Many executives spend significant sums improving their personal performance. However, new research by Elizabeth Demers and her co-authors, suggests that there is one relatively simple, effective and low cost way of upping your game as an executive. They show that, for a combination of reasons, cognitive function, mood and the ability to communicate tend to decline throughout the day. For executives with packed diaries and little time to replenish reserves, it is best to get critical tasks scheduled for the morning.
Category Archives: Leadership & Behavior
Understanding what governs and influences the behavior of individuals in social or commercial interactions, decision-making and leadership is the aim of the faculty’s economists and psychologists working in the field of organizational behavior.
Disrupting human resource development: The impact of immersive virtual reality
Interpersonal skills training is about to get a little less personal, it seems. A new paper from Marianne Schmid Mast and co-authors suggests that our role-playing training partners of the future may not be our colleagues or managers, but virtual humans instead.
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The leadership IQ dilemma: when super smart people are perceived as ineffective leaders
General intelligence is an essential characteristic for good leadership. Research by John Antonakis and colleagues on the relationship between IQ and perceptions of effective leadership reveals that a leader’s optimal IQ level depends on the average intelligence of the group being led; too high or too low leader IQ may spell disaster for the leaders.
Managing the expectations trade-off: Why flexible agreements often prove counter-productive
A common criticism of economics is that economic theory often fails to predict real world events, spectacularly so in some cases. More recently, however, a more empirical approach to economics has emerged that combines economic theory, psychology, and laboratory experimentation, in order to better understand decision making in real life situations.
Performance outcomes, fuzzy signals, and the charisma effect: how we evaluate leaders from a distance
You might hope that senior leaders, the people who run countries, corporations or other organizations, are chosen on the basis of a performance track record that can be directly linked to their decisions and actions. But, as research by John Antonakis and Philippe Jacquart reveals, this is far from the truth.
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Motivation: The network effect
New research reveals that the motivation to behave in a socially beneficial way can spread from one individual to another, particularly when they are closely connected. This means that organizations can leverage the impact of actions designed to motivate so-called prosocial behavior by targeting social networks.
Watching me, watching you: making sense of social interaction
Whether it is negotiating, selling, motivating, or even dating, people with access to the latest social sensing technologies and techniques will have a distinct advantage as they engage in a range of activities, business related or otherwise. While they may not be able to read minds, they will be able to monitor the impact of their social interactions on others in real time, and modify their behavior accordingly to achieve their desired outcome.
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Leader corruption depends on power and testosterone
For centuries, philosophers and scientists have been interested in how people relate to power. Now a new study has revealed that the testosterone levels of leaders can influence their behavior and induce them to make decisions to solely increasing their personal payouts.
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A meeting of minds: how clever conversations underpin great project management
Meetings may often seem like a waste of time, yet new research suggests that they are essential part of effective project management. The problem is not the meetings, but what people say in them. Get that right; facilitate common understanding between team members, and project success follows.
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The management detectives: an evidence based approach to investigating management problems
When chemists do drug development they tend not to rely on hunches. Fortunately for the unwell, they prefer the more scientific approach of clinical trials. Yet, when managers tackle business related dilemmas they seem happy to trust to gut feelings and intuition.