Beginning Business Blog

Business should embrace 'boomerang employees'

2017-04-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Source: themajors.net

What should you do when an employee leaves. . . and later asks to return?

It may be an emotional instinct to react by rejecting their request to return.

But why? If you take it as a personal rejection when an employee leaves, you may be cutting off your own nose to spite your own face.

As these studies from the University of Illinois point out employees leaving then asking to return may just be offering you a big compliment to the way you do things. Perhaps they thought they'd be better off elsewhere only to find they were well off where they started. Not a bad message for other employees to hear if nothing else.

Boomerang Employees
Organizations of all types are beginning to recognize and embrace the value of recruiting and welcoming back former or boomerang employees. From infantry soldiers to chief executives, accountants and professional basketball players, many organizations proactively recruit and rehire former employees as a way to offset high turnover costs the cost and risk of integrating new employees. A boomerang employee knows your system and probably will only need a little refresher training.

The return of LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers may have riveted the sports world and social media, but the phenomenon of "going home," whether to a geographic location or a former job, is not unique to professional athletes.

According to two studies co-written by a University of Illinois expert in organizational behavior and human resources management, organizations of all types are beginning to recognize and embrace the value of recruiting and welcoming back former employees.

Ideally, these so-called "boomerang employees" already understand the key components of the organization's work structure and culture, which makes them less risky hires than newcomers, says T. Brad Harris, a professor of labor and employment relations at Illinois.

"In addition to understanding the organizational culture, returning employees might also be more committed to the focal organization upon their return because, in essence, they've learned firsthand that the grass isn't always greener on the other side," Harris said.

In a paper published in Personnel Psychology, Harris and his co-authors -- Stacie Furst-Holloway of the University of Cincinnati, Benson Rosen of the University of North Carolina, and Abbie J. Shipp of Texas Christian University -- found that the experiences encountered by boomerang employees were distinct in a number of ways.

"After surveying and interviewing hundreds of employees, we were able to see that boomerang employees were more likely to originally leave an organization not because of dissatisfaction with the job, but because of some personal shock, such as a pregnancy, spousal relocation or an unexpected job offer," Harris said. "Somewhat unexpectedly, we also found that boomerang employees, compared to non-boomerang employees, typically had shorter original tenures with the focal organizations."

In a recent working paper, Harris and another set of co-researchers studied a sample of boomerang employees in the National Basketball Association.

The research found that re-employment performance was significantly predicted by the harmony of the original tenure, and their success during the time spent away from the focal organization and conditions of the return.

"Our latest research suggests that organizations should realize that not all boomerangs are created equal," Harris said. "When evaluating potential boomerang hires, organizations should first, and most obviously,

consider their previous performance histories at the focal organization and at their most recent employer. "Second, organizations should
be mindful that employees who originally left on good terms and of their own volition might be better suited for a return than those who left more acrimoniously. And finally,
employees who are not gone for very long might possess more of the desirable attributes such as accurately recalling the organizational culture and understanding the social norms expected in it."

Past Performance Predicts Future Performance
Harris and his co-authors would not commit to specific predictions about James' return to Cleveland, noting that their statistical findings would be best applied to large groups rather than individual cases. However, one of the study's co-authors, Brian Swider of Georgia Tech's Scheller College of Business, said James' performance has always been exceptional, "which fits with our 'past performance predicts future performance' arguments."

"Although LeBron's original decision to voluntarily leave Cleveland was much derided, the fact that it was clearly of his own volition might work to Cleveland's favor," Swider said. "But our model doesn't exactly account for the extreme vitriol displayed by Cleveland fans or even the owner, which makes this case particularly interesting. Although many Heat fans probably wish LeBron's tenure in Miami was longer, the brevity of his stay on South Beach should have Cavalier fans smiling."

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Business should embrace 'boomerang employees'." ScienceDaily. 14 July 2014

Consider the role of the family in career planning

2016-08-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

Non-work orientations are related to

higher career and life satisfaction

The study shows that the salaries of people who have strong non-work

orientations are not negatively affected. In addition, they are

happier with their career and with life in general.

When planning a career, many people take non-work orientations into account, such as family, personal interests and civic engagement. Psychologists from the University of Bern (Switzerland) have found out that people who strongly consider the role of the family in career planning report more satisfaction with their career and their lives in general. Surprisingly, non-work orientations also showed no negative effects on earnings.

People differ greatly in terms of how much they consider nonwork roles, such as family, personal interests and civic engagement when making career decisions and planning their career. Up until now, it was unclear how the consideration of nonwork roles affect career success and satisfaction with life in general.

Taking the family into account leads to more satisfaction
In a study over a time period of six months with over 500 employees from Germany, Andreas Hirschi and colleagues of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and the FHNW School of Applied Psychology have shown that people who more strongly integrate family considerations into their career planning report greater satisfaction with their careers.

Increased attention towards the family, personal interests and civic engagement are also correlated with generally higher satisfaction with life. It also shows that in particular a strong family orientation had the greatest effects on satisfaction with life. In addition, the researchers discovered that people with stronger nonwork orientations do not earn less money than those who focus more exclusively on their careers.

No significant differences between men and women
In terms of family orientation and taking civic engagement into consideration in career planning, no differences due to sex were identified. Yet women took time for themselves and for their personal interests more into account for their career path than men. The study found no differences in nonwork orientations between young employees between 25 and 34 years and older employees between 50 and 59 years.

Self-sacrifice for the job no longer an ideal image
"In many organisations, there is still a prevailing image that an ideal employee completely and totally lives for work. On the other hand, people who are strongly involved in non-work activities are often told that they do not have enough ambition for their career and that it could have negative consequences on their career success," says Andreas Hirschi. But the study shows that the salaries of people who have strong non-work orientations are not negatively affected. In addition, they are happier with their career and with life in general. "The results suggest that, in general, it is worth to actively include non-work aspects like family or personal interests in career planning," adds Hirschi.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Bern. Andreas Hirschi, Anne Herrmann, Noemi Nagy, Daniel Spurk. All in the name of work? Nonwork orientations as predictors of salary, career satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 2016.

Entrepreneurs Are Not Overconfident Gamblers

2014-09-18T09:25:00.003-07:00

next-invest.ru

One facet of the mythology about today's entrepreneurs is that they are major risk takers. But are they? This study goes against this stereotype, pointing out that many entrepreneurs take very reasonable risks after considering the costs to their lives.

Over the years I've read studies that point out that many true entrepreneurs are cautious about their decisions to go into business, often working full and part time jobs for the first year or two of their enterprise.

Here's the report on the study:

Entrepreneurs Are Not Overconfident Gamblers

Leaving one's job to become an entrepreneur is inarguably risky. But it may not be the fear of risk that makes entrepreneurs more determined to succeed. A new study finds entrepreneurs are also concerned about what they might lose in the transition from steady employment to startup.

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In "Entrepreneurship and Loss-Aversion in a Winner-Take-All Society," Professor John Morgan at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and co-author Dana Sisak, assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, focused on the powerful impact of loss aversion.

Loss aversion, or the fear of losing one's salary at a full-time job, along with its prestige, is directly linked to the amount of effort an entrepreneur puts into a startup. Loss aversion, the researchers found, is what drives most entrepreneurs, not a love of risk.

"There is a view that entrepreneurs are often overconfident gamblers, who thrive on risk, yet there is little evidence to support this view," says Morgan, who studies competition in online markets at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. "Entrepreneurs aren't Steve Jobs. They're just ordinary people who want to start a business. I wanted to try to understand a little better what motivated those individuals."

Many studies focus on what makes a successful entrepreneur different than the rest of us. Morgan sought to learn what motivates individuals to sacrifice a secure job, and what determines an entrepreneur's effort to succeed.

The study is based on a theoretical model the researchers developed and was inspired by the dramatic stories people like to tell about risk-taking entrepreneurs.

All entrepreneurs have a "reference point," which defines how they feel about their salary or, say, happiness level, compared to others, Morgan says. That reference point is not connected to profits and losses, but is directly linked to how much or little the entrepreneurs are willing to lose when starting a company.

