My annual blog about the importance of reading books, modified from my previous January blogs. 

I start each new year with a question: What book are you reading now? My experience is the best leaders always have a book they are reading. Lifelong learning is essential to our growth.

But how do you nurture book reading in those who do not enjoy reading. For those in education, we lead by example. We share our stories, the role books have played in our lives. As parents, we read to our children. My Aunt Bertha Anne read to me in my very early years and nurtured my love of books.

What role do books play in your life? In your learning? My guess is that for many, we just don’t have enough time. Making time to read books is important. I usually have several books in my study that I am working through. On long trips I enjoy audiobooks. I have friends who like audiobooks best. Currently the audio version of my book Decoding the Workplace is outpacing the other formats.
 
2020 was different in that I did not read as wide a variety of books as I usually do. Two books about Abraham Maslow captured much of my attention. Personality & Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom by Abraham Maslow is fascinating for those who enjoy reading Maslow and about Maslow. This book consist mostly of complete transcripts of a Maslow course taught at Brandeis 1963-64 including student discussions. Rich insights for those of us interested in everything Maslow but probably less so for most people. I reviewed this book for the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 

Transcend by Scott Barry Kaufman offers a reinterpretation of Maslow's hierarchy of needs supported by contemporary research. While I found interesting, I would have enjoyed editing. For me there were at least two books in this one volume: (1) A book about Maslow's hierarchy of needs and how his theory might be changed based on his thinking in his latter years. (2) A book that is about helping oneself grow and develop, a self-help book. On page 80 Scott discusses the audience for his book, those who "truly wish to self-actualize -- and even transcend." A good suggestion for your local library if they don't have it.   

As I work on my next career-oriented book, I am revisiting the extensive library of leadership or leader development books. I think Jeffrey Pfeffer sums up much of the leadership literature in his book Leadership BS. A welcome addition this year was Ron Riggio's Daily Leadership Development, which I blogged about in October.  

As we begin 2021, here are a few of the books I am reading or are on my reading list:

• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers by David Rubenstein
• The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
• Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson
• The Apricot and the Moon Poems by Cathryn Essinger
• Rethinking Consciousness edited by John Buchanan and Christopher Aantoss
• Face It by Debbie Harry

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them”, Mark Twain. 

Or as the comedian Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”   
 
What are you reading?
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Image, my photo. 
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. 

This time of the year I like to revisit a Christmas classic from Thomas Stetz of Hawaii Pacific University, “What Santa Claus Can Learn from I-O Psychology: Eight Performance Management Recommendations.” The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist originally published the article in 2012 and it can be read in full in the archives of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Here I will summarize (and elaborate on) Dr. Stetz’s astute observations and recommendations concerning Santa Claus’s questionable performance management system.

1. “Develop refined rating scales.” How does Santa determine whether a child is “naughty” or “nice”? What is naughty? What is nice? How can a child improve performance if the child does not have clear guidelines and examples of the behaviors expected?
2. “Develop SMART performance objectives.” A child needs clear goals to be successful at “nice,” goals that are “specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.” Ideally these would flow from the family strategic plan.
3. “Increase feedback throughout the year.” It’s either a lump of coal or presents one day a year. 364 days with no feedback is just not acceptable in the 21st Century. If feedback is too much for Santa to handle, he should delegate and train others, such as parents. 
4. “Establish a naughty review board.” There may be review boards in organizations that are naughty; this recommendation concerns grievances. What’s a child to do if deemed naughty and considers this an unfair assessment? Is it fair to not have a grievance procedure, especially in the absence of feedback?
5. “Get a handle on rating inflation.” Let’s be real. It seems most children get a “nice” rating and the associated benefits. Refined rating scales would definitely help here.
6. “Explain how he obtains his information.” This one puzzled me as a kid. How does he know if I am being naughty or nice? As Stetz’s very appropriately noted, “at least a consent-to-monitoring statement should be made.”
7. “Decide between developmental or administrative evaluations.” “Under the current system how can naughty children improve. They can’t” (p. 36). There is no feedback. Children simply did not know how to improve their performance. Santa’s performance system is administrative with only “rewards and punishments.”
8. “Institute self-assessments.” Instead of writing letters to Santa once a year, which not all children do, there should be periodic self-assessments from children. This could be an online system with elf’s perhaps providing feedback. Currently children have little opportunity to speak to the naughty or nice question with relevant supporting data.

Stetz concluded Santa would do well to employ an I-O psychologist.
 
My take-away:
 
Can any of the recommendations for Santa’s performance system be applied to your organization? If so, 2021 might be a good year to work toward improvements. Feedback is key to employee development and organizational growth and renewal.
 
Best wishes for the holiday season and a great 2021.
 
Stetz, T. A. (2012). What Santa Claus can learn from I-O psychology: Eight performance management recommendations. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 49 (3), 35-37.
 
