Academic-Capital

High performers are welcome in any business and people who consistently meet their performance objectives are likely to be promoted over those who do n’t. Some employees are so "driven" they spend every waking moment accomplishing their career goals and soon become budding stars . Is your best performer "driven" or is there something else going on ? Driven people are highly motivated and focused on their goals . They make compromises in their life to reach those goals . There are times when they make mistakes and make a wrong choice , but ultimately they continue on the right path . They believe that through persistence and hard work they can obtain what is important to them. Pathological workers may also show high drive toward their goals and similarly make mistakes . However , they also carry with them other traits such as hostility , risk-taking , deceitfulness, callousness,

Gifted individuals are untapped national treasures that represent what is best about society in the sense that they push human thought and performance to new levels. Unfortunately , our society has a difficult time identifying gifted individuals , challenging them, and encouraging them to perform at the highest levels. Identifying potentially giftedness in college students and placing them in a course designed around self-awareness of their unique talents can improve their performance and raise their confidence . Giftedness is a physiological and psychological difference that leads to higher levels of performance . The process of challenge , stress , disintegration, and reemergence is uncharted territory for many researchers. Theories have discussed the difficulties gifted individuals face in their over excitabilities (OE) and positive disintegration that leads to higher performance . Students may go through t

Action plans offer the opportunity help people think through the various challenges they face and apply some type of plan on how to overcome these difficulties. Whether discussing students, employees our yourself it is beneficial to consider the benefits of implementing action plans in a way that encourages greater insight by the person writing them. Insight sometimes leads to higher levels of performance. In my experience in labor relations and as a professor in business I find that performance issues may not be willful but are a result of a lack of experience or understanding. For example, in labor relations I have found attendance to be a major employer concern. Through the standard grievance process employees can promise to make it to work on time but without an action plan the problem isn't likely to be resolved soon. The same idea applies to students who consistently fail to turn their work by class deadlines. Each assignment they scramble for some excuse that will get th

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

By Dr Andree Swanson Another new year and guess what I received in the mail?  Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, 24-hour Fitness and a whole slew of advertisements that weigh in on (no pun intended) those people who believe in the power of the New Year’s Resolution.  While surfing Facebook, a family member posted that she had to park a mile away from the gym.  In a month, parking will return to normal. To affect change, you must change your behavior.  Norcross, Ratzin, and Payne (1989) conducted a study on 213 adults who made New Year’s resolutions.  “Successful resolvers were also found to report employing significantly more behavioral strategies and less self-blame and wishful thinking than unsuccessful resolvers” (Norcross, Ratzin, & Payne, 1989, Abstract). Consider creating a vision board, instead of making New Year’s resolutions.  This is not only fun to make, but can be a constant reminder of your focus for the year.  (I used to do this on a large post-it note

Priming is a concept that entails embedding a concept into the human subconscious in an effort to alter behavior. Dr. Minas, Dr. Bhagwatwar, and Dr. Dennis from the University of Indiana have studied priming on a group to improve business communication and creativity on a group level (2013). They used computer simulated games to provide neural priming and then test creativity and ideation thereafter and found that there was a high correlation between the two.  Organizations often seek to create higher levels of creativity and innovation to produce new products and services for market. Some are searching methods for using online communication methods in order to develop a stronger level of communication performance. This can help in everything from workplace productivity to effective marketing methods. If online communication can influence behavior the overall financial and social benefits are large.  Our subconscious cognition influences our online behavior.   The use of pr