Morgan and Sisak found an entrepreneur's level of ongoing concern about loss aversion correlates with entrepreneurial effort. In other words, entrepreneurs who put a high stake on avoiding loss -- more so than acquiring new gains -- worked harder.

Morgan used a winner-take-all framework, which is common within the Internet startup environment, for his study of entrepreneurs. Startups such as Facebook or Twitter might not offer the best platforms, but still dominate their markets. In markets such as real estate, where there is no clear single winner, this model would be less appropriate, Morgan says. "For every Facebook, there were hundreds of failed ventures," he says. "We model this aspect of entrepreneurial markets explicitly." This research can help entrepreneurs gain self-knowledge so they make better decisions and have a clear understanding of "why they're doing what they're doing," Morgan says.

"One of the most important traps entrepreneurs fall into is when they're not experiencing success and they become increasingly willing to take risks because of where they are psychologically," he says. "One lesson from the research is to be careful when you are behind. It's not necessarily the best decision to double down."

In other words, risk aversion can be a good thing.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business. University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business. "Entrepreneurs aren't overconfident gamblers, researchers say." ScienceDaily, 17 September 2014.

A simple, inexpensive method for preventing computer fraud

2014-06-16T10:30:00.001-07:00

Source: becauseirocklikehell.tumblr.com

Running a small business is time consuming. There's so much to do and often so little time in which to do it. Consider the possibility of your business experiencing computer fraud. Suppose an employee either deliberately or accidently misusing the information on your computer system. How much time would it take you to clean up the mess? Could it even put you out of business?

Fortunately, Shalini Kesar, a computer scientist at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, has devised an anti-fraud strategy for business that is straight forward and effective.

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"Computer fraud can result from incompetence, ignorance, negligence in the use of Information Technology or deliberate misappropriation by individuals," says Kesar. This results in the destruction of not only the main information systems but also backup systems, causing damages up to hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Kesar points out that reported cases of computer fraud only represent a tip of a potentially large iceberg. Anecdotal evidence suggests that employees pose one of the greatest threats because they are in a better position than "outsiders" to engage in computer fraud, Kesar adds.

Opportunistic computer fraud could be minimized, however, he says simply by raising managers' awareness and knowledge.

"Lack of awareness of social and technical issues among managers largely manifest themselves in a failure to implement even the most basic safeguards and controls," the researchers conclude, "Concomitantly, if management ignores wider organizational structural issues then this too increases the likelihood of a potential offender committing computer fraud."

These two main insights point to Kesar's seemingly obvious solution, which simply involves teaching management about computer security and then subtly communicating management's new-found knowledge to employees.

Spend some time learning about computer security then let your employees know - subtly - that you have done this. Which takes less time and costs less money? Educating yourself? Or suffering a fraud that can cost you and your customers money?

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Interscience Publishers. "Educating Managers On Computer Fraud Could Cut Crime." ScienceDaily.

Gift Shops: How to stock to meet customer purchasing patterns

2014-04-26T09:50:00.003-07:00

If you currently operate a store or website that sells wedding gifts, you’ve probably noticed a pattern in the gift selection your customers make.

If you’re thinking of opening a retail store or site and considering offering gifts, there is a pattern in the purchases people make of which you should be aware.

According to research published in 2013 in the International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, how you select stock price points effects your overall success. If you think, "I'll offer both expensive and inexpensive gifts," you're on the right track, but you should consider how people purchasing off of gift registries behave. It's a little more complex than just expensive and cheap.

According to a statistical analysis of the gift "fulfillments" at 500 online wedding gift registries, “wedding guests are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to buying an appropriate gift for the happy couple.”

The rock is the desire of some guests to gain some social benefit with the newlyweds (or perhaps their families) by purchasing an expensive gift.

The hard place is represented by the guests who wish to “enhance their relationship" with the newlyweds while at the same time saving money.

The researchers, based both in South Korea and the U.S., make this observation:

Very expensive gifts ~ very few purchasers.
Higher than average priced gifts ~ purchased by those seeking the greatest social benefit
Average-priced gifts ~ very few purchasers.
Lower than average priced gifts ~ purchased by those hoping to save money
Very low-priced gifts ~ very few purchasers.

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This insight should help anyone who sells gifts in their business or who offers a gift registry service: primarily provide gifts that will appeal to those gift-givers in categories two and four, with a minimum of gift options in categories one, three and five. Gifts in these "bracket" categories appear to be points of reference for the gift giver who is thinking either I want these people to think well of me and so don’t purchase the most expense gifts nor the least expensive – and also pass on the average priced gifts.

For you, the retailer, it should be obvious that you will reap the best return by investing in inventory that meets the needs of both the people who purchase from category two (somewhat expensive) and four (lower-priced by not cheap) with a minimum of inventory in categories one, three and five, again to provide your customer a point of reference.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Inderscience Publishers. Yun Kyung Oh, Ye Hu, Xin Wang, William T. Robinson. How do external reference prices influence online gift giving? International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2013

Lucrezia Borgia, Entrepreneur

2014-04-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

Who was Lucrezia Borgia? Tradition has it that she may have poisoned her second husband, Giovanni Sforza. Rumor of the day had it that Lucretia had incestuous relations with both her father, Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and her brother, Cesare Borgia.

What is know for certain is that Lucretia was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo, then a cardinal of the Catholic Church, and his mistress, Vannozza dei Cattanei. It is known that she was married three times, the first being annulled as never being consummated (despite her giving birth a few months after the annulment). The second marriage ended in the death of her husband, Giovanni, and her third to Alfonso d'Este, son of the powerful Duke of Ferrera. This was also to be Alfonso's third marriage, which ended when Lucrezia dies ten days after she gave birth to a stillborn daughter. She also had affairs (as did her husbands) with several political figures of the day, and even gave birth to the daughter of one lover.

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Sound like a soap opera? There's more, a tale filled with political intrigue and treachery.

How did Lucrezia get such a bad reputation? In part, it's due to the political infighting and power politics of Rennaisance Italy, where rumor and innuendo was common, and partly because she was reportedly a beautiful woman whose story attracted the attention of later novelists, who twisted her tale to create bestsellers. In both film and print, Lucrezia is depicted as the ultimate femme fatale, using her position, beauty and sexual favors to get what she and her family wanted. And today, Lucrezia Borgia is a character in the popular video game, Assassin's Creed.

However, in recent studies of her personal financial records, Lucrezia comes across as quite the entrepreneur with a personal fortune of her own creation in an age when women were not allowed to hold property or wealth in their own names, but through a protector.

She is known to given freely of her personal wealth, becoming known as "Good Duchess" of Ferrara, even acting as de factor ruler in her husband's absence.

Research published in 2008 by USC historian Diane Yvonne Ghirardo reveals that the only sister of Machiavelli's Prince, Cesare Borgia, was less interested in political intrigue than business, undertaking massive land development projects that "stand alone in the panorama of early sixteenth-century projects, not only those initiated by women." Forced by an economic downturn to cut expenses and become an entrepreneur, Lucrezia eventually would control between 30,000 and 50,000 acres in northern Italy.

"This is a classic case of seeing only what you're looking for and not getting the whole picture," Ghirardo says of the centuries-old mystery surrounding how Lucrezia accumulated her vast personal wealth. Ghirardo notes that historians have long dismissed Lucrezia as "stupida" because no record exists of her collecting art or antiquities, even though records showed she supported a number of writers and artists from her personal funds.

"The information was there in the archives, but because she was a woman, scholars only looked at transactions for clothes, for jewelry, or for works of art. Nobody looked at the other entries in the account registers," says Ghirardo of the research project that took her more than seven years to complete.

In essence, according the Ghirardo's research, Lucrezia turned seemingly worthless swampland into reclaimed land used to cultivate grains, barley, beans and olive trees; to grow flax for spinning into linen; to pasture livestock for milk, meat, wool and hides; and for vineyards.

"That's really a capitalist attitude: to leverage capital by getting the basic good — in this case, land — at the cheapest cost," Ghirardo says.

