Employees less productive when paid less

Like many people, I am a strong believer that employees are more productive when they're paid more. Now I found a solid number to back up this believe. In a new paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, (no online version yet), researcher Alexandre Mas (Univ. of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business) examined how police officers' productivity can be affected by how much money they're awarded in arbitration proceedings. Looking at compensation disputes involving New Jersey police unions, Mas found that when the officers' salary demands were met, the number of crimes they solved over the next two years was 12% higher than when they lost.

Why we don't like our bosses

Many employees complain about their boss being clueless on the dynamics of working environment. Now a new study shows that powerful individuals have a reduced ability to comprehend how others see, think and feel.

Researcher used a unique method in which the participants were told to draw the letter E on their forehead. If the participant wrote the E in a self-oriented direction, backwards to others, this indicated the participant have not thought or cared about how others might perceive the letter. On the other hand, when the E was written legible to others, this indicated that the person had thought about how others might perceive the letter. The results showed that those who had previously been randomly assigned to a high power group were almost 3 times more likely to draw a self-oriented E than those who were assigned to the low power condition.

In summary, researcher found that possessing power itself serves as an impediment to understanding the perspectives of others.

Corporate funded nutrition researches are biased

After examing 206 scientific papers on the health effects of soft drinks, fruit juice and milk (111 of which declared their funding source), researchers at Children's Hospital in Boston (US) found that industry-backed papers are 7 times more likely to produce a conclusion favoring a company's product. The reasons for the bias may include a failure to publish unfavorablele findings, or a tendency of firms to back only studies that are likely to present their products in a positive light.

Source: heard from radio station wbbm780 , Jan 9, 2007.

How do you discipline children ?

It is so hard to discipline children nowadays. We used many approaches: time-outs, removal of privileges, yelling and spanking. Sometimes they works, many time they don't, and we give up. In a survey of more than 2,000 parents of children between the ages of 2 and 11, researchers have found that more than 38% were using the same discipline methods their own parents used on them as a child. Overall, 45% of the parents using time-outs as a disciplinary action. Almost 42% removed their child's privileges, followed by 13% who resorted to yelling and 9% who opted to spank their children. Here is the bummer though- almost 31% of participants reported they believed their methods were not effective !

Everyone has a boss to deal with

1)when employees were pulled to pick New Year's resolution for their managers,

- 18% say 'deal with workplace conflicts faster'.

- 14% say 'be less of a micromanager'.

- 12% say 'recognize work well done'.

- 0% say 'plan events for building office morale'.

Source: Businessweek, Jan 3rd, 2007.

2) when asked to rate their managers, a study found that:

- 39% of workers said their supervisor failed to keep promises.
- 37% said their supervisor failed to give credit when due.

- 27% said their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.

How much does peer pressure do to us ?

People behave differently under the peer pressure. When our classmate, co-worker or spouse is particularly hard-working, dishonest or lazy, how do we behave? In a scarily detailed experiment, the productivity of supermarket worker were measured in the lens of 'Peer Effect'. In a supermarket, "a quick worker will tend to lighten the burden on their colleagues. That might encourage them to slack off, or it might encourage them to work harder". Research find that workers working close to someone who is 10% quicker (than average) will raise their own productivity by 1.7%.

Job burnout could boost the risk of illness

We all heared this already - the daily rigors of work, such as tight deadlines and long hours, can lead to job burnout, which then lead to an increase in rates of heart disease, flu virus, and high blood pressure. A recent study showed those who experienced job burnout were 1.8 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, in which a person's body becomes resistant to the sugar-regulating hormone called insulin.

Source: Psychosomatic Medicine, Nov. 2006.

Are entrepreneurs made or born ?

Typical entrepreneurs are restless, independent, have a tendency to be a loner, and extreme self confident. Like most human behaviors, entrepreneurial behavior can be traced to a complex interaction of innate, background, and environmental factors. But which factor is critical ? According to a recent survey, nearly 2/3 of entrepreneurs claim they were "inspired to start their own companies by their innate desire and determination, rather than by their education or work experience". So if this study can be further confirmed, we can say entrepreneurs are born, not made.

