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For Managers, Upholding Fairness Comes at a Cost
The French novelist Victor Hugo wrote that “being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.” A recent study on fairness in the workplace may lend support to his claim. Although fairness is typically heralded as something good, psychological scientists Russell E. Johnson (Michigan State University), Klodiana Lanaj (University of Florida), and Christopher M. Barnes (University of Washington) found that for those charged with enforcing it, workplace justice may actually come at a cost. Abiding by rules and procedures has been shown to drain mental resources, leading the researchers to hypothesize that enforcing the rules could also be mentally draining.
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In Hiring, Resume Info Could Help Employers Predict Who Will Quit
Replacing an employee isn’t just expensive. When an employee leaves, organizations often have to plan for dips in productivity and loss of institutional knowledge, not to mention having to dedicate time and effort to hire and train a new employee. Given all of these costs, many organizations are interested in identifying strategies that will help them retain their employees. New research shows that information included in most resumes could serve as a cheap and effective predictor for how long someone is likely to stay in a new job, suggesting that retention might be boosted early on in the initial screening process. Psychological scientist James A.
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Networking Style May Predict Profits for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is a risky endeavor. Of all new firms, around one-third will close within the first two years and over half will have closed within their first four years. However, one thing that has been shown to greatly improve the odds of success for new businesses: face-to-face networking. A team of psychological scientists, led by Jeffrey M. Pollack of North Carolina State University, investigated how different approaches to networking might end up impacting the bottom line for entrepreneurs.
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Feminine Faces Offered Less at the Negotiation Table
Women often come away from the negotiation table with lower salaries and less advantageous terms than men. New research suggests that in the first moments of bargaining negotiators may be equating feminine features with negative stereotypes about women’s negotiating skills. In a recent study, psychological scientists Eric Gladstone and Kathleen M. O’Connor of Cornell University looked at how the possession of feminine facial features impacted negotiations. The researchers hypothesized that people with feminine facial features, even men, would be perceived as more cooperative, less aggressive, and less assertive.
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The Key to Work-Life Balance is Really Work-Life Harmony
Should you leave now to make it on time to a family dinner, or stay late at work to finish up that last minute project? At some point, most of us have probably had to choose between the demands of work and our personal lives. Research has consistently shown that a healthy “work-life balance” is vital for maintaining job satisfaction and avoiding burnout. However, a new study suggests that the idea of “work-life balance” itself may be a problem. The standard concept of work-life balance is often seen as a zero-sum game, where work and life are completely separate domains that are constantly competing for time and energy.
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Women May See Tradeoff Between Power at Home and at Work
Women earn less money, hold fewer public leadership positions, and have fewer legal rights than men in much of the world. Yet, when it comes to making decisions about the home, women are often portrayed as the ones calling the shots. While taking charge of household decisions may seem like a positive role for women, a recent study found that holding power over household decisions may have unanticipated consequences. Psychological scientists Melissa J. Williams (Emory University) and Serena Chen (University of California, Berkeley) hypothesized that women would experience power as a tradeoff.
