Company Culture through Prof Sutton's Lens

Professor Bob Sutton is one of the most colorful business researchers on the Stanford campus, a Professor of Management Science at the Stanford Engineering School with more than 30 years of organizational research under his belt. These snippets from an interview with Melody Stone on Stride provide a toolbox full of insights from his work with companies such as McKinsey, Netflix, McDonald's, JetBlue and more: + Find out what the cultural norms at McKinsey are all about + What drove IBM's most famous change in the company's history + What are the underlying cultural differences between JetBlue and United ...and more... What 30 years of Stanford research tells us about company culture https://www.stride.com/blog/what-30-years-of-stanford-research-tells-us-about-company-culture

Henry Mintzberg on Management

Henry Mintzberg is one of the top authorities on management worldwide. His personal Web site is quite a resource and offers a lot of material in support of his books, papers and articles.

Ten Simple and Succinct Tips for Better Presentations

Jon Greer shares ten great tips for better presentations.

http://blogs.bnet.com/pr/?p=184
http://blogs.bnet.com/pr/?p=185&loomia_si=t0:a3:g2:r1:c0.5382&tag=loomia

On the Evolution of Management Thought

Kohelet ben-David, King of Jerusalem, says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” If management theories indeed do evolve, they must evolve from something. It is quite evident that modern management thought builds on the foundations laid by pioneers such as Taylor (Scientific Management), Fayol (Administrative Management), and Mayo (Behavioral Management). But to what extent is management thought shaped by current business events?

Daniel Wren, in his seminal book, The Evolution of Management Thought (1994), does not approach this question with haste, posing a very similar question himself early on in his quest to synthesize and analyze the history of managerial thought; Wren asks, “How have our concepts of managing organizations evolved throughout history?” (2005, p. 5) – yet in doing so Wren has already assumed the conclusion so aptly captured by the title of his treatise. Nevertheless management theories have not evolved solely as derivatives of historical foundational thought; nor are they unique outgrowths of the contemporaneous environment – rather, they are a combination of the above. New theories evolve from the historical foundations of managerial thought but are shaped by the current business environment and the challenges the current environment poses. As Wren writes, “Our ideas about people, management and organizations have evolved within the context of various cultural values and institutions throughout history” (p. 12). Neither one nor the other then – but rather a combination of both approaches, evolutionary and current as well.

References

Kohelet (n.d.). Ecclesiastes 1:9

Wren, D.A. (1994). The evolution of management thought (4th Ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Wren, D.A. (2005). The history of management thought (5th Ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.