I must say we need to acknowledge and celebrate the inequality that has enabled many entrepreneurs making fortune, and at the same time enriched the lives of the rest of us.

U.S. population - there is less elbowroom

Sometime next month, Oct. 2006, the Census Bureau predicts, the U.S. population will top 300 million. That's nearly double the number of people who called this country home just 50 years ago. Experts see the population approaching 400 million by 2040.

Who need a vacation ?

Although average American gets a little less than 4 weeks of paid time off, including public holidays, compared with 7.9 weeks for Italians and 6.6 weeks for Britons, two surveys find 40% of Americans have no summer vacation plans, the highest in about three decades. The reasons? Some people have no paid vacations, others simple can't live without working.

The median hourly wage for American workers

"The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2% since 2003," reports the New York Times. "As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s."

See also this post.

How long do we commute to work ?

The average daily commute to work (one way) is 25.1 minutes in 2005, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau. The nation’s longest commute, at 39.6 minutes, is in the Vineland, N.J., metropolitan area, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. The New York area had the second-longest commute (34.2 minutes), and the Washington area was third (33.4 minutes).

Are marriage and science compatible for women?

Marriage has been shown to have an adverse impact on the careers of female scientists. Data from the National Science Foundation show Doctoral women scientists and engineers are far less likely than men to be married: 66% of women doctoral scientists and engineers are married, compared with 83% of men. Doctoral women are 2 times as likely as men never to have married or to be divorced.

Among those married, however, women are more likely to confront problems accommodating a two-career marriage--one reason being that they are twice as likely as men to have a spouse who works full-time. Add children to the mix, and the problem is compounded.

Effect of mood on employee performance

If harsh words from your spouse or a near-miss with some freeway creep have you fuming when you walk into the office, there's a good chance your bad mood will affect your work all day.
Conversely, if you walk in happy, odds are you'll stay that way, even if customers are mean to you, and you'll do better work.

We all know that the mode of employee affect their job performance. Here is a number to show for it - in a recent examination in an insurance company call center, researcher found that unhappy workers took 15% fewer calls than the average.

Source: usnews.com, August 28, 2006

How many people work for Wal-Mart ?

Wal-Mart employs 1.8 million associates worldwide and more than 1.3 million in the United States. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in both U.S. and Mexico.

How competitive are you ?

Recently, Business Week (Aug, 2006) commissioned a poll trying to get a pulse on the state of business competition in America. The results underscore just how driven managers in the U.S. really are. For example, 40% of 2,500 respondents (all managers and executives) check e-mail once a day or more while on vacation. Some 91% admit to going to the office on the weekend. And 22% even said they would fire a good friend to get ahead at work.

Judgment Pay

The annual salary of a U.S. federal district court judge is $165,000 - that's unchanged since 1993. Meanwhile, a 1st-year associate at a large law firm typically earns about $125,000. Since the 1960s, federal judge pay has declined 24% in real dollars, while the average worker's real pay increased 15%.

Source - Fortune, August, 2006

The origin of multi-tasking

People speak about 150 words/minute, but the average person can listen 400-500 words/minutes. This difference enable people to do some kind of multi-tasking (such as read while listening), although not many people are good at it.

Source: training manual from Creative Training Excellence Inc.

The Wal-Mart Effect

A group of Penn State agricultural economists find in (US) counties with new Wal-Mart stores, the usage of food-stamp is 100% higher. They blame Wal-Mart causing the collapse of mom-and-pop local business networks and low wages.
Source: Discover, August, 2006.

Stay-at-home dads

In the animal kingdom, as we know it, only 5-10% of species have stay-at-home dads. The scientists say the arrangement only works in a monogamy society. A recent study published in the journal Animal Behaviour has identified bat-eared fox as yet another such species - the women go off to work while the men stay home with the kids. Since these foxes eat insects, only females can process the insects into a food suitable for their young: milk. The male spend all of their time with their babies, they know having young with several mothers and trying to split time between defending all of the litters may end up with fewer offspring than investing everything in a single litter.