Betterworks provides enterprise software to easily manage strategic plans, collaborative goals (OKR's) and ongoing performance conversations. Betterworks software helps high-performing companies get aligned, and execute more effectively. Betterworks closes the loop between people, strategy, and results, enabling organizations to align even their most sprawling, dynamic teams. Industry leaders such as Intuit, Freddie Mac, Asurion, Udemy, Vertiv, HCSC, and the University of Phoenix rely on Betterworks to accelerate strategic growth by supporting transparent goal-setting, enabling continuous performance, and gleaning real-time employee engagement insights. Betterworks is backed by Kleiner Perkins and Emergence Capital.

Though it's an integral part of a properly functioning managerial relationship, feedback remains a sticky subject for many whose jobs require them to provide it. Some fear the backlash that may result, others worry that it may jeopardize their career, and still others fret that their feedback is getting completely ignored. In fact, a recent study by VitalSmarts found that 83% of employees have witnessed a colleague say something that has had a negative impact on their careers, something the study's authors referred to as "suicide by feedback." On the other hand, regular feedback is vital for employee engagement, which can lead to profitability and productivity increases of more than 20%, according to a 2014 Gallup Poll. So how can managers get over their fear of the repercussions while keeping their employees engaged?

Though it's an integral part of a properly functioning managerial relationship, feedback remains a sticky subject for many whose jobs require them to provide it. Some fear the backlash that may result, others worry that it may jeopardize their career, and still others fret that their feedback is getting completely ignored. In fact, a recent study by VitalSmarts found that 83% of employees have witnessed a colleague say something that has had a negative impact on their careers, something the study's authors referred to as "suicide by feedback." On the other hand, regular feedback is vital for employee engagement, which can lead to profitability and productivity increases of more than 20%, according to a 2014 Gallup Poll. So how can managers get over their fear of the repercussions while keeping their employees engaged?

This article is part of an MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. Smart machines need ethics, too: Remember that movie in which a computer asked an impossibly young Matthew Broderick, "Shall we play a game?" Four decades later, it turns out that global thermonuclear war may be the least likely of a slew of ethical dilemmas associated with smart machines -- dilemmas with which we are only just beginning to grapple. The worrisome lack of a code of ethics for smart machines has not been lost on Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft, according to a report by John Markoff in The New York Times. The five tech giants (if you buy Mark Zuckerberg's contention that he isn't running a media company) have formed an industry partnership to develop and adopt ethical standards for artificial intelligence -- an effort that Markoff infers is motivated as much to head off government regulation as to safeguard the world from black-hearted machines. On the other hand, the first of a century's worth of quinquennial reports from Stanford's One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) throws the ethical ball into the government's court.

Next time you apply for a job, it could be a computer algorithm deciding whether or not you fit the bill. This is because clever, self-learning programs are getting better than human recruiters at analysing vast amounts of data gleaned from application forms, CVs (curricula vitae or resumes), and social media profiles. Not only can they see if your credentials match the basic requirements of the job description, they can identify personality traits from the way you've expressed yourself on paper and online. These algorithms try "to automate the 20-to-50 things the best recruiters do consciously or unconsciously" when shortlisting candidates, says Jon Bischke, chief executive of Entelo, a recruitment tech firm. But he doesn't believe we'll ever reach the point where the computer makes the final decision.