For example, Ghirardo details Lucrezia's first business venture with her husband's cousin Don Ercole d'Este. The Don gave Lucrezia title to half his land in Diamantia, a large marshy district west of Ferrara. In exchange, Lucrezia agreed to fund improvements to the land, including drainage, building embankments and digging canals.

As Ghirardo explains: "Lucrezia grasped the untapped potential of thousands of acres of marginal, waterlogged land, but she was too shrewd to employ her own resources to purchase it unless absolutely necessary."

Surviving documents also indicate Lucrezia's knowledge of contract terms, border disputes and even the skill of various hydraulic engineers, according to Ghirardo. Other records show her pawning an extremely valuable ruby-and-pearl piece of jewelry in order to buy more water buffaloes (especially to produce mozzarella).

"It's not just what Lucrezia did and how she did it, but the immensity of her enterprises, that stands out," Ghirardo says. "Nobody else was doing this on such a large scale, not even men. Nobody was prepared to put in that kind of money."

Notably, Lucrezia held titles to the land she acquired in her own name, not in her husband's. Profits from Lucrezia's entrepreneurial activities were also for her use alone, according to Ghirardo.

"She could have purchased property that was already arable, but instead she got land that wasn't useful and transformed it," Ghirardo says. "I really believe that she thought of this as her Christian duty, to transform the land and make it better, and then to use money to help fund her spiritual and religious interests."

In account registers that the Duke of Ferrara would not have seen, Ghirardo found indication of significant cash gifts to Lucrezia's confessors, preachers and other religious figures, as well as unexplained cash dispersals, possibly for a love child.

"It's a little like trying to reconstruct a life from a credit card statement. There's a lot you can tell, but a lot that remains obscure," Ghirardo says.

Lucrezia Borgia — widely described by her contemporaries as beautiful and blond, with a sunny disposition — died at 39 following complications from the birth of her eighth child. Three decades would pass before another comparable land reclamation project emerged in northern Italy.

As Ghirardo says: "Lucrezia defied the conventions of her class and her gender."

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Southern California. Ghirardo et al. Lucrezia Borgia as Entrepreneur. Renaissance Quarterly, 2008

Screening Facebook alienates your best job candidates

2014-04-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

"Elite job prospects likely steer clear of potential employers they don't trust."

It's a common practice for employers, from the very large to the very small, to screen the Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites of job prospects as part of the hiring process.

Research from North Carolina State University is clear that this practice is likely to backfire by alienating the very prospects you most want to staff your business. In some cases, social media screening even increases the likelihood that you could find yourself in court, defending yourself.

"The recruiting and selection process is your first indication of how you'll be treated by a prospective employer," says Will Stoughton, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the research. "If elite job prospects feel their privacy has been compromised, it puts the hiring company at a competitive disadvantage."

The results of two studies
In the first study, 175 participants who had applied for a job online were told that their Facebook accounts had been reviewed for "professionalism," and that a decision on whether they'd been hired was forthcoming.

Two-thirds reported finding the prospective employer less attractive because they felt the Facebook screening was an invasion of privacy that reflected poorly on the company.

In the second study, 208 participants were asked to envision a hypothetical scenario in which a prospective employer reviewed their Facebook profiles for professionalism. Half of the participants were asked how they'd respond if they had gotten the hypothetical job, while the other half were asked how they'd respond if they hadn't gotten the job.

60 percent of participants in both groups reporting a negative view of the potential employer due to a sense of having their privacy violated.
59 percent of participants were significantly more likely to take legal action against the company for invasion of privacy.

"This research tells us that companies need to carefully weigh whatever advantage they believe they get from social media screening against the increased likelihood of alienating potential employees," says Dr. Lori Foster Thompson, a professor of psychology at NC State and co-author of the paper.

"Elite job prospects have options, and are more likely to steer clear of potential employers they don't trust," the authors conclude.

Moving a prospective entrepreneur from analysis to action

2014-04-13T17:35:00.003-07:00

Working with prospective entrepreneurs that lack management training or experience has its joys, one of which is helping them develop a mindset that can lead them and their businesses to success.
Mindset includes, to my way of thinking, learning to think like a business owner, keeping a rough P&L and Balance Sheet running in the mind, learning to think about their business as do their customers and prospective customers, learning to evaluate opportunity, how to capture it and use it to build their business without wasting time over analyzing the situation.

Mindset involves attitude as well as skills, so in the workshops I lead, students spend time learning simple but useful attitude management practices based on the latest science.

According to researchers PhD student John-Erik Mathisen and Associate Professor Jan Ketil Arnulf at BI Norwegian Business School, increased formal competence (business education) affects the mindset of people who are interested in becoming an entrepreneur, retarding new-business formation.

Entrepreneur mindsets
The researchers take a slightly narrower definition of mindset than I use. In their research, a mindset may be described as automated recognition of patterns in one's surroundings, with associated actions. For example, a chess player's ability to quickly see and solve chess problems which other people would take a long time to consider, is a good example of a mindset.

In other words, the better the education and the more the experience, the more quickly an entrepreneur can see opportunity, analyze it and act. Researchers distinguished between two main types of mindsets in entrepreneurs:

Elaborative (explorative) mindsets: Mindsets that concentrate on assessing a situation and obtaining information. When people are influenced by elaborative mindsets, they are open to new information and become thoughtful. Elements of doubt will also increase.

When you are taking in new information, a consequence is that you are unable to draw conclusions. (analysis paralysis)

Implemental (implementation-oriented) mindsets: A state where everything is interpreted using known patterns, and where the outcome is always some kind of action. (To quote Nike, thinking about how to "Just Do It.")

Anyone who works with people thinking starting a business has worked with someone who is trapped in "analysis paralysis." They research, think, study and analyze an opportunity until all they are doing is dithering and thinking in circles.

As Mathisen and Arnulf point out, "Teaching can of course provide useful information for people who are interested in entrepreneurship. But it is also possible that the teaching situation in itself leads to a prevalence of elaborative mindsets, with doubt and too many different ideas."

In simple terms, we need to be aware that how the education we provide man trap some students in a never-ending cycle of research and planning.

The study
The researchers studied mindsets among 242 bachelor students at BI Norwegian Business School and finance students at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås near Oslo.

Their work shows that students who participated in the survey had different degrees of the two mindsets. The researchers looked for any connection between the students' mindsets and the number of new companies they set up (entrepreneurship in practice). In other words, how many got on with it and started the business as opposed to dithering.

Mathisen and Arnulf found that students with implemental mindsets were behind most new companies, while there was no corresponding connection between new companies and students with elaborative mindsets.

Too much education may lead to doubt
"We find that formal knowledge may get in the way of action, because it makes room for more doubt," says Mathisen and Arnulf.

The researchers argue that doubt should be considered a cost in entrepreneurship. "Only students who had implemental mindsets to a very high degree, seemed able to also benefit from elaborative thinking."

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So how does anyone working with nascent entrepreneurs help our students get off the "elaborative" analysis-paralysis merry go round? No answers were offered by authors other than to be aware of the tendency in some students. It may be the simplest way to help is to continually ask them, "how would you do that?", "how would you implement that?", "what can you do to make that idea or concept a reality?"

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by BI Norwegian Business School. John-Erik Mathisen, Jan Ketil Arnulf. Competing mindsets in entrepreneurship: The cost of doubt. The International Journal of Management Education, 2013

How to increase ad response up to 15% through facial selection

2014-04-12T12:08:00.004-07:00

Having worked in advertising and direct response for most of my career, I am very aware of how difficult it is to create an effective promotional piece. It's about one half science and one half trial and error.

So when a new science based technique is introduced that offers to increase response by a whopping 15%, professionals in the field sit up and take notice. To put this in perspective, through dint of effort we were able to increase response by one or two percent, that was a major accomplishment. Five percent and our clients thought we could walk on water. Fifteen percent? Almost unheard of since the day N.W. Ayers invented the ad agency just after the Civil War.

So what is this technique? It's facial selection, not through trial and error, but through facial recognition software as used by law enforcement and security organizations.

