|
What’s Up?
A Quick Review of Issues and Events Involving
People at Work
Interesting Ideas to Ponder
Mental Patients Help Choose
Staff
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2307165.stm
A top-security hospital has confirmed that
patients are now involved in the selection of staff.
Rampton Hospital in Nottinghamshire, Great Britain,
which has high-profile patients, such as caretaker
Ian Huntley—accused of killing Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman—says the process has been a
success. “Giving patients some input into the
selection of social work staff is common in community
psychiatric services, but this is the first time it
has been used at Rampton,” hospital spokeswoman
Julie Grant said.
Study: Depression From Job Loss is Long
Lasting
http://www.apa.org/journals/ocp/1002ab.html#2
Although it may not be surprising that job loss
and the resulting financial strain can lead to
depression, new study findings show that this and
other negative consequences of unemployment can last
for up to two years—even after a person gets
another job. It is not simply the loss of employment
that keeps individuals in a prolonged state of
depression or otherwise poor health, the report
indicates, but rather the “cascade of negative
events” that follows that loss. “It is
the crises that follow job loss that are more
damaging than the loss itself,” study author
Dr. Richard H. Price of the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, told Reuters Health.
Interesting Articles to Read
Fast Company
www.fastcompany.com
September 2002
How to Get Bad News to the Top
If you think
that what you don’t know can’t hurt you,
you haven’t been reading the papers.
There’s been a lot of bad news in business
lately. And almost all of it is a result of leaders
who ignore bad news—until it turns into worse
news. It turns out that what you don’t
know—and don’t even want to
know—can and will hurt you.
Size is Not a Strategy
The faster big
business cleans up its ethical mess, the sooner we
can address the real crisis of capitalism. Giant
companies dominate the landscape—from media to
medicine, banking to broadband. But talented people
don’t want to work for them, customers hate
doing business with them, and Wall Street
doesn’t want to invest in them. This is a
candid appraisal of why so many big companies (even
the honest ones) don’t work—and some
radical ideas for reform.
October 2002
The Art of Multitasking
Feeling overworked?
Overwhelmed? The dirty little secret of the
slow-growth economy is that most of us are busier
than ever: We’re doing our jobs, plus the jobs
of one or two gone-but-not-replaced
colleagues—and doing it all with less support.
How do we manage to stay sane in the face of such
crazy demands? Action item number one: Follow the
savvy, reality-tested advice of some of the most
effective executives we know. It’s all in our
ultimate guide to successful multitasking.
The Secret Life of the CEO: Do They Even Know
Right From Wrong?
Why do so many good
executives make so many terrible choices? The high
stakes, the pressure to perform, and the temptation
to go for the dough are part of the problem.
Forbes Magazine
www.forbes.com
September 16, 2002
Green Wood
Master woodworker Doug Green
knows how to turn out a beautiful desk. Updating a
19th-century production process is proving a lot
harder.
October 14, 2002
Twelve Really Angry Men
The parade of
corporate scandals is giving jurors plenty of reasons
to distrust big companies. A new study suggests
it’s only going to get worse. Why do juries
love to beat up so much on big companies? To try to
answer that question—especially pertinent in
these scandal-ridden days—corporate lawyers at
such companies as DuPont, International Paper, and
Marriott International initiated a study this past
summer to explore the psychology of jurors, focusing
on the role of race and gender. They hope the
findings will help them do a better job of picking
juries and framing their defenses. But as the early
results indicate, they’ve got their work cut
out for them. Many jurors, particularly in
lower-income communities, completely misunderstand
the way business operates.
Fortune Magazine
www.fortune.com
September 16, 2002
The Un-CEO
A.G. Lafley doesn’t
over-promise. He doesn’t believe in the vision
thing. All he’s done is turn around Procter
& Gamble in 27 months.
September 27, 2002
Trophy Husbands
Arm candy? Are you kidding?
While their fast-track wives go to work, stay-at-home
husbands mind the kids. They deserve a trophy for
trading places.
October 14, 2002
Management Tips From the Kitchen
While
cooked books are landing executives in hot water, the
business of cooking is hotter—and more
lucrative—than ever. That’s because in
addition to their kitchen duties, top chefs are
spending more time launching product lines and
managing massive empires. Here’s the lowdown on
four top foodies—and how they manage their
culinary endeavors.
