How You Present Tasks To Employees May Increase Their Choice To Get Work Done

Today’s best managers know that employees are often faced with the choice of getting work done versus goofing off and doing other things on the web. Which activity employees choose to do can depend on how the items are presented. When a work activity and a fun activity are presented together, then people tend to choose doing some of both, work some and play some. However, when the two activities are presented to people separately, people more often tend to do the right thing, and get the work done, and forego playing around.

Source: Fishbach, A., & Zhang, Y. 2008. Together or apart: When goals and temptations complement versus compete. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 547-559.

Not Meeting Employee Expectations May Not Be As Bad For Organizations As Was Thought

Managers know that unmet employee expectations on the job can negatively affect: organizational commitment, job performance, absenteeism, motivation, job satisfaction, and turnover. However, today’s best managers know that the influence of unmet employee expectations on job attitudes and behaviors may be less powerful than was once thought. Instead, actual experiences may play a more important role than meeting or not meeting employees’ expectations. Although meeting employee expectations is still important, today’s best managers can worry less about the negative results that doing so might have on employees’ behaviors and attitudes on the job.

Source: Brown, S. A., Venkatesh, V., Kuruzovich, J., Massey, A. P. 2008. Expectation confirmation: An examination of three competing models. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 105, 52-66.

Simple Principles: To Think Big And Achieve Success.

Success is different for everyone. What you define as success should be what you aspire to have and to become for your life. The book stresses that individuals should become people of increasing value. The book offers 200 simple principles for achieving success, and is written around three main areas: increased productivity, importance of networking, and taking the initiative and making things happen. Simple principles include: identify the skills that you have, then put them to use, never eat alone, write your own blog, be sure not to burn bridges, don’t wait to be told, make your voice heard, and don’t be afraid to break the mold.

Simple Principles: To Think Big And Achieve Success. By Alex A. Lluch and Helen Eckman, 2008, WS Publishing Group, San Diego, CA, ISBN: 978-1-934386-07-1.

Employees Assess Fairness By Looking at Both the Decision Maker and the Overall Organization

Managers would like employees to believe that organizational processes and outcomes are fair. Today’s best managers know that employees assess the fairness of both people making decisions and the fairness of the organization as a whole. Employees can have higher perceptions of fairness when they trust a decision-maker compared to when they don’t trust that person. Employees may have higher levels of commitment to the organization and may be more likely to be a good citizen when they believe that the overall organization is fair. Improving employee fairness perceptions of the organization doesn’t happen quickly, and must be developed over time.

Source: Choi, J. 2008. Event justice perceptions and employees’ reactions: Perceptions of social entity justice as a moderator. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 513-528.

Agreeable, Conscientious, and Emotionally Stable Employees May Quit Less Frequently

Today’s best managers know that most organizations use job applicant information to predict future job performance. However, they also know that personality information, measured during the application process, may also be important for improving job satisfaction and lowering turnover. Employees who are more conscientious and agreeable are more likely not to quit. An agreeable employee is warm, likeable, and caring. A conscientious employee is dependable, prepared, and detail oriented. Employees who are less emotionally stable may be more likely to quit. Employees who are low in emotional stability tend to be unsure about their ability to perform their job. Using personality information in your hiring process may help lower employee turnover.

Source: Zimmerman, R. D. 2008. Understanding the impact of personality traits on individuals’ turnover decisions: A meta-analytic path model. Personnel Psychology, 61, 309-348.

Pay Arrangements Tend To Influence Employee Productivity

Today’s best managers know that how employees are paid can influence their productivity levels. Employees in payment arrangements where pay is a function of worker productivity tend to earn more and be more productive than when employees are not in such arrangements. An example of this is a piece rate system where employees make more money when they produce more pieces of product. Unfortunately, this trend tends not to hold for executives or for profit-sharing plans. In general, employees paid on a piece rate basis tend to make more money than those on a fixed rate pay plan.

Source: Pekkarinen, T., & Riddell, C. 2008, April. Performance pay and earnings: Evidence from personnel records. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 61, 297-319.

