news 2014

Researchers from The University of Queensland have found managers can increase productivity levels and prevent burnout by helping employees feel part of a group. The study also shows that leaders who create a shared sense of purpose and identity within their work teams can help improve employee health and wellbeing.

New Penn Medicine research has found that elevated levels in the blood of the brain-enriched protein calpain-cleaved 'II-spectrin N-terminal fragment, known as SNTF, shortly after sports-related concussion can predict the severity of post-concussion symptoms in professional athletes. The complete findings were released today in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Almost 31 million days of work were lost last year due to back, neck and muscle problems The University of Liverpool and the University of Southampton have announced a major new research centre to tackle the impact of musculoskeletal disorders on people's ability to work. Researchers at the £1.4m Arthritis Research UK/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal  Health and Work aim to find cost-effective ways of reducing the impact of conditions that affect the muscles, joints and bones on people's employment and productivity.

New research has discovered a highly sought-after byproduct of entitlement - creativity. The finding is outlined in the paper"Deserve and Diverge: Feeling Entitled Makes People More Creative,"by Emily Zitek of the ILR School and Vanderbilt University research scholar Lynne Vincent, Ph.D. '13. "In this research, we discovered that increased creativity is one positive consequence of increased state [of] entitlement," Zitek said.

A study led by Oxford University shows that, contrary to what is widely supposed, there has been no decline in social mobility in Britain over recent decades but rather than going up as in the past, more of us are moving down the social ladder. The study by Oxford University, with the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, is published in the early online issue of the British Journal of Sociology .

Enhancing and Embedding Staff Engagement in the NHS: Putting Theory into Practice The NHS has published today, 3 November 2014, a series of engagement guides and a toolkit on enhancing and embedding staff engagement, which stem from a research project led by Prof Katie Bailey. The project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, undertook a rapid review of the evidence-base relating to employee engagement.

Press release issued: 22 October 2014 Those who self-harm as teenagers are more at risk of developing mental health and substance misuse problems as adults, new research from the biggest study of its kind in the UK has revealed. Researchers at the University of Bristol, working together with colleagues from the University of Oxford and University College London, collected data from 4,799 adolescents as part of Children of the 90s - one of the world's largest population studies - to examine the outcomes of self-harm for the first time.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. The sports media's positive reaction to the hiring of a female referee in professional football is a good sign, according to a Penn State researcher, but did little to help expose deeper issues that hinder greater acceptance of women in sports. In a study of online stories and posts about the hiring of Shannon Eastin as an NFL official during the 2012 referee's union strike, Dunja Antunovic , a doctoral candidate in mass communications , said that the media mostly celebrated her NFL debut.

Gender diversity in the workplace helps firms be more productive, according to a new study co-authored by an MIT researcher - but it may also reduce satisfaction among employees. "Having a more diverse set of employees means you have a more diverse set of skills," says Sara Ellison, an MIT economist, which "could result in an office that functions better." At the same time, individual employees may prefer less diverse settings.

Country towns produce the biggest crop of footy stars 5 October 2014 The NRL grand final is shaping up as a Sydney city showdown, but new research from the University of Sydney confirms country footy clubs are the League's lifeline, and breed more professional Rugby League stars than the major cities.

An accent can affect an individual's evaluation and impact perceptions of competence, scholarly research tells us. But do negative assumptions based on accent translate to decision-making and behaviors? Beth Livingston, ILR School assistant professor of human resource studies, reports that "the workplace choices that employees encounter during the workday may all be influenced by the accented (or nonaccented) speech of those they interact with" in the paper, "Not What You Expected to Hear: Accented Messages and Their Effect on Choice," published July 15 in the Journal of Management.

Research by the University of Liverpool suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, it can be good to feel bad at work, whilst feeling good in the workplace can also lead to negative outcomes. In a Special Issue published in Human Relations , Dr Dirk Lindebaum from the University's Management School , together with his co-author Professor Peter Jordan, developed a new line of study, and commissioned research to further explore the role of emotions in the workplace.

Research shows that a mother's self-identity impacts on the amount of time her partner spends on childcare - with strong professional identity in women creating a more equal childcare balance in a couple. A father's self-identity, however, has no bearing on a mother's time with children.

University of Illinois anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy led a new study of sexual harassment and assault of men and women working on scientific field studies. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A survey of 142 men and 516 women with experience in field studies in anthropology, archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines reveals that many of them - particularly the younger ones - suffered or witnessed sexual harassment or sexual assault while at work in the field.

University of Illinois anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy led a new study of sexual harassment and assault of men and women working on scientific field studies. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A survey of 142 men and 516 women with experience in field studies in anthropology, archaeology, geology and other scientific disciplines reveals that many of them - particularly the younger ones - suffered or witnessed sexual harassment or sexual assault while at work in the field.

The Beatles' song A Hard Day's Night was released 50 years ago today. Its runaway success in the charts overlapped with a major sociological study of the newly-affluent working class that features in Lennon and McCartney's lyrics. Cambridge historian Dr Jon Lawrence discusses what this study reveals about perceptions of class identity in 1960s Britain.

On July 1, 1996, the law on equality became part of the Swiss Constitution. 18 years later, the balance sheet shows that many improvements are still to be made, especially in the world of work.

UM researcher and collaborators find that using a creaky, low pitch voice gives women a negative image. By Marie Guma-Diaz UM News CORAL GABLES, Fla. (May 29, 2014) — A form of speech known as vocal fry that is low in pitch and creaky sounding is increasingly common among young American women.

Work-family conflict is increasingly common among U.S. workers, with about 70 percent reporting struggles balancing work and non-work obligations. A new study by University of Minnesota sociologists Erin L. Kelly, Phyllis Moen, Wen Fan, and interdisciplinary collaborators from across the country, shows that workplaces can change to increase flexibility, provide more support from supervisors and reduce work-family conflict.

In what's thought to be the biggest review of academic literature into whether home care visits provide benefits for the elderly, researchers conclude there is 'no consistent evidence' to show they lead to the elderly living longer or having more independent lives than those without any visits.