1. 21st Century Management:
Issues that are keeping researchers busy and managers harried
Wayne Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Management

2. The Shrinking “Middle” Class

4. Genetic Testing

6. Complexity

11. Organizational Complexity
Birkenshaw, J., and Heywood, S. (2009), “Too Big to Manage?”, Wall Street Journal (MIT special section), Oct. 26, p. R3
Are some companies simply too complex to be run effectively?
Types of Complexity
Dysfunctional
Creeps into companies over time, perpetual practices
Designed
Expecting the benefits of complexity to outweigh costs
Inherent
The rules that exist when everything else is automated
Imposed
Largely beyond the control of the organization

12. “Mindfulness”

15. Organizational Psychology
Rock, D. (2009), “Managing with the Brain in Mind”, Strategy+Business, Issue 56. Autumn.
“Neuroscience research is revealing the social nature of the high-performance” workplace.”
Functional MRI (physiological) leading to a SCARF (psychological) model
Status and its discontents
A Craving for certainty
The Autonomy factor
Relating to relatedness
Playing for Fairness

16. Organizational Productivity
Zeldes, N. (2009), “Infoglut: It’s the Disease of the New Millennium. How do we Treat It?”, IEEE Spectrum, Oct.
From “plan-driven” to “interrupt-driven” (Mark)
An interruption occurs approximately every 3 minutes
It takes 1 minute to “get back to where you were” for each interruption
Attention Deficit Trail (Hallowell)
Interruptions degrade accuracy, judgment, creativity, and effective management
What is “quality” or “creative” time?
Can it be expressly designed into professional life?

17. We are all Technology Managers now

21. Measurement of Performance: Psychology (of Individuals) or Sociology (or Networks)

23. Replicating Organizational Success

24. Organizations and Culture
Gittell, Jody. (2003), The Southwest Airlines Way: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve High Performance, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Can an organization have a distinctive set of organizational practices?
“Relational Coordination”
Leadership credibility (care about workers)
Investment in front-line supervision
Selection and training based on “relational competence” (teams)
Proactive conflict resolution based on mutual understanding
Efforts to bridge work and family
Identification and use of “boundary spanners” (operations agents)
Performance measurement that focuses on processes (not blame)
Maintenance of job flexibility by minimizing work rules
Treatment of Unions as partners, not adversaries
Cultivation of solid relationships with suppliers
Can other airlines (or other organizations) replicate SouthWest’s success?