Workers who love ‘synergizing paradigms’ might be bad at their jobs
Employees who are impressed with corporate jargon are less good at their jobs. News at 11.
[Kate Blackwood in Cornell Chronicle]
The results of this study into corporate BS isn’t going to surprise anyone who’s spent much time in an office. The researchers generated meaningless corporate gobbledegook and tested how workers rated its business-savviness.
“Workers who were more susceptible to corporate BS rated their supervisors as more charismatic and “visionary,” but also displayed lower scores on a portion of the study that tested analytic thinking, cognitive reflection and fluid intelligence. Those more receptive to corporate BS also scored significantly worse on a test of effective workplace decision-making.
[…] Essentially, the employees most excited and inspired by “visionary” corporate jargon may be the least equipped to make effective, practical business decisions for their companies.”
The Cornell report labels this as a paradox, I guess because these people disproportionately liked their supervisors but were also bad at their jobs. I don’t see that as a paradox at all: my bias is that people who think for themselves and are more distrustful of hierarchy are, to be honest, smarter.
I love this sentence:
“Researching BS also points out the importance of critical thinking for everyone, inside the workplace and out. “
Well, yes.
[Link]
