The word ‘politics’ has such a negative connotation that being ‘skilled’ at office politics may imply deceit, hypocrisy, and other sundry attributes that one doesn’t advertise on a resume. In their white paper, ‘Your Vlerick Guidebook for Staying Ahead of the (Political) Game,’ Vlerick business school professor Katleen de Stobbeleir and her collaborator Maaike van […]
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Women are still a minority in many male-dominated professions, such as engineering and technology, as well as being a minority in leadership positions in most industries. Past studies have shown that women in these industries have a difficult time exerting the same influence in their organizations. One reason often cited is that women don’t appear […]
Read More… from Why Self-Confident Women Have Less Influence than Self-Confident Men
The quality of the relationship between a leader and a follower or subordinate can have a major impact on the satisfaction and happiness, and ultimately the performance of that subordinate. Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory is the theory that studies leader-follower relationship quality and its impact on the success of the individuals involved and the organization […]
Read More… from Why You Need to Mend Any Poor Relationships With Your Employees
The theory of leader-member exchange (LMX) focuses on the quality of the relationship between a leader and individual members of his or team, and how that relationship affects overall performance and the leader’s relationships with other team members. Low LMX quality would indicate a relationship that is limited to the contractual obligations: neither leader nor […]
Read More… from Leader-Team Member Relationships 2: Impact Job Satisfaction, Trust and Empowerment
Leader member exchange (LMX) theory is a theory that assesses leadership based on the relationships between leaders and followers (rather than the specific traits or behaviours of leaders). Thus, for example, LMX theory predicts that a trusting and open relationship between a leader and an employee will result in greater morale and job satisfaction, and […]
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Being aware and attending to the emotions of others is recognized as one of the key skills of today’s transformational leaders — leaders who inspire and engage their people. However, when most leadership experts and researchers talk about a leader’s ‘people’ or ‘followers,’ they are tacitly referring to individuals. In other words, the transformational leadership […]
Read More… from Reading Group Emotions Is Key to Transformational Leadership
Self-determination theory describes four types of motivation, moving on a spectrum from other-directed to self-directed. External motivation is at the other-directed end of the spectrum. Motivation is based on what others can give you (e.g. money, promotions, stock options and even praise) or what others can take away (e.g. demotion, termination). Introjected motivation is more […]
Read More… from Motivation Profiles: Pay and Reward Vs Fulfilling Work
Most people make moral judgements intuitively: we feel what is right or wrong. For example, imagine a dilemma in which a runaway trolley is racing toward five people, who will be killed if the trolley is not stopped. A man named Adam stands on a footbridge overlooking the trolley tracks. In an effort to save […]
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There are two types of skills involved in the tasks of a job. The first is cognitive — an employee’s knowledge, training and experience that puts the employee in position to accomplish the requirements of the task. Cognitive skills can range from a factory worker’s skills on an assembly line to the skills of a […]
Read More… from Social Skills Valued Most in Today’s Workplace
People react differently to decisions based on what they perceive was the fairness of the outcome as well as the fairness of the process — and whether or not they trusted the decision makers in the first place. For example, if people trust a manager, they are more likely to see both the outcome and […]
Read More… from How People React to the Fairness of Decisions: Trust Makes a Difference