4 ms·

Is this a joke? I don't believe HBS would allow its logo to be placed on such obvious trolling.

by codeonfire 11y ago

vonnik 11y ago
are you questioning the existence of toxic workers? or the validity of the study?
- codeonfire 11y ago
  Both. Readers should stop reading when they get to "a toxic worker is defined as a worker that engages in behavior that is harmful to an organization." Could mean literally anything. Their data is equally ridiculous. It consists of a) lists of people that were fired because management deemed them "Toxic" and b) "daily performance data that represent productivity by measuring the average amount of time an employee required to handle a transaction and customer satisfaction scores." Their conclusion is that people that have self respect are more likely to be fired for being toxic. Ha! My only question is, how the hell do I get paid to write this stuff?
  - pkaye 11y ago
    I've been in people management roles and certainly dealt with a rare few who just couldn't get along with anyone and also a disruption to the productivity of others. In hindsight, what I found is these individuals will tend to have a history of short stays at many companies. Because of the litigious nature of US, the former employers will never disclose anything wrong in a reference check plus they just want to get that person out the door.
  - calinet6 11y ago
    Excellent analysis. This simplifies management down to a black and white, rigid, mechanical chopping block. This isn't fit for anyone doing business in today's world.
  - knughit 11y ago
    How to get paid? Become a social scientist. The data is boring and irrelevant to reality, so write any narrative you want, and be judged how well you fit your audience's preconceived notions (double credit for publishing opposite conclusions on the same data)
  - knughit 11y ago
    How to get paid? Become a social scientist. The data is boring and irrelevant to reality, so write any narrative you want, and be judged how well you fit your audience's preconceived notions (double credit for publishing opposite conclusions on the same data)
yankoff 11y ago
see, you are just being toxic ;)
ACow_Adonis 11y ago
Not sure if serious. I have no idea if this will engender downvotes for myself, but personally, I've always found HBS to do almost NOTHING BUT lend its name to pseudoscience twaddle and call it "business" or "management". Rest assured, in corporate life whenever you get some bullshit speaker spruiking some bullshit idea, a HBS paper is always eerily near. Frankly I'm shocked they have the cachet they do...humans and their authority/prestige structures continue to fascinated me.
- codeonfire 11y ago
  In my B-school program we did read lots of HBS cases and most of those were about objective things like "could the company have adopted a different marketing strategy" not "how can the company legitimize its political machinations in a totalitarian labor system" So I was giving them the benefit.
  - msellout 11y ago
    > "how can the company legitimize its political machinations in a totalitarian labor system" That's an excellent TL;DR.

Is this a joke? I don't believe HBS would allow its logo to be placed on such obvious trolling.

vonnik 11y ago

are you questioning the existence of toxic workers? or the validity of the study?

codeonfire 11y ago
Both. Readers should stop reading when they get to "a toxic worker is defined as a worker that engages in behavior that is harmful to an organization." Could mean literally anything. Their data is equally ridiculous. It consists of a) lists of people that were fired because management deemed them "Toxic" and b) "daily performance data that represent productivity by measuring the average amount of time an employee required to handle a transaction and customer satisfaction scores." Their conclusion is that people that have self respect are more likely to be fired for being toxic. Ha! My only question is, how the hell do I get paid to write this stuff?
- pkaye 11y ago
  I've been in people management roles and certainly dealt with a rare few who just couldn't get along with anyone and also a disruption to the productivity of others. In hindsight, what I found is these individuals will tend to have a history of short stays at many companies. Because of the litigious nature of US, the former employers will never disclose anything wrong in a reference check plus they just want to get that person out the door.
- calinet6 11y ago
  Excellent analysis. This simplifies management down to a black and white, rigid, mechanical chopping block. This isn't fit for anyone doing business in today's world.
- knughit 11y ago
  How to get paid? Become a social scientist. The data is boring and irrelevant to reality, so write any narrative you want, and be judged how well you fit your audience's preconceived notions (double credit for publishing opposite conclusions on the same data)
- knughit 11y ago
  How to get paid? Become a social scientist. The data is boring and irrelevant to reality, so write any narrative you want, and be judged how well you fit your audience's preconceived notions (double credit for publishing opposite conclusions on the same data)

yankoff 11y ago

see, you are just being toxic ;)

ACow_Adonis 11y ago

Not sure if serious. I have no idea if this will engender downvotes for myself, but personally, I've always found HBS to do almost NOTHING BUT lend its name to pseudoscience twaddle and call it "business" or "management". Rest assured, in corporate life whenever you get some bullshit speaker spruiking some bullshit idea, a HBS paper is always eerily near. Frankly I'm shocked they have the cachet they do...humans and their authority/prestige structures continue to fascinated me.

codeonfire 11y ago
In my B-school program we did read lots of HBS cases and most of those were about objective things like "could the company have adopted a different marketing strategy" not "how can the company legitimize its political machinations in a totalitarian labor system" So I was giving them the benefit.
- msellout 11y ago
  > "how can the company legitimize its political machinations in a totalitarian labor system" That's an excellent TL;DR.