Category: How we work
The Fragility of Global Supply Chains, and What Comes Next
“You wait half an hour for a bus and then two show up at once. So the saying goes, anyway. Well, for global supply chains, the saying can be amended to: you wait decades for debilitating geopolitical events (or farcical bad luck) to put established supply chains in jeopardy and then four come along at once. It’s not catchy, but it is accurate.”
Pioneering Change : A Case Study of Jeff Bezos Transformational Leadership at Amazon
“Bezos’s transformative leadership has undeniably established a new paradigm in business, demonstrating how a leader’s vision can lead to unprecedented success. However, the complexity and scale of Amazon have revealed that such a leadership approach may have limitations, particularly in ensuring ethical labour practices across all levels of the organisation. As Amazon continues to grow, the balance between innovation and the ethical treatment of employees remains a pivotal area for leadership attention.”
NIS2: What Companies Need to Know
“The EU’s Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2) is scheduled to come into effect across member states on October 18th, 2024. Businesses that fail to put the right measures in place by that date are at risk of facing serious regulatory problems, including the potential suspension of C-suite executives and fines of up to €10 million.”
How to Approach a Career Pivot
“According to the US Department of Labor, the average person will change careers 5-7 times during their working life. Approximately 30% of the total workforce will change jobs every 12 months”
Tracing Coffee’s Path from Origin to Office Ritual
“Google is a primary example of an organisation who have employed baristas serving high quality coffee for their employees marking their awareness of both the physical and psychological effect of provision of coffee for their employees.”
Building A Resilient Workforce : The Power of A Growth Mindset
“Developing a workforce characterised by a strong growth mindset, resilience, and determination can be achieved through strategic use of reward systems and effective management. One key area which can contribute to employee’s intrinsic motivation is praise.”
What is the State of Workplace Loyalty in 2024?
“Employees may be uncertain as to how loyal they should be to their company given the ever-changing landscape and the potential drawbacks of over-investing themselves. But employers will always want loyal employees…So how can employers work to earn loyalty from their staff?”
The Dangers of Playing it Safe
“To stop playing it safe, companies need to reassess their relationship with risk. Of course risk can bring failure. (As we’ve established, playing it safe can too.) But those failures don’t need to be failures. Through a shift in mindset, they can instead be viewed as opportunities for learning.”
Cultivating Quality Relationships through Leader-Member Exchange
“Leader Member Exchange (LMX) is a theory which focuses on the quality of the relationship between superior (leader) and subordinate (employee). The theory supports an ingroup, midgroup and outgroup. Employees within the ingroup may experience higher levels of LMX which is linked to increased confidence and positive relations; whilst outgroup interactions are characterised by low trust and minimal support.”
The Unsolvable Problem of AI Safety
“Given that AI is not explainable, it is in turn necessarily unpredictable –– how can you predict the actions of something you don’t (and can’t) understand? As is already the case with black box AI, the term used to describe AI models that arrive at conclusions or decisions without providing any explanations as to how they were reached, we will be in the dark as to how AI achieved its aims and what it might do to achieve future ones.”
Combatting Cybersecurity Risks
“Cybercrime is on the rise. Technological advancements paired with geopolitical instability have contributed to an increasingly fractious security environment. The cost of a cybercrime attack –– financially and reputationally –– can devastate a business. As such, greater precautions need to be taken. Businesses must decide whether they’re going to invest in their in-house cybersecurity unit or offset the duty to a third-party.”
How Does Smartphone Use Impact the Workplace?
“It’s not just teenagers who are hooked on their smartphones. In a 2022 Gallup poll, nearly 60% of Americans said they used their phones too often. Meanwhile, people in Ireland spend an average of 4.5 hours on their phone a day. Only 10% of that time is spent talking to someone in a phone conversation. The rest is given over to scrolling. A lot of that scrolling takes place at work.”
