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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Workplace

Managers often have employees who are a challenge to motivate. Consider a scenario where you tell an employee that his or her performance is not up to standard. You take the time to meet with the employee to discuss actions to improve his or her performance, but no matter what you do, the employee continues to make the same mistakes. You may form the opinion that the employee is careless, lazy, or non-motivated.[1] However, this assumption may be incorrect your employee could simply have a brain dysfunction, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

This article explores elements of ADHD in order to help managers optimize the performance of these workers. Very often, when there are attempts to accommodate a specific group of people within an organization, the results have a positive impact on the entire workforce. While adopting these tools will benefit the ADHD employee, the managerial practices required to implement these tools should have a positive effect on all of the organization’s employees. Although this article focuses on the difficulties ADHD adults encounter in the workplace, it would be a disservice to ADHD adults to present this information solely in a negative light. ADHD adults bring many positive attributes to the workplace; they can be highly intelligent, creative, and outside-the-box thinkers. They may also have high energy levels, be very persistent, and take risks.[2]

ADHD and the Law

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits all employers with 25 or more employees (15 or more prior to July 1994) from discriminating against individuals with disabilities who are otherwise qualified in the application, hiring, firing, advancement, and other conditions of employment.[3] Although the ADA does not specifically list ADHD or other related brain dysfunctions as disabilities, it provides the following criteria for determining who is a person with a disability:

• Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities;
• Has a record of such an impairment; or
• Is regarded as having such an impairment.[4]

As a result, some people with ADHD may have a disability, while others may not. Most courts have ruled that ADHD is a disability because it does impair one or more major life activities.[5]

There are many ways to treat ADHD, such as with medication, behavior intervention, and counseling.[6] There may be implications for the employer’s health benefit costs, medical leave policies, and other legal issues. This article focuses on helping managers and supervisors deal with the uniqueness of ADHD adults, rather than the diagnostic and medical treatment of ADHD.

ADHD Characteristics

Studies show that 5 to 8 percent of children in the United States have ADHD[7] and that up to 60 percent of these children will exhibit ADHD symptoms well into adulthood.[8] Many ADHD adults live most of their lives not knowing what is wrong with them.[9] They encounter difficulties in all facets of their lives and are sometimes unable to understand the problems they face. Lacking an ADHD diagnosis, these adults think there is something wrong with them, and since they do not know what, they internalize the prescribed flaws others assign to them, specifically that they are unmotivated, careless, reckless, and unreliable. However, it is neither laziness nor lack of motivation that hinders these adults.

ADHD adults live in constant turmoil because of the way their brains function. They have difficulty organizing work, sustaining attention, avoiding distractions, and remembering things.[10] However, under certain circumstances, their brains function quite clearly, which only adds to their confusion “Why does my brain not work sometimes?” Because of the inconsistency associated with these ADHD impairments, parents, teachers, bosses, and even mental health professionals experience confusion, and may see these contradictory behaviors as flaws.[11] Brain functioning is not something that can be turned on or off at the whim of an individual, however.

When we take tests in school, the instructions often advise us to skip over the questions we do not know the answer to and return to them later. For ADHD adults, there is no later. If the answer is not there when they read the question, it may not come to mind later on, and the harder an ADHD person tries, the deeper the answer seems to be buried to the point of being inaccessible.[12] However, as soon as they turn in the test, the answer may well pop into their brain. This difficulty in concentration is not restricted to test taking, but extends to job demands, family pressures, and other social expectations. Problems arise because a parent, teacher, associate, or boss misinterprets this lack of concentration as misconduct.[13] Although these difficulties are common among ADHD adults, it is rare that any one individual will display all of them.[14]

Managing the ADHD Employee

Under ideal conditions, the ADHD adult will have received a diagnosis and some intervention prior to entering the workforce. However, as previously mentioned, many adults are not diagnosed until later in life; in some cases, not until well into their 80s.[15] In other cases, the adult may never receive an ADHD diagnosis. In addition, because there is a negative stigma attached to ADHD, a worker with a documented ADHD disability may never mention the disability to his or her boss and simply try to do his or her best without asking for any accommodations.

The suggestions below are also useful for employees who exhibit the symptoms of ADHD without necessarily having the diagnosis. For example, many workers have difficulty with time management, regardless of whether or not ADHD is a factor. The recommendations for dealing with time management issues will benefit those workers, as well. It is imperative that managers do not attempt to diagnose a worker as having ADHD, but they can make suggestions to assist the worker in overcoming job deficiencies as they arise, as they would any other employee.

1. Short attention span is a classic symptom of ADHD .[16] These individuals have difficulty maintaining concentration and are often distracted. At times, the ADHD person can concentrate for sustained periods, for example, when the project is new, highly stimulating, interesting, or frightening.[17] However, ADHD adults may be quite interested in something and still not be able to concentrate.

ADHD adults have difficulty tolerating a set routine and constantly seek new stimulations. They get bored easily, especially if the work is repetitive and routine even if the work was initially exciting to them. “Repetitive” does not mean doing the exact same thing every time; however, it is often more complex than that.

