:
*critical analysis

*example application of learned
concepts
The paper contains relevant content,
some questions and their parts have
been answered demonstrating:
*some critical analysis
*example of learned concepts
The paper lacks relevant content,
some questions and their parts
have been answered
demonstrating:
*limited critical analysis

*limited or no example of learned
concepts
*limited or no research-based
evidence
*similarity index exceeds 25%.
The paper:
*demonstrates effective, well
supported argument
*provides supporting evidence for
argument
*demonstrates a strong relationship
between argument and assignment
requirements
The paper:
*demonstrates the ability to support
an argument
* provides some supporting evidence
for the argument

*demonstrates some relationship
requirements
The paper:
*demonstrates limited support for
the argument
*provides limited evidence for the
argument
*demonstrates a limited relationship
requirements
The paper:
*demonstrates limited or no
support for the argument
*provides limited or no evidence
for the argument
*has a limited or no relationship
between argument and

assignment requirements
The paper contains correct grammar,
spelling, and sentence structure.
The paper contains correct grammar
with only minor errors in spelling,
and/or sentence structure.
The paper contains some
grammatical errors, misspellings, and
may contain inadequate sentence
structure.
The paper lacks correct grammar,
has misspelled words and weak
sentence structure in multiple
paragraphs.
The paper follows all formatting
guidelines, including page-length,
APA formatting requirements,
correctly formatted in text citations,

and correctly formatted references
and reference page
The paper follows all or most
formatting guidelines, including page-
length, APA formatting
requirements, mostly correctly
formatted in text citations, and
mostly correctly formatted references
and reference page
The paper only follows some
formatting guidelines, including
page-length, APA formatting
requirements, some correctly
formatted in text citations, and some
correctly formatted references and
reference page
Writing Components
The paper is well organized and

includes:
*logical flow
*correct use of APA headings
*introduction and conclusion
The paper is well organized for the
most part with an adequate degree
of:
*logical flow
*use of APA headings
*introduction and conclusion
The paper is somewhat organized
with:
*a non-continuous logical flow
*some use of APA headings
*limited introduction and/or
conclusion
The paper has limited or lacks:
*logical flow

*use of APA headings
*introduction and/or conclusion
The paper fails to follow
formatting guidelines, including
page-length and APA formatting
requirements to a substantial
degree. Limited or no correctly
formatted in text citations,
references, and reference page
Research Components
The s tudent us es at l eas t 8 qual i ty peer-
revi ewed and s chol arl y res ources (non-
website based ) and 1 textbook-bas ed
res ource to s upport hi s /her argument.
revi ewed and s chol arl y res ources (non-
website based ) and 1 textbook-bas ed
res ource to s upport hi s /her argument.

revi ewed and s chol arl y res ource whi ch
may be website-based, and 1 textbook-
bas ed res ource to s upport hi s /her
argument.
The s tudent does not us e or has l i mi ted
us e of qual i ty peer-revi ewed and
s chol arl y res ources and/or the work
onl y contai ns webs i te-bas ed res ources
and/or onl y us es the textbook to
s upport hi s / her argument.
Student demonstrates the ability to:
*draw logical and valid conclusions
*provide supporting researched-
based evidence including peer
reviewed articles
*utilize the textbook, online
databases and the internet to locate

supporting literature
Student demonstrates some ability
to:
reviewed articles
Student demonstrates limited ability
to:
reviewed articles

Student demonstrates limited to
no ability to:
reviewed articles
databases and the internet to
locate supporting literature
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Assessment Rubric for PowerPoint Presentations - DBA
Exemplary

10-9
Accomplished
8-6
Developing
5-3
Beginning
2-0
Organization
Of Presentation
Information presented
in logical, interesting
sequence
Information in logical
sequence
Difficult to follow
presentation--
student jumps
around

Cannot understand
presentation--no
sequence of
information
Subject-Matter
Knowledge
Demonstrates full
knowledge by
answering all class
questions with
explanations and
elaborations
At ease with expected
answers to questions but
does not elaborate
Uncomfortable
with information
and is able to

answer only
rudimentary
questions
Does not have a grasp
of the information.
Cannot answer
questions about subject
Graphics and/or
Graphical
Representation of
Concepts
Explain and reinforce
screen text and
presentation
Relate to text and
presentation
Occasionally uses
graphics that rarely

support text and
presentation
Uses superfluous
graphics or no graphics
Research as
supporting
evidence for
justification of
conclusions
Uses a variety of
sources in reaching
accurate and detailed
conclusions that
solidify premise. Use
of examples are
included that connect
research with
concepts.

Uses a variety of
sources in reaching
conclusions that support
premise. Some
example(s) are used to
justify arguments.
Presents only
evidence that
supports a
preconceived point
of view and
attempts to
compare and
contrast varying
viewpoints.
Does not justify
conclusions with
research evidence.

Conclusions are solely
based upon textbook
and/or personal
analysis.
Analysis &
Evaluation
Critical
Thinking
Idea Formation
Examines conclusions
Uses reasonable
judgment
Discriminates
rationally
Synthesized data
Views all information
critically and provides
logical presentation of

facts as the premise
for analysis and
critical thinking.
Formulates conclusions
Recognizes arguments
Notices differences in
arguments
Evaluates data
Seeks out information
and attempts to form
conclusions and present
ideas as demonstrated
by analysis and critical
thinking.
Identifies some
conclusions
Sees some
arguments

Identifies some
differences
Paraphrases data
Assumes
information valid
and only provides
some analysis and
critical thinking
based only on this
information.
Fails to draw
conclusions
No identification of
arguments
Overlooks differences
Repeats data
Omits any research and
the basis of analysis is

limited to textbook and
there is a lack of critical
thinking and idea
formation.
Oral Presentation
Eye Contact
Verbal
Tone/Speed
Maintains eye contact
and pronounces all
terms precisely. All
audience members
can hear and follow
presentation.
Maintains eye contact
most of the time and
pronounces most words
correctly. Most

audience members can
hear presentation and
follow along.
Occasionally uses
eye contact, mostly
reading
presentation, and
incorrectly
pronounces terms.
Audience members
have difficulty
hearing and flowing
along.
Reads with no eye
contact and incorrectly
pronounces terms.
Speaks too quietly

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Rubric – Class Participation
Score Criteria
90- 100
●On time to/from:
● Arrives for class on time
● Returns from break(s) on time
● Stays for the full duration of class time
●Active and substantive contributions to the class discussion
●Respects others
● Cellular phones may not be used in-class, unless used for a
class activity
●Comes prepared for class by bringing:
● Textbook or required materials
● Notebook and pen/pencil, or

● Laptop computer, or
● Both notebook and pen/pencil and laptop computer
●Asks thoughtful questions
75-89
●On time to/from:
● Arrives up to 10 minutes late to class
● Returns from break(s) up to 10 minutes late
● Leaves up to 10 minutes early
●Contributes to the class discussion somewhat actively and
substantively
● Respects others
o Cellular phones may not be used in-class, unless used for a
class activity
●Comes prepared for class by bringing:
● Textbook or required materials
● Notebook and pen/pencil, or
● Laptop computer, or
● Both notebook and pen/pencil and laptop computer
50-74

●On time to/from:
● More than 10 minutes late to class
● Returns from break(s) more than 10 minutes late
● Leaves more than 10 minutes before the end of class
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●Does not actively contribute to the class
●Not attentive to the lesson, easily distracted
●Sometimes follows classroom rules OR disrespects faculty
and/or other students at times
●Not prepared for class
● Has neither a notebook and pen/pencil, and/or laptop
computer
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●On time to/from:
● Arrives more than 30 minutes late to class

● Returns from break(s) more than 30 minutes late
● Leaves 30 minutes or earlier before the end of class
●Does not contribute to the class discussion
●Not attentive to the lesson, easily distracted
● Is on cell phone or other internet sites during class
●Does not follow classroom rules and/or is not respectful to
faculty and/or classmates
● Not prepared for class
o Has neither the textbook or required materials, nor a notebook
and pen/pencil, nor a laptop computer
0
●Does not attend class or,
● Does not attend 40 minutes or more of class lecture time
(excluding any student services and/or administrative requests)
o 40 minutes or more may be a combination of minutes missed
due to:
▪ Coming late to class
▪ Returning back late from break(s)
▪ Leaving class early
0-100

●Excused absence resulting in submission of a written
assignment completed as per professor instructions in the time
frame
given. Grade given based on quality of work. Faculty will
typically grade the assignment within 4 days of submission, but
also
reserves the right to grade submission at any time during the
current session, up to and including the last day of the session.
0-100
points
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Detailed Course Outline
The following outline provides important assignment details for
this course, week-by-week. You
are responsible for all of the assignments given. Please refer to
the Detailed Description of Each
Grading Criteria beginning on page 10 of the syllabus for
specific information about each

assignment.
1. Week 1
Assignments to complete this week:
● Reading:
o Chapter 1: Organizational Behavior and Your Personal
Effectiveness
● Post DQ Answers by Thursday at 11:59pm
● Post DQ Peer Responses by Sunday at 11:59pm
● Applied Learning Assignment – ALA (E): Due by Sunday at
11:59 p.m.
Each week, students must post 1 answer and 1 peer response for
every discussion question.
Student Discussion Question answers must be posted by
Thursday at 11:59 and Peer Responses
must be posted by Sunday at 11:59pm. Please see Grading
Criteria for Discussion Board
Participation on pages 10-11 of the syllabus for Discussion
Question and Response expectations.
Discussion Question 1 – Applied Concepts (AC) - Week/Course
Learning Outcomes
Using your textbook, LIRN-based research, and the Internet,
apply the learning outcomes for the

week/course and lecture concepts to one of the following
scenarios:
As applied to your current professional career
As applied to enhancing, improving, or advancing your current
professional career
As applied to a management, leadership, or any decision-making
position
As applied to a current or future entrepreneurial endeavor
OR
Using your textbook, LIRN-based research, and the Internet,
apply the learning outcomes for the
week/course and lecture concepts to a business organization that
exhibits and demonstrates these
concepts. You should develop a summary of the organization's
strategy and how they use these
concepts to compete.
This is a learning and application exercise designed to give you
an opportunity to apply concepts
learned in a pragmatic and meaningful way that will enable you
to gain valuable and relevant
knowledge in an effort to augment your skill set and enhance
your professional careers.

ALA (E) – Current Events – Applied Learning Assignment
(ALA) Graduate
Each student is to research a current event (no more than 3
years old) that is related to one or
more of the Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) listed in your
syllabus. You should use academic
sources (the Internet, electronic news agencies or journals) to
research the current event. An
analysis should be conducted on your researched current event
(related to one or more CLOs).
Each student must create 4 PowerPoint (PPt) slides that
includes:
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● State the CLO(s) selected to address
● A summary of the current event (bullet points on the slide &
details in the Speaker Notes)

● A brief statement about the relationship of the current event
to the identified CLO(s)
● State, as a manager, how would you apply what you have
learned from your research to
an organization.
● Include an industry example demonstrating the application of
your researched current
event
● Title your PPt document “Current Event to CLO”
● Post your PPt slides for grading (NOTE: include these slides
in your final CLA2 PPt)
● The grade for this ALA (E) will be reflected in your final
CLA2 PPt grade.
● Part of the grade will be based on the timeliness of your
submission due this current
week.
Note: It is expected that you complete this assignment during
this current week and submit your
slide(s) in the appropriate GAP location by Sunday 11:59 p.m.
Do not forget to include your “Current Event to CLO” slides in

your final CLA2 PPt due in week
8.
Provide your explanations and definitions in detail and be
precise. Comment on your findings.
Provide references for content when necessary. Provide your
work in detail and explain in your
own words. Support your statements with peer-reviewed in-text
citation(s) and reference(s).
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2. Week 2
● Reading:
o Chapter 3: Solving Problems
● Professional Assignment 1 due by Sunday at 11:59pm

DQ (P) - Discussion Question 1 – (PDQ directed at upcoming
PA) Graduate Level
Prior to reading this DQ, please read the PA1 assignment and
understand what the
assignment is asking you to complete. Once you have an
understanding of the PA1 assignment,
please continue to the paragraph below to complete DQ1.
Using the Library Information Resource Network (LIRN),
JSTOR, or any other electronic
journal database, research one (1) peer-reviewed article that can
be used to answer your
upcoming PA1 assignment. Your discussion should summarize
the article in such a way that

it can justify any arguments you may present in your PA1
assignment and should be different
than the abstract. In addition to your researched peer-reviewed
article, you must include an
example of the article researched as it is applied by industry
(company, business entity, etc.).
Please note: This article summary should not be the only article
researched for your PA1
assignment. You may (and should) have several other articles
researched in order to fully
answer your PA1 assignment. The concept of this DQ is to
allow students to be proactive in the
research necessary to complete this assignment. You may use
your article summary, partially or
in its entirety in your PA1 assignment.
Important: Please ensure that you insert your reference for the
article in APA format, as your
reference in your discussion post. Depending on which
electronic database you use, you should
see a “Cite” selection for your article. In addition, there should
be a variety of articles
summarized and as such, students should have different articles
summarized. Your summary

MUST include ALL of the following in your DQ post (include
every item in the bullet list
below, or you will not receive full credit):
● Clearly state what the article is about and its purpose
● How the article and/or author(s) support your argument(s)
● Most important aspects of the article
● Any findings and conclusions
● Approximately 250 to 350 words in length
● Include the article “Abstract” in your posting (your summary
should be original)
● Include the industry example demonstrating the application of
your researched article
● “IMPORTANT” - Include the reference for the article in APA
format
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Professional Assignment 1 – CLO 3
Review:
Two Contemporary Companies’ Use of Crowdsourcing:
Threadless and Challenge Post

on Page 77 Answer:
1. Why is Threadless so successful?
2. What competitive advantages do they have over comparable
design firms using
traditional strategies for product design?
3. What is the logic of crowdsourcing and why has it caught on
in so many areas and
for so many applications?
4. What are some potential traps and limitations of
crowdsourcing efforts?
5. Identify at least two other businesses, or business functions,
that you think
could achieve breakthrough gains via the use of crowdsourcing.
Document your citations throughout the text of a 4 – 6 page
paper; APA is the accepted
format for all Westcliff University classes. Your papers must
include an introduction and a
clear thesis, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Top
papers demonstrate a solid
understanding of the material and critical thinking.

*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Professional
Assignments on page 10 of the syllabus
for specific guidelines and expectations.
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3. Week 3
● Reading:
o Chapter 6: Motivating Others
● Applied Learning Assignment (ALA - P): due Sunday
11:59p.m. (week 4)

Discussion Question 1 – Standard DQ CLO 4
You have worked as a sales representative for the last three
years, and your boss has just quit.
You have been asked to take over as manager of your region,
and you are going to accept for
two reasons. First, you would like to move up and try something
different and more
challenging. Second, you have been very disappointed with the
way your prior manager ran
your sales group. He was not a good people manager and he did
very little to motivate the
sales representatives. More specifically, he let the low
performers slide by, while the top
performers (which you feel you are) did not seem to be
recognized for their contributions. The
situation was not horrible; he was not abusive or hostile in any
way. But you know the group
has some talented people and could do much better—if only

they had a motivational spark. So
how would you proceed in this situation? Where would you
start? What types of things would
you do to enhance motivation? What would be the biggest
obstacles to getting this group
energized? Would there be any predictable traps to avoid?
Provide your explanations and definitions in detail and be
precise. Comment on your findings.
Provide references for content when necessary. Provide your
work in detail and explain in your
own words. Support your statements with peer-reviewed in-text
citation(s) and reference(s).
ALA (P) - Personalized CLO – Applied Learning Assignment
(ALA) Graduate
Each student is to choose one (1) Course Learning Outcome
(CLO) listed in the course
syllabus. Using your textbook, LIRN-based research,
JSTOR.org, the Internet, or any other
electronic journal database, research a peer-reviewed article
that applies to the CLO you
selected AND facilitates answering part of your upcoming
CLA1 assignment.

Subsequently, you will include in your CLA1 assignment paper,
a separate and distinct
heading titled “Personalized CLO Applied Learning
Assignment”. Under this heading, you
will provide a minimum of two (2) paragraphs that should
contain the following information
and/or details:
● State the CLO(s) selected
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● Discuss how the article and/or author(s) support your
argument(s)
● Provide the most important aspects of the article as it directly
related to your identified
CLO(s)

● Include your findings and conclusions
● Approximately 250 to 350 words in length (minimum of 2
paragraphs)
● Include the in-text citation in APA format to properly
reference your article
Please be sure to provide justification by citing the article
researched (in-text citations),
Include the citation on the References page of your paper.
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4. Week 4
● Reading:
o Chapter 7: Managing Employee Performance

● CLA 1 due by Sunday at 11:59pm
Discussion Question 1 – (DQ directed at upcoming CLA1) -
Graduate
Prior to reading this DQ, please read the CLA1 assignment and
understand what the
understanding of the CLA1
assignment, please continue to the paragraph below to complete
DQ1.

upcoming CLA1 assignment. Your discussion should summarize
it can justify any arguments you may present in your CLA1
(company, business entity, and
so forth).
researched for your CLA1
answer your CLA1 assignment. The concept of this DQ is to
in its entirety in your CLA1 assignment.
Important: Please ensure that you insert your citation for the
article as your reference in your

discussion post. Depending on which electronic database you
use, you should see a “Cite”
selection for your article. In addition, there should be a variety
of articles summarized and as
such, students should have different articles summarized. Your
summary MUST include ALL
of the following (include every item in the bullet list below, or
you will not receive full credit):
should be original)

26 of 33
● “IMPORTANT” - Include the reference for the article
CLA 1 Comprehensive Learning Assessment 1 – CLO 1, CLO 2,
CLO 3, CLO 4
Compare and contrast the leadership styles of 2 current leaders
in the business industry.
Points of discussion can include but are not limited to some of
the following:
1. What makes them effective leaders?
2. How do they increase motivation within their organization?
3. How will they be remembered in business history?
4. How did they use their communication skills to gain support
for their ideas?
5. What are some of the techniques they use for problem-
solving, generating
alternative solutions, and effective bias-free decision making?
You must reference: at least eight outside sources and your
textbook. Document your citations
throughout the text of your 5 – 7 page paper; APA is the
accepted format for all Westcliff

University classes.
Your paper must include an introduction and a clear thesis,
several body paragraphs,
and a conclusion. Top papers demonstrate a solid understanding
of the material AND
critical thinking.
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Comprehensive
Learning Assessments (CLAs) on
page 11-12 of the syllabus for specific guidelines and
expectations.
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5. Week 5

● Reading:
o Chapter 9: Leading Others
Discussion Question 1 – CLA2 Preparation & Course Learning
Outcomes
Welcome to week 5 of your course. This discussion question
will help you prepare for your
CLA2 paper and final CLA2 PPP and as such, will have a fair
amount of detail. Read the
CLA2 assignment listed in week 8 of the course. Then, please
provide an outline that itemizes
the concepts that you will include in your CLA2 paper and final
PPt. Please be sure to

include concepts learned in the course and information
(findings, conclusions) from your
PA1and CLA1 papers. Provide some brief details for each item
that is outlined. Please keep in
mind that you should have place-holders for material not yet
covered in lecture from week 6 and
7. Here is an itemized list that summarizes the requirements of
this DQ (include every item in the
bullet list below, or you will not receive full credit):
● Outline that itemizes concepts learned in the course
● Include information (findings, conclusions) from your PA1
and CLA1
● Brief details for each item that is outlined
● Place-holders for material not yet covered

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6. Week 6
● Reading:
o Chapter 10: Team Effectiveness
● Professional Assignment 2 due by Sunday at 11:59pm
Discussion Question 1 – (DQ directed at upcoming PA2) -
Graduate

Prior to reading this DQ, please read the PA2 assignment and
understand what the
understanding of the PA2 assignment,
please continue to the paragraph below to complete DQ1.
upcoming PA2 assignment. Your discussion should summarize
it can justify any arguments you may present in your PA1
(company, business entity, and
so forth).
researched for your PA2

answer your PA2 assignment. The concept of this DQ is to
in its entirety in your PA2 assignment.
Important: Please ensure that you insert your citation for the
article as your reference in your
discussion post. Depending on which electronic database you
use, you should see a “Cite”
selection for your article. In addition, there should be a variety
of articles summarized and as
such, students should have different articles summarized. Your
summary MUST include ALL
of the following (include every item in the bullet list below, or
you will not receive full credit):

should be original)
“IMPORTANT” - Include the reference for the article
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Professional Assignment 2 – CLO 6
Review: Team Concepts on page 341
Answer:
1. What team characteristics (or lack of) do you think could
“sink” a boat of
very talented individuals?
2. Being as specific as possible, what factors might account for
how the 2001–2002
Army Crew Team JV boat—consisting of the bottom eight
rowers on the team—

frequently beat the Varsity boat?
3. Would you allocate rowers to the boats in the same way that
Coach Preczewski
did? What other options exist?
4. Can you think of other examples where the best group of
individuals has lower
performance as a team than do less talented teams?
5. Herb Brooks, head coach of the famous American Olympic
hockey team that defied
extraordinary odds and won the Olympic Gold Medal against a
far superior team from
the Soviet Union, once commented that the reason that his team
won was because he
“did not have the 20 best guys, but the 20 right guys.” Explain.
6. What variables are the most important to team success? Be as
specific as possible.
Document your citations throughout the text of your 2 – 3 page
paper; APA is the
accepted format for all Westcliff University classes. Your paper
must include an introduction
and a clear thesis, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Top papers demonstrate a solid

understanding of the material AND critical thinking.
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Professional
Assignments on page 9 of the syllabus
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7. Week 7
● Reading:

o Chapter 12: Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Talent
● Exam – Opens Monday - Sunday at 11:59pm
● Applied Learning Assignment – ALA (T)
Discussion Question 1 – Standard DQ CLO 7
The unfortunate reality is that a monkey, throwing darts at a list
of candidates on the wall,
would have a chance of finding the best performer on that list
roughly equal to many of the
selection methods commonly in use today. Chief among the
culprits is the unstructured
interview (for example: Tell me about yourself? What are your
greatest weaknesses? Why did
you pick your major? and so forth) which is among the most
widely used forms of

interviewing. While you have been interviewed in that way for
all your jobs to date, you
personally want to do better and conduct more useful
interviews. So how should you go about
increasing the effectiveness of your interviews? What are the
major differences between
unstructured and structured interviews? How should you frame
your questions?
ALA (T) - Topic Videos – Applied Learning Assignment (ALA)
Graduate
Each student is required to review the “Video-of-the-Week,”
listed in GAP for this current week.
The video(s) selection is directly related to at least one of the
(CLOs), and presents a solution(s) to a business problem.
Using your textbook, LIRN-based research, JSTOR.org, the
Internet, or any other electronic
journal database, research at least one stated claim, aspect,
challenge, solution, opinion, and
so forth, in the video.

Subsequently, you will include in your CLA2 assignment paper,
a separate and distinct
heading titled “Topic Video Critical Thinking & Reasoning”.
You are to critically think
about the solution presented and that you researched and
applied critical thinking and reasoning
skills to present the following (include every item in the bullet
list below to potentially receive
full credit):
● State a course CLO that the video relates to and how it relates
to the CLO
● Discuss your initial thoughts about the
solution/challenge/aspect presented in the video
● Present what you would do different in terms of the solution
presented in the video
your researched video

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● Approximately 250 to 350 words in length (minimum of 2
paragraphs)
● Include the in-text citation in APA format to properly
reference your article
Please be sure to provide justification by citing the article
researched, and include the
reference in the reference page of your paper
Exam - Online
The Exam can be accessed under Week 7 of your course GAP
site. The Exam will open on
Monday and will close on Sunday at 11:59pm. You will have 1
attempt to complete the Exam.
Please see Exam Grading Criteria on page 11.
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8. Week 8

● Reading: Review all chapters covered that will assist in the
completion of the CLA 2
assignment
● CLA 2 Presentation due in class
● CLA 2 due by Sunday at 11:59pm
Discussion Question 1 – Summary & Critical Thinking –
Week/Course Learning Outcomes
Welcome to the last week of your course. In this discussion
question you have the opportunity to
be creative and to relate what you have learned to your
professional lives. Please explore and
critically think about some of the learning outcomes and

concepts presented in this course.
Please effectively communicate how you would lead an
organization (or a group of people
within the organization) by applying the knowledge you have
learned ethically and responsibly.
Your discussion should also include innovative thinking, and
information-technology aspects
(such as the Internet, social-media, computers, and so forth)
that may assist you in decision-
making. You may frame your discussion around any functional
component of business, and in
any context; problem-solving, management, leadership,
organizational behavior, and so forth.
CLA 2 Comprehensive Learning Assessment 2 – CLO 5, CLO 6,
CLO 7
Write an 8 – 10 page APA formatted paper that explains the
following:
(1) Three to four important concepts you have learned
throughout this seven-week
course.
(2) Identify the two to three concepts you would like to apply to
your work setting and

how you will go about implementing them.
(3) Identify the key elements of your plan to strengthen your
practice of leadership.
CLA 2 measures the student’s competency and mastery of the
course concepts, particularly
the application of those concepts.
Your CLA2 submission (cumulative report) should be 8 to 10
pages in length. The CLA
assignments encompass the learning objectives for this course
and are designed to increase
your comprehension and augment your ability to apply concepts
learned in your professional
careers.
Subsequently, in addition to your report, please prepare a
professional PowerPoint
presentation summarizing your findings for CLA1 and CLA2.
The presentation will consist of
your major findings, analysis, and recommendations in a
concise 18-slide presentation. You
should use content from your report at material for your
PowerPoint presentation.

33 of 33
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for Comprehensive
Learning Assessments (CLAs) on
page 11-12 of the syllabus for specific guidelines and
expectations.
CLA2 Comprehensive Learning Assessment (CLA 2)
Presentation
In addition to your CLA2 report, please prepare a professional
PowerPoint presentation
summarizing your findings for CLA2. The presentation will
consist of your major findings,
analysis, and recommendations in a concise presentation of 18
slides (minimum). You should
use content from your CLA2 report as material for your
PowerPoint presentation. In addition,
you should include learning outcomes from all your major

assignments. This would include PA1,
CLA1, PA2, and of course, CLA2 (unless otherwise specified by
your Professor). An agenda,
executive summary, and references slides should also be
included. Please keep in mind that the
university is moving towards a more digital footprint for our
students. This means that your final
CLA2 presentation may be recorded, so that you may include it
in your “e-portfolio” (graduating
students should have all of their CLA2 presentations on a flash-
drive, in addition to student
biography, resume, interests, and so forth). Students will
present their PowerPoint during the last
week of class in either the On-Campus Class Session or the
online Virtual Class Session, as
determined by the professor. Presentations should not exceed 18
minutes.
*Please refer to the Grading Criteria for CLA2 Presentations on
page 11-12 of the syllabus

Confi rming Pages
INSTRUCTORS GET:
• Interactive Applications – book-specifi c interactive
assignments that require students to APPLY what
they’ve learned.
• Simple assignment management, allowing you to
spend more time teaching.
• Auto-graded assignments, quizzes, and tests.
• Detailed Visual Reporting where student and
section results can be viewed and analyzed.
• Sophisticated online testing capability.
• A fi ltering and reporting function
that allows you to easily assign and
report on materials that are correlated
to accreditation standards, learning
outcomes, and Bloom’s taxonomy.
• An easy-to-use lecture capture tool.
With McGraw-Hill's Connect® Plus Organizational Behavior,
Would you like your students to show up for class more
prepared? (Let’s face it,
class is much more fun if everyone is engaged and prepared…)
Want ready-made application-level interactive assignments,

student progress
reporting, and auto-assignment grading? (Less time grading
means more time teaching…)
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learning
objectives? (No more wondering if students understand…)
Need to collect data and generate reports required for
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learning outcomes…)
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INSTRUCTORS...
Less managing. More teaching. Greater learning.
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Want an online, searchable version of your textbook?
Wish your textbook could be available online while you’re
doing
your assignments?
Want to get more value from your textbook purchase?
Think learning management should be a bit more interesting?

Connect® Plus Organizational Behavior
eBook
If you choose to use Connect® Plus Organizational Behavior,
you have an affordable and searchable online version of
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Connect® Plus Organizational Behavior
eBook offers features like:
• Topic search
• Direct links from assignments
• Adjustable text size
• Jump to page number
• Print by section
Check out the STUDENT RESOURCES
section under the Connect® Library tab.
Here you’ll fi nd a wealth of resources designed to help you
achieve your goals in the course. You’ll fi nd things like
quizzes,
PowerPoints, and Internet activities to help you study.
Every student has different needs, so explore the STUDENT
RESOURCES to fi nd the materials best suited to you.
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MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
What Great Managers Know and Do
SECOND EDITION
Timothy T. Baldwin
Indiana University
William H. Bommer
California State University, Fresno
Robert S. Rubin
DePaul University
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MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: WHAT
GREAT MANAGERS KNOW AND DO
Published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin, a business unit of The
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221
Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY, 10020. Copyright ©
2013, 2008 by The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States
of America. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by
any means, or stored in a data-
base or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of
The McGraw-Hill Companies,

Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other
electronic storage or transmission, or
broadcast for distance learning.
Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components,
may not be available to customers
outside the United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOW/DOW 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
ISBN 978–0–07–353040–6
MHID 0–07–353040–9
Vice president and editor-in-chief: Brent Gordon
Editorial director: Paul Ducham
Executive editor: John Weimeister
Executive director of development: Ann Torbert
Development editor: Jane Beck
Editorial coordinator: Heather Darr
Vice president and director of marketing: Robin J. Zwettler
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Senior marketing manager: Michelle Heaster
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Typeface: 10/12 New Aster LT Std

Compositor: Laserwords Private Limited
Printer: R. R. Donnelley
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baldwin, Timothy T.
Managing organizational behavior : what great managers know
and do / Timothy T. Baldwin,
William H. Bommer, Robert S. Rubin. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Rev. ed. of: Developing management skills : what great
managers know and do / Timothy T.
Baldwin, William H. Bommer, Robert S. Rubin. 2008
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978–0–07–353040–6 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0–07–353040–9 (alk. paper)
1. Management—Study and teaching. 2. Organizational
behavior. 3. Executive ability.
I. Bommer, William. II. Rubin, Robert S. III. Baldwin, Timothy
T. Developing management
skills. IV. Title.
HD30.4.B355 2013
658.4'07124—dc23
2011040779
www.mhhe.com
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To JoEllen—25 years together and I can’t imagine the
journey without you.

—Tim Baldwin
To the kids—always a test of my management skills.
—Bill Bommer
To Leah—the glue that holds us all together.
—Bob Rubin
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vi
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TIMOTHY (Tim) T. BALDWIN is the Eveleigh Professor of
Business Leader-
ship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Professor Baldwin holds
a PhD in organizational behavior and an MBA from Michigan
State University.
He has published his research work in leading academic and
professional outlets,
including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of
Applied Psychology, Per-
sonnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Leadership
Quarterly, and Academy of
Management Learning & Education. He has won several
national research awards

including eight Best Paper Awards from the Management
Education & Develop-
ment division of the Academy of Management. He has twice
been the recipient of
the Richard A. Swanson Excellence in Research Award
presented by the Ameri-
can Society for Training & Development (ASTD). He is the co-
author of Improv-
ing Transfer Systems in Organizations (Jossey-Bass: 2003) and
his current research
interests include leadership development and organizational
training effectiveness.
In his time at Indiana University, Tim has been recognized
frequently for
teaching excellence, winning eight MBA Teaching Awards, the
Eli Lilly Alumni
Teaching Award, the FACET All-University Teaching Award,
and the Dow Innova-
tion in Teaching Fellowship. He is a proud member of the
Organizational Behav-
ior Teaching Society (OBTS) and a passionate supporter of the
mission of that
organization to improve teaching effectiveness in our discipline.
Tim’s background includes consultation with Cummins Engine,
Eli Lilly,
FedEx, Ingersoll Rand, Whirlpool, and a variety of other
organizations in both
the public and private sectors. He has also designed and
delivered numer-
ous executive education seminars in the U.S. and abroad,
including the Kel-
ley School’s Asia-Pacifi c Management Development program.
He serves on the
Board of Directors of Cripe Architects & Engineers, Inc., a

professional services
fi rm based in Indianapolis.
Tim is married with one son, one dog, one cat, and until
recently, one gerbil (a
sad story, and the cat is implicated). His interests include
coaching youth sports,
golf, basketball, gardening, and a little amateur magic.
WILLIAM (Bi l l ) H. BOMMER earned his master’s degree
in organizational
development from Bowling Green State University, and his PhD
in organiza-
tional behavior from Indiana University. He is currently a
professor of manage-
ment in the Craig School of Business at California State
University, Fresno. Prior
to his move to California, Bill served as faculty at Bowling
Green State Univer-
sity, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Georgia State
University, and
Cleveland State University.
Bill has published widely in the management area in journals
including the
Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management
Learning & Education,
Leadership Quarterly, Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, Per-
sonnel Psychology, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of
Management, Journal
of Vocational Behavior, and Organization Science. His
current research interests
include transformational leadership, organizational and personal
change, and
the linkage between attitudes and behavior.

Prior to entering academia, Bill worked as a fi nancial analyst
and as a group
process consultant in private industry. Bill has remained active
in his business
relationships and has designed and led numerous executive
education programs
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS vii
over the last 15 years. In support of his research interests, he
has served as a
trainer and consultant to a large number of manufacturing
companies across the
United States and has had a long-term relationship with the
Centers for Disease
Control. In this capacity, Bill has designed corporate
universities for his clients.
Bill is also managing partner of Collegiate Assessment Partners
(CAPs), a com-
pany that builds management skills assessment tools and
consults with univer-
sity business schools in support of their learning objectives and
their compliance
with accreditation standards. When not involved with teaching,
researching, or
consulting, Bill enjoys traveling, hiking, eating, and cycling.
Robert (Bob) S. Rubin is an associate professor of

management in the Kell-
stadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University. He
received his BA in
psychology from Indiana University, his MA in industrial-
organizational psychol-
ogy from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and his
PhD in organiza-
tional psychology from Saint Louis University.
Bob specializes in human resource management and
organizational behavior
at DePaul, where he is an avid and award-winning teacher
committed to advanc-
ing the fi eld of management education. He has been nationally
recognized for
his dedication to management andragogy and scholarship,
including multiple
Best Paper Awards from the Management Education Division of
the Academy of
Management. His research interest centers on individual
differences and their
role in effective leadership and management development and
includes forays
into aspects of transformational leadership, managerial
assessment and develop-
ment, academic assessment centers, and emotions at work. Bob
has published
his work in leading academic journals such as Academy of
Management Jour-
nal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology,
Journal of Management,
Academy of Management Learning & Education, The
Leadership Quarterly, Jour-
nal of Organizational Behavior, and Journal of Management
Education. Currently,
Bob is an editorial board member of three journals, the

Academy of Management
Learning & Education, Journal of Organizational Behavior,
and Leadership and
Organizational Studies.
In addition to his academic work, Bob has been an active
human resources
and organization development consultant to a variety of
industries including bio-
technology, health care, dentistry, and transportation. His
consulting work has
spanned employee selection, management assessment, and
development. Bob
also frequently serves as a coach for purposes of management
skill development.
When he’s not engaged in managing his more senior textbook
co-authors (Note:
He had a full head of hair prior to beginning this book project),
Bob enjoys play-
ing music, traveling, hiking, and wrestling with his three kids.
“The great thing about having a
PhD is when people do not under-
stand you, they think it’s them.”
— Henry Kissinger
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viii

A Different Kind of Textbook—Because
Teaching and Learning OB Are Hard Enough!
Contemporary students put extraordinary demands on OB
instructors and text-
books alike. On one hand, students immersed in quantitative
courses such as
fi nance and accounting and other business disciplines are often
quick to dis-
miss OB/management courses as “soft” or “elementary” or
“common sense”—so
there is a pressing need for relevance and richness. On the other
hand, modern
technology and short attention spans have created an aversion to
the theoretical
grounding and evidence-based education necessary to build true
understanding
and applicable skills.
Thoughtful OB and management instructors are therefore often
torn between
opting for a traditional descriptive text, strong on concepts and
defi nitions, but
with little application focus, or choosing a more popular-press
reading, strong on
war-story anecdotes and prescriptions (often more popular with
students), but
short on theory and evidence.
Recognizing this tension in our own OB classrooms, we set out
to create a
book (and ancillary package) with an express mission of
balance. To work for
us, the book would have to be one that students would fi nd
engaging but also
would have the coverage, rigor, and evidence base demanded of

professional
OB and management instructors. So this text is evidence-based
but targeted to
application. It covers traditional OB topics but in a decision-
oriented, not just
descriptive, way. It embraces the best OB models and evidence
but engages stu-
dents in how to use those models to improve their skill-sets and
more success-
fully navigate organizational life. Just as the book’s title
conveys, it is about both
knowing and doing. It is expressly designed to reconcile
student demands for
relevance and application with instructor interests in rigor,
evidence, and appro-
priate coverage of the discipline. We know fi rsthand that
teaching OB today is
akin to straddling a glacier crevasse and this book is designed
in that spirit.
Put another way, we saw our charge as creating a book that
would inform,
illuminate, and inspire. We wanted to inform students of the
best and most
current knowledge about organizational behavior and its
application to man-
agement contexts. We wanted to illuminate those concepts
with the most vivid
and memorable examples and illustrations. And we wanted to
inspire learners
by capturing and conveying the challenge and excitement and
even playfulness
involved in managing and working with people. To do that, we
found it appropri-
ate to diverge from conventional textbooks in several signifi
cant ways, and we

briefl y highlight those choices in the following.
Skills and Decisions vs. Concepts and Description
For whatever reason, almost every leading OB textbook today
still has a decid-
edly descriptive orientation. For example, team effectiveness
may sound like a
very applied topic. Yet most textbook chapters so titled deal
exclusively with the
different types of teams, comparisons of individual and team
decision making,
“Ideal management education
should reorient its priorities and
focus on skill training. A great deal
is known about inculcating such
skills, but the knowledge does not
typically make its way into the
business curriculum.”
— Henry Mintzberg , McGill University
PREFACE
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PREFACE ix
theories of team development and confl ict, and so on. In most
cases, the infor-
mation is accurate, but it leaves students marginally prepared to

work effectively
in a team.
Similarly, chapters on motivation and leadership often trace the
history of
research and theory in those areas but end up not directly
addressing the skills
and behaviors a student needs to actually motivate others or
lead a group or a
change project. Our goal in this text was to get beyond
description to skill devel-
opment and decisions, that is, not just what defi nes a good
group, but how one
might make a group function better. Our goal was to translate
from description
to decisions—from OB concepts to organizational and
managerial action.
Student-Centric Evidence and Learning
vs. Comprehensive Body of Knowledge
In recent years, we have come to understand much more about
how students
actually consume textbook material. As a result, we approached
the process of
writing this book in a different way than perhaps a traditional
textbook might be
written. For example, in selecting the content for each chapter
in this book, we
purposively did not start by spreading out all of the existing
textbooks and look-
ing at all the accumulated knowledge about that topic. Rather,
we began with
the key questions, problems, and challenges people face in, say,
managing time,
communicating a persuasive message, overcoming resistance to
change, or deal-

ing with a problem team member, and then turned to the
existing literature to
build chapters around those problems.
Indeed, as we wrote each chapter, we adopted a position akin to
editors of
Consumer Reports magazine. That is, we tried to test
assumptions about what
students really read and consume, and what instructors really
use from a text-
book. And we asked ourselves: What do we want to use? What
material connects
with students? What are the best readings and exercises? What
material do we
rarely or never use? We call this student-centric material.
The Russian author Tolstoy once insightfully noted that “ all
happy families
resemble each other, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its
own way. ” Simi-
larly, we would contend that all effective managers resemble
one another, but
poor ones are ineffective in their own unique ways. And the fi
rst phase of com-
petence is how readily and skillfully novices can respond to
routine situations,
not simply their ability to handle unusual ones. So we should
strive less for com-
prehensiveness and more on achieving fundamental skills and
knowledge that
can help aspiring managers operate in the most core and
recurring situations
commonly faced (e.g., our Manage What? scenarios that frame
each chapter are
designed to do just that). Our goal was to include the material
and evidence, and

only that material and evidence, that might be labeled
“mission critical.” The
book is relatively short in order to do important things well,
rather than attempt
to superfi cially cover the waterfront.
We hasten to add, however, that to suggest that students today
want nothing
to do with research, or want their texts “dumbed down,” is both
inaccurate and
condescending. Indeed, our experience is that students do want
to know the ori-
gins of what they are being taught—provided the research helps
bring concepts
to life. For example, a fascinating recent study found that
monkeys will turn
down very desirable food if they know that other fellow
monkeys are getting even
more desirable food. In our view, this is a terrifi c illustration
of the intense power
of equity perceptions, and something that is likely to stick with
students in their
study of motivational concepts.
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PREFACEx
Hearing the Voice of the Student
vs. Pushing the Discipline
We like to think that our “partners” in writing this book were

the many students
and practicing managers who have been in our courses,
completed our surveys,
and shared with us the ideas, tools, quotations, and “little gems”
that helped them
develop and refi ne their own skills. Indeed, over the last few
years we have asked
our students to interview practicing managers and to fi nd out
how those manag-
ers would evaluate the organizational behavior and management
courses they
took in college. In doing so, the managers frequently pointed
out that courses
focused a lot of attention on theories and concepts but, in their
view, focused too
little on relevant prescriptive principles and skills. They were
challenged most by
the “people problems” in their work, and yet felt their
management education
had not emphasized, or adequately prepared them for, that
component of their
job. So in writing this text, we tried to consistently take into
account what those
who ultimately must go and practice management most need to
know.
Finally, in the course of writing this book we were often asked
how our book
would differ from popular-press books. In responding to that we
are always quick
to clarify that we certainly do not consider “popular” to be
synonymous with bad.
Indeed, there are some wonderful and useful popular works that
we draw from
in this book. We do, however, think the distinction between this
book and many

of the popular-press books on similar topics is pronounced and
critically impor-
tant. In our view, any book targeted to students in a university
context must pro-
vide exposure to the “whys,” that is, the conceptual foundation
of skills. We think
this book’s defi ning value is its practicality and usefulness, but
we contend that
this is so because it is based on good theory and research, not
because we avoided
the important conceptual grounding.
The OB Teaching Challenge: Aiming for Balance
We believe that inculcating OB/management skills is perhaps
the greatest chal-
lenge in business education today—and it is time to more
directly and intention-
ally take on that challenge. Few people question the analytic
capability of today’s
graduating students—but the jury is still out on their
interpersonal and leader-
ship competence. We think a skills-based, decision-oriented
approach, manifest
in this text, is critical to addressing that challenge. In sum,
working and man-
aging effectively in organizations today is an act of supreme
balance—and our
hope is that we have created a textbook that is true to that
charge.
Features of the Book
Manage What?
One of our favorite teaching colleagues is an accounting
professor who enjoys
pointing out to us that, while every organization has accounting,

information sys-
tems, and marketing departments, he has never heard of a
corporation that has a
management department. He further chides us that having a
degree in manage-
ment invites the question, “ Management of what? ” In reality,
he is a passionate
advocate for improving the management skills of his accounting
students and
even pushed us to write this text. But his observation raises an
important issue.
One of the legitimate criticisms of OB and management courses
and text-
books, even those with a stated skills focus, is that they tend to
be rather abstract
about what is really being managed. There is often a curious
lack of focus on the
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PREFACE xi
specifi cs of what managers are challenged to do, and on how
great professionals
might respond to those challenges.
With that in mind, we decided to open each chapter with a
section we call
Manage What? The Manage What? feature consists of several
fundamental and

specifi c questions or challenges related to the skill focus of
that chapter. For
example, in the chapter on team effectiveness, one scenario
poses a challenge
regarding how to deal with members who are not pulling their
weight. In the
motivation chapter, one of the scenarios addresses how to
diagnose and deal
with a person who shows little desire to do better work, and so
on. So that stu-
dents can conduct a “skills check,” we have also included
selected critiques or
debriefi ngs of how a skilled manager might have proceeded on
the Manage
What? scenarios. We have intentionally, however, not included
all of the debriefs
at the end of the chapters. Some of the debriefs are only
available in the instruc-
tor’s manual so that those critiques can be distributed to
students at any point—
or sometimes as the key when we use the Manage What?
scenarios as exam
questions.
Taken together, the Manage What? scenarios comprise a set of
the most fun-
damental of management skills. They are hardly
comprehensive—there is clearly
much more to learn about management (and in the book) than
how to handle
just those scenarios—but the set is a concrete start toward
isolating the main-
stream and recurring things that great managers do well.
Our accounting professor friend likes to heighten student
interest by point-

ing out how his course material is good preparation to become a
CPA (certifi ed
public accountant). We would contend that an understanding
and mastery of the
Manage What? scenarios would likewise constitute a good step
toward becoming
a hypothetical CPM or “certifi ed people manager.” No such
certifi cation actu-
ally exists, but we have sought to include the recurring skills we
would expect
someone to demonstrate to be certifi ed as a great manager if
there were such a
reputable credential. Those skills are the focus of the Manage
What? scenarios.
Management Live
We doubt there is an OB/management instructor alive who
would deny the criti-
cal importance of illustration and examples in helping students
develop the skills
of great managers. So, in addition to liberally using examples in
the text itself,
we also have created a separate feature designed to highlight the
most vivid and
engaging illustrations, stories, and short cases we could fi nd.
We call the section
Management Live to capture the spirit of those illustrations,
which is expressly
to enliven the text and bring to life the concepts in ways
meaningful and memo-
rable to learners.
Learning theorists have begun using the term “stickiness” to
describe learn-
ing stimuli that ultimately stay with learners, and that very
much captures the

spirit of this feature of the book. Our experience is that our
students often recall
specifi c cases and examples long after they have forgotten
lectures and text. So
our goal was to infuse each chapter with Management Live
examples that catch
attention, strike the imagination, and really do “stick” with
students as examples
and guides.
Manager’s Tool Kits
An irrefutable aspect of applying skills is to have a good set of
tools. In our exec-
utive education work, we have been struck by how much
participants appreci-
ate “takeaways” like self-assessments, good forms, quick
checklists, and so on.
Although we have never been particularly focused on such
takeaways for our
degree students, it occurred to us that such tools would be
useful for anyone
“Example is not the main thing in
influencing others. It is the only
thing.”
— Albert Schweitzer
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PREFACExii

trying to improve his or her management skills. Indeed, a
fundamental supposi-
tion of the evidence-based management movement is that once
evidence is well
established, it should be codifi ed into practice through the use
of checklists or
other decision supports. In this spirit, we therefore embed
several Manager’s Tool
Kits into each chapter. For example, the performance
management chapter has
Manager’s Tool Kits for choosing the right performance
evaluation method, ana-
lyzing a performance problem, and terminating or reassigning
an employee. The
motivation chapter has a quick guide to rewarding effectively,
the confl ict chapter
includes a checklist for effective mediation, and so on. The
Manager’s Tool Kits
are presented in a way that students can copy and actually make
use of them now
or in the future. Taken collectively, the Manager’s Tool Kits
comprise something of
a management skills manual. We make no claims that these are
original or novel
or provocative or anything fancy at all. However, they are the
things that make
their way onto managers’ offi ce doors, desktop frames, purse
cards, and so on.
Contemporary Cases
Contemporary OB teaching is hard because students often think
that OB teach-
ing is not contemporary. That is unfortunate because many of
the most progres-
sive and “hottest” companies today are, in fact, wonderful

exemplars of the best
of OB practice. For example, Google’s recent investigation into
what makes a
great boss at the fi rm turned up a list of characteristics that
have been validated
for years by OB researchers. Zappos’ 10 cultural
commandments read like a syn-
thesis of OB research on high-performance cultures. Facebook,
Microsoft, and
leading hospitality fi rms do not rely on low-validity
unstructured interviews and
subjective selection practices favored by too many
organizations. Rather, they
employ the most valid of selection procedures supported by
decades of rigorous
research.
It was these observations that prompted us in this edition of our
text to open
each chapter with a case that would satisfy our students’
craving for examples
that are (a) authentic— what they like to call “real world,” and
(b) current and
relevant. We expressly sought fi rms that would strike their
imagination, and our
goal was to show a clear linkage between what they are reading
in the text and
the application of those concepts in the most progressive and
admired of today’s
organizations. So we have endeavored to include cases that have
that character
at the end of each of our chapters. A master list of the
contemporary cases is
shown below:
Chapter 1 – eHarmony

