See on Scoop.it – personnel psychology

When the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago asked which jobs made
people happiest, most of the top-10 occupations involved creating a product, engaging the senses, or helping others.

 

Only two involved fondling a MacBook…

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See on Scoop.it – personnel psychology

Productivity and efficiency depend on your ability to focus on one activity at a time. Focusing is thinking about the task or activity you’re doing while you’re doing it. Focused concentration results in high levels of productivity. Multitasking, on the other hand, leads to low levels of productivity.

 

When you’re talking on the phone and typing an email, are you truly doing two things at the same time?No, that’s impossible. Instead of engaging in two tasks at the same time, your mind is rapidly switching back and forth between both tasks, and neither task is receiving your full attention.

 

Have you ever had to stop in the middle of a conversation and say, “I’m sorry, what was that you said?” If so, you were experiencing one of the negative effects of multitasking—not being effective at either task.

 

If you work in a hectic environment and don’t have the ability to close your door, or if you are a cubicle dweller working in the chaos of the modern office environment, you probably multitask more than you might imagine.

 

If you find you have accomplished only a mere fraction of what you had planned to do by the end of the day, chances are you are multitasking and allowing too many interruptions.

 

A study was performed at two West Coast high-tech firms to note how many times employees were interrupted. Each time a worker was distracted from a task, it would take an average of 16 minutes to return to that task. Even worse, some people forgot what they had been working on. As this study shows, interruptions wreak havoc on short-term memory.

 

The next time you’re focused and working on a task, and an email pops up or the phone rings, ask yourself, “How much more time do I need to finish this task before allowing an interruption? Is it more productive to keep working or should I allow myself to be interrupted?”

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See on Scoop.it – personnel psychology

Go on, have a few days off. Take a week – you’ve certainly earned it! Clear your mind, take a break – things will tick over til you return…

Easier said than done, of course. But respites from work are valuable, replenishing resources and preventing negative loads (mental fatigue, adrenaline build-up) spiralling out of control. Sadly, the positive gloss of the holiday itself tends to slip quickly when we return to work – a ‘fade-out effect’ described well in this Psychologist article. What makes you more likely to fall prey to the fade-out? The quest for perfection, new research suggests.

See on bps-occupational-digest.blogspot.gr

See on Scoop.it – personnel psychology

Imagine the following situation: Your secretary knows you have an important meeting coming up and, without any prompting, prepares a file for you with all the documentation you need, anticipating that you may otherwise forget something. Or, think of a customer service employee in your firm who takes the initiative to suggest changing a standard administrative procedure so it can be done more efficiently and will cost the firm less. Or, consider employees asking their supervisor for feedback about their performance as they want to improve the quality of their work. These scenarios share a common theme: the employees try to anticipate future changes, opportunities or problems and want to prepare for those by taking action today. They are not simply reacting to cues from the environment, but proactively trying to make a difference. In the organisational psychological literature, such anticipatory (‘acting in advance’), self-initiated and change-oriented (‘making a difference’) behaviour is labelled proactive behaviour.

See on www.thepsychologist.org.uk

See on Scoop.it – personnel psychology

Why do some get more out of training than others? One major factor is motivation, leading to such outcomes as greater skill acquisition, higher post-training confidence, and stronger intentions to apply the learning in the workplace. Trainers and researchers now understand ways to act on this, enhancing motivation by giving participants more control over the procedures of training and a choice in whether to participate in the first place. What else could help? Many models suggest that intrinsic motivation is facilitated by autonomy: the sense that you’ve chosen to be where you are, or do what you are doing. A recent study provides evidence that having a job that you chose to be in is linked, through motivation, to positive training outcomes.

See on bps-occupational-digest.blogspot.gr