Recommendation: A change in schedule, a break in the routine, or a job where the employee can do something more stimulating will keep these employees on top of their games.[18]

2. Distractibility has to do with an ADHD person’s hypersensitivity to the environment.[19] Most people can block out the environmental noises that surround us, such as traffic, the whir of a fan, or someone sitting near us breathing noisily. ADHD adults are more sensitive to these noises and other stimuli in the environment. Unlike others, ADHD adults are not always able to block out external distractions, even when reading a book for pleasure.[20] While reading, the minds of ADHD adults may drift off to some totally unrelated topic, with no logical explanation for the transition.

Recommendation: Encourage ADHD employees to have quiet workspaces by:

• Closing their office doors
• Moving their offices to low-traffic areas.[21]
• Moving their inboxes outside of their offices
• Asking all employees to wear headsets when on the phone

Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that it is impossible to eliminate external distractions altogether.

3. Hyper-focusing causes ADHD adults to get so focused on a task that they become oblivious to everything else.[22] Often, ADHD adults will miss meetings, lunch, or other appointments without realizing it until it is too late.

Recommendation: Break tasks into manageable chunks and set an alarm to ring at pre-determined times to rouse the employee from the hyper-focused state.[23] The alarm must be outside of arm’s reach and must be loud enough to demand the employee’s attention, or they may ignore it.

4. Hyperactivity can make ADHD adults feel trapped, especially if their job is sedentary.[24] Any activity that gets the employee moving during the day will benefit that employee’s performance.[25]

Recommendation: Encourage the employee to take several short breaks throughout the workday. Sometimes, just getting up to get a cup of coffee or make copies can constitute enough movement to help the hyperactive adult cope with a sedentary job.

5. Memory problems are common amongst ADHD individuals.[26] Sometimes, it appears that these memory problems are associated with lack of motivation or irresponsibility. At other times, it might appear that the worker can remember information without any problem.

Recommendation: Follow up all oral conversations with emails so that the employee will have written records. In addition, encourage the employee to explore memorization techniques and practices, such as carrying a day planner, writing everything down, and taking notes in meetings.[27]

Unfortunately, however, carrying a day planner does not guarantee that ADHD adults will remember to read their notes.

6. Time management can be a problem for anyone, but for ADHD adults time management can be a devastating hazard. ADHD employees have difficulty organizing their time, projects, and long-term goals,[28] or always seem to be running late. Even when they plan to arrive early, unforeseen events like a ringing phone or an interruption by a colleague while they are walking out the door can contribute to habitual lateness.

Recommendation: Sustained attempts to arrive early (as opposed to on time) and remain focused in the face of intermediate distractions will help the ADHD adult arrive on time. It is better to arrive early for an appointment, and have some work to do while you wait, than try to complete the work before leaving and end up being late.[29]

7. Over-commitment and procrastination are two time-management-related problems for ADHD adults.[30] Often, ADHD adults will not think about what else is going on when they are asked to take on a new project. Therefore, over-commitment to the point where they cannot accomplish anything productively is a risk. Putting things off to the last minute is also common among ADHD adults. In reality, however, they intend to complete the project on time and may start working on it many times. Consequently, interruptions and other commitments can cause the worker to delay completion of the project. Although these are valid problems for non-ADHD workers, as well, for the ADHD worker they are even more prevalent and problematic.

Recommendation: Frequently ask ADHD employees for progress reports on current projects.

Social Skills

Some of the problems encountered by ADHD adults are caused by deficiencies resulting from other factors, such as a lack of social skills.[31] Children diagnosed as ADHD will generally receive the support and guidance necessary to develop these skills, which include strong motivation, determination, self-control, a goal-oriented approach, and the ability to seek help without becoming dependent[32] as part of their treatment. Self-esteem is also an essential tool. Quite often, the self-esteem of ADHD adults is low because of the turmoil they suffer[33] the constant conflict with parents, teachers, and others as well as from personal negative input. Although conflict helps to build self-esteem, ADHD adults may interpret conflict in a manner that damages their self-esteem. Without the ADHD diagnosis or treatment they will not develop these skills or will do so at a much slower pace.

Leadership Style

By understanding and wishing to address the symptoms displayed by ADHD adults that other employees might also exhibit, managers have a better chance of determining when it is best to use different situational leadership styles. Praise is the best approach when dealing with ADHD adults, as with all employees, whether teaching, supervising, or managing them. Situational leadership dictates that leaders be flexible enough to adapt their style of leadership so that they are directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating as needed.[34] Blanchard et al. offer the following suggestions in choosing a leadership style:[35]

Directive: for employees who lack competence but are enthusiastic and committed.

Coaching: for employees who have some competence but lack commitment.

Supportive: for employees who have competence but lack confidence or motivation.

Delegative: for employees who have both competence and commitment.

It is imperative that the manager consult individual workers to determine which strategies work best for them. Unfortunately, some workers may not know which strategies work best for them. When attempting to find the correct medication and dosage to give a patient, a physician tries several different medications through trial and error. Likewise, it may be necessary for managers and supervisors to try several approaches in order to hone in on the correct strategy to use with ADHD adults.

When dealing with employees, and especially with ADHD adults, managers will need to look at the employee’s behavior in a particular situation and adapt their leadership style to fit the person in that situation. Nonetheless, the success of certain motivational techniques may vary based on the particular task or circumstances. What works in one situation may not work again in another situation, or in the same situation at a different time. Therefore, the manager must constantly reassess the employee and the situation. This will make the employee more productive and will help the manager cut costs by reducing unnecessary turnover. Increasing productivity and lowering costs are the benefits of helping all employees, especially ADHD adults, be successful, which should more than outweigh the additional time commitment the manager makes to work with the employee.