Chapter 2 – CIGNA
Chapter 3 – Threadless and ChallengePost
Chapter 4 – TRUTHY
Chapter 5 – Tableau
Chapter 6 – Ritz-Carlton
Chapter 7 – The Dallas Mavericks
Chapter 8 – Klout
Chapter 9 – Google
Chapter 10 – Team Concepts
Chapter 11 – The NFL Players Association
Chapter 12 – Google, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, and
Doubletree Hotels
Chapter 13 – Zappos
Chapter 14 – The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles
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PREFACE xiii

Ancillaries
It is hardly provocative to suggest that the ways students learn
today have changed
rather dramatically from a generation ago. Just as iPods have
changed the way
music is delivered and consumed, so too has the Internet,
wireless technology,
and portable video capability transformed the way learners
consume education.
Moreover, learning researchers have long recognized that
students have different
learning styles: some favoring reading and refl ection, and
others engaged more
by visual depictions and hands-on experience.
The instructional implication is that the most successful
courses will be
those that expose learners to multiple educational stimuli.
With that in mind, we
have supplemented this text with a set of supporting resources
designed to facili-
tate the learning of management skills in multiple ways. Central
to these support
materials are the Online Learning Center (OLC) at
www.mhhe.com/baldwin2e
and McGraw-Hill Connect Organizational Behavior.
In summary, we have tried to translate our own experiences in
the classroom
into a package of learning stimuli that will both appeal to and
challenge students
of organizational behavior and management. Although
sometimes characterized
as being elementary or commonsensical, great management is

neither common
nor easy, and the existence of so many ineffective managers and
toxic organiza-
tions attests to that. We fi rmly believe that many aspects of
management can be
learned, but it takes a focus on skills and a more concerted
effort to bring those
skills to life than many of our traditional learning materials
provide. Our hope
is that this text and set of ancillaries will be useful in that
regard—but we con-
sider it all a work in progress. We actively invite your input as
we all try to foster
better-managed organizations and healthy and engaging places
to work.
McGraw-Hill Connect ® Organizational Behavior
Less Managing. More Teaching. Greater Learning.
McGraw-Hill Connect Organizational Behavior is an online
assignment and assessment solution that connects students
with the tools and resources they’ll need to achieve success.
McGraw-Hill Connect Organizational Behavior helps pre-
pare students for their future by enabling faster learning, more
effi cient studying,
and higher retention of knowledge.
McGraw-Hill Connect Organizational Behavior Features
Connect Organizational Behavior offers a number of powerful
tools and fea-
tures to make managing assignments easier, so faculty can
spend more time
teaching. With Connect Organizational Behavior, students can
engage with their
coursework anytime and anywhere, making the learning process

more acces-
sible and effi cient. Connect Organizational Behavior offers
you the features
described next.
Simple Assignment Management
With Connect Organizational Behavior, creating assignments
is easier than ever,
so you can spend more time teaching and less time managing.
The assignment
management function enables you to:
• Create and deliver assignments easily with selectable end-
of-chapter
questions and test bank items.
“Happiness is coming to class and
seeing the video projector set up.”
— Charlie Brown
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Confi rming Pages
PREFACExiv
• Streamline lesson planning, student progress reporting, and
assignment
grading to make classroom management more effi cient than
ever.
• Go paperless with the ebook and online submission and

grading of stu-
dent assignments.
Smart Grading
When it comes to studying, time is precious. Connect
Organizational Behavior
helps students learn more effi ciently by providing feedback and
practice material
when they need it, where they need it. When it comes to
teaching, your time also
is precious. The grading function enables you to:
• Have assignments scored automatically, giving students
immediate
feedback on their work and side-by-side comparisons with the
correct
answers.
• Access and review each response; manually change grades
or leave com-
ments for students to review.
• Reinforce classroom concepts with practice tests and instant
quizzes.
Instructor Library
The Connect Organizational Behavior Instructor Library is
your repository for
additional resources to improve student engagement in and out
of class. You can
select and use any asset that enhances your lecture. The
Connect Organizational
Behavior Instructor Library includes:
• Instructor’s manual

• PowerPoint slides
• Test bank
• The Connect Organizational Behavior ebook
Student Study Center
The Connect Organizational Behavior Student Study Center is
the place for stu-
dents to access additional resources. The Student Study Center:
• Offers students quick access to lectures, practice materials,
ebooks, and
more.
• Provides instant practice material and study questions;
easily accessible
on the go.
• Gives students access to the Personalized Learning Plan
described next.
Student Progress Tracking
Connect Organizational Behavior keeps instructors informed
about how each stu-
dent, section, and class is performing, allowing for more
productive use of lec-
ture and offi ce hours. The progress-tracking function enables
you to:
• View scored work immediately and track individual or
group perfor-
mance with assignment and grade reports.
• Access an instant view of student or class performance
relative to learn-

ing objectives.
• Collect data and generate reports required by many
accreditation organi-
zations, such as AACSB.
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Confi rming Pages
PREFACE xv
Lecture Capture
Increase the attention paid to lecture discussions by decreasing
the attention
paid to note-taking. For an additional charge, Lecture Capture
offers new ways
for students to focus on the in-class discussion, knowing they
can revisit impor-
tant topics later. Lecture Capture enables you to:
• Record and distribute your lecture with a click of a button.
• Record and index PowerPoint presentations and anything
shown on your
computer so it is easily searchable, frame by frame.
• Offer access to lectures anytime and anywhere by computer,
iPod, or
mobile device.
• Increase intent listening and class participation by easing
students’ con-

cerns about note-taking. Lecture Capture will make it more
likely you will
see students’ faces, not the tops of their heads.
McGraw-Hill Connect Plus ® Organizational Behavior
McGraw-Hill reinvents the textbook learning experience for the
modern student
with Connect Plus Organizational Behavior. A seamless
integration of an ebook
and Connect Organizational Behavior, Connect Plus
Organizational Behavior pro-
vides all of the Connect Organizational Behavior features, plus
the following:
• An integrated ebook, allowing for anytime, anywhere
access to the
textbook.
• Dynamic links between the problems or questions you assign
to your
students and the location in the ebook where that problem or
question is
covered.
• A powerful search function to pinpoint and connect key
concepts in a
snap.
In short, Connect Organizational Behavior offers you and
your students pow-
erful tools and features that optimize your time and energies,
enabling you to
focus on course content, teaching, and student learning.
Connect Organizational
Behavior also offers a wealth of content resources for both
instructors and stu-

dents. This state-of-the-art, thoroughly tested system supports
you in preparing
students for the world that awaits.
For more information about Connect, go to
www.mcgrawhillconnect.com ,
or contact your local McGraw-Hill sales representative.
Tegrity Campus: Lectures 24/7
Tegrity Campus is a service that makes
class time available 24/7 by automatically
capturing every lecture in a searchable
format for students to review when they
study and complete assignments. With a
simple one-click start-and-stop process, you capture all
computer screens and
corresponding audio. Students can replay any part of any class
with easy-to-use
browser-based viewing on a PC or Mac.
Educators know that the more students can see, hear, and
experience class
resources, the better they learn. In fact, studies prove it. With
Tegrity Campus,
students quickly recall key moments by using Tegrity Campus’s
unique search
feature. This search helps students effi ciently fi nd what they
need, when they
need it, across an entire semester of class recordings. Help turn
all your students’
study time into learning moments immediately supported by
your lecture.
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Confi rming Pages
PREFACExvi
To learn more about Tegrity, watch a two-minute Flash demo at
http://tegrity
campus.mhhe.com .
Assurance of Learning Ready
Many educational institutions today are focused on the notion
of assurance
of learning, an important element of some accreditation
standards. Managing
Organizational Behavior: What Great Managers Know and Do,
Second Edition,
is designed specifi cally to support your assurance of learning
initiatives with a
simple yet powerful solution.
Each test bank question for Managing Organizational
Behavior: What Great
Managers Know and Do, Second Edition, maps to a specifi c
chapter learning out-
come/objective listed in the text. You can use our test bank
software, EZ Test
and EZ Test Online, or Connect Organizational Behavior to
easily query for learn-
ing outcomes/objectives that directly relate to the learning
objectives for your
course. You can then use the reporting features of EZ Test to
aggregate student
results in a similar fashion, making the collection and
presentation of assurance

of learning data simple and easy.
AACSB Statement
The McGraw-Hill Companies is a proud corporate member of
AACSB Inter-
national. Understanding the importance and value of AACSB
accreditation,
Managing Organizational Behavior: What Great Managers
Know and Do, Second
Edition, recognizes the curricula guidelines detailed in the
AACSB standards
for business accreditation by connecting selected questions in
the test bank to
the six general-knowledge and skill guidelines in the AACSB
standards.
The statements contained in Managing Organizational
Behavior: What Great
Managers Know and Do, Second Edition, are provided only as
a guide for the
users of this textbook. The AACSB leaves content coverage and
assessment within
the purview of individual schools, the mission of the school,
and the faculty.
While Managing Organizational Behavior: What Great
Managers Know and Do,
Second Edition, and the teaching package make no claim of any
specifi c AACSB
qualifi cation or evaluation, we have within Managing
Organizational Behavior:
What Great Managers Know and Do, Second Edition, labeled
selected questions
according to the six general-knowledge and skills areas.
McGraw-Hill Customer Care Contact Information
At McGraw-Hill, we understand that getting the most from new

technology can
be challenging. That’s why our services don’t stop after you
purchase our prod-
ucts. You can e-mail our Product Specialists 24 hours a day to
get product-training
online. Or you can search our knowledge bank of Frequently
Asked Questions on
our support website. For Customer Support, call 800-331-5094,
e-mail hmsup-
[email protected] , or visit www.mhhe.com/support . One
of our Technical
Support Analysts will be able to assist you in a timely fashion.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education and Blackboard Have
Teamed Up. What Does This Mean for You?
1. Your life, simplifi ed. Now you and your students can
access McGraw-
Hill’s Connect and Create ™ right from within your
Blackboard course—
all with one single sign-on. Say goodbye to the days of logging
in to
multiple applications.
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Confi rming Pages
PREFACE xvii
2. Deep integration of content and tools. Not only do you get
single sign-
on with Connect and Create ™ ; you also get a deep

integration of McGraw-
Hill content and content engines right in Blackboard. Whether
you’re
choosing a book for your course or building Connect
assignments, all the
tools you need are right where you want them—inside of
Blackboard.
3. Seamless gradebooks. Are you tired of keeping multiple
gradebooks
and manually synchronizing grades into Blackboard? We
thought so.
When a student completes an integrated Connect assignment,
the grade
for that assignment automatically (and instantly) feeds your
Blackboard
grade center.
4. A solution for everyone. Whether your institution is
already using
Blackboard or you just want to try Blackboard on your own, we
have a
solution for you. McGraw-Hill and Blackboard can now offer
you easy
access to industry-leading technology and content, whether your
campus
hosts it, or we do. Be sure to ask your local McGraw-Hill
representative
for details.
Changes from the First Edition
The response to our fi rst edition was immensely gratifying, as
OB and man-
agement instructors seem to be gravitating toward a more skills-
oriented and

decision-making approach. Among the most favored elements of
the original edi-
tion was our overt recognition of the knowing–doing gap and
the features that
engaged students to think about personal and managerial action
rather than just
the learning of descriptive concepts.
We also received many useful ideas for enhancing the text and
have tried
to incorporate those ideas into this new edition. Among the
most signifi cant
changes, this new edition includes:
• Broader coverage to better fi t OB courses. While many of
our adoptions
were for OB courses, and all three authors use the book in such
courses
at their respective institutions (Indiana University, California
State
University–Fresno, and DePaul University) feedback suggested
that some
instructors, who otherwise were attracted to the skills-oriented
approach,
did not fi nd the book quite broad enough for their OB course.
In
response, we restructured the text by adding some signifi cant
content and
brand-new chapters, resulting in a text that more fully refl ects
the scope
and evidence base of organizational behavior. Naturally, we
changed the
title to refl ect this substantial restructuring.
Note that there was no divergence from our skills-orientation
or our

focus on personal and managerial action. Indeed, we retained
the subtitle
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Confi rming Pages
PREFACExviii
(What Great Managers Know and Do) and intentionally included
some
content that has not typically been part of most traditional OB
books (for
example, performance management, selecting and retaining
talent, change
management, and so on), because the evidence is clear that
these areas are
essential to effective management and therefore critical in
exposing stu-
dents to what great managers really know and do. Importantly,
these topics
are all discussed from a manager’s perspective and should not
interfere with
or detract from other functional courses such as human resource
manage-
ment, but rather reinforce the close ties between organizational
behavior
and human resource management in actual practice. In short,
our aim was
to make the book better-suited to fi t the content and structure
of a typi-
cal OB course. And while not for everyone, we do think the text
is a great

option for those instructors who feel drawn to take a more
skills-based and
decision-oriented approach to their OB or management skills
course
• Knowing and Doing Objectives. As our subtitle suggests,
great manage-
ment is about both knowing and doing, and so we now overtly
include
both knowing and doing learning objectives at the outset of
each chapter.
Instructors (and administrators) have told us that this feature is
very
useful for those schools concerned with assurance of learning
(AACSB),
alignment of curriculum to objectives, and related issues that
are so ubiq-
uitous in business schools.
• Addition of Contemporary Cases and Discussion Questions
(with
debriefs for instructors). We consistently hear from our
students—and
now from fellow instructors using the book—that contemporary
students
want more cases and examples of OB ideas in practice. So we
heeded
that call by adding two cases to every chapter—most of them
drawn from
progressive contemporary fi rms that best capture student
interest. We
also include accompanying discussion questions that challenge
students
to wrestle with ideas from the book using context from the most
exciting
and interesting contemporary fi rms.

• Embedded Manager’s Tool Kits. Staying true to our focus
on knowing
and doing, the new edition integrates the Manager’s Tool Kits
(which
used to appear at the end of the chapter) directly into the
chapter text.
We think this embedding makes the popular book feature more
user-
friendly and, most importantly, facilitates more effi cient
transition from
knowledge to action.
• More Manage What? Challenges — and New Debriefs. Any
student of
math knows how important “problem sets” are in facilitating the
transi-
tion from knowing principles to solving actual problems
correctly. More-
over, it is really wonderful to have the answers to those
problem sets in
the back of the book. We think OB learning is analogous. So we
have
added more of our popular Manage What? challenges that
appear at the
opening to every chapter. Moreover, in this edition we have also
added
answers so that students can compare their responses to expert
commen-
tary on how to address the challenge. On the advice of our book
adopters,
however, the debrief to at least one such challenge in each
chapter is still
provided only to instructors so it can be used as an evaluation
tool if an
instructor so chooses.

• Enhanced Ancillaries and Video Supplements. In today’s
contemporary
classroom, it takes more than a textbook to bring a class to life.
So the
book comes complete with an entirely new set of ancillaries,
including
McGraw-Hill’s innovative Connect program.
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xix
WALKTHROUGH
An Applied Text for an Applied Topic
In a world full of challenging analytic courses such as fi nance,
accounting, and computer sci-
ence, students are often quick to dismiss OB/management
courses as “soft” or “common
sense” or “just theory.” Unfortunately, many existing textbooks
serve only to support those
misconceptions. Teaching and learning organizational behavior
and management are hard
enough—your textbook shouldn’t make it harder.

So, unlike other textbooks today, Managing Organizational
Behavior: What Great Man-
agers Know and Do, Second Edition, is written with a style and
purpose to fi t the demands of
contemporary students and instructors. While including full
coverage of the most important
OB models and evidence, the book’s distinct value is its focus
on the skills and decisions
required to function effectively as a manager (or individual
contributor) in today’s organi-
zations. Unlike traditional texts, the authors draw from the best
OB theory and models to
describe how to develop the right mix of skills—and how those
skills can be implemented in
contemporary contexts. The distinctive features of the text
include the following.
Addresses the Knowing–Doing Gap
The most formidable challenge to OB learning is not knowing
but doing —and this book
is expressly focused on facilitating the transition from knowing
principles to solving
actual problems. Put another way, when it comes to behaving
effectively in organiza-
tions, there is no knowledge advantage without an action

advantage.
As the text subtitle (What Great Managers Know and Do)
suggests, the authors
engage students to think specifi cally about personal and
managerial action rather than
just learning descriptive concepts. Toward that end, every
chapter opens with a section
called Manage What? which consists of several fundamental
and specifi c challenges
related to the topical focus of the chapter. These scenarios are
great for class discus-
sions or written assignments and focus on recurring skills that
are fundamental to any
manager’s success. Moreover, at the end of each chapter are
debriefs or “answers” to
those challenges that describe how skilled professionals would
best respond.
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WALKTHROUGH xx
Provides Contemporary Cases and Examples

One of the most frustrating student perceptions is that
organizational behavior is irrel-
evant or old-fashioned. That is unfortunate because many of the
most progressive and
“hottest” companies today are, in fact, wonderful exemplars of
the best of OB and
management practice. So every chapter in this text opens with a
case that will sat-
isfy students’ craving for examples that are (a) authentic—what
they like to call “real
world” and (b) current and relevant. The profi led fi rms (e.g.,
Google, Zappos, and eHar-
mony) are readily visible to students, strike their imagination,
and show a clear linkage
between what they are reading in their text and the application
of those concepts in the
most progressive and admired of modern organizations.
1. Making a Diffi cult Ethical Choice
You have worked for your boss for fi ve years, and he has
become a trusted mentor for you in the fi rm. Indeed, there is no
one
in the fi rm toward whom you feel more respect or loyalty. You
just met with him and, due to an unforeseen market downturn,
he let you know of a proposed layoff that will affect one of the
three people who report to you (Joe). Because the decision
has not been announced, and it will surely send shockwaves

through the fi rm, he asked that you absolutely not tell any of
your
subordinates. In fact, concerned the information might get
prematurely leaked, he even says, “It is critically important that
no
one know. Can I count on you?” You agreed emphatically that
he could. Unfortunately, that evening you see Joe, who coaches
a little league team with you. He tells you he and his wife have
been accepted into an adoption process for a new child and he
wanted to share his joy with you. He also has heard rumors of a
layoff and says, sort of jokingly, “I am not going to be laid off,
am I? We could never afford to take care of a new child without
my income.”
What should you do? Is this an ethical issue? You are forced to
choose between loyalty and your expressed promise on
one hand, and your sense of caring and honesty toward Joe (and
his potential new child) on the other. What factors will you
consider in your decision? On what basis would you justify the
ethics of your decision?
2. You Be the Ethicist
Author Randy Cohen serves as The Ethicist for The New York
Times Sunday Magazine. He frequently poses ethical dilemmas
to
his readers and an adapted set of those (and similar themes) are
listed next. Respond to each of the following scenarios, being
sure to identify the ethical frame (utilitarian, universalism, or
virtuous person) you are using as the rationale for your
response.
a. Is it ethical to buy a sweater to use for a family picture and
then return it for a refund?
b. Is it ethical to download a song from the Internet without
paying for it given that (a) you would not have downloaded

it if you had to pay, (b) you have no money and the artist and
record label (or Apple, Inc.) are beyond wealthy, (c) you
are actually promoting the artist by listening to and sharing
your impressions with others.
c. How much is a cat worth? Your affectionate and obedient
cat needs a procedure that will cost a few hundred dollars.
Your instinct is to pay for what she needs, but you can’t help
thinking it’s wrong. Wouldn’t the cash be better spent
on sick humans?
d. Can you ethically round off your 2.958 GPA to 3.0 when
using it on your resumé?
e. Is it OK to take those hotel shampoos and soaps and give
them to homeless shelters?
f. Should you tell on someone you observe researching bomb-
making on the Internet? Or on a friend having a too-
friendly dinner with a woman who is not his wife?
g. Is it ethical to buy cheap seats to a baseball game you know
will be sparsely attended and then sneak down and sit in
the expensive seats? Similarly, is it ethical to grab open fi rst-
class seats (once everyone is on board and in their pur-
chased seats) when you only paid for coach?
h. Is it ethical for a homeless mother to steal a loaf of bread
to feed her starving child?
i. If you scored the wrong answer on a test, and the instructor
marked it correct and you very honestly let him know, is
it ethical for the instructor to let you keep the points and reward
your honesty?
3. Creating a Culture That People View as Fair

You are a relatively new manager and times are tough at your fi
rm. You know you are going to have to make some really tough
decisions regarding promotions, job assignments, bonuses, and
even who gets laid off and who stays. When you took your
new management position two years ago, the fi rm was
booming, and with ample resources to work with you thought to
your-
self that you would just give everyone the same rewards and
schedules and anything you controlled and that would solve the
problem. But now resources are scarce and you are worried that
if people view your decisions as unfair you will run the risk of
destroying your positive culture and even losing key people. If
your goal is to create a fair workplace that is also a productive
one, what should you do? What types of standards would you
put in place and then how would you decide “who gets what”?
4. Being a Responsible Whistle-Blower
As a manager in your fi rm, you have become disturbed with
some of the claims that are being made (by people in your mar-
keting and sales group) about some of your products. Although
you often work with that department, you are employed in
a different function and not sure if you should “stick your nose”
into that area. Moreover, although you feel something of an
ethical obligation to ensure that no customers are harmed by
false information, you also are very concerned that blowing the
whistle in this case could prompt serious repercussions and
potentially be detrimental to your career, cause the loss of trust
and friends in the fi rm, and even impact your family.
MANAGE WHAT?
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WALKTHROUGH xxi
Written to Be “Sticky”
Another persistent student criticism of organizational behavior
coursework is that it is
too abstract or even “boring”—and given the nature of many
existing texts, it is not
hard to see how students might reach that conclusion. The spirit
of this book was to
infuse each chapter with examples that catch attention, strike
imagination, and really
do “stick” with students as examples and guides. Such examples
are sprinkled liber-
ally within the text, but there are also separate boxes labeled
“Management Live” that
highlight the most vivid and engaging illustrations, stories, and
short cases that bring to
life the concepts in ways meaningful and memorable to learners.
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WALKTHROUGH xxii
Includes Pragmatic Tool Kits
An irrefutable aspect of applying skills is to have a good set of
tools. Most executive
education seminars and corporate training programs are known
for providing par-
ticipants with such tools for better conducting their work. Yet,
while common-place
in many business educational settings, for some reason the
notion of tools and tool
kits has not made its way into traditional college texts. This
book rectifi es that omis-
sion by embedding very practical “how to” tool kits in each
chapter. These tool kits
offer tangible takeaways for students through self-assessments,
forms, and quick
checklists.
MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.2
The Best Places to Work Are Also the Best-Performing
Companies
Independent fi nancial analysts have studied the fi nancial
performance of the “100 Best” companies beginning
with the publication of the book The 100 Best Companies to

Work for in America (by Robert Levering and Milton
Moskowitz, 1994), and have accompanied that with each of the
“100 Best Companies” lists from Fortune since
that list’s inception in 1998. Using various profi tability
indicators, these data illustrate the extent to which the pub-
licly traded 100 Best Companies consistently outperform major
stock indices over the 10-year periods preceding
the publication of the 100 Best lists. It is notable that those
companies selected for the 100 Best list generally
spend far more on employee benefi ts and services than their
counterparts—that is, it is often expensive to be a
best place to work. However, the data clearly support that the
expense is worthwhile because people ultimately
engage more fully, work productively, and lift company
performance.
Russell
3000
S & P 500“100 Best”
Buy and
Hold
A
ve
ra
g
e
A
nn
ua

l R
at
e
o
f
R
et
ur
n
“100 Best”
Reset
Annually
10%
8%
12%
6%
4%
2%
0%
100 Best Companies to Work For vs. Overall Stock Market
1998–2010

Copyright © 2011 Great Place to Work ® Institute, Inc. All
Rights Reserved.
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WALKTHROUGH xxiii
Responsive to Management Education Critics
Few people question the analytic capability of today’s
graduating students—but the jury
is still out on their managerial and interpersonal competence.
Critics of business educa-
tion are increasingly focusing on the development of
OB/management skills as perhaps
the greatest gap and challenge today—and it is time to more
directly and intention-
ally take on that criticism and challenge. Although sometimes
characterized as being
elementary or common sense, great management is neither
common nor easy, and the
existence of so many ineffective managers and toxic
organizations attests to that.

With those criticisms very much in mind, the overriding goal of
this text is to help
instructors inform, illuminate, and inspire. Inform students of
the best and most solid
and current evidence in organizational behavior and its
application to management con-
texts—never “dumbing it down” or neglecting key theory or
models. Illuminate those
concepts with the most vivid and “sticky” examples and
illustrations—not the tired old
examples (often from dated manufacturing contexts) that have
too often defi ned OB
instruction in the past. And inspire learners by capturing and
conveying the challenge
and excitement and even playfulness involved in managing and
working with people—
not simply describing the concepts of the fi eld.
We hope you will join in the crusade to redefi ne OB teaching
and try to foster bet-
ter-managed organizations and healthy and engaging places to
work.
Tool Kit 1.2 Personal Quality Checklist 43
Building on the principles of organizational quality
improvement efforts, Bernie Sergesteketter and Harry Roberts

have devised a tool for self-management called the personal
quality checklist (PQC). Using their approach, you
defi ne desirable standards of personal behavior and
performance and then keep track of failures or “defects” to
meet those standards. The specifi c steps to the approach are:
1. Draw up a checklist of standards. This is the hardest part.
Two samples are included at the end of this
Tool Kit as illustrations (one by a practicing manager and one
from a college student). Each standard
should have a clear relationship to a “customer” either in the
workplace or in your family or circle of
friends. Each standard has to be unambiguously defi ned so you
can recognize and tally a defect when
it occurs. Thus, “get in shape” is not a good standard. A better
standard would be to “break a sweat
every day.”
There are two broad types of standards: (1) waste reducers/time
savers (for example, be on time to
class or group meetings), and (2) activity expanders (call
parents at least once a week, get résumé com-
pleted). If you include all activity expanders on your list, be
sure you have enough waste reducers and time
savers to create free time for them.
2. Tally your daily defects. Defects should be tallied by days
but can ultimately be aggregated by weeks or
months. One intriguing strategy is to let others help you keep
score. For example, if a checklist standard is
to talk to your spouse only in respectful tones, or spend at least
a half hour with your daughter each day,
then your spouse or daughter may well be the best tally keeper
for those standards.
3. Review your tallies and action plan. Some people fi nd the

word “defect” objectionable, but it is key to
the system. First, it is easy to recognize and tally. Moreover,
defects can become your friends because they
suggest opportunities for improvement. Why did it occur? How
can it be prevented? The whys lead to
hows and suggest possible routes toward improvement.
Do not put faith in trying harder; you probably already are
trying hard. Rather, fi gure out a different way to
reach your objective. As the adage goes, rather than trying to be
a better caterpillar, become a butterfl y.
As a general rule you should stick with 10 or fewer standards,
or the process becomes unwieldy and unfo-
cused. Of course, your checklist standards will only be a small
fraction of your activities. Your fi rst PQC should
focus on a few things you currently do that, if improved, could
increase your customer satisfaction. Once you
determine that you have those standards under control and
customer satisfaction is high, then you can ask your
colleagues and family for help in raising the bar and adding new
standards. The approach is deceptively simple
but powerful. Sergesteketter and Roberts report on a wide
variety of successes by managers and executives from
leading fi rms who have enjoyed success with the personal
quality checklist approach. Draw up your own checklist
and give it a try!
Sample Manager PQC
• On time for meetings
• Never need a haircut
• Answer phone in two rings

• No more than one project on desk at time
• Shoes always shined
• Weight below 190 pounds
• Exercise at least three times a week
MANAGER’S TOOL KIT
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Confi rming Pages
WALKTHROUGH xxiv
Heard from the Workplace
One of the biggest challenges instructors face in teaching OB
and management is help-
ing students understand the importance of starting now to
develop their managerial
skills. Students are rightly focused on their fi rst role after
college—often analyst or
individual contributor jobs that do not entail people
management responsibility. But
the misnomer is that OB and management skills are not

important right away. As some
recent graduates eloquently attest in their own words below, the
reality is that, regard-
less of industry or job, managerial skills are a critical
differentiator in the marketplace
and are important very early in careers.
“I work in a service industry
where our assets are the people
working for us; therefore managing
them and motivating each of the
team members individually is key
to our success. A critical part of
my job is to ensure that I inspire
my team to grow and become
future leaders of our business,
thereby always focusing on a suc-
cession plan. This ensures that
our business doesn’t stagnate
and continues to be a solid going
concern.”
— Shradha Adnani , Media Industry
“I am now regularly trusted to
manage teams of new hires
joining us out of college and it
happened so much earlier in my
career than I ever expected. Hav-
ing good management skills — so
that you can lead your team to
a common goal, teach them the
skills they need to achieve suc-

cess, and correct them when they
veer astray — is just as important
as your analytic competence.
Once you build a high-performing
team, their success makes you
more valuable, and this will be evi-
dent to your own managers.”
— Mason Duke , Private Equity
Management
“Understanding how managers
motivate and effectively utilize
their subordinates is absolutely
crucial for a new hire analyst.
There are often situations in the
workplace where your supervisor
does not necessarily have your
best interests in mind. This lack
of support is not always malicious
but can be driven by numer-
ous factors, including competing
priorities, upward pressure, or
large spans of control. In these
situations, understanding how to
manage upwards is a powerful
skill that can help you meet your
professional objectives.”
— Ricky P. Singh , Financial Services
Industry
“The managerial skills that I
learned in my behavioral manage-
ment class have helped to cata-
pult me into a position where I

continue to grow and lead, where I
am also the youngest in my group.
I have been able to provide an
open mind, solid work ethic, and
great cost benefit analysis skills
that put me in a different league.
I have been able to show to my
co-workers that leadership isn’t
always tied directly to age and
experience.”
— Megan Mennel , Real Estate
Industry
Heard from Past Adopters
“This text has proven ideal for
my intro organizational behavior
course. It blends sound theory
and evidence — which I think is
critical — with a practical skills ori-
entation, engaging writing style,
and contemporary flavor that my
students really enjoy.”
— Brian Blume , University of
Michigan–Flint
“[This text provides an] even
mix of concept, examples, and
application/action. . . . In academic
circles from years past, authors
seemed to believe the more
theory and cases, the better. But
today, it is about telling them what
they need to know, showing them

how to do it, and then letting them
experience the material. Students
will like the text. This text, as indi-
cated, covers everything, but it is
application-based. [It has] enough
theory and concept to move you
forward, but [it is a] clear applica-
tion so that you can move forward
sooner.”
— Stephen Peters , Clarkson College
“The focus of this text is exactly
what I’ve been looking for. . . . It
is more comprehensive, includes
relevant research evidence for
its propositions and the theories
explained, and includes a truly rel-
evant set of experiential exercises
and examples.”
— Deborah Erdos Knapp , PhD, Kent
State University
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Confi rming Pages
WALKTHROUGH xxv
Students can refer to the OLC for chapter reviews, self-grading
quizzes, and select

premium content.
Ask your local McGraw-Hill sales representative how to gain
access to the Asset
Gallery and Premium Content for your course.
Enhanced Ancillary Package
In today’s contemporary classroom, it takes more than a
textbook to bring a class to life.
So the book comes complete with an entirely new set of
ancillary resources designed for
students and instructors—including McGraw Hill’s innovative
Connect program. Seam-
lessly integrated within the book’s pedagogy, the OLC at
www.mhhe.com/baldwin2e
serves as a resource for both instructors and students.
Instructors will fi nd the following
resources for each chapter in a password-protected location on
the OLC:
• Comprehensive instructor’s manual that contains chapter
summaries, lec-
ture outlines, suggested solutions to exercises in the text, and
teaching
notes to help instructors utilize the Management Live,
Manager’s Tool
Kit, and Manage What? materials in each chapter.

• PowerPoint presentations that outline the key points,
learning objec-
tives, and exhibits in each chapter; the PPTs may be customized
for each
instructor’s needs.
• Test banks that challenge students’ application of the
concepts cov-
ered in the text through multiple-choice, true-false, short-
answer,
and essay questions; each test bank question is tagged according
to
learning objective, Bloom’s Taxonomy, AACSB guidelines, and
level of
diffi culty.
• Interactive components in the form of the Asset Gallery
(Manager’s Hot-
Seat videos, Self-Assessments, and Test Your Knowledge
exercises) and
suggested videos to accompany each chapter.
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Confi rming Pages
xxvi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No set of authors ever really endeavors to write a book by
themselves, and we

are grateful to so many people who have had a hand in helping
this text come to
life. Among those we would particularly like to recognize are
Halden Williams
and Corey Gallon, two young consulting stars at
PricewaterhouseCoopers (Corey
has since taken a promotion elsewhere) for their immense help
in uncovering
contemporary business cases that demonstrate how the concepts
in the book are
being used by progressive organizations worldwide. We are also
indebted to Bob
Marx of the University of Massachusetts and Mark Wellman at
the University of
Maryland for their excellent recommendations of cases, videos,
and materials.
Both Bob and Mark are widely acclaimed master teachers and
we are fortunate
to have their contributions to our text package.
All of our institutions are special places and we are indebted to
many col-
leagues who have directly or indirectly contributed to this
project. At Kelley,
special thanks to Steve Whiting, Brian Blume (now at
University of Michigan
–Flint) and Jason Pierce who have all used the fi rst edition of
this book in their
own classes and subsequently provided insights and feedback
that have been
instrumental in this new edition. Tim Baldwin would also like
to acknowledge
Al Oak, Fred Green, Denny Southerland, Bruce Breeden, and
his many other
great friends and colleagues at Cripe Architects and Engineers.
He treasures that

association, and many lessons from his connection there are
incorporated into
this text.
At Fresno State, special thanks to Jim Schmidtke, Brian Lyons
(now at
Wright State), Jill Bradley-Geist, and Rudy Sanchez for their
insights and obser-
vations that have improved various aspects of the second
edition. At DePaul,
special thanks to Pat Werhane and Laura Hartman for providing
access to their
perfected course materials on business ethics. Thanks also to
colleagues Ken
Thompson, Erich Dierdorff, Alyssa Westring, Stephanie Dorn,
Ray Coye, and
Patricia Spencer for their many hall conversations that helped to
inform the
development of this book.
We are all indebted to John Weimeister, Jane Beck, Diane
Nowaczyk, Anke
Weeks, and Michelle Heaster of McGraw-Hill, who have
supported this project
with zeal and who love the author team more than ice cream.
A hearty thanks to you all!
We also gratefully acknowledge a sterling set of reviewers who
include:
Valerie Atherley
Suffolk University
Forrest Aven
University of Houston, Downtown

Erica Berte
Indiana University–Purdue
University, Columbus Center
Scott Bryant
Montana State University
Marian Crawford
University of Arkansas, Little Rock
George De Feis
Iona College
Beverly Dennis
Alaska Pacifi c University
Megan Endres
Eastern Michigan University
Mamdouh Farid
Hofstra University
Ann Fischer
University of Pennsylvania
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Confi rming Pages
xxviiACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Allen Frazier
Harding University

Mahmoud Gaballa
Mansfi eld University
Javier Garza
Cerritos College
Michele Gee
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Barry Gold
Pace University, NYC
Joan Hartley
Portland Community College
Merrily Joy Hoffman
San Jacinto College Central
Melissa Houlette
College of Mt. Saint Joseph
John Humphreys
Texas A&M University, Commerce
Sharron Hunter-Rainey
North Carolina Central University
Uma Iyer
Austin Peay State University
John Jemison
Southwestern Assemblies of God
University
Sirkwoo Jin

Merrimack College
Camille Johnson
San Jose State University
Paul Johnson
Western Carolina University
Dorothy Kirkman
University of Houston,
Clear Lake
Mary Beth Klinger
College of Southern Maryland
Jack Kondrasuk
University of Portland
Arlene Kreinik
Western Connecticut State
University
Don Larsen
Montana State University, Billings
Marc Lavine
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Lee Lee
Central Connecticut State University
David Maddox
Regis University
Kimberly Melinsky
College of St. Rose

Frances McDonald
Nova Community College,
Annandale
Christine Miller
Tennessee Tech University
Tracy Miller
University of Dayton
Leann Mischel
Susquehanna University
Rakesh Mittal
New Mexico State University, Las
Cruces
Lam Dang Nguyen
Palm Beach State College
David Nino
University of Houston, Downtown
Gianna Phillips
Golden Gate University
Emily Porschitz
Keene State College
Rosemarie Reynolds
Embry Riddle Aero University,
Daytona Beach
DeShawn Robinson-Chew
Nova Community College,

Woodbridge
Nancy Rossiter
Jacksonville University
Golnaz Sadri
California State University
Christy Shell
Houston Community College,
Northwest College
Art Shriberg
Xavier University
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Confi rming Pages
xxviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Paula Silva
California State University, Fullerton
C. Mike Smith
Roanoke College
George Smith
Albright College
Chester Spell
Rutgers University, Camden

Shane Spiller
Western Kentucky University
Gil Taran
Carnegie Mellon University
Pat Thompson
Virginia Commonwealth University
Neil Tocher
Idaho State University
Tyra Townsend
University of Pittsburgh
William Turnley
Kansas State University
Anthony Urban
Rutgers University, Camden
Alix Valenti
University of Houston, Clear Lake
John Watt
University of Central Arkansas
Barbara Wech
University of Alabama, Birmingham
Joann White
Jackson State University
Robert Yamaguchi
Fullerton College

John Yudelson
California State University, Channel
Islands
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xxix
BRIEF CONTENTS
About the Authors vi
Preface viii
Walkthrough xix
Acknowledgments xxvi
PART ONE Personal Skills
1 Organizational Behavior and Your Personal Effectiveness
2
2 Managing Stress and Time 40
3 Solving Problems 76
4 Making Ethical Decisions 118
PART TWO Interpersonal Skills
5 Communication 156
6 Motivating Others 194
7 Managing Employee Performance 236
8 Using Power and Infl uence 272
9 Leading Others 308

PART THREE Group and Organizational Skills
10 Team Effectiveness 340
11 Resolving Confl ict Through Negotiation and Mediation
376
12 Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Talent 416
13 Culture and Diversity 446
14 Making Change 494
Endnotes 534
Glossary 554
Index 564
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xxx
CONTENTS
About the Authors vi
Preface viii
Walkthrough xix
Acknowledgments xxvi
1
PART ONE PERSONAL SKILLS

MANAGE WHAT? 4
Making the Business Case for People Management
Skills 4
Using OB Evidence Instead of Just Intuition 4
Making a Personal Improvement 4
Describing Yourself and Your Style: Expanding Your
Self-Awareness 4
INTRODUCTION 4
Success Through People Management 6
Playing for Keeps: Getting Serious About OB Right
Now 10
Becoming a Great People-Manager 12
CHAPTER 1 Organizational Behavior and Your Personal
Effectiveness
Learning About Organizational Behavior Is Hard 14
LEARNING AND PERSONAL IMPROVEMENT 19
Personal Effectiveness: The Foundation of Great
Management 19
A Model of Self-Management 22
BUILDING SELF-AWARENESS 27
Self-Awareness: The Key to Successful Learning and
Growth 27
Individual Differences and Their Importance 27
CONCLUDING NOTE 34
2 MANAGE WHAT? 42 Getting a Priority Done Under

Stress 42 Overcoming the Two Biggest Time Management
Traps 42 Minimizing Your Chances of Choking in a Pressure
Situation 42 Making Changes in a Workplace to Lower
Stress and Enhance (Not Lower) Productivity 42
INTRODUCTION 42
Personal and Organizational Consequences of
Stress 44
Some Stress Is Good 44
Stress Is Personal: Individual Differences and Their
Relationship to Stress 45
COMMON SOURCES AND CAUSES OF STRESS 48
Traumatic Events vs. Daily Hassles 48
Role Confl ict and Ambiguity 49
Exhaustion of Resources and Burnout 50
Emotional Labor 51
High Demands and Low Control 52
CHAPTER 2 Managing Stress and Time
STRESS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES 53
The Importance of Matching Strategies
with Causes 53
Prevention Strategies 54
Avoiding Choking 56
Coping Strategies 59
Outlets for Relief/Dealing with Stress in the
Moment 61
TIME MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS 62
First Be Effective, Then Be Effi cient 62

Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan 66
Know Yourself and Your Time Use 67
Fight Procrastination 68
WORKPLACE CULTURES THAT FOSTER HIGH
PERFORMANCE WITH LOWER STRESS 69
CONCLUDING NOTE 71
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CONTENTS xxxi
3 MANAGE WHAT? 78 Defi ning and Structuring a Vague
Problem 78 Avoiding Common Decision Errors 78
Excelling in a Case Interview 79 Learning from Past
Decisions 79 INTRODUCTION 79 THE CHALLENGE
OF PROBLEM SOLVING 79
WHY SMART PEOPLE MAKE BAD DECISIONS 80
Intuition 80
The Ladder of Inference 82
CHAPTER 3 Solving Problems
Six Ways People Exercise Poor Judgment Without
Knowing It 84
Overcoming Judgment Biases 89
SOLVING PROBLEMS EFFECTIVELY 91

A PROBLEM-SOLVING FRAMEWORK: PADIL 92
Defi ne and Structure the Problem 92
Generate Creative Alternatives 102
Decide on a
Solution
105
Implement 109
Learn and Seek Feedback 110
CONCLUDING NOTE 112
4 MANAGE WHAT? 120 Making a Diffi cult Ethical Choice
120 You Be the Ethicist 120 Creating a Culture That
People View as Fair 120 Being a Responsible Whistle-
Blower 120 INTRODUCTION 121 ETHICS: MAKING
THE TOUGH CHOICES 123
Recognizing Ethical Issues 123
SIX STEPS TO MAKING AN ETHICAL
DECISION 128
Step 1: Gather the Facts 128
Step 2: Defi ne the Ethical Issues 128

Step 3: Identify the Affected Parties, Consequences,
and Obligations 132
Step 4: Consider Your Integrity 134
Step 5: Think Creatively About Actions 137
Step 6: Check Your Instincts 139
FAIRNESS IN THE WORKPLACE 139
Economics 139
Equality 140
Justice 140
MANAGING JUSTICE PERCEPTIONS 140
Distributive Justice 140
Procedural Justice 141
Interactional Justice 143
NAVIGATING COMMON MANAGERIAL ETHICAL
SITUATIONS 146
Work Assignments and Opportunities 146
Performance Evaluation 147
Punishment and Discipline 147
Harassment 148
Family and Personal Issues 148

CONCLUDING NOTE 150
CHAPTER 4 Making Ethical Decisions
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CONTENTS xxxii
PART TWO INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
5 MANAGE WHAT? 158 Selling an Idea to Your Boss 158
The Elevator Pitch: Making Your Case in a Very Short Time
158 Fixing a Typically Bad PowerPoint Presentation 158
Actively Listen to Understand a Problem 158
INTRODUCTION 158
CREATING PERSUASIVE AND STICKY
MESSAGES 160
Overcoming the Curse of Knowledge 160

Audience Analysis 162
The Fundamental Elements of Persuasion 162
Making Messages Sticky: The SUCCES Model 165
DELIVERING POWERFUL MESSAGES 169
The Basics of Effective Presentations 169
CHAPTER 5 Communication
Presenting Plans That Bosses (and Others) Can
Approve Of 176
Effective Use of PowerPoint and Visual Aids 177
CHOOSING YOUR COMMUNICATION
MEDIUM 179
About E-Mail 182
ACTIVE LISTENING 183
The Paradox and Importance of Active Listening 183
Traps and Barriers to Active Listening 184
Principles of Effective Listening 187
CONCLUDING NOTE 189

6 MANAGE WHAT? 196 Taking Over as Manager: Building
a More Motivational Workplace 196 Dealing with the
Unmotivated Person 196 Motivating in an Economic
Downturn 196 Motivating People in a Foreign Country 196
Enriching the Boring Job 196
INTRODUCTION 197
THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE OF
PERFORMANCE 199
FRAMING MOTIVATION CHALLENGES AND IDEAS:
THE EXPECTANCY THEORY 199
Why Capable People Are Not Motivated 201
THE PERSON AS A SOURCE OF MOTIVATION 203
An Equity Approach to Motivation 204
The Platinum Rule 206
McClelland’s Learned Needs 207
CHAPTER 6 Motivating Others
THE JOB AS A SOURCE OF MOTIVATION 211
The Job Characteristics Model 211

THE MANAGER AS A SOURCE OF MOTIVATION 217
Goal Setting 217
Reinforcement Theory and Behavior Modifi cation 220
Examples of Behavior Modifi cation in the
Real World 221
The Effect of Reinforcers on Employee Performance
Improvement 227
CONCLUDING NOTE 230
Putting It All Together to Increase Motivation 230
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CONTENTS xxxiii
7 MANAGE WHAT? 238 Critiquing an Existing
Performance Evaluation Form 238 Evaluating Job
Performance 238 Managing Both the Problemand the Star

Employee 238 Conducting an Effective Performance
Appraisal Feedback Session 239
INTRODUCTION 239
JOB PERFORMANCE 240
JOB ATTITUDES 242
Job Satisfaction 242
Organizational Commitment 243
Organizational Cynicism 244
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: THE DAY-TO-DAY
WORK OF GREAT MANAGERS 244
SETTING EXPECTATIONS AND EVALUATING
PERFORMANCE 246
Ensuring Goal Commitment 247
Observing and Assessing Performance 247
Defi ning Job Performance Criteria: Behavior and
Results 248
CHAPTER 7 Managing Employee Performance
Assessing Behavior, Not Traits 249

Using Multiple Methods to Assess Behavior and
Results 249
Absolute Assessment Techniques 250
Relative Assessment Techniques 250
Using Multiple Sources of Data or People 251
PROVIDING EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK 253
The Principles of Good Feedback 253
Managing Perceptions of Fairness in Performance
Management 255
DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM EMPLOYEE 256
Diagnose the Problem 257
Hold a Performance Improvement Discussion 257
Train Employees When Appropriate 259
Making a Reassignment or Termination Decision 260
RECOGNITION AND REINFORCEMENT: MANAGING
THE STAR 260
Understanding Star Performers 262
Engaging the Star Performer 262

