Reading books is the only out-of-school activity for 16-year-olds that is linked to getting a managerial or professional job in later life, an Oxford University study says.

Researcher Mark Taylor, from the Department of Sociology, analysed 17,200 questionnaire responses from people born in 1970, which gave details of extra-curricular activities at the age of 16 and their careers at the age of 33. The findings show that girls who had read books at 16 had a 39 percent probability of a professional or managerial post at 33, but only a 25 percent chance if they had not. For boys who read regularly, the figure went up from 48 percent to 58 percent.

None of the other activities, such as taking part in sports or activities, socializing, going to museums or galleries or to the cinema or concerts, or practical activities such as cooking or sewing, were found to have a significant effect on their careers. Taylor also found that playing computer games frequently did not make it less likely that 16-year-olds would be in a professional or managerial career at 33, but this was linked to a lower chance of going to university.

"According to our results, there is something special about reading for pleasure," Taylor said. "The positive associations of reading for pleasure aren't replicated in any other extracurricular activity, regardless of our expectations."

He suggests that reading might be a factor because it helps to sharpen the mind or employers feel more comfortable appointing someone with a similarly educated background. It might be simply that students who were already destined for better careers tend to read more anyway.

Reading books was found to be linked with a higher chance of students going to university. For 16-year-old children whose parents worked in admin or sales, their chance of going to university went up from 24 percent to 35 percent for boys and from 20 percent to 30 percent for girls. If they read books and also did one other cultural activity, such as playing an instrument or going to museums, the chance rose from 24 percent to 54 percent for boys and from 20 percent to 48 percent for girls. Playing computer games regularly and doing no other activities reduced their chances from 24 percent to 19 percent for boys and from 20 percent to 14 percent for girls.

The research, based on responses from the British Cohort Study, finds that although reading is linked to a more prestigious career, this does not necessarily mean a higher salary. It shows that none of the extracurricular activities at 16 were associated with a greater or lesser income at 33.

(Story materials provided by Oxford University.)

U.S. companies and organizations spend billions of dollars every year on leadership training for their managers. To improve job performance they ought instead to focus on what managers believe about their employees, a study by the University of California, Riverside shows.

How leaders view their employees tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, concludes Thomas Sy, assistant professor of psychology at UC Riverside and a longtime business leadership consultant. 

In what he describes as the first study to examine leaders’ conceptions of followers, the psychologist found that “if managers view followers positively—that they are good citizens, industrious, enthusiastic—they will treat their employees positively. If they think of their employees negatively—that they are conforming, insubordinate and incompetent—they will treat them that way,” he said. “Manager beliefs about employees impact organizational outcomes.” 

These include interpersonal liking and relationship quality between leaders and followers, as well as followers’ job satisfaction and trust in leaders.

Sy suggests that it is possible to change what leaders believe about their followers, a business strategy that could improve worker performance. The results of his study appeared in the paper “What do you think of followers? Examining the content, structure, and consequences of implicit followership theories,” which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

In a five-phase study involving hundreds of workplace leaders, Sy identified six core conceptions by which managers categorize their employees—industry, enthusiasm and good citizen, qualities representing positive conceptions of followers; and insubordination, incompetence and conformity, qualities representing negative conceptions of followers. 

This process of categorizing others operates automatically and spontaneously, he says. Managers act on those conceptions—known as implicit followership theories (IFTs)—even if they don’t realize they hold those beliefs about their employees.

Leaders who have more positive conceptions, or IFTs, may behave differently toward followers than those who have more negative IFTs, he wrote. Because how leaders think often affects what leaders do, IFTs may determine leadership style and leaders’ treatment of followers. “…(P)erformance differences between followers may largely result from leaders’ perceptions of and subsequent interactions with their followers. Research has demonstrated that followers tend to fulfill the perceptions leaders have of them.”

Because performance evaluations often correspond with perceivers’ implicit theories, leaders may more easily recognize potential in followers that fit their implicit theories of followership and may not recognize potential in equally capable followers who exhibit less congruence, Sy explained.

“This is particularly relevant in multicultural environments,” he wrote. “For example, among other traits, Western leaders may recognize the potential of followers who show enthusiasm, and label and treat these individuals as ‘high potentials.’ However, Western leaders may overlook the same potential in equally capable followers who may not exhibit enthusiasm because their cultural values may inhibit expression of emotions (e.g. Eastern cultures such as Japan and China). This bias may also occur for gender.”

Personnel decisions are often based on leaders’ perceptions of followers, which are often systematically biased, Sy says. 

“Individuals who endorse more negative followership theories may be prone to providing punitive evaluations of followers," he said. "Conversely, individuals who endorse more positive followership theories may be prone to providing positive evaluations of followers. As such, an important practical implication is that leaders should develop awareness of their IFTs profile and how these perceptions may bias their cognitions and behaviors toward followers.”

As part of the research, Sy also developed a management tool to assess leader beliefs about followers.

“We’ve confirmed what people intuitively know,” he said. “Now we’re providing practical ways to impact leadership outcomes.”

(Story materials provided by the University of California, Riverside.)

If you're curious about how to become a CEO, then you've already taken the first step. 

According to Adam Bryant, author of The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons From CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed and of the weekly “Corner Office” column in The New York Times, passionate curiousity is one of the five traits all CEOs and organization leaders have. 

"It’s this relentless questioning that leads entrepreneurs to spot new opportunities and helps managers understand the people who work for them, and how to get them to work together effectively," Bryant wrote. "It is no coincidence that more than one executive uttered the same phrase when describing what, ultimately, is the C.E.O.’s job: 'I am a student of human nature.'"

The other four traits are battled-hardened confidence, team smarts, a simple mind-set and fearlessness. Check out the New York Times article for more about all of these CEO qualities. 

Think about it—a company is more than one person leading it or a group of managers steering it. It's a team effort. And training courses for a select group of high-level employees may be a waste of money, according to Johan Bertlett, who recently defended a Ph.D. thesis in psychology at Lund University in Sweden.

A good working climate is not only a requirement for job satisfaction—it is also an important success factor for a profit-driven company. Almost 200 employees at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm were included in Bertlett’s study, which shows that the manager is only able to influence the working climate to a limited extent. Instead, it is the interaction between the manager and the staff that is crucial. 

“Of course you need a good manager if the interaction between the manager and the staff is to work,” Bertlett said. “But it is important to understand that the manager’s situation is also influenced by the staff. Simply focusing on the manager means turning a blind eye to the contributions of the staff, and in doing so, you exclude a lot of the potential that exists within the company.”

The best working climate is found at companies where the manager and the staff interact and where the manager creates good conditions for the staff to manage themselves and each other. 

“A good manager should train his or her staff and encourage informal leadership by delegating to those who are willing to take greater responsibility,” Bertlett said.

In his view, there are many benefits of solving problems at operational level; first and foremost, the communication and decision-making paths become shorter, and the managers can focus more on strategic management. 

Many employees are happy to take on more responsibility, but not many are prepared to do it if it is not reflected in their pay packet.

“It is not only a matter of the manager being able to delegate, it is also a matter of how much commitment the employee is willing to show," Bertlett said. "And the company management must also create the general conditions for this to work."

Bertlett hopes that his research will influence how management training is offered in the future. 

“The management of a company should think again before they send their team leaders on management training courses," he said. "It would probably be more beneficial to send an entire team instead." 

(Story materials provided by Lund University.)