Insights Newsletter Archive

Extremism's roots, Blaming capitalism, Biased decisions

08 Aug 2022

The Tangled Roots That Sprout Tribalism and Extremism

AOM scholars detail possible negative consequences of people strongly identifying with their leaders, teams, and organizations. Resulting behaviors can hurt the individuals themselves, their organizations, and even society.

Waning Trust in Capitalism Should Change Firms’ Strategies

As people around the world increasingly blame capitalism for social problems such as climate change, poverty, and corruption, an Academy of Management Perspectives article explains why capitalism is not the culprit, and what managers and business leaders can do to regain trust..

Why Avoiding Biased Decisions Can Be so Difficult

Decision-makers typically take pride in being fair and transparent. But depending on accountability patterns, decision-makers often regret suppressing their own biases, then consistently follow their biases in subsequent decisions, AOM scholars reveal.

Avoiding Catastrophic Organizational Errors

“We never really know all of the forces at play or their potential correlations and learn only after observing the result—and sometimes then it is too late," an AOM scholar says.

Perfectionist Bosses Spur Employee Creativity and Exhaustion

The impossible-to-please boss who always finds fault with your work might actually be inspiring you. But just how much inspiration depends on your personality.

Power Doesn’t Protect Women Who Raise Ethical Concerns

Fear of retaliation leads many workers to stay silent when something goes wrong. While managers have typically thought of retaliation as something that affects only lower-level workers, an Academy of Management Journal article describes how higher levels of power do not protect women from retaliation as well as they protect men..

The Benefits of Asking Questions and Really Listening

New Infographics

New Video: Do Personalities Change at Work? Of Course

Mention Black Swans and many people think of surprising events with world-changing consequences, like the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine. This two-part special issue of Academy of Management Perspectives, conceived in 2018, focuses on world-changing events and their consequences for managers and business leaders. Unexpected shocks are often products of people’s activities and organizations’ choices, making them not quite so unexpected. The pandemic, which struck as this special issue was being developed, has revealed what we got right and wrong in our thinking about such events. The full special issue, which will be free access through AOM's 82nd Annual Meeting Aug. 4–10, covers subjects including:

How teams might work in a zombie apocalypse
Organized violence during social strife
Pandemics and antibiotic resistance
The global refugee crisis
Fear of megacatastrophes among would-be entrepreneurs
How research fails to connect capitalism and climate change
Historical signs of our civilization’s collapse
Corporate foresight strategies
A post–COVID–19 world

"They hover over your shoulder, or send you a Slack every 10 minutes to ask about the report that’s not due until next week. They’re a screamer, a bully, an expert at lodging passive-aggressive jabs, generally in front of all your colleagues. Or maybe they’ve just ghosted you, leaving you to figure out the new gig on your own. As long as there’s been work, there have been people who make it miserable for those underneath them," according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "A Survival Guide for Dealing With a Bad Boss."

Here's a sample of AOM research findings about the ubiquitous bad boss: