Psychology

The idea that positive thinking can affect our lives for the better has been gaining momentum over the past 80 years, and even more so recently. So does the concept work? I dare say it does - within reason.

As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, "an event is neither good nor bad; only thinking makes it so." Everything that irritates us about inanimate objects can lead us to an understanding of ourselves – because nothing can make us feel what we don't want to feel.

Failure is part of being human. But what distinguishes superstars is that while they make the same amount of wrong turns as everyone else, they don't let their failures interfere with their pursuit of success.

If there's someone at work who consistently irritates you or gets under your skin, know this: you are almost certainly part of your problem. Because when any two people interact, the influences flow in both directions.

Having the right qualifications or credentials doesn't make you a "somebody". In fact it's far better to consciously choose to be a "nobody", to be who you are without the need to back it up with some proof of expertise.

Ever wondered why it's so hard to persuade your boss to change his or her mind? Well psychologists have come up with an answer – and it's all to do with power.

It's a fact of life that much of our behavior is based on how we were raised. So like it or not, we all bring elements of our lives with us when we go to work - and that includes our family relationships.

Ella has worked hard to advance her career. But with maternity leave looming, she is worried that her office rival is keen to expand his empire to include both her job and her team.

If you are dreading the return to work after the holidays, you're not alone. In fact, it seems like the complaints against managers are on the increase. But there are ways you can deal with the situation.

In Western culture, the sarcastic put-down has become an art form. It's part of the fabric of everyday conversation, not least in the workplace. But ask yourself this. What does sarcasm get you? And if sarcasm were not part of your personality, what would you be losing?

Apparently, lying at work is on the increase. But I'm not so sure that's such a bad thing. Lying - especially at work - has its place and always has.

Organisations that use personality testing in their recruitment process could be wasting their time, American psychologists have claimed.

Manipulation in the workplace is profoundly damaging to employee commitment. And since nobody likes being manipulated, it pays to become a student of how to stand your ground in the face of manipulators.

It's all too easy to judge others' negative behaviour. But other people's circumstances and life context can and does affect their behavior, which means not assuming you always know the motives for their actions.

It's easy to forget that our relationship with our boss is mutually dependent – and that it requires careful management. That means you need to building a cooperative working relationship and understand your boss's needs and working style if you're going to make it work.

A new method of predicting who is likely to succeed in a managerial role and who is likely to fail could herald a revolution in the way that organizations recruit and groom the managers of the future.

How far people feel they have control over their own lives is key to many of the most pressing issues facing managers today – particularly those two elephants in the room, workplace stress and employee engagement.

Psychometric testing. Serious recruitment tool or just snake oil and psychobabble? Whatever you affiliation, just stop to ask yourself whether we might already possess the tools within ourselves to assess the suitability of people we meet.

For reasons I don't yet understand, a new study of anger in the workplace reckons that angry men in the workplace are good, but angry women are "out of control".

What is it that makes millions of people around the world, regardless of national culture, afraid of their bosses? The answer is that our workplaces are unwittingly designed to produce fear - and because all bosses are, by definition, dictators.

Workers who choose to take voluntary redundancy from their jobs are less depressed and are more motivated to find a new job than those who loose their job involuntarily.

Does having a tyrannical boss leave any kind of lasting imprint on the employee - or are employees just fond of complaining? A posting on JobSchmob.com suggests that that the mental fallout can have lasting effects.

People with high opinions of themselves as teenagers and young adults earn much more in middle age than their less confident counterparts, a new study has found, with the gap particularly marked in those from privileged backgrounds.

I have officially taken every personality profile known to man. Other than telling me that I'm an ENFP, Independent-Working Blue-Green Lion-Otter hybrid, the one thing they have in common is unanimous agreement that I do have a personality.

Should the bad behavior of workplace bullies and jerks be tolerated in the name of success? That's the contentious question posed in a new manifesto by by Robert Sutton, a professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford Engineering School.

Look around any organisation and chances are you'll find at least one person whose negative behaviour affects the rest of the group. Now new research has found that it only takes one toxic individual to upset the whole apple cart.

Conventional wisdom states that men who are good-looking, single and earn a fortune have few problems finding themselves a partner. But according to new research, it is actually Mr Average who is more likely to get the girl.

High flyers are more broad thinking, challenging of norms, open to doing things in new ways and more capable of understanding themselves and their colleagues emotions than their senior management peers, new research has found.

