Latest Posts

The Dark Side of Leadership: Procrastination, Machiavellianism, and Self-Sabotage in the Workplace

Published by Trotzendorff

In the mod­ern work­place, lead­er­ship plays a piv­otal role in shap­ing both employ­ee behav­ior and orga­ni­za­tion­al cul­ture. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that not all lead­er­ship styles are equal­ly effec­tive or ben­e­fi­cial. Over the years, research has high­light­ed the dark­er side of lead­er­ship, focus­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly on the dam­ag­ing effects of abu­sive super­vi­sion. In this piece, I will delve into five stud­ies that explore the ways in which abu­sive super­vi­sion can trig­ger employ­ee pro­cras­ti­na­tion, unleash Machi­avel­lian behav­iors, and fuel self-sab­o­tage. Addi­tion­al­ly, I will inves­ti­gate how core self-eval­u­a­tions can influ­ence these behav­iors. Last­ly, I will pro­vide eight prac­ti­cal tips for man­agers and orga­ni­za­tions on pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive lead­er­ship styles and pre­vent­ing abu­sive super­vi­sion. Read More

The Bigger Your Team, the Lazier Your Employees?

Published by Trotzendorff

How does the size of a team impact indi­vid­ual per­for­mance? The Ringel­mann effect sug­gests that indi­vid­ual pro­duc­tiv­i­ty decreas­es as the size of a group increas­es, lead­ing some to assume that larg­er teams result in lazier employ­ees. In sim­ple terms, peo­ple tend to put in less effort when they work togeth­er in a large group com­pared to when they work alone or in small­er groups. But what are the under­ly­ing caus­es, and how can orga­ni­za­tions address them? Read More

Why Emotional Intelligence Doesn’t Exist — Or Does It?

Published by Trotzendorff

In a 2015 sur­vey, 72 per­cent of employ­ees ranked «respect­ful treat­ment of all employ­ees at all lev­els» as the top fac­tor in job sat­is­fac­tion. That’s no big sur­prise, but what exact­ly does it mean for orga­ni­za­tions and man­agers? One sim­ple answer could be: hire more employ­ees with a high Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence Quo­tient (EQ), enabling them to under­stand and man­age their own and oth­ers’ emo­tions. How­ev­er, mea­sur­ing EQ is not as straight­for­ward as it may seem, and the con­cept of Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence itself has been sub­ject to sci­en­tif­ic scruti­ny and crit­i­cism. Read More

The Mystery of Statistica: What the Owl Can Tell Us About an Enigmatic Paradox

Published by Trotzendorff

Once upon a time in the enchant­i­ng land of Sta­tis­ti­ca, there were two groups of ani­mals: the Crows and the Fox­es. The ani­mals in this land were known for their excep­tion­al skills in play­ing two very pop­u­lar games: Feath­erball and Fur­ball. The Crows and Fox­es loved to com­pete against each oth­er, and every year, they would gath­er to par­tic­i­pate in the Grand Sta­tis­ti­ca Tour­na­ment. Read More