COACHING FOR EMPLOYEE GROWTH 263
Coaching vs. Mentoring 264
CONCLUDING NOTE 265
8 MANAGE WHAT? 274 Infl uencing Without Formal
Authority 274 Selling an Idea to Your Boss 274 Making a
Positive First Impression 274 Building a Personal Network
That Enhances Your Power 274 INTRODUCTION 274
Authority and Infl uence 275
Dependence and Networks 275
THE SOURCES OF POWER AND INFLUENCE 278
Bases of Power 278
Norms and Conformity 280
INFLUENCING WITHOUT AUTHORITY 282
Frequency and Effectiveness of Different Infl uence
Tactics 282
Social Infl uence Weapons 285
CHAPTER 8 Using Power and Influence
MANAGING YOUR BOSS 291

General Strategies for Managing Your Boss 292
Managing Your Boss Through Effective
Communication 292
PROFESSIONALISM: A SOURCE OF TRUST AND
RESPECT 293
Building Positive Relationships 294
Power Etiquette and First Impressions 296
CONCLUDING NOTE 303
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CONTENTS xxxiv
9
10

MANAGE WHAT? 310
Making the Transition to a Leadership Position 310
Leading People to Performance Beyond
Expectations 310
Leading People Older than Yourself 310
Developing Yourself as a Leader 310
INTRODUCTION 310
Leadership Matters 311
The Full Range of Leadership 313
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADERS 315
Important Personal Traits in Leadership 315
Characteristics That People Admire 316
TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP 317
Leading Through Transactions 317
Leader-Member Exchange 318
Transactional Leader Behaviors 318
MANAGE WHAT? 342
Helping the Highly Cohesive but

Low-Performing Team 342
Getting a Team Started: Leading
the First Meeting 342
Dealing with a Problem Team Member 342
Forming and Leading a Virtual Team 342
INTRODUCTION 342
WHEN DO TEAMS MAKE SENSE? 343
DIFFERENT TEAMS—DIFFERENT
CHALLENGES 344
HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS 345
The High-Performance Team Scorecard 346
The Five Disciplines of High-Performing Teams 346
MANAGING THREATS TO TEAM PERFORMANCE
AND DECISION MAKING 355
Information Processing Biases 356
Social Loafi ng and Self-Limiting Behaviors 357
CHAPTER 9 Leading Others

CHAPTER 10 Team Effectiveness
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP: GETTING
PERFORMANCE BEYOND EXPECTATIONS 322
Articulating a Vision 323
Providing an Appropriate Model 324
Fostering the Acceptance of Group Goals 325
Communicating High-Performance Expectations 326
Providing Individualized Support 327
Providing Intellectual Stimulation 328
Putting the Full Range of Leadership into Action 329
BECOMING A LEADER 330
Key Actions That Impact Leadership
Development Success 331
CONCLUDING NOTE 334
Dare to Lead 334
Social Conformity 358
EFFECTIVE TEAM INTERVENTIONS 360

Holding Effective Meetings 360
Understanding Member Profi les 361
Building Team Cohesion 362
Conducting After-Action Reviews and Process
Checks 364
Dealing with a Free-Rider 364
CREATIVITY IN TEAMS 365
A Climate of Trust and Risk Taking 365
Creative Problem-Solving Techniques 366
VIRTUAL TEAMS AND MEETINGS 368
Electronic Meetings 370
CONCLUDING NOTE 372
PART THREE GROUP AND ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
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CONTENTS xxxv
11
12
MANAGE WHAT? 378
Resolving a Team Dispute 378
Negotiating an Agreement Between
Confl icting Parties 378
Starting from a Position of Strength 378
Getting Beyond Failed Negotiations 378
INTRODUCTION 378
TYPES OF CONFLICT AND THEIR EFFECTS 380
MANAGING CONFLICT 382
Diagnosing Confl ict Sources 382
Matching Confl ict Styles with Situations 385
Seeking Superordinate Goals 391
EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS 391

To Negotiate or Not? Recognizing Negotiation
Situations 391
The Negotiation Scorecard: Outcomes of an Ideal
Negotiation 393
Win–Win Negotiation 393
MANAGE WHAT? 418
Expanding Your Pool of Candidates: Using Effective
Recruiting Tactics 418
Choosing the Best Person for a Role 418
Conducting a More Effective Selection
Interview 418
Retaining a Talented Employee 419
INTRODUCTION 419
CHAPTER 11 Resolving Conflict Through Negotiation and
Mediation
CHAPTER 12 Recruiting, Selecting, and Retaining Talent

STAGES OF EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS 394
Negotiation Preparation 394
Understanding the Needs of Other Parties 397
List and Discuss Possible Options 397
Employing Process Tactics During Negotiations 399
The End of the Negotiation 404
Evaluate How Well It Went 405
MEDIATION 406
When Is Mediation Used? 407
Trust Building: The Foundation of the Mediation 408
The Mediation Process 408
CONCLUDING NOTE 412
SELECTING PEOPLE FOR ROLES 419
Choosing the Right People for the Right Jobs 419
Clarify the Job Context 421
Establish a Process 424
Recruit Talented Applicants 425
Decide on Methods and Assess 429
RETAINING YOUR BEST TALENT 440
CONCLUDING NOTE 442

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CONTENTS xxxvi
13 MANAGE WHAT? 448 Will I Fit In Here? Decoding an
Organization’s Culture 448 Avoiding Culture Shock 448
Making a Culturally Diverse Team Productive 448 Building
Your Own High-Performance Subculture 448
INTRODUCTION 449
UNDERSTANDING CULTURE AND ITS IMPORTANCE
IN ORGANIZATIONS 450
Making a Cultural Choice: The Competing
Values Model 452
An Alternative View of Culture 454
Is One Type of Culture the Best? 455
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: A KEY CULTURAL

INGREDIENT 455
Structure Infl uences Behavior 456
PEOPLE MAKE THE PLACE:
PERSON–ORGANIZATION FIT 458
The ASA Framework 458
Cultural Adaptation: Socialization and Onboarding
Employees 460
CHAPTER 13 Culture and Diversity
NATIONAL CULTURAL DIFFERENCES 461
Managing People from Different Cultures 461
INCLUSIVE CULTURES 466
Characteristics of Inclusive Cultures 466
The Payoffs from Inclusive Cultures 469
WORKING PRODUCTIVELY WITH DIVERSE
PEOPLE AND TEAMS 470
Building Awareness 471

Understanding Differences 473
Taking Action 476
BUILDING “PEOPLE-FIRST” HIGH-PERFORMANCE
CULTURES 477
How Cultures and Subcultures Are Created: You Can
Make a Difference 478
The Characteristics of High-Performance
Cultures 478
Corporate Examples of High-Performance
Cultures 484
CULTURAL AUDITS 485
Common Areas to Assess in Cultural Audits 486
Following Up a Cultural Audit 487
CONCLUDING NOTE 489
14 MANAGE WHAT? 496 Converting an Organizational
Problem into an Achievable Change Initiative 496 Creating
Urgency for a Change 496 Dealing with Change Resisters
496 Evaluating a Change Initiative 496 INTRODUCTION

497
THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE 497
GENERAL MODELS OF THE CHANGE
PROCESS 499
Lewin’s Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze Model 499
Punctuated Equilibrium 501
Bridges’ Model of Transitions 501
Kotter’s Eight Stages of Change 503
McKinsey 7S Framework 506
A PRACTICAL MODEL OF PLANNED
CHANGE 508
Structuring the Problem 508
Contracting with Those Involved in the
Change 509
Externalizing the Threat/Enemy 512
Defi ning Goals in Terms of Results Instead of
Activities 512
CHAPTER 14 Making Change

COLLECTING DATA AND PROVIDING
FEEDBACK 513
Different Methods of Collection 513
Providing Feedback 515
Diagnosing Change Readiness 517
Looking for Small Wins to Generate Momentum 517
IMPLEMENTING INTERVENTIONS 517
Types of Interventions 518
Framing, Reframing, and Selecting Interventions 521
Communicating What You Are Doing 522
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE 523
Accelerating Change, Reducing Opposition 523
Strategies for Overcoming Resistance 524
Managing Organizational Cynicism 525
EVALUATING AND SUSTAINING CHANGE
EFFORTS 527
CONCLUDING NOTE 529
Stay Focused on the Basics 529
Endnotes 534

Glossary 554
Index 564
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v
2
O B J E C T I V E S

KO 1-1 Describe the importance of
people skills for achieving business
success.
KO 1-2 Describe what is meant by
evidence-based management.
KO 1-3 Defi ne organizational behavior.
KO 1-4 Explain the role of organizational
behavior and evidence-based
management in effective
management.
KO 1-5 Explain the steps involved in making
a personal change.
KO 1-6 Describe the importance of
self-awareness in becoming an
effective manager.
1
Organizational Behavior and Your

Personal Effectiveness
KNOWING DOING
“If you want to be a great
manager, the most fundamental
lesson is that it starts with
you. Know yourself. Listen to
feedback. Build on your strengths.
Do what you say you will do.
Build a network of support. Be
positive. If we can find people
who do those things well, they
tend ultimately to be successful

managers.”
— Al Oak , Chief Executive
Officer, Cripe Architects
& Engineers
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
DO 1-1 Develop a strong argument for
the importance of people-skill
development.
DO 1-2 Persuade a colleague to utilize
evidence-based methods in
management interventions.
DO 1-3 Apply evidence-based methods
of self-management to make a
personal improvement.
DO 1-4 Solicit high-quality feedback
consistently with others.

DO 1-5 Demonstrate self-awareness by
accurately describing your strengths
and developmental needs.
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3
> >
Case: eHarmony
Founded in 1998 by Dr. Neil Warren and his son-in-law, Greg
Forgatch, eHarmony
was targeted to a segment of
the e-dating market that had not
been well served: singles seek-
ing serious and sustainable rela-
tionships. That is, unlike other
e-dating sites emerging at the time,
the key selling point of eHarmony

was matching people on the basis
of long-term compatibility.
In an effort to create such long-
lasting matches, Warren and his
team felt they had to get much
more information on singles than
had been typically solicited by
matchmaking services. Toward that
end, before the launch of their
website, they surveyed over 2,000
couples in an effort to discern the
most critical personal informa-
tion required to successfully match
people for the long term. The result
was the creation of the eHarmony
Relationship Questionnaire, which
had to be fi lled out by anyone who
wanted to become an eHarmony
member. Although originally much
longer, today the questionnaire is
258 questions and takes about 45
minutes to complete.
Dr. Warren claims that the length

of the questionnaire and the involve-
ment required is an important part
of the process because, since it
is so time-consuming to sign up,
eHarmony people self-select. This
means that only those willing to go
through the extensive process are
ultimately included on the site. As
Dr. Warren notes, “There is a shared
sense of investment to be part of
eHarmony. A full completion of the
questionnaire says in effect, ‘I’m
really serious about this . . .’”
Today, eHarmony is millions of
members strong and claims tens of
thousands of successful matches.
TV commercials regularly trumpet
the success of their system and the
many wonderful long-term matches
and marriages that have resulted.
1. Relative to other matchmaking
services, why has eHarmony been

so successful?
2. What is it about the eHarmony
approach that seems to promote
long-term matches? Why is self-
awareness so important here?
3. What are the most important
things you would want to know
about a potential partner? If you
were to see two eHarmony pro-
fi les, what would be the most
important aspects of a match?
For example, would you look
solely for shared interests and
preferences?
4. List a few questions that you
think might be on the eHarmony
relationship questionnaire.
5. If you were to become an eHar-
mony member, would you be
fully honest, or put a positive

spin on your profi le? Similarly,
would you post a “touched up”
picture? In that regard, critique
the following post with respect
to the individual’s and eHar-
mony’s goals: “Bald, short, fat,
and ugly male, 53, seeks short-
sighted woman with tremendous
sexual appetite.”
6. Pretend you are to match two
members of your class team.
Gather some information, hypo-
thetically make the match, and
then refl ect on how you went
about the matchmaking process.
BUILDING SELF-AWARENESS
FOR LOVE AND PROFIT
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Confi rming Pages
4
1. Making the Business Case for People Management Skills
You have been asked to serve on a committee at your fi rm and
make recommendations for cutting costs in response to a weak
economy and a downturn in revenue. The very fi rst meeting is
kicked off by your company president who goes around to
each committee member with the goal of identifying any
“untouchables”—that is, those areas that committee members
feel
should be off limits to cuts or at least targeted as a last resort.
Unfortunately, you are seated at the immediate right of your
president and he asks you to go fi rst. You take the opportunity
to suggest that the fi rm should do nothing that would detract
from the quality of people management you have or erode the
people-oriented culture. You even quote from your long-lost
organizational behavior textbook (burned in a weenie roast
celebration years ago) that “ few things matter more to the
success
of a fi rm than the way people feel about how they are managed.
” The president seems to accept this.
But the VP of Research and Technology is so angry he is about

to burst a blood vessel. He rises and in an angry tone
says, “With all due respect, I have to say that all this stuff about
the importance of people management strikes me as non-
sense. I have nothing against our management development
efforts, but if you give me the same amount of money for new
technology and research funding, I will turn it into far more of a
benefi t for this fi rm than we will get from trying to improve
our managerial performance. In fact, I have two specifi c
problems: (1) I see no connection between the quality of our
people
management and important outcomes that relate to our “bottom
line,” and (2) good people management is so fuzzy that
there really is no way to determine who is doing a good job and
who is not, anyway.”
The president nods. “Hmm, he may have a point.” He then
looks at you and says, “I suspect you disagree. So go ahead
and make a business case for me as to why we should devote
signifi cant resources to building better people management and
a people-oriented culture. But I don’t want any soft ‘touchy-
feely’ babble. Be specifi c and use examples.”
2. Using OB Evidence Instead of Just Intuition
You have heard so many stories of bad managers and read so
many accounts of poor decisions that you are determined to be

more “evidence-based” in your own organizational career. But
why are more decisions not made on good research evidence?
How do you go about fi nding more evidence? Where would you
fi nd such evidence, and how might you apply it to commonly
faced managerial situations such as how to set appropriate
goals, motivate high effort, or build strong employee
commitment
and a high-performance culture?
3. Making a Personal Improvement
You have been in your fi rst job for two years and are itching
to get promoted as quickly as possible. In your last performance
review, however, your boss identifi ed time management as a
weakness. You have never felt that your time management was
superb, but you did not know that weakness might affect your
career advancement. In any case, you are now committed to
improving your management of time. However, realizing that
old habits die hard and that accomplishing personal change is
very diffi cult, you know you will have to do more than just
“hope” to change.
So how would you proceed to improve yourself? What would
you do fi rst? What strategies would give you the best
chance of actually improving your time management skills
signifi cantly?

4. Describing Yourself and Your Style: Expanding Your Self-
Awareness
“Tell us about yourself” is the fi rst query in your introductory
meeting with the four people who will be reporting to you in
your
new managerial job. You naturally struggle with where to start.
You have been a great individual contributor for four years, but
everyone has told you that managing people is a very different
responsibility. And the thing that really scares you is you have
heard sarcastic joking around the fi rm about a colleague who
got promoted to manager and how with that promotion the fi rm
“lost its best analyst and found its worst manager.”
So what should you tell the group about yourself and how you
will manage? What would be most relevant and useful?
Based on your own self-assessment, what particular
characteristics would you highlight? What should you be doing
to know
yourself even better so you can answer this question more confi
dently in the future? What would it be like to be managed
by you?
Introduction

If you’re like most students who are new to management
courses, you’re prob-
ably preparing to be totally underwhelmed and perhaps a little
skeptical about
what this text and course have to offer. Our experience tells us
that you probably
MANAGE WHAT ?
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Confi rming Pages
Effectiveness 5
come to this course with at least one of the following concerns
(or perhaps com-
plaints). First, you may be concerned about the overall
usefulness of the knowl-
edge contained within this text. In fact, you may have heard
from others that

your management course will be nothing more than common
sense, bloated
theory, and will be essentially a “blow off.” Even if you haven’t
heard such things
about this course, you might feel that at the end of the day
management can’t
be taught. Unlike say, accounting, where there are clearly
specifi ed rules and
principles to follow, you may believe that management isn’t
something that can
be taught in a course, much less from a textbook. Second, as
you look out at
the decades of organizational work life ahead of you,
management may seem
so very unimportant compared to functional areas like fi nance,
marketing, and
accounting. These functions, after all, represent the major
departments or units
in organizations and they house critical jobs—the very jobs
recruiters are post-
ing to fi ll. Third, you may feel that your career is going to be
one that is built on
your technical expertise and managing others is simply not
something you want
to do or will ever do. As such, you might feel like this course is

just one more in a
long line of required educational obligations on the road to
getting your degree.
You are not alone if you have such concerns and we are not
surprised—we face
such skepticism prior to every course we teach. Indeed it was
our sense that
organizational behavior and management courses are
undervalued by business
students (at every level)—relative to the importance of those
topics for success in
the real world—that stoked our passion for a new kind of
textbook. Specifi cally,
the idea for this book was born out of three important
observations we shared
from our collective experience of teaching organizational
behavior and manage-
ment courses to college students and practicing managers.
1. Managing people is a distinct and critically important skill
set. Our
most infl uential business leaders have always recognized that
manage-
ment and people skills —not just fi nancial and technical
knowledge—are

critically important to the success of individuals and
organizations. Yet,
as we will discuss shortly, such skills often do not get the
educational
attention they warrant.
2. Evidence for the importance of management may be less
accessible
to you, but is nonetheless abundant and clear. The research
evidence
is overwhelmingly clear that the possession of management
skills cre-
ates a competitive advantage for individuals and organizations.
Although
management skills appear on the surface to be relatively
straightforward,
the chief complaint of most senior leaders is that they can’t fi
nd enough
competent people-managers.
3. Most OB and management textbooks do not focus on
developing
the most critical management skills. Sadly, most existing books
and
courses on managing organizational behavior are not well suited

to help-
ing students develop and refi ne the skills they really need to
become great
managers. Most textbooks are accurate, informative, and
descriptive
but lack a decision- or action-oriented approach that allows for
real skill
development.
With those observations in mind, we insisted that the focus of
this book be
on the application of organizational behavior evidence to the
skills required to
be a great manager and organizational contributor. That is, we
do not want you
to just know and understand a book full of ideas—we want you
to be able to do
something with that knowledge.
A simple philosophy that permeates this book is that
organizations succeed
through people. If there is one ultimate truth of organizational
life it is this: Orga-
nizations big and small, public or private, for profi t and not,
only succeed when

Practice this!
Go to www.baldwin2e.com
“Take away my people, but leave
my factory, and soon grass will
grow on the factory floor. Take
away my factory, but leave my
people, and soon we will have a
new and better factory.”
— Andrew Carnegie
“I will pay more for the ability to
handle people than for any other
talent under the sun.”
— John D. Rockefeller
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Confi rming Pages

PART ONE Personal Skills6
their people succeed. A great product doesn’t market itself—
great marketing peo-
ple do. A new accounting practice doesn’t implement itself—
outstanding accoun-
tants do. An organization doesn’t simply grow sales—
salespeople increase their
productivity. And yet despite this simple principle, a recipe for
how to get people
to succeed (and thus organizations) remains incredibly elusive.
To be certain,
there is not one formula or playbook that leads people to be
successful in orga-
nizations. But the best chance organizations have for creating
successful people
is by fi nding and nurturing great managers. The most
successful organizations
are those with work environments that are personally fulfi lling,
rewarding, and
challenging. And the single most important factor in creating
such successful
environments is great managers.

Of course not all managers are very good, or for that matter
even competent.
Indeed, we laugh at the clueless antics of managers in comic
strips like Dilbert,
movies like Offi ce Space, and television shows like The Offi
ce. In these examples,
and perhaps from your own personal experiences with bad
bosses, we see the
impact on people and fi rms when managers act in dysfunctional
ways. In real
life, however, such managers have a toxic effect on the people
they manage, as
well as their own careers, and it’s far from a laughing matter. In
the following
sections, we will talk about what managers do to be successful
and how organi-
zational behavior knowledge is a contributing factor.
Success Through People Management
The hero or heroine in this text is that of a manager. You might
fi nd that to be
a bit odd given most peoples’ reaction to the word “manager.”
For decades, the
term “management” has had a decidedly negative connotation.
Consider the fol-

lowing account by Professor Denise Rousseau, former President
of the Academy
of Management: 1
Management was a nasty word in my blue collar childhood,
where everyone in the
family was affected by how the company my father worked for
managed its employ-
ees. When the supervisor frequently called my father to ask him
to put in more over-
time in an already long work week, all of us kids got used to
covering for him. If the
phone rang when my father was home, he’d have us answer it.
We all knew what to
say if it was the company calling: “Dad’s not here.” The idea of
just telling the super-
visor that he didn’t want to work never occurred to my father,
or anyone else in the
family. The threat of disciplinary action or job loss loomed
large, reinforced by din-
nertime stories about a boss’s abusive behavior or some
inexplicable company action.
The term “manager” can evoke notions of a person who is
power hungry and

incompetent and can’t do “real” work themselves. This
reputation of managers as
people who abuse and exploit their subordinates and care only
about their own
personal success and advancement has been reinforced over the
decades by real
anecdotes of bad bosses. 2 These negative connotations of
managers are unfor-
tunate because volumes of research studies and organizational
examples have
shown that when managers get it right, employees,
organizations, customers,
and the managers themselves all win. For example, meta-
analytic studies (that is,
the syntheses of many studies) have demonstrated that the fi
nancial performance
of organizations is positively associated with management
practices like selec-
tive hiring, succession planning, reward systems, performance
management, and
training and development. 3 Other research indicates that
managers are a key
component in reducing high employee-related costs, such as
turnover and coun-
terproductive behaviors (for example, theft and the abuse of

resources), as well
as increasing employee and team performance, cooperative
behaviors, commit-
ment, and employee satisfaction. 4 Still other studies have
shown that personal
career outcomes, such as speed of progression and leadership
effectiveness, stem
KO 1 - 1
DO 1 - 1
Practice this!
6 11/11/11 9:36 PM11/11/11 9:36 PM
Confi rming Pages
Effectiveness 7

from competent and supportive management. 5 Finally, it is
also clear that poor
management practices (see the section “Management Live 1.1”),
such as abusive
supervision and harassment, have substantial harmful effects on
individuals and
their organizations, resulting in counterproductive behavior,
low performance,
and psychological stress, as well as career derailment and fi
nancial loss. 6 Management skills are also the key elements
in what makes for healthy and
desirable workplaces. Indeed, the Great Place To Work Institute
(GPTWI), which
conducts the research on the nation’s best employers for
Fortune magazine’s “100
Best Companies to Work for in America” annual article, has
found that the single
most important element of every great workplace is the trust
between employ-
ees and management. 7 Such trust stems from the managers’
skill level in those
organizations. GPTWI research has found that workplaces with
great managers
receive more qualifi ed job applications for open positions,
experience less turn-

over, have lower health care costs, enjoy higher levels of
customer satisfaction,
and induce greater customer loyalty. While you may not be
familiar with the research evidence, we hope none
of it comes as a huge shock to you. Anyone would rather have a
good manager
than an incompetent one. You probably know of someone who is
technically or
analytically skilled but has few “people skills,” or is de-
motivating, or cannot
“get along well with others.” Few of us would refute that it
takes a competent
manager to lead groups who go the extra mile required to
achieve highly satisfi ed
customers, and so on.
But, having taught OB and management courses for many
years, what we
fi nd is not typically intuitive to most aspiring managers is that
good management
is so essential to good business. Management is often
characterized as being
elementary or “just common sense,” but great management is
neither common
nor easy, and the existence of so many ineffective managers and

toxic organiza-
tions attests to that. Indeed, as important as they may be,
management skills
have proven stubbornly hard to develop; thus making great
managers and man-
agement rare commodities. Some estimates indicate that nearly
50 percent of
MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.1
What Is the Real Cost of a Bad Manager?
A recent advance in research on learning and education is
known as value-added analysis. It uses standardized
test scores to look at how much the academic performance of
students in a given teacher’s classroom changes
between the beginning and end of the year. 8 Accumulating
evidence suggests that students of a very bad teacher
will learn, on average, half a year’s worth of material in one
school year. On the other hand, the students in the
class of a very good teacher will learn a year and a half’s worth
of material—and the cost to the school district
of those two teachers is (usually) roughly the same. Moreover,
while the United States currently is behind many
developed nations in student test performance, researchers have
estimated that the gap could be closed simply

by replacing the bottom 6 to 10 percent of teachers with others
of just average quality. 9
We believe that this same type of value-added approach and
mindset is long overdue in management
education—and the urgency is great. Given the dismal scores
found in recent research on applied management
knowledge (see “Management Live 1.3”), imagine the
productivity lost and the number of people who have
spent time working for an incompetent manager. What truly is
the cost of a bad manager? More importantly,
what is the value of competent ones? The accumulating
evidence reveals that organizations can no longer afford
to neglect the development of their managers—the costs are
simply too high.
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Confi rming Pages

MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.2
The Best Places to Work Are Also the Best-Performing
Companies
Independent fi nancial analysts have studied the fi nancial
performance of the “100 Best” companies beginning
with the publication of the book The 100 Best Companies to
Work for in America (by Robert Levering and Milton
Moskowitz, 1994), and have accompanied that with each of the
“100 Best Companies” lists from Fortune since
that list’s inception in 1998. Using various profi tability
indicators, these data illustrate the extent to which the pub-
licly traded 100 Best Companies consistently outperform major
stock indices over the 10-year periods preceding
the publication of the 100 Best lists. It is notable that those
companies selected for the 100 Best list generally
spend far more on employee benefi ts and services than their
counterparts—that is, it is often expensive to be a
best place to work. However, the data clearly support that the
expense is worthwhile because people ultimately
engage more fully, work productively, and lift company
performance.
Russell
3000

S & P 500“100 Best”
Buy and
Hold
A
ve
ra
g
e
A
nn
ua
l R
at
e
o
f

R
et
ur
n
“100 Best”
Reset
Annually
10%
8%
12%
6%
4%
2%
0%

people moved into management roles essentially fail. 10 In
other rather depress-
ing surveys, over half of employees have reported they were
less than satisfi ed
with their current manager and many noted that the worst aspect
of their job
was their immediate boss. 11 Some even rated their manager
as “remarkably
bad.” The same skills that will advance your career also happen
to be the skills
that make an organization a great place to work. And the best
places to work also
happen to be the highest-performing fi rms. That’s the good
news. The bad news
is that the reason management skills create a competitive
advantage for people
and organizations is because they are hard to master and are
therefore still quite
uncommon.
100 Best Companies to Work For vs. Overall Stock Market
1998–2010
Copyright © 2011 Great Place to Work ® Institute, Inc. All

Rights Reserved.
8 11/11/11 9:36 PM11/11/11 9:36 PM
Effectiveness 9
The Central Role of Management in Organizations
One of the reasons that good management is so hard is that few
managers, particu-
larly aspiring ones, are forced to confront the realities of
management early enough
to understand them. In Table 1.1 we outline these primary
managerial realities.
TABLE 1.1 Managerial Realities
Managerial Reality 1: Management is the process of getting
things done through
others. This means that your primary role as a manager is to

manage other people.
Sometimes organizations lose sight of this and ask managers to
engage in substantial
technical work leaving little room for this primary people-
management role. This is, by
and large, a costly mistake.
Managerial Reality 2: Managers get rewarded for what their
employees do, not
for what managers do. In other words, your success as a
manager occurs only when
others succeed. The extent to which you can make others
successful in their jobs will
determine how successful you are as a manager.
Managerial Reality 3: People join organizations but they leave
managers. Managers
play such an important role in peoples’ work life that it is
almost trite to suggest that
when people leave organizations they do so, in part, because
their manager has failed
them, failed to fi nd ways to challenge them, promote them,
reward them, and provide
good opportunities.

Managerial Reality 4: People generally manage the way they
themselves have been
managed. As we discuss later in the chapter, we learn by
watching. If you have had great
bosses in your previous work experience, you should be excited
about your prospects to
be an effective manager. If on the other hand, your managerial
models have been largely
ineffective, you will likely have to work extra hard to break
away from their methods.
Managerial Reality 5: People problems are far more complex
than any other
organizational problem. When asked what keeps managers
awake at night, the
response is rarely, “We don’t know how to market a product
well” or “I’m not sure
how we’ll integrate our software system with the old legacy
system.” Rather, the
response is almost always about people, “Jim is a great
performer, but he’s a lousy
teammate,” “Marsha’s husband is sick, so she’s taking six
weeks off. How will I get
others to take on her work?” and so forth.

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Managing people is indeed complex work requiring a wide
variety of com-
petencies. These competencies can generally be sorted into one
of three broad
categories: conceptual, technical/administrative, and
interpersonal. 12
Conceptual Competencies. Managerial work requires that
managers collect
and analyze an enormous amount of information. Such
information is used to
diagnose problems, formulate plans, integrate ideas, and
examine effectiveness
of current practices.
Technical/Administrative Competencies. Effective

management requires
that managers be well equipped to understand the functions of
business such as
accounting, operations, and marketing. Importantly, managers
must use their
technical/administrative expertise to coordinate activities.
Interpersonal Competencies. Managers are required to
interact with, infl u-
ence, and lead others. To do so, managers must possess
competencies that allow
them to negotiate confl ict, communicate, motivate, and develop
other people—
competencies that require managers to manage relationships
with others.
According to the results of a recent large-scale study of 52
managerial occu-
pations in the U.S. labor force, all managers’ jobs, regardless of
occupation (for
example, fi nancial manager, funeral director, CEO, and so on),
require profi ciency
in these three categories of competencies to be successful. That
is not to say that
managerial jobs do not differ in their skill requirements; they

do. In particular,
managerial roles differ substantially in the type of technical
expertise required
for a given role. For example, although all managers must
coordinate activities
among employees, sales managers are not coordinating the same
activities as
production managers. So by and large, managerial work,
regardless of the occu-
pation, is more the same than it is different. This is generally
good news as the
skills discussed in this book are largely applicable to any
managerial role you will
ever fi ll. It is certainly true that you will need to gain expertise
in the technical
skills associated with the particular occupational role you
assume, but the skills
presented throughout this book will support your success in that
role by help-
ing build your conceptual and interpersonal managerial
competencies. Further,
although such competencies are essential for those wanting to
be great manag-
ers, our experience is that these competencies are also critical
to those wanting

virtually any type of career that involves substantial interaction
with people (for
instance, nurse, sales representative, engineer). Moreover, while
such competen-
cies are certainly necessary for future success, we would also
contend they should
have an impact on your performance right now. Decision
making, teamwork,
confl ict management, and others are fundamental to most any
line of work.
Playing for Keeps: Getting Serious About
OB Right Now
One of the problems we face as management educators is, quite
frankly, try-
ing to help our students understand the importance of starting
now to develop
their managerial skills. The reason for this is twofold. First,
students are rightly
focused on their fi rst role after college which is not likely to
entail full-blown
management responsibility. Thus, it’s hard to capture students’
attention when
recruiters are on campus seeking applicants for individual
contributor roles such

as a staff accountant, marketing specialist, or fi nancial analyst
position. Second,
we fi nd that students simply aren’t aware of how competitive
managerial skills
will make them in the marketplace and how absolutely
detrimental the lack of
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Effectiveness 11
such skills will be to their early careers and beyond. In order to
explain this sec-
ond point more fully, we need to take a quick detour and look at
a few important
studies about managerial skills and success on the job.
All managers deploy their skills to manage six key general
work activities at

work, which are as follows: 13 (1) managing human capital
(for example, staffi ng,
motivating, leading, performance management, and so on); (2)
managing tools
and technology (for example, production, operations,
information technology);
(3) managing decision-making processes (for example,
gathering information,
analyzing data, conducting research); (4) managing
administrative activities (for
example, budgeting, fi nancial management and control); (5)
managing strategy/
innovation (for example, future planning, product development,
strategic deci-
sions); and (6) managing the task environment (for example,
public relations,
marketing).
Which of these six activities do you think are most critical or
important to
a manager’s success? In a recent study utilizing U.S.
Department of Labor data
from 8,633 managers across all managerial occupations,
professors Erich Dier-
dorff, Robert Rubin, and Fredrick Morgeson found that while all

six activities
are seen as important, managing human capital and managing
decision-making
processes were rated by managers as being signifi cantly more
important than
the rest. This means that to be successful in a managerial role
you will need to
pay particularly close attention to how to manage people and
gather and analyze
information that will enable effective decision making.
In another study, researchers from the Center for Creative
leadership tracked
young professionals who were viewed by their organizations as
having high
potential to reach the executive ranks in Fortune 500
organizations. 14 The study
followed these professionals over a 20-year period and sought
to understand why
some of them (all of whom were seen initially as having great
potential) did not
make it to the top echelon of their organization. The results
generated fi ve major
themes for why these managers were “derailed” or fell off the
track leading to the

top: (1) failure to meet their business objectives over time;
they simply were not
consistent about reaching their goals; (2) they showed an
inability to build and
lead a team as they progressed in the organization; (3) they
exhibited an inability
to develop, change, and adapt with the changing times; (4)
despite moving into
broad management roles, they retained a narrow
functional/technical orientation;
and (5) they displayed consistent problems with interpersonal
relationships. Thus,
the fi ndings of this study demonstrate that the rise to the top of
a Fortune 500
organization certainly involves getting results, but to do so
professionals rely
heavily on their ability to manage relationships with others.
So it’s clear from these two powerful studies that interpersonal
skills, so-
called “people skills,” must be mastered to achieve long-term
success in mana-
gerial roles. Why then aren’t students knocking down the doors
of management
professors and enrolling in elective courses where these skills

are learned, as
opposed to taking yet another fi nance class? Maybe it’s that
recruiters simply
don’t care about skills involved with managing people and thus
students don’t
pursue it because there’s no immediate payoff. The evidence
suggests just the
opposite, however. In a study of 1,300 recruiters, these
recruiters rated interper-
sonal skills, leadership, communication and adaptability as the
most desirable
yet scarcest skills present in today’s graduates. These
recruiters claim that the
possession of such skills is rare among graduates and that
recruiters routinely
struggle to fi nd these skills in the marketplace of talent.
We have observed that students often think that they can pick
up these mana-
gerial skills at some later time or that perhaps they’ll learn them
on the job. Once
again, the evidence doesn’t support such a conclusion. In one
study, MBA alumni
cohorts spanning a fi ve-year period were asked how often they
used various

skills and what skill areas they felt needed additional training.
The results of that
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FIGURE 1.1
MBA Skills Acquisition
in School and Skills
Use After Graduation:
A Gap Analysis
From 2008 MBA Alumni Perspectives Survey (Survey Report).
GMAC®, GMAT® Graduate Management
Admission Council® and Graduate Management Admission
Test® are registered trademarks of the Graduate
Management Admission Council in the United States and other
countries.

0%
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
35%30%25%20%15%
Expressed Training Need
P
er
ce
nt
ag
e
U
se

d
a
G
re
at
D
ea
l/
G
o
o
d
A
m
o
un

t
o
n
th
e
Jo
b
10%5%
Low Level of Use and
Low Need for Training
Low Level of Use and
High Need for Training
High Level of Use and
Low Need for Training
High Level of Use and
High Need for Training

Knowledge of general
business functions
Managing the task
environment
Managing tools and
technology
Foundation skills
Managing
administrative activites
Operations skills
Knowledge
of human
behavior
and society
Managing human
capital
Managing strategy

and innovation
Managing decison-making
processesGenerative
thinking
Interpersonal
skills
Strategic
and
systems
skills
Knowledge of technology,
design, production
Knowledge of media
communications
and delivery
study revealed a signifi cant skills gap between what is
currently being covered

in MBA programs and what people report that they ultimately
need when they
get on the job. That result is illustrated in Figure 1.1 in the
upper-right quadrant,
which represents the skills MBA alumni reported using most
and most in need of
additional training. These fi ndings held true regardless of the
functional areas in
which these MBA alumni were working, including
marketing/sales, operations/
logistics, consulting, general management, fi nance/accounting,
human resources,
and information technology/management information systems.
Thus, even after
completing an MBA, alumni report needing considerably more
development of
their interpersonal, decision-making, generative-thinking
(creativity), and man-
aging human capital skills.
The bottom line is that now is the time to get serious about
management
skills. If you want to be both competitive in the marketplace
and effective on
the job, you must start to master managerial skills today.

Importantly, master-
ing managerial skills should never be to the exclusion of
mastering discipline-
based technical skills. To be certain, you must become an expert
at something.
Organizations won’t promote people to sales management
positions who are not
competent salespersons themselves, nor will they promote a
staff accountant to
an accounting manager role if the person is not a capable
accountant. So do
not misunderstand: Technical, fi nancial, strategic, and
operational skills are of
course important elements in job success and career
advancement. But a steadily
increasing body of research is showing that what ultimately
distinguishes the
good from the great achievers is the development and refi
nement of their man-
agement skills. Thus, the general rule of thumb is as follows:
On average, great
technical skills get you noticed in organizations and great
management skills get
you promoted. If you’re playing for keeps, now is the time to
invest.

Becoming a Great People-Manager
If managers and good management matter so much, you might
wonder why
more attention isn’t given to such skills and why good
management seems more
like the exception rather than the rule. Although there are
numerous and sys-
temic explanations to these questions, one critical explanation
is that learning
about managing organizational behavior is fraught with traps
and distractions.
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Effectiveness 13
For example, although there are hundreds of books on
leadership, there are prob-
ably less than ten built on a solid foundation of evidence that
might be appli-
cable across managerial situations. The problem is, as you stare
at the long list
of books on Amazon.com, how do you decide which ones to
read because they
will be helpful and which ones to reject as nothing more than a
“good read”?
Learning about management fi rst requires a critical
understanding about what
constitutes strong evidence for a given managerial practice.
Every consultant,
newspaper article, or book on the topic of management uses the
phrase “research
shows.” Yet, determining the usefulness of such “research” is
one of the most
vexing problems facing managers today.
Let’s say you’ve injured your back somehow and you go to a
doctor who
examines you. She proceeds to write you a prescription about

which you ask a
very reasonable question, “What is this that you’re
prescribing?” She says, “Oh,
it’s a great drug that everybody has been using lately.” To
which you reply, “Well,
what does it do?” “It reduces swelling and spasms in muscle
tissues.” “Got it,” you
remark, “so my problem is muscle spasms?” “Not sure,” the
doctor replies, “but
it worked for the last guy who was in here for pain in his
ankle.” A bit befuddled
now, you ask, “Well, has the drug been tested on people with
back pain?” She
responds, “Not specifi cally, but I’ve had two patients who
responded well to it for
back pain—I think it should work for you.”
Before you’re half-way out the door, you are hopefully looking
for a new doc-
tor and you’re certainly not taking this drug. It just doesn’t pass
the logic smell
test. In this case, you should want to know that the doctor has
correctly diag-
nosed your injury, that the drug being prescribed is designed
specifi cally to treat

your injury, and that the drug has been tested and studied in
large populations to
understand its effectiveness and potential side-effects. Put
simply, you should be
looking for better evidence.
Unfortunately, this little vignette illustrates how we too often
go about apply-
ing management concepts. First, like the doctor, we are drawn
to solutions to
problems that we have heard others say do “work.” Yet such
evidence is usually
built on rather limited data or information, or more commonly
on half-truths —
practices or concepts that may be true some of the time in some
instances. Sec-
ond, we tend to apply solutions broadly, regardless of whether it
will specifi cally
address the underlying problem. Third, in the absence of
credible information or
evidence, we make the assumption that the doctor (or another
perceived expert)
knows best, even if the recommendations don’t stand up to
simple logic.

Evidence-based management (EBM) refers to translating
principles
based on the best available scientifi c evidence into
organizational practices
and “making decisions through the conscientious, explicit, and
judicious” use
of such evidence. More specifi cally, evidence-based
management includes the
following fi ve key practices: 15
1. Learning about cause and effect connections. If you’ve
ever pondered
whether employee job satisfaction is related to employee
turnover, you’re
engaging in a fundamental EBM practice of trying to understand
the
relationships among important organizational factors. Like
doctors who
attempt to link certain life-style choices (for example, a high-fat
diet) to
health outcomes (for example, heart disease), management
researchers
study relationships over time and in different settings in order
to draw
conclusions about effective management practices.

2. Isolating variations that affect desired outcomes. It’s not
enough
to know that low job satisfaction may increase employee
turnover. In
order to practice EBM, one must also attempt to understand the
specifi c
conditions under which such a relationship might be
strengthened or
weakened. For example, while job dissatisfaction, on average,
may be
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associated with increased employee turnover, in economically
depressed
times, such a relationship may be considerably weakened.

3. Reducing the overuse, underuse, and misuse of specifi c
prac-
tices. If the best available evidence suggests that graphology
(hand-
writing analysis), for example, is not a good predictor of who
will
make a good manager, EBM suggests that it is our obligation to
discontinue the use of such a practice in selecting our
management
talent. If, on the other hand, evidence is clear that cognitive
ability
tests are useful, we ought to seek ways to increase the use of
cogni-
tive ability testing. To be clear, sometimes practices are useful
for one
situation, but not for another. Thus, EBM holds that effective
manag-
ers use practices only as solutions to the problems for which
they were
developed.
4. Building decision supports to promote practices that
evidence vali-
dates. Once it is known that certain practices work more often
than not

under certain conditions, EBM suggests that managers
institutionalize
such practices through the use of tools (or “Tool Kits” as we do
through-
out the book) to help keep managerial behavior consistent with
the
evidence.
5. Creating a culture of evidence-based decision making and
research
participation. When managers take an evidence-based
approach, they
also contribute to an organization that values and encourages
active par-
ticipation in the evidence-based process. For example, in many
manufac-
turing environments, teams of employees meet weekly to
discuss quality
control issues. These teams are actively engaged in developing
research
questions, collecting data, analyzing data and making decisions
consis-
tent with the evidence they discover.
So where is the research evidence that can serve as the

foundation of effec-
tive management practices? In short, organizational behavior is
the primary fi eld
of study that contributes to the foundation of evidence from
which to formulate
evidence-based management practices. Specifi cally,
(OB) is a social science that attempts to describe, explain, and
predict human
behavior in an organizational context. As such, organizational
behavior scientists
are dedicated to studying and ultimately prescribing how
individuals, groups,
and organizations can be most effective. The key to this defi
nition is that OB rep-
resents the study of people in an organizational context. In
other words, the study
of OB is concerned with how to achieve important
organizational outcomes such
as profi tability, productivity, and performance, as well as
individual outcomes
like employee turnover, commitment, satisfaction, and safety.
Organizational
behavior certainly does not describe all research on
organizations. Indeed, sub-

stantial contributions to the study of organizational behavior
come from other
core social sciences such as sociology, psychology,
anthropology, and political
science. However, much of what translates into effective
managerial practice will
be found in the research domain of OB.
Learning About Organizational Behavior Is Hard
Unfortunately, EBM of organizational behavior is not widely
practiced. This is
not because people believe it’s a bad idea, but rather multiple
impediments exist
that simply make it diffi cult. One of the key reasons EBM is
not widely practiced
is that learning about organizational behavior is not
straightforward. Indeed, to
become a great manager you will have to learn to become
something of a “bull-
fi ghter,” able to sort out the many myths and misconceptions
frequently espoused
about what is and is not effective management. Managing
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Effectiveness 15
absolutely requires you get beyond just reading and study. To
really learn and
master skills, you will have to actively engage in practice and
actually experience
those skills in your life and work. Certainly, mastering
management skills is diffi -
cult and the process of learning them can be more challenging
than you ever may
have imagined. Three key learning challenges are likely to arise
that include, but
are not limited to: (1) learning how to evaluate and use evidence
to make deci-
sions; (2) learning how to use management frameworks; and (3)
learning how to

overcome the knowing-doing gap so prevalent in management
development. We
briefl y discuss these next.
Evaluating and Using Evidence
Mark Twain once quipped that there are three types of lies:
lies, damn lies, and sta-
tistics. This aptly describes the dilemma new managers face as
they contemplate
their most important people-related decisions: namely,
differentiating between
facts and fi ctions, especially those cloaked as “research.” The
biggest impediment
here, however, may not be other people, but rather our own
experience. That’s
right. It’s your own experience that may get in the way of you
becoming a great
people-manager. One reason for this is that our experience in
the world tends to
be heavily infl uenced by our belief system and how we view
world events. 16
That is, your beliefs about the world—or rather what you want
to believe—
may often stand in the way of you applying the best available

evidence. For
example, most people assume that ibuprofen (used in Advil,
Motrin, and other
products) is highly effective in reducing pain. Yet, a large study
found that the
relationship between ibuprofen and pain reduction is incredibly
low—almost so
low as to have little effect on most people (unless of course
your pain is associ-
ated with infl ammation where ibuprofen is most effective).
Similarly, most peo-
ple assume that psychotherapy (that is, psychological
counseling) is essentially
an ineffective treatment for depression. 17 Here again, our
beliefs are not accurate
because substantial research shows that psychotherapy can
greatly improve peo-
ples’ well-being. And for most people who have never been in
psychotherapy, the
way they learn about psychotherapy is through television,
movies, and stories.
Few competent psychotherapists would agree, however, that
movies like Anger
Management, What About Bob?, or TV shows like The
Sopranos accurately depict

the psychotherapeutic process.
For an example closer to home, we routinely ask our students
how important
grades are to their success on the job. The answer from most is,
“not at all.” In
other words, students tend to believe that grade point average
(GPA) is simply
an academic indicator and irrelevant. Yet, recent evidence based
on 71 studies
suggests that undergraduate GPA is highly correlated with
performance on the
job in the fi rst year post-college and remains a good predictor
of job performance
through fi ve years post-college. Graduate school GPA (for
example, an MBA) is
even more highly correlated with job performance post-graduate
school. 18 Even
after we present this evidence, students remain in disbelief.
“How can this be?”
they say. “My brother had a very low GPA in college and is now
a star salesperson
for an awesome company.” Unfortunately, this sort of
conclusion based solely on
a very small sample and personal experience (what we call a

hasty generalization
in Chapter 4) does not lead to the right conclusion. If you care
about your future
job performance, the right conclusion based on the evidence is
that you should
put forth great effort in school. GPA captures a high degree of
motivation and
knowledge accumulation, both of which are immediately
important on the job.
The point is that throughout your career in organizations, you
will be con-
fronted with information and observations and existing
practices, and not all of
it will be good or even accurate. In many cases, our experience
in the world often
gets in the way of being able to make this determination
because we take for
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granted relationships we believe exist despite the evidence. It is
for this reason
that every chapter in this text begins with a discussion on the
prevailing myths
or conventional wisdom about the topic, with the explicit idea
of exposing our
“taken for granted” view of the world.
One easy way to begin to understand the usefulness of evidence
is to make a
distinction between Big E evidence and little e evidence. Big
E evidence refers
to generalizable knowledge regarding cause and effect
connections derived from
scientifi c methods. Big E evidence is based upon years of
studies, across many
different types of samples or contexts, with many different
types of jobs, peo-
ple, and organizations. Most importantly, Big E evidence
represents a form of

research which is systematic —meaning that it is planned and
methodical and
avoids drawing conclusions simply on the basis of opinion or
anecdote. Such
evidence is often summarized in large scientifi c literature
reviews or empirical
summaries known as meta-analyses or “studies of studies.” Goal
setting (see
Chapter 7), for instance, is one such idea that has substantial
Big E evidence sup-
port. Decades of research supports the idea that setting specifi c
and challenging
goals increases employee performance, and this fi nding is
highly generalizable
(applies broadly to most any situation). By and large, when
managing organiza-
tional behavior, Big E evidence is likely to be the best source
for informing prac-
tices since it is drawn from years of study across large
populations under varying
circumstances. Like our doctor example, this is the type of
information you want
when asking, “Will this management practice work in my offi
ce?”