Conclusion

This article provides an understanding of how ADHD influences an individual within the work environment. The authors attempt to show how situational leadership may be best for addressing the issues of ADHD, but also how these same tools can be beneficial in managing all employees. By understanding how ADHD affects the individual, managers can better supervise these and other employees, regardless of whether the employee is in an entry-level position, or at the top of the organization.

Douglas McGregor opined that management’s task is to implement policies and procedures that are conducive to allowing workers to achieve their own goals while navigating toward organizational objectives.[36] This task should also include improving conditions to help workers overcome their personal barriers to success, such as the issues associated with ADHD. By understanding and assisting adults with ADHD, managers can help increase the individual productivity of these and other workers in meeting the organizations’ objectives and improving the bottom line.

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[1] Michele Novotni, What Does Everybody Else Know That I Don’t? (Plantation, FL: Specialty Press, 2001), 29.

[2] Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change your Life, (New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998).

[3] The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “The ADA: Your Responsibility as an Employer,” The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada17.html.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Suzanne Gosden Kitchen, “Accommodation and Compliance Series: Employees with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder,” white paper, Job Accommodations Network, Office of Disability Employment Policy,  U.S. Department of Labor, September 4, 2008.

[6] Daniel Amen, Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program that Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD, (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001).

[7] Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey, Answers to Distraction, (New York: Bantam, 1996), 1.

[8] Belinda Jackson and David Farrugia, “Diagnosis and Treatment of Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” Journal of Counseling and Development, 75, no. 4 (1997), 4.

[9] Ibid, 21.

[10] Amen, Healing ADD, 12.

[11] Sari Solden, Journey Through ADDulthood, (New York: Walker & Company, 2002), 10.

[12] Amen, Change Your Brain, Change your Life, 117.

[13] Novotni, 3.

[14] Kitchen.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Amen, Healing ADD, 13.

[18] Kathleen Nadeau, ADD in the Workplace: Choices, Changes and Challenges, (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 1997), 31.

[19] Amen, Change Your Brain, Change your Life, 118.

[20] Amen, Healing ADD, 15.

[21] Nadeau, 36.

[22] Ibid, 32.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid, 33.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Amen, Healing ADD, 249.

[27] Nadeau, 35.

[28] Amen, Healing ADD, 16.

[29] Nadeau, 39.

[30] Ibid, 36 37.

[31] Novotni, 22.

[32] Nadeau, 111.

[33] Antony Amen, Sharon Johnson, and Daniel Amen, A Teenager’s Guide to ADD: Understanding and Treating Attention Deficit Disorder Through the Teenage Years, (Fairfield, CA: MindWorks Press, 1996), 141.

[34] Kenneth Blanchard, Patricia Zigarmi, and Drea Zigarmi, Leadership and the One-Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership, (New York: William Murrow and Company, 1985), 57.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Douglas McGregor, “Adventures in Thought and Action,” The Management Review, 46 (1957), 26.

2013 Volume 16 Issue 1

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2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

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2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

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2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

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2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

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2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
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2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

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2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Do Not Call!*
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• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Editorial: Shock and Awe
• IT MATTERS: Webhosting
• Conversation with Galpin Ford’s Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Evoke Software’s Lacy Edwards
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Consider the Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT MATTERS: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Kinko’s Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• Conversation with Trader Joe’s John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• Conversation with Reid Plastics’ Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• Conversation with Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics’ Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• Conversation with California’s Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• Conversation with Salomon Smith Barney’s Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• Conversation with WATTSHealth Systems’ Dr. Clyde Oden, Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• Conversation with Boyd Clarke of tompeters!
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting
• Conversation with Development Bank of Japan’s Dr. Kazuyuki Matsumoto
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• Conversation with Power-One’s Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• Conversation with McDonald’s Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Harvard’s Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company’s Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume 2, Issue 1
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• T.I.P.S.
• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• Conversation with Countrywide Credit Industries’ Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• Conversation with Global Pacific Information Services’ Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• Conversation with Imperial Bank’s George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

In the Land of Difficult People by Terrence L. Gargiulo and Gini Graham Scott

In the Land of Difficult People: 24 Timeless Tales Reveal How to Tame Beasts at Work

By Terrence L. Gargiulo and Gini Graham Scott
AMACOM, 2008

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Storytelling “puts a fresh, new face on the age-old problem of how to relay the message in such a way that the full impact of the message will be felt.”[1]

Once upon a time, there were two prolific authors (both seem to generate two or three books a year) who understood storytelling in business (Terrence Gargiulo) and surviving conflicts at work (Gini Graham Scott[2]). Together, they wrote In the Land of Difficult People, which recounts 24 folk stories from outside of the United States (one Native American story excepted).

