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IT’S A FUNNY OLD WORLD

by | Feb 28, 2020 | Articles, It's a funny old world | 0 comments

In this column, we provoke fresh thinking and round up some of the weird, wonderful, quirky, surprising – and shocking – stories out there

How cyber-savvy are you?

Tailoring training to employees’ personality types can help businesses improve cyber security, according to a global study.

Chartered psychologist John Hackston from The Myers-Briggs Company, asked more than 560 office employees from around the world about the type of place they worked in and their experiences of cyber security, and got them to complete personality questionnaires.

The study results suggest that different personality types were linked to different cyber security behaviours, such as how conscientious people were in following rules and how diligent people are in keeping passwords and devices secure.

For example, introverts were more likely than extraverts to agree that ‘no-one should put confidential business information in email, instant messenger (IM) or texts, as they may not be secure’.

Some 64% of people believed they had been subjected to a cyber-attack in the last year, and 15% believed they had experienced such an attack in the past week, according to the study. It also found men were more likely than women to report having experienced a recent cyber-attack.

Meanwhile, those working in the US were on average the highest on ‘conscientiously follows rules’, significantly more so than those working in India, who were the lowest.

The study was presented at the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, in January.

Adults’ play

We’re with the poet Michael Rosen and the British Psychological Society (BPS) – play is important. But not just for children.

Once we’ve left our childhoods behind and become working adults, things can get pretty serious. We can become more risk averse, and can be far too focused on getting results at work to set aside time to have a play. As coaches, however, we acknowledge the importance of play, of encouraging clients to experiment and try things out without worrying about what the outcome will be. We know it’s how we learn.

It seems tragic that the younger generations are increasingly being deprived of large chunks of playtime – playtime in schools has typically been reduced by 45 minutes a day in recent years.

Rosen has joined forces with the BPS to fight the erosion of playtime in UK schools, taking part in a video produced by the BPS, called ‘Right to play’. The video features primary school children from Luton and London talking about why play is important to them, intercut with insights from psychology research. It builds on the paper published recently by the BPS Division Educational and Child Psychology highlighting the importance of play to children, supporting their development and wellbeing.

As Rosen says in the video, “Play is not an add-on; it’s a fundamental human right.” For all of us, we say.

Chitter chatter

Just as play is important, so too is chatting with colleagues about non-work topics – it’s good for team performance and building relationships in teams. Yet all too often employees are discouraged from non-work focused conversation.

Lead researcher, Dr Antonia Dietmann, from Kingston University London, presented her research at the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology annual conference in January. She said chatting with colleagues about non-work topics, such as family and hobbies, is a simple way employees can build good working relationships with each other, but that office culture and some attitudes at work about the appropriateness of such ‘chit chat’ can mean they are not encouraged and even actively discouraged in work time.

The research looked at how much a designated workplace activity designed to get people chatting would improve relationships, overall job performance and also tackle some of those negative attitudes.

Some 125 office workers were split into two groups and completed questionnaires relating to their work relationships, team performance, and the acceptability of chatting at work.

The first group was given a conversation toolkit and told to chat with colleagues as much as possible over two weeks. The second group was asked to complete a network map of relationships at work, but were not given any instructions about chatting at work. After two weeks both groups completed another questionnaire.

The results showed that workers in both groups reported significant improvements in the quality of their working relationships, work performance, and acceptance of chatting over the two-week period. However, the changes for the second group were generally smaller.

Dr Dietmann said that, “Some organisations will be concerned about time wasting. Our study, and earlier research, shows that people don’t give up their whole day to non-work chats – they mainly talk about the job and tasks that need to be done. However, just being exposed to more social conversations at work makes people accept them more and see their value. Managers should embrace and encourage social conversations at work.”

 

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