There is a lot of cultural lore about the power of eye contact as an influencing tool. Business leaders, salespeople and many others have long been urged and trained to engage in eye contact with their audience – whether that is an individual customer or a convention of thousands. It has been taken as read […]
Read More… from In the Eye of the Beholder-When Eye Contact Fails to Persuade
Female leaders often experience ‘identity conflict’, the sense that their identities as women and their professional identities diverge or are incompatible. The problem can be explained by gender stereotypes. Characteristics and behaviours typically expected of women differ dramatically from those typically expected of leaders. Gender role stereotypes tend to ascribe communal behaviours and qualities such as […]
Read More… from Identity Crises: Occupational Hazards for Female Leaders?
Online product reviews are becoming an important part of the marketing ‘mix’. In 2012, a study by Bazaarvoice found that 80 per cent of ‘Generation Y’ consumers (those born between 1977 and 1994) are heavily influenced by consumer-generated reviews from strangers when they make purchasing decisions, particularly in categories such as electronics, cars and travel. […]
Read More… from Paid-for Online Product Reviews: The True Price
Emotional intelligence — the awareness and understanding of emotions — has a variety of workplace applications and benefits. Leaders who perceive and relate to the emotions of those they direct are going to be seen as more caring and understanding leaders. Leaders who can better manage their own emotions will also develop more positive relationships […]
Read More… from Decision-Making With Emotional Intelligence
Studies have shown that anger can be an effective management technique to spur a response from employees, and equally effective in negotiations to demonstrate toughness, ambitious goals, and resistance to making any concessions. However, in previous negotiation research, negotiators had no reason to doubt the sincerity of the anger of the other party. Stéphane Côté […]
Read More… from Using Anger in Negotiations – Real and Fake
The apparel industry (which includes clothing, footwear, accessories, etc.) is one of the world’s largest, due partly to the relatively low barriers to entry. According to Euromonitor International, there were more than 1,400 retail brands at the start of 2013. All of these brands are concerned about meeting growing demands and getting their collections out […]
Read More… from Fast Fashion Retailing – Transforming Operations Management
Decision-making on the financial markets is driven by information and by trust. But trust can be flagrantly abused. This was amply demonstrated by the Bernard Madoff scandal, considered to be the biggest fraud in American history. Madoff, a former non-executive chair of the NASDAQ stock exchange, used a ‘Ponzi scheme’ to defraud investors, paying returns […]
Read More… from Trust, Fraud and the Financial Markets
Blowing the whistle on internal wrongdoing can be a risky endeavour. What if nothing happens and you’re now branded a fink? What if there’s retaliation from your boss or even your peers? A team of researchers decided to empirically test the influence of the social environment — including both management and peers — on whistleblowing […]
Read More… from Blowing the Whistle on Unethical Conduct: It Takes a Village
In recent years, the trust afforded to senior management has eroded significantly, particularly for those executives in finance-related positions. The demise of certain companies sent shockwaves across industries; successful covering up of the actual financial situation a company was in meant regulators, employees and the general public remained unaware till it was too late. Going […]
Read More… from How to Recognize Managements With Something to Hide
There is a hotel in Japan — Houshi Ryokan — that has been run by the same family for approximately 1,300 years. Forty generations have managed to maintain control of the business, epitomizing what IESE Business School’s Josep Tàpies and Lucía Ceja refer to as “psychological ownership.” In their article published in IESE Insight, Tàpies […]
Read More… from Family Business Ownership and the Next Generation