Storytelling is a compelling way to introduce concepts because it “puts a fresh, new face on the age-old problem of how to relay the message in such a way that the full impact of the message will be felt.”[3] The tales are grouped into eight chapters, each of which tells three stories centering around a common theme: wolves (tyrannical bosses), cats (independent individuals), foxes (crafty villains), lions (power-hungry people), snails (lazy people), ravens (tricksters), snakes (defensive people), and monkeys (poor communicators). (Side note: It is much easier to imagine yourself as being a “fox,” rather than a “crafty villain.”) Each chapter has a short introduction, and each story is followed by a few paragraphs explaining how it applies to work situations. Each explanation is followed by suggestions about how one might handle those tricky situations.

My interest in this book is two-fold: (1) the stories tend to help us understand other cultures as we learn about the stories that helped form their value systems and (2) the stories’ application sections help us understand “what to do,” as the authors say. The suggestions in these application sections are under a page long, generally, and a bit disappointing in their brevity. These suggestions range from the obvious (e.g., get help) to the Machiavellian (e.g., use the speakerphone so others can hear a private conversation, send anonymous emails, or leave the company).

This is a small book that you can start reading at any chapter, and the stories are short enough that they can be sandwiched in when you have a few minutes before a meeting starts or a flight boards. The book’s title is a great conversation starter unless the conversation is with a wolf. I enjoyed the book for the stories and read the suggestions with interest, but due to the short application sections, I do not feel that the book has the theoretical or practical depth needed for a book on working with difficult people in a variety of situations.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ideas about dealing with difficult people in the work world or anyone who wants to identify his or her traits and how people may be reacting to them.

---

[1] M. Romejko, “More Effective Communication Through Storytelling,” Scholar and Educator: The Journal of the Society of Educators and Scholars, 26, no. 2 (2004): 81.

[2] Click here to read a review of another of Scott’s books, Enjoy!: 101 Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Every Day.

[3] Romejko.

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2013 Volume 16 Issue 1

• Leading from Character Strength
• Private Businesses Predict Limited Growth for 2013
• Justice in Ethics Programs
• Moving from Misuse to Bricolage
• EDITORIAL: The New Paradigm for Management Education
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series
• Graziadio School Business Programs

2012 Volume 15 Issue 3

• Facilitating the Inventor–Entrepreneur Interaction:
• Bridging the Complexity Gap:
• A No Fault Approach to Recouping Executive Compensation
• Implementing Intrapreneurship:
• Facebook: Data Mining the World’s Largest Focus Group
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 2

• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• CEO Performance of 125 of Northern California’s Largest Companies
• FOR SALE BY OWNER for Less than It Is Worth
• Beyond the Numbers
• Making Decisions with Multiple Attributes: A Case in Sustainability Planning
• The Ethics of Ethics Programs
• Transorganizations: Managing in a Complex and Uncertain World
• The Global Economy is Open for Business
• VIDEO: Leadership, Innovation and Disruption
• UPDATE: Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Editorial: The World of Graduate Management Education Turned Up Side Down
• The Book Corner
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 1

• CEO Performance of 100 of Southern California’s Largest Companies
• Editor’s Note
• UPDATE: Reforming Corporate America
• UPDATE: Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• UPDATE: Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• UPDATE: Management Skills for the 21st Century
• UPDATE: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• UPDATE: The Dollar vs. the Euro
• UPDATE: Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• UPDATE: The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with BP’s Chief Economist Christof Ruhl
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• Domestic Partner Benefits in the United States
• Examining the Role of Short-Term Correlation in Portfolio Diversification
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Leveraging Opportunities in the Current Economic Climate
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Workplace
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• An Alternative Way to Manage Equity Portfolios
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Survey
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Editorial: Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editorial: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• Editorial: California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• The Book Corner
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editorial
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Using ADR to Resolve Worker’s Compensation Claims

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• The Business Impact of Change Management
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
• 5-Forces Industry Analysis
• IT MATTERS: Measuring Success
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• IT MATTERS: The IT Governance Road Map
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• IT MATTERS: Ethics, Information Systems, and a Steel Ax
• Conversation with author and leadership scholar James M. Kouzes
• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Editorial
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• Managing Resistance to Change
• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS: Or more correctly, use of IT matters…
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note: Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny?
• Conversation with Gemstar-TV Guide International’s Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Sempra Energy’s Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution
• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• Editor’s Note: Deeper Questions
• The Twin Deficits
• Conversation with Rite Aid’s Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired!
• Editorial: Don’t Panic!
• IT MATTERS: Seek and You Might Find
• Conversation with American Honda’s Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• IT MATTERS: Digital Indemnity
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with AT&T’s Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial: Onward and Upward?
• IT MATTERS: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Do Not Call!*
• Improving Research Performance
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Editorial: Shock and Awe
• IT MATTERS: Webhosting
• Conversation with Galpin Ford’s Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Evoke Software’s Lacy Edwards
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Consider the Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT MATTERS: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Kinko’s Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• Conversation with Trader Joe’s John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• Conversation with Reid Plastics’ Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• Conversation with Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics’ Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• Conversation with California’s Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• Conversation with Salomon Smith Barney’s Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• Conversation with WATTSHealth Systems’ Dr. Clyde Oden, Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• Conversation with Boyd Clarke of tompeters!
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting
• Conversation with Development Bank of Japan’s Dr. Kazuyuki Matsumoto
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• Conversation with Power-One’s Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• Conversation with McDonald’s Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Harvard’s Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company’s Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume 2, Issue 1
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• T.I.P.S.
• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• Conversation with Countrywide Credit Industries’ Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• Conversation with Global Pacific Information Services’ Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• Conversation with Imperial Bank’s George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

The Trybaby Syndrome

How often have you needed X and had Y proudly delivered to you? And when Y was delivered, were you so disarmed by how hard the person “tried” that you found yourself accepting the effort displayed instead of the result you wanted? Or perhaps you looked beyond the effort and questioned the person about his or her inability to deliver on X (your desired outcome) and he or she became indignant, stating that, “I tried extra hard at this-what’s the problem?”