In contrast, little e evidence represents local or
organizational specifi c data
collection efforts to inform a specifi c decision. Popular quality
improvement pro-
cesses such as Six Sigma provide little e evidence, important
information that
helps the organization but may not generalize or translate into
other arenas or
other organizations. Examples abound of organizations that
failed by trying to
apply a practice that while wildly successful in another
organization didn’t take
hold in their own. Thus, while little e evidence may improve
decision making in
any organization, we must be careful not to apply it broadly.
Learning and Using Evidence-Based Frameworks
It is often said that the absence of evidence is not evidence of
its absence. In
other words, not every problem you will encounter has been
studied with such
depth that it constitutes Big E or even little e evidence. In such
cases, we encour-
age you to begin by seeking evidence-based frameworks that
rely on logic and

well-developed theory. It may strike you as unusual that, in a
skills-oriented
book, we do not shy away from discussions of research evidence
and theories. In
fact, we sought out every good research study we could fi nd.
That may seem like
a direct contradiction of a skills-based approach, but actually it
is central to it.
Many students these days are unfortunately led to believe that
theoretical means
irrelevant or not practical or just simply boring. But in reality,
to paraphrase the
great sociologist Kurt Lewin, nothing is as practical as a good
theory. Our goal
is to have a practical skills development text based in the best
and most recent
theory and research. Short of that, any material becomes just
someone’s opinion
or cannot rightly be generalized to other situations.
Studies in many fi elds have explored how experts go about
attacking particu-
lar challenges or problems in practice. What those studies have
generally found
is that such experts internalize their own “theories in use” or

what we call frame-
works. That is, they do not have a rote way to act in every
situation. However,
they do habitually evoke ways of framing problems and
considering options.
So a great deal of our focus in designing this book was to
include frameworks
that are conceptually sound but also practical in application.
Those frameworks
can help you diagnose situations and proceed more thoughtfully.
Hopefully, the
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Effectiveness 17
frameworks will stick with you and help you know where to
start, what informa-
tion to get, and what not to do as you face new and different

situations.
Yet sometimes even the most nicely crafted framework is
baseless with respect
to evidence, and recent research suggests that even when well-
intentioned manag-
ers seek evidence and frameworks to inform their practice, they
face enormous
amounts of misinformation—some of which is potentially
harmful. For exam-
ple, researcher Sara Rynes and colleagues examined fi ve years
of popular busi-
ness magazine articles for their representation of three critical
managerial topics,
namely, (1) personality in the workplace, (2) intelligence, and
(3) use of goals. 19
Their results were shocking. Across fi ve years, less than 1
percent of the 537 articles
in their sample addressed these topics. More importantly, when
they did address
them, the authors in those articles did so in ways that disguised
the topic so as to
appear novel or cutting-edge. Further, few of the articles that
addressed the impor-
tant topics relied on any empirical evidence to substantiate their

points. As Rynes
and colleagues remarked, their fi ndings showed the
overwhelming tendency to:
. . . focus on claims and testimonials from individuals that
were unsupported by any
references to empirical evidence. In the absence of such
evidence, readers are left
completely to their own devices in choosing how to decide
among competing claims.
Evidence suggests that under such circumstances, people are
likely to choose the
claims that most closely conform with their prior beliefs. As a
result, the odds that
anyone will actually learn something new or change his or her
behavior as a result of
reading such periodicals would seem to be quite small.
If you’re surprised by this, keep in mind that those in the
business of sell-
ing magazines likely feel that discussing issues from an
evidence-based perspec-
tive doesn’t give an article the feeling of freshness or
innovation. This pattern
of misinformation or lack of attention to the evidence is not

unique to business
magazines but rather it’s endemic to business book publishing
in general, where
advice is dispensed based upon anecdotal evidence. This general
practice led Ed
Lawler, a well-respected organizational scholar, to comment:
A great deal that passes as “best practice” in [management]
most likely is not. In some
cases, there simply is no evidence to support what is thought to
be best practice. In
other cases, there is evidence to support that what are thought to
be best practices
are, in fact, inferior practices. In short, most organizations do
not practice evidence-
based [management]. As a result, they often underperform with
respect to their major
stakeholders: employees, investors and the community.
Thus, when someone says “research shows” or the “evidence is
clear,” great
managers know to dig a little deeper to understand the quality
of that evidence.
At the end of the day, anecdotes and previous experience may
be all that is avail-

able to help inform decisions, but in far too many cases
anecdotes are used where
a rich scientifi c literature exists to help make better decisions.
Overcoming the Knowing-Doing Gap
For most management skills, the conceptual rules are relatively
easy to know and
understand. Most 12-year-olds could be taught to pass a test on
the general rules
or guidelines of the skills that comprise great management. The
real challenge
is to actually execute them. For example, listing the rules of
effective behavior in
a team is relatively easy. However, actually joining a team in a
competitive busi-
ness situation and contributing in a way that adds real value to
that team is an
entirely different matter. Similarly, the fundamental elements of
models of moti-
vation are elementary. But trying to create a culture that
motivates peoples’ best
efforts is extraordinarily complex.
We chose the subtitle of this book— What Great Managers
Know and Do —

because it takes both knowledge (“know that ”) and application
practice (“know
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how ”) to master a skill. Successful application of management
skills is more than
just following a cookbook list of sequential behaviors and is
much more compli-
cated than developing skills such as those associated with a
trade (say, welding)
or a sport (hitting a golf ball). That is because management
skills (1) are linked to
a more complex knowledge base than other types of skills and
(2) are inherently
connected to interaction with other (frequently unpredictable)
people. A stan-
dardized approach to welding or hitting golf balls or baking a

cake may be fea-
sible, but a standardized approach to managing human beings is
not possible. 20
Nonetheless, one of the most encouraging elements of
management skills is that
they can be improved—we have seen it happen countless
times. You do not, however,
master the skills simply via hope, intuition, or common sense.
Rather, it requires
conscious persistent effort and practice. At the same time,
practice without the nec-
essary conceptual foundation is misguided and ignores the need
for fl exibility and
adaptation to different situations. In short, any serious attempt
to develop manage-
ment skills must involve a dose of both conceptual learning and
behavioral practice.
It requires intentional study and a skill-oriented and problem-
based approach. 21
So one of the key questions that students studying
organizational behav-
ior must confront is whether or not investing time, money,
energy, or any other

resource in developing the skills associated with good
management is really worth
the effort. You might rightly ask yourself, “Given my limited
resources, would I
be better off perfecting my coding skills or should I invest in
learning how to run
a team?” “Should I take an extra fi nance course in preparation
for the CFP exam
or should I spend time running a club?” The answer quite
simply is, “yes.” Yes,
you should hone your technical skills, and yes, you should start
now (while the
stakes are rather low) to seek every opportunity to practice
managing organiza-
tional behavior. In the remaining sections of this chapter, we
discuss the process
of learning how to learn about yourself and managing
organizational behavior.
MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.3
Knowing vs. Doing: The Disturbing State of Applied
Management Effectiveness 22
A wealth of anecdotal data suggests that, despite suffi cient
book knowledge of what constitutes effective

management practice, managers may often lack the ability to
apply that knowledge in context —and a recent
comprehensive research report supports those suspicions. The
authors used a management assessment known
as the MSAT (Management Skills Assessment Test) to measure
the applied management capability of over
20,000 managers, or aspiring managers, over the past 25 years.
The MSAT consists of eight common funda-
mental management scenarios (for example, delegating jobs,
dealing with a low-performing employee, manag-
ing confl ict) presented on the Internet. For each of the eight
items in the MSAT, candidates must respond by
(1) identifying the important issues, (2) describing the actions
they would take to be most effective, and (3)
actually taking those actions (writing memos, follow-up notes,
and so on) where appropriate. That means that
they have to be able to execute the action and also know when
to do so and why they chose to do so—all
without any cues or prompts.
The results leave little question that there is, in fact, a
substantive knowing-doing gap in management prac-
tice. More specifi cally, despite relatively high scores on
cognitive aptitude and multiple-choice tests of manage-
ment principles, the MSAT test-takers generally failed to reach

even the midpoint scores of the assessed items.
There was considerable variance and some candidates scored
very high, but the disturbingly low level of the aver-
age scores points to the critical importance of a focus on skill
application and decision making in management
education—and the pressing need to get beyond just the
conceptual knowledge of principles.
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• Management learning comes with age and experience.
Unfortunately, that simply
is not true. Learning is hard work and comes from a conscious
and persistent desire
to attend to effective models, learn and retain what they do, and
practice new
behaviors consistently.
• We know ourselves. In fact, a number of revealing research
studies have shown

that the gap between how we perceive ourselves and how others
perceive us is
often signifi cant. These gaps, many of which we are blind to,
frequently lead to
management problems or failure. 24 True self-awareness is
the foundation of personal
effectiveness.
• Growth opportunities lie solely in our weaknesses. We
succeed because of what
we do well. However, it is common to become so focused on
improving our weak
areas and gaps that we neglect our strengths. Personal
development of new skills is
important, but you should also spend time clarifying what it is
you do well and then
try to position yourself in situations where you can leverage
your strengths to excel.
• Personal development is all just about positive thinking.
With the appeal of
popular books like The Secret, people may believe that being
optimistic is all there
is to development. Just wish it and it will become true! While
an optimistic outlook

does have a number of benefi ts, you will not become a skilled
manager by just
wishing it. Becoming a skilled manager takes practice,
dedication, and rational
optimism.
• It’s not me, it’s them! If you learn one management “truth”
it should be this: You
can never fully control the behavior of others, but you do have
control over your
own behavior. The best way to change others is to fi rst change
yourself.
MYTHS 1.1 Myths of Personal Effectiveness ?
?
Effectiveness 19
Learning and Personal Improvement
Personal Effectiveness: The Foundation of Great
Management
Effective management starts from the inside. Indeed, when
people are asked to

describe great managers, it is remarkable how often they give
personal, rather
than interpersonal or organizational, descriptions. Put simply,
those who can
manage themselves are much more likely to be effective
managers of others.
Personal effectiveness is the foundation of great management,
and the skills
presented in the following chapters all stem from a base of
personal excellence.
Although many elements comprise personal effectiveness, our
focus is on action-
able knowledge and behaviors—things you can actively learn
and do to improve
your personal competence. No one is born a great manager, or
becomes one
overnight. So the most fundamental aspect of personal
competence is to know
yourself and to have a clear understanding of how you learn
new skills and moti-
vate yourself to improve your capability.
We start with models of learning and self-management. Great
manage-
ment is often as much about not acting on misconceptions, and

avoiding what
not to do, as it is about expertly pursuing a course of action. 23
With that in
mind, the Myths 1.1 box contains fi ve of the more persistent
myths of personal
effectiveness.
KO 1 -5
DO 1 -3
Hope is not a personal
improvement strategy.
— Anonymous
Practice this!
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Learning How to Learn
Much has been written about the high failure rates of people
trying to learn and
change. For example, a tiny percentage of people actually keep
their New Year’s
resolutions. The vast majority of people who set out to “get in
shape” are back to
being overweight in a couple of months. Most of those who say,
“This is the year
I am going to get organized,” fi nd that it ultimately was, in
fact, not the year. The
problem with most personal improvement attempts is they are
mostly wishful
thinking with far too little understanding of how personal
improvement really
happens. That is, most everyone hopes to improve, or wishes
they could enhance
their effectiveness. However, far too few actually know and
discipline themselves
to do what is necessary to learn new skills. The most powerful
and useful framework for thinking about personal improve-
ment in management skills comes from the work of Albert

Bandura, and his
social learning theory. 25 Bandura’s theory suggests that
the learning of any new
behavior is the result of three main factors—the person, the
environment, and the
behavior—and they all infl uence each other. Behavior is not
simply the result of
the environment and the person, just as the environment is not
simply the result
of the person and the behavior. This mutual infl uence is
referred to as reciprocal
determinism and is at the root of social learning theory. This
is because the envi-
ronment provides important models of behavior from which we
learn. A model of
social learning theory can be seen in Figure 1.2.
Personal factors include a person’s internal mental processes
such as motiva-
tion, attention, self-regulation, and self-effi cacy. Behavior is
the person’s response
or action. Environment includes the physical and social
environment surround-
ing an individual. It includes reinforcement and punishment
contingencies and

models.
Although this concept may sound a little abstract, the
principles of social
learning theory are exceptionally practical and have been
applied to help fos-
ter personal change in a wide variety of settings including but
not limited to
counseling, acting, addictive behaviors, and athletics. One
reason social learning
has been so infl uential is because it refutes widely held notions
that people only
learn through their own personal experience of rewards and
consequences. For
example, traditional conceptions of learning suggest you would
learn that a stove
burns you only by actually touching that stove yourself.
Bandura suggests that,
in fact, most learning is actually done through observation and
modeling of the
behaviors of others. That is, most people learn the stove burns
by watching the
behavior of others (perhaps seeing them burned or actively
avoiding it). This
simple phenomenon helps explains why so many people who

work for ineffective
managers often become poor managers themselves; we often
manage the way in
which we were managed. A second reason social learning
notions are particularly appropriate for man-
agement skills is because there is such a big disconnect between
knowing and
doing. For most management skills, the conceptual rules are
relatively easy to
know and understand. Most teenagers could be taught to pass a
test on the gen-
eral rules or guidelines of the skills that comprise great
management. But the
real challenge is to actually execute them.
Fortunately, one of the most encouraging elements of
management skills is
that it is possible to improve your execution of such skills—but
not simply via
intuition or common sense. Rather, improvement requires
conscious persistent
effort and practice. Bandura outlines four critical components
required to learn
through observation, and these are the key building blocks of
the most successful

management training methods used in organizations today. 26
These components
are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
The will to win is vastly overrated
as a means of doing so. What is
more important is the will to prac-
tice and the means to execute.
— Bob Knight , Basketball Hall
of Fame Coach
In theory, there is no difference
between theory and practice. But,
in practice, there is.
— Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut
P
B E
FIGURE 1.2
Social Learning Theory
Personal factors include a per-

son’s internal mental processes
such as motivation, attention,
self-regulation, and self-effi cacy.
Behavior is the person’s response
or action. Environment includes
the physical and social environ-
ment surrounding an individual.
It includes reinforcement and
punishment contingencies and
models.
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Effectiveness 21
MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.4
Where Does Talent Really Come From?
Some fascinating fi ndings are emerging from a group of

researchers trying to answer an important and age-old
question: When someone is very good at doing something, what
is it that actually makes him or her good? This
stream of research work, led by Anders Ericsson, Conradi
Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida
State University, is collectively known as the Expert
Performance Movement. Ericsson’s fi rst experiment, nearly 30
years ago, involved memory—training a person to hear and then
repeat a random series of numbers.
Ericsson’s study refuted the commonly held notion that
cognitive skills, particularly those like memory, are
mostly genetically determined (for example, “He was born with
a photographic memory”). As he notes, “With the
fi rst subject, after about 20 hours of training, his digit span had
risen from 7 to 20. He just kept improving, and
after about 200 hours of training he had risen to over 80
numbers.”
Based on that and later research showing memory is not
genetically determined, Ericsson concludes that the act
of memorizing is more a function of dedicated commitment and
practice than a genetic gift. In other words, what-
ever innate differences two people may exhibit in their abilities,
those differences are overwhelmed by how well each

person has engaged in deliberate practice. Deliberate practice
is not just simply repeating a task— playing a C-minor
scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your
shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves set-
ting specifi c goals, obtaining immediate feedback, and
concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.
Ericsson and his colleagues have since taken to studying expert
performers in a wide range of pursuits,
including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble,
writing, chess, software design, stock picking, and darts.
Based on that work, they made the startling assertion that the
trait we commonly call talent is important but gen-
erally overrated.
Ericsson’s research further suggests that when it comes to
choosing a life path, you should do what you
love—because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work
hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally
don’t like to do things they aren’t “good” at doing. So they
often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t
possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they
really lack is the desire to be good and to under-
take the deliberate practice that would make them better.

Source: Adapted from Dubner, S. J., and S. D. Levitt. (2006,
May 7). “A Star Is Made.” New York Times Magazine, p. 24 .
Attention. Not too surprisingly, if you want to learn
anything, you have to pay
specifi c attention. Thus, the fi rst challenge of learning is
to focus. Anything that
puts a damper on attention will decrease your learning
comprehension. If you
are unfocused, nervous, or distracted by other things, you will
not learn as well.
Thus, a critical step in learning new skills is to fi nd the right
models and devote
undivided attention to them. If you do not make what you want
to learn a top
priority and give the subject ample attention, you are unlikely
to succeed.
In addition, it is critical you isolate as specifi cally as possible
the behaviors
you hope to learn. This approach may seem like common sense,
but it is fre-
quently violated. Many try to learn too much or change too
many things at once.
An example from basketball would be to repeatedly watch a

successful player’s
form while shooting foul shots rather than trying to learn to
shoot foul shots
from watching an entire basketball game. In a management
context, it would be
better to isolate the nonverbal motions of an effective speaker
than to attempt to
emulate the speakers in a debate.
Retention. You must be able to understand and remember
what you have
observed. Coding what we observe into words, labels, or images
results in better
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retention than simply observing. If you can relate your
observations to a theory

or framework, and understand why what you observed was
effective or ineffec-
tive, you have a better chance of retrieving it when you need it.
This is where the
study of written models and frameworks can be most useful.
That is, just observ-
ing an effective speech, decision process, or team meeting is a
good start. But real
learning—the kind you can ultimately transfer to your own
situations—comes
from understanding the underlying principles that made the
behaviors effective
and being able to recall and translate those principles when
appropriate.
Reproduction. Perhaps the most critical contribution of social
learning theory
to developing management skills is it highlights the importance
of practice, or
actual demonstration, of a skill. That is, you cannot learn
management by just
observing, reading, or understanding the concept. Rather, you
have to translate
the images or descriptions into actual behavior. Research shows
that our abilities

improve even when we just imagine ourselves performing! 27
Many athletes, for
example, imagine their performance in their mind’s eye prior to
actually compet-
ing. However, the more we can actually reproduce the skill we
aim to learn, in the
actual context where the skill will be applied, the more likely
we are to add that
skill to our repertoire.
Another critical point with respect to reproduction is that the
saying “Prac-
tice makes perfect” is only a half-truth. “Practice with feedback
makes perfect” or
at least enables people to learn. Feedback is essential for
learning or developing
any kind of skill. This is one of the reasons why video games
are so satisfying for
people to play. They provide an opportunity to reproduce the
behavior (that is,
play the game) with immediate feedback (your score).
Motivation. Finally, even with careful attention, retention,
reproduction, and
feedback, you still won’t successfully acquire a new skill unless

you are moti-
vated to persist and stay with it. Without some conscious reason
to keep up the
effort required to learn a new skill, or change a habit, you are
doomed to fail.
Your motivation may derive from past reinforcement, promised
reinforcements
(incentives) that you can imagine, or vicarious reinforcement—
seeing and recall-
ing the models you observe being reinforced. Of course, you
may also use pun-
ishments for failure to achieve your learning goals. However,
Bandura has found
that punishment does not work as well as reinforcement and, in
fact, has a ten-
dency to backfi re on us.
Bandura’s principles may seem intuitive to most of us, but
observational
learning is neither easy nor self-evident. If it were easy to just
observe and
mimic the effective behavior of others, many more people
would be success-
ful in improving themselves. Rather, it takes disciplined self-
management to

apply the principles Bandura has proposed. In Table 1.2 , we
present a common
example of breakdowns in learning, using the example of
improving interview-
ing skills.
A Model of Self-Management
Using Bandura’s work as a base, Charles Manz and his
colleagues have cre-
ated a simple and practical framework for self-management. 28
They defi ne self-
management as a process of modifying our own behavior by
systematically
altering how we arrange different cues in our world, how we
think about what
we hope to change, and how we attach behavioral consequences
to our actions.
The framework takes into account that personal change is rarely
a discrete, sin-
gle event but rather a process with multiple infl uences. The
underlying theme is
that we all have the ability to change our immediate worlds in
ways that will help
us learn new things and behave in desirable ways.

The way to get started is to quit
talking and begin doing.
— Walt Disney
Nothing will work unless you do.
— Maya Angelou
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Effectiveness 23
TABLE 1.2 What’s Keeping Max from Learning to Interview
Better?
Max, who is soon graduating from college, has a strong record
of achievement (high
grades and a good extracurricular profi le) but is struggling with

the recruiting process.
After several interviews, he has failed to make it to the next
round a single time, and
feeling discouraged, he has asked some of his interviewers for
comments. The three
who were willing to respond all essentially said he did not
“interview well.” As a
result, Max hopes to improve his interviewing skills.
Overlaying the principles of social
learning and self-management can help illuminate Max’s
challenge and common traps
that occur.
Attention. Max needs to address at least two issues to be
consistent with effective
social learning. First, he needs to set aside time to practice his
interviewing skills in
the midst of many competing time demands. He is likely to feel
his classes, part-time
job, and social life take precedence and thus may well not
devote enough time to
improving his interviewing skills—a classic case where hoping
will supersede a real
learning strategy.

Second, Max needs to understand more specifi cally what he
is doing or not
doing in his interviews that is leading to poor outcomes.
Without some specifi c
understanding of his weaknesses (and relative strengths), he is
destined to fl ounder in
trying to determine how to improve. Unfortunately, that
information may well be hard
to come by in this case and he may need some mock interviews
to tease it out.
Retention. Max needs to build an understanding of what
makes for an
impressive interview performance. Learning how to illustrate
his background and
accomplishments using the STAR model outlined in Chapter 12
would likely be a
good step.
Max would also benefi t from observing models with
recognizable excellence in
what he is trying to improve. In these cases, we often see people
make the mistake
of attempting to learn from friends or relying on anecdotal
evidence from well-

intentioned, but non-expert, sources.
Reproduction. Max needs practice accompanied by
feedback on that practice.
Practice should be treated like an actual interview. The more
elements Max can
re-create, the better his learning will be. A great deal of time
needs to be dedicated
to rehearsal, feedback, and more rehearsal. Mock interviews
would seem to be
essential here but are often awkward or diffi cult to arrange and
therefore are not
utilized.
Motivation. Max needs to decide how important
improving his interview skills is to
him and if he is willing to dedicate the time to changing. He
needs the discipline to
avoid taking shortcuts and saying “good enough” to really make
a long-term lasting
change. He should fi nd ways to reinforce himself for devoting
the time and should
certainly celebrate any success on the interview front.
The self-management framework provides a means of avoiding

some of the
most common “hope vs. action” traps and of putting Bandura’s
principles into
practice. It includes strategies we directly impose on ourselves
to infl uence our own
behavior and those whereby we attempt to alter our external
world to help affect
our behavioral change. While Manz and colleagues have
presented their model
in a variety of ways and with different labels (for example, self-
management, self-
leadership, super leadership), 29 we have condensed it here to
the fi ve essential ele-
ments most effective in facilitating personal improvement (see
Tool Kit 1.1).
Note that this self-management framework has been
successfully applied in
many different contexts, including drug therapy, weight loss,
health care, the-
ater, and athletics. For example, all successful golf training is
based on the ele-
ments of this framework. As you progress further in this book,
you will see that

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the effective behaviors of self-management are also entirely
consistent with what
great managers do when it comes to coaching and motivating
others. This should
not be surprising because, as we noted earlier, effective people-
managers are fi rst
successful in managing themselves.
Self-Observation/Exploration
You can’t induce or recognize a change in behavior until you
have some informa-
tion about what you currently are doing. Self-observation
involves determining
when, why, and under what conditions you currently use certain
behaviors. For
example, if your personal improvement challenge is to improve

your grades via
more focused study time, it is important to ask when and where
you fi nd you
study best now. How many hours are you currently devoting to
each subject?
Which courses are you doing the best in? And so on. Self-
observations provide the building blocks for managing
ourselves. The
best self-observation strategies involve actually recording your
observations and
keeping close tabs on your behavior, both before you begin
changes and after.
This recording can be as simple as counting how many minutes
you are late to
meetings or can be more complex diaries of your behavior.
Learning a new skill
or habit often requires that we also change or unlearn other
dysfunctional habits,
adding signifi cantly to the challenge.
In that vein, a critical aspect of self-observation is to learn
from mistakes or
failed efforts. While we all have a tendency to be defensive,
look to blame others,
or ignore failure, viewing mistakes as learning opportunities

builds a foundation
for further learning. Mistakes can prompt us to look inward and
evaluate our
limitations and shortcomings. Mistakes are only problems if you
repeat them or
do not learn from them. Indeed, if you are not making mistakes,
it is worth ask-
ing whether you are stretching yourself in your job and taking
any developmen-
tal risks. Great managers make a lot of mistakes, but those
mistakes are seen as
“productive failures” and are rarely made twice. 31
Self-Set Improvement Goals
The fi rst task of setting goals is to determine what your
desired outcome or effec-
tive behaviors look like. The best goals often derive from
attention to effective
models. Some of the things that infl uence our attention involve
characteristics of
Not everything that is faced can
be changed, but nothing can be
changed until it is faced.

— James Baldwin
If you’re not making mistakes,
then you’re not doing anything.
I’m positive that a doer makes
mistakes.
— John Wooden
Tool Kit 1.1 Five Behavior-Focused Strategies to Improve
Self-Management 30
1. Self-Observation/Exploration: Observe and collect
information about the specifi c behaviors you have
targeted for change.
2. Self-Set Goals: Determine what more effective behavior
is (often by observing effective models) and set
specifi c goals for your own behaviors.
3. Management of Cues: Organize your work environment
to assist you in performing the behaviors you
want to change.
4. Positive Self-Talk and Rehearsal: Go over the behavior

in your head and imagine its successful applica-
tion. Actually practice the new behavior at available
opportunities and seek feedback.
5. Self-Reward and Punishment: Provide yourself with
personally valued rewards that are linked to perform-
ing desirable behaviors or with punishments linked to
undesirable behaviors.
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Effectiveness 25
the model or learning stimuli. As a result, we are more likely to
adopt a modeled
behavior if the model is similar to the observer (more like us),
has admired sta-

tus, and if the behavior has functional value (gets us something
we want). Thus,
if the model is attractive or prestigious or appears to be
particularly competent,
we pay more attention.
An example of this can be seen in thinking about how to
effectively study
for a class. One tactic for this challenge would be to observe the
study habits of
highly successful students to see if you might emulate some of
their behaviors.
Self-set goals need to address long-range pursuits and short-run
objectives along
the way. The shorter-range goals should be consistent with the
long-range goals
for maximum consistency. The process takes effort, and
although our goals are
likely to change, it is important we try to have current goals for
our immediate
efforts. Goal setting is so fundamental to great management that
we reinforce it
throughout this book.
Studies have shown that goal setting works because:

1. In committing to a goal, a person devotes attention
toward goal-relevant
activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals energize people. Challenging goals lead to higher
effort than easy
goals.
3. Goals affect persistence. High goals prolong effort, and
tight deadlines
lead to more rapid work pace than loose deadlines.
4. Goals motivate people to use their knowledge to help
them attain the goal
and to discover the knowledge needed to obtain it. 32
The best goals are characterized by the acronym SMART,
which represents
specifi c, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
SMART goals make
for smarter learners. 33
Management of Cues
Taking your lead from your self-observations and goals, you

can begin to modify
your environment. The objective is to organize your world to
assist you in per-
forming the behaviors you want to change. For example, if you
are trying to quit
smoking and improve your health, put away the ashtrays, drink
tea instead of
coffee, and take the ice cream out of the freezer and replace it
with low-fat sub-
stitutes. If you are trying to study more on Thursday nights, get
out of the apart-
ment when everyone is heading to social engagements (and
enticing you to come
along), and go to the library or some quiet spot.
A related strategy is to create reminders and attention focusers
you will notice
and act on. A sticky note on the refrigerator reminding you of
your weight loss
goal, or a screensaver or text message to yourself about a
forthcoming test, can
provide a cue that will help you focus on an important
improvement objective.
Positive Self-Talk and Rehearsal

Positive self-talk and rehearsal are applications of the social
learning principle
of reproduction. Search for opportunities to practice new
behavior in the most
realistic situations you can fi nd. Basketball players know that
just shooting 100
free throws will not simulate the pressure of shooting one at the
end of a close
game. So the best shooters fi nd ways to practice under
conditions that mirror
those pressurized conditions (for example, team running for
missed free throws,
everyone lined up around the key trying to distract the shooter,
simulated crowd
noise). Some people treat their jobs as games (like salespeople)
by trying out new
techniques and seeing how well they work. Whatever the
context, you must prac-
tice and rehearse any new skill for it to ultimately become part
of your repertoire.
“One must learn by doing the
thing, for though you think you
know it, you have no certainty
until you try.”

— Sophocles
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Further, the use of positive self-talk is extremely
important. If you have ever
repeatedly said to yourself, “I know I can do this,” before
attempting a diffi cult
task, you were practicing a proven technique of self-
management. The idea is to
create a frame of mind that energizes your self-confi dence and
gets you beyond
self-defeating and negative feelings that can accompany
learning diffi cult tasks.
Just as managers and coaches work on team morale and
motivation, individuals
can affect their behavior by getting “pumped up” and self-

motivated.
Self-Reward and Punishment
Although no manager would deny the importance of reward
and punishment
for infl uencing employee behavior, the concept is strangely
neglected when we
think of ourselves. The truth is we can profoundly induce our
actions by reward-
ing ourselves for desirable behavior. For example, “I will go out
to dinner on Sat-
urday night if I accomplish my goal. I will do paperwork
instead if I do not.” You
simply arrange to reward yourself when you adhere to your plan
and possibly
punish yourself when you do not.
Generally speaking, it is better to use self-reward than self-
punishment. Cel-
ebrate your victories and don’t dwell on your failures. A great
deal of learning
research has found that punishment does not work as well as
reinforcement. 34
However, there may be times when the most powerful or
immediate incentive for

you may be a punishment, and in such cases it may make an
appropriate disin-
centive. Do not, however, punish yourself for slips or lapses.
Changing habits and
learning new things is never a straight path, and as the Tool Kit
on relapse pre-
vention at the end of this chapter illustrates, expecting and
preparing for those
inevitable lapses will be more fruitful. 35
Putting It All into Practice
The self-management model represents the best methodology
currently available
for facilitating personal improvement. The basic notions are
simple. To really get
beyond mere hope and make a sustainable personal
improvement requires you to:
1. Understand your current behavior and desired future
behavior.
2. Set SMART goals for your change.
3. Arrange your world so it focuses your attention and
reminds you of your

improvement plan and goals.
4. Stay positive and rehearse the desired behaviors at every
opportunity.
5. Create your own rewards for accomplishing your targets.
Since many of us already use some of these strategies, and they
seem sim-
ple enough, why are most people not more effective at self-
management? It is
mostly because we often use them either ineffectively or
inconsistently. That is,
the piecemeal use of these strategies tends to make them
relatively ineffective.
Thinking through your own experiences, consider how often you
see (or prac-
tice) one of these strategies in isolation, but how rarely you see
them together.
For instance, many people have started down a path of weight
loss by set-
ting a goal and monitoring their eating behavior—a good start.
But more often
than not, they do not consistently manage their cues, practice

new habits of gro-
cery shopping and ordering while dining out, or create
reinforcements powerful
enough to sustain their efforts. So they start well, with much
hope, but do not
have the strategies in place to persist until they have succeeded.
Engaging in one
strategy, while not engaging in the others, is much like ordering
a Diet Coke to go
with a big greasy cheeseburger and super-sized fries. It may be
better than hav-
ing a milk shake, but it is really not helping someone lose
weight.
Whether you think you can or you
think you can’t, you are right.
— Henry Ford
We all have dreams. But in order
to make dreams into reality, it
takes an awful lot of determina-
tion, dedication, self-discipline, and
effort.

— Jesse Owens , Olympic Gold
Medalist
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Effectiveness 27
We suspect that much here has validated what you already
knew and are
doing to some extent. Hopefully, though, it can make it easier to
more systemati-
cally go about learning and managing yourself in an
increasingly complex world.
Building Self-Awareness
Self-Awareness: The Key to Successful Learning
and Growth
The models of learning and self-management described earlier

point to the crit-
ical importance of self-awareness. Self-awareness is mission
critical for those
attempting to accelerate their managerial learning and to
become more person-
ally effective. The best managers not only consistently seek
feedback to know
themselves better and what areas they need to improve, but also
isolate their
personal strengths and preferences so they can best position
themselves for suc-
cess. Self-awareness is essential to learning and growth in a
management role
because it forms the basis by which we learn about ourselves
and how we differ
from others.
Individual Differences and Their Importance
There is perhaps no more obvious yet curiously neglected truth
than “people are
different.” Recognizing our own differences is important
because they impact
how we react and behave in different situations.
Every popular magazine these days seems to include some sort

of self-
assessment of an intriguing individual difference. Headlines
claim you can
learn some hidden truth about yourself by answering a few
questions and then
scoring yourself with the provided scoring guide. Magazines
like Cosmopolitan,
GQ, and Vogue regularly have some sort of “self-assessment”
that sounds like
it will be helpful, but they are rarely what they appear to be.
But since your
“cool quotient,” “hottie index,” or “marriage potential” are not
of great concern
in managerial environments (at least hopefully not), what,
specifi cally, should
the self-aware manager know?
Of course, people differ in an infi nite number of ways. From a
managerial
performance perspective, however, the two important categories
of difference
are (1) ability and (2) personality (which includes values and
motives). 36 Ability
can be simply defi ned as what a person is capable of doing. 37
This “capacity to

do” leads some people to be able to dunk a basketball, calculate
complex math
in their heads, or interpret abstract patterns very quickly.
Abilities come in many
dimensions and include cognitive ability, physical ability,
and emotional ability
(now often referred to as emotional intelligence and an area
of study in which
there’s been a recent explosion of interest).
Personality represents the pattern of relatively enduring
ways in which a
person thinks, acts, and behaves. 38 Personality is determined
both by nature
(genetics) and nurture (situational factors) and tends to
represent our “domi-
nant” or “natural” behavior. While it may be appealing to think
about it in these
terms, there is not a “good” or “bad” personality profi le.
Although some personal-
ity characteristics have been associated more frequently with
some occupations
and interests, no personality combination limits you from types
of occupations
you might enjoy or determines your destiny.

How you behave at any given time is an interaction of your
personality and
your environment. This interaction accounts for why we often
behave differ-
ently at home than we might at work or school. For example,
your dominant
KO 1 -6
DO 1 -4
DO 1 -5
Practice this!
Success in the new economy
comes to those who know
themselves—their strengths,
their values, and how they best
perform.
— Peter Drucker

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personality trait may be one of introversion, yet in order to
perform well on
your job you have to “turn it on” to talk with clients and
customers—that is, dem-
onstrate extraversion. Sometimes the situation or
environment has much more
to do with how we behave than does our personality. It is a
fundamental error to
assume that behavior is solely a function of one’s personality
since the environ-
ment will always play a role as well.
Assessment of managerial ability and personality has become
increasingly
popular in both organizational and educational contexts. It can
be intriguing,

even fun, to see where we stand on different scales (for
example, who would not
be curious about your own “love quotient”?), and some form of
assessment is
essential if we are to clarify our own abilities, personality
traits, values, and pref-
erences. However, our experience suggests assessments are
most useful when an
individual has a defi ned need to know. Put another way, the
most fruitful assess-
ment process is ideally a research project where you are the
focus of the research.
With that in mind, we sought to identify the set of fundamental
personal
questions most important to managerial and interpersonal self-
awareness, and
to identify assessment tools that can help you begin your
personal inquiry into
those questions. We boldly call our seven elements of self-
awareness the Essen-
tial Managerial Assessment Profi le. Other aspects of self-
awareness (for example,
learning style, tolerance of ambiguity, confl ict style, leadership
behavior) are

relevant and important, and we include measures of some in
your instructor’s
supplemental materials. If you become more self-aware on these
seven aspects in
an informed and thoughtful way, you will have a fi rm baseline
of self-knowledge.
Ultimately, we want you to be able to answer the question “Tell
me about your-
self” in a way that will have meaning and relevance to those
you might work with
or manage. The goal is not simply to describe your favorite
characteristics, but to
know how your abilities and personality may impact your
behavior and perfor-
mance. Table 1.3 categorizes and defi nes the seven
dimensions, identifi es leading
assessment tools associated with each dimension, and briefl y
highlights the posi-
tive implications of higher self-knowledge on each dimension.
Today, there are
many online resources for taking self-assessments and getting
feedback and devel-
opmental recommendations. The appendix to this text and your
instructor should

help you identify appropriate self-assessments for your personal
performance.
Important Self-Awareness Issues
As you embark on a journey toward greater self-awareness, you
should also take
into account several important points regarding the
interpretation of assessments.
First, assessment results are simply feedback. As we’ve stated
before, these results
are not the absolute or fi nal truth, nor do they dictate your
destiny. Abilities (some-
times called talents) are only valuable when they are applied
and manifested as
skills or behaviors. The world is full of high-ability folks who
do not succeed; ath-
letic coaches often refer to such people as “wasted talent.”
Similarly, just having
certain personality characteristics is less important than how
you attempt to put
yourself in positions where those traits are most valued and
rewarded.
Second, as we noted earlier, literally thousands of self-
assessments exist but

many have questionable legitimacy. So look for measures that
have an estab-
lished norm base (signifi cant data reporting from prior
assessments) and have
stood the test of time. The example assessments included in
your essentials pro-
fi le are all well established with a base of research evidence
related to their out-
comes and relevance for managerial contexts.
Third, preferences are choices we make about how we perceive
the world and
function best in it. Some of these “choices” are not necessarily
conscious ones
but rather modes of behaving that seem most natural for us. If
you’ve ever done
any acting, you know that attempting to “be someone you’re
not” is not easy and
All facts are friendly.
— Unknown
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Self-Awareness
Dimension
Ability, Personality, or
Preference?
Example Assessment
Tool Implication
Cognitive
Ability (critical
and analytical
thinking)
Ability to recognize
quantitative and
verbal patterns
quickly and
accurately. Includes
the ability to acquire

knowledge.
• Watson-Glaser
Critical Thinking Test
• Wonderlic Personnel
Test
Is cognitive ability a
strength or an area to
supplement with the help
of others? What types of
jobs and industries suit my
analytical ability?
Emotional
Intelligence
Ability to accurately
recognize and
understand
emotions in others
and self and to
use emotional
information

productively.
• MSCEIT Do I understand and use
emotion to make effective
decisions? Can I relate
to people well because I
appropriately read their
emotional states?
Cultural
Intelligence
Ability to function
effectively in
the context of
differences.
• Cultural Quotient
Scale (CQS)
Am I aware of important
cultural differences?
Do I understand and
act in ways that will value
those differences and

create stronger
relationships?
Personality
Traits
Primary personality
characteristics that
remain relatively
stable over one’s
life.
• Big Five Inventory What are my dominant
personality traits? How do
I maximize my fi t to best
utilize my personality?
Personality
Preferences
(temperament)
Preference for
direction of energy,
decision making,
information

acquisition, and
orientation to the
outer world.
• Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator
How do I like to work
with others and process
information? What do
I look for in others
to complement my
preferences? How will
I best interact in different
team combinations?
Personal
Values
Preference for
desirable ends
or goals and
the process
for attaining
them.

• Rokeach Values
Checklist
• Hogan MPV Scale
What do I value most
and seek in others? What
will I not bend or
compromise on? What to me
is non-negotiable?
Career Orientation Preference for
particular types of
work environments
and occupations.
• Holland
Occupational
Preference Scale
What occupational elements
are most important to me?
With what types of people
will I thrive?

Effectiveness 29
TABLE 1.3 The Essential Managerial Assessment Profi le
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requires a great degree of attention, direction, and energy. Our
personal charac-
teristics such as core values, interpersonal preferences, and
career orientations
are those with which we feel most comfortable and natural. You
can choose to
behave outside your preferences, but it will require a signifi
cantly higher level of
your conscious energy to do so.

Finally, we always recommend you look for patterns and
consistency across
your assessments. When you fi nd consistency, it is evidence of
a more dominant
trait or preference. Inconsistency suggests a less-defi ned
characteristic. Perhaps
most importantly, you should always interpret your self-
assessments in the con-
text of other feedback you’ve received and not dwell on
assessed weaknesses or
limitations. We elaborate on those two issues next.
Involve Others: Seek Regular Feedback
Although the evidence is compelling that feedback-seeking
behavior and increases
in self-awareness are associated with positive outcomes like job
satisfaction
and performance, 39 many young managers do not actively
pursue greater self-
awareness. Why is that so?
A useful analogy for this curious reluctance can be found in the
fi eld of medi-
cine. Many illnesses could be cured and diseases halted, if only
people were not

afraid to get a checkup—but they are often too scared to fi nd
out if anything is
wrong. The same holds for seeking interpersonal and
management feedback. We
all want to protect, maintain, and enhance our self-concepts and
the impressions
we think others hold of us. And we often have fears and
inadequacies (for exam-
ple, I hate speaking to groups; I can’t handle confl ict; I look
awkward on camera)
that we would prefer not to focus on or reveal even to ourselves.
Reliable knowledge about ourselves can help us gain insights
into what areas
we want to change and improve, and even more importantly, the
strengths we
should aim to utilize more in our work and relationships.
Always keep in mind
your perception of yourself is likely to differ from others’, 40
and some folks we
typically turn to (for instance, our mothers) are not always
likely to be entirely
truthful with us.
Simply put, the major obstacle to seeking feedback is fear. So

the fi rst and
most important step toward developing self-awareness is a
willingness to put
aside that natural fear and push beyond our comfort zone in
learning things
about ourselves. However, a critically important point is that it
is virtually impos-
sible to dramatically increase self-awareness unless we interact
with and dis-
close ourselves to others. That is, while self-assessments are a
good fi rst step, no
amount of self-examination is enough to really know yourself.
You can analyze
yourself for weeks, or meditate for months, and you will not
fully know yourself,
any more than you can tickle yourself or smell your own breath.
The reason it is so important to get beyond yourself is that we
are just not
very good judges of our own behavior and ability. There are
many ways in which
other people know us better than we know ourselves,
particularly when it comes
to how adept we are in our relationships. Multisource
feedback (that is, feed-

back provided by many sources other than yourself, such as a
boss, co-worker,
customer, and subordinate) enhances self-knowledge and
consequently improves
managerial behavior. 41 In fact, research has found that
higher levels of agree-
ment between managerial “self” and “other” behavioral ratings
are associated
with managerial effectiveness and performance. 42
In short, the ideal evaluation relies not on any one source but
on multiple
perspectives. These may include self-reports as well as peer,
boss, and subor-
dinate feedback. Feedback from multiple sources can be a
powerful source of
data for highlighting your strengths and targeting the
competencies that need to
improve. Multiple perspectives on yourself are extremely
powerful ways to build
self-awareness and get you ready to embark on personal
improvement.
We would rather be ruined by
praise than saved by critique.

— Norman Vincent Peale
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Effectiveness 31
Tool Kit 1.2 Personal Quality Checklist 43
Building on the principles of organizational quality
improvement efforts, Bernie Sergesteketter and Harry Roberts
have devised a tool for self-management called the personal
quality checklist (PQC). Using their approach, you
defi ne desirable standards of personal behavior and
performance and then keep track of failures or “defects” to
meet those standards. The specifi c steps to the approach are:
1. Draw up a checklist of standards. This is the hardest part.
Two samples are included at the end of this
Tool Kit as illustrations (one by a practicing manager and one

from a college student). Each standard
should have a clear relationship to a “customer” either in the
workplace or in your family or circle of
friends. Each standard has to be unambiguously defi ned so you
can recognize and tally a defect when
it occurs. Thus, “get in shape” is not a good standard. A better
standard would be to “break a sweat
every day.”
There are two broad types of standards: (1) waste reducers/time
savers (for example, be on time to
class or group meetings), and (2) activity expanders (call
parents at least once a week, get résumé com-
pleted). If you include all activity expanders on your list, be
sure you have enough waste reducers and time
savers to create free time for them.
2. Tally your daily defects. Defects should be tallied by days
but can ultimately be aggregated by weeks or
months. One intriguing strategy is to let others help you keep
score. For example, if a checklist standard is
to talk to your spouse only in respectful tones, or spend at least
a half hour with your daughter each day,
then your spouse or daughter may well be the best tally keeper
for those standards.

3. Review your tallies and action plan. Some people fi nd the
word “defect” objectionable, but it is key to
the system. First, it is easy to recognize and tally. Moreover,
defects can become your friends because they
suggest opportunities for improvement. Why did it occur? How
can it be prevented? The whys lead to
hows and suggest possible routes toward improvement.
Do not put faith in trying harder; you probably already are
trying hard. Rather, fi gure out a different way to
reach your objective. As the adage goes, rather than trying to be
a better caterpillar, become a butterfl y.
As a general rule you should stick with 10 or fewer standards,
or the process becomes unwieldy and unfo-
cused. Of course, your checklist standards will only be a small
fraction of your activities. Your fi rst PQC should
focus on a few things you currently do that, if improved, could
increase your customer satisfaction. Once you
determine that you have those standards under control and
customer satisfaction is high, then you can ask your
colleagues and family for help in raising the bar and adding new
standards. The approach is deceptively simple
but powerful. Sergesteketter and Roberts report on a wide

variety of successes by managers and executives from
leading fi rms who have enjoyed success with the personal
quality checklist approach. Draw up your own checklist
and give it a try!
Sample Manager PQC
• On time for meetings
• Never need a haircut
• Answer phone in two rings
• No more than one project on desk at time
• Shoes always shined
• Weight below 190 pounds
• Exercise at least three times a week
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Sample College Student PQC
• No more than 10 hours of TV viewing a week
• Use stairs instead of elevator for four fl oors or less
• Follow up job contacts within 24 hours
• Stick to one subject when studying, do not hop around
• In bed before midnight on all school nights
• Pay bills on time
• Make a to-do list for the next day before turning in
Focus on Strengths, Not Just Weaknesses
Getting assessment feedback can be humbling, and sometimes

even discourag-
ing, so it is particularly important to not focus on just the gaps
or weaknesses in
your profi le. Of course, some focus on weak areas is often
appropriate, but it is
all too easy to become obsessed with the negative feedback.
Indeed, some recent
authors have made the case that a “defi cit reduction” or
problem-fi xing approach
may actually hinder personal effectiveness. 44 Rather, they
contend individuals
are better served by recognizing and building on their strengths
and managing,
rather than obsessively trying to improve, their weaknesses.
Managing a weakness means taking ownership of it and
acknowledging it
both as a weakness and as part of you. Rather than trying to
make it a strength,
aim to fi nd ways to minimize its impact on you. Such strategies
can include
doing it as little as possible, engaging others for whom the
characteristic is a
strength, and developing and using support systems and tools to
compensate (for

example, become a zealot for a practical time management
system if managing
time is a weakness for you). The key point, and the one that is
often the most
productive, is placing your focus on your strengths and those
things you can
realistically change. 5
Too many people overvalue what
they are not and undervalue what
they are.
— Malcolm Forbes
MANAGEMENT LIVE 1.5
Identifying and Crafting Your Own Personal Brand
Back in 1997, Tom Peters wrote an article in Fast Company
titled “The Brand Called You.” In the article, he said:
It’s time for me—and you—to take a lesson from the big
brands, a lesson that’s true for anyone who is interested in
what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work.
Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless
of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand

the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our
own companies, Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most
important job is to be head marketer for the brand called
You. It’s that simple—and that hard. And that is inescapable.
Since that time, the emergence of social media on the Internet
has made Mr. Peters’ call to action even more
relevant and created a whole industry of personal branding
consultants, speakers, and authors. While you may
not yet be consciously creating an online presence, you may be
surprised to fi nd out what’s already out there
on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or in myriad other places. Many
experts agree that online branding is not just for
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Effectiveness 33
celebrities (although certain celebrities seem to have practically

invented the entire idea). In fact, as part of your
efforts to enhance your own personal effectiveness, we
challenge you to conduct the following personal-branding
exercises.
1. Identify an individual who currently holds a position that
you think you would aspire to in 5 or 10 years.
This could be a person in your current organization or employed
elsewhere. Search the Web for informa-
tion on this person and write a brief summary of that person’s
“brand,” as expressed in the information
you fi nd on the Web.
2. Search and summarize what is on the Internet today about
you. You might start with Google and also check
out Technorati for blogs and social media sites. Are there
persons with the same name as you that come up
in these searches? Would others be able to distinguish between
you and those people with the same name?
3. If you were to get serious about building an online brand
presence, what would you do? What brand
would you hope to convey and why? What, if any, social media
sites would you use? Would you develop
a blog, and if so, what topics would you address and discuss?

