Brain for Business

In a recent paper published in the journal Research Policy, Professor Louise Mors of Copenhagen Business School, together with Professor David Waguespack of the University of Maryland explore the collaboration process undertaken by research teams. In particular they consider situations where teams are geographically dispersed and the challenges of coordination they face. A key, intriguing finding: dispersed teams tend to succeed fast, but fail slow!Louise Mors is a Professor of Strategic and International Management at the Copenhagen Business School and has also been on the faculty at the London Business School. She has a PhD from INSEAD in France and was a post-doc at the Sloan School at MIT. With a focus on large, global firms, Professor Mors' research examines the relationship between senior managers’ informal networks, organization design and performance. Recently her work has also examined the role of female directors on corporate boards. Professor Mors’ work has been published in the top strategy and management journals, such as the Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science and the Academy of Management Journal. You can find out more about Louise’s research into teams here: https://hbr.org/2021/05/research-dispersed-teams-succeed-fast-fail-slowAnd on her CBS page: https://www.cbs.dk/en/research/departments-and-centres/department-of-strategy-and-innovation/staff/lmsi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While organisations can in some circumstances benefit from “strong leaders”, their longer lasting impact is not always so beneficial. By considering politics and political parties, Eoin O’Malley and his colleague Despina Alexiadou of Strathclyde University examine how they strong leaders can ultimately end up undermining the very parties they lead.Eoin O'Malley is an Associate Professor in political science at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. There he teaches politics and public policy and is the Director of the BA in Economics, Politics and Law.Eoin’s research specialism is Irish politics and particularly the position of the Taoiseach or Prime Minister and cabinet government in Ireland, though he also does work on the Irish party system, media coverage of Irish elections and public policy. His most recent research is on the office of Taoiseach (prime minister).Eoin has authored over forty articles in peer-reviewed journals, a textbook, Contemporary Ireland, published by Palgrave Macmillan, and co-edited four other books on Irish politics. His most recent book is Resilient Reporting: Media Coverage of Irish Elections since 1969. He is a former co-editor of Irish Political Studies and regular newspaper columnist and a frequent contributor to national debates.The article with Despina Alexiadou is available here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3933864 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boredom. Something we all experience, yet so rarely think about. In reality, boredom is a normal aspect of the human experience so it is vital to ask: What is boredom, why do we experience it, and what happens when we do? Dr. Erin Westgate is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, where she studies boredom, interest, and why some thoughts are more engaging than others. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia in 2018, with intriguingly titled doctoral dissertation: “Why boredom is interesting”.Much of Erin’s research has been on the conditions under which people enjoy or do not enjoy their own thoughts. She has extended that work to the larger question of why people become bored, developing a new model of boredom that explains what boredom is, why we experience it, and what happens when we do. More information on Erin’s research is available on her website: https://www.erinwestgate.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

These days every organisation wants its teams to be more entrepreneurial and innovative. From holacracy to skunk-works and MBO to self-managing teams, a wide range of approaches have been tested over time. Yet what are the key variables that drive greater performance in entrepreneurial teams?In a recent paper published in the journal Organization Science, Professor Linus Dahlander and colleagues explored the way that entrepreneurial teams are organised and structured. By looking at two key variables – autonomy over who to work with or what to work on – Dahlander and colleagues identified some key approaches that leaders and organisations can use to help their teams be more creative and innovative.Linus Dahlander is a professor at the European School of Management and Technology - ESMT Berlin, Director of Research, and the holder of the Lufthansa Group Chair in Innovation. He received his PhD in from Chalmers University of Technology and undertook post doctoral studies at Stanford University. He was previously an assistant professor and an Advanced Institute of Management Research Fellow with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at Imperial College Business School.Linus teaches in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, and networks, and is also a consultant and advisor to startups, large multinationals as well as government organizations on issues around innovation and networks. In 2017, Linus was recognized as one of the Best 40 Under 40 Professors by Poets & Quants.In his ongoing research Linus investigates how new ideas and innovations are developed in networks and communities. The ongoing projects use large-scale analysis of networks, which he integrates with a deeper appreciation for what content flows through networks. Linus seeks to study novel questions which can advance the academic literature, and which at the same time focus on issues that can affect how managers think about their business to help them make better decisions.Linus’ research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Research Policy, and Strategic Management Journal among others. He served as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Journal in the 2013-2016 editorial team. The articles discussed in the interview can be accessed here:https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/full/10.1287/orsc.2021.1520(Boss, V., Dahlander, L., Ihl, C., & Jayaraman, R. (2021). Organizing Entrepreneurial Teams: A Field Experiment on Autonomy over Choosing Teams and Ideas. Organization Science.)https://hbr.org/2021/12/when-autonomy-helps-team-performance-and-when-it-doesnt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the “Great Resignation” apparently upon us, more and more people are considering ways of re-calibrating and finding a new path. Yet how do we really know what it will be like to work for a potential employer? And when employers insist on strict non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements, what information