Image of Santa by Clker-Free-Vector-Images. Image obtained from https://pixabay.com/vectors/santa-claus-christmas-reindeer-31665/
​
© John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​

How do we develop and grow our capabilities as leaders, as managers? According to Jeffrey Pfeffer of the Stanford Graduate School of Business in his book Leadership BS, the leadership industry has largely failed us: 

“Many prescriptions for leaders are often more problematic and invalid than generally recognized . . . much leadership training and development has become too much a form of lay preaching, telling people inspiring stories about heroic leaders and exceptional organizations and, in the process, making those who hear the stories feel good and temporarily uplifted while not changing much of what happens at many workplaces” (pp. 4-5, 6)
 
Even so, there are extensive studies and research-based books about leader development. The problem is what leadership scholars have learned rarely finds its way into easy-to-understand trade books and popular media. An exception is the work of Ron Riggio, Claremont McKenna College, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology, Director and architect of the acclaimed Kravis Leadership Institute. For over a decade Riggio has blogged a popular column on Cutting-Edge Leadership for Psychology Today. Those blogs are the foundation and inspiration for his latest book. 
 
Daily Leadership Development: 365 Steps to Becoming a Better Leader is a practical guide and handbook to develop as a leader and build leadership in our teams. It is organized in quickly read sections by day and by week, structured to be used in a personal development program of daily or weekly leadership reflections. Or one can turn to almost any page for sage insights. This is not a book designed to just sit back and read cover to cover. 
 
Riggio starts with context: the difference between leader development and leadership development, growth through self-awareness and self-reflection, “leadership as a journey, not a destination.” Succinctly and clearly he covers the essentials from the literature produced by leadership scholars such as ways to conceptualize leadership (e.g., roles, competencies), various theories (e.g., LMX, servant, authentic, transformational), characteristics of leaders (e.g., self-insight, grit, personality), and various related topics (e.g., types of intelligence, extraverts). Occasionally he provides URLs for online self-assessments. 
 
There are numerous readings on team development as well as readings about bad bosses. Some of the readings are leadership lessons gleaned from a variety of sources from sports to films to Steve Jobs. Traditional management readings include training and development, appraisals, motivating others, and other human resource topics. Several readings cover practical tools such as goal setting, brainstorming, and active listening.  
 
Most of the research on leadership does not operationally differentiate between management and leadership. As Riggio states, “Successful and effective leaders and managers should do the same things” (p. 60). This book is an essential guide to being a better leader, a better manager. 
 
My take-aways:
 
1. Daily Leadership Development is unlike any leadership book on my shelves or that I have encountered. This book can up anyone’s game, regardless of the position you have now or how long you have been a leader, a manager. 
 
2. Reading in chunks, reflecting on what you read, and applying insights gained to your daily life is a great way to grow and develop. For some people, personal reflection is difficult. Fortunately to aid in reflecting, Riggio ends most sections with a short paragraph “For Development:”.
 
3. Read Daily Leadership Development with a highlighter in hand. Riggio recommends keeping a journal as you read. I recommend you keep a journal regardless of what you are reading or where you are in life. Abraham Maslow did not start journaling until he was in his fifties. Some of my most important insights have occurred reading journals from earlier in my life. 
 
4. I personally benefited from the URL for online versions of the Big Five dimensions of personality. Oddly I have studied and written about the Big Five model but I have never taken it until now. For anyone interested, my scores are here. 
 
5. The only topic where I would like to have seen more coverage is coaching. While much of the book is relevant to coaching, I did not see it directly addressed. Also I should mention I purchased through Barnes & Noble as I did not find on Amazon.com. 
 
6.  Daily Leadership Development is a major contribution to leader and leadership development. It belongs in the personal library of everyone who wants to grow and develop into a better leader. Other leadership books advertise they are essential. Daily Leadership Development actually is. 

Pfeffer, J. (2015). Leadership BS: Fixing workplaces and careers one truth at a time. New York: Harper Business.

Riggio, R. E. (2020). Daily leadership development: 365 steps to becoming a better leader. Barnes & Noble Press.

Image,"Daily Leadership Development". © John Ballard, PhD, 2020.
 
Blog, © John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
_______________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, and audiobook. The best-selling audiobook is narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon,

How well do you know yourself? We all are amalgamations of our life experiences, both good and bad. What are your strengths? Weaknesses? What experiences lie beneath the surface affecting your choices, your actions, your attitudes?

In the fall/winter of 1963-1964 at Brandeis University Abraham Maslow taught a course to help students better understand themselves. “Experiential Approaches to the Study of Personality” consisted of eight lectures and six labs. Most of the course lectures and labs were audio recorded and transcribed, only to be discovered many years later and made into a 2019 book, Personality & Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom. 
  
At the invitation of Ed Hoffman (Maslow’s biographer), Fernando Ortiz and I joined Ed in doing three separate book reviews for the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. In the following excerpt from my review, Maslow reveals his internal conflict over not doing empirical research in this latter stage of his life. 
                                       ---------------------------------------------------------
While the effectiveness of the labs seems mixed, the lab on January 6 was exceptional. Maslow shared seven slides of drawings from Saul Steinberg’s book, The Labyrinth. Students shared their thoughts on each slide with Maslow moderating. The first drawing depicted a Don Quixote-like figure with lance on a horse facing a pile of large, assorted geometric blocks. Maslow commented, “I think it expresses me very much. Somehow I identify with it” (p. 351). 

