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A Full Night’s Sleep Boosts Satisfaction with Work
Treating workers’ sleep problems may be one way to improve employee satisfaction on the job, according to new research. After analyzing data from nearly 5,000 employed adults, a team of psychological scientists from Stockholm University
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For Job Interviews, Earlier in the Day May Be Better
During a job interview, many applicants worry that their professional fate rests in the first few moments of the interview. After a few minutes—or even seconds—the interviewer has sized them up and arrived at a decision. But new research suggests that there may be a different factor for job candidates to worry about: timing. Data gathered by psychological scientists Rachel Frieder (Old Dominion University), Chad Van Iddekinge (Florida State University), and Patrick Raymark (Clemson University) challenge the common belief that interviewers rely on near-instantaneous snap judgements.
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Benefitting from Nepotism Carries Hidden Costs
From politics to Hollywood, it’s not always what you know but who you know that gets you the job. The right family contacts have helped generations of well-connected children climb the corporate ladder. But new research from Butler University psychological scientists Margaret Padgett, Robert Padgett, and Kathryn Morris from Butler University concludes that beneficiaries of nepotism pay a price. “People have negative attitudes toward nepotism and consequently, stigmatize those who benefit from a family connection in the hiring process,” the researchers write in the Journal of Business and Psychology. In the first study, they analyzed a sample of 191 MBA students.
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Moral Suspicion Trickles Down the Corporate Ladder
New research finds that a high-ranking supervisor’s unethical misdeeds can trickle down to tarnish the reputations of the upstanding rank-and-file employees working under them. In the late 1990s, Enron was considered one of the most innovative companies in America, but the fraudulent actions of a few Enron executives resulted in one of the biggest corporate scandals in recent history. Almost 20,000 Enron employees lost their jobs and retirement savings as a result of the company’s collapse in 2001.
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Social Constraints Can Spark Creativity in Diverse Groups
It’s often assumed that creativity is unleashed by removing constraints, but new research finds that establishing clear expectations for social interactions actually encouraged creativity among mixed-sex work groups. A team of psychological scientists, led by Jack Goncalo of Cornell University, wanted to test whether a politically correct environment would dampen people’s creativity — or whether clear social boundaries would actually encourage diverse groups of people to share novel ideas.
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Pride and Prejudice: Reducing LGBT Discrimination at Work
Employers are likely to abide by laws barring discrimination against gay workers not because they are necessarily afraid of being punished for violating the law, but because these laws send a clear message about acceptable moral behavior in the community, a study suggests.
