Importantly, as Pfeffer well documents in his book Human Equation, these one-eighth organizations are world class, the best in the world—such as General Electric, Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Gallup, and AES (a global developer and operator of power plants).
Today there is ample accumulated research findings and documented practices of the best firms to prove the value of the human factor. Pfeffer and Sutton felt compelled to try to explain why most managers today know this importance and how to implement the approach to improve organizational performance, but still are not doing it (i.e., The Knowing-Doing Gap). They identify five sources that seem to prevent the majority of managers from effective implementation and sustainability: (1) hollow talk, (2) debilitating fear, (3) destructive internal competition, (4) poorly designed and complex measurement systems, and (5) mindless reliance on precedent. They are convinced that if these obstacles (i.e., resistance to change) can be overcome, then "Competitive advantage comes from being able to do something others don't do. When most companies are stuck talking about what should be done, those that get down to business and actually do will emerge as star performers. The purpose of this text is to present and translate what we know about organizational behavior and how to apply this knowledge. Hopefully, this will facilitate closing the gap with action. The starting point in any such journey should be with history and research methods.