Macho Behaviors Can Prevent Men From Being Successful

Managers used to believe that male employees where successful when they were mean, macho, roughnecks. Today’s best managers know that jettisoning unnecessary macho behaviors can be more beneficial to an organization than will stereotypical masculine behaviors. Male employees have been found to be successful when they admit mistakes, publicly appreciate their fellow male employees, and talk about the stresses that they face on the job. The characteristics that make male employees successful today include: being open to new information, challenging their assumptions about how things should be done, and admitting when they are wrong.

Source: Ely, R. J., & Meyerson, D. 2008, July-August. Unmasking manly men. Harvard Business Review, 20-21.

Small Behaviors Can Hurt The Company In Big Ways

Today’s best managers avoid doing small things that can undermine organizational success in big ways. Many managers gripe constantly about the horrible state of affairs in their organization. Today’s best managers try to stay positive and up-beat at all times about the company. Many managers hold an “us versus them” view of the organization. For example, saying that you wanted to give an employee a raise, but human resources rejected it. Managers often give low-performing employees passing grades to avoid confronting bad performers. Today’s best managers don’t avoid problems. Instead, they confront and deal with them.

Source: Studer, Q. 2008, July. Accidental saboteur: Smalls sins undermine in a big way. Leadership Excellence, p. 8.

Personality May Influence How Employees Cope With Workplace Stress

Employees can react to workplace stress in different ways. Today’s best managers understand that some employees cope with stress by avoiding stressful situations, but some employees cope by engaging in stressful activities to get them out of the way. How employees react to stress may be related to their personality. For example, out-going employees may be more likely to restructure problems when faced with stresses. Today’s best managers get to know their employees and help them uncover the best ways to cope with stress that will work for their own unique personalities.

Source: Conner-Smith, J. K., & Flachsbart, C. 2008. Relations between personality and coping: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 1080-1107.

The Power of Story: Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny In Business And In Life.

This book examines the power that stories have to change your destiny and change your life. Everything that a manager says is a story. Find the right stories that reflect your ultimate mission and your purpose in life. Get rid of false purposes for your life. Are you really living your story or are you living someone else’s story for you? The three main rules of storytelling are: purpose or what you are living for, truth or your honest and authentic self, and action or what you should start and stop doing in your life. Tap into your four sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual, and you’ll tell great stories.

Source: The Power of Story: Change Your Story, Change Your Destiny In Business And In Life. By Jim Loehr, 2008, Free Press, NY, ISBN: 978-0-7432-9468-3.

Be A Safe Haven To Help Employees Improve Negative Emotions At Work

One of the most common sources of negative emotions at work is the relationship between employees and their boss. Feeling badly about work for a long period of time can lead to burnout, lower job satisfaction, decreased motivation, and increased turnover. Today’s best managers know that one way to help improve employee emotions at work is to become a dependable base of security. Employees may improve their attitudes toward work if they can temporarily go to their manager for support in times of need. Today’s best managers provide employees with a safe haven where they can securely discuss and work through their emotions.

Source: Game, A. M. 2008. Negative emotions in supervisory relationships: The role of relational models. Human Relations, 61, 355-393.

Nine Steps For Building A Great Relationship With A Mentor

Today’s best managers know the nine steps for developing a great relationship with a mentor: 1) set clear learning goals for yourself, 2) determine what performance obstacles you have to achieving your goals, 3) identify what knowledge, skills, abilities, and other things that you believe you will need to be successful, 4) seek out the most skilled and successful people in your field, 5) join organizations where successful people are members, 6) continually study and learn about your industry and field, 7) meet with potential mentors and express your interest in working with them, 8) keep your mentor informed of your progress, and 9) meet with your mentor monthly for continued help.

Source: Tracy, B. 2008. Value of mentors: Be open to their influence. Leadership Excellence, 25/1, p. 4.

