Research has long explored strategies used by service industry employees to meet the emotionally demanding “display rules” necessary for their profession.
At first glance, narcissistic leaders don’t sound like the kind of people we’d want to work for. But have you considered that narcissism often comes with many character traits—like unwavering self-confidence—that are crucial to successful leadership? Is there a way to benefit from the “good” parts of narcissism without suffering from the “bad” parts? New research shows that a healthy dose of humility can go a long way for the narcissistic personality.
Modern technology allows us to do some pretty amazing things. One of these things includes playing an engaging game of chess with someone on the opposite side of the planet while sitting at your work desk. Yes, technology can be distracting. But what can employers do about it? How can they make sure that employees focus on the work that they are supposed to be doing?
Research shows that smartphone use disrupts the balance between work and home. A new study shows that supervisor and coworker expectations of smartphone use during non-work hours can harmfully affect work-life balance. The study also found that feeling engaged at work may weaken the relationship between smartphone use and work-home interference.
Whatever your field of work, you probably have to go to meetings. And no, they are not usually something to look forward to. It’s likely this is the case because they aren’t always productive or even necessary, yet we still continue to have them. So how can we use meetings to actually improve workplace outcomes, and leave employees feeling good? New research highlights the importance of employee participation.
Playing games or going to work, which is more fun? Okay, that was an easy one, but what if we could make work seem a little like a game? That would probably make work a little more fun, right? This process is called gamification, and researchers are discovering more about how we can use it to motivate employees to feel enthusiastic about going to work.
Employees make lots of choices about how to spend their time at work, and the way they allocate their time certainly impacts organizational effectiveness. New research shows that these choices are influenced by the specific human resource practices used by an organization. Which HR management practices are the right ones to use?
New research reveals that having a strong sense of ”calling” early on in life may help later in navigating the tension between choosing the career you want versus choosing one for financial stability and job security. When a sense of calling is stronger earlier in life, perceived ability plays a greater role than actual ability when it comes to actually pursuing a challenging career.
Experiencing workplace flow is like “being in the zone” and it increases productivity and performance. This study found that feeling recovered impacted the experience of flow during the day, highlighting the importance of recovering from spending energy at work.
The use of social media at work is becoming increasingly common. A recent study done to develop a questionnaire for measuring good and bad social media behaviors revealed that, in addition to harmful social media behaviors being related to decreased performance, the beneficial behaviors seemed to have no significant relationship to performance. In short, no particular increase in performance output was detected.
Corporate Social Performance is on the incline, and job seekers are increasingly starting to take notice. A new study examines how corporate social performance– including community involvement and pro-environmental efforts– can impact recruitment efforts and even make a company stand out among eager job seekers.
In the evolving workforce of the 21st century, there is a tendency for star performers to produce a disproportionate amount of output compared to the average performer. Despite this trend there has been very little shift in how we treat and manage star performers, often treating and paying them the same as average performers. The result is higher turnover among stars. How important are star performers and what can we do to better manage and retain them?
The ability to overcome challenging experiences is widely viewed as essential to a leader’s growth. But what causes some leaders to respond negatively to challenges? A new study suggests that Leadership Self-Efficacy– the belief in one’s ability to complete tasks and achieve goals– plays a central role in determining whether leaders respond to challenges with effective engagement or avoidance.
As organizational restructuring and downsizing lead to tougher competition for jobs, it’s become more crucial than ever for organizations to maximize each employee’s person-job fit. A new study finds that highly engaged employees tend to increase their own person-job fit by changing the physical and interpersonal attributes of their work in order to meet the needs of the position. In other words, they work harder to fit in better.
There’s a fine line between work engagement and workaholism. The former can lead to positive, dedicated employees; the latter can lead to burnout, bad attitudes, and quitting. Youngkeun Choi examines the differences between the two, offering organizations guidance on encouraging work engagement and discouraging workaholism.
Life after college can be intimidating. Finding work is often hard, and finding work that lives up to your hopes and dreams is even harder. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the choices you have to make when transitioning from college to working life. But a new study sheds light on which career values are most important to identify and use as guides when entering the working world.
Topic: Work-Life Balance, Engagement Publication: Human Relations (SEP 2012) Article: Work Engagement and Work-Family Facilitation: Making Homes Happier Through Positive Affective Spillover Authors: Satoris Culbertson, Maura Mills, & Clive Fullager Reviewed By: Thaddeus Rada For many years, researchers in IO psychology have focused on the negative outcomes, such as stress
Topic: Engagement, Fairness Publication: Personnel Psychology (SUMMER 2012) Article: Applying Uncertainty Management Theory to Employee Voice Behavior: An Integrative Investigation Authors: Riki Takeuchi, Zhijun Chen, & Siu Yin Cheung Reviewed By: Thaddeus Rada In recent years, IO psychology has taken note of the desire that many organizations have for their
Topic: Burnout, Engagement
Publication: Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol 79
Article: Social strategies during university studies predict early career work burnout and engagement: 18-year longitudinal study
Authors: Salmela-Aro, K., Tolvanen, A., Nurmi, J. E.
Reviewed by: Larry Martinez
Topic: Engagement, Job satisfaction, Surveys
Publication: Journal of Business and Psychology (JUN 2011)
Article: Measuring employee engagement during a financial downturn: Business imperative or nuisance?
Authors: Van Rooy, D. L., Whitman, D. S., Hart, D., & Caleo, S.
Reviewed by: Alexandra Rechlin
Topic: Engagement, Job Performance, Job Attitudes
Publication: Journal of Business and Psychology (JUN 2011)
Article: Performance management at the wheel: Driving employee engagement in organizations
Authors: Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B., Stine, C.
Reviewed by: Alexandra Rechlin
Topic: Conflict, Trust
Publication: Academy of Management Journal
Article: Built to last but falling apart: Cohesion, friction, and withdrawl from interfirm alliances
Authors: H. R. Greve, J. A. C. Baum, H. Mitsuhashi, & T. J. Rowley
Reviewed By: Katie Bachman