4. How would you monitor your personal brand on the Web?
Would any measures or sources of information
be most useful?
CASE CONCLUDED
The eHarmony Personality Profi le questionnaire
includes 258 questions that assess three primary
personal characteristics: personality, values, and
interests. Specifi c areas assessed include personal
lifestyle preferences, communication style, family
background, birth order, energy level, intelligence,
spirituality, special interests, and future aspirations.
eHarmony developed the Personality Profi le by fi rst
generating a voluminous set of items asking people
to report on most anything imaginable. They then
had different people look at the items and pare
them down, followed by small focus groups, and
then larger groups to get some initial estimates of
relevance and reliability.
Beyond completion of the questionnaire, eHar-
mony also requires members to proceed through
what they call “guided communication.” Guided

communication was created because the company
suspected that, if left on their own, people would
gravitate to the most superfi cial questions, like
sports or activities, but not to those issues that
eHarmony had determined were most important to
sustainable long-term relationships.
Guided communication leads potential couples
through a formal process before ever allowing them
to communicate directly, and the process is com-
prised of three distinct activities. First, each member
of the pair is asked to choose fi ve easy-to-answer
questions from a list provided by eHarmony—and
then send their responses to the other member.
>
Questions such as “If you were taken by your date
to a party where you knew no one, how would you
respond?” would be followed by multiple-choice
answers, like (a) Stay close to my date, letting him/
her introduce me; (b) Find a quiet spot and relax
alone; (c) Strike out on my own and make friends; or
(d) Ask my date if I could skip the event.
Once both parties answer, they move on to the

next stage, where they are asked to exchange their
personal list of “must haves” and “can’t stands.” In the
fi nal stage, the potential pair are asked to exchange
three open-ended questions to allow for more detailed
descriptions of respective values. eHarmony provides
some sample questions, such as “What person in your
life has been most inspirational and why?” or “Tell me
about your closest friend. How long have you known
them, and what do you like best about them?” But
members can also write in their own questions.
Once this exchange is successfully completed,
the two parties can move into “open communica-
tion.” During open communication, the pair can
send e-mails to each other, exchange photos, and
prepare for their fi rst meeting. A potential couple
could then decide when, where, and how to meet in
the offl ine world if they wanted to pursue a relation-
ship. Moreover, at any point in the process, either
party can “close” the match and cease any further
contact. Given the number of opportunities to drop
out, only 20 to 30 percent of matches ended up in
open communication.
(continued )

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Concluding Note
As we noted earlier, although sometimes characterized as
being elementary or
simply common sense, great management is neither common nor
easy, and the
existence of so many ineffective managers and toxic
organizations attests to that.
Much of management deals with managing other people, but
the subject of this
opening chapter is about managing oneself. The most personally
effective manag-
ers are those who are active learners, who know themselves and
their strengths

and weaknesses, and who act professionally in a way that
develops and nurtures
strong relationships. You will undoubtedly fi nd it diffi cult to
apply these principles
all the time. But a large part of management is by example;
managers who are not
personally effective set the wrong example. Personal
effectiveness is perhaps more
a self-discipline than a complex learning task and is a lifetime
endeavor. Great
management starts with your personal effectiveness. Make it
your fi rst priority!
It is easier to act yourself into
a better way of feeling than to
feel yourself into a better way of
acting.
— O. H. Mowrer
The result is that when people do meet in person
to pursue the relationship they already have a collec-
tive history and many starting points for discussion.
Indeed, eHarmony claims that, by the time people
actually meet, it will feel like they already know each

other quite well. And it seems to work. The company
estimates that, on average, a successful subscriber
takes four to six months to get matched to someone
they will eventually marry and the company boasts
of tens of thousands of happy marriages.
Questions
1. Do you see any parallels to the process eHarmony
promotes that might be relevant for managing
people or selecting teams or job choice?
>
2. Would you be concerned about people
reporting things about themselves that were
not true?
3. eHarmony contends that “opposites attract and
then attack.” Explain this and support or refute
the statement.
4. Note that all personal information revealed on
eHarmony is self -reported. What are the pros and
cons of self-reported information as a means of

self-assessment?
5. Assume you had been through the eHarmony
guided communication process and no dates
emerged from your exchanges; how would you
proceed? Should you address your weaknesses or
build on your strengths, or both?
KEY TERMS
ability 27
attention 21
Big E evidence 16
cognitive ability 27
conceptual competencies 10
emotional intelligence 27
evidence-based management 13
extraversion 28
half-truths 13
interpersonal competencies 10
introversion 28
little e evidence 16
modeling 20
motivation 22

multisource feedback 30
(OB) 14
personality 27
positive self-talk 26
punishment 26
reciprocal determinism 20
reproduction 22
reward 26
self-management 22
self-observation 24
SMART goals 25
social learning theory 20
technical/administrative
competencies 10
CASE CONCLUDED (cont inued )
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Effectiveness 35
Adam Bryant conducted and
condensed this interview. A
longer version is at
www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/
business/02corner.html . Published:
August 1, 2009.
John T. Chambers, chairman
and C.E.O. of Cisco Systems,
has learned that big setbacks
make great companies and
great leaders.
Q. What are the most important
leadership lessons you’ve learned?
A. People think of us as a product of

our successes. I’d actually argue that
we’re a product of the challenges we
faced in life. And how we handled
those challenges probably had more
to do with what we accomplish in life.
I had an issue with dyslexia before
they understood what dyslexia was.
One of my teachers, Mrs. Anderson,
taught me to look at it like a curve-
ball. The ball breaks the same way
every time. Once you get used to it,
you can handle it pretty well.
So I went from almost being
embar rassed reading in front of
a class—you lose your place, and
I read right to left—to the point
where I knew I could overcome
challenges. I think it also taught me
sensitivity toward others.
I learned another lesson from
Jack Welch. It was in 1998, and at
that time we were one of the most

valuable companies in the world.
I said, “Jack, what does it take to
have a great company?” And he
said, “It takes major setbacks and
overcoming those.”
I hesitated for a minute, and I
said, “Well, we did that in ’93 and
then we did it again in ’97 with the
CASE
In a Near-Death Event, a Corporate
Rite of Passage
> >
Asian fi nancial crisis.” And he said,
“No, John. I mean a near-death expe-
rience.” I didn’t understand exactly
what he meant.
Then, in 2001, we had a near-
death experience. We went from
the most valuable company in the
world to a company where they

questioned the leadership. And in
2003, he called me up and said,
“John, you now have a great com-
pany.” I said, “Jack, it doesn’t feel
like it.” But he was right.
Q. How has your leadership style
evolved over time?
A. I’m a command-and-control per-
son. I like being able to say turn right,
and we truly have 67,000 people turn
right. But that’s the style of the past.
Today’s world requires a different
leadership style—more collaboration
and teamwork, including using Web
2.0 technologies. If you had told me
I’d be video blogging and blogging,
I would have said, no way. And yet
our 20-somethings in the company
really pushed me to use that more.
Q. Did you need to be pushed?
A. I thought I was very leading-edge
in terms of how I communicated. My
team just kept pushing, and I fi nally

said, “Why do you want me to do
this?” And they said: “John, if you
don’t do it our company won’t learn
how to do this. It won’t be built into
our DNA for the way we interface
with customers, our employees.
The top has to walk the talk.” I was
expecting text blogging and we did
video blogging.
The fi rst one was a little bit
uncomfortable, because it’s very
unprofessional. You just basically put
a camera there, and you go. By the
second one, I realized this was going
to transform communications—not
just for the C.E.O., but it would
change how we do business.
Q. You mentioned Jack Welch.
Who else do you rely on for advice?
A. My wife. She has a way of pick-
ing me up when I get knocked on
my tail. But also if I get a little bit

overconfi dent, she brings me back
to earth.
The other day, I was practicing a
concept with her and saying, “You
know, there are two major mistakes
that I make and Cisco makes repeat-
edly.” She looked at me and she said,
“Only two?” My mistakes are always
around moving too slow, or moving
too fast without process behind it.
And it’s something that, if we’re not
careful, we’ll repeat again and again.
Q. How do you hire?
A. First thing I want to ask you
about: tell me about your results. I
(continued)
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never get hard work confused with
success. So I’d walk you through
the successes, and what did you
do right. I’d also ask you to tell
me about your failures. And that’s
something people make a tremen-
dous mistake on. First, all of us have
had mistakes and failures. And it’s
surprising how many people say,
“Well, I can’t think of one.” That
immediately loses credibility. It’s the
ability to be very candid on what
mistakes they’ve made, and then
the question is, what would you do
differently this time?
Then I ask them who are the best
people you recruited and devel-
oped, and where are they today?
Third, I try to fi gure out if they’re
really oriented around the customer.

Are they driven by the customer, or
is the customer just somebody who
gets in the way?
And I look at their communication
skills, and one of the largest parts of
communications is . . . what?
Q. Listening?
A. You betcha. Seeing how they
listen, and are they willing to chal-
lenge you? And then I look at their
knowledge in industry segments,
especially the area I’m interested in.
Q. What’s changed in the last few
years?
A. Big time, the importance of col-
laboration. Big time, people who
have teamwork skills, and their use
of technology. If they’re not col-
laborative, if they aren’t naturally
inclined toward collaboration and
teamwork, if they are uncomfort-
able with using technology to make

that happen both within Cisco and
in their own life, they’re probably
not going to fi t in here.
Discussion Questions
1. What two major lessons would
you take from John Cham-
bers and his background and
career at Cisco? What surprised
you about his background and
perspectives?
2. How would Mr. Chambers con-
tend that you treat setbacks and
failures? Should you talk about
them in a job interview?
3. What does Mr. Chambers think
are the biggest changes in the
workforce today? What implica-
tions does that have for your per-
sonal development and career
success?

4. Invite a leading manager in your
area to be interviewed. Ask simi-
lar questions that were asked of
Mr. Chambers and compare and
contrast the responses.
SELECT MANAGE WHAT? DEBRIEFS
Making the Business Case for People Management Skills:
Debrief
The overall theme of your response should be that there are
very strong and documented relationships between
people management quality and important fi rm variables like
turnover, applicant attraction, citizenship behavior,
performance, and productivity. The Great Places to Work
institute has even found relationships between lower
health care costs and safety records and customer satisfaction.
Perhaps most impressively, there is a very strong relationship
between people management satisfaction and
fi nancial performance. For example, the charts in the text
show that if you invested in just the 100 Best Places to
Work in America—rated such in large part because of the
quality of their people management practices—you
would get a fi nancial return of better than twice the standard

market indices over the same period. That is partic-
ularly powerful data because people management practices (for
example, training, family-friendly benefi ts, perks
like subsidized vacations, sabbaticals, meals, and so on) are
quite expensive and might be thought to therefore
lower the net fi nancial performance of fi rms that spend in
those ways. But, in fact, those fi rms still dramatically
outperform the market—simply because they attract, retain, and
motivate the best people to do the best work.
(continued)
Adapted and excerpted from “In a Near-Death Event, A
Corporate Rite of Passage,” Adam Bryant, The New York
Times, August 1, 2009.
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Effectiveness 37

With respect to how we know who the good managers are,
employee ratings (360 feedback and other
sources) that look at employee satisfaction (not just happiness)
with their supervision are pretty good indicators.
A critical point is that it is ratings of immediate managers —
not some general index of culture or management or
leadership—that makes all the difference. So if a manager’s
direct reports say that he/she sets clear expectations,
supports their work, provides regular feedback, respects them as
human beings, communicates important infor-
mation to them, and distributes rewards fairly, it is safe to say
that they are providing the type of people manage-
ment that will yield positive outcomes for the fi rm.
One other potentially powerful point is that, with no other
information to the contrary, we can probably
assume that this fi rm is average in its people management
performance. If so, that means that probably 50 per-
cent of people in the fi rm are currently less than satisfi ed with
their current manager, and probably less than 25
percent of managers engage in the people management basics at
least once a week.
So, the overall point is that money spent on people management

development (for example, the selection
of managers, management development, mentoring, rewards
geared to the success and development of others,
and so on) would be well directed and, if well spent, would
certainly have the potential for impact on a par with
investments in product development, technology, and so on. The
quote in the book, “Nothing is more important
in the life of a fi rm than the way people feel about how they
are managed,” is an apt synthesis of all this.
Using OB Evidence Instead of Just Intuition: Debrief
A good goal for every organizational decision, and certainly for
managers, is to try to be more evidence-based in
your decisions. That is, your ultimate objective should be to fi
nd ways to make the right decision more often than
not. One way to do this is to adopt an “evidence-based decision
making” (EBM) approach, as discussed in this
chapter. This form of decision making rejects using gut feeling
and relying on past limited personal experience
and instead is based on seeking available evidence.
Perhaps the major obstacle to EBM is that in many
organizations it often runs counter to the way things are
currently done. A great deal that passes as “best practice” most
likely is not. In some cases, there simply is no

evidence to support what is thought to be best practice. In other
cases, there is evidence to support that what are
thought to be best practices are, in fact, inferior practices. In
short, most organizations do not practice evidence-
based management. As a result, they often underperform with
respect to their major stakeholders: employees,
investors, and the community.
Although there are many specifi cs and nuances to becoming
more evidence-based in your decision style,
three strategies are particularly important: (1) Do not jump to
conclusions—seek and ask for evidence; (2) know
the different types of evidence; (3) evaluate your decisions.
Do not jump to conclusions. Perhaps the biggest, and most
elusive, element in using EBM is to be able to
mitigate the natural human tendency to rely on fi rst instincts
and our own experience or a compelling testimonial,
and instead to actually seek evidence. Thus, when someone says
“research shows” or the “evidence is clear,”
great managers know to dig a little deeper to seek out that
evidence. At the end of the day, anecdotes and previ-
ous experience may be all that is available to help inform
decisions, but in far too many cases anecdotes are used
where a rich scientifi c literature exists to help make better

decisions. This text, for example, relies heavily on the
scientifi c base of knowledge that exists in organizational
behavior.
Understand the different types of evidence. One easy way to
understand the usefulness of evidence is to
make a distinction between Big E evidence and little e evidence.
Big E evidence refers to generalizable knowl-
edge regarding cause and effect connections derived from
scientifi c methods. Big E evidence is based upon
years of studies, across many different types of samples or
contexts with many different types of jobs, people,
and organizations. Most importantly, Big E evidence represents
a form of research that is systematic —meaning
that it is planned and methodical and avoids drawing
conclusions simply on the basis of opinion or anecdote.
Such evidence is often summarized in large scientifi c literature
reviews or empirical summaries known as meta-
analyses or “studies of studies.” Big E evidence is likely to be
the best source for informing practices since it is
drawn from years of study across large populations under
varying circumstances.
In contrast, little e evidence represents local or organizational
specifi c data collection efforts to inform a

specifi c decision. Popular quality improvement processes such
as Six Sigma provide little e evidence, impor-
tant information that helps the organization but that may not
generalize or translate into other arenas or other
(continued)
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organizations. Examples abound of organizations that failed by
trying to apply a practice that while wildly suc-
cessful in another organization didn’t take hold in their own.
Thus, while little e evidence may improve decision
making in any organization, we must be careful not to apply it
broadly.
Evaluate your decisions and create a culture of EBM. No true
EBM can exist without some systematic evalua-

tion of decisions. That is, once decisions are made, how did it
go? What worked and didn’t work? What additional
evidence will we have to inform future decisions? When
managers take an evidence-based approach, they con-
tribute to an organization that values and encourages active
participation in the evidence-based process.
Describing Yourself and Your Style: Expanding Your Self-
Awareness: Debrief
There are, of course, an almost infi nite number of things you
could talk about (education, past jobs, hobbies, and
so on) in responding to the question “Tell us about yourself.”
As a result, rambling and unfocused responses to
that question are all too common. The key is to try and focus on
those elements of your personality, background,
and experience that would be directly relevant to your role as a
manager.
A good place to start would be to engage in multiple self-
assessments (such as those presented in Table 1.3).
Having completed these types of assessments, you should be
able to talk in an informed way about your critical-
thinking capacity, your personality characteristics and
preferences, what you value most, your emotional and
cultural competence, and/or your career orientation.

It is important to note here that there really is no one preferred
managerial profi le—and that is not just sugar-
coated “nice talk.” Most personal profi les can be adapted in
ways to be successful in most situations, but to do
so it is critical that you are fully aware of your personal profi
le—and very few young managers rarely are. More-
over, you need to be able to translate your profi le into an
understanding of the implications (both strengths and
potential liabilities) of that profi le for success in a particular
managerial role. For example, if your personality is
especially extroverted, you may excel in stimulating ideas and
dealing with people, but are challenged in listening
to others and paying attention to details. If you value collective
behavior and cooperation, you may wish to seek
contexts where such values are embraced and rewarded relative
to solely individual outcomes. If your analytical
ability is below average, you may wish to leverage other
strengths and partner with colleagues who have more
refi ned analysis skills to complement your profi le. Refl ect on
the type of situations where you have been most
successful and be aware of when and how you have been able to
adapt your personal style to be effective in dif-
ferent situations.

Most importantly, you should feel no compulsion to suggest
that you are something you are not— indeed that
is a recipe for managerial failure. Rather, you want to
accurately convey who you are and then determine how
best to leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses to
excel in any given situation. And always start by
focusing on your strengths—research has shown that it is both
easier and far more productive to leverage your
strengths than to try to “fi x” your weaknesses.
Finally, although a self-assessed profi le gives you a means of
framing your different personal characteristics
and orientations in a logical and focused way, such self-
assessments are only one “lens” on yourself. It is also
important to include actual examples of how you have behaved
in ways that are consistent with your profi le, as
well as external feedback from sources outside yourself. That
is, your credibility is enhanced if you can provide
external validation of your self-assessment, and examples of
how you have, say, shown conscientiousness in an
actual work situation, or found ways to complement your
strengths (and compensate for weaknesses) with the
differing strengths of others, or clarifi ed your preferences in
ways that facilitated the accomplishment of a team
goal. Ideally, you will be able to create your own personal story

that conveys who you are in an informed way that
paints a picture of a manager we would want to be led by.
(continued)
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v
40
O B J E C T I V E S

KO 2-1 Describe the personal and organi-
zational consequences of excessive
stress.
KO 2-2 Describe the most common causes
of stress in work contexts.
KO 2-3 Describe supporting evidence
for effective stress management
interventions.
KO 2-4 Explain the fundamentals of effec-
tive time management.
KO 2-5 Describe the characteristics of work-
place cultures that reduce stress
while retaining high performance
and productivity.
2
Managing Stress and Time
KNOWING DOING

“Stress primarily comes from
not taking action over something
that you can have some con-
trol over. So if I find that some
particular thing is causing me to
have stress, that’s a warning flag
for me. What it means is there’s
something that I haven’t
completely identified that is
bothering me, and I haven’t yet
taken any action on it.”
—Jeff Bezos , CEO, Amazon

DO 2-1 Diagnose your own sources of
stress.
DO 2-2 Demonstrate effective strategies to
manage your own workplace stress.
DO 2-3 Advise a colleague about how to
manage stress using evidence-
based recommendations.
DO 2-4 Apply research-supported strategies
for minimizing choking in a pressure
situation.
DO 2-5 Apply fundamental time manage-
ment strategies to your work or
school life.
DO 2-6 Advocate for development of work-
place characteristics that create
high-performance, low-stress work
environments.

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41
> >
Case: CIGNA
Most competitive busi-ness organizations have taken the
approach that
work is inevitably stressful and
that managing stress is up to each
individual employee— not the
company. However, one progres-
sive fi rm that has taken a more
responsive approach to managing its
employees’ stress is CIGNA. CIGNA
is a global health care insurance
organization, based in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, that has over 30,000
employees. The company has con-

cluded that the stressors facing their
workforce today are greater than
ever before. Among the growing
sources of stress are increased hours
necessitated by tight economic times
and leaner staffs, new technologies
that keep the job in front of people
24/7, and “survivor guilt” that work-
ers feel when their co-workers lose
their jobs.
Instead of expecting its work-
ers to soldier on despite unsettling
feelings and situations, CIGNA
devotes considerable time and
resources to help its employees
resolve their stress. The assistance
is available via CIGNA’s pioneer-
ing Employee Assistance Program
(EAP), which provides counseling
for a wide range of personal and
work-related stressors. CIGNA even
offers its EAP services to some of
its client companies as part of its
health benefi ts plan.

1. Is personal stress really a com-
pany’s business? Shouldn’t per-
sonal issues be kept private and
dealt with by each individual
employee?
2. What are the most damaging
contemporary causes of stress? Is
stress more or different today than
ever before? Does technology and
rapid change make our workplaces
more or differently stressful?
3. How do stress-related issues
potentially reduce an individual’s
performance in a fi rm?
4. What potential business per-
formance metrics (for example,
productivity, cost reduction, cus-
tomer service) might be affected
by effective stress management
strategies or interventions?

STRESS REDUCTION AS
A BUSINESS STRATEGY
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42
1. Getting a Priority Done Under Stress
You have been in a management role for two years and fi nd
yourself absolutely overwhelmed. While you feel as if you are
working hard most every hour of the day, you are frustrated
with your inability to get all your priority work done. You have
begun to work much longer hours and are experiencing a great
deal of stress and a loss of balance in your life. There are so
many distractions during the day that you generally fi nd it diffi
cult to get started on bigger projects. Now you have a really
important project due and have already missed one deadline.
You feel guilty about missing that deadline, but you feel so
tired

and stressed that you aren’t sure how you’re going to keep from
slipping further behind in your most important work.
How would you defi ne the problem here? How might you deal
with the many time robbers and distractions that keep you
from working on the big project? What specifi c strategies
might you use? What should you do right away?
2. Overcoming the Two Biggest Time Management Traps
Effective time management is among the most pronounced
cases of a knowing-doing gap. That is, most everyone has a
pretty
good idea what they should do—but most of us just can’t
muster the discipline to actually do it. Simply stated, the two
big-
gest time management traps are (1) failure to prioritize—that is,
research shows that we often procrastinate and put off work-
ing on our major priorities in favor of more easily accomplished
chores with lower priorities; and (2) we do not devote our peak
productivity times to our most important tasks (for example,
responding to our e-mail fi rst thing in the morning).
Given that you want to be an effective manager of your time,
identify three proven strategies, feasible for you, that will
help you avoid the two time management traps that haunt so

many.
3. Minimizing Your Chances of Choking in a Pressure
Situation
You are under consideration for the biggest job of your life.
You just found out that you have made it to the fi nal three can-
didates and will be asked to come to the company headquarters
where you will be evaluated in a panel interview (multiple
interviewers shooting questions at you), a half-hour
presentation, and a leaderless group discussion where company
execu-
tives will observe your performance.
Like any normal person, the opportunity excites you—you want
it so much—but the process scares you to death and
you are fearful that you will choke and lose your chance. The
cold reality is that many people, even superstar athletes,
choke in the situations that matter most—so your fear is hardly
unwarranted or irrational. You talked with your father and
he said, “Hey, don’t worry about it, just go and do your best,”
but that was not very satisfying and does little to calm your
nerves. So what should you do to prepare? What type of
preparations and strategies give you the best chance of avoiding
choking?

4. Making Changes in a Workplace to Lower Stress and
Enhance (Not Lower) Productivity
The president of your company just appointed you to a task
force that he says is a high priority in the company. In kicking
off
the fi rst meeting, he notes that he is concerned that “. . . stress
has gotten out of hand in our workplace. Economic times are
hard and our revenue streams are at risk, but we cannot be so
worried about our bottom line that we stress-out our people to
the point of exhaustion and sickness. My understanding is that
lower stress can save us in health care costs, keep absenteeism
and turnover low, and even raise productivity if we do it right. I
want to have a generally healthier and lower-stress place to
work. I hear Google has foosball tables in their headquarters
and their people just love them—should we get a few of those
or stuff like that? . . .”
Given that your president is truly serious about creating a
lower-stress workplace culture, what feasibly could be done?
What features of the workplace have been linked to lower
stress, and is there any evidence they could be implemented
with-
out a huge investment and without lowering productivity?
MANAGE WHAT?

Introduction
The demands of work are ever-increasing, and organizations
are expecting
people will do more and more with less and less. A recent
survey of American
workers found almost 80 percent of employees felt the previous
year was their
most stressful year ever at work. 1 At one point or another, all
of us have expe-
rienced stress. Some of you may very well be feeling it right
now. Stress is a
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• Stress is a personal, non-work issue and should not be a
concern in a work
organization. This myth prevails all too often and leads to
nonsense like “stress is

all in your head” and “people should deal with personal issues
on their own time.”
The reality is that stress generates enormous costs for
organizations and should be a
priority consideration for anyone working or managing.
• All stress is bad. In fact, all stress is not bad and some level
of stress is necessary
for performance—and has even been shown to be positively
related to good mental
health. Too much stress, however, is extraordinarily damaging
to both people and
organizations.
• A stressor is a stressor. One of the most important lessons
of stress management
is that stress is personal on several levels. Most obviously, what
stresses one person
may not stress another. In addition, the best coping strategies
should be customized
to an individual context and time. The best stress management
strategy for a
soldier about to enter a battle is generally very different than a
parent caring for a
terminally-ill child, or a manager with too many competing

priorities.
• Only novices choke. Research on professional soccer
players and golfers reveals
that even their performance declines dramatically as the
pressure and consequence
of failure increases. Choking stems from pressure situations and
mental overload,
and even people we recognize as superstars often choke under
pressure.
• Good time management means being an effi cient
workaholic. Just the opposite
is true. The best time managers work smarter, rather than
harder, and focus their
energy on true priorities.
MYTHS 2.1 Myths of Stress and Time Management ?
?
CHAPTER 2 Managing Stress and Time 43
common feature of modern life; indeed, it is so well known to
many of us that
it seems almost unnecessary to defi ne what stress is exactly. It

is, however, help-
ful to know how scientists and researchers have defi ned stress
so that we have a
common language to use throughout this chapter. Stress is
the physiological and
psychological states of arousal (for example, rapid heartbeat,
loss of sleep, anxi-
ety) activated when we encounter a stressor. Think about a time
you have experi-
enced stress. Almost always, it was because you were uncertain
about something
you really cared about: You weren’t sure you could fi nish an
important project on
time, you worried whether you had the ability to handle an
assignment, or per-
haps you were overwhelmed with the prospect of competing
with someone you
perceived as more skilled or competent.
Strains are defi ned as outcomes of stress. Often, strains are
more long-term
consequences of chronic stress that have not been alleviated by
some means. If
you are a sufferer of tension headaches, low back pain,
depression, or fatigue,

your woes could possibly be caused by unmanaged stress. While
some people
used to scoff at stress as being something that is trivial and “all
in your head,” a
massive amount of research suggests otherwise. The evidence is
clear that sus-
tained stress plays a role in strains, ranging from heart disease
to cancer, and can
weaken the body’s immune function so that it is less capable of
fi ghting off illness
and disease. Moreover, stress and the accompanying strains can
take a huge toll
on an organization’s productivity and performance.
Stress is often misunderstood, and some of the most persistent
misconcep-
tions are presented in the Myths 2.1 box below.
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Personal and Organizational Consequences
of Stress
Stress has many detrimental consequences and can inhibit
effective listen-
ing, decision making, planning, and the generation of new ideas.
For example,
several research studies have shown that managers experiencing
high stress are
more likely to selectively perceive information, fi xate on single
solutions to prob-
lems, revert to old habits to cope with current situations, show
less creativity,
and overestimate how fast time is passing. 2
In addition to the direct effects on work performance, people
who incur
long-term stress are also much more likely to develop physical
and mental prob-
lems. Medical researchers estimate that between 50 and 70
percent of disease

and illness are in part due to long-term stress. Common stress-
related physical
problems include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and
lung disease. Stress-
related psychological problems include sleep dysfunction,
sexual dysfunction,
depression, and problems with interpersonal relationships. The
evidence is clear
that a high degree of sustained stress makes our immune
systems less effective
at fi ghting illness.
Clearly, if stress goes on unmanaged, there are consequences
for an indi-
vidual’s health and well-being. However, there are also
consequences that extend
beyond the individual and impact relationships, work, and
society. From a man-
agerial perspective, the costs of job stress and strain are great,
with estimates
ranging as high as $300 billion annually in the U.S. alone. 3
Researchers have
linked stress to a variety of workplace outcomes and have found
that stress has
a detrimental effect in terms of reducing people’s commitment

to their organiza-
tion and increasing absenteeism and turnover intentions. 4
Some Stress Is Good
At the same time, although stress is thought of as a negative or
unpleasant state,
some level of stress is essential to high performance. The father
of stress research,
Hans Selye, called this eustress, which he defi ned as a
controlled or productive
stress. 5 It is eustress (pronounced “u-stress”) that gives us
our competitive edge.
Without any sense of pressure and arousal, many of us would
have no reason
to get out of bed in the morning; thus eustress represents that
ideal amount of
arousal.
Increasingly, researchers are probing the upside of stress.
Some now believe
that short-term boosts of stress can strengthen the immune
system and protect
against some diseases like Alzheimer’s by keeping the brain
cells working at peak
capacity. People who experience moderate levels of stress

before surgery have a
better recovery than those with high or low levels. Other
research has found that
stress can help prevent breast cancer because it suppresses the
production of
estrogen, and children of mothers who had higher levels of the
stress hormone
cortisol during pregnancy were developmentally ahead of those
of women with
lower levels. 6 In organizations, it is well known that sales
representatives often
respond to quotas, and customer service people often work
hardest to mollify
angry customers—revealing that stress can and does facilitate
higher perfor-
mance and productivity.
So, the paradox of stress is that too much will kill performance,
but so will
too little (see Figure 2.1 )! Each person has an optimal point at
which stress helps
improve performance by motivating and grabbing their attention
as if to say,
“Don’t take this for granted, it’s important.” So the challenge is
not to eliminate

stress, but to understand how it arises and to manage it in a way
that does not
derail our life and work. Great managers are aware of different
sources of stress
and seek ways to proactively manage it to avoid its harmful
effects.
KO 2-1
We hire for skills but then the
whole person shows up.
—Unknown
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Stress Is Personal: Individual Differences and Their
Relationship to Stress

Have you ever wondered why it is some people under stress can
still function
and move forward while others sit depressed, withdrawn, or
become physically
sick? Given that so many stressors are inevitable and beyond
our control, the
most critical lesson of stress management is not to aim to
eliminate all stresses in
your life, but rather to build your resiliency and personal
systems (for example,
time management) to cope with the stress you will face. The
fact is that events by
themselves do not cause stress; it is how we experience events,
and how resilient
we are, that determines how stress affects us.
Imagine that you are about to give a speech in front of an
auditorium of hun-
dreds of people. How would you feel? Exhilarated? Terrifi ed?
Bored? How about
instead of a speech you were about to go skydiving? Can you
think of any activi-
ties or things that you fi nd particularly stressful that are not
stressful (or perhaps
are even enjoyable ) to other people? Those who study stress

have made the same
observation and have proposed a theory, known as transactional
theory, which
suggests that the negative effects of stress on a person are a
function of the inter-
action between the person and their environment. 7 They
specify several major
components to the stress process: First, when people encounter
something poten-
tially stressful in the environment, they go through primary
appraisal where they
evaluate the potential stressor with respect to its potential
impact on them. It is
possible that different people will recognize the same situation
in different ways.
One person may view a trip to the dentist as threatening while
another per-
son may have no problem with the dentist but may instead be
fearful of being in
confi ned spaces like in an elevator. If the stimulus is not
deemed threatening to
the person in question, he or she simply goes on with life as
normal. However,
if the stimulus is perceived as a threat during primary appraisal,

the person will
engage in secondary appraisal, which is the individual’s
assessment of what he or
she can do in response to the threat. The individual can engage
in coping, which
can include cognitive and behavioral responses to the stressor.
Coping strategies,
which we will be discussing in greater detail later in the
chapter, vary by person
and also by the type of stressor. Some people have certain
coping strategies they
frequently turn to—for example, avoiding problems or seeking
help from other
It is not falling in the water that
makes you drown. It is what you
do once you’re in there.
—Anonymous
P
E
R
F
O

R
M
A
N
C
E
Eustress Distress
STRESS LEVEL
Optimum Stress
FIGURE 2.1
The Stress/Performance
Curve
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people. Different stressors also call for different coping
strategies. Sometimes
we can avoid the stressor altogether by changing the
environment. For example,
people who are afraid of heights can often avoid situations with
this stressor. In
contrast, people who are afraid of crowds might not be able to
avoid large groups
of people indefi nitely. Instead, these individuals might try to
use rationalization
to remind themselves that their fears are unwarranted or may try
relaxation or
deep-breathing exercises.
In addition to the idea that different people have different ideas
of what is
or is not a stressor, researchers have identifi ed certain
personality variables that
affect people’s appraisal of and reaction to potential stressors.
That is, differ-
ences in personality can impact how someone experiences and
copes with stress,
and we describe and illustrate three of the most important of
these personality
characteristics next.

Type A behavior pattern. You may have heard people describe
themselves
as being “Type A”—you may even have described yourself this
way. The term
has been around since the 1950s when fi rst identifi ed and
reported by medical
doctors Friedman and Rosenbaum. 8 Being cardiologists,
Friedman and Rosen-
baum were particularly interested in the relationship between
cardiovascular
disease and people’s personality. They described a cluster of
characteristics and
Tool Kit 2.1 Type A Personality Assessment
Read the following questions and then put an X next to the
items with which you agree.
1. _____ I never seem to have enough time to accomplish
my goals.
2. _____ I don’t understand people who become so
impatient in traffi c that they start honking.
3. _____ I frankly don’t care whether I do or do not make it

into the top 10 percent.
4. _____ I fi nd it diffi cult and useless to confi de in
someone.
5. _____ A driver’s license should be more diffi cult to get
in order to avoid having all those idiots on the
road.
6. _____ It doesn’t bother me if I cannot fi nish what I
planned for the day.
7. _____ I often choose to spend time with my friends or
family, even though I have something important to do.
8. _____ I am hardly ever satisfi ed with my achievements.
9. _____ I get no particular pleasure out of acquiring things.
10. _____ It is easy for me to express my feelings.
11. _____ People who don’t know what they want get on my
nerves.
12. _____ I think that hobbies such as fi shing or bowling

are just a waste of time.
13. _____ When I fi nish my task, I feel good about myself.
14. _____ I function best under stress or pressure.
15. _____ Talking about emotions is a sign of weakness and
can be used by others to get at you.
16. _____ It doesn’t matter whether my family is fi nancially
secure. The important thing is to be together.
17. _____ If everybody did their job properly, my life would
be much easier.
To calculate your score, count the number of X’s that were next
to numbers 1, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17.
Scores of 0–3 suggest a strong Type B, 14–17 suggest a strong
Type A, and scores of 4–13 suggest a mixed
Type A/B profi le.
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behaviors that included time urgency, hostility, ambitiousness,
impatience, and
perfectionism. Specifi cally, they described people with a
Type A behavior pat-
tern as “individuals who are engaged in a relatively chronic
struggle to obtain
an unlimited number of poorly defi ned things from their
environment in the
shortest period of time and, if necessary, against the opposing
effects of other
things or persons in this same environment.” 9 In their rush to
achieve success
and conquer their environments, Type A individuals (see Tool
Kit 2.1 for a quick
measure of your behavior type) are likely to do everything
quickly from talking
to walking to eating to driving. Because achievement is

typically very important
to them, Type A individuals usually like to have control over
their environments
and sometimes dislike working in teams or with other people.
10
Although initially thought to be related to coronary heart
disease, current
research shows that it is one specifi c aspect of the Type A
behavior pattern—hos-
tility—that is most predictive of one’s health. For example, a
recent study found
that together with job demands, trait hostility predicted
individuals’ health care
usage. 11
Locus of control. Do you believe that the stars are responsible
for your fate
and that whatever your horoscope reads is what you are destined
for that day?
Or do you think you are in control of your day and your
ultimate fate? If you
answered yes to the latter question, you are likely someone with
an internal
locus of control and you can be pleased by the knowledge that

you are likely
more resilient to stressors and stress than are people who
answered yes to the
fi rst question. Locus of control is the extent to which we
believe we control
our own environments and lives. Having an internal locus of
control means that
you believe you have control over your environment, whereas
having an external
locus of control means you think sources outside yourself (for
example, luck or
fate) are generally responsible for your environment. In general,
having an inter-
nal locus of control is more benefi cial with regard to job
performance and stress
because people with such a mindset are more likely to take
positive actions to
address stressors because they believe that their actions will be
effective. 12 Tool
Kit 2.2 provides you with a brief locus of control diagnosis.
However, an extremely strong internal locus of control is not
always ben-
efi cial. After all, we cannot control every situation in our lives,
and to think that

we can is not healthy. For example, during Hurricane Katrina,
many people who
could have evacuated decided not to, perhaps because they felt
immune to the
storm and capable of taking care of the situation themselves.
Many of those peo-
ple ended up having to be rescued by emergency workers and
some even died.
Research indicates that people who demand an extreme amount
of control, even
in situations where they can’t have control, suffer in terms of
increased stress and
physiological reactivity. 13 , 14
Self-effi cacy. If the train from the popular children’s book
The Little Blue
Engine That Could was given a personality test, that little train
would probably
score highly on self-effi cacy, which is a personal
assessment of “how well one
can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective
situations.” 15
An abundance of research demonstrates the positive effects of
self-effi cacy.
People who believe they can accomplish something have higher

motivation
and are more likely to persist in the face of obstacles. Because
they think they
can succeed, they engage in the behaviors necessary to succeed,
and are in
fact more likely than people with low self-effi cacy to succeed
at their jobs and
tasks. 16 In contrast, a lack of self-effi cacy has been
speculated to relate to the
stress process because people low in self-effi cacy believe they
do not have the
resources available to cope with stressors. As an example, one
study found that
self-effi cacy played a role in whether or not salespeople
experienced symptoms
of burnout. 17
It’s not the load that breaks you
down. It’s the way you carry it.
—Legendary singer and actress,
Lena Horne
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Common Sources and Causes
of Stress
Traumatic Events vs. Daily Hassles
Everyone encounters a variety of stressors, and they can derive
from many sources.
Stress may stem from interpersonal relationships such as confl
ict with co-workers
or subordinates, ambiguity regarding one’s role, or feelings of
inequity or poor
communication with others. It may also stem from conditions in
the working
environment such as changes in responsibility, reduction in
company resources,
or pay cuts. It might come from personal issues such as a
divorce, potential law-
suit, or the death of a family member. And it may emerge from
the pressure of too

little time to handle the workload, scheduling confl icts, and
deadlines.
KO 2-2
DO 2-1
Stress is the trash of modern
life—we all generate it but if you
don’t dispose of it properly, it will
pile up and overtake your life.
— Terri Guillemets
Tool Kit 2.2 Locus of Control
Put an X next to the response in each pair with which you agree
more.
_____ People’s misfortunes result from the mistakes they
make.
_____ Many of the unhappy things in people’s lives are
partly due to bad luck.
_____ In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in

this world.
_____ Unfortunately, an individual’s worth often passes
unrecognized no matter how hard he tries.
_____ Capable people who fail to became leaders have not
taken advantage of their opportunities.
_____ Without the right breaks, one cannot be an effective
leader.
_____ People who can’t get others to like them don’t
understand how to get along with others.
_____ No matter how hard you try, some people just don’t
like you.
_____ In the case of the well-prepared student, there is
rarely, if ever, such a thing as an unfair test.
_____ Many times exam questions tend to be so unrelated to
course work that studying is really useless.
_____ Becoming a success is a matter of hard work; luck has
little or nothing to do with it.