HR Magazine
www.shrm.org
September 2002
Space: Another Frontier
When human
resources moves into office design, it can reap big
rewards regarding culture, morale, and
productivity.
October 2002
Accounting for People
Hard to define, and
even harder to measure, intangible assets are
becoming increasingly essential to the success of
many organizations in the 21st century. Every company
has employees. But not every company understands
their contribution to the bottom line or knows how to
manage them to drive even better financial
results—even though they account for as much as
80% of the worth of a corporation.
Inc. Magazine
www.inc.com
October 2002
The Fully Managed Family
How can a
woman run not one but two companies while raising
five kids—including a toddler and an infant?
Like this.
T+D Magazine
www.astd.org
September 2002
The Dark Side of 360-Degree Feedback
During
the past decade, 360-degree feedback has become one
of the most popular human resource interventions.
Yet, the honesty intrinsic to 360-degree feedback
also makes it dangerous.
October 2002
Breaking Through the E-Barriers
Three years
ago when e-learning was the new kid on the block, the
advice to the ambitious human resources or training
manager was straightforward: Cut your training costs
by agreeing to a three-year deal with a supplier of
e-learning systems and content. Get the chief
executive to give his or her endorsement. Prepare a
brochure, plan a launch, and place a high-profile
article in a training magazine. In hindsight, another
good recommendation would have been to contact a
recruitment agency so you could move on before it all
went wrong.
Interesting Places to Go
AQP’s 25th Annual
Conference
The Association for Quality
and Participation
http://www.aqp.org/conference/
February 24-26, 2003
New Orleans, LA
The keynote speakers for AQP’s 25th Annual
Conference are:
- Herman Cain: opening session on Monday,
February 24, at 8:00 a.m. Topic: “Leadership
is Common Sense.”
- Coach Herman Boone and Coach Bill Yoast:
closing session on Wednesday, February 26, at 10:30
a.m. Topic: “Teamwork, Leadership, and
Diversity.”
2002 National Mentoring
Symposium—Mentoring Best Practices: Coaching
for Success
North Carolina State University Office of
Professional Development
December 4-5, 2002
Contact via e-mail: rfp@caldwellandassociates.biz
.
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
The purpose of this national symposium is to
present best practices and innovation in mentoring
curriculum, programs, research, consulting, and
training resources to the public and private sectors.
The symposium will have one-hour seminars focusing on
two different tracks: adult mentoring and youth
mentoring.
4th Conference of the Centre of Full
Employment and Equity on Path to Full
Employment
University of Newcastle,
Callaghan
http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/conferences/2002/index.cfm
December 5-6, 2002
New South Wales, Australia
This conference features four broad conference
themes:
- Macroeconomic policy and full
employment—how do we pay for more jobs?
- Environmental sustainability and full
employment—are there green jobs?
- Regional development—issues and
strategies to increase employment.
- Job sharing, hours of work, overwork, and
underemployment.
82nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation
Research Board: Session on Labor-Management
Partnerships to Improve Efficiency and
Quality
Transportation Research
Board
http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/am/calls/A1A00cfp.pdf
January 12-16, 2003
Washington, DC, USA
This session’s focus is the use of labor
management partnerships to improve efficiency and
service quality in highway and transit systems.
Topics include:
- Collaborative labor-management initiatives
involving work redesign of core processes.
- Training and career development and strategic
planning efforts that have resulted in a direct
improvement of services for systems users and
citizens.
- Changes in compensation and incentive systems
that are part of these improvement processes.
Other Interesting Information
ASTD Announces Webinar
Sessions
The American Society for
Training & Development (ASTD) announces its
series of ASTD Webinars. A Webinar is an online
presentation featuring an expert in a particular
field using a Web-based collaborative tool. Topics
will include e-learning, strategic learning
management, and innovation. Participants may log in
from anywhere to attend.
For a current schedule or to register for an ASTD
Webinar, go to www.astd.org/webinar
and click on “Session Schedule.”
Questions about the ASTD Webinar series should be
directed to the ASTD customer care center by
telephone at 703-683-8100 or by e-mail at webinars@astd.org
.
|
