Defining Authenticity

Company Character Grows From Place Identity

February 16, 2012

Tweet What do start-ups and coffee beans have in common? For both, the place they grow shapes who they become. We don’t talk much about the role of place in shaping organizational identity, but the physical circumstance of where we are located as we do our work together helps to determine who we become as [...]

Read the full article →

What is an Authentic Organization?: An elevator speech

November 17, 2010

Tweet Last week I went to a program sponsored by the NYC chapter of GirlsInTech and directed towards (women) tech entrepreneurs and (potential) venture capital professionals. After the program, I had great conversation with some of the entrepreneurs about their ‘pitches’ — the 5 sentence elevator speeches that they give to convey the core idea [...]

Read the full article →

Bias Bingo: Blending Branding and Learning

November 4, 2009

Tweet I love it when basic business science can be applied to important causes. So, I was excited when my favorite FemaleScienceProfessor pointed me towards a clever website designed to teach about gender bias: The Gender Bias Learning Project. The Gender Bias Learning Project is a great demonstration of how basic web skills, clever marketing [...]

Read the full article →

Evidence of a Mommy Track Bump: Returnees are seen as more motivated

October 21, 2009

Tweet This just in from the The Journal of ‘I’m Not Sure I Can Believe It’ … Well actually, from the The Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies: Research published in the August 2009 issue suggests that coming back to full-time work after a few years on the Mommy Track can make you look “unusually” [...]

Read the full article →

Reflective Executives, Where are you hiding?

July 9, 2009

Tweet One of my blogging e-mentors asked “If you had one question about blogging that you could have answered with a magic wand, what would that question be?” I’m a big fan of magic wand questions– I use them all the time with my kids, and so I took the bait. My one question? Where [...]

Read the full article →

Working Moms Go Viral

May 7, 2009

Tweet … And I’m not talking about Swine Flu. MomsRising.org is spreading a virus . .. it’s their "Mother of the Year Award" video, and I got one! Hooray for me! Mom of the year! Does it matter that every other working mom is also receiving the "Mother of the Year Award" too? Heck no, [...]

Read the full article →

Which is preferable, Layoffs or Alternatives to Layoffs?

May 4, 2009

Tweet My esteemed colleague and fellow Michigan PhD alum, Aneil Mishra, is a well-known expert on the ‘softer’ organizational affects of downsizing and layoffs: morale, commitment and trust. Writing today about furloughs at GM on his blog Total Trust, Aneil mentions that "In our research on downsizing, we’ve found that across-the-board cost cutting like this [...]

Read the full article →

Authenticity in 16 Words?

April 3, 2009

Tweet At soccer practice this week, I came up with a great idea for my 3rd/4th grade girls team. As coach, I have great ambitions for my team this Spring — I want them to do more than chase the ball all around the pitch whilst squealing.  So, I need to teach them to think [...]

Read the full article →

3 Important Things about ‘Mothers Who Work’

March 27, 2009

Tweet To keep things clear for future conversations, here are 3 important things to know about "Mothers Who Work": 1: Every mother is a working mother. Mothers work inside the home and outside the home, they earn money directly (with pay) and indirectly (supporting a partner in his;/her paid work). Barring a few aberrations here [...]

Read the full article →

What Remains of “the Organization” at the Rocky Mountain News?

March 6, 2009

Tweet Organizations are always more than an efficient way to control collective efforts, more than the aggregate of their individual members, and more than the sum of their productive parts. We can put people together to do something, but that doesn’t make them an organization. Those of us who study organizations, and who of us [...]

Read the full article →