Showing papers in "Harvard Business Review in 1981"

Split Roles in Performance Appraisal

Abstract: In management circles, performance appraisal is a highly interesting and provocative topic. And in business literature, too, knowledgeable people write emphatically, pro and con, on the performance appraisal question (Kindall and Gatza, 1963; Mayfield, 1960; McGregor, 1957). In fact, one might almost say that everybody talks and writes about it, but nobody has done any real scientific testing of it.

Step by step through a union campaign.

Abstract: At the first sign of union organizing, company management often decides to do "whatever is necessary to defeat the union," as one corporate vice president put it. Without advance thought or preparation, the company launches a policy of resistance and often winds up before the National Labor Relations Board charged with unfair labor practices. Sometimes the company even finds itself burdened with multimillion dollar lawsuits. Its hasty decisions to deal with the short run become strategic errors in the long run. But responding to a union campaign need not end up this way. Being prepared for each stage of the process of campaigning and negotiating, argues the author of this article, is the best way for both labor and management to avoid serious mistakes and to present employees with the information they need to cast an informed vote.

Sexual harassment . . . some see it . . . some won't.

Abstract: Is sexual harassment a serious issue for managers, and does it occur as much in business as the popular press would have us believe? How difficult will it be to implement the newly issued EEOC guidelines? Out of a joint survey with Redbook magazine, HBR takes a look at these and other questions. Eliza Collins and Timothy Blodgett explore definitions of harassment, analyze respondents' replies, and suggest ways to counter the problem.

When executives burn out.

Abstract: The military knows about burn-out--but calls it battle fatigue. To offset its devastating effects, the military routinely schedules its personnel for recreation and relaxation retreats, sends soldiers into combat in groups so they can support and help each other, and limits the number of flights that pilots fly. Managers are not soldiers but, according to this author and others who have researched the subject, they are prone to a similar exhaustion and sense of futility. Like other professionals, mental health workers, and policemen who work under severe pressure in people-oriented jobs for long periods of time--with little support and limited gains--managers are among the prime victims of burn-out. The author describes what burn-out is, discusses why he thinks that modern organizations are good breeding grounds for situations that lead to it, and offers some helpful ways top managers can combat it.

Big hat, no cattle: managing human resources.

Abstract: When faced with business problems, managers naturally make identifying the trouble their priority. Once that is done, at least half the job is over; finding solutions is just a matter of time. This hasn't been so, however, with the human resources problem: how to motivate employees. Sixty years ago, the Hawthorne experiments revealed the issue, and ever since, managers, researchers, and consultants have been searching for the answer to the human resources problem. Why aren't employees as productive, loyal, and dedicated to their companies as their managers know they can be? The author of this article proposes four reasons why actuality has fallen so far below expectation in personnel management, namely, that managers' expectations have been too high in the first place, that the concepts staff professionals offer managers are frequently contradictory, that the corporate role of personnel has always been problematic, and finally, that managers hold assumptions concerning their employees that undermine efforts to motivate them.

Outlook for hospitals: systems are the solution. Interview by Jeff C. Goldsmith.

Abstract: Like all industries, the health care industry undergoes change. A fragmented system of isolated, free-standing community hospitals is undergoing rapid consolidation into large multihospital corporations and systems. If the history of other industries is any guide, this consolidation will accelerate as the nation instills greater economic competition in the health marketplace. In the future, say the managers of two very different hospital networks, large multihospital systems will predominate. Two big questions, then, are: Should these systems be proprietary or voluntary? And how should they go about meeting people's changing health care needs? These interviews with the physician founders of two multihospital organizations, Hospital Corporation of America in Nashville and Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, focus on these organizations' contrasting corporate strategies and on the mechanisms that will enable them to survive a shakeout in the industry. The differences between the two systems are linked to the philosophies of their founders, who disagree about how and where patients will get the best treatment.