Psych at Work

In honor of my internship, we have another intern explaining why he's the most interesting... the video's here, but one of my favorite sites - The Collared Sheep - has the lyrics for us to enjoy here.

While I'm busy finishing up an internship and moving back to my regular small-town, very Southern life - not to mention getting over a recent not-so-pretty break-up - I'm not really overflowing with creative ideas for topics and posts this week. So instead, I thought I'd feature some of the recent stuff I've been reading on the Harvard Business Review's website...

• "A Deeper Kind of Joblessness" on Harvard Business Review - the current economic situation keeps finding its way into various psychological talks and debates. I was fortunate enough to attend a U.S. House subcommittee meeting on potential policy responses to long-term unemployment and one of the expert witnesses pushed Keynesian economics quite heavily... while he was not someone I took all that seriously (and hopefully not too many others did as well), this article actually manages to use economic arguments to persuade readers of the value of improving jobs and work for employees right now...
• "Why the Powerful Can Be So Rude" on HBR - while I was saddened by the passing of George Steinbrenner, at least as much as anyone, I found it somewhat surprising that in death his memory is completely free of much of the hallmark of his personality as a businessman - there is little mention of the fact that Steinbrenner would probably not be anyone's best friend nowadays, at least not based on his personality and treatment of others. But I was thrilled to see this article actually points out that Steinbrenner is NOT associated with much of the traits we currently link to good managers and leaders.
• "Millenials Won't Change Work; Work Will Change Millenials" on HBR - the title is catchy and I wish I could say that the arguments are somehow unique or eye opening, but ultimately, as much as I want to just agree with the author and not have to read another freakin' article about this topic and the generations at work, etc. (despite my interest in the topic, these articles manage to recycle a horrifyingly large amount of content), I'm not sure I'm convinced. The changes in work design and the employment relationship are too overwhelming and real to ignore and it's hard to say that it's not partially due to the rise of the millenial employee and the changes that shape both the millenial attitudes and the design of work... at least for me.
• "Getting Beyond Engagement to Creating Meaning at Work" on HBR - it's almost ridiculous to think about something so 'luxurious' as making meaning and finding a job that provides you with personal fulfillment in the context of the current economy, but it's still a topic that's interesting to me personally and should be to researchers too as the author wisely points out that even in the midst of dangerous and miserable working conditions, individuals can thrive and create meaning. I think the arguments here harken back to Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model, but I love that the idea of making meaning - this active process that employees can choose to engage in and take action to alter the quality of their own experiences - is making it to the workplace!

So if you have a few minutes, you might want to check those out... I thought they were interesting and made me think, even if it wasn't because I was discovering brilliant new ideas.