Be Benevolent To Help Lessen The Impact of Broken Promises Made To Employees

In these changing times, sometimes organizations are not able to deliver on everything that they have promised employees, such as not being able to provide training, promotions, or pay raises. When these promises are broken employees may not be as committed to the organization, my not help out others when needed, and may work less hard. Today’s best managers know that they can help reduce these undesirable employee behaviors by being more benevolent. A benevolent manager is one who personally cares about employees, who shows concern for them as a whole person, and treats employees like a member of the family.

Source: Chen, Z. X., Tsui, A. S., & Zhong, L. 2008. Reactions to psychological contract breach: A dual perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 527-548.

Agreeable And Conscientious Employees Are Often Great Performers On The Job

Today’s best managers know that personality can influence performance on the job. Two aspects of personality have been shown to be related to successful job performance. Employees who are agreeable are often good performers. Agreeable employees are sympathetic to others, think about the needs of others, are eager to help others, and are generous and fair. Employees who are conscientious are also usually good performers. Conscientious employees have a high desire to get ahead, are hardworking, determined, and self-disciplined. Look for agreeable and conscientious employees when you are hiring or promoting employees in your organization.

Source: Blickle, G., Meurs, J. A., Zettler, I., Solga, J., Noethen, D., Kramer, J., & Ferris, G. R. 2008. Personality, political skill, and job performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72, 377-387.

Close The Gap Between Actual Performance And The Vision and Mission Statements

Today’s best managers know that companies frequently have a wide gap between their vision and mission statements and the actual actions of employees. Work with a team to identify areas that are not in alignment with the vision and mission of the company. Set goals and strategies for reducing the gaps between actual performance and ideal results. Get employees involved in the process by encouraging them to identify and share problems with you. Be sure that employees are rewarded, and not punished, for pointing out things that need to be changed to help accomplish the vision and mission of the organization.

Source: Lepsinger, R. 2008, May/June. Starting an execution revolution. Industrial Management, 27-30.

Support Individuals To Lessen Bad Group Behaviors From Influencing Individual Team Members

The behavior of members of a group can influence the behavior of other individuals in that group. For example, when some members of a work group are tardy, this behavior may cause other group members to start being tardy as well. Today’s best managers know that they can lessen these group influences by being supportive of individual group members. Examples of supportive behavior include treating employees fairly, providing supervisor support, giving favorable job rewards, and having favorable job conditions. Providing support to employees can even help prevent further bad group behaviors from rubbing off on other individuals in the work group.

Source: Eder, P., & Eisenberger, R. 2008, February. Perceived organizational support: Reducing the negative influence of coworker withdrawal behavior. Journal of Management, 34, 55-68.

Presentations: Proven Techniques For Creating Presentations That Get Results

This book offers a wealth of information for improving your presentation skills. The book builds upon the foundation of purpose, audience, and topic when developing an effective presentation. The main challenges to overcome when presenting are: keeping your sense of humor, dealing with late arrivers, handling early departures, audience interruptions, inattentive and argumentative audience members, saboteuring attendees, and audience members who steal the show from your presentation. Listen to yourself speak, such as by recording yourself, and you’ll get a wealth of useful feedback to help you improve.

Source: Presentations: Proven Techniques For Creating Presentations That Get Results. By Gary McClain, 2007, Adams Media, Avon, MA, ISBN: 978-1598691535.

Catering Only To Niche Markets Can Lower Potential Sales

Managers used to believe that success only came from selling a huge number of a few products, or having blockbuster sellers. Today’s best managers know that it is also possible to be successful by selling only a few of a huge number of different products. The web enables a tremendous amount of products to be displayed and sold at very low costs. However, companies may still want to cater to the tastes of the biggest customers with their biggest selling products. Completely going after a smaller, niche market may not be the best course of action. A combination of the two approaches can result in the greatest number of overall sales.


Source: Elberse, A. 2008, July-August. Should you invest in the long tail? Harvard Business Review, 88-96.

