Over the years, numerous studies have reported that female managers score better than male managers in the areas of empathy, communication and collaboration. Now, recent research conducted by Prof. Katleen De Stobbeleir and researcher Céline Claus of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School shows that they score better for coaching, stakeholder management, handling diversity and results-orientation as well.
Every manager demonstrates a unique set of qualities, skills and values through their behaviour. But certain common factors have a bearing on how effectively they manage themselves and their subordinates. These are the findings of researchers at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School in Flanders, after undertaking a study of how cognitive style influences managerial behaviour, specifically around decision-making, conflict-handling and feedback.
Entrepreneurs may exhibit common characteristics and cognitive styles. But are they unique? And can they be learned? A new study provides employers and investors with fresh perspectives.
The world needs leaders that offer solutions to transcend the many financial, political and environmental problems that we are facing. Sadly, such leaders are few and far between. But fortunately there is hope: Beyondership.
How might compatibility between cognitive style and cognitive climate influence individual job satisfaction and loyalty to employers? A study by researchers at Vlerick Gent Management School shows that employees with a creating-oriented cognitive style (typically intuitive and receptive to change or new ideas) are more likely to want to change jobs if they find the predominantly cognitive climate not to their liking. But those with a knowing-oriented style (logical and objective) or planning-oriented style (structured and orderly) are less likely to make a dash for it. However, cognitive style and cognitive climate appear to have separate influences on people’s attitudes to their work – which means that, regardless of the predominance of one climate over another, understanding those relationships is essential for job design, selection, assessment, training and workforce planning.
It can no longer be denied that we will have to work longer to keep the social security system affordable. But how can we boost older employees' ability to continue in a rewarding job until they do finally retire? The fact that training plays a crucial part here is no revelation. The training does, however, often fail in its purpose because it is not adapted to the specific expectations and needs of this target group. This has become apparent from research conducted by Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School together with the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue and the European Social Fund (ESF) into specific training expectations among the over-45s. The most important conclusions? To ensure a good mix of ages, to focus on their strengths instead of what they cannot (any longer) do, and to make use of their high motivation to learn more skills.
A maintenance company whose staff provide day and night coverage for airlines on a complex flight schedule needs to keep its labour costs down without alienating unions yet remain flexible enough to cover for the unexpected. Time to call in an algorithm. This project, explained in the paper “Improving Workforce Scheduling of Aircraft Line Maintenance at Sabena Technics”, demonstrates the potential for optimization programming taking in diverse demand and supply variables to solve complex scheduling problems.
You trust the people you work for, you’re proud of what you do, and you enjoy the people you work with. Sounds like a great place to work? Well, in fact, that’s the Great Place to Work® Institute’s definition of a great workplace. You’re most likely familiar with the ‘Best Employer Award’, which recognises national and international organisations and provides insights into employee satisfaction with their workplace. In Belgium, the Best Employer title is determined by a large-scale study to identify employers that make their personnel management central to their company policies. This study is conducted each year by our People & Organisation Competence Centre.
In today’s dynamic workplace employees are expected to be proactive - seeking feedback, taking the initiative, selling ideas, taking charge, revising tasks and building social networks. But a new study shows that some employees may, in fact, pay a price for sticking their head above the parapet if they are not known to be top performers.
The Vlerick Centre for Excellence in People Performance has published a practical guide to managing employee performance called 'The Performance Generator'. This toolkit is full of questionnaires, frameworks and exercises – all developed from extensive research conducted over the past several years. How do you strengthen the capabilities that are so vital to managing people and performance? The Performance Generator provides tools to support people managers in developing these abilities. This article zooms in on the 5 skills crucial to generating employee energy.