This situation occurs far too often in managing people or when purchasing services and dealing with others in the workplace. I call this “trybaby” behavior.

This article identifies the Trybaby Syndrome as a performance challenge and introduces a “Performance Influence-Importance Matrix” to help managers identify the differences between so-called Trybabies, Spinners, Pass-Timers, and Corperformers. Two real-world examples of trybabies, followed by five countermeasures, are offered to help guide managers, coaches, and employees in handling the performance challenge referred to as the Trybaby Syndrome.

The Performance Influence – Importance Matrix

An employee’s effort can be viewed in two dimensions: (1) how much that employee is working on things he or she can actually influence, and (2) how much that employee’s effort drives results that are important to his or her success within the organization. Four types of people can be identified when assessing an individual’s ability to influence a particular outcome, relative to the importance of that outcome to achievement of that person’s key results. The relationship between these two dimensions can be seen in the Performance Influence-Importance Matrix:

Using the Performance Influence-Importance Matrix, we can identify what I call “Trybabies” (Q1), “Spinners” (Q2), “Pass-Timers” (Q3), and “Corperformers” (Q4). The author uses the matrix with executives to discuss their situations and the situations of people in their organizations. Here is a glimpse of each of these generalized types.

Trybabies work on things that they can influence but that are not the most important factors for their successful achievement. They focus on tasks and actions that they are able to positively influence without regard to the impact on required results. Trybabies get stuck mistaking activity for performance that drives key results. The problem for the organization is that the tasks and results the trybaby positively influences are of little or no importance to his or her success within the organization. Without management intervention, the likelihood of correcting a trybaby’s focus and of the trybaby becoming successful in his or her performance arena is diminished.

For example: Pat is a salesperson for an orthopedic sports medical supply company. Formerly an athletic trainer, Pat wants to use her knowledge of orthopedic sports healthcare to sell quality products, thereby increasing her personal income. Pat’s sales presentations to orthopedic surgeons focus on the technical aspects of the products and are usually well-received by doctors. While representing the company and herself as competent and professional is important to Pat’s success and the success of the overall organization, the most important requirement for Pat is to close the sale and obtain an order. She does not focus on this part of the sales process and is therefore not meeting her sales goals. Her sales close is weak and is overshadowed by her product knowledge and informational, product-oriented sales presentations. When her sales manager discusses the situation in general terms with her, she becomes indignant and upset, stating that she is “trying” her very best to represent the company and herself as professional and competent. Without a strong close, Pat’s sales results will continue to stagnate. Pat needs help from her manager to break from her trybaby behavior.

Spinners work on things over which they have little or no influence and that are not important to achievement. They “spin their wheels” and are largely unproductive, contributing little to the work effort.

For example: Jeff is an accountant/manager for an entrepreneurial venture. His job is to manage accounts receivable and accounts payable and to produce quarterly financial reports. Jeff has not produced a financial report on time for two years. His lack of focus on the important result of preparing financial reports on a timely basis causes cash flow problems to go undetected, which exacerbates the problem. Upon closer review, it is apparent that Jeff is spending most of his time working with information technology and experimenting with various accounting software packages-activity that is not within his performance arena. He is failing to produce the desired key results of managing accounts receivable and accounts payable and producing quarterly financial reports. He is a “spinner,” spinning his wheels on unproductive tasks.

Pass-Timers work on things that are considered important within their performance arena but that they do not (or are not able to) influence. These people for instance might spend time focusing and commenting on external conditions, such as inflation, interest rates, and competitors, exclaiming how these factors interfere with their ability to perform. Time spent in this manner serves to “pass the time” unproductively because the individual performer can do very little to influence external factors.

For example: Ron is managing an upscale retail store and his organization wants him to increase average sales per customer. In response to increasing demands by his boss to increase sales, Ron typically complains about one of two things:

• “We are in an economic downturn and customers, even in this affluent community, will not spend additional dollars with us.”
• “We do not have enough convenient parking spaces available.”

These concerns are legitimate and important to the business; however, Ron does not have the ability to influence the economy or parking capacity. He does control local advertising to attract customers and has a high degree of influence over the customer’s experience once they enter his store, but his focus on the external factors rather than the factors he can influence impedes his success. His focus on the externals moves him toward the “pass-timer” quadrant.

Corperformers, as I call them, are the preferred performers in this analysis. They work on those things in the workplace that they can influence and that lead to the achievement of important results. They work with a clear purpose, are focused, and are linked with the proper resources to make an important contribution.

For example: Lauren is the star salesperson on her pharmaceutical sales team. She has an effective working relationship with her sales manager, who is clear about the team’s mission and is skilled at setting stretching yet realistic goals with his people. Lauren has a specific, performance-based job description. She is focused on her key result of increasing sales revenues. She meets regularly with her boss to focus her actions on key account opportunities and to solicit any support she may need to help close new business. She knows that her sales manager cares about her and her development. Lauren is clear about the sales force’s purpose, knows where she fits into that team effort, and is focused on performance actions that drive her most important key result of sales revenue. She is a “corperformer.”