Here's the story:

Merely changing the face of a model in an ad increases the number of potential purchasers by as much as 15 percent (8 percent on average), according to a study. The study shows that a technique to screen faces when designing ads can transform the current subjective process into a scientifically automated one. Considering the extensive use of human faces in advertising (over 50% of print ads contain human faces), this technique may be quite profitable.

"This technique will revolutionize the field of ad design," predicts author Min Ding.
The technique is eigenface method, which has been widely used for face recognition purposes in other fields, including personal device logons, human-computer interaction, and law enforcement's tracking of suspects. Eigenface method aims to identify each face by a small set of key dimensions that together explain the variations in human faces.

The best book ever

written on how to

write advertising.
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The authors used eigenface method to extract and represent facial features in ads with a limited set of eigenface weightings. In an experiment with 989 participants, the authors used real models' faces and real ads with minimal modifications to elicit participants' natural reactions to print ads. Their results show that different faces affect ad effectiveness substantially and people show substantial differences in their facial preferences across product categories.

"An 8% increase in effectiveness could produce a substantial gain for the $600 billion ad industry," says author Li Xiao.

"These methods can substantially increase sales in individual industries," add the authors. "For example, there is a potential for up to $5 billion additional sales for the automotive industry in the U.S. alone."

Ad agencies would use four steps to employ this technique in ad design:

create a single database containing perhaps a thousand or more faces of professional models;
represent each face in the database with a set of eigenface weightings;
measure the facial preferences of target customers in a product category; and
identify the top faces that best match target customers' facial preferences for the specific product category.

These steps can be automated once enough data about characteristics of various product categories and facial preferences have been collected.

I know the average small business person hasn't the money for this type of research, however, knowing how the effect having the right face in your ads is good reason to do some split run advertising tests. It's actually pretty easy.

Develop one ad - headline, copy, offer, expiration date and so on. If you've never written advertising professionally, the best book ever on creating effective ads is "Tested Advertising Methods," by Advertising Hall of Fame member, John Caples.
Use two different model face shots in a split run of the ad. That's the only difference between the two ads you're testing. You don't want to add any other elements to the test.
Track response to each ad by the simple technique of coding each ad separately. You can use different telephone extension numbers. Ad one could be extension 101, ad two extension 202 (you don't need extensions to do this.) When a caller says, "Extension 101, please," you or whoever answers the phone puts a tick mark in the ad one box. The same for ad two.

Be sure each ad appears the same number of times.
Make sure the only difference between the two ads is the face.

At the end of a week or a month, you'll have a clear idea which face is attracting more business, and the winning ad becomes your standard against which you test future ads..

I used this technique to determine which tags on my blogs get the most response. The winning tag results in nearly three times as many hits, so it works, and I've done something similar for dozens of clients. Best of all its cheap and easy.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. Li Xiao, Min Ding. Just the Faces: Exploring the Effects of Facial Features in Print Advertising. Marketing Science, 2014

Chefs who buy local food stocks likely to continue: It Sells

2014-04-07T15:38:00.001-07:00

If you're considering starting a restaurant, food cart or café, or will be catering, or any combination of the above, you should know that buying local can be a winning strategy especially if the food has a unique selling point that appeals to customers. Just sourcing local is not enough according to newly released research from Penn State.

Local foods must have a unique selling point
"Past experiences will have an impact on buying local foods," said Amit Sharma, associate professor of hospitality management, Penn State. "Restaurant managers who buy local foods currently are significantly more likely to keep purchasing locally." In a study of the cost and benefits of purchasing local foods in restaurants, managers and chefs indicated that certain actions of local food producers stand out as reasons why they continue to buy local foods. For instance, managers said that a local farmer's or producer's response time -- the time it took a business to respond and process an order -- was more important than delivery time -- how long it takes to actually receive the goods -- as a factor when they considered buying local food products.

"Interestingly, we did not find that delivery time mattered as much for those who purchased food, not to say that delivery time wasn't a concern at all," said Sharma. "However, what was more important to these managers was the response time of a local food producer."

Food purchasers also indicated that they would not stock local food just because it is local. Local foods must have a unique selling point, according to the researchers. For instance, a special variety apple used in an apple pie may be more important to the food manager than just a locally grown apple.

Local is not enough
"Simply saying 'local food' was not enough, chefs really want to provide their customers with a dish that is unique," said Sharma. "You can't just slap a label on it that says it's 'local', and expect it to sell, in other words." While many studies have explored the reasons that customers would want local food, this study was focused on management's buying decisions.

"We're not discounting customer demand, we recognize that consumers have to want it -- in fact our previous studies suggest consumers are willing to pay more for local foods," said Sharma. "But the manager has to make decisions before the food is served."

Clear labeling
Clear labeling is another selling point for restaurant managers who are purchasing foods in grocery stores and markets. The labels should be accurate and easy to read. Training staff to handle local foods properly and to communicate the advantages of local foods with customer was also an important factor that could explain the decision to purchase local foods.

"Training tells us a lot about the commitment of an operation to local foods," said Sharma. "Local foods may or may not be delivered or processed in the same way as non-local foods, so the staff should be trained and, particularly, chefs need to be trained in developing unique menus using local foods."
Managers did not seem to think food safety was an issue with handling local food.

"That's not to say food safety isn't important to managers, it just isn't an obstacle to purchasing locally," said Sharma. "It's not a constraint."

The researchers sent surveys to independently owned restaurants in Midwestern states to investigate management's attitudes toward the decision to purchase locally grown foods.

"In this project, we investigated the cost-benefit analysis of restaurants purchasing local foods, along the food service value chain, which ranged from the sourcing of local food all the way to serving local foods to customers," said Sharma.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Penn State. Amit Sharma, Joonho Moon, Catherine Strohbehn. Restaurant's decision to purchase local foods: Influence of value chain activities. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 2014

Aging workforce requires new strategies for employee retention

2014-04-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

As a certified Baby-boomer(circa 1949) retiree (2012), I elected to "retire" young to pursue a career that I had long desired, combining my love of science and my avocation of working with prospective small business owners and entrepreneurs.

My decision is far from uncommon as is the decision by many boomers to continue to work beyond retirement age either staying on a full-time job, working part-time or starting a business. Other research shows that taking retirement and actually retiring tends to shorten a retiree's life, and that staying active and involved lengthens it, as well as keeping a retiree healthier and mentally sharper.

As more baby boomers reach retirement age, employers such as state governments face the likelihood of higher workforce turnover. For example, in the state of Missouri, more than 25 percent of all active state employees will be eligible to retire by 2016. Such large numbers of retirees threaten the continuity, membership and institutional histories of the state government workforce, according to Angela Curl, assistant professor in the University of Missouri School of Social Work.

In a case study of the state of Missouri's Deferred Retirement Option Provision (BackDROP), Curl concluded that states may need to restructure deferred retirement incentives to encourage more employees to remain on the job longer and minimize the disruption to government operations.

Is your company designed to promote retention? Or to promote turnover?
"Employers need to ask if their organizations are designed to promote turnover or promote retention," Curl said. "States should recognize the benefits of promoting retention. Using delayed retirement incentives to encourage retention is important, particularly when dealing with older employees."

Curl said that a good system of employee retention is

inclusive,
flexible and
accounts for the wide range of circumstances that retirement-eligible employees may consider when deciding to defer retirement.

These circumstances could include

caregiving for older parents or
having a spouse who is retired.

In Missouri, BackDROP offers a one-time payment equaling 90 percent of what employees would have received in benefits for an additional five years of service as incentive to delay retirement.

The best predictors of whether state employees chose to delay retirement were:

their levels of awareness of retirement options,
job functions, and
how old they were before they became eligible for deferring retirement.

The more aware employees were of BackDROP, the more likely they were to defer retirement. Employees who became eligible for deferring retirement at an older age also were more likely to choose to work longer.

Think twice about leaving your business to your kids

2014-04-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

The question is: should family businesses always keep it in the family? From the Murdochs to the Hiltons, families have long sought to keep their businesses in the bloodline. But new research shows that's not necessarily the best method of management.

