The toxic management handbook: six guaranteed ways to make your best employees flee

By: George Kassar, Full-time Faculty, Research Associate, Performance Analyst, Ascencia Business School Who said that an organization’s main resource and true competitive advantage lies in its employees, their talent or their motivation? After all, maybe your real goal is to empty out your offices, permanently discourage your staff and methodically sabotage your human capital. If that’s […]
The rule of law is key to capitalism − eroding it is bad news for American business

By: Robert Bird, Professor of Business Law & Eversource Energy Chair in Business Ethics, University of Connecticut Something dangerous is happening to the U.S. economy, and it’s not inflation or trade wars. Chaotic deregulation and the selective enforcement of laws have upended markets and investor confidence. At one point, the threat of tariffs and resulting […]
Why power skills – formerly known as ‘soft skills’ – are the key to business success

By: Sandra Sjoberg, Vice President and Dean, Academic Programs, Western Governors University School of Business What does it take to lead through complexity, make tough decisions and still put people first? For me, the answer became clear during a defining moment early in my career – one that changed my path entirely. Today I am […]
We analyzed racial justice statements from the 500 largest US companies and found that DEI officials really did have an influence

By: Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Employment Equity, UMass Amherst Jorge Quesada Velazco, Ph.D. in Economics, UMass Amherst Kevin L. Young, Professor of Economics, UMass Amherst In 2020, American businesses responded to an unprecedented wave of racial justice protests with an equally unprecedented surge in corporate commitments. Even as President Donald […]
Identifying brands as Black-owned can pay off for businesses

By: Michael Walschots, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Labeling businesses as Black-owned can significantly boost their sales, we found in a recent study. In June 2020, the business-review website Yelp introduced a feature allowing consumers to search for Black-owned restaurants. As professors who study digitization, inequality and the economics of technology, we were interested in understanding its […]
Space missions are getting more complex − lessons from Amazon and FedEx can inform satellite and spacecraft management in orbit

By: Wesley Marshall, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado Denver Most space mission systems historically have used one spacecraft designed to complete an entire mission independently. Whether it was a weather satellite or a human-crewed module like Apollo, nearly every spacecraft was deployed and performed its one-off mission completely on its own. But […]
More than just ‘we’re sorry’ – how companies can make apologies we will actually believe

By: Park Thaichon, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Southern Queensland and Sara Quach, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Griffith University When a company makes a mistake – such as a marketing misstep or a product failure that leads to a recall – a good apology can make a big difference in how we as customers feel about […]
Could a recent ruling change the game for scam victims? Here’s why the banks will be watching closely

By: Jeannie Marie Paterson, Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne and Nicola Howell, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology In Australia, it’s scam victims who foot the bill for the overwhelming majority of the money lost to scams each year. A 2023 review by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found banks detected and […]