Specifically State Your Feelings In Electronic Messages To Improve Message Accuracy

Employees are increasingly communicating to each other via email or text messages. Today’s best managers know that email and text messages typically don’t accurately portray the emotions of the person sending the message. Because of the lack of cues (facial expressions, eye contact, etc.) in electronic messages, receivers tend to believe that the message is more negative and/or more neutral in tone than was intended. To help message receivers accurately understand your emotions in electronic messages, specifically state your feelings in writing. For example, write that you are happy that the employee liked your idea.

Source: Byron, K. 2008. Carrying too heavy a load? The communication and miscommunication of email. Academy of Management Review, 33, 309-327.

Help Employees Make Sense Of Uncertainties During Difficult Organizational Changes

Today’s best managers know how to help employees make sense during chaotic organizational changes. First, discuss with employees how they can get started. Next, help employees clearly define the problems that need to be solved. Then, help employees identify places where the organization is stuck, and areas that seem impossible to solve. Next, help employees critique and link existing options that may help the company reach solutions. Then, help employees experiment with ways to solve problems, and challenge and motivate employees to try new solutions. Finally, help employees reach a workable, but not absolute, certainty in which everyone can all work successfully.

Source: Luscher, L. S., & Lewis, M. W. 2008. Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 221-240.

Employees Who Can Manage Their Emotions Can Increase Customer Satisfaction

Today’s best managers know the importance of managing one’s emotions in the workplace. Employees who can manage their emotions will have more positive feelings when interacting with customers. As a result, customers will also have more positive feelings from the encounter with the employee and the company. In response, customers will then have higher levels of customer satisfaction, which could result in more sales for the company. Today’s best managers know that helping employees to manage their emotions and recognize the emotions of customers can be a win-win situation for both employees and customers.

Source: Giardini, A., & Frese, M. 2008. Linking service employees’ emotional competence to customer satisfaction: A multilevel approach. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 155-170.

Postponing Decisions Until You Are Prepared May Be The Best Way To Go

Many managers feel that they are under a great deal of pressure to make decisions extremely quickly. In school, students learn that those who raise their hand the fastest with the right answer receive the most praise. However, today’s best managers know that answering too quickly may not be the best response. Instead, take your time and fully prepare before you decide what to do. Deadlines may be important, but in most cases, there will be other people in your organization to help you meet your deadlines. The manager who is the most ready to make a decision will be the one who is the most successful.

Source: Schwarzman, S. A. 2008, June. The best advice I ever got. Harvard Business Review, 31.

Re-Wire Your Problem Employees Into Successful Employees

Many employees have hard-wired beliefs in their brain about their abilities and their performance, which can result in them being poor performers. Today’s best managers don’t give up on such employees. Instead, they try to rewire their employees’ beliefs about themselves: 1) help them to realize and acknowledge their beliefs about their performance, 2) allow the negative beliefs to surface, but then don’t act on them in the same ways as they always do, 3) help employees develop new responses to the negative feelings they have, and 4) coach employees on ways to improve skills and abilities where they feel they are lacking.

Source: Ahern, A. 2008. Fire or re-wire: Dealing with problem people. Leadership Excellence, 25/2, p. 16.

Ask For It: How Women Can Use The Power Of Negotiation To Get What They Want.

Most women do not ask for what they want and pay the price as a result. This book tells women to ask for things that they want and offers information about how to do that. Pushing the boundaries can help women get what they want. When you ask for what you want, then you will change people’s perceptions of you, and then they will treat you differently than before. Everything is negotiable, but you have to know what you want. Set high targets and ask a lot. If you never hear the word “no,” then you are not asking enough.

Source: Ask For It: How Women Can Use The Power Of Negotiation To Get What They Want. By Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, 2008, Bantam Books, ISBN: 978-0-553-38375-1.

High Employee Job Performance Over Time Can Be Motivated By Internal and External Sources

Managers want employee job performance to be high and to stay high over time. Today’s best managers know that the motivation to perform a job well can come from both inside and outside of an employee. Internal motivation for employees comes from setting goals and seeing that they have the ability to reach those goals. When employees get feedback that they are reaching their goals, then their internal motivation to perform may continue. External motivation for employees can come in the form of other employees wanting to help them, and in receiving money and benefits from the organization.