The job of a manager is an incredibly powerful one. And like alcohol, its effects can kind of sneak up on you. The difference is that when you say something stupid as a manager, you can't call the next morning and claim "it was just the job talking".

They're cynics. They're gloomy. They're sarcastic and grumpy. They focus on the worst possible outcomes. But nevertheless, we ought to value pessimists or we might overlook potentially dangerous obstacles.

If you think you can succeed at work without getting political, you need to wake up. Politicking happens whether you like it or not, so you might as well learn the right buttons to push to influence others more effectively.

Much has been written on the factors that affect employee well-being – everything from management style to the effects of the office environment. But one thing that almost everyone complains about but few have studied is the effect on us of all those meetings.

They're powerful, often wealthy and, according to the latest survey, the happiest of workers of all – they are people in upper and middle management.

Conventional wisdom has long stated that success that makes people happy. But according to new research, conventional wisdom is wrong. Happiness, rather than working hard, is the real key to success.

Today - Wednesday - is a good day to ask your boss for a pay rise. However, if you want to ask for a holiday, you may have missed your chance, for this week at least.

Despite overwhelming evidence that macho management is totally ineffective, many senior managers in the finance sector are opinionated, arrogant bullies who blame their staff and take credit for the work of others.

Men who fail to progress up the career ladder are far more likely to suffer psychological distress than women, according to new British research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

If you're plagued by cocky colleagues with a high opinion of themselves and their abilities, take heart from new research revealing that over-confident workers actually tend to be below-par performers.

Getting laid off is becoming a more painful for many American executives as employers ease back on the amount of severance pay they award departing employees.

Britain's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is launching a Certificate in the Psychology of Management aimed at enabling those involved in the management of people to understand employee behaviour and help them suggest alternative and practical ways of achieving change.

A good degree, wide-ranging experience, leadership ability, enthusiasm and soaring ambition will all help you to get on in business, but if you really want to earn big bucks it'll help if you're called David or Susan.

ABC Australia's 'Catalyst' programme carried an item last week looking at corporate psychopaths and the damge they can inflict on colleagues and their companies.

We hear far too many stories about bosses bullying and intimidating their staff. But according to research presented to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society, there is also a growing trend for staff to gang up on their boss.

Australian psychotherapist Glyn Brokensha has come up with the term "power-pathic" to describe manipulating managers who are bent on attaining power for its own sake.

The vast majority of company directors and senior managers believe it is wrong for their employees to lie to them. But almost half are comfortable with those same employees telling untruths on their behalf to their customers.

Managers who try to regulate what kinds of emotions employees are allowed to express at work are pushing their workers to the edge, according to a new study.

Frenzied executives who fidget through meetings, lose track of their appointments, and jab at the "door close" button on the elevator aren't crazy. They suffer from a newly recognized neurological phenomenon called attention deficit trait, or ADT.

UK workers are great big fibbers – at least if you believe a report by an internet gaming firm.

More than half of workers in London suspect their bosses of being either untrustworthy or dishonest, a poll from management firm KPMG has suggested.

The annual rush for the door in the New Year is likely to cost British workers almost £77 million in leaving presents, a poll has predicted.

British workers will spend a whopping £711 million on presents for each other this Christmas, a survey has predicted – but many of them will be inappropriate, bizarre or downright dangerous.

This year’s round of office Christmas parties will leave British businesses with a £65 million hangover from people calling in sick because they have over-indulged the night before, according to a study.

They may smile, nod and agree with you, but if you are a boss, your staff are unlikely to trust you, according to a new survey.

Writing in today's Times, Rosalind Renshaw turns her attention to the vexed question of how to deal with a bullying boss.

Employers need not fear office politics as something wholly destructive - and clever managers may even be able to turn it around to their advantage.

In order to motivate people, you first need to eradicate demotivation, writes Brian Bloch in the Telegraph. But too many bosses still cling to the perennial fallacy that "people will work properly if they are paid enough".

Women who break through the glass ceiling in organisations are far more likely to be given difficult jobs than their male colleagues, a phenomenon researchers have termed 'the glass cliff'.

Have you ever secretly thought that a colleague – or even your boss – behaves like a psychopath? Well you may well be right.

Psychologists in the United States are turning their attention to the scourge of bullying bosses, according to a story in the New York Times.

Working conditions in some UK call centres can be compared to Victorian 'dark satanic mills' according to a damming study commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive.