sa
coercion changes the sense of urgency in the human brain
caspar et al 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.12.067
Link: cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(16)00052-X.pdf
a story of gains and losses: intra-individual shifts in job characteristics and well-being when transitioning to a managerial role
maike e. debus et al. 2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9604-3
The study, recently published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, examined more than 2,000 individuals and found that employees experienced so-called resource gains and losses when they became managers.
Charlotte Fritz, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology in PSU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said the increased authority and freedom that comes with a managerial role leads to an increase in job satisfaction.
But on the flip side, having to juggle a heavier workload means having to potentially skip breaks or work longer hours. As a result, managers experience higher levels of exhaustion and more work-family conflict, Fritz said.
The study builds on research that has shown that an employee's ability to detach from work during non-work hours is important for their well-being and results in lower burnout and higher life satisfaction.
Fritz recommends that companies not only restructure managers' work so they're not dealing with constant time pressure, but also incorporate strategies for detachment as part of management trainings.
"Organizations need to encourage managers to regularly take time to mentally let go of work -- to not check emails, to not be on calls at home, to actively engage with their families or hobbies -- so the impact on exhaustion and work-family conflict is not as strong," she said.
She said it's as much about employees' well-being as it is about the company's bottom line. The cost of sick leave or replacing employees who leave in search of a better work-life balance can be expensive.
"Supervisors are responsible for others and if they're burned out or not satisfied in their role and their work, that trickles down," Fritz said. "They're not only impacting themselves on an individual level; they're impacting a whole workgroup. Managers are highly influential in terms of employees' work experiences, so they need to be taken care of."
But she said there is a movement happening.
"There are organizations who are getting it," Fritz said. "They're creating flexibility for their employees about where and when to work, allowing them to create boundaries and encouraging supervisors to support their employees around creating work-life balance."
abstract Building on conservation of resources theory, we examined the duality inherent in one of the most significant work-related transitions an employee may go through: becoming a manager. Specifically, we explored intra-individual resource gains (i.e., increases in participation in decision-making) and resource losses (i.e., increases in time pressure) and their associations with intra-individual shifts in well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, exhaustion, and work-to-family conflict) when employees transitioned to a managerial position. In addition, we examined whether new managers’ perceived ability to detach from work during nonwork time moderated these processes. Multilevel analyses among 2052 individuals demonstrated that individuals experienced both a resource gain and a loss when they became managers. As expected, there was an indirect effect of the transition to a managerial position to an increase in job satisfaction via an increase in participation in decision-making. Additionally, there were indirect effects of the transition to a managerial position to an increase in both exhaustion and work-to-family conflict via an increase in time pressure. In line with the hypotheses, we found that new managers who perceived that they were able to detach well experienced a weaker increase in exhaustion and work-to-family conflict (as transmitted via an increase in time pressure). Contrary to the hypothesis, perceived ability to detach reduced the increase in job satisfaction (as transmitted via an increase in participation in decision-making). Our findings shed light on the intra-individual processes that occur when employees become managers, indicating that this transition can be a “double-edged sword.”
presence: bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges
amy cuddy 2015
proposes non-zero-sum personal power (within self) versus zero-sum social power (over others) — both forms of dominance rather than harmony
uses language of causation (the more … the more) rather than correlation (the more … the more likely we also)
high testosterone with low cortisol could be confidence without arrogance
the more powerless we believe we are, the more likely we also feel anxious about—and aggression toward—outsiders, others (and ourselves?)
the more personally powerful we feel, the more likely we also want to help others feel the same, more likely we are also open to understanding how we, and others, truly are
william james: emotions are interpretations of our bodily, visceral experiences — “I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.”
“an impaired connection with the body leads to a muffled connection with one’s own emotions—and a somewhat diminished ability to read the emotional responses of other people”
“one of the primary ways we decode others’ emotions is by automatically mimicking their facial expressions”
“our body language governs the way other people perceive us, our body language also governs how we perceive ourselves and how those perceptions become reinforced through our own behavior, our interactions, and even our physiology … Your body shapes your mind. Your mind shapes your behavior. And your behavior shapes your future”
minimal psychological and physical commitments, use of psychological shortcuts, and attitudes following from behavior
trail running — similar to learning hockey while learning skating — you are focusing on something while also doing something else which is incremental, so the incremental nature is not as salient
convert anxiety to excitement
habit
william james 1890
wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
the varieties of religious experience
green asia: ecocultures, sustainable lifestyles, and ethical consumption
tania lewis 2016
love earth now: the power of doing one thing every day
cheryl leutjen 2018
practical utopia: strategies for a desirable society
michael albert 2018
confessions of a recovering environmentalist and other essays
paul kingsnorth 2017
the transition handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience
rob hopkins 2014
earth at risk: natural capital and the quest for sustainability
claude henry 2017
the age of sustainable development
jeffrey sachs 2015
the mind club: who thinks, what feels, and why it matters
daniel m. wegner, kurt gray 2016
the community resilience reader: essential resources for an era of upheaval
daniel lerch 2017
if you love this planet: a plan to heal the earth
helen caldicott 2009
the story of stuff: how our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health—and a vision for change
annie leonard 2010
this changes everything
naomi klein 2014