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Management in the movies: American Factory (2019)

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Management in the movies: the human element of supply chains in American Factory (2019)

This summer, we’re going to the movies! Management experts from McGill University analyze popular films and share the lessons that lie within them. This week, we're joined by Professor Rob Glew, an expert in operations management. In a conversation on the McGill Delve podcast, he discusses what happens when a Chinese glass manufacturer tries to transplant its operations halfway around the world, as documented in the film American Factory (2019). What happens when an operational model meets the messiness of the real world? Are human beings the supply chain’s weakest link? And can American factories match the productivity of their Chinese counterparts?

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Management in the movies: the allure and danger of high-performance environments in The Devil Wears Prada

This summer, we’re going to the movies! Management experts from McGill University analyze popular films and share the lessons that lie within them. Professor Sabine Dhir is an expert on leadership, strategy and innovation in complex systems. She joins the Delve podcast to discuss the allure and danger of high-performance environments in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). How should young people navigate these environments as they enter the workplace? What can be learned from such a successful yet hostile leader as Miranda Priestly? What does a story about the fashion industry teach us about the aesthetics of success?

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Management in the movies: three lessons from The Big Short

This summer, we’re going to the movies! Management experts from McGill University analyze popular films and share the lessons that lie within them. Levi Olando is a PhD Student in Strategy and Organization and a former fraud investigator. He joins the Delve podcast to discuss one of his favourite films: The Big Short (2015). What fallacies led to the 2008 financial crisis? How did the protagonists see the collapse coming, while others did not? In a story about profit and risky investments, are there any true heroes?

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Bribery isn’t just about money – it’s about organizational design

Why do some workers accept bribes while others do not, even if they work within the same organization, or even within the same work unit? Professor Diana Dakhlallah and PhD student Katie McIntosh, both of McGill University, explored this question in a recent study. It’s a matter of organizational design. Their findings show how task allocations and relative pay between coworkers can together influence a person’s likelihood of accepting bribes.

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Agentic engineering solves the vibe coding problem in workplaces

Software companies are using vibe coding to speed up their workflows. But if they trust the AI too much, they make themselves vulnerable to bad coding decisions. This week on the McGill Delve podcast, Lakshya Agarwal joins the show. He’s a forward-deployed engineer at a prominent AI firm. He walks us through the process of agentic engineering and how it could help mitigate the risks of vibe coding while maximizing its benefits.

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Cutting middle managers won’t improve patient care

Middle managers in healthcare often have responsibilities that overlap with others, which makes them prime targets for cuts in times of austerity. But for Prof. Giovanni Radaelli and Andrea D’addario, this can be more of a feature than a bug. Overlap can allow managers to bridge different parts of the organization, making them the muscle behind patient care. Here’s how.

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Chef protégés must choose between legacy and independence

Mentors influence their protégés’ careers long after they finish their time together, according to recent research by Daphne Demetry, Associate Professor of Strategy and Organization at McGill University. She studied the paths of chef protégés after they left their high-status mentors’ kitchens. Her findings reveal the impact and complexity of mentor-mentee relationships in the culinary world.

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Limited-time offers are limits on free will

Limited-time offers can boost sales, but some restrictions apply. Such were the findings in a recent paper by Ashesh Mukherjee, Associate Professor and Area Director of Marketing at McGill University. He shows us how limited-time offers can backfire when they restrict consumers' free will.

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When gamers become part of the AI supply chain

In the video game Borderlands 3, players can complete puzzles that help process genomic training data for a scientific AI model. These puzzles are themselves organized by an AI, creating a human-AI collaboration that can expedite data processing—a key bottleneck in the AI supply chain. Professors Setareh Farajollahzadeh and Rob Glew, experts in Operations Management from McGill University, look at why they play and how they can help push the tech forward.

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