Quotes from Jeffrey Pfeffer

systematic data on workplace bullying report widespread verbal abuse, shouting, berating others, and the general creation of a climate of intimidation.

most workplace learning goes on unbudgeted, unplanned, and uncaptured by the organization…. Up to 70 percent of workplace learning is informal.

Dumping technology on a problem is rarely an effective solution.

willingly forgo a substantial pay raise in exchange for seeing their direct supervisor fired.

Leaders who have come up through the ranks and have done many if not most of the organization's jobs are much more likely to look out for the interests of those they lead because they have been there themselves.

thirteen months later, Costolo did take over as CEO from the then-CEO Evan Williams, a cofounder of the company.

statistically insignificant relationship between student evaluations and learning

the more objectively learning is measured, the less likely it is to be related to the evaluations.

Another review also concluded that "teacher ratings and learning are not closely related

empirical research conducted over decades suggests that student evaluations are more than unhelpful;

change the behaviors of presenters in ways that make learning and personal growth less likely.

The problem is that there are too many organizations where having a mission or values statement written down somewhere is confused with implementing those values.

jobs that require employees to display (positive) emotions that they may not actually be feeling can be psychologically demanding and stressful.

Schoorman asked

a recent review of the evidence concluded that there is a very small and statistically insignificant relationship between student evaluations and learning, and that "the more objectively learning is measured, the less likely it is to be related to the evaluations."48 Another review also concluded that "teacher ratings and learning are not closely related

Just as mission statements and talk can substitute for action rather than informing such action, planning can be a ritualistic exercise disconnected from operations and from transforming knowledge into action. Of course, planning can facilitate developing knowledge and generating action. But it does not invariably do so and often does the opposite.

You can't be normal and expect abnormal returns.

prioritizing the wrong outcomes: making participants feel good and giving them a good time. Simply stated, measuring entertainment value produces great entertainment, not change; measuring the wrong things crowds out assessing other, more relevant indicators

SAS Institute, where the cofounder and CEO Jim Goodnight evaluates managers by their ability to attract and retain talent, and where people can lose their jobs if their units experience excessive voluntary turnover.

read Jack Welch's books about General Electric and his management approach and never encounter the phrase "GE jerks." Yet that is a term I first heard from a now-retired GE senior executive who reported directly to Mr. Welch.

In everyday social relationships, people expect fair treatment and favors to be reciprocated.

in work settings, things become a lot more calculative. Specifically, people make more evaluations of whether or not coworkers and superiors could be useful in the future; likewise, people show more concern with the future than with repaying past kindnesses.

For instance, even though entrepreneurs in technology often know the statistics that about 80 percent of founders are forced out of their companies by their venture capital investors, I have never heard anyone tell me that this would happen to them. In

workplaces are primarily instrumental, calculative settings largely free of moral sentiments and even normative constraints.