There’s a natural state of heightened attention to the self when we know we’re being watched, Bernstein notes. “Our practiced response become better,” he told me, “our unpracticed responses become worse.” So actions that have been drilled by the boss may well turn out better when everyone believes the boss is watching. On the other hand, for behavior that isn’t already learned—where the best response needs unselfconscious focus on the problem, and the chance to try something new without fear—being watched makes things harder. Attention that could have gone to one’s actions goes, instead, to managing the appearance of one’s actions.
The “gospel of transparency” declares that this is not a problem, because workers should stick to management’s script. But in one vast Chinese factory that Bernstein studied, workers who craftily deviated from standard procedure often improved the plant’s productivity.
People act differently when they know they are being watched. Period. Whether you are talking about the workplace, out in public, at events, etc. and the way we behave when being watched is not always in the best interests of the company or society.
There are serious ramifications to this study, in and out of the workplace.
This headline seems obvious. If you have an employee who has set a goal of being promoted to the next level of your organization, you should be able to tell them what is required. Yet, in many companies, it’s not that easy. There could be several reasons for this, but these are the ones I’ve seen and heard in my years:
Our Facebook feeds are littered with articles, posts, and images from all types of people. For some of us, this is difficult to handle, so we edit out the ones we disagree with until our feed looks more like an echo board our of own thoughts.If we’re not careful, we’ll treat people this way. Editing out the…
Which, of course, brings us back to the original point about these kinds of jobs. You need to know people. Employers need to have employees who know people, as well as know people themselves, and job seekers need to have connections. The only way this works is if you get referrals, and you only get referrals through connections.Â
Whatever you choose to do, though, the next step needs to be doing everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again instead of breathing a sigh of relief that you got your data back and continuing business as usual. That would seem to be the common mistake here.
Don’t make that mistake.
Security pros, where do you fall on the debate on paying or not paying, and does this report change your thinking?
Yes, all of these electronics not being disposed of properly are a risk to the environment, and it turns out that the data on them might be a risk to all of us as well.
3 Alternatives to the Now-Defunct TrueCrypt for Your Encryption Needs tags: MM Security FitBit Data, Apple watches, what’s next in terms of possible evidence? | Smooth Transitions tags: LitSupport MM Location. Location. Location. tags: LitSupport MM Rule 34: As Basic As You Get tags: LitSupport MM The Internet of Things and E-Discovery tags: LitSupport MM…
