Work 4.0 [006]

OrgOS SKILLSHARE

Autonomy + Alignment in MVS [Minimum Viable Structure]

*A clip from the Work 4.0 episode w/ Mark Cruth

NEWS STORIES FOR LEADERS

• Apple Releases First Batch of Apple Intelligence Features

• Alphabet Topped Wall Street’s Expectations 

• New Innovation: Decoding Brain Activity into Smooth Video

• HBR: We’re Still Lonely At Work

• HBR: Should Your Business Take a Stand on Societal Issues

• Harvard Students Hack Meta Glasses — Show Privacy Risks

• Bosses Are Calling Workers Back to the Office. That’s Good News for Landlords. 

• No, Return-to-Office Mandates Don’t Help Companies Make More Money

SPOTLIGHTS

Research:
Being an A**hole Doesn’t Make People Work Better
Zhong, R., Yao, J., Wang, Y., Lyubykh, Z., & Robinson, S. L. (2024)

The Meta-Analysis Details
- 471 studies reviewed
- Evaluating 149,000 people
- Across 36 countries

The Findings
In aggressive workplaces, we do poorer work, collaborate less, and disengage more. Incivility erodes trust, diminishes confidence and motivation, and breeds resentment.

The best way to empower performance is to build trust and show respect.

Bonus Details: The Five Factors
Five mechanisms help explain why workplace aggression affects performance:

1. Relationship Quality: Aggression erodes the trust, support, and belonging employees feel in their relationships at work, leading to lower task performance and citizenship behavior.

2. Justice Perception: Experiencing aggression can make employees feel unjustly treated, which may lead them to withdraw or act out.

3. Psychological Strain: Aggression causes stress that depletes resources, diminishing focus and productivity.

4. Negative Affect: Aggression triggers negative emotions (e.g., anger) that distract and disrupt effective action.

5. State Self-Evaluation: Aggression lowers employees' self-esteem and confidence, leading to reduced engagement and more negative behavior.

The study found relationship quality and state self-evaluation to be the strongest predictors of performance outcomes. This means that aggression impacts productivity and positive behaviors most heavily through damaged workplace relationships and a decrease in employees' self-worth.

Research: Study finds hybrid work benefits companies and employees
By Nick Bloom, Ruobing Han, & James Liang

Who?
<sub>Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economist and one of the foremost researchers on work-from-home policies.

What?</sub>
In a study, newly published in the journal Nature, of an experiment on more than 1,600 workers at Trip.com – a Chinese company that is one of the world’s largest online travel agencies – Bloom finds that employees who work from home for two days a week are just as productive and as likely to be promoted as their fully office-based peers.

On a third key measure, employee turnover, the results were also encouraging. Resignations fell by 33% among workers who shifted from working full-time in the office to a hybrid schedule. Women, non-managers, and employees with long commutes were the least likely to quit their jobs when their treks to the office were cut to three days a week. Trip.com estimates that reduced attrition saved the company millions of dollars. 

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: UPFLEX

Upflex is a powerful all-in-one platform bringing together workspace booking, management, and insights, so businesses and their employees can use only what they need and adapt as their needs change.

MATTERMOVERS: 🔥 3 Upgrades for the Future of Work 

Ben Arendt | Helping Managers Suck Less

🗝️ Micromanagement as a Signal of Broken Systems → “Micromanagement is often a shorthand for putting the time and effort up front to convey to somebody, ‘This is what you, as a member of my team, need to do.’ A lot of the time, micromanagement happens because managers haven’t identified what they’re trying to achieve in a way that’s clear for the team.”

🗝️ Self-Awareness → “If someone asks me, ‘What’s the main thing I need to know to suck less as a manager?’ I’d say, ‘Be self-aware.’ Start thinking about where you’re okay and where you could improve. Being open to that conversation with yourself and others is a powerful first step.”

🗝️ Career Path Flexibility → “I’m increasingly suggesting companies create alternative career paths where you don’t necessarily have to lead people to move up. For some people, success means helping others succeed, while others thrive as individual contributors. Forcing everyone into management roles is a recipe for disaster.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

• On November 14th we’re hosting an invite only event in Manhattan on Bringing Work Back to Life: Redefining Leadership in the Age of AI from 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM. Click here for more information

• Join us every Wednesday @ 3:30pm ET as Matt and Sydney host a Work 4.0 LinkedIn Live Series with people leaders, researchers, trainers, and consultants calling in live from the trenches