Category: How we work
The Burnout Epidemic
“Working a job that we feel offers value to the world or that we feel we offer value to is key to avoiding burnout and having a healthy relationship with our work more generally. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology found that when employees feel like they fit well with their organisation and their specific role, they’re less likely to experience burnout.”
Harnessing Data to Fuel Employee Empowerment
“Analysing data such as customer satisfaction scores has been increasingly embraced with more old school metrics such as exit interviews becoming less common. By analysing and examining key metrics such as customer satisfaction scores and revenue, organisations can make more informed decisions on product development and resource allocation.”
Management in Times of Global Conflict
“Leaders – even experienced leaders – have not had to deal with the level (and variety) of problems currently facing the world. On top of the conflicts and political unrest, which impact everything from supply chains to employee morale, there have been shifts in the level of engagement businesses are expected to make regarding social issues. Not engaging, or engaging in the wrong way, can quickly prove damaging, maybe even fatal, as many businesses have found out the hard way.”
Managing an Ageing Workforce
“A multigenerational office dynamic leaves companies best placed to succeed, with older employees working in tandem with younger ones, each bringing their specific skills to the table while learning off one another. And for all the talk of differences between the generations, their values have actually been found to co-align.”
Embracing Ambiguity: Leadership in the Liminal Space
“Leaders importantly must lead by example and embrace change demonstrating adaptability and resilience. By doing so this can encourage others to emulate this behaviour and may even prompt them to mirror their actions. Leaders can adapt to this period by highlighting and affirming to employees what will remain concrete and identifying the potential in what can be transformed to drive organisational change.”
Should Brands Weigh in on Social Issues?
“Over the past decade, it’s become not just acceptable but expected that major brands will weigh in on the issue of the day. From Black Lives Matter to #MeToo through issues around gender identity and abortion, consumers wanted to know they were not giving their hard-earned cash to enterprises they deemed to be against their principles. For their part, brands were happy to play along, appeasing consumer desires and sometimes outright cashing in on them. All that changed on October 7th.”
The EU AI Act: What you Need to Know
“The EU AI Act seeks to set a definitive definition of AI that is also broad enough to cover the diversity of AI’s current use-points and any potential future developments. As such, drawing from the OECD’s definition, the act describes an AI system as: “a machine-based system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.””
Crafting Success: Strategic Management in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
“SMEs rely on strategy to survive and grow the business whilst larger corporations draw on their strategies to maintain market dominance and enhance operations. SME’s account for 99% of active enterprises and 70% of employment in Ireland. The external environment for SMEs is rapidly evolving due to globalisation and technological changes. This advancement is intensifying competition among SMEs. Given these changes, a critical question emerges: what is the significance of strategy for SMEs in this competitive landscape?”
The Ethical Minefield of Artificial Intelligence
“Put simply, how to implement artificial intelligence in an ethical manner currently poses more questions than answers, with disagreements over the necessary direction of travel growing increasingly heated. How to handle data privacy, discrimination, deepfake technology, job losses and the environmental impact are all problems in need of solutions.”
Banduras Social Cognitive Theory
“Businesses can leverage the elements of Banduras Social Cognitive Theory by fostering a culture of mentorship and encouraging employees to use their initiative. This creates a healthy environment for employees to observe and improve skill acquisition and knowledge transfer.”
Surrounding Yourself with the Right People
“Mentors are the ultimate method of surrounding yourselves with the right people. Mentors can provide motivation, direction, coaching, training and advice. Are there people you admire in your chosen field? Reach out to them. It may be bold but boldness is often rewarded.”
Employee Retention: the Hows and Whys
“Managers need help with three things. First, in helping shift the focus of career conversation from promotion to progression, including allowing employees to develop in different directions. Two, in creating a culture and structure that supports career experiments. Three, in shifting the focus from retaining employees in their specific team, to retaining employees in their entire organisation.”
