Brain for Business

For all the latest from Brain for Business, follow us on Twitter: @brainforbiz We look forward to seeing you there!

Check out this podcast with Dr Marta Markey of Trinity College Dublin School of Law & Prof Linda Hogan of Trinity College Dublin with Laurence Knell talking about a human rights based approach to ethical AI.

Just out! Brain for Business #podcast Season 3 Episode 1 - Understanding how #memory really works, with Professor Gillian Murphy, University College Cork We tend to think of our #memories as impressions of the past that remain fully intact, preserved somewhere inside our brains. In fact, we construct and reconstruct our memories every time we attempt to recall them. A new book, Memory Lane, co-authored by our guest, Professor Gillian Murphy, introduces readers to the cutting-edge science of human memory, revealing how our recollections of the past are constantly adapting and changing, and why a faulty memory isn’t always a bad thing. The #podcast episode is available now via our website - https://lnkd.in/gMK9tXyd - and also on iTunes, Spotify and Substack - https://lnkd.in/eeJZCpcu! Among the key points discussed… ➡️ What is memory and why is it important? ➡️ Why do we sometimes forget and sometimes remember? ➡️ How reliable is memory? ➡️ How does emotion impact our memories? ➡️ Why do we build false memories? ➡️ How do flaws in our memories and false memories impact our behaviours? ➡️ In the world of smartphones and technology do we really need good memories or can we simply outsource memory? Memory Lane by Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy is available now from Princeton University Press... https://lnkd.in/eVdxCi-x About our guest… Gillian Murphy is an Associate Professor senior lecturer in the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork in Ireland and leads the Everyday Cognition Lab (https://lnkd.in/e3Kbr8Hh). Gillian’s research interests primarily relate to understanding attention and memory in everyday scenarios. She has conducted research examining distraction and attention failure in simulated driving environments and eyewitness memory for crimes.  Much of Gillian's recent research relates to misinformation - assessing who is most susceptible to misinformation, how and when do false memories form in response to misinformation, and developing interventions to reduce harm.

Coming soon... Series 3 of the Brain for Business #podcast will be live on 5th March with a great interview with Professor Gillian Murphy co-author of a new book on the science of #memory. Catch up with all the previous episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Substack or wherever you get your podcast fix! Links in comments

Thank you to Laurence Knell for inviting me to be a guest on his podcast Brain for Business. We discuss how callings can differ in their scope, the multiplicity of ways a calling can become a job, and why it’s okay to not have a calling - there are other paths to meaningful and enjoyable work. #podcast #calling #meaningfulwork

Series 2, Episode 47: How will #megatrends impact our future? With Dr Claire Naughtin, CSIRO's Data61 and the CSIRO Over four decades ago the American author and futurist, John Naisbitt, captured the public imagination with his book Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. Since that time, the concept has been widely adopted by researchers, consultants, private enterprises and governments to explore long-term futures across a diverse range of regions, industries and socioeconomic domains. Yet what are megatrends?  And how can we better understand their significance and impact? To explore this I am delighted to be joined on the Brain for Business #podcast by Dr Claire Naughtin. The podcast episode is available now via our website - https://lnkd.in/gMK9tXyd - and also on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Substack - https://lnkd.in/eeJZCpcu! Key takeaways… ➡ Megatrends can help us consolidate different changes and build out a series of chunks around the future, a series of clusters around where these different futures are taking us – and what we do with those insights ➡ Strategic foresight can allow us to bring a longer-term lens to strategic planning by thinking strategically and thinking long-term but building in that foresight component so that we're able to plan long-term over longer time horizons ➡ Megatrends can help us to access more nuanced conversations unpack  specific issues or opportunities that an organisation or a particular industry might be grappling with About our guest… Dr Claire Naughtin is a Principal Research Consultant at Data61 – part of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO, an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research.  Claire leads Data61’s Digital Futures team and specialises in future-focused, strategic projects and has worked across a diverse range of policy and industry domains, including the future of trade, employment, healthcare and emerging technology and industry development opportunities. Among her most recent work, Claire co-led the delivery of CSIRO’s Our Future World report – a once-in-a-decade report that identified seven emerging megatrends that will shape the next 20 years for Australia. ➡ You can find out more about Claire and her work on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/gYRmJS-P ➡ The “Our Future World” report can be accessed online: https://lnkd.in/gB2B6x9g ➡ Further information about Data61 and the CSIRO is available here: https://lnkd.in/gzEiBA88

Authentic, ethical, and servant leadership: Recipes for success or causal illusions?   On this topic, Laurence Knell and I have spoken on the most recent version of the “Brains for Business” podcast. The conversation is based on a paper I have co-authored with Joerg Dietz and John Antonakis. Here is the link to the podcast: https://lnkd.in/ddmGeGwB   Thank you, Laurence Knell, for producing the podcast. Your questions were not only spot-on, but also helped me to think more clearly about the practical relevance of our academic work. It was the kind of conversation that stimulated my learning. I hope you, the listeners, enjoy it too!   For those of you who want to read more about the problems of “positive leadership styles” (spoiler, we are not advocating to act as assholes but warn about building your leadership practice on academically popular but untenable work), here are further relevant articles that I have co-authored: - A thorough conceptual analysis of the problem: https://lnkd.in/dwtcq4jg - A hands-on analysis and guide for measuring leadership more rigorously: https://lnkd.in/dF5wWH9D - And the paper with the empirical evidence that I have spoken about in the podcast: https://lnkd.in/dbtjMCkD   Now it is enough self-promotion. At least for the moment 😉

