Stock options have a positive effect on firm performance when they are granted to executives, but giving options to lower-ranking employees seems to have no effect on the bottom line according to a new study.

Ben Horowitz believes companies should strive to hire people with the right kind of ambition. Here he aims to clarify why you should care about senior managers having the right kind of ambition and give some tips on how to screen for them in an interview.

The few organizations that adeptly tap human potential and build the value of people equity focus on three critical factors: alignment,capabilities, and engagement. In such “ACE” organizations, the rewards in terms of retention, customer satisfaction, and financial success are well worth the investment.

Determining compensation for sales professionals is often a trade-off between salary and incentive-based plans. Anne Coughlan examined a multitude of compensation arrangements to discover the “best” plan for a person depends on a number of factors.

New research shows that when it comes to managing talent, one size no longer fits all. To be competitive and to maximize the performance of a workforce, companies need to understand and respond to the diverse needs of individual employees.

To respond to opportunities in global production, research and development, and innovation, as well as to optimize customer sales, service, and growth, companies need to deploy the right people to the right places at the right cost. Along with changing employee expectations, companies also face an increasing need to attract, develop, deploy, and retain employees and leaders who know how to think and operate globally. In short, companies need a global workforce, and global mobility, more than ever.

This article offers ideas on how to execute and implement key strategy, process, and technology elements to support an effective global mobility program. The report builds on the themes explored in a prior publication, Smart Moves: A New Approach to International Assignments and Global Mobility, which introduced a new model for global mobility that offers business, HR, and talent leaders an integrated framework for analyzing and assessing global assignments.

As a business owner, you know your product, service, market and customers. But sometimes one of the most challenging aspects of operating a business is employees. Not because the employees themselves are a challenge but because there’s so much legislation and nuances to employee relations.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a go-to list of resources that can provide answers to common HR questions or solve those nagging people issues? Well, while this list is not a substitution for legal advice, these seven resources can lend a hand in understanding the complexities of labor and employment matters for your business.

This collection of articles explores many of the common people-related integration challenges organizations are likely to face during an M&A transaction, and offers recommendations to help executive leadership get it right for Day One and beyond. There are five sections:

Section 1: Due Diligence
Section 2: Integration Management
Section 3: Integration
Section 4: Post-Merger Integration
Section 5: Divestiture

The economic slump offers business leaders a chance to more effectively reward talented employees by emphasizing nonfinancial motivators rather than bonuses. A recent McKinsey survey indicates that executives find some nonmonetary rewards motivate employees better than cash bonuses do. See what they are, then let us know what's working in your organization.

The best-selling case study of all time at Harvard Business School (HBS) is not about Coca-Cola or Microsoft, but the Cleveland-based arc welding manufacturer Lincoln Electric. First published in 1975, the case has sold roughly 300,000 copies. Almost every MBA candidate at Harvard reads the original or one of several updated versions, as do tens of thousands more business students across America.

I stumbled on that publishing tidbit soon after stumbling onto the story of Lincoln Electric and its amazing unbroken "guaranteed employment" promise. But I was puzzled: if so many prospective MBAs, who become America's corporate elite, study the documented importance of a guaranteed employment promise to this company's decades-long record of success, why is it such a rarity?

If your firm has downsized recently, you’re now managing a bunch of survivors—the lucky ones who didn’t get laid off. But good fortune doesn’t make for good performance—at least not in this situation. Chances are, you’re presiding over a heightened level of employee dysfunction, even if you don’t see it yet. Here are areas to address to limit the damage.

Companies increasingly rely on a relatively scarce resource to maintain their competitive edge: the people who are able to use statistics; rigorous quantitative or qualitative analysis; and information-modeling techniques to make business decisions. Or, in shorthand, “analytical talent.”

For business leaders, the importance of such people poses several challenges, but in our experience one question stands out: What’s the best way to organize analysts? Executives have to decide whether they should be centralized or decentralized; “charged out” to the rest of the business as consultants or be made available as a free resource; and where and to whom they should report. New Accenture research helps companies determine the optimal way to organize and retain their increasingly valuable analytical talent.

He can close, but how's his interpersonal sensitivity? A guide to screening sales candidates.

Whether you are seeking to attract and retain talent, generate support for a new business imperative, or to maintain friendly labor relations, an effective Employee Engagement program is one that is built on the five C's: clarity, consistency, context, customization and conversation.

Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity? In some employment environments, the answer is yes, according to Wharton management professor Adam Grant. Grant has devoted significant chunks of his professional career to examining what motivates workers in settings that range from call centers and mail-order pharmacies to swimming pool lifeguard squads. In all these situations, Grant says, employees who know how their work has a meaningful, positive impact on others are not just happier than those who don't; they are vastly more productive, too.

Given the magnitude of the overall organizational impact, it is surprising how few companies invest in helping their precious leadership assets to succeed during transitions—the most critical junctures in their careers. A few companies explicitly train their managers how to take charge. More common are “on-boarding” programs that introduce outside hires to the strategy, businesses, and culture of the company. While useful, such programs seldom provide systematic guidance on the process of managing a successful transition. And the vast majority of companies do not provide any support at all. Why do so many companies leave their people to sink or swim?

This essay appears in "The HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas for 2010," which is compiled by this journal in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. The ten problems and the innovative solutions are discussed in each essay. This particular essay describes research demonstrating the importance of daily work progress, even incremental progress, for motivating workers. Additional research showed that managers underestimate the importance of facilitating progress as a motivational tool.

Art Kleiner, author of The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management, uncovers an effective and ongoing way to create employee alignment and accountability in Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions, by Gary B. Cohen.

As your company expands, you'll probably want to write down policies and rules that govern your employees. Here's how to create an employee handbook that is sensible, practical, and that protects you as an employer.

At Fog Creek Software, every worker at the same level is paid the same salary. And when one gets a raise, they all do.

Here are 33 traditional and voguish beliefs that, on the basis of their research, the authors of The Enthusiastic Employee say have little or no basis in reality. These beliefs, covering a variety of areas, are widespread and, when applied to the typical employee and work situation, are wrong. They also often contradict each other, as "common sense" beliefs often do.

Company leaders are often quick to acknowledge, even revere, the importance of human capital in their organizations. “Our growth depends on people” and similar sound bites echo through many CEO speeches and litter corporate homepages like the last refrain in a many-versed ballad. Yet, catchphrases and buzzwords offer little clarity when it comes to the ins and outs of building and keeping a workforce.

Why you need to reconfigure the company around your people.

Most companies treat benefits as a cost of doing business. They should see them instead as a competitive weapon.

Historically, there is a significant increase in the number of executives leaving their companies as market conditions improve and more job opportunities open up. Accenture research shows that executives tend to stay longest with those companies that offer the greatest opportunities to enhance their employability. By providing the three opportunities that executives want most, companies will be in a better position not only to retain their most prized executives, but also to attract new talent as the economy recovers.