Managers with outdated notions about controlling employees are misusing technology to monitor and micro-manage those employees, according to Microsoft-sponsored research published by the London School of Economics. InfoWorld reports that The Future Role of Trust in Work, released this week by the LSE, collated research from 15 field studies done around the world over the […]
Category: Workplace
Changes in the works at Electronic Arts
It’s part of a modern-day sweat-shop industry with it’s high-tech work force toiling like galley slaves chained to their benches. So said the New York Times in an article last month describing Electronic Arts. This is about ea_spouse, the wife of the Electronic Arts employee who wrote in her personal blog last month a from-the-heart […]
Some evangelism on Forrester’s vision
Not everyone sees the visionary road for internal blogging as Charlene Li of Forrester Research does. It looks like I’m one of the seemingly few who very firmly does share that vision on how blogging might evolve in companies as part of an integrated communication and information-sharing system or process, and as a means unto […]
Oracle will carve up PeopleSoft
According to its president, Oracle has a clear idea of how it’s going to slice up PeopleSoft to retain the choicest assets and send the rest to the corporate rendering yard – it’s just waiting for the green light to hit it in the head with a sledge hammer so it can turn PeopleSoft into […]
How a blog will help Macy*s NY
My PubSub subscription that gives me RSS feeds of blog posts that contain the phrases “organizational communication” or “corporate communication” (see earlier post) continues to provide some really interesting news and information. For instance, Workers Rights and Comfortability: Key to Productivity at Macy*s Herald Square, a post today in the Positive Energy Activates Constant Elevation […]
Communication challenges for Oracle and PeopleSoft after acquisition
CNET News: PeopleSoft’s board of directors has approved a takeover deal with Oracle worth around $10.3 billion, ending a long-running and bitter battle and creating a major software maker. CNET News | Oracle buys PeopleSoft for $10 billion So while the acquisition endgame is in sight for investors and shareholders, a great deal of work […]
The FUD begins in Oracle and PeopleSoft deal
Creating fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about your competitors in the minds of their customers is a tactic common in the enterprise software industry, especially when you see a significant event like an acquisition that will upset the fine balance of players in a mature and consolidating market. It’s all part of the friendly business […]
20 questions and blog writing skills
Steve Rubel wrote yesterday about Stowe Boyd’s efforts to find meaningful answers to 20 questions about blogging and the blog that’s been set up to facilitate the answering process. The answers to those 20 questions will form part of the content that Stowe’s company, Corante, will use in a seminar in January. Most of the […]
Fired Delta employee crusade lacks credibility
The story of the Delta Airlines employee who was fired for breach of company policy regarding some photos she posted on her personal blog is taking some interesting twists and turns. Here’s the quick story overview. Ellen Simonetti was a flight attendant at Delta Airlines. She writes Queen of Sky, a personal blog, in which […]
Microsoft ramps up the FUD
Following the announcement of Oracle’s acquisition of PeopleSoft on 13 December, I wrote about the outbreak of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that began with comments by an SAP executive. Now comes news about moves by Microsoft seeking to lure PeopleSoft customers away. Microsoft-Watch reports that Microsoft didn’t waste any time in trying to win […]
The Number One Hot Prediction for 2005
I’ve resisted the temptation so far to make a list of blog-related predictions for 2005. Everyone does lists and I’m sure what I might say wouldn’t be that different from what I see many communicators and others saying. But, catching up with scanning my RSS feeds last night, I read Media Guerrilla’s 2005 Predictions by […]
Thinking time for PeopleSoft employees over Christmas
It’s time for PeopleSoft customers and employees to start thinking about the future and about protecting their own interests, because nobody else is going to be watching out for them, says an eWeek report. Benevolent or paternalistic aren’t words that have ever been seriously associated with Oracle or with its founder and CEO, Larry Ellison. […]
Music for better decision-making
In its January issue, Wired magazine reports on a new technology that transforms stock market data into music-based sound to communicate meaning: Abstract snippets of clarinet and harpsichord waft from their workstations. But the financial advisers at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse First Boston aren’t listening to Philip Glass. They’re the earliest adopters of […]
PeopleSoft shakeout begins at the top
Oracle Corporation fired PeopleSoft‘s co-president and chief financial officer, Kevin T. Parker, and three other top executives, a day after assuming control of the rival software maker in a $10.3 billion takeover, according to a report in today’s New York Times. Oracle terminated W. Phillip Wilmington, co-president; Nanci Caldwell, chief marketing officer; and James Shaughnessy, […]
An online order that exceeds my expectations
A small thing, but it’s good to feel very satisfied with something you order online and when it arrives, it exceeds your expectations. I’m not talking about Amazon, which always meets my expectations. I’m talking about my new gapingvoid business cards which arrived in the post this morning. Good quality card stock, good printing, cards […]
Don’t be dooced in 2005
Very good article on BBC News Online today on the pros and cons of blogging in the workplace. Entitled Looming pitfalls of work blogs, the BBC piece discusses employee blogging and potential legal pitfalls for both employer and employee (covering some similar ground to that published on this topic by ComputerWorld in early November), and […]
How to win friends and executive influence
MediaInsider, the PR Newswire blog, posted an article from PIONet on research that adds some very useful information to the little that’s known about how corporate PR practitioners work to influence and persuade senior management in their organizations – how they obtain and use "clout" – or how they secure perceptions of their value to […]
Five examples of great thinking
Maybe it’s everyone coming back fresh after a break for Christmas and New Year, but whatever it is, I’ve been reading some extremely thoughful and thought-provoking posts in the past few days by some of our fellow business bloggers. Take these five examples, for instance: Andy Lark on Ten Ways Communications Will Change In 2005: […]
Oracle plans big cuts
Following completion of its PeopleSoft acquisition, Oracle is in the process of a mass layoff of staff that’s expected to cut thousands of jobs, Infoworld reports. And it’s not just PeopleSoft employees who will go – reports such as Infoworld’s talk only of ‘cuts’ and ‘layoffs’ without specifying which company. Some financial analysts are expecting […]
The harsh reality for PeopleSoft employees
CNET News: Oracle appears to be adding insult to injury in its merger with PeopleSoft – taking the unusual step of notifying workers of their termination by sending pinks slips via express mail to their homes. Shipments to thousands of PeopleSoft employees across the [United States] are expected over the weekend, according to sources close […]