can you really trust? In this episode of Brain for Business, Brain for Life we speak to Jason Sockin of the University of Pennsylvania to learn more about his research into the way that employers seek to manage the information flow, and how potential employees can try to gain a clear and genuine picture of life on the inside. Along the way we find out about the challenges of ratings websites and about the curious role played by “sock puppets”!Jason Sockin is a doctoral candidate in economics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on how the internet and technology have fundamentally altered how firms and workers interact in today's labor market. He has worked as a researcher at Penn Wharton Budget Model, Glassdoor, The Congressional Budget Office, The White House’s Council of Economic Advisers under the Obama Administration, and The Federal Reserve Board of Governors. His research has been covered in the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, and most recently in an Op-Ed for the Washington Post.To find out more visit Jason's website: https://sites.google.com/view/jasonsockin/home Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a recent article Dr Nathan Kettlewell and colleagues explored the impact that life events can have on overall wellbeing. What is the impact of major positive life events? And equally what is the impact of not so positive life events? In Episode 40 of the Brain for Business, Brain for Life podcast we explore these and other issues related to understand the impact of events on our positive and affective wellbeing.Dr Nathan Kettlewell is a Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Economics Discipline Group at the University of Technology Sydney and a research affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). As a researcher, Nathan’s main research interests are public policy, health economics and behavioural economics. Nathan is particularly interested in the formation of peoples' risk attitudes and what these attitudes mean for their life outcomes, understanding peoples' demand for private health insurance, and causal evaluation of government programs. Nathan’s website is as follows: https://sites.google.com/site/nrkettlewell/The article discussed is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352827319302204 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a recent article in the online magazine Aeon, the renowned science writer, Philip Ball, considered the concept of imagination and coined the phrase “homo imaginatus”. Yet what really is imagination? How has it been perceived over the centuries? And what role does imagination play in human creativity?Philip is the author of many popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, colour in art, the science of social and political philosophy, the cognition of music, and physics in Nazi Germany. He has written widely on the interactions between art and science, and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London's National Theatre and the London School of Economics.Formerly an editor at Nature magazine, Philip continues to write regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine, and also a columnist for Chemistry World, Nature Materials, and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of "Science Stories" on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdiscipinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum.Philip has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol.Philip’s Aeon article on imagination and Homo Imaginatus can be accessed here: https://aeon.co/essays/imagination-isnt-the-icing-on-the-cake-of-human-cognition Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent years we have perhaps seen a golden era of narcissistic leaders. Yet what is their real impact? And is being a narcissistic leader necessarily a bad thing?Jon Gruda is an Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour at Maynooth University in Ireland. He has previously held appointments at emlyon Business School (France) where he completed his Ph.D. in Management from 2012 to 2017, together with a joint Doctorate in Psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Germany).Professor Gruda’s primarily focuses on relational leadership, dark leadership traits, personality and anxiety. Recently, he was selected as one of 373 young scholars out of 20,000 applicants worldwide to attend the Lindau Nobel Prize Laureates Meeting in Economic Sciences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If 20% of pregnancies result in miscarriage, why do we find it so hard to talk about it?In this episode of the Brain for Business, Brain for Life podcast we speak to Professor Kaylee Hackney. In recent research she and colleagues have explored the impact of the miscarriage on the workplace and the challenges faced by both women and their employers during what is inevitably a very difficult time for those involved.Kaylee Hackney is an Assistant Professor at the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business in Waco, Texas. She studies employee mistreatment, stress, and well-being with a focus on pregnancy in the workplace. Her research has been published in leading academic publications such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Group & Organization Management, and Organizational Psychology Review. Kaylee teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior at Baylor University.You can find out more about Kaylee’s research and listen to the latest episodes of her podcast on her website: www.kayleehackney.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a 2015 article, Professor Jack Goncalo and colleagues explored the impact of “political correctness” on creativity in work groups. At the time the findings – that political correctness is actually good for creativity - were so controversial that the article was rejected numerous times before finally being published in the leading journal in the field.So why – and how – is political correctness actually good for creativity? We explore this and more with Professor Goncalo.Article link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839214563975Jack Goncalo is Professor of Business Administration and the Robert and Helen P. Seass Faculty Fellow at the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, he was Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Cornell University ILR School where he was the Proskauer Professor.Professor Goncalo’s research is focused on individual and team creativity, the evaluation of new ideas and more recently, the dark side of engaging in creative work. His research spanning the fields of Management and Psychology has been published in leading academic journals and been featured in numerous media outlets such as CNN, Time Magazine, The New York Times and Forbes Magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.