How does body weight and size affect the perceived persuasiveness of ‘leaders’ (when the ‘leader’ is a man) ? This question has recently been examined by three professors from the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, US. Professor Kevin Kniffin and Professor Vicki Bogan, along with faculty colleague Professor David Just (also now at […]
Tag: office
Smelly people in the office [podcast #78]
Smelly people in the smelly workplace — that’s the dilemma and joy of this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams — with dramatic readings by FYFD fluid dynamicist Nicole Sharp — tells about: Hugging and what it means, maybe — “Smell Organization: Bodies and Corporeal Porosity in Office Work,” Kathleen Riach […]
Smelling bodies at the office (corporeal porosity)
As Dr. David Abram wrote in his 1996 book ‘The Spell of the Sensuous’ : “[…] the boundaries of a living body are open and indeterminate: more like membranes than barriers … so that it is very difficult to discern, at any moment, precisely where this living body begins and where it ends.” Such indeterminacies […]
Reducing Toilet Flush Noise in Adjacent Offices
The science of acoustics offers many challenges, some of which relate to toilets. For example: “An experience reducing toilet flushing noise reaching adjacent offices,” Noral D. Stewart [pictured here] (Stewart Acoustical Consultants, Raleigh, NC), Acoustical Society of America – 161st Meeting Lay Language Papers, Presented Thursday afternoon, May 26, 2011, 161st ASA Meeting, Seattle, Washington, […]
Festive Headgear in Organizational Contexts
For the first time, a scholarly study has investigated the effects (in an organizational context) of not just one – but four – types of festive headgear. Dr. Ann Rippin who is a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, UK, in the Department of Management, authored a paper for the journal Organization in 2011. […]
Humor in The Office Is a Funny Thing to Assess
Watching the clip above, featuring David Brent (a.k.a. Ricky Gervais) formerly the manager of The Office (UK original series), you might ask yourself the question ‘Is management humor an asset or liability?’ Not such an easy question to answer – in fact, a recent academic paper on the subject, Management humor : asset or liability? […]
Recycing: office-to-loo converter
Investigator Ura Daniels recommends this DigInfo News report: At Eco-Products 2009, Oriental Co., Ltd. exhibited a revolutionary recycling machine called White Goat, which makes toilet paper from shredded paper. White Goat also has a shredding machine in it…. The dry paper is wound into finished toilet rolls, which emerge from the outlet one at a […]