Decisiveness is a key characteristic important for professionals in leadership positions and beyond. We have a look at the foundation of decisiveness, how it works and what you can do to benefit from it in this CQ Dossier.
The aviation industry has reached an unprecedented safety level. This is an outstanding achievement taking into consideration that global air traffic is on the rise and every new aircraft becomes technically more sophisticated. Of course, one of the reasons for this achievement is superior technology. However, without a crew that performs well technology would be useless. A considerable body of evidence indicates that one reason for this strong safety track record in aviation is due to airlines conducting Crew Resource Management trainings as means to improve team performance. Initially inspired by management as a team development intervention, Crew Resource Management has become a de-facto standard in the aviation industry. Is it time for management to re-adapt what the aviation industry has developed to the next level?
Niklas Luhmann, one of the most influential sociologists of the 20th century and father of social systems theory, once stated that organizations are made of decisions (Luhmann 2000). He even went further and argued that every decision taken builds on past decisions which accumulate to an organization’s future. On a more practical level, making the right decision can be a matter of life and death in high-risk environments such as aviation, medicine, or the military. In business, management and organizations, decision-making quality is a key determinant of good performance. We will take a look at the state of decision-making in the business sector and how Evidence-based Management can help managers, professionals and other stakeholders to improve decision-making quality.
Today’s world is characterized as being VUCA - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Because of this new and unpredictable environment, it is almost impossible to predict threats or opportunities - at the same time, the potential for disruption is very high. VUCA was a term originally coined in the late 1990 to describe a strategic leadership environment. This already hints at the hidden advantages of this seemingly out-of-reach environment. What is VUCA really about and how can organizations and leaders adapt to it? In the following blogpost, we will consider what VUCA can and cannot bring to the table, and give some tips about how to make VUCA work for you through strategic management.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is disrupting the businesses and societies in a manner that is unseen before. By the end of the decade, there will likely be no field untouched by this technological advancement. Although people have been challenged by machines ever since the Industrial Revolution, this time it's different. AI is transforming many dimensions of our lives, revolutionizing how we think, learn, communicate, and work, threatening to take over activities with a substantial cognitive and creative load. The ability of the organizations, the workplace, and the workforce to transform themselves in response to these unprecedented changes will determine their survival success. The end result remains to be seen.
In two sessions, we interviewed Eric Barends, the Managing Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa). Eric is based in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and advises management teams and boards of companies and non-profit organizations on evidence-based management and development. In this first session Eric discusses the foundation of evidence-based management and its benefits in business.
In line with our critical thinking approach here at CQ Net, in this blog post we want to look beyond the traditional management understanding of organizations as machines. Sociology has a long tradition in offering theories and systems of thought on how societies, organizations and teams work and relate to each other. One of these approaches is 'social systems theory'. Carlton Clark has a look at this grand social theory and its implications for management practitioners.