Each of these four behavior patterns has its own set of performance issues and challenges. Even corperformers need to work continually on maintaining their focus and seeking clear direction to guide their actions. Effective and professional managerial leadership can systematically work with and eliminate most performance challenges, including the Trybaby Syndrome. Trybabies, however, present an especially difficult performance challenge since they are usually doing what they prefer to do, and experiencing intrinsic reinforcement for their perceived accomplishments. They are often happy low performers.[1]

Trybabies at Work

Examples of the Trybaby Syndrome abound in any workplace-they can appear in any industry, at any level of knowledge, education, and/or expertise, and at any level within the organizational structure. Consider how you might react to or handle the following situation:

George is a retail store manager who works very hard at keeping his store neat, organized, and clean. In fact, he personally spends time straightening products on shelves, supervising the janitors waxing floors, and organizing inventory in the storage area out of sight of customers. The most important results for each store (and two key result areas for George) established by his company are: (1) to increase the average sale per customer, and (2) to ensure that, as store manager, he knows the names of 90 percent of the store’s primary customers. George performs poorly in these designated areas of importance. He suffers from the Trybaby Syndrome: he works on things that he can influence (keeping a neat, organized, and clean store) but that are not important to his goals and key result areas (increasing the average sale per customer and knowing the names of most of the primary customers). While the results of a neat, organized, and clean store are important to the success of the store and the overall organization, these are not important results for George himself to accomplish-these are tasks for which other employees should be responsible. George is working hard but is not achieving his key results as the store manager.

Trybabies often get stuck in mistaking activity on something they can influence-even though it is of lesser or no importance to achieving valued results-for real performance-oriented action that leads to achievement of key results. To break out of the Trybaby Syndrome, these people need to take performance-oriented action that is important to results achievement and success within their performance arena.[2] An effective managerial leader will challenge people to work on things that they can influence that are important to the achievement of mutually agreed upon goals.

The Five Trybaby Break-Out Principles

Now that you have identified the “trybaby” performance challenge, what can you do about it? My experience in working with managers to help them convert their trybabies, as well as spinners and pass-timers, into high performers has led me to the following five countermeasures:

Principle 1: Meaning and Purpose. Identify the key results each performer should strive to attain-these should be aligned with a meaningful and motivating purpose.[3] Help the performer recognize that the job you are asking him or her to do is important to achieving those meaningful key results. People want to believe that their work is valued and significant. Each performer must be made to understand why his or her key result areas are important and how his or her performance fits into the overall purpose and direction of the work unit or organization.

Principle 2: Expectations and Job Fit. Ensure that the performer knows what is expected of him or her and that the job requirements reasonably match his or her work preferences.[4] Having a clear, results-oriented job description that matches a person’s work preferences and skills helps focus performance. High person-job fit is critical to performance success.

Principle 3: Delivering Quality Feedback. Effectively deliver quality performance feedback to the performer to help drive important key results.[5] Clear, concise, and targeted feedback can shape important performance behaviors. People need to know how they are doing in terms of success and opportunities for improvement.

Principle 4: Recognition and Praise. Recognize and praise the performer’s completion of key actions that are aligned with key results. People are looking for consistent and relatively frequent recognition for their efforts at goal achievement.

Principle 5: Pay Attention to Development and Success. Pay attention to the performer’s performance and related matters in a way that shows you care about his or her development and success. People want to know that they are more than a cog in a wheel. Providing performers with personalized attention around their developmental needs and performance successes is important.

While there are other guiding principles that a manager may use to help break a trybaby, spinner, or pass-timer out of their performance challenges and into higher performance, these five principles represent the most basic. Independent research by the Gallup Organization and by the Saratoga Institute supports these principles as critical to the focusing, developing, and retaining of human capital talent.[6] Managerial leaders who do not positively intervene with trybabies and other personnel to improve their performance focus may be contributing to sub-par performance and may ultimately see these people join the costly turnover ranks. Managerial leaders are encouraged to identify trybaby and other low-performing behavior among their people and apply these countermeasures to help maximize performance within their organizations.

---

[1] C.D. Kerns. “Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace,” Graziadio Business Report, 11, no. 1 (2008). This article highlights the importance of performance and happiness to the long-term success of a business, describes the key dimensions of happiness in the workplace, and offers a self-assessment tool.

[2] C.D. Kerns. Breaking out of the TRYBABY SYNDROME: Helping Your People Go Beyond Just Trying To Get Results, book manuscript submitted for publication, (2008). This book will provide managers with an understandable framework and practical approach to helping their employees become more successful. It provides a model to diagnose and formulate a “hopeful prognosis and break-out process for the Trybaby Syndrome.

[3] A. Wresniewski, J. Tosti. “Career as a Calling,” in J.H. Greenhaus, G.A. Callanan (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Career Development, (California: Sage Publications, 2005). A. Wresniewski, J.E. Dutton, G. Debebe. “Interpersonal Sensemaking and the Meaning of Work,” Research in Organizational Behavior, 25, (2003); 93-135. This article studies how organizational practices like job crafting and context impact work orientation.

