Blog Entries

St Valentine's day - shop 'til you drop?

louise@pkblog.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

I'll start with a stereotype: when it comes to Valentine's day, in my experience, it is the women who spend time searching for the perfect gift and a thoughtful card, and it is the men who mumble under their breath about the 'commercialisation' of Valentine's, whilst paying through the nose for a last minute bunch of red roses.

But I recently came across an interesting piece of research on gift giving which might shed some more light on this. In 2008, Dunne at el loo [...]

The Psychological Contract between Civil Servant & Government: Implied & Unwritten but ...

Jas_Kandola@test.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

April of last year marked a new era for public sector services in the UK as the government seeks to address the deficit and reduce the cost of its public sector workforce. Traditional entitlements for public servants have been heavily scrutinised in a way not seen in the last decade with the announcements of job losses, pay freezes and reduced pension provision.

The traditional lure of job and financial security within the civil service is a focal point of public sector worker disconten [...]

Double conviction in Stephen Lawrence murder: Two further steps in the right direction, and ...

nic@test.com — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Today, along with millions of others, I have listened to the news that two of the murderers of Stephen Lawrence have finally been convicted of his death, more than 18 years after the unprovoked racist attack in south-east London.

Stephen Lawrence�s murder has brought about some fundamental changes in our understanding, reaction to, and management of racism in our society.

Firstly, the Macpherson Inquiry into the handling of the initial investigation by the Metropolitan Police shon [...]

How do you manage remote teams?

nic@test.com — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

One of the most common mistakes I come across in business today is people who try to manage their remote teams using pretty much the same tactics as they use for managing their face-to-face teams.

On the face of it, managing a remote team doesn't sound like it should be that much harder than managing a face-to-face team. After all, we have a whole industry of modern technology to assist us - mobile phones, teleconferencing, videoconferencing and webcams. Yet the very fact that we fe [...]

Cultural intelligence - how stupid is your business?

nic@test.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Globalisation. It's hard to pick up any business related-read nowadays
without being told how the workplace is increasingly globalised, how we are facing increased global competition or to read about people banging on about the global war for talent.

In fact, we've been talking about globalisation for some time now. Just flicking through some of the papers in my ever-increasing 'to read' pile, I see references to business globalisation as 21st Century
phenomenon; others describe it as [...]

Is it good to be bad in business?

jonathan@pkblog.com — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Time for a rant...

For the last eight weeks - and come to think of it, for the last several years - I have been watching the Apprentice and getting increasingly irritated with the prevailing view amongst the potential apprentices that it is "OK to be a git/b*****d/asshole...it's only business". Why?! Why is it seemingly acceptable to step [...]

5 reasons why experts are never wrong

binna@test.com — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business,management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.

Is calling someone a 'Jew' acceptable?

binna@test.com — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Even those people who like to be known for their outspoken comments are aware that there is a fine line between getting attention and getting sacked. Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond judged this to near perfection recently with his comments about Mexicans. His crude comments certainly got him talked about but overall many found what he had to say amusing, including his bosses at the BBC. Hammond knew that by choosing Mexicans he would be on safer ground than if he remarked about, say, India [...]

Why bad feedback is a recipe for underperformance

binna@test.com — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Pitfalls of the annual appraisal

binna@test.com — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Workplace Romance - The Fear and the Facts

binna@test.com — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Sexual equality and the question of parental leave

emma@test.com — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:00:00 +0100

Reading the British Press over the past couple of weeks you could mistaken for believing that the Government is imposing some Draconian measure in order to further hinder small businesses from economic recovery, but 'no' actually all that is happening is that they are, at last, beginning to redress the balance with regard to parental leave. There seems to be a somewhat unjustified preoccupation about the financial impact this will have, over and above the moral implications of the mea [...]

Keys & Gray, or Why bias is only human

binna@test.com — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:00:00 +0100

Strictly life-changing

stuart@test.com — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:00:00 +0100

A surprising way to have a happy Christmas

louise@pkblog.com — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:00:00 +0100

At this time of year the ringing of the tills in shopping centres is almost as loud as the chiming of Christmas bells and the tinkling of Santa's sleigh. Despite the recession we are predicted to spend £48.9 billion over the festive period this year. However, despite the old adage 'money can't buy you love', some research I came across this week shows that money may just be able to buy you happiness.

Although most studies of happiness find that having more money d [...]

Is there a Cher in Cheryl? Unconscious bias at work

louise@pkblog.com — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Although not the sort of topic I usually write a blog on (I don’t usually like to advertise my slightly suspect choice of weekend viewing) the furore over this week’s episode of the ‘X Factor’ struck a real chord with me - from a psychological perspective.

According to news reports, fans have been ‘up in arms’ over judge, Cheryl Cole’s, decision making. For those of you who don’t watch the programme, one of the contestants, Cher Lloyd, [...]

Rentrez Roma !

emma@test.com — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:00:00 +0100

En disant aux Roms de France de retourner � chez eux �, la France a certainement durci sa politique d'accueil vis-�-vis des Roms d�nou�s de leur pays.

Le point le plus sensible dans le débat entre Bruxelles et Paris est bien sur le fait de cibler une population ethnique pour la renvoyer de France alors que les frontières des pays de l'Union sont censées être ouvertes pour les différents états membres. Et ne pas le faire pour les autres sans [...]

Do it right, or don't do it at all

jonathan@pkblog.com — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Earlier this week, Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbott is quoted as saying public sector cuts have the "potential to set back race relations and black and ethnic minority communities by a generation." Specifically, she warned that a "last in, first out" approach to redundancies would hit black and female workers particularly hard, presumabl [...]

Psychology at Work: Email on holiday? Give us a break...

stuart@test.com — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Leadership and David Cameron

binna@test.com — Thu, 27 May 2010 01:00:00 +0100

Negotiation; establishing trust; getting off to a good start - three crucial skills for any leader.

Click here to read the original blog in full on the Management Today website - Psychology at Work Blog, a blog page about the psychology of business, management and leadership written by Pearn Kandola.