Academic-Capital

Organizations can be regarded as a system of relationships between individuals. Social exchange theory (e.g. Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005) provides a general framework to understand these relationships, arguing that positive interactions are likely to increase cooperation among individuals in organizations. While there is much information about how cooperative relationships evolve, far less is known about how these relationships affect each other. Now, taking into account that employees have multiple relationships as they are dealing with coworkers and with supervisors, the question is whether cooperation in one direction may affect cooperation in the other.  From an organizational perspective, career systems may be viewed as a means to create cooperative relationships with employees. At the same time, however, they can reduce cooperation among coworkers as they will compete for higher positions. This mechanism was found in a study among Dutch organizations: the more satisfied emp

Is fitness and health exclusively about exercise? Certainly one can make that argument but they often forget about other aspects of one’s life that lead to greater fitness and health. If a person jumps on the treadmill for a half hour a day they will not magically get in great shape.   Those that fail to make a connection to other needed life adjustments are unlikely to achieve their full potential. The reason? – Limited perspective that results in ignoring contributing components to improved fitness. Fitness and health is as much a lifestyle change as it is engaging in new activities. It requires adjustments in Food & Diet, Fitness Routine, Motivation & Habit, Self-Image, and Nutrition & Fitness Knowledge.   To encourage success in your endeavors you should consider how each aspect of your health impacts your chances of success: Food & Diet: What we eat will have an impact on our overall health. High fat and calorie laden food will continue to add to yo

Art Work: Dr. Murad Abel Motivation is an important tool for achieving goals. Motivation is not an all or nothing thing and different people show motivation in varying ways. Some employees will be motivated in a few tasks and others may not show any motivation whatsoever. A paper by Coget (2011) reviews managerial motivation in the fostering of employee motivation to adopt new technology and skills that service their customers better.  It should be understood that adopting new technology and learning new skills can be difficult for employees. To master a new system or serve customers better requires employees who want to learn these new skills and are willing to move through initial frustration to gain mastery. When managers help employees by modeling motivated behavior they can raise motivation levels in their employees.  In the case of technology adaptation, those managers who modeled the adaptation and use of technology found that their employees were motivated to d

Subconscious goals = how we see the world. As competition between products and services rises, marketers seek new methods of promoting products beyond the cultural borders that often limit sales potential. The paper by Woodside and Brasel (2011) provides an overview of unconscious branding as well as its four major methodological approaches.  Understanding what researchers have already found and where large gaps in the literature exists help in highlighting the need for additional research. Unconscious marketing deals greatly with the concept of behavior, action and beliefs (BAB) toward products. At its core is the belief that behavior proceeds action, which in term fosters particular beliefs in products ( Wilson, 2002). Thus, most thinking is on an unconscious level and behavior typically occurs before conscious thinking. If so, marketing can be effective at an unconscious level. To understand the unconscious it is often beneficial to see an example in ancient history. W

Friedrick August Hayek was an Austrian and later British economist and philosopher. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on a theory of money and economic fluctuations that tied in an analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena.   He was a lead 20 th century thinker that contributed to economics, systems, neuroscience, jurisprudence and history of ideas. It was these multiple vantage points of seeing the nature of society and its economic system that led to one of his most influential works Road to Serfdom.  In his work the Road to Serfdom he argues the main points that the loss of individualism also means the loss of liberty, oppression, and the eventual serfdom of people. His argument is that as governments centralize their power they also create limitations on people to develop their economic abilities for the betterment of the nation. Even though centralization has good intentions it eventually limi