Brain for Business

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.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, remote working including working from home was in some cases a luxury and in others a case of organisational trial and error. Yet for many around the world, in March 2020 remote working became a necessity, imposed both by governments and employers.In a recent report published in the prestigious journal Nature Human Behaviour (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4), a team from Microsoft explored data from over 60,000 Microsoft employees to analyse and understand the organisational impact of this shift. To explore this further we are joined by two of the report’s authors, Jaime Teevan and Longqi Yang, both of Microsoft.Jaime Teevan is a corporate vice president and chief scientist at Microsoft. She is an advocate for finding smarter ways for people to make the most of their time, and believes in the positive impact that breaks and recovery have on productivity. Jaime leads Microsoft’s future of work initiative which brings researchers from Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub together to study how the pandemic has changed the way we work. Previously she was the Technical Advisor to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research AI, where she led the Productivity team.Longqi Yang is a Senior Applied Researcher at Microsoft’s Office of Applied Research. His research centers around interactive machine learning systems and their applications on future of work, productivity, and wellbeing. He is currently leading applied research initiatives at Microsoft to understand the impact of remote and hybrid work and build AI systems to enhance new work practices. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The impact of bias on individual decision making has been widely explored, yet we actually do not know so much about how bias and discrimination happen in teams and groups. In this episode of Brain for Business, Brain for Life, behavioural economist Professor Vessela Daskalova of University College Dublin, tells us about her own experimental research into role of social identity and the “in-group/out-group” bias in group decision making.Professor Vessela Daskalova is an Assistant Professor of economics at University College Dublin, a Fellow at the Geary Institute for Public Policy, and Associate Faculty at Toulouse School of Economics. As a researcher in the areas of Behavioural and Experimental Economics, Microeconomic Theory, and Political Economy, Professor Daskalova focuses on the areas of discrimination, social identity, and bounded rationality. As part of this, much of her research is dedicated to trying to better understand decision making in both individual and strategic/collective decision making situations.For more information visit: www.vesseladaskalova.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Policing organisations and the challenges they face are in many ways unique. So what are the implications for leadership and for those in leadership roles in policing?Dr Victoria Herrington is Director of Knowledge at the Australian Institute of Police Management in Sydney. Vicki has spent a career in applied, academic and neo-academic organisations across the UK and Australia and is an active researcher in the field of criminology with a deep commitment to interdisciplinarity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The menopause is a normal part of the human lifecycle for approximately 50% of the population, but all too often those experiencing the menopause are left unsupported by both their employers and society more broadly. Yet this should not be case: simple steps can help to make a huge difference for those experiencing this entirely natural and normal process.Jo Brewis is Professor of People and Organisations in The Faculty of Business & Law at the Open University Business School.Her research interests fall into two broad categories. First is the intersection between the body, sexuality, gender, emotions, identity, organizing and organizations, including publications on menopause transition and women’s economic participation and methodological considerations in organization studies deploying queer theory. The second is academic practices in organization studies research, including publications on research ethics and peer review.In addition to this, Jo is the co-author of the 2017 UK government report The effects of menopause transition on women's economic participation in the UK. As an independent panel member for Menopause Friendly Accreditation amongst other activities, she works to further the menopause in the workplace agenda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Working long hours can, for some, be a badge of honour proving to themselves and the world how important and irreplaceable they really are. Yet the longer-term consequences and impacts of consistently working long hours are devastating for health and well-being. In this episode of the Brain for Business, Brain for Life podcast we talk to Dr Frank Pega of the World Health Organization (WHO) who outlines the shocking findings of research he has undertaken with a global team of experts into the effects of over-work and working long hours, including increased risk of heart attack and stroke The article referred to is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021002208Dr Frank Pega is a Technical Officer in the Environment, Climate Change and Health Department at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. As an epidemiologist and health economist, he is passionate about producing innovative and high-quality evidence and policy that can be used to improve workers’ health. He is WHO’s responsible officer for the WHO/International Labour Organization joint estimates of the work-related burden of disease and injury, which includes coordinating contributions from 200 individual experts in 35 countries. Before re-joining WHO in 2015, Dr Pega worked for 15 years in health research and policy roles in international organisations, national governments and universities in the Americas, Europe and the Western Pacific. He holds a PhD and postdoctoral fellowship in Epidemiology and Health Economics from the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has published 45 articles in leading academic journals and received several international awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship at Harvard University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As societies begin the gradual return to office work after the worst of Covid has passed, what will be the impact on productivity of renewed commutes, travel and associated stress? In a recent article, Professor Wlad Rivkin and colleagues explored exactly this and challenged the assumption that a return to “normal” work will be beneficial.Dr. Wladislaw (Wlad) Rivkin is an Associate Professor in Organizational Behavior at Trinity Business School. His research focuses on how self-regulation affects employees’ mental health, well-being, and effectiveness. It has been published in high impact academic journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, and the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.Wlad has a track record as a PI of several research projects funded by national governments, Industry, and the European Union. These projects focused on developing and evaluating organizational interventions to facilitate employee effectiveness involving leadership training and work design. He is currently the PI of the Diversity Innovation Support Scheme for SMEs project funded by the European Union’s H2020 program (https://dinnos-h2020.com/) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Originally from The Netherlands, Sacha had an accomplished career as learning & development professional spanning the energy and technology sectors for organisations including Shell, LinkedIn and Oracle. Yet in 2015, suddenly and completely unexpectedly, everything changed. Since that time Sacha has grappled with disability and overcome significant adversity. Along the way she has become a rights campaigner and re-established her career, recently being appointed as Vice President of Global Go-To-Market Enablement for HubSpot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In modern mythology, most particularly that of Silicon Valley, failure and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand. But is that always the case? And is there a “dark side” to entrepreneurial failure?Dr. Jeffrey Overall is an associate professor of entrepreneurship and strategy in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He has held professorships at Nipissing University, Ryerson University, and Leibniz Universität Hannover.He has over 20 years of experience working directly with entrepreneurs within start-ups, incubators, and SMEs across various sectors and countries. He is the President and co-founded of the Global Institute for Conscious Economics – a platform that promotes the connection between consciousness (mindfulness) and economics. Professor Overall actively researches in three areas of management: (a) conscious business, (b) entrepreneurship, and; (c) philosophy of management, and has written extensively on questions related to organisational and entrepreneurial failure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over recent years many countries and organisations have introduced legislation and policies to support whisteblowers, yet the challenges remain. Although a vital function of any organisation, whistleblowing can have significant personal and professional impacts. In this episode we speak to Professor Kate Kenny of NUI Galway about her research into whistleblowing and discuss both the challenges and opportunities.Kate Kenny is Professor of Business and Society at National University of Ireland Galway. She has held research fellowships at the Edmond J. Safra Lab at Harvard University and Cambridge's Judge Business School. Her research focuses on organization studies, specifically political and psychosocial approaches. Kate's recent book ‘Whistleblowing: Toward a New Theory’ (Harvard University Press, 2019) examines whistleblowing with a focus on the financial sector.Her book ‘The Whistleblowing Guide’ (Wiley, 2019) with Professors Wim Vandekerckhove and Professor Marianna Fotaki is aimed at practicing managers, coaches and others working in this space.Watch a short video on the findings from research into best practice in Speak-Up/ Whistleblowing arrangements, mentioned in the podcast.Short pieces on Covid-19, healthcare and whistleblowing, featured in the The Conversation and RTE BrainstormReports, videos and research from Professor Kenny are all on www.whistleblowingimpact.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.