The recent study, published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, shows that

if the family business is part of a traditional industry built on quality and reputation, a family member would make a good CEO. But
if it operates in an industry that values innovation, and the firm has to stay on the cutting edge, it's best to look elsewhere for leadership.

The study's lead author, CIBC Distinguished Professor of Family Business Peter Jaskiewicz, says that in industries that prioritize pushing boundaries over preserving tradition, an aggressive attitude in the marketplace is necessary to lead.

"Because family CEOs tend to focus more on family values, while non-family CEOs seek to innovate, that means a CEO from outside the family circle might be a better choice," says Jaskiewicz.

"In traditional industries, it's all about preserving tradition," he says. "But that doesn't work in newer industries where it's all about constant innovation in rapidly changing environments."

That's not to say that family CEOs can't succeed in more innovative industries. "But families that promote from within need to hold their CEOs to a standard that's at least as high as the industry average," says Jaskiewicz. "They also have to make sure the CEOs are competent enough to handle industry pressures and to balance family advice with outsider feedback and industry savvy."

Traditional family businesses, then, like food producers, service providers or wine makers -- businesses in which quality and reputation are core values -- can benefit from keeping things in the family. By contrast, innovative businesses, such as those in the information technology sector, cellular communications or pharmaceuticals, would be better off hiring from outside the inner circle.

However, according to Jaskiewicz, the role of culture in business decisions also merits closer investigation.
"In collectivistic cultures such as those found in Asia, South America and Southern Europe, where a high value is placed on family, outsider appointments might not go down well with stakeholders like customers or employees. But in North America, where success, wealth and independence are the priority, the origins of the CEO shouldn't be as significant."

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Concordia University. James J. Chrisman, Jess H. Chua, Allison W. Pearson, Tim Barnett. Family Involvement, Family Influence, and Family-Centered Non-Economic Goals in Small Firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2012

Hey, boss! Lose yourself to dance, know yourself better

2014-03-21T08:41:00.001-07:00

This study brings up an interesting point, especially when combined with a reading of current research that documents that women generally make better small business owners and managers than do men ~ in that women operated businesses tend to be more profitable and live longer.

Dance is stereotyped as a female activity, and some of the newest management training programs work at teaching those skills that women typically are stronger at. Empathy, fostering teamwork, gathering a wide range of input before making decisions, and now dance. Something anyone thinking of starting a business should consider.

Could managers gain a new kind of understanding about their interaction with colleagues and employees by ‘dancing’?

That's the question arising from new research. Management is usually considered a stiff and rational business, decisions made based on fiscal studies, profit margins and market forces. However, researchers have studied whether creative movement ('dance') might improve a manager's awareness concerning their management interaction.

Researchers encouraged volunteers to "dance their feelings" and videotaped them so that hidden insights and emotions might be extracted. They suggest that creative movement harnessing the whole body may give rise to new knowledge about management interactions. Most intriguingly, they suggest that a person's dance moves might reveal unconscious and unnoticed thoughts about their life and their position in the workplace and so highlight the aesthetic and embodied dimensions of management. The researchers point out that being good at dancing is irrelevant to their research: it is simply about creative expression through music -- losing oneself to dance, as it were, to borrow from a recent pop song.

They concede that they received a great deal of doubtful feedback on how applicable the method would be in 'real life' and how many 'real' managers would dare to surrender themselves to creative movement when the purpose is to research something pertaining to their professionalism. However, their volunteers, although known through personal connections to the team, were all too willing to take part in this kind of experimental study, in which 'dance' was used as a method, instead of a conventional research interview.

It remains to be seen whether this novel and evocative embodied research approach is more widely adopted. However, it would be interesting for any of us to test what our body, through creative movement, could tell us about how we interact with each other.

* * * * *

Story Source: Anneli Hujala, Sanna Laulainen, Kaija Kokkonen. Manager's dance: reflecting management interaction through creative movement. International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2014.

Will Social or Physical Changes (or both) Improve Your Workplace?

2014-03-11T13:18:00.001-07:00

The question for many employers large and small is whether making social changes or physical changes lead to better productivity or lower absenteeism. Or would a combination of changes have the best outcome? According to this research, an employer is better served by either making social changes or physical changes - but not the two together.

Here's the report:

Changes targeting the social or physical workplace environment have some positive effects on work-related outcomes —- but at least so far, evidence doesn't support a combination of the two approaches, a new report concludes.

Social changes such as group motivational interviews led to improved work task performance, while the
physical change such as establishing specific areas for quiet work, meetings, and recreation was associated with employees being more fully concentrated and immersed in work tasks.

Researchers evaluated the effects of changes to the social and physical work environment at a financial services company. Departments were randomly assigned to

social changes, including group motivational interviews to promote physical activity and relaxation;
physical changes, such as different workplace zones for quiet work, meetings, and recreation; or
a combination of social and physical changes.

The study showed some "small but significant" effects on work-related outcomes.

Social intervention led to improved work task performance, while the
physical intervention was associated with improved "absorption" (being fully concentrated and immersed in work tasks).
Combined intervention actually had small reductions in job dedication and contextual performance (additional activities that contribute to the organizational environment).

A Better Job Performance Review

2014-02-27T11:42:00.002-08:00

A critical job performance evaluation can have a negative effect on any employee, according to research. By studying how people view positive or negative feedback a researcher has determined that nobody -- even people who are motivated to learn -- likes negative performance reviews. She is therefore developing ways to help managers improve the process for reviewing employees, and provides some pointers in her newly published article.

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Culbertson and collaborators at Eastern Kentucky University and Texas A&M University surveyed more than 200 staffers who had just completed performance reviews at a large southern university. The research appears in the Journal of Personnel Psychology.

The researchers first assessed employees' goal orientations:

Learning goal-oriented people like to learn for the sake of learning. They often pursue challenges despite setbacks.
Performance-prove goal-oriented people want to prove that they have competence to perform a job.
Performance-avoid goal-oriented people want to avoid looking foolish.

The researchers hypothesized that that the two types of performance-oriented people only would be satisfied with performance appraisals in which they received positive feedback because negative feedback would make them look bad. But the researchers thought that learning goal-oriented employees would be satisfied with an appraisal in which they received negative feedback because these individuals would see it as a learning opportunity.

"Surprisingly, we found that learning-oriented people were just as dissatisfied with an appraisal that had negative feedback as the performance-oriented people were," Culbertson said. "Nobody likes to get negative feedback -- even those individuals who aren't trying to prove anything to others, but instead are just trying to learn as much as possible."

The research shows that managers need to be careful when giving feedback to employees, Culbertson said. Performance appraisals can affect motivation, commitment and performance, which managers should keep in mind when evaluating employees.

"It is not so much that the performance review needs to be abolished, but we need to fix what is broken," Culbertson said. "Instead of limiting ourselves to formal performance appraisals conducted once or twice a year, we need to think about performance management as a system that is linked with the strategy of the entire organization."

Rather than making a performance review an annual event between a supervisor and employee, employers should consider making it an ongoing process.

"We can actually make the most out of the system," Culbertson said. "But if we are only going to have once-a-year evaluations, we shouldn't expect it to work."

Based on the research, Culbertson has several suggestions to help managers construct performance evaluations:

Focus on constructive feedback instead of negative feedback. While negative feedback focuses on what an employee is doing wrong, constructive feedback brings in elements for improvement.

"Negative feedback is not the same as constructive feedback," Culbertson said. "We should be careful that negative feedback is provided in a way that is more constructive because it can help people try to improve."

Be careful with number-based performance reviews. People view numbers differently, Culbertson said. For example, on an evaluation with a 1-to-5 scale, a manager might give an employee a 4 out of 5. The manager might see this as positive feedback, but an employee might see this as negative if he or she is striving for a 5 out of 5.

"This is where our words are really powerful," Culbertson said. "We want to make sure we are conveying to employees whether we are giving a good evaluation or describing something that needs to improve."

Avoid the "sandwich" approach.This approach occurs when managers provide positive feedback, then give negative feedback and finish with positive feedback.