Source: Zyphur, M. J., Chaturvedi, S., & Arvey, R. D. 2008. Job performance over time is a function of latent trajectories and previous performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 217-224.

Develop Employee Psychological Capital To Improve Employee Attitudes and Performance

Today’s best managers know that employees have psychological capital when they: 1) have confidence that they can succeed at challenging tasks, 2) are optimistic about being successful now and in the future, 3) work hard to reach goals, but change their goals if necessary, and 4) are resilient and can bounce back from adversity. Having psychological capital can lead to higher levels of performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, and lower levels of absenteeism for employees. Managers used to believe that people were just born with a certain level of psychological capital. However, today’s best managers know that employees can develop and improve their psychological capital.

Source: Luthans, F., Avey, J. B., & Patera, J. L. 2008. Experimental analysis of a web-based training intervention to develop positive psychological capital. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7, 209-221.

Help Employees Open Up About What They Value To Strengthen Employee Work Attitudes

Today’s best managers know that positive employee attitudes can be strengthened. Help employees uncover what values are important and not important to them, such as trust, loyalty, friendliness, reverence, etc. Then, have employees consider their important values and help them tie those values into their work attitudes. For example, if an employee values working for a successful company, then tie that value into completing a difficult work assignment. Employee attitudes that are aligned with employee values will be stronger and more resistant to change.

Source: Blankenship, K. L., & Wegener, D. T. 2008. Opening the mind to close it: Considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 196-213.

Treat Employees Of All Ages Well In Today’s Workplace

Managers used to think that older workers were less productive, had less stamina, were difficult to train, were inflexible, were a greater safety risk, and couldn’t work as many hours as younger workers. Unfortunately, these old and erroneous views have led to stereotypes and workplace discrimination of older workers. Today’s best managers know that these beliefs are false, and they value employees of all ages. Today, a significant number of employees stay healthy and illness-free well into their seventies.


Source: Macik-Frey, M., Quick, J. C., & Nelson, D. L. 2008, December. Advances in occupational health: From a stressful beginning to a positive future. Journal of Management, 33, 809-840.

Valuing Your Family Can Improve Your Job Performance

Managers used to believe that an employee being overly concerned about family issues would have a negative effect on job performance. However, today’s best managers know that valuing your family can lead to more time spent at work. Additionally, caring for one’s family concerns can help employees reduce the negative effects of conflict in the workplace. These desirable organizational outcomes might be enhanced if organizations had even more family-friendly policies. Rather than viewing family identity as a liability, organizations might want to view caring for one’s family as a way to help improve employee job performance.

Source: Bagger, J., Li, A., & Gutek, B. A. 2008. How much do you value your family and does it matter? The joint effects of family identity salience, family-interference-with-work, and gender. Human Relations, 61, 187-211.

Find Out How Your Employees View Work And Help Them Stay Motivated

Today’s best managers know that employees can think about work in three different ways. Some employees see work as just a job. These employees are motivated by what they get out of a job, such as pay and benefits. Some employees see work as a career. These employees are motivated by rewards that come from professional advancements. Some employees see work as a calling. These employees are motivated by the personal fulfillment that doing their job gives them. Today’s best managers find out how their employees view their jobs and help provide them with what motivates their view of work.


Source: Wright, T. A., & Goodstein, J. 2008, December. Character is not “dead” in management research: A review of individual character and organization-level virtue. Journal of Management, 33, 928-958.

Employee Thoughts and Feelings Influence Many Job Attitudes and Behaviors

Today’s best managers know that the feelings and moods that employees experience on the job influence many aspects of employee thoughts and behaviors. These feelings and moods are called “affect” and they can be positive or negative. Employee thoughts can shape feelings, and feelings can shape thoughts. Employee affect can influence decision-making, performance appraisal scores, ratings of job applicants, job satisfaction, employee job performance, and the willingness to help other employees. Today’s best managers monitor employee affect since employee thoughts and feelings influence so much of employee performance.

Source: Baron, R. 2008. The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33, 328-340.