_____ Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the
right place at the right time.
_____ The average citizen can have an infl uence in
government decisions.
_____ This world is run by the few people in power, and
there is not much the little guy can do about it.
_____ In my case, getting what I want has little or nothing to
do with luck.
_____ Many times we might just as well decide what to do by
fl ipping a coin.
_____ What happens to me is my own doing.
_____ Sometimes I feel that I don’t have enough control over
the direction my life is taking.
To calculate your score, count the number of Xs associated
with the fi rst (or top) choice in each pair. This is
your score. Scores of 7–9 indicate a highly internal locus of
control, while scores of 0–3 indicate a highly external

locus of control. Scores from 4–6 indicate a middle of the road
score.
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One important research fi nding related to the sources of stress
is that people
tend to overestimate how much large events in their lives
contribute to their stress
level and grossly underestimate the effects of “daily hassles.”
18 Certainly, major
life event stressors such as moving, a new job, or the death of a
loved one can
take a toll on an individual. Yet these stressors are often
accepted as traumatic
in people’s lives and thus organizations often make

accommodations for them.
On the other hand, the stressful effects of daily hassles are
typically dis-
counted. Daily hassles are annoying events that occur during the
workday that
make accomplishing work more diffi cult. Take, for example,
the all-too-common
event of a computer crash, and losing all access to e-mail and
work fi les. For
many of us, daily hassles also include unexpected walk-ins who
want to “shoot
the bull,” phone calls or e-mails from bosses or colleagues who
need immediate
responses, and other urgent meetings or requests.
Research has shown that these daily hassles are more likely
associated with
reported stress than more major life events. Indeed, some
research has found that
daily hassles are the most signifi cant infl uence on mood,
fatigue, and perceived
workload. 19 Put simply, the more you must deal with daily
hassles, the more
stressed out you are likely to be. Trying to overcome the

unexpected unplanned
obstacles of daily hassles is often what really wears you down.
Conversely, daily
uplifts or unexpected positive outcomes can have the opposite
impact and can
recharge an individual.
Role Conflict and Ambiguity
All of us play multiple roles in our lives. For example, your
boss may also be a
mother and a dance instructor. Your colleague runs the local
chapter of Habitat
for Humanity and cares for his aging uncle. Think of all the
roles you play in your
life. The potential list might be quite lengthy: employee,
manager, volunteer, men-
tor, parent, sibling, daughter/son, neighbor, and so on. Role
theory is a perspec-
tive to understanding stress that focuses on the roles we play in
our lives. When
we don’t know how to fi ll a role or what we are supposed to do
in it, we experience
role ambiguity. Role ambiguity can occur at work if
employees are not given
clear job descriptions or managers do not communicate

performance expecta-
tions and feedback. Role ambiguity is stressful for employees
because if they don’t
know what they are supposed to be doing, they can’t very well
do a good job at it.
In addition to role ambiguity, another potential problem
addressed by role
theory is role confl ict, which occurs when our multiple
roles confl ict with each
other. At work, role confl ict might occur for employees
answering to two manag-
ers who have different expectations. Such arrangements are
common in matrix
organizations in which employees often report to both their
department man-
ager and the project manager. While such arrangements
certainly have their
benefi ts, they can also cause problems if the managers have
confl icting expecta-
tions. If employees fulfi lling their department roles are
simultaneously unable to
fulfi ll their roles on their project team, you can understand why
they might feel
stressed: They are in a no-win position because they can’t

successfully succeed in
both roles at once.
Another common role confl ict that causes stress has to do with
the roles
people play inside and outside of work. Work–family confl ict
is “a form of inter-
role confl ict in which the role pressures from the work and
family domains are
incompatible in some respect.” 20 Work interferences with
family (WIF) occur
when in fulfi lling their work roles, people are unable to fulfi ll
their family roles
in the way that they want. For example, if a manager must
travel for work on
the same weekend that his or her child is performing in a sports
event, that per-
son’s work is interfering with the family role. Family
interferences with work
(FIW) are experienced when in fulfi lling a family role, a
work role is neglected.
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For example, if someone is going through a divorce or is taking
care of an ail-
ing family member, it is likely that this stress will impact his or
her work role.
Whether the person is physically or simply mentally absent
from work, family
obligations can prevent a person from performing at 100 percent
capacity in the
workplace.
Research on role theory has shown that both role ambiguity and
role
confl ict are signifi cantly related to a number of negative
outcomes: lower job
satisfaction, reduced commitment to one’s organization, higher
anxiety, and

increased turnover intentions. 21 In addition to those fi
ndings, research focus-
ing more specifi cally on work–family confl ict has shown that
people reporting
more extreme WIF and FIW are at increased risk for substance
abuse, anxi-
ety disorders, emotional exhaustion, and reduced job
performance. In fact, a
recent meta-analysis of work–family confl ict found that a
person’s job satisfac-
tion is signifi cantly related to his or her reports of family
factors like stress,
confl ict, and support. 22
Exhaustion of Resources and Burnout
We only have so much we can give to others in terms of our
time, energy, money,
and other resources. A model known as conservation of
resources (COR) sug-
gests that stress results from three possible threats to our
resources: (1) the
threat of losing a personal resource; (2) the actual net loss of a
personal resource;
or (3) the lack of resource gain following the investment of our
personal energy

and resources. 23
For example, when organizations experience mass layoffs, the
remaining
employees (the “layoff survivors”) are often expected to pick up
the slack. They
must devote more time and energy, and usually they do not
receive additional
resources for doing so. These time and emotional pressures, not
to mention the
threat of the loss of their own job in future layoffs, can lead to
severe stress.
As another example, counselors, social workers, nurses, and
other people who
work in the “helping professions” often experience stress as a
result of con-
stantly giving their energy and time to take care of others.
Indeed workers in
these types of professions may be particularly susceptible to a
severe state of
stress called “burnout.” Burnout refers to “a syndrome of
emotional exhaus-
tion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment
that employ-
ees may experience after prolonged stress that has exceeded

their resources to
address.” 24
A number of specifi c emotional components are associated
with burnout.
Emotional exhaustion is the state of feeling psychologically
“drained” or “used
up” by the job. For example, a counselor experiencing
emotional exhaustion
might feel like he has lost the ability to feel the emotions
necessary to perform
his work. Depersonalization is associated with feeling
cynical, psychologically
detached, and indifferent to one’s work. Reduced personal
accomplishment is
the feeling that one’s work doesn’t really matter. A manager
experiencing reduced
personal accomplishment might feel that she can’t get positive
results out of her
employees no matter how hard she tries. She may feel
personally ineffective and
powerless in her work.
Originally, burnout was conceptualized as something that
happened to

employees in the helping professions. However, we now know
that people in
any work can experience burnout if they feel that their
resources are depleted.
Other research shows that certain kinds of people might be more
prone to burn-
out than others. Age is one of the strongest demographic
predictors of burn-
out with younger employees experiencing signifi cantly greater
burnout than
older employees. 25 However, because younger workers also
tend to have less
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experience, status, and income on the job, it is diffi cult to
determine whether it is
in fact age or these other factors that primarily contribute to
burnout. Although
burnout was originally presumed to affect more women than
men, research does
not confi rm this assumption. The only gender differences seem
to be that men
experience more cynicism (depersonalization) symptoms, while
women experi-
ence slightly more emotional exhaustion symptoms. 26 Some
studies show a posi-
tive correlation between education and burnout, perhaps because
people with
more education have jobs that demand more out of them. With
regard to marital
status, married employees show less burnout than do single
employees, perhaps
because they have more support. 27
Emotional Labor
Imagine that you are having a very bad day. You have gotten
into an argument
with a family member, your car had a fl at tire on the way to
work, and you have

a pounding headache. At work you have a very important
meeting with clients
who are upset about their account with the company and they
start shouting at
you. What do you do? If you’re like most people, you do your
best to remain pro-
fessional and pleasant even though you actually feel miserable
and angry. There
is a name for what you’re doing and it is called “emotional
labor.” Emotional
labor is the process of regulating both feelings and
expressions for the benefi t of
organizational goals. 28 The term was originally coined by a
researcher who was
observing the phenomenon in fl ight attendants. 29 Like
burnout, emotional labor
is likely to be common in the helping professions, but it has
been reported by
many workers, including supermarket cashiers, Disneyland ride
operators, and
salon employees. In many of these jobs, part of the job is acting
a certain way
even if you don’t feel like doing so. Expanding on this notion of
“acting” on the
job, an important distinction can be made between employees

engaging in “sur-
face acting” and those engaging in “deep acting.” Surface
acting is “managing
observable expressions,” such as maintaining a pleasant facial
expression and
vocal tone. Deep acting is the actual management of
feelings, or actually trying
to feel a certain way that is consistent with the emotions that
are supposed to be
expressed. 30 Comparing surface to deep acting, the former is
like “faking” your
emotions while the latter is trying to manage your emotions so
you don’t really
need to fake your expressions.
Obviously, organizations want their employees to act in ways
consistent
with the organization’s goals. However, managers should be
aware that emo-
tional labor can be taxing on employees, particularly employees
who are not
well suited to that type of work. Some research has found that
emotional labor
is stressful and can lead to burnout, job dissatisfaction, and
increased inten-

tions to quit one’s job. 31 With regard to preventing or
alleviating the problems
associated with emotional labor, managers have several
strategies available
to them. For jobs that require a great deal of emotional labor
(for example,
bill collectors or fl ight attendants), managers may want to
focus their recruit-
ment and selection techniques on identifying people who are
good at manag-
ing their emotions and have a natural disposition that suits the
job. 32 Beyond
selecting the right people for the job, there may be additional
benefi ts to train-
ing employees on how to deal with and manage their emotions.
Social sup-
port and positive group cohesion in the workplace can also be
benefi cial, as
can giving employees some latitude over the emotions they can
express. 33 For
example, instead of subscribing to an unwavering belief that
“the customer is
always right,” employees likely would benefi t from some
degree of latitude—for
example, being allowed to refuse service to a particularly rude

or aggressive
customer.
The time to relax is when you
don’t have time for it.
— Sydney J. Harris
Tension is who you think you
should be. Relaxation is who
you are.
—Chinese Proverb
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High Demands and Low Control
Another well-documented source of stress and strain occurs

when people are
experiencing both high work demands and low control over the
task. 34 This
source of stress has been labeled the “demand-control model”
and the basic
notion is that the combination of excessive demands and low
decision latitude
(rather than just one in isolation) leads to stress. Demands
include the physi-
cal, intellectual, and emotional requirements of a job. Control
is the amount of
personal discretion and autonomy the person has in doing the
job. Some jobs are
inherently more stressful than others if they require great
demands but afford
the employees little control. For example, nurses, food service
employees, and
customer service representatives often have great demands put
on them in terms
of time, emotional labor, and physical labor. However, they do
not typically have
much say in how they do their job, instead being required to
follow strict guide-
lines or procedures. In contrast, jobs like managers, journalists,
and engineers

may also have great demands placed on them, but are often
granted signifi cantly
more control.
Research studies of the demand-control model have shown
some support.
For example, one study found that people reporting high
demands but low con-
trol in their jobs and lives were at signifi cantly higher risk of
illness than other
people in the study. 35 A group of researchers found that high
demands and low
control predicted high systolic blood pressure and lower job
satisfaction. 36 In a
fi ve-year longitudinal study, nurses with the highest reported
demands and low-
est reported control were sick more often and had higher health
care expendi-
tures than other nurses in the sample. 37
Some research suggests that social support can buffer the
negative effects
of high demand and low control. 38 Other studies, however,
are not as optimis-
tic that social support can reduce the stress associated with high

demands
and low control. 39 In spite of the mixed fi ndings, social
support from peers
and managers rarely has a negative impact on employees!
Thus, offering
social support to employees experiencing high demands and low
control can
be a relatively easy and inexpensive means of possibly
alleviating stress and
strain for those around you.
Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress
in your life.
This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Your true sources of stress aren’t
always obvious,
and it’s all too easy to overlook your own stress-inducing
thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors. Sure, you may know that you’re constantly worried
about work dead-
lines. But maybe it’s your procrastination, rather than the actual
job demands,
that leads to deadline stress. To identify your true sources of
stress, look closely
at your habits, attitude, and excuses:

• Do you explain away stress as temporary (“I just have a
million things
going on right now”) even though you can’t remember the last
time you
took a breather?
• Do you defi ne stress as an integral part of your work or
home life
(“Things are always crazy around here”) or as a part of your
personality
(“I have a lot of nervous energy, that’s all”)?
• Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events,
or view it as
entirely normal and unexceptional?
Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating
or maintain-
ing it, your stress level will remain outside your control. Tool
Kit 2.3 is a good
way to begin your journey to better stress management.
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Stress Management Strategies
The Importance of Matching Strategies
with Causes
It may seem that there’s nothing you can do about your stress
level. The job or
school requirements aren’t going to go away, there will never be
more hours in
the day for all your commitments, and your career or family
responsibilities will
always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you
might think. In
fact, the simple realization that you’re in control of your life is
the foundation of
stress management.
Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of
your thoughts,
your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way

you deal with
problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for
work, relationships,
relaxation, and fun—plus the resilience to hold up under
pressure and meet
KO 2-3
DO 2-2
DO 2-3
DO 2-4
The biggest difference between
an experienced speaker and an
inexperienced speaker is when an
experienced speaker is scared to
death, he knows it is normal.
— Mark Twain
Tool Kit 2.3 What Are the Sources of YOUR Stress: Starting
a Stress Journal
A stress journal can help you identify the regular stressors in

your life and the way you deal with them. Each time
you feel stressed, keep track of it in your journal. As you keep a
daily log, you will begin to see patterns and com-
mon themes. Write down:
• What caused your stress (make a guess if you’re unsure)
• How you felt, both physically and emotionally
• How you acted in response
• What you did to make yourself feel better
Next, think about the ways you currently manage and cope with
stress in your life. Your stress journal can help
you identify them. Are your coping strategies healthy or
unhealthy, helpful or unproductive? Unfortunately, many
people cope with stress in ways that compound the problem.
For example, the following strategies may temporarily reduce
stress, but they cause more damage in the
long run:
• Smoking • Using pills, alcohol, or drugs to relax

• Drinking too much • Sleeping too much
• Overeating or undereating • Procrastinating
• Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or
computer
• Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing
problems
• Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities • Taking out
your stress on others (lashing out, angry
outbursts, physical violence)
Your ultimate goal is to replace unhealthy strategies with those
that have been proven to help prevent and
cope with stress—but you cannot do that until you are clear on
where your stress comes from and what you cur-
rently do to cope.
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challenges head on. Moreover, a critical point that is too often
overlooked or just
ignored in stress management seminars and books is that no
strategy works for
all people all the time. Different situations call for different
responses. For exam-
ple, it makes little sense to tell combat soldiers about the
advantages of avoiding
too much cholesterol or salt in their diets. Similarly, it would be
pointless to tell
an overwhelmed single parent of four about the stress-reduction
advantages of
getting a hobby.
Different timing and preferences also call for different stress
management
strategies. Before a big test, studying hard may be the best way
to relieve stress.
If necessary, you can tell yourself later that one bad grade

won’t ruin your life.
Exercise can be a great stress reducer, but only if you like
exercise. If you hap-
pen to hate working out, you’ll feel stressed out every time you
enter the gym.
Likewise, experts are always telling stressed-out people to seek
social support,
something that has been shown in many circumstances to be a
proven stress
reliever—but not always. A bad marriage is much worse than
not being married,
and nobody needs to build a friendship network with people
who will just criti-
cize everything you do.
The simple but powerful point is that the strategies identifi ed
and described
in the following section are not universally effective nor will
they be useful in
every situation with every person. Rather, they are strategies for
which there is
evidence of success in reducing stress and its consequences
under certain circum-
stances. There are many healthy ways to manage and cope with
stress, but they

all require change. You can either change the situation
(prevention) or change
your reaction (coping). Prevention s trategies are aimed at
removing or altering
the stressors in your environment. Thus, they are “fi rst line”
defenses in that they
are aimed at stopping stress before it starts. For example, role
ambiguity, one of
the stressors identifi ed in role theory, might be reduced by
giving employees clear
job descriptions, goals, and feedback on goal progress.
Excessive work and time
demands are frequently cited as stressors and might be lessened
with technolo-
gies that take some of the burden off the employees.
Of course, primary prevention strategies are not always
practical because it
is not possible to remove every stressor from the work
environment or our lives.
For example, consider an employee who has experienced the
death of a close
family member. As the employee’s manager, you obviously
cannot “undo” this
death or remove it as a stressor. Or as another example,

consider the problems
associated with a bad economy where a business must choose
between a number
of bad options: layoffs, increased work for current employees,
pay cuts, or busi-
ness closure. In such cases, coping strategies are required.
Coping strategies are aimed at helping people cope and
minimizing the
negative impact once stress has been experienced. Sometimes
coping interven-
tions are known as “band-aid” approaches because they don’t
really prevent
the stressor (the “cut”) but hopefully minimize the damage. 40
There are many
secondary interventions available, including exercise,
meditation, relaxation
techniques, social support, time management training, and
communication or
relationship-building training. Again, no single method works
for everyone or in
every situation, so experiment with different techniques and
strategies. Focus on
what fi ts your situation and the nature of the stress that you (or
those working

with you) are facing.
Prevention Strategies
Enhancing Control and Predictability
Stress turns out to be much less stressful if you think there’s
something con-
structive you can do about it. 41 This makes intuitive sense. If
you’re trying to
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sleep at night and there’s a barking dog nearby with owners who
are not home,
you’ll experience a lot less stress if you know you can reduce
the noise by closing

the window or if you have some way to contact the owner. If the
dog is so loud
that closing the window doesn’t reduce the noise much, or if
you don’t know the
owners or have a way of getting in touch with them, the barking
is much more
stressful. If someone’s laid off, they’re in much better
psychological shape if
they have the sense that they’ll get another job soon when they
go looking. If a
person sinks into hopelessness and inaction, they suffer a much
greater toll in
mind and body.
Indeed, researchers have found that the most important variable
among
types of stress is an individual’s sense of control in a given
situation. 42 The least
harmful stress scenario is one in which an individual has a suffi
cient degree of
control or some idea of predictability. Put simply, predictable
pain is less stress-
ful because individuals know when to relax (gaining relief from
pain as well as
protecting themselves from its damaging effects). But when

individuals have
no warning of pain, they are in a state of constant stress. A
common example
from business organizations is the difference between the stress
experienced
by top executives who are in control of their fate and their
middle-level man-
agers who are not. The former can pick and choose when to
enter or engage a
stressful situation or problem, but the latter have no control or
any ability to
predict when such a situation will arise and are constantly on
alert or in a state
of anxiety.
Although it is not always possible or desirable to reduce the
demands and
increase the control of a job, managers might benefi t from
thinking through such
possibilities. Especially if managers must place increased
demands on employ-
ees, for example, during times of layoffs, it may be helpful to
give employees
more control over how they meet those demands. Using the
example of a layoff,

when layoff survivors are expected to take on additional
workloads, managers
might consider allowing for fl exible work arrangements that
allow them to work
some of the time from home.
Predictability fi gures into the stress equation in one more way.
If we know
enough about the stressor to judge just how dangerous it is, it’s
a lot less stressful
than if we can’t tell. It’s easier if we know the barking dog is
safely behind a fence
than if we’re afraid the dog’s waiting for us outside or is strong
enough to break
in through the window.
Novelty, the opposite of predictability, can be stressful in
itself. An interest-
ing study of people who lived through the bombing of London
during World War
II demonstrates this in graphic terms. At the beginning of the
bombing, central
London was hit every night, whereas in the suburbs the bombing
was more inter-
mittent and unpredictable. Suburbanites living through this

experience had a
signifi cantly greater incidence of stomach problems than those
living in the more
regularly bombed urban core. By the third month of the
bombing, after everyone
had had a chance to get used to it, rates dropped back to near-
normal. 43
Social Connectedness
It’s no surprise to anyone living with high stress levels that
having someone there
to share the experience is one of the best stress-relievers. Put
simply, stress (or
more importantly, stress relief) loves company. 44 Robert
Sapolsky, author of
the landmark work on stress and its effects, Why Zebras Don’t
Get Ulcers, spent
much of his life researching the coping behavior of baboons.
Highly intelligent
and social, these higher primates serve well in many ways as
models for human
behavior.
Baboons typically live in groups of 50–150 and structure their
societies hier-

archically. Alpha males are the dominant baboons in their
tribe. Sapolsky has
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identifi ed two distinct styles of alpha-male baboons—the
competitor and the
cooperator:
• The competitor climbs to the top and stays on top (while he
can) by
being the baddest baboon in the tribe. He intimidates, he beats
up the
opposition, he takes no prisoners.
• The cooperator builds alliances and relationships, spends
more time
playing with young baboons and grooming younger females in a

non-
sexual manner.
Guess which one has higher stress levels and a shorter life?
That wasn’t too
hard. The competitor, reminiscent in many ways of classic
human Type A behav-
ior, always has to watch his back. The cooperator tends to live a
lot longer, aging
much more gracefully. 45
Many studies in humans are consistent with the baboon fi
ndings and show
that stress is much less damaging if we have social support and
can interact well
with others. 46 People with larger and more varied social
networks tend to have
better well-being. There are many types of support that other
people can offer us
in times of need to help us deal with the stressors in our lives.
Sapolsky identifi ed
several different kinds of support that include instrumental,
emotional, informa-
tional, and appraisal. Instrumental support is support that is
tangible and prac-

tical in nature and is a direct means of helping someone. For
example, imagine
you are experiencing stress because you want to leave work on
time to get to an
important family event but you need to fi nish a work project
before you leave.
Now imagine that your very compassionate co-worker offers to
stay late and fi n-
ish the work so you can attend the family function. In this
example, your kind
co-worker is offering instrumental support.
Emotional support includes sympathy, listening, and caring
for others. If
you lost your job or you are going through a divorce and a
friend listens to your
troubles and tells you that he cares, that person is offering
emotional support.
Now imagine that you have a particularly touchy human
resources issue with
an employee and you aren’t sure how to handle it. If you have a
friend who is
a human resource specialist or an employment lawyer, that
friend may offer
you informational support, or information that helps you

solve the problem.
Another type of support is appraisal support, which is
feedback that builds
your self-esteem. If you just botched a big presentation at work,
and a co-worker
listens to you and reassures you that it wasn’t so bad and that
normally you give
fantastic presentations, this person is giving you appraisal
support.
One of the most arresting examples of the power of
connectedness (and the
lack thereof) comes from King Frederick II of Sicily, a 14th-
century monarch who
was prone to dramatic experiments. 47 The king wanted to
discover the “natural”
language of humans—in other words, what they would speak if
they never heard
any words from their parents (Latin seemed like a strong
possibility). The king
“acquired” a group of infants and instructed his servants to feed
the children but
not hold them, play with them, and above all, speak with them.
The children all
died before the experiment got very far. At any age, loneliness

and isolation are
some of the biggest stressors of all and social connectedness is
therefore a key
element in stress reduction.
Avoiding Choking
One of the most painful consequences of stress is what is
commonly known as
“ choking ” which is defi ned as performance decrements
under pressure circum-
stances. Choking got its name because a person frayed by
pressure might as well
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not have oxygen. What makes choking so fascinating is that it
happens to all of
us—from superstar athletes to high-school test-takers—and it is

among the most
dreaded fears of human beings.
Preventing Choking
Fortunately, scientists have begun to uncover the causes of
choking and some
preventative strategies. The sequence of events typically goes
like this: When
people get nervous about performing, they become self-
conscious. They start to
fi xate on themselves, trying to make sure that they don’t make
any mistakes. This
can be lethal for a performer. The soccer player misses the
penalty kick by a mile.
The golfer lightly taps his putt and comes up way short. The
test-taker suddenly
cannot remember how to do the simplest math calculation. In
effect, performers
are incapacitated by their own thoughts and self-destruct.
The existing research suggests that there are two antidotes for
choking that
have shown promise: pressure practice and focused automated
behavior. A good
example of pressure practice comes from the work of a

researcher named Raoul
Oudejans who studies many kinds of high-pressure situations,
with a particular
focus on police offi cers. Oudejans found that training to shoot
a handgun under
stress helps to prevent police offi cers from missing an
important target when it
counts. 48 More specifi cally, Oudejans asked a group of
police offi cers to practice
shooting fi rst at an opponent who was putting the pressure on
by actually fi r-
ing back—not with real bullets, but with colored soap
cartridges. He then asked
these same police offi cers to take shots at cardboard targets
(the kind you see
cops practicing on in the movies). After the shooting practice,
Raoul split his
police offi cers into two groups. Half of the offi cers practiced
fi ring at the live
opponent and the other half only practiced shooting at the
cardboard targets.
Then, everyone came back together and took some fi nal shots—
fi rst at the live
opponents and then at the stationary cutouts.

During the initial shooting practice, all of the offi cers missed
more shots
when fi ring at a live opponent compared with fi ring at the
sedentary cardboard
targets. Not so surprising. This was true after training as well,
but only for those
offi cers whose practice had been limited to the cardboard
cutouts. For those offi -
cers who practiced shooting at an opponent, after training they
were just as good
shots when aiming at the live individuals as they were when
aiming at the sta-
tionary cutouts. The opportunity to “practice under the gun” of
an opponent, so
to speak, helped to develop the police offi cers’ shots for more
real-life stressful
shooting situations.
You might wonder if this type of “pressure practice” is really
effective, given
that the stress simulated in training is not nearly as
overwhelming as that of
a real high-stakes performance. Just think about the pressures a
police offi cer
faces when forced to shoot at someone who is fi ring back with

real bullets rather
than soap cartridges, or the pressure a professional soccer
player feels when he
is about to take a decisive penalty kick in the World Cup fi nals,
or even the pres-
sure a high-school senior feels as she sits down to take the SAT
that will make or
break her college dreams. Can you even begin to mimic the
types of stressors that
come into play in actual high-stakes situations? The answer is,
yes, because even
practicing under mild levels of stress can prevent people from
falling victim to
the dreaded choke when high levels of stress come around.
The evidence is clear that regardless of whether you are
shooting at someone
on the battlefi eld, shooting hoops in basketball, or sitting for
the SAT, you can
benefi t from mild stress training. 49 When people practice in
a casual environment
with nothing on the line and are then put under stress to perform
well, they often
choke under the pressure. But if people practice shooting a gun
or shooting hoops

We all choke. . . . No matter who
you are, you just feel pressure in
the heat of the moment.
— Pete Sampras ,
Hall of Fame tennis player and
holder of the most singles titles
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or even problem solving on the fl y with some mild stressors to
begin with (say, a
small amount of money for good performance or a few people
watching a dress
rehearsal), their performance doesn’t suffer when the big
pressures come around.

Even if you are not an athlete or ever in the position of saving
lives or performing
heroic feats, you too can benefi t by closing the performance
gap between practice
and high-stakes performance situations. The next time you are
preparing for a big
presentation, don’t rehearse alone. Instead, pull aside a co-
worker whose opinion
you value to hear your speech. The nervousness you feel with
your co-worker
staring at you might be just what allows you to shrug off the
added pressure that
will inevitably occur in the real do-or-die business meeting.
Simulating low levels
of stress helps prevent cracking under increased pressure,
because people who
practice this way learn to stay calm in the face of whatever
comes their way.
A second line of research on choking illuminates another
antidote. Sian
Beilock, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago,
has spent much
time studying golfi ng—a common arena for choking. 50
When people are learn-

ing how to putt, it can seem very daunting. Golfers need to
assess the lay of the
green, calculate the line of the ball, and get a feel for the grain
of the turf. Then
they have to monitor their putting motion and make sure they
hit the ball with a
smooth straight stroke. For an inexperienced player, a golf putt
can seem unbear-
ably hard, like a life-sized trigonometry problem. Interestingly,
Beilock has shown
that novices hit better putts when they consciously refl ect on
their actions. The
more time they spend thinking about the putt, the more likely
they are to make
it. By concentrating on their game, by paying attention to the
mechanics of their
stroke, they can avoid beginner’s mistakes.
A little experience, however, changes everything. After golfers
have learned
how to putt—once they have memorized the necessary
movements—analyzing
the stroke is a waste of time. In fact, Beilock’s data demonstrate
the benefi ts of
relying on the automatic brain when playing a familiar sport.

She found that
when experienced golfers are forced to think about their putts,
they hit signifi -
cantly worse shots. When you are at a high level, your skills
become somewhat
automated and that is a good thing with regard to choking. That
is, you don’t
want to pay attention to every step in what you’re doing. When
you do, the part
of your brain that monitors your behavior starts to interfere with
actions that
are normally made without thinking. You begin second-guessing
skills that you
have refi ned through years of practice and the worst part about
choking is that
it tends to spiral. The failures build upon each other, so a
stressful situation is
made more stressful.
For example, in studies of soccer penalty kicks, researchers
found that in
the highest-pressure situation, the kickers tended to fi xate on
the goalie, looking
at him earlier in the kicking process and keeping their eyes on
him longer. As a

result, they subsequently tended to kick their shots toward him
more often as
well, making their shots easier to block. The tendency of people
under stress to
focus on the threat to the exclusion of all else is a well-
established process called
“cognitive narrowing.” A driver who is trying to avoid a ditch,
for instance, might
become so fi xated on it that she drives right into it.
It turns out that the best strategy for soccer penalty-kick takers
is to pick a
spot in the goal net and practice hitting that spot relentlessly,
always totally ignor-
ing the goalkeeper in the process. Training in this strategy is
likely to build on the
tight coordination between eye movements and subsequent
actions, making for
more accurate shooting. In other words, the way to avoid
choking is to devise a
strategy and then train, train, train. Well-learned behaviors hold
up better under
stress than those that haven’t been fully transferred to
procedural memory. If
you want to do something well under intense pressure, make

sure you can do it
automatically —thereby avoiding the critical element of
choking—which is think-
ing too much.
You play like you practice.
— Vince Lombardi ,
legendary football coach
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 2.1
Coping Strategies
Psychological Hardiness
The fact is people who have their stress levels under control
still experience an

equal share of bad events and daily hassles in their lives. They
face the same
pressures and adversities as everyone else. Yet some people do
have a mental
resiliency or hardiness that helps them cope with stress.
During the breakup of
AT&T in the 1980s, researchers explored what distinguished
those managers who
were most susceptible to physical and emotional illness from
those who demon-
strated psychological hardiness, 52 the ability to remain
psychologically stable
and healthy in the face of signifi cant stress. Other studies of
successful coping
have been conducted in a variety of demanding settings,
including businesses,
battlefi elds, schools, and medical clinics. 53 That research
has helped identify four
recurring factors that distinguish those with psychological
hardiness: physical
fi tness, commitment, control, and challenge.
Physical Fitness. It may seem a bit far afi eld for a
management book to discuss
physical fi tness, but fi tness boosts mental performance and is

critical to coping
with stress. 54 Indeed, hundreds of studies demonstrate that
exercise can reduce
the negative physical and psychological consequences of stress.
For example, a
meta-analysis of fi tness studies demonstrated that exercise can
alleviate clini-
cal depression and is just as effective at doing so as more
traditional strategies
like therapy, behavioral intervention, and social contact. 55
More specifi cally, one
study of college professors found that those most physically
active processed
data faster and experienced slower age-related decline in
information process-
ing. 56 In another study, commercial real estate brokers who
participated in an
Choking Under Stress: It Even Happens to Superstars
Consider the following statistics, reported recently by
researchers in Norway:
Professional soccer players in penalty kick shootouts score at a
rate of 92 percent when the score is tied and
a goal ensures their side an immediate win. But when they need

to score to tie the shootout, with a miss meaning
defeat, the success rate drops to 60 percent.
Geir Jordet, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport
Sciences in Oslo, has analyzed shootouts with
fervor. Jordet also found that shooting percentages tend to drop
with each successive kick—86.6 percent for the
fi rst shooter, 81.7 for the second, 79.3 for the third, and so on.
According to Jordet, his data starkly demonstrate
the impact of pressure and stress. 51
Penalty kicks, in theory, represent a relatively simple task for a
professional player: score against only the
goalkeeper from 12 yards, and do it at your own pace. And yet
the shootout has become a confounding stum-
bling block, one that regularly has leading stars self-destructing
in front of international audiences.
The choking effect is hardly limited to soccer. Chuck
Knoblauch, for instance, was one of major league base-
ball’s fi nest infi elders. But in 1999, playing for the New York
Yankees as a second baseman, he developed the
“yips” and started making inaccurate throws to fi rst base. (This
involves throwing the ball less than 20 feet—it’s
the shortest throw in the game.) Although Knoblauch had been

playing in the position for more than two decades,
his throws were now sailing into the stands—even injuring fans
on occasion. Paradoxically, it was the easy throws
that had become the most diffi cult, simple tosses that allowed
him time to think. This strange psychological lapse
would ultimately end his career.
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 2.2
aerobics training program (walking or running once a day, three
times a week,
for 12 weeks) earned larger commissions than brokers who did
not participate. 57
People who are fi t are also less likely to suffer from illnesses
exacerbated

by obesity and more likely to possess higher levels of energy
and become more
resilient to depression, tension, and stress. The resiliency
allows you to fend off
those uncontrollable stressors and deal more productively with
daily hassles. In
an aptly named book, Fit to Lead, Christopher Neck and his
colleagues outline
three essential elements of fi tness: body fi tness, nutritional fi
tness, and mental
fi tness (that is, psychological hardiness). 58 While it is
beyond our scope to go into
specifi cs of fi tness and nutritional programs, we simply
underscore their impor-
tance to stress management because they are directly related to
psychological
hardiness.
In a study of managers in an extremely stressful transition, it
was found that
those with the highest psychological hardiness engaged in
signifi cantly more
regular physical exercise. 59 Unfortunately, a common stress-
induced trap is to
believe we are too busy to exercise and maintain our physical

condition. That
thinking produces a negative cycle that further reduces our
physical capacity to
deal with stress at the very times we need it most. The
importance of physical
hardiness is further illustrated in Management Live 2.2.
Exercise can be benefi cial in many forms, such as yoga and
lifting weights,
and aerobic exercise like running, biking, swimming, or
dancing. Organizations
can encourage employees to seek the benefi ts of exercise by
offering onsite gyms
or discounted gym memberships. Some companies have done
creative competi-
tions or activities like having employees log their exercise time
to receive prizes
for various levels of activity. Or, after the popularity of shows
like The Biggest
Loser, some companies have even started friendly competitions
for employees to
get healthy, lose weight, and exercise.
Commitment. Commitment refers to persevering or sticking it
out through a

hard time. Being committed to an outcome keeps us going even
in the midst of
setbacks, obstacles, and discouraging news. Being committed to
a goal helps us
overcome occasional losses of motivation and remain steadfast
in our efforts.
Commitment can also refer to a sense of connection beyond a
single domain.
For example, in the AT&T study, while the hardy managers
were clearly
invested in the company’s reorganization, they were not
restricted to interest in
their work life. They had a broader life and were nurtured by
their commitment
to family, friends, religious practice, recreation, and hobbies.
Recall the earlier
discussion of the research that has shown that social support
(friends, family,
Physical fitness is the basis for all
other forms of excellence.
— John F. Kennedy

Executive Fitness and Performance 60
Research has demonstrated that physical fi tness is associated
with managerial performance. Fit managers have
more energy and experience more positive moods and well-
being. In addition, fi t managers are more likely than
unfi t managers to have lower anxiety, tension, and stress. A
large percentage of disease in the United States stems
from, or is exacerbated by, stress. Obviously, the sicker one is,
the less likely he or she is able to perform at peak
levels. A survey of 3,000 companies revealed many leading
executives understand the role that diet and exercise
play in their performance as those from a range of different fi
rms reported running fi ve miles a day, lifting weights
for 30 minutes, or jogging along airport roads between fl ights.
Managers serious about their performance know
exercise and diet are key to enhancing their ability to stave off
work stress and stay productive under pressure.
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and others who will say to you, “You can do this” or “We
believe in you”) is
important in buffering the effects of stress. Social support can
help you put your
stressors in perspective.
When under intense stress, we naturally withdraw from the
world and concen-
trate exclusively on solving the problem causing the stress.
Sometimes that reac-
tion is useful and appropriate, but, more often, asking for help
from our network
of family and friends is crucially important to coping with
stress. Commitments
that extend beyond our work world are an especially good
remedy for stress.
Control. The third element of hardiness is perceived control.
In a tough situ-
ation, hardy individuals do not become overwhelmed or
helpless. Instead, they
strive to gain control of what they can by going into action.
While acknowledging

that many aspects of a crisis situation cannot be controlled, they
also understand
that, by intentionally holding a positive, optimistic, hopeful
outlook, they can
determine their reaction to any predicament. If we approach life
and its inherent
stressors with this optimistic attitude, we’re much more likely
to deal easily with
stressful situations than if we’re convinced that what happens to
us is outside our
control and nothing we do affects our outcomes.
One stress-management strategy closely aligned with control is
that of seek-
ing small wins. Large projects can be inordinately stressful,
and many people
facing a daunting task will avoid it as long as possible, thereby
only increasing
their stress. However, if you break a large task into smaller
chunks, with action
steps, you’ll fi nd you can get early wins. Small but meaningful
milestones can give
us confi dence and insight to know “we can do it.” So celebrate
and reward your-
self each time you get a small win in whatever way reinforces

your behavior best.
Challenge. Finally, psychologically hardy individuals see
problems as chal-
lenges rather than as threats. This difference is important
because, rather than
being overwhelmed and seeking to retreat, these individuals get
busy looking for
solutions. Seeing a problem as a challenge mobilizes our
resources to deal with
it and encourages us to pursue the possibilities of a successful
outcome. Quickly
dealing with feelings of loss, while not harboring false hopes
and illusions about
the future, enables us to explore new options. Hardy people
view change as a
stepping stone, not a stumbling block.
The key point of emphasis here is that psychological hardiness
is less about
the actual stressors faced and more about how we frame our
response to those
stressors. From a stress management standpoint, that is
encouraging. We can
never eliminate stressors, but if we can fi nd ways to help cope

with the inevitable
stressors we will face, then we can more effectively manage
stress in our lives.
Outlets for Relief/Dealing with Stress
in the Moment
While much of the previous discussion has been focused on
planned stress reduc-
tion and longer-term strategies, we are often in situations where
we must be able
to deal with stress in the moment. Hardy and resilient
individuals do not panic,
withdraw, or fl ounder, but rather rely on several techniques for
dealing with their
stressors. That is, they are more skilled in relaxing their mind
and body, taking a
timeout, and knowing how to “repair” their mood. The
following are examples of
techniques you can use to deal with stress in the moment.
Muscle Relaxation. Sometimes stress is so great that a
timeout is needed.
Muscle relaxation only takes a few minutes, but can help relieve
stress immedi-
ately. Simply tense and then release muscle groups, starting

with your feet and
Only optimists get things done.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait
to get perfect.
— Ann McGee Cooper
If people concentrated on the
really important things in life,
there’d be a shortage of fishing
poles.
— Chuck Lawler
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working your way up your body (legs, torso, arms, neck). Roll
your head and
shrug your shoulders.
Deep Breathing. This simple exercise can make a difference
in short-term
stress relief. First, take in a deep breath and hold it for about fi
ve seconds. Then
breathe out slowly (that’s important) until you have completely
exhaled, trying to
extend the length of the out-breath a little bit longer each time.
Repeat this about
5 to 10 times.
Mood Repair. Research demonstrates that people in positive
mood states
are more resilient to stress. 61 Moreover, it has been found
that you can curb
or “repair” your negative moods by understanding what triggers
your positive
moods. 62 For some, it’s a piece of chocolate or a latte; for
others it may be lis-
tening to a piece of music, talking on the phone with a friend,

or visualizing a
scenario that gives them pleasure (their “happy place”). Learn
what puts you in
a positive mood and use it when you’re in a stressed or negative
frame of mind.
Time Management Fundamentals
One of the most important ways of coping with stress is
through effective time
management. By managing time better, most of us can prevent
many of the
problems that stress causes by not putting ourselves in stressful
situations in the
fi rst place. The inability to manage time is among the greatest
sources of stress
and can doom the most talented, motivated, and conscientious
of people. While
most everyone would agree that time management and
organization are among
the most critical elements of personal effectiveness, a person
trying to enhance
his or her time management is often told to exercise willpower,
try harder, resist
temptation, or seek divine guidance. Although well intentioned,

this advice offers
little in terms of actionable strategies or skills to help an
individual undertake the
process of development. Remember, it’s the execution of time
management skills
that remains your biggest challenge. So learn the fundamentals
of time manage-
ment, but remember that it is the discipline to apply them that is
your ultimate
objective.
Today, there are thousands of books on time management and a
staggering
number of training programs and “systems” on the market.
Close inspection of
this bewildering volume of material, however, reveals a few
simple but power-
ful principles. In the following, we discuss and illustrate four
principles that,
although called by various names, are consistently present in
the research and
writing of time management experts.
First Be Effective, Then Be Efficient
Managing time with an effectiveness approach means you

actually pay attention
to your goals and regularly revisit what is important to you—
and avoid just dili-
gently working on whatever comes up or is urgent or in front of
you. As manage-
ment guru Peter Drucker has famously noted, doing the right
things should come
before doing things right.
Start with Written Goals
Most people have an intuitive sense that goals are an important
organizing mech-
anism. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People, calls this
“starting with the end in mind.” The notion is simple. A set of
long-term lifetime
KO 2-4
DO 2-5
If you are not sure why you are
doing something, you can never
do enough of it.

— David Allen
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goals can help you discover what you really want to do, help
motivate you to
do it, and give meaning to the way you spend your time. It can
help you feel in
control of your destiny and provide a measuring stick to gauge
your success.
Written goals can help you choose and decide among many
different aspects of
your life.
For some reason, however, a surprisingly small percentage of
people actually
write down, review, and or update their short- or long-term
goals. This is unfor-

tunate because studies have shown that those with written goals
actually achieve
higher levels of success. There is nothing mystical about
writing personal goals,
and though perhaps not explicitly aware of it, you have
probably been think-
ing about your lifetime goals almost as long as you have been
alive. However,
thinking about your goals is quite different from writing them
down. Unwritten
goals often remain vague or utopian dreams such as “get a great
job” or “become
wealthy.” Writing down goals tends to make them more
concrete and specifi c and
helps you probe beneath the surface. So always start with goals
and revisit them
regularly. And don’t limit them to fi nancial or career
progression goals. What
personal, social, or spiritual aspirations do you have?
Follow the 80/20 Rule
Often referred to as Pareto’s Law, the 80/20 rule holds that
only 20 percent of
the work produces 80 percent of the value, 80 percent of sales
come from 20 per-

cent of customers, 80 percent of fi le usage is in 20 percent of
the fi les, and so on.
Sometimes that ratio may be a little more, and sometimes a
little less, but the
rule generally holds true. In the context of time management,
then, if all tasks
on a list were arranged in order of value, 80 percent of the value
would come
from 20 percent of the tasks, while the remaining 20 percent of
the value would
come from 80 percent of the tasks. Therefore, it is important to
analyze which
tasks make up the most important 20 percent and spend the bulk
of your time
on those.
Use the Time Management Matrix
Expanding on the 80/20 principle, several time management
experts have pointed
out the usefulness of a “time management matrix,” in which
your activities can
be categorized in terms of their relative importance and urgency
( Table 2.1 ). 63
A goal unwritten is only a dream.

— Anonymous
Practice this!
TABLE 2.1 Time Management Matrix
Urgent Not Urgent
Important QUADRANT I QUADRANT II
• Crises
• Pressing problems
• Deadline-driven
projects
• Prevention
• Relationship building
• Recognizing new opportunities

• Planning
Not Important QUADRANT III QUADRANT IV
• Interruptions
• Some calls
• Some mail
• Some reports
• Some meetings
• Trivia
• Busy work
• Some mail
• Some phone calls
• Time wasters
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Important activities are those that are tied to your goals and
produce a
desired result. They accomplish a valued end or achieve a
meaningful purpose.
Urgent activities are those that demand immediate attention.
They are associated
with a need expressed by someone else or relate to an
uncomfortable problem or
situation that requires a solution as soon as possible.
Of course, one of the most diffi cult decisions you must make
is determining
what is important and what is urgent. There are no easy rules,
and life’s events and
demands do not come with “important” or “urgent” tags. In fact,
every problem or
time demand is likely important to someone. However, if you let

others determine
what is and is not important, then you certainly will never
effectively manage your
time. Perhaps the most important objective is to manage your
time in a way that
reduces the number of things you do on an urgent basis and
allows you to devote
your attention to those things of true importance to your life
and work.
Just DON’T Do It: Learn to Say No
One of the most powerful words in your time management
vocabulary should
be the word no. In fact, a good axiom for your time
management improvement
might well be a reversal of Nike’s popular Just do it! slogan to
Just don’t do it!
Of course, that approach is a lot easier to talk about than to
actually use when
we are confronted with demands or attractive offers from
others. Many of us
have an inherent desire to please and fear we may miss out on
some opportu-
nity. However, as noted earlier, effective time management is
largely learning to

devote yourself fully to your most important tasks. That means
what you choose
not to do can be as important as what you do. So learn how to
say no. Three
effective ways to say no are:
• “I’m sorry. That’s not a priority for me right now.”
• “I have made so many commitments to others; it would be
unfair to them
and you if I took on anything more at this point.”
• “No.”
For more specifi c time management suggestions, please read
Management
Live 2.3.
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 2.3
Never Check E-Mail in the Morning—and Other Surprising
Time-Savers 64
Don’t look at e-mail fi rst thing. Instead, use the morning to
focus on your most important tasks. Most people’s
minds are sharpest in the morning, and completing important
responsibilities before lunch creates a sense of
relief and accomplishment that can carry you through the
afternoon. If the fi rst thing you do in the morning is
check your e-mail, then there are any number of ways that
you’ll be diverted from your critical tasks to deal with
all the little things your inbox has for you. E-mail creates a
false sense of accomplishment for people because
in the span of an hour or so you’re likely to deal with a large
number of different issues (likely half of them are
personal) and so you feel like you’ve accomplished quite a bit,
but now that it’s almost time for lunch you really
haven’t done much at all. You feel like you have been working
very hard but you probably haven’t done anything
that is a priority on your to-do list.
Avoid the urge to multitask. When many things need to get

done, it’s tempting to try to do them all at once.
But multitasking isn’t the secret to productivity—it’s a sure way
to be ineffi cient. Recent evidence suggests that
it takes the brain longer to recognize and process each item it is
working on when multitasking than when it is
focused on a single job. Other studies have found that work
quality suffers when we try to multitask. 65 To get
many things done, either in the offi ce or at home, do just one
thing at a time. If another obligation crops up
or an unrelated idea pops into your head, pause from your
current task only long enough to enter it in your
planner.
Shorten your workday. If 10 hours isn’t enough, try nine and
a half. Losing 30 minutes of work time each day
makes you organize your time better. No longer will you
tolerate interruptions . . . make personal phone calls
from the offi ce . . . or chat around the water cooler. Your pace
will pick up, your focus will sharpen, and you’ll soon
fi nd you’re getting more done despite the shorter workday. You
have freed up two and a half hours for yourself
each week. This works just as well outside the workplace. Allot
fewer hours for chores and projects, and you’re
more likely to buckle down and get them done.

Take a break. Hard workers often feel that they don’t have
time to take a break. Recharging your batteries isn’t
wasted time—it keeps you running. Escape from your workday
life for at least 30 minutes each day or a few hours
each week. Use this escape time to do whatever it is that most
effectively transports you away mentally from your
daily responsibilities. That might be reading a novel, exercising
at the gym, or listening to music. These escapes
keep your mind sharp and your energy level high. If you just
can’t fi nd the time, add the escape more formally
to your schedule. If your escape is exercise, plan a game of
tennis or golf with a friend—the friend will be count-
ing on you, so it will be tough for you to back out. If your
escape is music, buy season tickets to a local concert
series—you’re more likely to attend if you have already
purchased the tickets.
Don’t do chores when big deadlines loom. Faced with a big
important task and several small, easy, but less
vital chores, many people start by tackling the chores. Knocking
these off provides a sense that progress has been
made, and it clears the tables to focus on the big
responsibility—but it is still a poor strategy.
Always tackle the most important job fi rst, though it might be

the most diffi cult and time-consuming. In
the corporate world, the most important task usually is the one
that will generate or save the most money for the
company. If you put off this crucial task, unforeseen
complications or new assignments might prevent you from
getting the important tasks done at all.
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Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan
Make Good Lists for Effective Prioritization
The time management matrix is essentially about prioritization,
and virtually
every time management expert focuses on the importance of
prioritizing and
scheduling, usually in the form of a daily or weekly “to-do” list,
a “next-action”
listing, or a defect tally checklist. The basics of good lists are

simple: create and
review them every day, ideally at the same consistent time; keep
them visible;
and use them as a guide to action (see Tool Kit 2.4 for how to
make effective
“to-do” lists). One of the important rules is to keep all of your
to-do items on a
master list, rather than jotting them down on miscellaneous
scraps of paper or
typing them indiscriminately in a cell phone or iPad. You may
want to keep your
list in a separate planner or in your phone or computer.
Perhaps the more diffi cult challenge is to determine what goes
on the list
and how to prioritize it. David Allen, author of the bestseller
Getting Things
Done, argues that what he calls “collection” is the foundation
of productive time
Tool Kit 2.4 Making Effective To-Do Lists66
M aking effective to-do lists saves time, energy, stress, and
even gas. A good list lets you forget—once you have
a written reminder, your mind is free to concentrate on other
things. A to-do list even helps you meet your goals.

Whether you’re a legal pad, iPhone, or back-of-the-phone-bill
type, pick a system that works—and write it down!
Have one master list—in one place. Pull those scraps out of
your pockets, purse, and glove compartment,
and gather them in one place.
• Investigate the many electronic options for list makers.
Your PDA is a great repository for all of your
lists, including movies to rent, gifts to buy, and important
contacts who expect a call that day.
• Categorize your to-dos, keeping like items together such as
calls to make, things to buy, and errands to
run. Other categories might include gifts, projects, contacts, and
goals.
• Prioritize the items on your list to stay focused on what’s
critical. Revisit your to-do list regularly to reas-
sess and reprioritize as situations change, and to check off
completed items.
• Break it down. Then break it down some more. Don’t
confuse to-dos with goals or projects. A to-do is a
single, specifi c action that will move a project toward

completion. It’s just one step. For example, “Plan
the committee lunch” is a project. “E-mail Karen to get catering
contact” is a to-do. In this case, the
action of e-mailing Karen is a simple, two-minute
undertaking—something small and innocuous that you
can do without thinking. The lunch plans won’t be complete
after you’ve fi nished this to-do, but you’ll
be much closer than you were while you were ignoring the
“Plan the committee lunch” project. After it’s
done, add the next step to your list. Breaking down your task to
the smallest possible action forces you
to think through each step up front. With the thinking out of the
way, it’s easy to dash off that e-mail,
make that call, or fi le that report, and move your work along
with much less resistance.
• Use specifi c action verbs and include as many details as
you’ll need. You’re overdue for a cleaning, but
the “Make a dentist appointment” to-do just hasn’t gotten done.
When you write that task down, use an
actionable verb (call? e-mail?) and include whatever details
your future self needs to check it off. “Call Dr.
M. at 555-4567 for a cleaning any time before 11AM on Jan 17,
18, or 19” is a specifi c detailed to-do.
Now that’s something you can get done while you’re stuck in

traffi c with a cell phone.
Your to-do list is your way of assigning tasks to yourself, so be
as helpful to yourself as you would to a per-
sonal assistant. Make your to-dos small and specifi c to set
yourself up for that glorious moment when you can
cross them off the list as DONE.
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management. 67 He suggests that you need to collect
everything that commands
your attention and do so in some place other than in your head.
Contrary to
some traditional time management advice, you do not want
things on the top

of your mind, unless you are working on them. Some people,
students in par-
ticular, often try to just keep their to-do list in their heads. That
rarely works
well. Effective time managers collect and organize their tasks
where they can
be reviewed and serve as a reminder, so they do not have to be
stored in their
minds.
Once you’ve collected your to-do list, most experts recommend
you review
not just routine items but everything that has a high priority
today or might not
get done without special attention. Alan Lakein further suggests
you use what
he calls the ABC method: assigning an A to a high-priority
item, a B to an item
of medium priority, and a C to low-priority items. To use the
ABC system effec-
tively, you should ensure you are incorporating not just short-
term but long-term
items, derived from your lifetime goals. Most importantly,
always start with As,
not with Cs, even when you have just a few minutes of free

time. The essence of
effective time management is to direct your efforts to high
priorities. That is eas-
ily stated but exceedingly hard to do. 68 For a good example
of the importance of
having a good list, see Management Live 2.4.
Ask “What’s the Next Action?”
The most critical question for any to-do item you have collected
is: What is the
next action? Consideration of that step is one of the most
powerful mindsets of
effective time management. Many people think they have
determined the next
action when they write it down or note something like “set
meeting.” But in
this instance, “set meeting” is not the next action because it
does not describe
a physical behavior. What is the fi rst step to actually setting a
meeting? It
could be making a phone call or sending an e-mail, but to
whom? Decide. If
you don’t know, you simply postpone the decision and create
ineffi ciency in
your process because you will have to revisit the issue and will

have it hanging
over you.
Know Yourself and Your Time Use
Consistent with the earlier section on self-awareness, a
principle that is included
in almost every good time management discussion is that you
have to know your-
self and your style. While we would not recommend you
monitor every minute
of your time, some documented record of how you currently
spend your time is
certainly a useful exercise. One good strategy is to record your
time selectively,
keeping track of particular problem items you feel are
consuming an inordinate
amount of time.
Each of us has both external and internal prime time. Internal
prime time is
that time of the day when we typically work best—morning,
afternoon, or evening.
External prime time is the best time to attend to other people—
those you have to
deal with in classes, at work, or at home.