"Sometimes the sandwich approach comes across as dishonest or not something that people will buy," Culbertson said.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Kansas State University. Satoris S. Culbertson, Jaime B. Henning, Stephanie C. Payne. Performance Appraisal Satisfaction. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 2013

Dishonesty and creativity: Two sides of the same coin?

2014-02-21T10:55:00.003-08:00

Lying about performance on one task may increase creativity on a subsequent task by making people feel less bound by conventional rules, according to new research.

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New research shows that lying about performance on one task may increase creativity on a subsequent task by making people feel less bound by conventional rules.

"The common saying that 'rules are meant to be broken' is at the root of both creative performance and dishonest behavior," says lead researcher Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School. "Both creativity and dishonesty, in fact, involve rule breaking."

To examine the link between dishonesty and creativity, Gino and colleague Scott Wiltermuth of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California designed a series of experiments that allowed, and even sometimes encouraged, people to cheat.

In the first experiment, for example, participants were presented with a series of number matrices and were tasked with finding two numbers that added up to 10 in each matrix. They were told they would be compensated based on the number of matrices they had been able to solve and were asked to self-report the number they got correct. This setup allowed participants to inflate their own performance -- what they didn't know was that the researchers were able to track their actual performance.

In a subsequent and supposedly unrelated task, the participants were presented with sets of three words (e.g., sore, shoulder, sweat) and were asked to come up with a fourth word (e.g., cold) that was related to each word in the set. The task, which taps a person's ability to identify words that are so-called "remote associates," is commonly used to measure creative thinking.

Gino and Wiltermuth found that almost 59% of the participants cheated by inflating their performance on the matrices in the experiment.

And cheating on the matrices seemed to be associated with a boost to creative thinking -- cheaters figured out more of the remote associates than those who didn't cheat.

Subsequent experiments provided further evidence for a link between dishonesty and creativity, revealing that participants showed higher levels of creative thinking according to various measures after they had been induced to cheat on an earlier task.

Additional data suggest that cheating may encourage subsequent creativity by priming participants to be less constrained by rules. Previous work has focused on the factors that might lead to unethical behavior. In earlier research, Gino had found that encouraging out-of-the-box thinking can lead people toward more dishonest decisions when confronted with an ethical dilemma.

This research, however, focuses on the consequences of dishonesty:

"We turned the relationship upside down, in a sense," says Gino. "Our research raises the possibility that one of the reasons why dishonesty seems so widespread in today's society is that by acting dishonestly we become more creative -- and this creativity may allow us to come up with original justifications for our immoral behavior and make us likely to keep crossing ethical boundaries."

Gino and Wiltermuth are following up on these findings by investigating how people respond when dishonesty and creativity are combined in the form of "creative" cheating. Their initial findings suggest that people may give cheaters a pass if they cheat in particularly creative ways.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Association for Psychological Science. F. Gino, S. S. Wiltermuth. Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity. Psychological Science, 2014

Even Fact Will Change a Bad First Impression

2014-02-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

Baseball great and world-renowned
malapropist, Yogi Berra, and one of his
best known comments.

For so many small business people and self-employed entrepreneurs, their business is part of their self-expression. So, they will dress in a way that fits their own mental picture of who they feel they are - without considering the first impression they give a prospective client or customer.

In sales, it's standard practice for the salesperson to enter a room, greet the person they are meeting with, then to look away from the prospect and at their briefcase or other material for the count of ten before looking back at the prospect to start the meeting.

Why? Because most sales or client relationships are created in the first ten seconds based on the prospect's first impression of the salesperson. Everything the salesperson says or proves from this point is pure window dressing.

This is why it is so very important for you to project an image that fits in with your prospect's idea of what a professional in your field should look like. If you don't fit that person's expectation, you won't land the client or make the sale, no matter what you say or do.

Here's proof:

Knowledge is power, yet new research suggests that a person's appearance alone can trump knowledge. First impressions are so powerful that they can override what we are told about people. A new study found that even when told whether a person was gay or straight, participants generally identified the person's sexual orientation based on how they looked -- even if it contradicted the facts presented to them.

"We judge books by their covers, and we can't help but do it," says Nicholas Rule of the University of Toronto. "With effort, we can overcome this to some extent, but we are continually tasked with needing to correct ourselves." The less time we have to make our judgments, the more likely we are to go with our gut, even over fact, he says.

A series of recent studies, presented today at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) annual conference in Austin, shows that appearance shapes everything from whether we ultimately end up liking someone to our assessment of their sexual orientation or trustworthiness. And researchers say that whether a first impression occurs online versus in person is important. While we may be able to size up someone's personality from a Facebook photo, it will often be more negative impression than one formed face-to-face.

Appearance trumps fact
"As soon as one sees another person, an impression is formed," Rule says. "This happens so quickly -- just a small fraction of a second -- that what we see can sometimes dominate what we know."

In the study on first impressions of sexual orientation, Rule and colleagues showed 100 participants photos of 20 men, identifying them either as gay or straight. The photos had been previously coded based on a consensus opinion on whether the men "looked" gay or straight, which accurately matched to their real-life sexual orientations. The researchers then tested participants' recall of the men's sexual orientations several times to ensure perfect memorization.

After this learning phase, the researchers then showed participants the faces again, varying the amount of time they had to categorize the men's sexual orientations. The less time they had to categorize the faces, the more likely the participants were to categorize the men according to whether they looked gay or straight rather than what they had been told about their sexuality. With more time, however, the participants reverted to what they had learned about the men's sexuality.

"Hence, they seemed to judge by appearance when they were forced to make their judgments quickly," Rule says. "When they were allowed more time, though, they judged according to what they knew about the individuals."

Interestingly, the researchers labeled half the faces with their actual sexual orientation and half with their opposite orientation. They did this to "teach the participants to learn information that was opposite to their perceptions," Rule says. "It was important for us to establish a conflict between perception -- how the face looked -- and memory -- what they knew about the man's sexual orientation."

Rule uses the example of Ricky Martin who for years denied he was gay before finally coming out. In the 1990s, people might see Martin and think "oh, that's a gay guy," he says, "but then you'd recognize that it was Ricky Martin and think 'oh, wait, that's Ricky Martin -- he told Barbara Walters that he was straight.' So there's a corrective process there: First impressions continue to assert themselves long after you know relevant information about a person."

Rule presented this study at the SPSP conference today, along with a related new study that looked at how people categorized faces as trustworthy or not. In that study, facial appearance was a stronger predictor of whether people viewed someone as trustworthy than descriptive information provided, even even it conflicted.

"Together, these studies help to illustrate the often inescapable nature of how we form impressions of other people based on their appearance," Rule says. "Not only should people not assume that others will be able to overcome aspects of their appearance when evaluating them, but also those of us on the other end should be actively working to consider that our impressions of others are biased."

The virtual bias
"If you want to make a good impression, it is critical that it is done in person," says Jeremy Biesanz of the University of British Columbia. That is the bottom line of his new research that looks at the difference in how we form impressions in person, versus online, by video, or by just watching.

In three studies, Biesanz and colleagues compared the accuracy and bias of impressions formed under different circumstances. The first study analyzed a series of experiments involving more than 1,000 participants who met each other through either a 3-minute speed-dating style interview or by watching a video of the person they are evaluating. They also evaluated their own personalities.

"What we observe here is that the accuracy of impressions is the same when you meet someone face to face or simply watch a video of them," Biesanz, says. "However, impressions are much more negative when you form impressions more passively through watching videotapes." So while people could accurately attribute certain personality traits -- for example, extroverted, arrogant, sociable -- to others both in person or by video, the magnitude of the positive attributes was lower and of negative attributes was higher via video.

The researchers found similar results in two other studies -- one that used the same set-up to compare in-person impressions to those obtained through looking Facebook photos, and another that compared in-person meetings to simply watching someone as a passive observer. In all cases, the passive means of making impressions were as accurate as the active ones. "However, there is an extremely large difference in the positivity of impressions," he says "More passive impressions are substantially more negative."

So while Yogi Berra's mantra of "You can observe a lot by watching" may be true, Biesanz says, mere observation comes at the cost of substantial bias.