Brain for Business #Podcast Series 2, Episode 46: Why #authentic, #ethical, and #servant #leadership, are not true representations of #leadershipbehaviors, with Professor Thomas Fischer, University of Geneva A recent paper in the journal Leadership Quarterly explores the very nature of #leadershipstyles and how they play out, ultimately asserting that... “the common finding that positive leadership styles lead to positive outcomes […] might be an artifact of conflation rather than a reflection of reality” Yet what are #positive leadership styles and why have generations of leadership researchers so badly misinterpreted their impact? Joining me on the Brain for Business podcast to discuss the findings of the paper is one of its co-authors, Professor Thomas Fischer of the University of Geneva. Key take-aways… ➡ Constructs and measures of positive leadership styles, such as authentic ethical and servant leadership, are not veridical representations of leadership behaviors. ➡ There is a tendency to conflate the description of behaviors with an evaluation of intent, effects, and quality of execution. ➡ Value alignment is a key driver of positive perceptions of a leader, rather than actual behaviors The #podcast episode is available now via our website - https://lnkd.in/gMK9tXyd - and also on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and elsewhere, and also now on Substack - https://lnkd.in/eeJZCpcu! About Thomas Fischer... Thomas Fischer is an Associate Professor at the University of Geneva and is the Yearly Review Editor of The Leadership Quarterly, the premier journal fully dedicated to leadership research. Thomas Fischer’s work focuses on managing people in organizations, and in particular on two topics. First, the conceptualization and measurement of leadership styles. Second, how people talk about their own leadership and whether their practice lives up to what they preach. Details of the articles discussed in the podcast are as follows: ➡ Fischer, T., Dietz, J., & Antonakis, J. (2024). A fatal flaw: Positive leadership style research creates causal illusions. The Leadership Quarterly, 101771. https://lnkd.in/eeTuEsAM ➡ Fischer, T. (2023). Measuring behaviors counterfactually. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(6), 101750. https://lnkd.in/eskmsKbs ➡ Fischer, T., & Sitkin, S. B. (2023). Leadership styles: A comprehensive assessment and way forward. Academy of Management Annals, 17(1), 331-372. https://lnkd.in/eeFfcHxE ➡ Alvesson, M., & Blom, M. (2022). The hegemonic ambiguity of big concepts in organization studies. Human Relations, 75(1), 58-86. https://lnkd.in/eUrSA5fz

Brain for Business #Podcast Series 2, Episode 45: How #ideology intersects with #media coverage, with Professor Georg Wernicke, HEC Paris A recent article in the journal Organization Science argues that... "Although prior research attributes news media coverage of firms to the alignment of firm behavior with societal expectations of appropriateness, the appropriateness of firm behavior is judged through an ideological lens. Therefore, the influence of a firm’s behavior on its news media coverage is likely to be contingent on news organizations’ ideology." The veracity of this statement has seemingly never been more true than in recent years when the news media has become increasingly polarised along ideological grounds and there would at times appear to be a news outlet to support any view, however mainstream or obscure. To explore this further I am delighted be joined by one of the co-authors of the paper, Professor Georg Wernicke of HEC Paris. Key takeaways: ➡ Companies seek to convey certain messages about their conduct, about their motives and reason for being ➡ In so doing, they try to convey a positive message about what they do and why they do certain things in order to improve a their overall reputation ➡ Why? Because employees usually are more motivated or identify more strongly with an organization that has a more positive reputation and working for a company that is usually well-perceived usually increases the motivation of workers to work for this company. The #podcast episode is available now via our website - https://lnkd.in/gMK9tXyd - and also on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and elsewhere, and also now on Substack - https://lnkd.in/eeJZCpcu! About our guest… Georg Wernicke is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Business Policy at HEC Paris. Georg Wernicke’s research is on topics in, and at the intersection of, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR), broadly defined. More specifically, he is interested in the drivers of public disapproval of firms’ practices, for example the compensation firms pay to their CEOs, how firms’ prosocial activities affect disapproval, and, in turn, which subset of firms and CEOs reacts to being targeted. Georg also analyzes how the characteristics and values of CEOs affect firm level outcomes such as corporate misconduct or the adoption of prosocial practices, as well as how demographic minority status affects labor-market outcomes for directors after occurrences of financial fraud. Furthermore, Georg engages in projects that explore the antecedents of superior firm performance on CSR. ▶ The article referenced in the discussion is available here: https://lnkd.in/eA-RPitk ▶ You can find out more about Georg and his work at his personal page: https://lnkd.in/eNJ2uYCW ▶ Or on his faculty page at HEC Paris: https://lnkd.in/eA9wsVjU

What is the hardest thing about #creativity? Not coming up with ideas. Rather, the hardest thing is dealing with the emotional ups and downs of the creative process. Although creators love their work in general, daily work is full of anxiety, frustration, and self-doubt. And coping with them requires skills in managing emotions. Jessica Hoffmann and I have good news: these skills can be learned #CreativityUnleashed #emotions #emotionalintelligence https://lnkd.in/e4sGumW7