Business & Entrepreneurship

Planning to negotiate a raise? Try not to discuss it with the boss in his or her office, suggests a new study by an organizational behavior expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

Christina D. Romer, PhD, former chair of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, will deliver a keynote address to open a panel discussion on “The Continuing Unemployment Crisis: Causes, Cures, and Questions for Further Study” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.

The meltdown of private pension plans, 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts during the recession demonstrates that Social Security is more essential than ever, says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Bernstein discussed the crucial role of Social Security in a report for the university’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

This summer, the Supreme Court will rule whether to allow the district court certification of the class action gender bias case against Wal-Mart. While much of the attention has focused on the enormous size of the class, the impact of the case is likely to be felt across a range of class action and employment discrimination cases, says Pauline Kim, JD, the Charles Nagel Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and employment law expert. 

“Opening Doors to the Future: The Scholarship Initiative for Washington University” has received a big boost by alumnus John D. Beuerlein and his wife, Crystal, with a pledge of $1 million to establish an endowed scholarship for Washington University graduate students.

Design is a problem solver. Design is a provoker, a test lab for change. Design is a tool for breaking old patterns and discovering new ways of thinking. So argues Alan Webber, cofounder of Fast Company, the pioneering magazine written for and about progressive business leaders. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, Webber will deliver the annual Eugene J. Mackey Jr. Lecture for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. The talk is co-sponsored by the Olin Business School. 

The New York Times will begin charging users for online content March 28. No American news outlet as big as the paper has put its content behind a paywall after offering it for free. Will it be successful? Two marketing professors at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis debate the merits of a paywall.

What makes a great leader on a global scale? A coalition of eight student groups has been working for nearly a year to organize a conference to answer that question. The Global Leadership Conference is set for Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 at Siegle Hall. It is free and open to the public. […]

Charles L. Leven, 82, PhD, emeritus professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, died Tuesday, March 15, 2011 in Chicago. Leven spent nearly 30 years in the department until his retirement in 1991. He was an expert in urban economics.

When the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 was repealed 11 years ago, financial institutions were allowed to engage in commercial and investment activities under the same roof. But a new study by a professor in Olin Business School finds it’s difficult to maintain an information firewall between those activities when they are housed in the same financial institution.