From romance to likeability
How we create first impressions is also important in the context of finding a romantic partner. Recent research suggests that whether someone meets a potential mate online versus in person can dramatically change their judging process.

"People are more likely to use abstract information to make their evaluations in hypothetical than in live impression formation contexts," says Paul Eastwick of the University of Texas, Austin, who is presenting results of his studies on gender differences in different romantic contexts. When men and women evaluate potential partners in person versus online, typical gender differences in ideal preferences disappear.

In general, men say they care about attractiveness in a partner more than women, and women say they care about earning prospects in a partner more than men. "But our meta-analysis reveals that men and women do not show these sex differences when they evaluate others in a face-to-face context," Eastwick says. "That is, attractiveness inspires men's and women's romantic evaluations to the same extent, and earning prospects inspires men's and women's romantic evaluations to the same extent."

The research suggests that in live face-to-face settings, people rely more on their gut-level evaluations of another person. "They focus on how that person makes them feel," Eastwick says. "It is very hard to get a sense of this information when simply viewing a profile. This disconnect can cause confusion and distress in the online dating realm, as potential partners that seem terrific 'on paper' prove to be disappointing after a face-to-face interaction."

Beyond the online dating realm, Vivian Zayas of Cornell University, Gül Günaydin of Middle East Technical University, and colleague have found that viewing a photograph can be a a good predictor of how you will judge someone in person. "Despite the well-known idiom to 'not judge a book by its cover,' the present research shows that such judgments about the cover are good proxies for judgments about the book -- even after reading it," says Zayas, who is chairing a session at the SPSP conference called "When to Judge a Book by Its Cover: Timing, Context, and Individual Differences in First Impressions."

Zayas' new research shows that initial impressions based on viewing a single photograph accurately predict how a person will feel about the other person in a live interaction that takes place more than 1 month later. Moreover, participants' initial judgments based on the photograph colored personality judgments following the interaction," Zayas says. "The results showed that initial liking judgments based on a photograph remained unchanged even after obtaining more information about a person via an actual live interaction."

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by Society for Personality and Social Psychology. "Even fact will not change first impressions." ScienceDaily.

Simple, Cheap Way to Help Eliminate Fatigue in Your Workplace

2014-02-06T10:43:00.002-08:00

Rearchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, Massachusetts, have found that exposure to short wavelength blue light during the biological day directly and immediately improves alertness and performance.

Blue Light has an "Alerting" Effect

"Our previous research has shown that blue light is able to improve alertness during the night, but our new data demonstrates that these effects also extend to daytime light exposure," said Shadab Rahman, PhD, a researcher in BWH's Division of Sleep Medicine and lead author of this study. "These findings demonstrate that prolonged blue light exposure during the day has an an alerting effect."

Sick Days Due to Colds Cost US Businesses $25 Billion Per Year

2014-01-28T13:57:00.005-08:00

Source: personal.psu.edu

Cold and flu season is here, and with it the economic impact of employees either missing work or worse, going into work when ill and then spreading their illness to co-workers and customers alike.

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The common cold is well, common, affecting adults approximately 2-3 times a year and children under age 2 approximately 6 times a year. Symptoms such as sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, cough and malaise are usually worse in days 1-3 and can last 7-10 days, sometimes as long as 3 weeks.

"Although self-limiting, the common cold is highly prevalent and may be debilitating. It causes declines in function and productivity at work and may affect other activities such as driving," write Drs. Michael Allan, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, and Bruce Arroll, Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Colds are costly
It is estimated that direct medical costs in the United States, including physician visits, secondary infections and medications for colds, were an estimated $17 billion a year in 1997. Indirect costs from missed work for illness or to look after a sick child were an estimated $25 billion per year.

Most colds are caused by viruses, with only about 5% of clinically diagnosed colds having a bacterial infection, yet antibiotics are sometimes used inappropriately for viral infections.

What works?

Prevention

Clean hands: a review of 67 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicated that handwashing, a traditional public health approach, as well as alcohol disinfectants and gloves, is likely effective.
Zinc may work for children (and possibly adults) -- at least 2 RCTs indicated that children who took 10 or 15 mg of zinc sulfate daily had lower rates of colds and fewer absences from school due to colds. The authors suggest that zinc may also work for adults.
Probiotics: there is some evidence that probiotics may help prevent colds, although the types and combinations of organisms varied in the studies as did the formulations (pills, liquids, etc.), making comparison difficult.

Treatment

Antihistamines combined with decongestants and/or pain medications appear to be somewhat or moderately effective in treating colds in older children -- but not in children under age 5 -- and adults.
Pain relievers: ibuprofen and acetaminophen help with pain and fever. Ibuprofen appears better for fever in children.
Nasal sprays: ipratropium, a drug used to treat allergies and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, may alleviate runny nose when used in a nasal spray but has no effect on congestion.

Other approaches and treatments

According to the evidence, the benefits of frequently used remedies such as

ginseng, (found in ColdFX), gargling, vapor rubs and homeopathy are unclear.
Cough medicines show no benefit in children but may offer slight benefit in adults.
Honey has a slight effect in relieving cough symptoms in children over age 1.
Vitamin C and antibiotics show no benefit, and misused antibiotics can have associated harms.

The authors note that the evidence for preventing and treating colds is often of poor quality and has inconsistent results. "Much more evidence now exists in this area, but many uncertainties remain regarding interventions to prevent and treat the common cold," write the authors. "We focused on RCTs and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of RCTs for therapy, but few of the studies had a low risk of bias. However, many of the results were inconsistent and had small effects (e.g., vitamin C), which arouses suspicion that any noted benefit may represent bias rather than a true effect."

* * * * *

Story Source: G. Michael Allan And Bruce Arroll. Prevention and treatment of the common cold: making sense of the evidence. Canadian Medical Association Journal, January 2014

Recession's effects leads to cheating and workplace theft

2014-01-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

"When people feel financially deprived they are more likely to relax their standards and transgress to improve their financial situation."

We like to think we'd stick to our ethical principles no matter what. But when people feel financially deprived -- as many did from losses suffered thanks to the last market and banking meltdown -- they are more likely to relax their moral standards and transgress to improve their financial situation. They are also more likely to judge other deprived moral offenders who do the same more leniently, says a paper to be published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes this past fall.

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"We found that most respondents did not think financial deprivation would lead them to behave immorally," said Nina Mažar, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and one of the lead researchers of the study. "Yet, once they actually experienced financial deprivation, they were more likely to loosen their ethical principles."

This could result in workplace sabotage and the pilfering of supplies and equipment, the paper says. Public policies that entrench financial inequalities, such as through regressive taxation plans or tax cuts for the wealthy, could also lead to more cheating inside and outside the office.

And those who interpret or enforce policies or regulations as part of their work -- in corporations, law enforcement, or the judicial system -- need to be mindful of the deprivation effect too. Temporary upsets in their own financial position could lead them to go easier on others demonstrating unethical behaviour while under financial stress, the paper says.

There are many ways people assess their financial health. But research has found one of the strongest influences is comparing oneself to other people. A sense of financial deprivation can happen when people simply feel financially inferior to their peers.

The findings are based on a series of experiments that studied people's views about dishonest behaviour, and how they behaved once they were induced to feel financially-deprived themselves. The effects were observed both in experiments where people actually experienced financial loss and in those where they were merely made to feel financially-deprived, relative to others.

The effects were lessened however, when people saw that acting unethically either would be unfair, or would not improve their financial situation -- or when they accepted that their financial position was deserved.
Perceptions of fairness were key to participants' decisions to act honestly or dishonestly, said Prof. Mažar. That suggests that one reason why workplace theft is so common is because employees may see their own, and other colleagues' financial positions as inferior and unfair, relative to the companies and executives they work for.

* * * * *

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management, "Recession's after-effects could lead to cheating and workplace theft suggests new study." ScienceDaily.

How to Burn Out Your Employees Quickly and Completely

2014-01-23T11:36:00.002-08:00

"Only 40 percent of Americans get enough sleep on most nights and a commonly cited reason is smartphone usage for work."