[4] C.D. Kerns. “The Power of Performance Profiling,” Graziadio Business Report, 4, no. 1, (2001). Provides a detailed description of how to develop a performance profile of key results and key actions along with people and technical skills for a specific position.

[5] C.D. Kerns. “Assertive Performance Feedback,” Graziadio Business Report, 10, no. 4, (2007). Provides a framework and worksheet to help practitioners prepare to deliver performance feedback in a quality manner.

[6] J. Fitz-enz. The ROI of Human Capital, (New York: AMACOM, 2000). See Chapter 2 for an overview of the Saratoga studies, which retrospectively support the five Trybaby break-out principles. R. Wagner, J.K. Harter. 12: The Elements of Great Managing (New York: Gallup Press, 2006). See the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth elements for retrospective empirical support of the five trybaby break-out principles.

2013 Volume 16 Issue 1

• Leading from Character Strength
• Private Businesses Predict Limited Growth for 2013
• Justice in Ethics Programs
• Moving from Misuse to Bricolage
• EDITORIAL: The New Paradigm for Management Education
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series
• Graziadio School Business Programs

2012 Volume 15 Issue 3

• Facilitating the Inventor–Entrepreneur Interaction:
• Bridging the Complexity Gap:
• A No Fault Approach to Recouping Executive Compensation
• Implementing Intrapreneurship:
• Facebook: Data Mining the World’s Largest Focus Group
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 2

• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• CEO Performance of 125 of Northern California’s Largest Companies
• FOR SALE BY OWNER for Less than It Is Worth
• Beyond the Numbers
• Making Decisions with Multiple Attributes: A Case in Sustainability Planning
• The Ethics of Ethics Programs
• Transorganizations: Managing in a Complex and Uncertain World
• The Global Economy is Open for Business
• VIDEO: Leadership, Innovation and Disruption
• UPDATE: Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Editorial: The World of Graduate Management Education Turned Up Side Down
• The Book Corner
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 1

• CEO Performance of 100 of Southern California’s Largest Companies
• Editor’s Note
• UPDATE: Reforming Corporate America
• UPDATE: Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• UPDATE: Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• UPDATE: Management Skills for the 21st Century
• UPDATE: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• UPDATE: The Dollar vs. the Euro
• UPDATE: Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• UPDATE: The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with BP’s Chief Economist Christof Ruhl
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• Domestic Partner Benefits in the United States
• Examining the Role of Short-Term Correlation in Portfolio Diversification
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Leveraging Opportunities in the Current Economic Climate
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Workplace
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• An Alternative Way to Manage Equity Portfolios
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Survey
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Editorial: Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editorial: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• Editorial: California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• The Book Corner
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editorial
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Using ADR to Resolve Worker’s Compensation Claims

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• The Business Impact of Change Management
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
• 5-Forces Industry Analysis
• IT MATTERS: Measuring Success
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• IT MATTERS: The IT Governance Road Map
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• IT MATTERS: Ethics, Information Systems, and a Steel Ax
• Conversation with author and leadership scholar James M. Kouzes
• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Editorial
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• Managing Resistance to Change
• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS: Or more correctly, use of IT matters…
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note: Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny?
• Conversation with Gemstar-TV Guide International’s Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Sempra Energy’s Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution
• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• Editor’s Note: Deeper Questions
• The Twin Deficits
• Conversation with Rite Aid’s Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired!
• Editorial: Don’t Panic!
• IT MATTERS: Seek and You Might Find
• Conversation with American Honda’s Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• IT MATTERS: Digital Indemnity
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with AT&T’s Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial: Onward and Upward?
• IT MATTERS: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Do Not Call!*
• Improving Research Performance
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Editorial: Shock and Awe
• IT MATTERS: Webhosting
• Conversation with Galpin Ford’s Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Evoke Software’s Lacy Edwards
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Consider the Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT MATTERS: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Kinko’s Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• Conversation with Trader Joe’s John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• Conversation with Reid Plastics’ Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• Conversation with Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics’ Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• Conversation with California’s Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• Conversation with Salomon Smith Barney’s Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• Conversation with WATTSHealth Systems’ Dr. Clyde Oden, Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• Conversation with Boyd Clarke of tompeters!
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting
• Conversation with Development Bank of Japan’s Dr. Kazuyuki Matsumoto
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• Conversation with Power-One’s Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• Conversation with McDonald’s Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Harvard’s Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company’s Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume 2, Issue 1
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• T.I.P.S.
• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• Conversation with Countrywide Credit Industries’ Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• Conversation with Global Pacific Information Services’ Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• Conversation with Imperial Bank’s George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

From Difficult to Disturbed: Understanding and Managing Dysfunctional Employees by Laurence Miller, PhD

From Difficult to Disturbed: Understanding and Managing Dysfunctional Employees

By Laurence Miller, PhD
AMACOM, 2007

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Reading Difficult to Disturbed is a little like reading a book on how to make a bomb: interesting, but could be very dangerous. In the foreword, author Laurence Miller explains that the book is a how-to on the different personality types managers may encounter in the workplace. Such assertions can lead to stereotyping that may be inaccurate at best and damaging at worst, in my opinion. The most important quote in the book is on page 103 and should really be placed at the beginning in large print:

In the most severe cases, your direct role in dealing with these workers will cede to that of mental health clinicians and your most important contributions will be to refer your employee to proper professional help.