Internal prime time is the time when you concentrate best. If
you had to pick
the two hours of the day when you think most clearly, which
would you pick?
The two hours you select are probably your internal prime time
and you should
aim to save all your internal prime time for prime high-priority
projects.
Interestingly, studies have shown that most business people
pick the fi rst
couple hours at work as their internal prime time, yet this is
usually the time they
read the newspaper, answer routine mail, get yesterday’s
unanswered e-mails and
voicemails, and talk to colleagues and employees. It would be
much better to
save such routine tasks for non-prime hours.
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 2.4
Fight Procrastination
It is hardly provocative to point out that procrastination is a
major stumbling
block everyone faces in trying to achieve both long- and short-
term goals. Pro-
crastination is that familiar situation when you have written
down and priori-
tized a critical A task and just can’t seem to get started on it.
Instead, we may
resort to doing a bunch of C priority tasks, like straightening
the desk, checking
our e-mail, or reading a magazine, to avoid focusing on the A
task.
One strategy to address this common human scenario is what
Alan Lakein
calls the Swiss Cheese Method. 69 The Swiss Cheese
Method refers to poking
small holes in the A project and those holes are what Lakein

calls instant tasks.
An instant task requires fi ve minutes or less of your time and
makes some sort
of hole in your high-priority task. So in the 10 minutes before
you head off
to class, you have time for two instant tasks. To fi nd out what
they should be,
(1) make a list of possible instant tasks and (2) set priorities.
The only rule for
generating instant tasks is that they can be started quickly and
easily and are in
some way connected to your overwhelming A project. Perhaps
the nicest thing
about the Swiss Cheese Method is it does not really matter what
instant tasks
you ultimately select. How much of a contribution a particular
instant task will
make to getting your A project done is far less important than to
do something,
anything, on that project. Whatever you choose, at least you
will have begun.
The Two-Minute Rule
One of the great shared traditions of many families with young
children is “the

fi ve-second rule.” The fi ve-second rule holds that if a piece of
food accidentally
ends up on the ground it can still be eaten safely, provided it
was retrieved in
less than fi ve seconds. While the fi ve-second rule is actually
nonsense, 70 the two-
minute rule is a functional and rational approach to time
management. The
two-minute rule suggests that any time demand that will take
less than two
minutes should be done now. The logic is that it will take more
time to catego-
rize and return to it than it will to simply do it immediately. In
other words, it
is right at the effi ciency cutoff. If the thing to be done is not
important, throw it
away. If you are going to do it sometime, do it now. Getting in
the habit of fol-
lowing the two-minute rule can be magic in helping you avoid
procrastination.
Do it now if you are ever going to do it at all. For specifi c
guidance on being
more effi cient, see Tool Kit 2.5.
The secret of getting ahead is

getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your
complex overwhelming tasks into
small manageable tasks, and then
starting on the first one.
— Mark Twain
Is This Advice Worth $250,000.00? 71
Charles Schwab was appointed in 1903 to run Bethlehem Steel,
which became the largest independent steel
producer in the fi eld. One day, Schwab was approached by a
man named Ivy Lee, an effi ciency consultant. Unlike
most modern consultants, Lee agreed to work for nothing if his
techniques did not pay off. After a few days, Lee
left without payment. He asked Schwab to give his technique 90
days and send whatever amount his advice had
been worth. In three months, Schwab generously sent
$35,000.00—or the modern-day equivalent of roughly
$250,000.00.
What was the advice Schwab felt was so valuable? Lee said, for
each day, write down six things you must
accomplish. Then do those six things in order of priority. Work
on the fi rst until it’s fi nished, then the second, and

so on. If you don’t complete the list, don’t worry; you fi nished
the most important tasks. Make a list, prioritize, and
do it. That’s $250,000.00 worth of advice.
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Workplace Cultures That Foster High
Performance with Lower Stress
Global business and its inherent hyper competition have made
organizations
potentially more stressful than ever before. The most successful
organizations,
however, are those that have been able to maintain their
competitive edge while
maintaining a lower-stress environment. Regardless of the stress
management
strategies chosen, supervisor support has been shown to

decrease job stress
and increase performance. People who feel supported are also
more likely to
take actions that are favorable to the organization and that go
beyond assigned
responsibilities. The perception that the organization is
supportive, respectful,
and caring about its members can have a signifi cant impact on
helping people
KO 2-5
DO 2-6
Practice this!
Tool Kit 2.5 Getting Yourself Organized: A Quick Primer
Most people struggle with personal organization because of one
of three things: technical limitations (like inad-
equate storage space), external limitations (like working
conditions), and psychological obstacles (like anxiety
over changing your routine). If your limitations are technical,
the best approach is usually to minimize as much as
possible—get rid of stuff you don’t use, for starters. If external

elements are limiting things, look for options to
reduce your workload for a bit so you can get organized, as this
will enable you to tackle more work effi ciently.
If the limitations are psychological, throw yourself into
focusing on something else and let organization just be
something that’s assistance, not a primary focus.
To get started, ask yourself these fi ve questions about the
area you wish to organize:
What’s working?
What’s not working?
What items are most essential to you?
Why do you want to get organized?
What is causing the problems?
For your paper and e-mail, use the TRAF system 72
• Toss: Open your mail over the wastebasket, tossing as you
go. This goes symbolically for your e-mail as
well: Use the Delete button in the same way you would dispose

of paper. For those items you are unsure
about, it is generally preferable to bite the bullet and throw
them away or delete.
• Refer: Create individual “referral folders” for the handful
of classes or projects you deal with most fre-
quently. Make those folders especially accessible. For your
personal affairs, create a “personal” fi le.
• Act: A key obstacle to good organization is to push aside a
piece of paper or quickly blow by an e-mail
thinking, this isn’t pressing, I will just look at it tomorrow. A
good rule is to take some action, however
small, on every paper or e-mail touched. Remember the two-
minute rule—if it is worth doing and can be
done in two minutes or less, go ahead and do it now.
• File: A good fi ling system can be a gift to yourself and
your future. Start now and get in the habit of
maintaining such a system. Three important rules are (1) opt for
a few big fi les instead of many little ones,
(2) name your fi les using general recognizable labels (for
example, job search) and store them alphabeti-
cally, and (3) make a point to mark the fi les you use. After a
year, throw out or store in a remote place any

fi le you did not use in that year. This is hard to do but key to
good organization.
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CASE CONCLUDED
So how exactly does CIGNA’s EAP work? Here are
the mechanics: Employees as well as their family
members can use up to fi ve EAP counseling visits for
any particular issue (for example, survivor guilt, sub-
stance abuse, smoking cessation, family turmoil, or a
number of other personal problems). Employees can
speak with counselors to alleviate their despair and
stress, reawake their sense of purpose, and revive
personal enthusiasm for their work.
In addition, employees can avail themselves of

any special CIGNA-sponsored seminars, such as
“ Employees in Crisis: How Personal Finance Can
Impact Job Performance ” and “ Working Through
Diffi cult Times. ” The latter is especially popular.
Says Marilyn Paluba, director of health programs at
CIGNA, “We fi nd that 8 percent to 10 percent of
employees are dealing with this problem.”
Of course, CIGNA is a for-profi t business and,
while widely appreciated by employees, the EAP
is quite costly and not a cost shared by most
competitors. So how does the fi rm justify the
expenditures? “Our stress reduction programs are
certainly not altruistic or just about making people
feel better,” says Mary Bianchi, EAP program man-
ager at CIGNA. “People tell us the EAP has made
them more productive at work, and allows them
to actively do something rather than just sit and
worry about their problems. They say: ‘My family is
healthier, and I’m not taking time off to deal with
my problem.’”
>
Even more objectively, CIGNA has seen a 5 percent

reduction in its medical costs which they attribute
directly to their EAP. And at a company the size of
CIGNA, that amounts to very big savings and a sub-
stantive contribution to their business outcomes.
Beyond the fi nancial benefi ts, the overt attempt
by CIGNA to acknowledge and address issues that
are generally not openly discussed has led to a
healthier workplace. No matter how workers and
managers choose to use the EAP, Marilyn Paluba
says, the results can be summed up simply: “People
say they have better control over their lives.”
Questions
1. As a manager, what are your options when you
see stress taking its toll on people? What are the
most progressive fi rms (and managers) doing to
manage stress and increase productivity?
2. Is there really a business case for stress reduc-
tion? Can’t high stress be a good thing and a
powerful driver for high-performance fi rms?
3. Don’t tough-minded managers and coaches say

“Drive out the weak and the strong survive”? What,
if anything, is misguided about that philosophy?
4. EAPs like those of CIGNA are reactive. How
might a fi rm or manager be proactive in trying to
prevent rather than simply treat stress?
From Rebecca Reisner, “Cigna’s In-House Compassion,”
Business
Week, March 31, 2009. Used with permission of Bloomberg
L.P.
Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved.
meet stressful demands. Other organizational characteristics
that have been
associated with high performance and lower stress include the
following (with
action strategies included for each):
Frequent and Open Communication
• Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty
about their jobs

and futures.
• Clearly defi ne employees’ roles and responsibilities.
• Make communication friendly and effi cient, not mean-
spirited or petty.
Employee Participation
• Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that
affect their jobs.
• Consult employees about scheduling and work rules.
• Be sure the workload is suitable to employees’ abilities and
resources;
avoid unrealistic deadlines.
• Show that individual workers are valued.
Incentives for Work–Life Balance
• Praise good work performance verbally and institutionally.
Practice this!
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blessing, and a few companies do it
better than most of their peers. Six
of the most dedicated to creating
low-stress, people-fi rst workplaces
are briefl y described next.
• Provide opportunities for career development.
• Promote an “entrepreneurial” work climate that gives
employees more
control over their work.
Cultivate a Friendly Social Climate
• Provide opportunities for social interaction among
employees.

• Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.
• Make management actions consistent with organizational
values.
Concluding Note
Stress robs people of their health and organizations of
productivity so it is a
critical topic for students of organizational behavior and
management. Effective
stress control is largely a function of your physical hardiness,
your psychological
hardiness, and your management of time. Learning the
behaviors that contribute
to each of those three can yield big payoffs in your productivity
and health.
KEY TERMS
ABC method 67
appraisal support 56
burnout 50
choking 56

conservation of resources (COR) 50
control 52
deep acting 51
demands 52
depersonalization 50
80/20 rule 63
emotional exhaustion 50
emotional labor 51
emotional support 56
eustress 44
family interference with work (FIW) 49
informational support 56
instrumental support 56
locus of control 47
psychological hardiness 59
reduced personal accomplishment 50
role ambiguity 49
role confl ict 49
role theory 49
self-effi cacy 47
small wins 61
strains 43
stress 43

surface acting 51
Swiss Cheese Method 68
transactional theory 45
Type A behavior pattern 47
work–family confl ict 49
work interference with family (WIF) 49
Adapted from divinecaroline.
com and 100 Best Companies
to Work For.
Going to work each day for
some people is a joy, believe
it or not. While a large portion
of Americans dread crawl-
ing out of bed in the morning
and going through the daily
grind en route to a paycheck,
some people are happy to
do it. Working for a company that
allows you to enjoy your work is a
CASE
Creating a Low-Stress Happy
Workplace: SAS, Google, and Other

Companies That Take It Seriously
> >
(continued)
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SAS
SAS is a North Carolina software
company specializing in business
analytics. It also specializes in mak-
ing employees happy. The fi rst perk
of being an SAS employee was
free M&M’s. Now there’s a country
club, onsite daycare, onsite doctors
and nurses, a 35-hour work week,

live piano music during lunch, a
50,000-square-foot fi tness center,
swimming pools, no dress code, a
masseur, onsite car detailing, and
more. If you need assistance in
adopting a child or fi nding a college
for your child or a nursing home for
a parent, they have people to help
you with that, too.
Google
With Google’s success has come
the opportunity to treat its lucky
employees like few other compa-
nies can. Employees at Google
enjoy a great benefi ts package
that includes affordable medi-
cal coverage, company-matched
401(k) plans, maternity and pater-
nity leave, as well as a lot of unique
workplace extras. Within the offi ces
of Google, employees can see the
in-house dentist or doctor, get a
massage, or do yoga. Snacks are

also available to those who want
them throughout the day and there
are outdoor activities such as a run-
ning trail when fresh air seems like
the best environment for a meeting.
Genentech
San Francisco biotech giant
“DNA by the Bay,” as employees
affectionately call it, is the absolute
paragon of perk-laden employers.
What sets them apart? Onsite day-
care not just for the kids, but pets,
too. Doggie daycare and optional
bargain pet insurance are offered
as well. Add to that six-week paid
sabbaticals to prevent burnout, a
free shuttle service that garners
employees a four-dollar daily credit,
a drop-off laundry service, and sea-
sonal produce stands in company
cafeterias. Jealous yet?

Patagonia
For employees at Patagonia, the
Ventura, California–based outdoor
clothing and equipment company,
“surf’s up” is more than a mar-
keting ploy. Daily surf reports are
posted at the reception desk and
particularly outstanding swells gen-
erate a companywide loudspeaker
announcement. Running out to
catch a few waves during the work-
day is an accepted practice and a
way to keep employees from burn-
ing out. Surfi ng not your thing?
Company bikes are waiting out-
side, as are volleyball courts. Want
a more refl ective break? Head back
inside for the onsite yoga.
eBay
Is the daily grind putting your stress
meter in the red? That’s not a prob-
lem for workers at the online auc-

tioneer’s two San Jose, California,
campuses. eBay sets aside ergo-
nomic meditation and prayer rooms
decorated in relaxation-inducing
colors and replete with pillows and
comfy mats so employees can take
a load off.
Accenture
Sometimes, the best job is the
one that lets you not come to the
offi ce at all. At Accenture, the glo-
bal consulting and tech fi rm, the
work day begins wherever you
might be or want to be—a full 92
percent of employees telecom-
mute. Staffers get reimbursed
for home-offi ce setups and are
required to work just one hour a
week to get health insurance. And
it’s family friendly. New moms get
eight paid post-delivery weeks
off; dads get one.

Discussion Questions
1. What is the motivation for
these fi rms to invest so much in
employee perks?
2. Is the low-stress happy worker a
more productive worker?
3. The six companies described cer-
tainly appear to be good com-
panies to work for —but would
you want to invest in such fi rms?
Explain.
4. Does it have to be expensive to
create an enjoyable, low-stress
workplace? In what ways might a
lower-stress organizational envi-
ronment be created without sig-
nifi cant fi nancial cost?
5. SAS and Google are facing
increasing competition in their

markets. Do you suspect this
means their employee perks will
eventually decrease?
(continued)
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SELECT MANAGE WHAT? DEBRIEFS
Getting a Priority Done Under Stress: Debrief
Prioritization is a challenge faced daily by managers at all
levels, and the addition of stress (for example, a loom-
ing deadline, a demanding boss or customer, distracting
personal issues) makes this a particularly challenging
skill. The central point is that the addition of stress does not
change the fundamental personal strategies that will
be effective, but rather simply heightens their importance.

The most general prescription is to ensure that you are as
physically hardy as you can be. While it is tempting
to neglect exercise and sleep and good nutrition because you are
“too busy,” the reality is that stressful times are
when those elements are most essential. Research has shown
that those who are able to maintain healthy habits
when under pressure are more likely to stay productive and
avoid the ravages of stress. You want to be as “fi t to
lead” as you can be, so either stay with or establish routines of
good health and nutrition.
More specifi cally, to accomplish a priority in the face of
stress, you will want to direct your focus on the most
recurring lessons of good time management. Three of those
lessons would seem to be most pertinent in this
case: (1) a focus (even obsession) with written goals; (2) good
lists and action steps tied to those goals; (3) an
awareness and management of your internal and external prime
times.
Goals. The fi rst step is to ensure you are crystal clear
about what your actual priorities are and how you will
determine if you have accomplished (or ideally exceeded) them.
Put simply, ask yourself: What is the priority and

why is it a priority? (Is it goal-related?) Among all that you
have to do, is this truly among the top priority? (Related
to your most important goals?) Assuming that it is, then make
sure you have the ultimate goal you are seeking
written down.
Lists and action steps. Collect everything you need to do on
one master list and then cut it into small pieces
and get to work. Use the “Swiss Cheese Method,” which simply
means poking small holes in your priority project
by doing small tasks. Small tasks require fi ve minutes or less
of your time and make some sort of hole in your
high-priority task. Use your to-do list like a daily map and get
obsessive about making progress on it every day.
Your momentum will typically carry you if you can get yourself
to truly drive your activity off a set of goals and a
living to-do list.
Your prime times. Each of us has both external and internal
prime time. Internal prime time is that time of the
day when we typically work best—morning, afternoon, or
evening. External prime time is the best time to attend
to other people—those you have to deal with in classes, work,
or at home. Internal prime time is the time when
you concentrate best. If you had to pick the two hours of the

day when you think most clearly, which would you
pick? The two hours you select are probably your internal prime
time and you should aim to save all of that time
for high-priority projects.
Interestingly, studies have shown that most business people
pick the fi rst couple of hours at work as their
internal prime time, yet this is usually the time they read the
newspaper, answer routine mail, review yesterday’s
unanswered e-mails, and talk to colleagues and associates. It
would be much better to save such routine tasks for
non-prime hours. Students often schedule their classes during
their internal prime time when it would be better
used for study and the completion of deliverables.
Overcoming the Two Biggest Time Management Traps:
Debrief
As noted in the Manage What? scenario, the two biggest time
management traps are (1) a failure to prioritize and
thus we procrastinate on our major tasks, and (2) not devoting
our peak productivity times to our most important
tasks. Perhaps the more diffi cult challenge is to fi rst get clear
on what your personal priorities really are. To do
that, collect everything that commands your attention and do so
in some place other than in your head. Contrary

to some traditional time management advice, you do not want
things at the forefront of your mind unless you are
working on them. Some people, students in particular, often try
to just keep their to-do list in their heads. That
rarely works well. Effective time managers collect and organize
their tasks where they can be reviewed and serve
as a reminder. This way the tasks do not have to be stored in
their heads.
(continued)
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Once you’ve collected your to-do list, most experts recommend
you review not just routine items but every-
thing that has a high priority today or might not get done
without special attention. One straightforward way to
do that is to use the ABC method: assigning an A to a high-

priority item, a B to an item of medium priority, and
a C to low-priority items. To use the ABC system effectively,
you should ensure you are incorporating not just
short-term but long-term items, derived from your lifetime
goals. Most importantly, always start with A items, not
with C items, even when you have just a few minutes of free
time. So, for example, don’t look at e-mail fi rst thing
in the morning. Instead, use the morning to focus on your most
important tasks. One specifi c strategy to avoid
procrastination is what is known as the Swiss Cheese Method.
Making Changes in a Workplace to Lower Stress and Enhance
(Not Lower) Productivity: Debrief
Your president is right to believe that the most successful
organizations are those that have been able to maintain
their competitive edge while maintaining a lower-stress
environment. However, he would be wrong if he thought
it was just foosball tables, or fancy free lunches, or casual dress
codes that create such environments. In some
cases, those elements might be part of the mix but there are a
set of more general cultural factors that have been
repeatedly linked to both employee commitment and high
organizational performance.
First, supervisor support has been shown to decrease job stress

and increase performance. People who feel
supported are also more likely to take actions that are favorable
to the organization and that go beyond assigned
responsibilities. The perception that the organization is
supportive, respectful, and caring about its members
can also have signifi cant impact on helping people meet the
demands of job stress. Other organizational char-
acteristics that have been associated with high performance and
lower stress include (a) frequent and open
communication, (b) employee participation in decision making,
(c) incentives for work–life balance, and (d) an
actively promoted social climate. Put simply, the healthiest and
highest-performing workplaces are those where
people feel “in the know” and are asked for input on key
decisions that affect them. Moreover, they are places
where there is overt recognition of the importance of employee
health and balance, and an encouragement of
personal relationships and connecting with fellow employees, as
well as complete intolerance of harassment and
discrimination.
So your advice to your boss should be to worry less about using
Google’s foosball tables and well-publicized
perks, and more on the ways in which the company involves
associates in decision making and promoting a social

climate of cooperation and innovation.
(continued)
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v
76
O B J E C T I V E S

KO 3-1 Defi ne intuition and its role in
solving problems.
KO 3-2 Recognize judgment traps that
hinder the decision-making process.
KO 3-3 Describe the key steps in the PADIL
framework for making a good
decision.
KO 3-4 Identify evidence-based methods
for increasing the quantity of
solution alternatives.
3
Solving Problems
KNOWING DOING
“The great thing about fact-based
decisions is that they overrule the
hierarchy. The most junior person

in the company can win an argu-
ment with the most senior per-
son with regard to a fact-based
decision. For intuitive decisions,
on the other hand, you have to
rely on experienced executives
who’ve honed their instincts.”
—Jeff Bezos , CEO, Amazon
DO 3-1 Implement techniques to minimize
or avoid decision-making biases.
DO 3-2 Solve a problem using the PADIL
framework.

DO 3-3 Apply a stakeholder analysis to a
problem.
DO 3-4 Use decision tools to narrow a set
of problem alternatives.
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77
> >
Case: Two Contemporary Com-
panies’ Use of Crowdsourcing:
Threadless and ChallengePost
The renowned American physicist Linus Pauling once observed
that “the
best way to have a good idea is to
have lots of ideas.” And the grow-
ing popularity of a strategy known

as crowdsourcing is very much
in that spirit. Crowdsourcing is
defi ned as the act of outsourcing
tasks, traditionally performed by an
employee or contractor, to an unde-
fi ned large group of people or com-
munity (a “crowd”), through an open
call made possible by the wide and
instantaneous reach of the Internet.
Jeff Howe, one of the fi rst authors
to employ the term, contends that
crowdsourcing works because open
calls to a large undefi ned group of
people ultimately attract those who
are the most motivated and able
to offer relevant and fresh ideas.
In the following, we highlight two
contemporary companies that are
creatively employing crowdsourc-
ing to address some of their most
important objectives.
Threadless is an online apparel
store co-founded in 2000 by Jake

Nickell and Jacob DeHart. The
founders started with just $1,000 in
seed money that they had won in
an Internet T-shirt design contest.
The company has now grown to
be a multimillion-dollar enterprise
and is revolutionizing the process of
product design.
While most design shops employ
high-priced talent to create their
product lines, Threadless uses the
crowdsourcing concept to execute an
entirely different approach. More spe-
cifi cally, the fi rm invites anyone inter-
ested in being part of the Threadless
community to submit T-shirt designs
online—afterward, the designs are
put to a public vote. A small per-
centage of submitted designs are
selected for printing and then sold
through their online store. Creators
of the winning designs receive only
a small cash prize and some store
credit. In the open-source commu-

nity, a Threadless T-shirt or design
is considered to be crowdsourced
because the designer and the com-
pany retain all rights to the design.
On average, around 1,500 designs
compete in any given week. Design-
ers upload their T-shirt designs to the
website, where visitors and members
of the community score them on a
scale of 0 to 5. Each week, the staff
selects about 10 designs. Not sur-
prisingly, the printed T-shirts tend to
sell well because they have already
been proven popular via the design
process. Threadless shirts are run in
limited batches and when shirts are
sold out, customers can request a
reprint. However, reprinting occurs
only when there is enough demand,
and the decision to reprint is ulti-
mately up to the company.
The Threadless experience

amounts to something of a revolution
in product design models and cost
effi ciency. It is an intriguing example
of the power of crowdsourcing.
1. Why is Threadless so successful?
What competitive advantages do
they have over comparable design
fi rms using traditional strategies
for product design?
2. What is the logic of crowdsourc-
ing and why has it caught on in
so many areas and for so many
applications?
3. What are some potential traps
and limitations of crowdsourcing
efforts?
4. Identify at least two other busi-
nesses, or business functions,
that you think could achieve
breakthrough gains via the use of
crowdsourcing.

IN TODAY’S WORLD,
WHY SOLVE YOUR
PROBLEMS ALONE?
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78
1. Defi ning and Structuring a Vague Problem
The third-quarter quality fi gures for the customer call center
you manage have been posted. Although your numbers look
good, you quickly notice that, compared to other call centers in
the company, your ratings for customer service are below
average. Given that part of your bonus is tied to these fi gures,
you are obviously concerned and very motivated to fi x the
problem. You call your counterparts in other call centers to see
what they’ve been doing recently and to generate some ideas
that might infl uence customer service. One manager said she
instituted a new game called “Answer the Call for Baseball,”

where the top 10 customer service representatives get to take
off work for a midday baseball game. Another manager in a
successful call center has increased his monitoring of reps on
the phone and is intervening immediately when a rep doesn’t
perform well. A third manager hasn’t done much of anything
innovative and said, “I guess my customers are easier to handle
than yours.” You sit back in your chair, perplexed to say the
least.
What is the problem here? What other information would be
useful? How would you begin to improve your customer
service quality rating? Is the problem defi nitely with your reps,
or could it be something else?
2. Avoiding Common Decision Errors
Putting your answers in the grid that follows, respond with
your fi rst instinct to each of the following six items. Also
include
your level of confi dence in each of the responses you provide.
A. Which is the more likely cause of death in the United
States: being hit by a falling airplane part or being attacked by
a shark?
B. Take just fi ve seconds for each mathematical string and

estimate the multiplicative product of
8 3 7 3 6 3 5 3 4 3 3 3 2 3 1, and then 1 3 2 3 3 3
4 3 5 3 6 3 7 3 8.
C. You have been carefully monitoring two slot machines in a
Las Vegas casino. One has paid off twice in the last hour.
The other has not paid off. You are now ready to play yourself.
Which one of those machines would give you the best
chance of winning?
D. Suppose each of the following cards has a number on one
side and a letter on the other, and someone tells you: “If
a card has a vowel on one side, then it has an even number on
the other side.” Which card(s) would you need to turn
over in order to decide whether the person is lying?
• Card 1: E
• Card 2: K
• Card 3: 4
• Card 4: 7
E. Which city is located farther north, New York, NY, or

Rome, Italy?
F. Six months ago, you sank the last $5,000 of your student
loan money into the purchase of a stock that was highly rec-
ommended to you by a trusted family friend. As of today, the
stock has already dropped 20 percent and is now worth
just $4,000. You are nervously ready to sell, but you simply
cannot afford to lose that $1,000 (plus commission costs)
and still pay for school next year. Would you sell?
How confi dent are you in each of your decisions to these
problems? Do you suspect there might be inaccurate biases or
judgment errors in any of your decisions? Are there any keys or
cues you can look for to avoid falling prey to the most common
and insidious judgment errors and decision traps?
Problem Record Your Answer
Confi dence Level
How confi dent are you that your answer is correct,
on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 100 (totally)?
A
B

C
D
E
F
MANAGE WHAT?
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CHAPTER 3 Solving Problems 79
Introduction
If you are like most people, you make about 100 decisions a
day. Some are easy
decisions (for example, what to eat for breakfast), while others

are more diffi cult
(how to allocate your work time). Every day, management life
brings new deci-
sions to be made and problems to be solved. Many managers
report truly loving
the problem-solving aspect of the job—ever-changing, always
interesting—while
others frequently cite problem solving as among the most
challenging and dif-
fi cult aspects of management life. Deciding on courses of
action, especially when
other people are involved, is what keeps managers awake at
night. Unfortunately,
examples in today’s organizations of poor problem solving are
all too common.
The good news is that much is known about solving problems
and avoiding deci-
sion traps. This chapter is devoted to these very important
skills.
The Challenge of Problem Solving
Of the skills covered in this book, problem solving may well be
the most complex—
and one of the most important to your day-to-day work life. By

defi nition, a
“problem” does not have a clear solution; otherwise it wouldn’t
be considered
a problem. Given the complexity inherent in most problems, it
is probably not
surprising that problem solving is typically found to be among
the most defi cient
skills in assessments of young managers. Some research even
suggests as high as
50 percent of managerial decisions made in organizations either
fail or are sub-
optimal. 1 With odds like that, it might seem that fl ipping a
coin would save the
time and effort involved. The reality, however, is we can
achieve a much higher
decision success rate—but only if we consistently adhere to
methods of solving
problems that have a demonstrated record of success.
Most problem-solving frameworks are simple in form and
concept, but the
trap is assuming simple understanding can substitute for the
discipline of execu-
tion. Moreover, perhaps more than any other skill, effective
problem solving and

decision making are in large part a function of what traps to
avoid and what
“When you confront a problem,
you begin to solve it.”
—Rudy Giuliani
3. Excelling in a Case Interview
Recognizing the importance of problem-solving skills, many
organizations now use case
interviews to evaluate candidates for jobs. Assume you are in an
interview and have been
presented with the following case problem: “Your fi rm is a
U.S.-based manufacturer of natu-
ral, health food products and is considering growing the
business by entering the huge and
expanding Chinese market. Should it?” How would you
respond? How would you go about
analyzing the opportunity? What questions would you ask? How
might you structure your
answer to best demonstrate problem-solving skills?
4. Learning from Past Decisions
You belong to a local service club and have been asked to serve

a three-year term as chair of
the club’s annual fund-raiser. However, the club has decided to
scrap their traditional fund-
raiser and “start a new chapter” with you as the leader. This
means that many, many deci-
sions have to be made and you have very little past history or
precedent to go on. In an effort
to manage expectations (and not let them get too high), you tell
the club that “this year is a
pilot and we will learn from it and certainly have greater
success in the next two years.”
How do great managers ensure that such learning really occurs?
What questions will you
ask and what types of information will you collect? What
mistakes are typically made that get
in the way of such learning from experience?
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not to do. The following section outlines some of the most
common traps to
good decisions and why smart people can often make such bad
choices. We then
describe a framework to help overcome biases and approach
problem solving in
an effective way.
Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions
As we noted in the introduction, research on decision making
suggests bad deci-
sions happen about as frequently as good ones. Very smart,
well-intentioned
managers make many of these fl awed decisions. In fact, very
smart people often
make very bad decisions because several insidious judgment
traps exist that have
been found to hamper the decision making of the best of us.
Decision making is
another area where true expertise involves knowing the traps
that so frequently
hinder sound judgment.

Intuition
Talking glowingly about the importance and value of “going
with your gut” or
of using your intuition to guide decisions is popular these days.
In fact, a survey
of executives in Fortune 1,000 fi rms found that 45 percent
relied upon “their
gut” more often than facts and fi gures when running their
businesses. 2 However,
evidence is mixed regarding how useful intuition is in solving
problems. Despite
the courageous tone often characterizing descriptions of making
decisions from
the gut, we can’t recommend relying solely on your intuition in
problem solving.
That doesn’t mean you should totally discount intuition, but just
that you should
KO 3-1
DO 3-1
KO 3-2

“I’m guilty of doing too much,
and I’m guilty of not seeing my
mistakes coming. What I’m not
guilty of is making the same
mistake twice.”
—Michael Dell
• Taking action is better than standing by. When faced with
a problem, we want
to act; it makes us feel like we’re accomplishing something. But
taking action
isn’t always better. Sometimes a poorly conceived cure can be
much worse than
the disease. Many problems managers face today come directly
from yesterday’s
solutions. The “do nothing” option is too often ignored or
neglected and should be
at least recognized as an option in almost all problem-solving
situations.
• Trust your gut. Of course, sometimes your “gut” is right.
But unless you’ve tracked
your gut decisions to know your success rate, your gut probably
won’t be very

helpful. Experience can play an important role in problem
solving, but requires
knowledge of previous results to evaluate its effectiveness. In
organizational
situations, intuition is vastly overrated as a source of decision
success.
• I know when I’m making a poor decision. In truth, few
people can know this
without training and practice. Researchers have discovered a
phenomenon known
as the bias blind spot. Even when people are good at spotting
decision traps and
logical fallacies in the decisions of others, they often fail
miserably in spotting the
same fallacies in their own decisions.
• Dividing an elephant in half produces two small elephants.
In reality, few complex
problems lend themselves to easy solutions or effective knee-
jerk compromises.
Effective problem solving focuses on facts and recognizes that
problems are rarely
as they appear. Most are symptoms of more complex issues and
require a holistic

approach to solve effectively.
MYTHS 3.1 Problem-Solving Myths ?
?
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 3.1
The “First Instinct” Fallacy
One great example of how conventional intuitive wisdom can
be wrong involves the question of whether to
change answers in the course of taking a test. Most of us have
probably been told something on the order of
“When taking a multiple-choice test, always trust your fi rst
instinct.” It usually includes a rationale such as “If you
are not fully certain of an answer, do not change it because your
fi rst instinct was probably right.”

While that may sound reasonable enough, a recent meta-
analysis (33 studies in all, representing over 70 years
of research) found that going with your fi rst instinct is actually
likely to be a poor choice. In one study ,3 researchers
examined midterm exam answer sheets (or Scantrons) of over
1,500 students taking the same course. They noted
each instance in which students changed an initial response to
an alternative response by examining erasure
marks made on the Scantron sheets. If the saying about trusting
your fi rst instinct is true, then students hoping
for the right answer should stick with their fi rst response. Yet
the results showed that over half the time a student
changed an initial response, the student benefi ted!
Student Response Changes and Results
Change from
Wrong to Right,
51%
Change from
Right to Wrong,

25%
Change from
Wrong to Wrong,
24%
The researchers found that students dread the notion of
potentially changing a right answer to a wrong one.
Thus, they become paralyzed and place more stock in their fi rst
instinct than they should. This fi rst instinct, which
is hard to detect in ourselves, drives our behavior and often
leads to poorer decisions.
bear in mind most people have a diffi cult time applying their
intuition systemati-
cally to solve problems.
In its simplest form, our intuition represents a collection of
what we’ve
learned about the world, without knowing we actually learned
it. 4 Intuition can be
useful if we track what we have learned and under what
circumstances that learn-

ing led to success so we can replicate it in the future. Moreover,
some research
shows intuition is important in automatic processes such as
social interactions
or driving a car—things we do without thinking about them.
However, knowing without understanding becomes problematic
in deci-
sion making. For example, unconscious biases we bring to bear
on situations
commonly infl uence our intuition. Such biases help explain the
long-standing
phenomenon of the disproportionately large number of men
being selected to
“My life is the complete opposite
of everything I want it to be. Every
instinct I have in every aspect
of life, be it something to wear,
something to eat . . . It’s all been
wrong.”
—George Costanza, character from
the TV sitcom Seinfeld

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professional orchestras. Orchestra directors traditionally held
auditions face-to-
face and apparently held an unconscious bias in favor of men. 5
When the audi-
tions were held blindly (with a screen separating the judges and
the musician),
women were selected at a much higher rate than before.
The Ladder of Inference
To show how our intuition operates and can lead to mistakes,
it’s useful to con-
sider what has been termed the ladder of inference. 6
Inference is drawing a
conclusion about something we don’t know based on things we
do know. We
make inferences multiple times a day to try to make sense of

our world. The
problem is we don’t realize we’re making such inferences.
Why? The process
happens so quickly and effortlessly we almost never devote
cognitive energy to
it. The ladder of inference ( Figure 3.1 ) is an analogy that
illustrates just how this
process of making inferences occurs.
At the very bottom of the ladder, we observe or experience
what people say
and do. This information is objective in the sense that the
behavior doesn’t change
from person to person. For example, say your teammate Bob is
45 minutes late
for a team meeting. You would all observe that fact—that he is
indeed 45 minutes
late. There is no disputing that.
Yet people have a hard time observing every possible aspect of
situations,
so they select certain aspects of the behavior to pay attention to.
You may have
noticed that the content of a meeting was particularly
controversial; others may

have noted it was a nice day out, perfect for golf. You probably
didn’t pay atten-
tion to everything either, however. Next, you make some
assumptions about what
you’ve observed based upon your own cultural and personal
experiences with
the observed behavior. You might assume people who don’t
show up for meet-
ings have something to hide. Or perhaps your experience tells
you traffi c is par-
ticularly bad at this time of day. Either way, you draw
conclusions about the
behavior—for example, “Bob knew it would be a diffi cult
meeting and opted out.”
Practice this!
FIGURE 3.1
The Ladder
of Inference
Source: Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R. B.,
and Smith, B. J.
(1994). The fi fth discipline fi eldbook. New York: Doubleday.

I take Actions
based on my
beliefs.
I adopt Beliefs
about the world.
I draw
Conclusions.
I make Assumptions
based on the
meanings I added.
I select “Data”
from what I
observe.
I observe “data” and
experiences (as a camera
might capture it).
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At this point, you have adopted a belief about how the world
works: “Some
people skip meetings when they anticipate controversy.” Those
adopted beliefs
then infl uence how you see future events and the actions you
take. You might
then believe, “Bob can’t deal with tough issues,” and take
action that says, “We
shouldn’t include Bob in our meetings going forward” (see
Figure 3.2 ).
Well, the truth is Bob was just at the wrong location. Let’s not
let Bob off the
hook for that move, but should we take the action of not
including him on the
team? Solving problems requires heightened awareness to our
limited human
abilities to consider all alternatives simultaneously. Solving

problems also
requires we not jump to inappropriate conclusions and that we
keep an open
mind about people, problems, and situations.
When we analyze people’s ladders of inference, a highly
destructive error
becomes readily apparent. The error deals with the process of
attributing causes
to events—that is, explaining why things occurred. This error is
so important to
understanding human behavior it has been termed fundamental
attribution
error. The essence of the fundamental attribution error is
people tend to over-
attribute behavior to internal rather than external causes. Thus,
when determin-
ing the cause of another person’s behavior, you are more likely
to consider factors
related to the person’s disposition (personality, ethnicity,
gender, and so on) than
to her particular situation (weather, lighting, traffi c, and so
on).
Perhaps more insidious is the self-serving bias, where we

attribute personal
successes to internal causes and personal failures to external
causes. For example,
let’s say you got an A on your last test. To what would you
likely attribute your suc-
cess? Hard work, excellent study habits, natural intellect? But
what if you failed
the test miserably? To what would you likely attribute your
failure? Tricky ques-
tions, perhaps a confusing professor, or the sniffl ing of
students with colds dur-
ing the test. The self-serving bias helps us maintain a
comfortable positive image
about ourselves. Unfortunately, that image is often built on
false information.
This process plays out in problem solving every day. “Why is
our customer
service so poor? Must be those customer service agents; they’re
incompetent.” Or
“How are we ever going to compete in this market? Get more
talented people in
the organization.” If you are going to solve problems well, you
need to expand
your thinking about the causes of events and others’ behaviors.

“If there is such a thing as a basic
human quality, self-deception is it.”
—Colin Turnbull
“Informed decision-making comes
from a long tradition of guessing
and then blaming others for inad-
equate results.”
—Scott Adams, creator of the
“Dilbert” cartoon strip
FIGURE 3.2
The Ladder
of Inference Example Bob is unreliable.
We shouldn’t include
him anymore. (Action)
Bob probably can’t
deal with tough issues.
(Adopted Belief)

Bob knew it was
going to be a rough
meeting and came
late on purpose.
(Assumption —
Personal Meaning)
The meeting started
at 4:00 p.m. and Bob
arrived at 4:45 p.m. —
and didn’t say why.
(Objective Data)
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Six Ways People Exercise Poor Judgment
Without Knowing It 7
We’ve tried to show that people are just not very good at
consistently drawing
appropriate or accurate conclusions from intuition. 8 We now
discuss ways in
which people, using their gut instinct and “experience,”
exercise poor judgment.
Our hope is you will (1) recognize quickly how easy it is to
make simple mistakes
by using intuition alone, (2) learn to spot the most common
decision-making
biases, and (3) discover simple methods for combating these
biases in judgment.
Judgment Error 1: Availability
The following are eight corporations (divided into two groups)
that were highly
ranked in the Fortune 500 according to total sales volume in
2009.
Group A includes: Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nike
Group B includes: Japan Post Holdings, Dexia Group,

Gazprom, Pemex
Which group of four companies (A or B) had the larger total
sales volume in
2009? If you answered Group A, pat yourself on the back, as
you’re not alone. You’re
wrong, but not alone! In fact, Group B’s sales were
approximately six times that of
Group A. Further, every company in Group B had sales higher
than all of Group A
combined. Let’s try another one. Which of the following causes
more deaths per
year in the United States, suicide or homicide? Most people
believe homicides
cause more deaths, but in fact suicides lead to more deaths by a
ratio of 2 to 1.
These two simple problems represent what’s known as the
availability bias.
This bias clouds our judgment because things more readily
available to us (that
is, those more easily brought to mind) are likely to be
interpreted as more fre-
quent or important. There are many stories in the news about
homicides, few

about suicides. The companies in Group A are household names,
but not as large
as the lesser-known companies in Group B. When solving a
problem, we often
choose solutions we’ve heard about. We feel more comfortable
with them and
assume that if we’ve heard about them, they’ll work. Marketing
fi rms know this
well, which explains why they want their products on the tip of
your tongue.
Judgment Error 2: Representativeness
Let’s say we told you the best student in our MBA class this
past term writes
poetry and is rather shy and quite introspective. What was the
student’s under-
graduate major—fi ne arts or business? Which type of job is the
student likely to
accept—management of the arts or management consulting?
When asked these
questions, most students suggest the student’s major must have
been fi ne arts
and that the student will likely take a job in managing the arts.
These conclusions
completely ignore, however, that the majority of MBA students

hold undergradu-
ate degrees in business and that many more MBAs take jobs in
management
consulting fi rms than they do in arts management. In other
words, people ignore
the “base rate” or the frequency of which people belong to
certain groups or cat-
egories. The easily made mistake— representative bias —is
that people pay more
attention to descriptors they believe to be more representative
of the person’s
career choice than the key base rate information that leads to
the better choice.
Another classic example of the representative bias comes in the
form of peo-
ple’s misconceptions about chance. For example, people assume
that, when a
sequence appears nonrandom, it must be nonrandom. 9 If you
won the lottery,
would you play different numbers? If you fl ipped a coin and it
was heads nine
times in a row, are you due for a tails on the tenth toss? Of
course not, but this
bias is applied with great regularity. So much so, it has been

termed the “gam-
bler’s fallacy,” in which people truly believe that each coin fl ip
or pull of the slot
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MANAGEMENT LIVE 3.2
The Hot Hand
Imagine that your favorite team is in the NCAA championship
basketball game. There are three seconds left on
the clock and your team is down by one. The coach is huddled
with his players designing the fi nal play. But every-
one knows who’s getting the ball—the player with the “hot
hand,” the one who has made his last six shots. He’s
on fi re! Anyone who has played sports long enough believes in
the phenomenon of the streak and the hot hand.
Unfortunately, it simply isn’t true.

Researchers analyzed the shooting patterns of the Boston
Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers in the mid-1980s. 10
They found prior shot performance did not infl uence or change
the likelihood of success on later shot perfor-
mance. That is, if you make your fi rst three shots, you’re no
more likely to make the fourth than you were the fi rst
three. This is a classic representative bias regarding chance and
doesn’t only occur in sports but biases decisions
in many contexts including where and when to invest money.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
Probability of Next Shot Being a Hit After . . .
Three Straight Hits .46
Two Straight Hits .50
One Hit .51
One Miss .54
Two Misses .53

Three Misses .56
Reprinted from Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 3,
Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone, and Amos Tversky, “The Hot
Hand in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random
Sequences,”
pp. 295–314. Copyright © 1985, with permission from Elsevier.
machine is somehow connected to previous actions. The coin,
the slot machine,
and so on, have no memory, yet it is common to assume the
probabilities of
future outcomes must somehow increase or decrease to offset or
“compensate
for” earlier outcomes. If you have ever played roulette, the
posting of previous
winning numbers is designed to trick you into making this error.
Another great
example of this is the “hot hand” in basketball that we discuss
in Management
Live 3.2. Even highly paid, experienced coaches make some
very poor decisions
based on this very seductive fallacy.
Another special case of the representative bias is what is

known as the hasty
generalization fallacy. For a variety of reasons, people often
draw inappropri-
ate general conclusions from specifi c cases because they do not
realize (or they
think you don’t realize) their specifi c example is not
necessarily so in all, or even
most, cases. Consider the guy who argues against motorcycle
helmet legislation
because he has ridden for 25 years without a helmet and has
never been hurt.
That may well be true, but so what? One helmet-less rider’s
personal experience
in no way refutes the notion that it is safer to ride with a
helmet. Similarly, it is
not uncommon to hear someone assert, “I do not agree with all
the fuss over cho-
lesterol. My grandfather lived to 95, and he ate bacon and eggs
every morning.”
The hasty generalization fallacy occurs because we tend to
operate by what
has been called the law of small numbers—that is, we are
willing to leap to gen-
eral conclusions after seeing only one or two examples. In fact,

we are particularly
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prone to make this thinking error because we tend to
personalize all experience
(we assume our experience is everyone else’s) or even
misinterpret our experi-
ence (“That’s the way the world is—I have seen it with my own
two eyes”).
Judgment Error 3: Anchoring and Adjustment
Consider an experiment in which students were asked to add
400 to the last three
numbers of their student ID and write it down. They then were
asked to use
this number to estimate when Attila the Hun invaded Europe
into regions of

France—that is, whether that event happened before or after the
date created by
the ID number). The results showed the following:
If ID number “date” was between: Average response was:
400–700 676 CE
701–1000 738 CE
1001–1200 848 CE
1201–1400 759 CE
Students tended to use their initial value as a starting point and
adjusted
their estimates around that starting value. But remember, this
initial value was
based on their ID numbers, not any historically relevant data!
(By the way, the
correct answer is 451 CE.) Research shows we often provide
estimates based
on the initial starting estimate. Even when people are told the
initial estimate is
random, their adjusted estimates remain close to the initial

estimate or anchor. 11
This pattern of anchoring and adjustment is quite prevalent.
That is, different
starting points lead to different end results. Consider the
following scenario:
A newly hired teacher for a large private high school has fi ve
years of experience
and solid qualifi cations. When asked to estimate the starting
salary for this employee,
one friend (who knows very little about the profession) guessed
an annual salary of
$31,000. What is your estimate?
If you’re like most people, your answer will be affected by the
friend’s ini-
tial estimate. In studies using similar scenarios, when the
friend’s estimate was
much higher, say $70,000, subsequent estimates were much
higher. This is the
case even when the scenario states that the friend knows very
little about the
profession!

The common mishaps resulting from this bias abound. Think
about the last
time you negotiated for anything. Who threw out the fi rst
number? That fi gure
served as a starting point for the negotiation, regardless of
whether it was a rea-
sonable fi gure or based on anything objective.
Judgment Error 4: Confirmation
Participants were asked in a research study to think about this
series of numbers:
2, 4, 6. This series conforms to a particular rule. Students were
asked to identify
the rule and, to do so, were allowed to propose a new sequence
of numbers they
believed conformed to the rule to test whether their rule was
correct. After this
period of experimentation, the students were asked to identify
the rule. Common
responses were:
• Numbers that increase by two.
• The difference between the fi rst two numbers is equivalent
to the difference between the last two.