Using a smartphone to cram in more work at night results in less work the next day, indicates new research co-authored by a Michigan State University business scholar.

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In a pair of studies surveying a broad spectrum of U.S. workers, Russell Johnson and colleagues found that people who monitored their smart phones for business purposes after 9 p.m. were more tired and were less engaged the following day on the job.

"Smartphones are almost perfectly designed to disrupt sleep," said Johnson, MSU assistant professor of management who acknowledges keeping his smartphone at his bedside at night. "Because they keep us mentally engaged late into the evening, they make it hard to detach from work so we can relax and fall asleep."

More than half of U.S. adults own a smartphone. Many consider the devices to be among the most important tools ever invented when it comes to increasing productivity of knowledge-based work, Johnson said.

Yet at the same time, the National Sleep Foundation says only 40 percent of Americans get enough sleep on most nights and a commonly cited reason is smartphone usage for work.

For the first study, the researchers had 82 upper-level managers complete multiple surveys every day for two weeks. The second study surveyed 161 employees daily in a variety of occupations -- from nursing to manufacturing and from accounting to dentistry.

Across both studies, the surveys showed that nighttime smartphone usage for business purposes cut into sleep and sapped workers' energy the next day in the office. The second study also compared smartphone usage to other electronic devices and found that smartphones had a larger negative effect than watching television and using laptop and tablet computers.

In addition to keeping people mentally engaged at night, smartphones emit "blue light" that seems to be the most disruptive of all colors of light. Blue light is known to hinder melatonin, a chemical in the body that promotes sleep.

"So it can be a double-edged sword," Johnson said. "The nighttime use of smartphones appears to have both psychological and physiological effects on people's ability to sleep and on sleep's essential recovery functions."

One potential solution is turning off the smartphone at night. But Johnson said that isn't always practical in today's business world.

"There may be times in which putting off work until the next day would have disastrous consequences and using your smartphone is well worth the negative effects on less important tasks the next day," he said. "But on many other nights, more sleep may be your best bet."

The study will appear in the research journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

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Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Michigan State University. (2014, January 22). Nighttime smartphone use zaps workers' energy. ScienceDaily

How the Seven Sins of Email Hurt Your Business

2014-01-20T09:52:00.001-08:00

The Seven Deadly Sins of Business email:

Ping pong -- constant emails back and forth creating long chains
Emailing out of hours
Emailing while in company
Ignoring emails completely
Requesting read receipts
Responding immediately to an email alert
Automated replies

According to research just released, employees obsessed with checking their emails could be damaging their own mental health and that of their colleagues. How?

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Dr Emma Russell, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at Kingston Business School, believes she has identified the seven deadly email sins that can lead to 'negative repercussions' if not handled correctly. She identified seven habits which can be positive if used in moderation but are likely to have a negative impact if not handled correctly.

"This research reminds us that even though we think we are using strategies for dealing with our email at work, many of them can be detrimental to other goals and the people that we work with."

Some create a problem for the sender rather than the receiver, she said, as they can lead to them giving out the wrong impression or not remaining in control of what they are doing. For example,

having email alerts switched on and responding to email immediately can have positive benefits if one wants to show concern to the person who has emailed them. However, it may have negative repercussions in terms of the sender feeling that responding to emails is taking them away from other tasks and impacting on their sense of well-being.

Some of the worst habits include 'ping pong' messages back and forth and 'read receipts', which accompany every missive sent, the study, looking into which email practices stress employees out, found.

"Back in the dial-up era, when going online had a cost implication, most people checked email maybe once a day and often responded to mails as soon as they read them. Now with broadband and 3G, unlimited numbers of messages can be streamed to you via your smartphone at any time of the day or night.

However many of us haven't adapted our behavior to what can seem like a constant stream of mails," Dr Russell explained. Responding to out of hours emails, for instance, may make an employee look keen but it can also mean workers find it difficult to switch off, according to the study. "This puts pressure on staff to be permanently on call and makes those they are dealing with feel the need to respond," Dr Russell explained. "Some workers became so obsessed by email that they even reported experiencing so-called 'phantom alerts' where they think their phone has vibrated or bleeped with an incoming email when in fact it has not. Others said they felt they needed to physically hold their smartphone when they were not at their desk so that they were in constant email contact."

Email ping pong, where messages are responded to immediately by both sides until a very long chain builds up, are particularly hated by many of those involved.

Editor's Note: This research confirms the work of many, that having little or no boundary between an employee's job and private life is stressful, and stress is the number one cause of everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's. The point is, you, the employer, has to respect the boundaries between the work and the personal lives of your employees. You must establish policies that set limits to protect your employees. Another way of putting it is that an employee who makes him or herself available to your business 24/7, is not an asset. He or she is a danger to themselves and to your other employees.

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Story Source: Kingston University. "You've got mail: Research reveals workers' worst inbox sins." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily

The Connection Between Your Health & Your Wealth

2014-01-08T11:21:00.002-08:00

"Health and wealth may be more strongly connected than previously thought."

We ring in the New Year with hopes of being healthy, wealthy, and wise. A new study from researchers John W. Ayers of San Diego State University and Benjamin Althouse of the Santa Fe Institute and their colleagues suggests that health and wealth may be more strongly connected than previously thought.

Diverse Workforce Helps Build Business

2013-12-16T10:34:00.005-08:00

http://knowledge.insead.edu

The Future of Business is Multi-cultural
It's a fact of our changing society: businesses, especially service businesses, that want to succeed with minority customers should consider hiring frontline employees who represent those ethnic groups, particularly when the business caters to Hispanics or Asians, a recent UT Arlington study contends.

Elten Briggs, associate professor of marketing, and Detra Montoya, clinical associate professor of marketing at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business analyzed the influence of shared ethnicity on consumer behavior using an experiment and a survey. The experiment focused on 112 Hispanic customers of a financial services firm in a major U.S. metropolitan area. The survey asked 285 Asians, Hispanics and Caucasians in a major U.S. city about marketplace experiences that could be attributed to their ethnicity.

"The study showed that culture plays an important role in the interaction between businesses and customers," said Briggs. "Customers may feel like they have some common ground with the service representative or sales person if there is a shared ethnicity."

(Past research shows that most business owners and managers tend to hire people they would like to be friends with - and not the candidate or candidates who best fit the job description or the customer perception. Something to keep in mind the next time you hire for a front line position. - Ed.)

The influence of culture on interactions between contact employees and customers is becoming an ever-important consideration as marketplaces worldwide continue to diversify. Rachel Croson, dean of the UT Arlington College of Business, said Briggs' research points to the fact that the future of business is multi-cultural.

Businesses that Succeed will be Those Who Customize Customer Experience

Is it Better for a Business to Make Radical Change? Or Evolve?

2013-12-12T11:18:00.000-08:00

Learn from evolution and copy and replicate

rather than create new processes.

There are times when a business owner decides that their current model just isn't working as they hoped it would, particularly in the early months and years. The question becomes, should the entrepreneur just dump what they're doing now? Or make incremental changes with an end goal in mind?

Research by a University of Hertfordshire Professor of Business Studies published in 2010 states that solutions for many of today's business challenges can be found in evolutionary processes.

According to Professor Geoffrey Hodgson at the University's Business School, businesses which are considering major change at the moment should proceed with caution; they could do better to learn from evolution and copy and replicate rather than create new processes.

"Change needs to be experimental and cautious," said Professor Hodgson. "We have to understand the cost of change. If we look to nature, we can find answers in the way in which biological evolution preserves information over a period. This helps to explain why many successful firms, when setting up new plants, try to copy exactly everything about the make-up and routines of the existing plants."

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So there you have it: You're better off to make an incremental change, evaluate then consider your next step as you work toward an end goal. I guess it's another way of saying, when making a change, don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Suggested reading ~

Small Changes That Help Small Companies Make Big Increases in Sales
by Andrew J Blackstone

Story Source: Geoffrey M. Hodgson, Thorbjørn Knudsen. Generative replication and the evolution of complexity. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2010