BusinessWeek Issue on Trouble at the Office
The brand new BusinessWeek is on "Trouble at the Office." As I wrote here a couple months back, much of the content for the issue was created in collaboration with readers, including a series of blogs that BusinessWeek established with the primary aim of developing content for this issue. The issue is now out online and it has everything from an interview with the Office's Rainn Wilson on jobs from hell to Jim Collins on Good to Great Expectations. I contributed an essay on forces that will turn you into a jerk and how to overcome them -- called "Are You Being a Jerk, Again." This essay reflects themes that I've talked about in more depth in this blog including power (see here and here) and emotional contagion. It is a fun issue and I have to give BusinessWeek credit for trying something so different.
P.S. The weirdest part for me is that the story contains a huge artists rendering of me, which makes me nervous, in part, because that is the kind of attention that turns people into self-centered assholes. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you notice that I start acting like a jerk.
Hmm, very cognitive post.
Is this theme good unough for the Digg?
Posted by: Angellaa | February 23, 2009 at 04:41 PM
Bob,
I liked the piece in the BW issue. Quick question: How long does it take for emotional contagion to make you lose your perspective? In other words, when you join a new environment, how quickly does the behavior of others around you start to affect your own?
Sarah
Posted by: Sarah Stein Greenberg | August 25, 2008 at 03:10 AM
Bob-I think you look nice as an artistic rendering. Posting it as your wallpaper may be one of the first signs your on your way to asshole-dom.
Posted by: Jeff | August 19, 2008 at 03:01 PM