Claims vs. Behaviors

Burned by Inauthenticity

September 14, 2009

Tweet I had almost forgotten the details of our family’s bad experience with a national espresso chain after my daughter was burned by a grande hot tea on her way to the Big Apple Circus. Then I saw this article about a toddler being burned by a hot hash brown at Dunkin Donuts, and my […]

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The Two-Faced CEO: Citizen or Whole Foods Shareholder?

August 24, 2009

Tweet In today’s transparent and political economy, the two-faced CEO can’t catch a break. When he acts as a Citizen, he might damage his organization’s reputation. When he acts as a Shareholder, he  might limit his own participation in our political conversation.  Neither option is good.  What’s a CEO to do? The broohaa over the […]

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Who is advising the NY Jets Management?

August 19, 2009

Tweet Whoever it is, they are doing a good job! I’m not talking about rosters, game strategies or coaching assignments– I’m talking about using a deep understanding of how to support your whole organization in moving towards a goal. Last fall, I posted about the Jets’ new training facility, and how it was designed explicitly […]

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Can Walmart Earn the Girl Scouts’ Good Citizenship Award?

August 14, 2009

Tweet You don’t earn a merit badge for Good Citizenship by picking on the Girl Scouts. But what if Wal-mart wanted to? Commenters here and on other blogs that picked up my story that Wal-mart has chosen to compete with the Girl Scouts by knocking off the Girls Scouts’ two most popular cookies have criticized […]

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Thin Mint-y Gate: Wal-mart’s Socia Media Opportunity

August 8, 2009

Tweet Where is Wal-mart’s social media outreach? This ongoing experience with “Thin Mint-y Gate” is raising a bunch of questions, for the audiences reading and commenting on blogs, for the Girl Scouts and their community, and for me as a blogger & management scholar. I hope I’ll get a chance to address some of these […]

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Wal-Mart Knocks Off the Girl Scouts

August 3, 2009

Tweet (Welcome MacLeans Readers… Please join the conversation! ) Just when you think your opinion about Wal-mart might be changing… Just when you think that maybe, just maybe, Wal-mart was learning to be a better citizen… Wal-mart turns around and does something really … despicable. It’s not discriminating against women, strong-arming suppliers, polluting neighborhoods or […]

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Peek inside an Authentic Organization: Blogging at Berrett-Koehler

July 14, 2009

Tweet Years of following industries that create culture have left me with a special fondness for book publishers. Year after year, season after season, page after page, book publishers create objects that convey what I love most — great ideas. Increasingly, book publishers do this in an embattled industry, towards a customer base with a […]

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Resources for Authenticity: Being vs. Understanding

June 30, 2009

Tweet What resources can organizations draw on to create and sustain an authentic sense of “who they are”? My class with the Darden EMBA students on Saturday danced around the questions of “How do organizations ‘source’ their identity? and “How do organizations sustain their authenticity?” Even though we had a chance to discuss many other […]

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On the importance of Flair

May 6, 2009

Tweet The origin of “flair”? Every Organizational Behavior scholar’s favorite cult flick: Office Space.

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Which is worse: Being “Authentic & Bad” or being “Bad for Being InAuthentic”?

April 30, 2009

Tweet Before reading any further, let’s take a poll: How do our results compare to the findings of a more comprehensive annual survey of the reputations of US corporations? "America’s Most Least Reputable Companies" Reputation Institute just released its annual survey that determines the nation’s most respected companies. (The survey is summarized on Forbes.com.) Of […]

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