Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Getting the attention you need.

T H Davenport¹, J C Beck

¹Andersen Consulting's Institute for Strategic Change, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. thomas.h.davenport@ac.com

Harvard Business Review

|January 6, 2001

Summary

Attention is a scarce resource in today's information-rich business environment. Effective attention management is crucial for leaders to ensure employees focus on key corporate goals, leveraging economic, psychobiological, and technological strategies.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Incidence of Parkinson disease in North America.

NPJ Parkinson's disease·2022

Same author

Prevalence of Parkinson's disease across North America.

NPJ Parkinson's disease·2018

Same author

Blueberry muffin rash, hyperbilirubinemia, and hypoglycemia: a case of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn due to anti-Kp(a).

Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association·2011

Same author

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes for children with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia and early or late BM relapse.

Bone marrow transplantation·2010

Same author

Chronic (60-week) toxicity study of DUROS leuprolide implants in dogs.

International journal of toxicology·2002

Same author

Informing older adults about non-hazardous, hazardous, and harmful alcohol use.

Patient education and counseling·2001

Area of Science:

Business Management
Cognitive Psychology
Information Science

Background:

Employees face an overwhelming volume of business information, leading to attention deficits.
Achieving corporate objectives requires focused employee attention, which is increasingly scarce.

Purpose of the Study:

To analyze how companies manage employee and visitor attention.
To offer guidelines for maintaining employee focus on critical corporate tasks.

Main Methods:

Analysis of attention management through economic, psychobiological, and technological lenses.
Drawing lessons from successful "sticky" websites and traditional attention industries (advertising, film, TV).

Main Results:

Attention is a zero-sum game; managing it requires understanding its limited nature.
Leveraging basic survival and competitive instincts can enhance employee focus.

Conclusions:

Leaders must recognize attention as a critical, often misunderstood and mismanaged, business resource.
Effective attention management strategies are essential for corporate success in the digital age.

Related Experiment Videos