Leadership & management

As employees spend an ever-growing proportion of their time in teams at the workplace, companies and psychologists the world over have long been trying to decode the ideal mix of individual qualifications and group traits that make those teams operate as optimally as possible.

Myth: Bigger is always better. In fact, bigger is frequently more bureaucratic and complex.

Studies have shown that when people feel ambivalent and don’t know why, they’re prone to poor decisions. In a rush to end the discomfort of ambivalence, they fall back on biased assumptions, misinterpret facts or get sidetracked by irrelevant issues.

Darden Professor Luca Cian’s research shows that when a static image implies movement, it’s more likely make an observer inclined to act.

Darden Dean Scott C. Beardsley interviews alumna Carolyn Miles (MBA ’88), president and CEO of Save the Children. They discuss the protracted crisis in Syria, the successful partnership that facilitated the training of 34,000 community health workers in Ethiopia and why inspiring people is key to effective leadership.

Leaders communicate their expectations and priorities not only through words, but through their presence and actions. In short, a leader’s credibility and reputation can depend a great deal on how — and how much — he or she embodies the message.

The demands of today can seem more pressing than the plans for tomorrow. The size and shape of the forest can be lost behind the trees directly ahead. But for employers looking to increase engagement, it is important to think about the future.

How do people respond to social identity threats — circumstances under which people think they may be devalued simply because of their social identity (ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation) or membership in a particular group?

Darden Dean Scott C. Beardsley interviews Peter Brabeck, chair of Nestlé.