All articles by James O'Toole

Most companies that try to do well by doing good can’t make it last. Their leaders need to think more carefully about their philosophy and governance.

Leading by Biographical Example

The Nothing That’s Everything

How embracing sensible legislation can unlock opportunity.

Hiring employees with greater qualifications than you need may seem like a bargain, but it carries real risks.

A growing rift in San Francisco between techies and long-term residents raises questions about whether employers can—or should—encourage workers to be better neighbors.

Some funds are making bolder demands of the companies they hold shares in, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Relative morality is usually considered a bad thing—except if it gets results.

Leadership transitions are ripe with opportunity—and fraught with peril.

How unconventional ownership structures strengthen America’s crazy-quilt economy.

Running the Detroit Three

The gulf between the interests of small entrepreneurs and global corporations is enormous.

Worker participation in management decisions has long been controversial, but the benefits far outweigh the risks.

Only in finance is money an end in itself—resulting in behavior that’s less than virtuous.

The SEC’s push for greater transparency is a smart move, but it’s not enough to fix executive compensation.

New research documents the negative consequences of media multitasking.

Lessons for managers from a manufacturing success story.

Jon Corzine’s legal troubles point to a toxic mix of bad ethics, bad management, and bad leadership.

A new Gallup poll reveals pervasive apathy in the workplace.

It’s time to reconsider the benefits and risks of combining the CEO and chairman roles.

Of Markets and Morals

The Good Company Revisited

True Tales of Fortune

Unconventional Lives

Why the impact of this preeminent, farsighted management writer is still so difficult to gauge.

Uncategorical Insight

What The Lucifer Effect, Philip Zimbardo’s landmark book on a prison experiment at Stanford University, tells us about the dangers of corporate conformity.

Life Lessons

What’s a Hero, Anyway?

Monsters and Diplomats