Media Coverage

Hurricane Harvey severely affected residents and businesses in Houston and other areas of southeast Texas. As meetings return to the region, many are using their time there to give back to the local community. INFORMS, which will hold its annual meeting in Houston next month, is also in the process of developing a coordinated effort to helps its members and attendees make a positive impact in the community during their time there.

A new German study finds that groups of people are more likely than individuals to engage in dishonest behavior, especially when money is involved. The findings are published in the INFORMS journal Management Science.

Congrats on your 1,500 LinkedIn connections. But did they help you snag a job? Weak online connections on job sites and social networking sites are no match for “strong connections” — i.e., close friends and family members with whom you communicate at least once a month — when it comes to landing a gig, according to a new study from INFORMS. 

Among the top three office distractions is setting goals that place unrealistic expectations on employees. A recent study in the INFORMS journal Organization Science found stretch goals actually undermine performance for most organizations - 80 percent of participants at the companies surveyed had failed to reach their assigned stretch goal.

Many employers hide behind a common misconception: If they set big goals, employees will be pushed to exceed expectations and reach peak performance. These are commonly referred to as "stretch goals," which are set beyond current capabilities. As a June study from the INFORMS journal Organization Science found, stretch goals actually undermine performance for most organizations - 80 percent of participants at the companies surveyed had failed to reach their assigned stretch goal.