The real lesson is that when dealing with a potentially disturbed employee, be sure to get the company’s human resources department involved. If your company does not have an HR department, find a way to standardize the procedures for working with such employees and to ensure that they are followed. It is important to note that sometimes people who behave in certain ways are not necessarily “bad”&-they may just suffer from one of the traits mentioned in the book. It should also be noted that not very many people suffer from the mental diseases that are outlined in the book.

With the above caveats, I would recommend Difficult to Disturbed to anyone who deals with people as a manager or supervisor. Dr. Miller covers all types of mental disorders, using insightful vignettes to explain them and to provide advice to both the person with the disorder and the employer&-essential information for managers and supervisors. The final chapter addresses how leaders should act in crises involving dysfunctional employees. In summary, with the right kind of mindset, one can read this book and keep as a useful reference should there be any kind of episode at work.

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2013 Volume 16 Issue 1

• Leading from Character Strength
• Private Businesses Predict Limited Growth for 2013
• Justice in Ethics Programs
• Moving from Misuse to Bricolage
• EDITORIAL: The New Paradigm for Management Education
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series
• Graziadio School Business Programs

2012 Volume 15 Issue 3

• Facilitating the Inventor–Entrepreneur Interaction:
• Bridging the Complexity Gap:
• A No Fault Approach to Recouping Executive Compensation
• Implementing Intrapreneurship:
• Facebook: Data Mining the World’s Largest Focus Group
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 2

• VIDEO – Wall of Worry: Elections and the Markets
• The Four-Year U.S. Presidential Cycle and the Stock Market
• CEO Performance of 125 of Northern California’s Largest Companies
• FOR SALE BY OWNER for Less than It Is Worth
• Beyond the Numbers
• Making Decisions with Multiple Attributes: A Case in Sustainability Planning
• The Ethics of Ethics Programs
• Transorganizations: Managing in a Complex and Uncertain World
• The Global Economy is Open for Business
• VIDEO: Leadership, Innovation and Disruption
• UPDATE: Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Editorial: The World of Graduate Management Education Turned Up Side Down
• The Book Corner
• Editor’s Note

2012 Volume 15 Issue 1

• CEO Performance of 100 of Southern California’s Largest Companies
• Editor’s Note
• UPDATE: Reforming Corporate America
• UPDATE: Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• UPDATE: Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• UPDATE: Management Skills for the 21st Century
• UPDATE: Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• UPDATE: The Dollar vs. the Euro
• UPDATE: Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• UPDATE: The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with BP’s Chief Economist Christof Ruhl
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• Domestic Partner Benefits in the United States
• Examining the Role of Short-Term Correlation in Portfolio Diversification
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Leveraging Opportunities in the Current Economic Climate
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the Workplace
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• An Alternative Way to Manage Equity Portfolios
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Survey
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Editorial: Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editorial: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• Editorial: California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• The Book Corner
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editorial
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Using ADR to Resolve Worker’s Compensation Claims

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• The Business Impact of Change Management
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
• 5-Forces Industry Analysis
• IT MATTERS: Measuring Success
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• IT MATTERS: The IT Governance Road Map
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• IT MATTERS: Ethics, Information Systems, and a Steel Ax
• Conversation with author and leadership scholar James M. Kouzes
• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Editorial
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• Managing Resistance to Change
• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS: Or more correctly, use of IT matters…
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note: Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny?
• Conversation with Gemstar-TV Guide International’s Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Sempra Energy’s Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution
• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• Editor’s Note: Deeper Questions
• The Twin Deficits
• Conversation with Rite Aid’s Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired!
• Editorial: Don’t Panic!
• IT MATTERS: Seek and You Might Find
• Conversation with American Honda’s Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• IT MATTERS: Digital Indemnity
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with AT&T’s Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial: Onward and Upward?
• IT MATTERS: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Do Not Call!*
• Improving Research Performance
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Editorial: Shock and Awe
• IT MATTERS: Webhosting
• Conversation with Galpin Ford’s Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Evoke Software’s Lacy Edwards
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Consider the Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT MATTERS: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Kinko’s Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• Conversation with Trader Joe’s John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• Conversation with Reid Plastics’ Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• Conversation with Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics’ Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• Conversation with California’s Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• Conversation with Salomon Smith Barney’s Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• Conversation with WATTSHealth Systems’ Dr. Clyde Oden, Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• Conversation with Boyd Clarke of tompeters!
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting
• Conversation with Development Bank of Japan’s Dr. Kazuyuki Matsumoto
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• Conversation with Power-One’s Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• Conversation with McDonald’s Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Harvard’s Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• Conversation with Franchise Mortgage Acceptance Company’s Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume 2, Issue 1
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• T.I.P.S.
• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• Conversation with Countrywide Credit Industries’ Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• Conversation with Global Pacific Information Services’ Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• Conversation with Imperial Bank’s George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

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• New in the GBR Blog

  • Our Degree Is What We Make of It
    As I outlined in my Three Part MBA Philanthropy Series, alumni are a critical financial component to business schools.  However, alumni can contribute in many other ways. In addition to providing financial support to their alma mater, alumni also play an equally important role in pre-student recruiting and job placement. Why is pre-student recruiting importa […]

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