Practice this!
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The rule used in the experiment was actually any three
ascending numbers.
Few students actually identifi ed this rule because the solution
requires students
to collect disconfi rming, rather than confi rming, information.
In other words,
the confi rmation bias represents people’s tendency to
collect evidence that sup-
ports rather than negates our intuition before deciding. When
students found a
rule that seemed to work, they were done searching. In solving
problems, one

of the most insidious traps is gathering data that seek to confi
rm our ideas and
exclude data that might disconfi rm them.
Judgment Error 5: Overconfidence
Consider the following quotes:
Heavier-than-air fl ying machines are impossible. —Lord
Kelvin, president of
the British Royal Society, 1895.
I think there is a world market for about fi ve computers. —
Thomas J. Watson,
chairman of IBM, 1943.
We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
—Decca
Recording Co. rejecting The Beatles.
Now consider these facts: 12
• 81 percent of surveyed new business owners thought their
business had
at least a 70 percent chance of success, but only 39 percent
thought that

most businesses like theirs would succeed.
• 80 percent of students believed they were in the top 30
percent of safe
drivers.
• A survey asked 829,000 high school students to rate their
own ability to
“get along with others,” and less than 1 percent rated
themselves as below
average. Further, 60 percent rated themselves in the top 10
percent, and
25 percent rated themselves in the top 1 percent.
What do all of these things have in common? They are
indicative of peoples’
overconfi dence in their abilities and underconfi dence in
others’. Often termed the
Lake Wobegon Effect (after the radio show in which the
imaginary town boasts
all of its children are above average), this overconfi dence
bias leads us to believe
we possess some unique trait or ability that allows us to defy
odds, whereas oth-
ers simply don’t have such a trait or ability. An example of the

overconfi dence
bias in action can be seen in investor behavior in the late 1990s.
Because of a
boom in technology stocks, even novice investors experienced
huge growth in
their portfolios. As technology stocks kept going up, many
investors believed that
their success was due to their stock-picking ability rather than
unsustainable
growth in one sector of the economy. The result for many was
huge losses. This
same process occurred in the recent real estate bubble of 2007.
Lenders and buy-
ers were overly confi dent that prices would keep going up and
the subsequent
drop in housing values left both banks and borrowers with huge
losses.
In an eye-opening study about the role of overconfi dence in
decision mak-
ing, researchers examined who could predict stock performance
better, laypeople
(in this case, students) or stock market professionals (that is,
portfolio managers,
analysts, brokers, and investment counselors). 13 The two

groups were asked to
forecast the best performing stocks out of a pair in 30 days with
only the name
of the company, industry, and monthly percent price change for
each stock for
the previous 12 months. In addition to trying to pick the
winning stock, the two
groups were asked to rate how confi dent they felt about their
predictions. The results
showed that the students picked the best-performing stock 52
percent of the time,
while the stock market professionals were only 40 percent
accurate. That’s correct,
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the stock market professionals performed signifi cantly worse
than would be

expected by chance alone! Yet these very same professionals
indicated that they
were, on average, 67 percent confi dent about their picks, while
students indicated
being only 59 percent confi dent about their choices. It turns out
that students, like
most laypeople, simply relied on past performance in making
their predictions.
Yet stock market professionals indicated that they relied mostly
on their judgment
and experience, believing that they possessed knowledge that
could defy the out-
comes that were reasonably suggested by chance and prior stock
performance.
Being confi dent is a great thing: It allows people to approach
diffi cult situa-
tions with courage and determination. Unfortunately, most of us
are overconfi -
dent and we greatly overestimate the true probability of success.
Research has
shown there is virtually no relationship between one’s confi
dence level about
being right and actually being right. That is, people (think
consultants, experts,

advisers) often exude confi dence about their opinions, but
confi dence doesn’t
make them any more accurate. The good news is some research
shows that,
when given feedback about being overconfi dent or asking
people to explain their
estimates, people reduce their subsequent estimates to be more
realistic.
Judgment Error 6: Escalation of Commitment
You just replaced the entire exhaust system on your somewhat
rusty 1996 Volvo
sedan, for $850. Two days later, you hear a clanking sound and
take your Volvo
directly to the mechanic. She tells you your Volvo will need a
new clutch and
major engine overhaul—at a cost of $1,400. Most people in this
situation would
spring for the repairs on the car, believing they have already
spent $850. Yet the
money already spent is irrelevant to the cost of the new repairs.
This phenom-
enon is known as escalation of commitment. The idea is
simple: People are
likely to continue to invest additional resources (time, money,

and so on) in fail-
ing courses of action even though no foreseeable payoff is
evident. The phrase
“throwing good money after bad” is the essence of escalation of
commitment.
Escalation is prevalent for several reasons. First, we don’t want
to admit that
our solution may not have been the right one, so we stay the
course. Second, we
don’t want to appear inconsistent or irrational, so we continue
to hope for the
best even though data simply don’t justify such a response.
Third, in organiza-
tions, not continuing could be seen as giving up rather than fi
ghting onward—
and nobody likes a quitter.
“When you discover you are
riding a dead horse, the best
strategy is to dismount . . . do
not buy a stronger whip, declare
that the horse is better, faster or
cheaper dead, or harness several
other dead horses together for

increased speed.”
—Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
“If at first you don’t succeed, try
again. Then quit. There’s no use
being a damn fool about it.”
—W. C. Fields
ProfessionalsStudents
70
50
Average Accuracy and Confidence on Stock Selection (%)
60
40
20
30

10
0
Confidence Accuracy
Source: Tomgren and Montgomery (2004).
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Overcoming Judgment Biases
Unfortunately, there are no simple or surefi re ways to always
avoid common
decision biases. Such biases remain exceedingly hard to avoid
even when we
are acutely aware of what they are and how often they occur.
Consider the case

of Jeffrey Z. Rubin, who was among the most notable scholars
in the study of
escalation before his death in 1995. 14 Professor Rubin was
killed in a climbing
accident when he continued to climb after his climbing partner
turned back
due to adverse weather conditions. Make no mistake, the biases
are insidious
and hardest to detect in our own decision making. Nonetheless,
useful tactics
exist: (1) confi dence estimates, (2) trial-and-error calibration,
and (3) healthy
skepticism.
Confidence Estimates
Since we tend toward overconfi dence in our decision making,
one way to curb
that bias is to attach an estimate of confi dence to beliefs held
by ourselves and
others. For example, say you want to improve the on-time
delivery problem of
your pizza delivery drivers. You ask one driver, “How many on-
time deliveries
can you make per night?” Your driver says 18. Okay, fair
enough. But how con-

fi dent is your driver? When asked, she (You were thinking it
was a man, weren’t
you? Pesky biases!) claims about an 80 percent confi dence
level. Well, now it
seems 18 isn’t really a good estimate after all. In fact, a more
accurate and use-
able estimate would be 14 to 22 on-time deliveries per night.
Now you have a
more realistic estimate of what your driver can reasonably
accomplish.
Most experts agree reliance on “single-point” estimates is
dangerous—they
just don’t provide enough information. So using confi dence
estimations to build
“confi dence ranges” can move you away from single-point
estimations. As psy-
chologist Scott Plous notes, the best method is simply to stop
yourself or others
and ask, “What is the chance that this judgment is wrong?” 15
Trial-and-Error Calibration
One familiar, but underutilized, method for improving problem
solving is
through trial and error. That is, if you want to improve your

success rate and
reduce failure tomorrow, you must learn from your successes
and failures today.
To illustrate, most people are surprised to learn weather
forecasters are incred-
ibly accurate. In fact, when an experienced weather person
predicts a 40 percent
chance of rain, it rains 39 percent of the time!
Compare that accuracy rate to that of physicians. One study in
a clinical set-
ting asked physicians to review patients’ medical history and
conduct a physical
examination, afterward predicting the likelihood that a patient
had pneumonia. 16
The results make you wish that physicians were more like
weather forecasters.
That is, when physicians said there was a 65 percent chance of
pneumonia, they
were accurate only 10 percent of the time. It didn’t improve
with confi dence
either. When they predicted an 89 percent chance of pneumonia,
they were right
just 12 percent of the time (see Figure 3.3 ). Why are weather
forecasters so accu-

rate and physicians less accurate? The answer lies in a key
aspect of trial and
error, namely, regular feedback and knowledge of results.
Weather forecasters predict rain and in a few hours get the
results of their
prediction; they get to see immediately weather that confi rms
or disconfi rms
their meteorological model. If the model was right, they note
what they did; if
it was wrong, they examine the data and note the aspects that
led to the wrong
prediction. This process repeats itself every day as forecasters
calibrate their pre-
dictions with the results. Research supports this calibration
process as a way to
avoid biases and make better decisions.
“Good judgment comes from
experience. Experience comes
from bad judgment.”
—Walter Wriston
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Training yourself to use trial-and-error calibration involves a
few simple
steps. First, with every prediction, record the reasons why
you’ve established the
prediction. In several studies, researchers have found that when
they make note
of the reasons for their decision they do a better job of tracking
and learning. 17
Second, track the results. Consequences are often separated
greatly by time;
not all of us get the luxury of seeing the immediate results of
our forecasts each
day. So keep good records of what happened so you have the
ability to defend
decisions. When others say, “We always lose business when we
release a product

too soon,” you’ll be ready with data that might poke holes in
such thinking.
Third, study the success and failures—you need both confi
rming and discon-
fi rming evidence to truly know. Fourth, remember that chance
is not self- correcting.
A string of failures does not mean you are “due” for a success
or vice versa.
Healthy Skepticism
Another simple but powerful rule of thumb is to approach all
decisions and pre-
sented evidence with healthy skepticism. Be prepared to
challenge yourself and
other “experts” and seek out negative or disconfi rming
evidence. Here are a few
specifi c questions that refl ect a healthy skepticism and can
ultimately lead to
better decisions:
• What are the strongest arguments against my position? On
what basis am
I rejecting them? (You may want to write these down.)

• What are the weakest parts of my position? On what basis
am I accepting
them? Would I fi nd this reasoning convincing if an opponent
used it to
justify her arguments?
• How will I know if I am wrong? Given that we have a strong
tendency
toward escalation of commitment and denial, if we can construct
in
advance a personal defi nition of failure/error, then we may
know when
it’s time for plan B. Sharing that with someone else is a good
way to keep
you honest.
“I’ve learned that mistakes can
often be as good a teacher
as success.”
—Jack Welch
0
0

10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
20 40 60 80 100
Physicians
Weather

Forecasters
Calibration of Weather Forecasters and Physicians
Predicted Probability
A
ct
ua
l P
ro
b
ab
ili
ty
FIGURE 3.3
Accuracy of Weather
Forecasters Versus
Physicians

Source: Plous, S. (1993). The psychology of judgment and
decision making. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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• In considering facts, ask questions like: How do we know
this? What
is the base rate (could something just be random and we
mistakenly
presume cause)? Percentage of what? What are the available
facts?
• Are there more alternatives?
In short, the best defenses for decision biases are:
1. Do not jump to conclusions.

2. Do not assume a relationship is a cause; record and test
your decision
outcomes.
3. Do not base your conclusion only on your own experience.
4. Do not just look to support your case. Look for the
nonsupporting
evidence, too.
5. Do not fall prey to overconfi dence; get confi dence
estimates and ranges.
These defenses are simple to know but hard to do. If you fi nd
yourself think-
ing how commonsensical these defenses may seem, you would
be wise to recall
the remarkable frequency of decision biases even among the
brightest of peo-
ple. Challenge yourself to recognize and steer clear of those
biases in your own
thinking.
Solving Problems Effectively

In thinking about an effective model for attacking problems,
two notes are
important to make at the outset. First, as the quote from W.
Edwards Deming
insightfully conveys, there truly is a difference between good
decisions and good
outcomes. That is, you can never fully control the outcomes of
your decisions.
What you can control is how you will decide—and that is the
importance of
understanding a framework and having the discipline to use it.
Second, there is no such thing as a perfect decision or a perfect
decision
process. As humans, we will always be subject to bounded
rationality. 18 Our
brains’ limitations constrain our thinking and reasoning ability,
and, thus, it is
impossible to consider simultaneously all information relevant
to any decision
or problem. Bounded rationality leads managers to engage in
what is known
as satisfi cing or determining the most acceptable solution
to a problem, rather
than an optimal one. Nonetheless, adhering to a problem-solving

model has been
shown to improve decision quality, and a number of proven
tools and techniques
are worth utilizing in different situations. In the following, we
outline a popular
model as well as some of the better tools for employing each
element of that
model. The model consists of fi ve major steps that we
abbreviate into the acro-
nym PADIL (pronounced “paddle”), or problem,
alternatives, decide, implement,
learn (see Figure 3.4 ).
“A good decision cannot guar-
antee a good outcome. All
real decisions are made under
uncertainty. A decision is there-
fore a bet, and evaluating it as
good or not must depend on the
stakes and the odds, not on the
outcome.”
—W. Edwards Deming
FIGURE 3.4

The PADIL Problem-
Solving Framework Problem
Implement
Learn
Alternatives
Decide
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A Problem-Solving Framework: PADIL
Define and Structure the Problem
The fi rst step in any good problem-solving process is to defi ne
and structure

the problem. Put another way, you want to be sure you are
working on the
correct problem. One common way this seemingly obvious
starting point is
mishandled is to begin with a solution, not the problem. For
example, take
the common managerial lament: “In my company, there is a
serious lack of
training.” That may potentially be true, but a more appropriate
problem-
framing process would bring forth the question, “What’s the
problem that
more training would address?” Training is one potential
solution to a problem
of skill defi ciency, but we fi rst need to clarify that skill defi
ciency is a problem
rather than, say, motivation or availability of resources.
Moreover, even if skill
defi ciency is the problem, training is only one possible
solution. People can
acquire skills through several other means, such as on-the-job
practice, experi-
ence, and mentoring.
The temptation to jump to a solution is very powerful and leads

to what
problem-solving expert Ian Mitroff calls “solving the wrong
problem pre-
cisely.” 19 There are several ways in which people solve the
wrong problem
precisely.
• Picking the wrong stakeholders. Solving the wrong
problem often
occurs because the problem solver fails to include key players.
For
example, in order to solve a problem on a manufacturing line,
including
people who actually work on the line to help defi ne the
problem would be
helpful.
• Framing the problem too narrowly. Problems are often
larger than
they may at fi rst appear. Managers can mistakenly limit that
scope early
by assuming the problem is narrow. For example, a manager
might deal
with theft in his department by assuming the problem is unique
to his

department rather than throughout the organization. Starting
with a par-
ticular solution in mind is not an effective strategy.
• Failure to think systemically. Individuals focus on a
particular aspect
of the problem, rather than the entire system or interrelated
aspects of
the problem. Focusing on the system allows for the examination
of the
real problem or “root cause.”
• Failure to fi nd the facts. The old adage “First seek to
understand” is
critical if you are to solve the right problem. There are good and
effi -
cient tools for uncovering the facts in any problem situation,
rather
than making hasty generalizations with untested assumptions
and
anecdotes.
Assess Key Stakeholders
Few problems in organizations are unique to one person. That
is, problems and

their proposed solutions likely have far-reaching implications
beyond those in
your immediate surroundings. For this reason, no problem-
solving effort is com-
plete without an understanding of the key stakeholders. A
stakeholder is literally
anyone who has a stake in the problem or solution. Any problem
you’re trying to
solve usually impacts more people than you might initially
think. Therefore, one
critical piece of problem defi nition is to conduct a stakeholder
analysis, which
will help you uncover the various parties involved in a problem
and its potential
solution. Tool Kit 3.1 describes the specifi c steps involved in
completing such an
analysis.
KO 3-3
DO 3-2
KO 3-4
DO 3-3

DO 3-4
“A problem well stated
is a problem half solved.”
—John Dewey
Practice this!
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Tool Kit 3.1 Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder analysis is an essential tool for any problem-
solving endeavor. It is also a “living” document, mean-
ing that stakeholders require constant attention while solving a
problem. Thus, a careful analysis will help you get

an understanding of how the decision impacts different groups
of people, who has the biggest stake and most
power, and which stakeholders are likely to support or resist
potential solutions to the problem.
1. Identify Key Stakeholders. Create a chart of primary
stakeholders —individuals or groups that have direct
authority or economic infl uence over the problem—and
secondary stakeholders —individuals or groups
that might be affected indirectly by the problem.
2. Prioritize Your Stakeholders. Using a simple 2 3 2
matrix, with the dimensions of Stake and Power, clas-
sify (plot) each stakeholder to get a graphic representation of
who your most important stakeholders to
involve in the process are. For example, those stakeholders who
have a high stake and a lot of power or
infl uence should be your top priority. They should be involved
in every step of the PADIL process.
3. Examine Support/Resistance. Once you’ve begun defi
ning the problem and generating solutions, it’s
helpful to determine the degree of support or resistance. Talk to
your stakeholders, describe the problem
as it has been framed, and talk about potential solutions. Gauge

their relative support or resistance for
how the problem has been defi ned and framed.
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder
Name
Strongly
Against
Moderately
Against Neutral
Moderately
Supportive
Strongly
Supportive
MANAGEMENT LIVE 3.3
Solving the Wrong Problem Precisely20

Examples abound of solving the wrong problem precisely. One
compelling example is the story of the Make-A-
Wish Foundation, a fi rst-rate nonprofi t with passion. Its sole
mission is to fi nd ways to grant dreams and wishes to
terminally ill children. In 1996, the organization made headlines
as it attempted to fulfi ll the wish of a 17-year-old
boy named Erik. Erik’s dream was to kill a Kodiak bear in the
wild and display the skin in front of the fi replace. To
fulfi ll the wish, the foundation enlisted the Safari Club
International to purchase all the hunting equipment and
make the dream happen. With outstanding coordination, the
Safari Club and Make-A-Wish fulfi lled Erik’s wish.
Unfortunately, the decision to grant this wish had some
unforeseen consequences, namely, outraging every ani-
mal activist group in the country. Newspapers were fl ooded
with bad press about the foundation’s inability to
make good decisions, tarnishing the group’s reputation. The
foundation solved the problem of “fi nding a way to
make Erik’s wish come true” quite precisely because they
viewed the problem simply as “granting the wish.” In
reality, the problem was much more complex and required a full
examination of all those potentially affected by
this solution, namely, the key stakeholders.
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Determining Whom to Involve
One of the more challenging issues you will face in problem
solving is determining
who owns a particular problem—that is, who should be
primarily accountable for
solving the problem. For example, it is common for a manager
to mistakenly dele-
gate problems to an employee or team when the manager is
actually the most appro-
priate person to solve the problem. Equally common, managers
often attempt to
solve a problem on their own when employee input or actual
delegation is required.
Although research shows getting others involved in problem
solving usually
results in better decisions, it does not mean others should

always make the fi nal
decision. In other words, sometimes a manager just needs input
from employees
(a voice not a vote) and that is the extent of their involvement.
In other cases, del-
egating the decision to those most closely involved is
appropriate. As noted ear-
lier, a common trap is to make a habit of solving employee
problems in isolation.
One useful tool for helping gauge the appropriate level of
involvement in
problem solving is that developed by Victor Vroom and Phillip
Yetton. 21 Those
authors note that a decision-maker could involve others on a
broad continuum
ranging from no involvement to full employee delegation. As
seen in Figure 3.5 ,
this continuum represents fi ve key participation approaches:
decide, consult
individually, consult group, facilitate group, delegate to group.
FIGURE 3.5
Vroom and Yetton’s
Problem-Solving

Approaches 22
Reprinted from Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 28, No. 4, by
V. H. Vroom, “Leadership and the Decision Making
Process,” pp. 82–94. Copyright © 1969, with permission from
Elsevier.
Manager-Driven
Problem Solving
Employee-Driven
Problem Solving
Decide Consult Individually Consult Group Facilitate Group
Delegate to Group
Manager makes
the decision alone
and announces it
to employees.
Manager presents
the problem
to individual
employees and

uses input to make
the decision.
Manager presents
the problem to all
employees in
manager’s group
and uses group’s
input to make the
decision.
Manager presents
the problem to
group and acts
as a facilitator to
help define
the problem.
Manager acts as
a peer on the
problem-solving
team.
Manager gives
problem to
employees and

permits employees
to decide using
an appropriate
decision-making
model. Manager
provides necessary
resources to
ensure the
group’s success.
Thus, you have fi ve approaches for engaging (or disengaging)
in the
problem-solving process. The model goes one step further,
however, in helping
you decide which of the fi ve approaches will be most useful
given the problem you
are facing. The framework identifi es seven factors that must be
addressed before
you decide which approach is best. These factors can be framed
as questions to
be answered, though not all factors will be present in every
problem situation. 23
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• Decision Signifi cance —The signifi cance of the decision
to the success of
the unit/organization.
• Importance of Commitment —The importance of employee
commitment
to the decision.
• Leader’s Expertise —A manager’s knowledge or expertise
regarding the
problem.
• Likelihood of Commitment —The likelihood that employees
would
commit themselves to a decision made by the manager alone.
• Group Support —The degree to which employees support
the unit or

organization’s stake in the problem.
• Group Expertise —The degree to which the group of
employees has
knowledge or expertise regarding the problem.
• Group Competence —The employees’ abilities to work
together in
solving the problem.
Using your evaluation of the seven factors in simple high (H)
or low (L) terms, you
can create a fl owchart (see Figure 3.6 ) that will yield the most
effective participa-
tion approach. Keep in mind, this is a highly prescriptive
approach and certainly
cannot take into account every possible scenario. However,
Vroom and his col-
leagues have demonstrated in multiple studies that managers
using this method
had a success rate of 62 percent versus a 37 percent success rate
for managers who
did not use the method. 24 Thus, even though it may not take
into account every
possible factor, it seems to do a good job at capturing the most

important factors.
Reprinted from Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 28, No. 4, by
V. H. Vroom, “Leadership and the Decision
Making Process,” pp. 82–94. Copyright © 1969, with
permission from Elsevier.
FIGURE 3.6
Vroom Participation
Decision Tree
Time-Driven Model
Decide
Decide
Decide
Decide
Delegate
Delegate

Consult
(Group)
Facilitate
Consult
(Individually)
Consult
(Individually)
Consult
(Group)
Facilitate
Facilitate
Facilitate
H
L
H

L
L
H
H
L
L
H
H - - -
-
-
-
-
-
-

H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
D
ec
is
io
n

Si
g
ni
fic
an
ce
Im
p
o
rt
an
ce
o
f
C
o

m
m
it
m
en
t
Le
ad
er
's
E
xp
er
ti
se
Li

ke
lih
o
o
d
o
f
C
o
m
m
it
m
en
t
G
ro

up
Su
p
p
o
rt
G
ro
up
E
xp
er
ti
se
Te
am

C
o
m
p
et
en
ce
P
R
O
B
L
E
M
S
T
A
T
E
M

E
N
T
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Framing the Problem Correctly
Before you begin to solve any problem, you must learn to frame
the problem cor-
rectly. This is the essence of solving the right problem
precisely. Strong evidence
suggests the way in which a problem is stated determines the
quantity and qual-
ity of solutions generated. 25 Consider the following problem:
The parking lot outside an offi ce building is jammed with
workers’ cars. Management
decides to tackle the problem so they convene a committee with

instructions to devise
different ways to redesign the parking lot to hold more cars.
The work group does its
job, coming up with six different methods for increasing the
lot’s capacity. 26
The problem defi ned by management in this case is “to
redesign the parking
lot to hold more cars.” Has the real problem been framed
correctly? No! Manage-
ment didn’t charge the work group with solving the problem
(the jammed park-
ing lot), but rather gave them a solution (redesign the lot) and
asked for different
methods to implement that solution. Further, the real problem as
framed cor-
rectly would be, “The parking lot is jammed with cars,” and a
statement of why
this is a problem, perhaps “Thus, it can’t accommodate all of
our employees who
drive to work.” Framed this way, the work group is free to
consider all sorts of
potential solutions, which may include expanding the parking
lot, but could also
include providing benefi ts for taking public transportation or

carpool programs.
Framing problems correctly is diffi cult since our immediate
need is to begin
solving the problem. But the way in which a problem is framed
can lead to dras-
tically different actions with varied consequences. 27
Consider some research
that asked participants either “Do you get headaches
frequently, and if so, how
often?” or “Do you get headaches occasionally, and if so, how
often?” The words
“frequently” versus “occasionally” are the only difference in
these statements. In
this study, participants asked the fi rst question responded with
an average of 2.2
headaches per week ( frequently ), whereas participants asked
the second question
reported 0.7 headaches per week ( occasionally ). A simple
word change in how a
problem statement is phrased can lead people to arrive at very
different conclu-
sions about the nature of the problem.
When you start to examine problem framing, you will notice

the tendency for
people to generally frame problems in “either–or” terms. This
tendency has been
termed the black or white fallacy, which assumes our
choices are clear and lim-
ited to two (it’s either black or white), when in reality there
may be many other
choices (shades of gray). Sometimes people make this mistake
unconsciously
because it does not occur to them that they have other choices.
Other times they
do it consciously for manipulative purposes—for example, “If I
want you to do A,
I can increase your odds of doing it by convincing you your
only other alternative
is B, which is clearly unacceptable.”
Let’s look at another example of how framing problems is
tricky. In a research
study, 28 one group of participants read the following fi rst
scenario and another
group read the second:
1. The government is preparing to combat a rare disease
expected to take

600 lives. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have
been pro-
posed, each of which, scientists believe, will have certain
consequences.
Program A will save 200 people if adopted. Program B has a
one-third
chance of saving all 600, but a two-thirds chance of saving no
one. Which
program do you prefer?
2. The government is preparing to combat a rare disease
expected to take
600 lives. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have
been pro-
posed, each of which, scientists believe, will have certain
consequences.
Through Program A, 400 people would die if adopted. For
Program
B, there is a one-third chance that no one would die, but a two-
thirds
chance that all 600 would die. Which program do you prefer?
Practice this!

“If you’re seeking a creative
answer to your problem, you
must first give sufficient attention
to understanding what
the problem is.”
—Gerard Nierenberg
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Both scenarios are exactly the same, that is, they are logically
equivalent. In
scenario 1, the problem is framed in terms of lives saved,
whereas in scenario 2
the problem is framed in terms of lives lost. This simple
change leads participants
to avoid risk and heavily endorse program A (72 percent) in the
“lives saved”

frame and largely seek risk by selecting program B (78 percent)
in the “lives lost”
frame (see Figure 3.7 ). Took Kit 3.2 offers some easy methods
to examine prob-
lem frames in different ways.
Thinking Systemically
No discussion of solving the right problem is complete without
a basic under-
standing of systems and systems thinking. A system is a
perceived whole whose
elements “hang together” because they continually affect each
other over time
Tool Kit 3.2 Methods for Reframing Problems
Here are four simple methods that will help you to view
problems differently.
1. Paraphrase: Restate in your own words what someone
else has stated.
Initial: How can we reduce our shipping delays?
Reframe: How can we keep shipping delays from increasing?
2. 180 8 Turnaround: Simply turn the problem around.

Initial: How can we encourage students to study for exams?
Reframe: How can we discourage students from studying for
exams?
3. Broaden It: Reframe the problem with a broader frame of
reference.
Initial: Should we expand our product line in China?
Reframe: How can we achieve increased fi nancial success in
China?
4. Redirect the Problem: Change the actual focus of the
problem.
Initial: How can we increase our revenue?
Reframe: How can we decrease our costs?
0
10
20

30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1 2
Positive Frame
“Lives Saved”
Negative Frame
“Lives Lost”
P
er

ce
nt
ag
e
P
re
fe
rr
in
g
O
ut
co
m
e
Avoid Risk

Seek Risk
FIGURE 3.7
Framing Effects
and Risk
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and operate toward a common purpose. 29 The human body is
a great example
of a system. When you see the doctor because your stomach
hurts, the doctor
examines other areas of your body and takes your temperature,
blood pressure,
and pulse. Why is that?
It is because the stomach is part of a larger bodily system.
Thus, your doc-

tor is attempting to fi nd the root cause of your stomach
problem, which may
have nothing to do with your stomach at all, but rather be a
problem with your
pancreas that contributes to stomach pain or sore back muscles
creating pain
that feels like it’s coming from your stomach. Effective problem
solving almost
always demands attention to a larger system and uncovering the
root cause(s)
(for example, the pancreas) whereas simply treating the
symptoms (stomach
pain) will not solve the problem adequately.
Organizations are elaborate systems and contain thousands of
interrelated
parts, some of which are more obvious than others. All systems
express what is
known as systemic structure or a pattern of
interrelationships among the sys-
tem components. The challenge is symptoms are always much
more visible than
their underlying systemic structure. Yet this underlying
structure is what holds
the promise for real problem solving.

So a systems approach—“How will this change affect other
things?”—is criti-
cal to being effective. A helpful visual is to think of system
structure as being part
of an iceberg. Icebergs exist above and below the water,
meaning part of the ice-
berg is quite visible, while another part is completely concealed
(see Figure 3.8 ).
At the tip of the iceberg are events in the system. Turnover has
increased,
sales are down, or orders are delayed are all examples of events
that take place
in an organizational system. Problems solved at the event level
tend to be short-
lived and do nothing to actually address the real problem. For
example, if turn-
over is high, we might institute a new bonus system, hoping to
retain employees.
But if the real reason turnover is high has nothing to do with the
pay system, it
is unlikely to work.
Working our way toward the water are patterns of behavior or

trends. That
means examining the problem by seeking to understand the
overall pattern that
has persisted over time. For example, as we plot data for
turnover, we might fi nd
“The significant problems we face
cannot be solved at the same
level of thinking we were at when
we created them.”
—Albert Einstein
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turnover is always highest in one particular month out of the
year when the com-
petition tends to seek new talent. Thinking at the trend level, as

opposed to the
event level, helps us put the most recent events in context.
Finally, under the water is the systemic structure. The systemic
structure rep-
resents the most powerful information because it focuses on the
actual cause of
the patterns of behavior, which then explain the events. If you
really want to solve
a problem, you must solve the right problem by getting to the
systemic structure.
One reason people have trouble thinking systemically is we are
taught to
view the world in linear, rather than nonlinear terms. Purely
linear thinking is a
bit of a fallacy in that it rests on the assumption that present
trends will continue
in the same direction and pace (for example, when you retire, a
Toyota Prius will
cost $209,000 and a Big Mac $25). Strategy plans often fail
because strategists
assume the world as we know it will not change much and that
current trends
are permanent. Perhaps the most common example of linear

management think-
ing is that companies with a hot new product overexpand their
capacity only to
fi nd themselves out of luck when demand softens.
Let’s view another example using the iceberg approach.
Suppose a fi re breaks
out in your area. This is an event. If you respond by putting
the fi re out, you are
simply reacting. In other words, you’ve not done anything that
would prevent
new fi res. If, however, you not only extinguish the fi re but
study the location of
fi res in your area, you are paying attention to patterns. For
example, you might
notice certain neighborhoods incur more fi res than others. One
response would
be to adapt to this pattern by adding more fi re houses in those
areas. What if,
however, you examined the systems —which might include
smoke detector dis-
tribution and the building material used—that sustain the
pattern’s fi res? That
might lead you to build new fi re alarm systems and establish
new safety codes.

Using this approach, you are getting to the bottom of preventing
new fi res. 30
Why do most communities respond to an increase in fi res by
hiring more fi re
personnel? The answer is people often solve problems based on
faulty thinking
and rarely identify the systemic structures at work. To identify
these systemic
structures requires uncovering one’s assumptions (discovering
what’s below the
surface) or our mental models about the systemic structure.
Mental models
are the prevailing assumptions, beliefs, and values that sustain
current systems.
These habits of thought enable us to ignore valid data, despite
the fact that those
FIGURE 3.8
The Systems-Approach
Iceberg EventsWhat just
happened?
Systemic Structure

What are the forces at play
that maintain those
patterns/trends?
Patterns/Trends
What’s been happening?
Have we been
here before?
Mental Models
What elements in my/our
thinking allows this to persist?
How am I/are we perpetuating
this structure?
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data are essential to solving the problem. In addition, we protect
and preserve
these mental models by making them “undiscussable.” That is,
they become ways
of being in organizations. So even if our thinking is faulty, we
don’t question it
or examine it. If you’ve ever heard, “That’s just the way its
done,” or “We have an
understanding about that,” that’s a clue a mental model may be
contributing to
the problem.
Learning how to bring mental models to the surface or
challenge them is
important to good problem solving. The best way to learn this
skill is by under-
standing how to ask the right questions about a problem—that
is, developing
inquiry skills. Inquiry skills allow you to examine your own
mental models
as well as others. For example, let’s say you’re trying to solve
the problem of

dropped calls in your customer service center. You seek your
employees’ opinion
by asking the following question: “Why are there so many
dropped calls in the
service center?” You’re likely to get great responses, but how
will you know what
the real problem is? You won’t unless you attempt to fi nd the
root cause. That is,
when your employees respond with reasons, your response
should not be, “OK,
thank you,” but should be to dig deeper. These question stems
can help you dig
deeper toward the root cause:
• What leads you to believe that is the case?
• What conditions exist that allow this to occur?
• Can you tell me more?
• What have you seen that may contribute to this problem?
• Can you help me understand your thinking?
• What do we assume to be true?

Inquiry skills are aimed at understanding people’s mental
models. This
includes examining your own mental models, including asking
“What is my role
in this problem?” and “What about my behavior allows this
problem to persist?”
You can easily delude yourself into thinking the problem is out
there when in fact
it may be closer to home than you think!
Tools for Understanding the Problem Scope
Some problems have a very well-defi ned scope, while others
are quite broad.
Your job is to determine the boundaries of your problem—that
is, determining
what is truly germane to your problem and what falls outside
the realm of the
problem. With most problems, potential causes and solutions are
infi nite. Your
job is to narrow the potential causes down and move on to the
next step in the
PADIL process— alternatives. We discuss various tools for
helping you under-
stand the problem scope. You can use these tools on your own,

but they work
best when you have a few key stakeholders working with you. If
you engage in
these exercises with a team, keep in mind your team members
are likely to cen-
sor their comments about problems if they think you won’t want
to hear them.
Don’t kick off the exercises by offering your opinion fi rst; the
group will likely
conform to it. Let others go fi rst.
Affi nity Diagram. The affi nity (similarity) diagram is an
idea generation method
that allows you to sort the major aspects of the problem into
themes or catego-
ries. The categories will help when you begin to gather data
about the problem
and research alternatives. The following steps outline how to
create an affi nity
diagram.
1. Write the problem statement (one you’ve framed well) on
a fl ip chart or
board. Underneath the problem, write the phrase, “What are the
possible

causes of it?”
“He who asks a question may be
a fool for five minutes, but he who
never asks a question remains a
fool forever.”
—Tom Connelly
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just
that I stay with problems longer.”
—Albert Einstein
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2. Using sticky notes, allow each person to write as many
potential

causes of the problem as possible, one per sticky note, and place
them on the board or fl ip chart. Do not evaluate the merit of
each
person’s idea.
3. Once all the ideas are posted, begin to look for
similarities in the
ideas. Group the similar notes together and label them
according to
the category they represent. For example, “These fi ve seem to
deal
with our ‘Delivery Process’ and these three with our ‘Customer
Service
Structure.’” You now have some ideas for where to begin your
data
collection.
Is / Is Not. This simple method determines your problem’s
boundaries by
describing aspects that are part of the problem and those that
are not. Use the
following steps as a guideline.
1. On a piece of paper or fl ip chart, write the problem
statement.

2. Draw a line down the middle. On one side put the word
“Is” and on the
other the words “Is Not.” Down the left-hand side of the paper,
write the
words “what,” “who,” “when,” and “where.”
3. Answer the questions. What is the crux of the problem;
what is not
the crux of the problem? Who is involved with this problem;
who
is not involved? When is the problem a problem; when is it
not a
problem? Where is the problem appearing most; where is it
not
appearing most?
Graphic Displays. Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand
words. Taking
what you know about the problem so far and graphing it in some
meaningful
way can be incredibly helpful. A histogram or bar chart
allows for the display
of data categories (on the X axis) tracked against some
important standard (on

the Y axis). For example, type of part manufactured ( X axis)
and the number of
parts per type made each hour ( Y axis). A scatter plot can also
be useful. The
scatter plot demonstrates the relationship between two
variables. For instance,
you might track students’ test grades on one axis ( Y ) and
student absences on
the other axis ( X ) to see if there is some type of relationship
between test grades
and class attendance. For instance, we might expect to fi nd
that, as absences
decrease, test grades increase.
One of the most powerful graphic displays is known as a
behavior-over-time
chart, or BOT. In order to create a BOT, you need to have been
collecting data for
some given time period. Let’s say you regularly track customer
service behaviors
(for example, problems solved in fi rst call, number of calls
handled per hour,
and so on). As you plot these behaviors over time, you may start
to see patterns
emerge. For example, you may notice that during two months in

the year the call
volume skyrockets. As you piece this information together with
other data you
routinely collect, you also note an increase in employee
absenteeism that cor-
responds with those spikes. Problem-solving experts agree
certain patterns that
appear in BOTs can help to identify a systemic problem, one
not likely to respond
to a quick fi x. 31 These include:
• Increases that level off
• Steeply rising increases
• Steeply falling decreases
• “Boom and bust” cycles (such as up- and downswings)
In Tool Kit 3.3, we offer another graphic display method,
known as Pareto
graphing, to help identify the most critical components of a
problem.
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Generate Creative Alternatives
Hopefully, the process of framing the problem will lead you to
think about many
potential solutions to the problem. Research shows that
generating multiple
alternatives to problems results in higher-quality solutions. And
the key to doing
so is fi nding ways to generate as many creative alternatives as
possible. Let’s
examine the following scenario:
A building manager receives several complaints about the long
wait times for
the building’s elevator. He calls a consultant who recommends
three alternatives:
(1) build new elevators, (2) space out the elevators between fl
oors, or (3) make the ele-

vators faster. The manager thinks these solutions are good, but
costly. The manager
then consults a psychologist, who recommends giving people
something to do while
they wait. The manager installs mirrors by the elevators and the
complaints stop.
The alternative proposed by the psychologist was not only
cheap but incred-
ibly effective; people simply occupied their time looking at
themselves. Would you
have thought of that? We certainly didn’t and herein lies the
quandary: Left to our
own thinking, we rarely arrive at truly creative and unique
alternatives to prob-
lems. Most of the time, our alternative solutions look awfully
familiar and offer
only slight improvements (What should we do this weekend?
Well, what did we
“The key to having a good idea is
to have lots of ideas.”
—Linus Pauling

Tool Kit 3.3 Pareto Graphing
Sometimes, in attempting to solve a problem, you can’t solve
the whole thing, yet solving one component still
would make a signifi cant improvement. Applying the Pareto
principle, 80 percent of the value to be gained is
likely to be accomplished by solving 20 percent of the problem.
In other words, some things are just much more
important than others. If you could fi x the one or two major
problem areas, you’d be likely to eradicate over
three-quarters of the problem. For that reason, the Pareto
principle has become known as the 80/20 rule. Using
this principle can help you quickly isolate where you’d like to
spend your problem-solving efforts.
For example, professors sometimes receive poorly written
student papers. Yet it’s often diffi cult to determine
where to spend time helping students improve their writing,
particularly when writing is not the course’s primary
intent. Using the Pareto principle, a professor could quickly
isolate the major source of her students’ writing
problems. While grading an assignment, she could track the
following information in all 40 papers she receives:
grammar, punctuation, spelling, and typing/computer errors.
After compiling the data, she could then create a
chart like the following:

Problem # of Errors % of Total Cumulative %
Grammar 47 44 44
Punctuation 28 26 70
Spelling 21 19 89
Typing/Computer 12 11 100
Total 108 100
Looking at the chart, she would easily see the largest problem
by far is grammar. In addition, punctuation
causes problems as well. Even if the professor chose only to
deal with the grammatical errors of her students, she
would drastically improve their writing skills. This is only
evident after charting the data.
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do last weekend?). Moreover, we often trust the fi rst solution
out of the box. 32 We
don’t question whether other, perhaps better, solutions exist.
Say that a recruiter
calls you and offers you a job more attractive than your current
one. Would you
take the job? Most people will compare their current job with
the new offer and
arrive at an emphatic “Yes! Where do I sign up?” Yet if you’re
going to take the
step of leaving your current job, why limit yourself to one
alternative, the one pre-
sented by the recruiter? Wouldn’t you want to explore other
possible job opportu-
nities that could be even more attractive? 33
Brainstorming
Another key process issue is idea generation. While it may seem
contradictory,

good brainstorming sessions are more likely to result from a
disciplined proto-
col (see Management Live 3.4 on IDEO’s brainstorming rules).
In an effective
brainstorming session, the group sits around a table with a fl ip
chart or some
way to visibly present the input. The brainstorming facilitator
states the prob-
lem in a clear manner so all participants understand it. Members
then “free-
wheel” (without limiting themselves) as many alternatives as
they can in a given
length of time. No criticism is allowed, and all alternatives are
recorded for later
MANAGEMENT LIVE 3.4
Brainstorming at IDEO
The following is a list of brainstorming techniques used by
IDEO, a consulting fi rm noted for its creative ideas and
client list of major companies. IDEO staff recommends setting a
20- to 30-minute time limit on your brainstorming
and appointing one team member to make sure the team honors
these rules:

1. Defer Judgment. Don’t dismiss any ideas. This will be
diffi cult for a group of analytical types who will
instantly want to talk about what is wrong with the idea and
why it wouldn’t work. But nothing shuts
down a brainstorming session like criticism.
2. Build on the Ideas of Others. No “buts,” only “ands.”
3. Encourage Wild Ideas. Embrace the most out-of-the-box
notions because they can be the key to
solutions. Every idea is a good idea. These ideas may not
ultimately be adopted, but might trigger other
ideas.
4. Go for Quantity. Aim for as many new ideas as possible.
In a good session, up to 50 ideas are generated
in 30 minutes.
5. Be Visual and Auditory. Use yellow, red, and blue
markers to write on big 30-inch by 25-inch sticky notes
that are put on the wall. This is important because reading
others’ ideas will spur your thinking. As you
write your idea, say it out loud for everyone to hear.
6. Stay Focused on the Topic. Always keep the discussion on

target. Your facilitator will help with this. If
there is a question about whether something should be included
on the wall, put it up there.
7. One Conversation at a Time. No interrupting, no
dismissing, no disrespect, and no rudeness.
After the 30-minute brainstorming session, go to the wall and
have the team attempt to group the ideas. Pre-
cision isn’t as important as establishing general categories.
Discard identical ideas and pair up ideas that are simi-
lar. Next, discuss the ideas the team has come up with, and be
sure to discuss what might be interesting about an
idea before the team goes into a criticism mode. New ideas may
still be popping up. Write down these additional
ideas and get them up on the wall. Consider how ideas may be
combined to create an even better solution.
The team may then have a long list of ideas and need to narrow
them down to a more manageable number
for further development. Use a multivote system to narrow the
list to three to fi ve items.
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Confi rming Pages
discussion and analysis. Judgments of even the most bizarre
suggestions are
withheld until later because one idea can stimulate others.
Disallowing criticism
thus encourages group members to “think the unusual.”
Brainwriting
Organizations love brainstorming, and the prevailing
assumption is it works in gen-
erating many creative ideas. So companies all across the
country place people in
conference rooms and tell them, “Be creative; solve our
problems.” Unfortunately,
recent syntheses of research on brainstorming suggest in some
cases brainstorm-
ing sessions are rendered ineffective because of problems
related to group dynam-
ics in which people aren’t able to defer judgment, can be

critical of others, and
usually don’t “let it all hang out” toward solving the problem.
34 Indeed, one meta-
analytic study found that involving a team or group of people
actually produced far
fewer ideas than the same number of individuals generating
ideas on their own.
With that in mind, a modest variant of brainstorming called
brainwriting
has emerged as the superior method for generating the highest
volume of creative
ideas. 35 Using the same rules as brainstorming, brainwriting
allows participants
time to generate ideas on their own, recording them but not
sharing them with the
group initially. Then participants in a round-robin format read
off their ideas until
all alternatives have been presented and people can then build
upon them. There
are several ways to improve the quantity and quality of the
alternatives presented: 36
• Diversify Participants. Make sure the people involved in
brainstorming

represent diverse perspectives on the topic—your key
stakeholders and
even some outsiders (customers, suppliers) who aren’t familiar
with your
particular problems. Research shows diverse groups perform
better than
nondiverse groups on creative problem-solving tasks. 37
• Use Metaphors and Analogies. When a car dealership
wanted to
increase the number of people walking in the door by creating a
more
pleasurable shopping experience, they focused on pleasurable
things such
as food. Using food as a metaphor they agreed that chocolate
(smooth,
sweet, comforting) made for a good metaphor to focus on
delivering ser-
vices that went smoothly and were sweet and comforting, as
opposed to
aggressive. 38 The popular potato chips Pringles were the
result of an ana-
logical process. The problem was potato chips required too
much shelf
space, but packing them tightly destroyed them. The

manufacturer used
the analogy of dried leaves (noting similar properties to potato
chips) and
showed that when leaves were slightly damp, they could be
stacked with-
out losing their shapes, hence Pringles.
• Performance Standards and Feedback. Research shows a
group of
problem solvers can increase the number of ideas generated by
setting
high performance standards, as long as they are not impossible.
In addi-
tion, providing feedback on how the brainwriting is going is
central. Sim-
ply stop every now and then and gauge the number of ideas
generated
and let people know whether they are ahead or behind the curve.
• Assume a “Perfect World.” Key to generating really
creative alterna-
tives is to encourage people to simply assume there are no
constraints
to solving a problem. What would you wish for if you could get
it? What

would a perfect world look like? 39
Benchmarking
A popular form of generating alternatives known as
benchmarking is used in
approximately one-quarter of organizational problem-solving
scenarios. 40 In
benchmarking, organizational representatives trying to
solve a problem go to visit
“All it takes is one idea to solve
an impossible problem.”
—Robert H. Schuller
“You don’t need to necessarily
have any good ideas; you just
need to be able to recognize
them.”
—Unknown
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Confi rming Pages
(either literally or fi guratively) other organizations thought to
have successfully
solved the problem or a similar one. During the visit, problem
solvers generate ideas
that might work in their own organization. The knee-jerk
reaction of most manag-
ers is to try to visit others in the same industry that might have
some great practices
to share. However, benchmarking seems to be most effective for
generating ideas
when managers visit organizations that specialize in the
particular problem area,
regardless of the industry. For example, a bank that wants to
improve customer ser-
vice would often benefi t more by visiting the Ritz-Carlton or
Nordstrom to generate
new ideas rather than visiting another fi nancial services
organization.

Although benchmarking can be a good starting point and
impetus for change,
it is hardly a foolproof means of generating alternatives and
sometimes even
leads to decision failures. For example, problem solvers can be
inclined to rush
to implement the exact process of the benchmarked company
assuming it will
work similarly in their organization. It falls short when problem
solvers fail to
realize their problem is truly different than the one addressed by
the benchmark
company and that the new solution doesn’t quite work in their
culture. In addi-
tion, people often have strong negative reactions to, and are
inclined to resist,
ideas not invented in, or derived from, their own organizations.
Once alternatives have been generated, how will you know
you’ve got good
ones to choose from? Good alternatives will have the following
characteristics: 41
• Postponed Evaluation. The alternatives proposed were all
offered

without any evaluative components. No one qualifi ed them as
“good” or
“feasible”; they were simply offered as potential alternatives.
• Stakeholder Involvement. The right mix of people had
opportunities to
look at the problem and offer their take. A well-executed
decision will fail
if important others don’t have input.
• Organizational Focus. Great alternatives are consistent
with the goals
of the organization. Many alternatives may be proposed to fi x a
problem,
but if they violate the organization’s values or are inconsistent
with its
strategic direction, they will likely lead to failure.
• Time Implications. The alternatives are not quick fi xes or
Band-Aids but
real solutions. They focus on short- and long-term answers.
• Effective. The key litmus test of a good alternative is it
addresses
the actual problem, not something else or even a tangentially

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