       What followed was a powerful, personal reflection by Maslow. After the students had discussed, Maslow shared his feelings about this drawing and what it meant to him (pp. 359-362). He shared that when he first saw this drawing he laughed, then saw his situation, “the geometric things are sort of mechanistic . . . the sort of thing that I’m fighting against in the American Psychological Association” (p. 359) but later he talked about his identification with the blocks:  "You see the truth is I’m also this kind of scientist. It doesn’t show to you, I don’t think, much . . . I love [the blocks], and I’ve done very careful and rigorous experiments – that’s a different kind of pleasure." (p. 361)

Continuing he reflected on a “civil war” within himself: 

"I have a great disturbance over this, great guilt for not doing rigorous experiments now, which I’ve done all my life until recently, and feeling somehow not quite decent. Guilty. I felt uneasy about all these big things without data . ."(p. 361) 
 
Maslow’s reflection illustrated to his class how projective techniques can help a person understand one’s self. He concluded: "[The drawing] made me understand a little more about my guts, about my own self, about my own internal conflicts, which are really not settled and never will be . . . There’s this kind of conflict in each of you." (p. 361)
                                    ---------------------------------------------------------------
My take-aways:

Self-awareness is essential if we are to be all that we can be. Recognizing our own internal conflicts can make us better leaders, better followers, better people. Self-reflection can be difficult but insightful. 

Ballard, J. (in press). Book Review: Personality & Growth: A Humanistic Psychologist in the Classroom by Abraham Maslow. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820916560
 
Maslow, A. H. (2019). Personality & growth: A humanistic psychologist in the classroom. H. Chiang & C. Nelson (Eds.). Anna Maria, FL: Maurice Bassett.
 
Steinberg, S. (1960). The labyrinth. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Image, "Knight at Night", by Yuri_B. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/painting-knight-night-oil-paints-3995999/
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​

Books in management, psychology, education, and related topics, including textbooks, often discuss Maslow’s hierarchy of relative prepotency, the hierarchy of needs. It is usually depicted as a pyramid with physiological needs as the lowest level and self-actualization at the highest level. “Maslow’s pyramid” is ubiquitous. On the Internet. In classrooms. In business. Our daughter learned about the pyramid in the 4th grade. But there is a problem. Abraham Maslow never created a pyramid (or triangle) to depict graphically his hierarchy of needs. So who did and why should we care?
 
In 2016 Todd Bridgman and Steve Cummings, both professors at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, invited me to join them in trying to answer those questions. Our search was exhaustive, including research in the Maslow archive at the Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron in Ohio. We found no reference to a pyramid in Maslow’s publications, letters, notes, or unpublished manuscripts. 
 
The earliest graphic we found for the need hierarchy was in a 1957 textbook by Keith Davis, Human Relations in Business. It was a right-sided triangle, a series of steps for each need level. The earliest pyramid that is similar to those we see everywhere today was in an article by C. D. McDermid in 1960. The article was “How Money Motivates Men” in the then popular management publication Business Horizons.  
 
In our paper, "Who Built Maslow’s Pyramid? A History of the Creation of Management Studies’ Most Famous Symbol and Its Implications for Management Education,” (published in the March 2019 issue of the Academy of Management Learning & Education), we discussed three problems with the depiction of the hierarchy of needs as a pyramid. 
 
1. The pyramid is simply a poor and misleading representation of Maslow’s theory. Until the 1980s a ladder more often and more accurately represented the hierarchy. For example:

• You can go up and down a ladder. Just because your physiological needs are satisfied does not mean your hunger, for example, does not affect your behavior. It just does not dominate or organize your psyche – but if conditions changed, Maslow is clear: physiological needs “may emerge again to dominate the organism if they are thwarted” (1943, p. 375). 
• A pyramid has a pinnacle. Nothing beyond. A ladder may be extended or more steps added. In his latter years Maslow’s thinking turned increasing toward states beyond self-actualization, such as self-transcendence.

2. The application of Maslow’s theory in the workplace, training, and education is overly simplistic and without historical context. 

• Maslow’s theory is full of nuance, has preconditions, was a general theory of human motivation. It was not conceived as a theory of workplace motivation per se.
• Furthermore Maslow spoke to criticisms some would later make of his theory and “explicitly cautioned against his ideas being interpreted in these ways.”

3.  Focusing singularly on the five needs detracts from other contributions Maslow can make to contemporary management thought. 

• Consider the workplace implications of the preconditions (Maslow, 1943, p. 383):

            “freedom to speak,
             freedom to do what one wishes so long as no harm is done to others, 
             freedom to express one’s self,
             freedom to investigate and seek for information,
             freedom to defend one’s self,
             justice,
             fairness,
             honesty,
             orderliness in the group”

• Maslow championed self-expression and development of creativity in its different forms. 

 
Some of our conclusions:
 
1. It is important to use primary sources where possible. Over time ideas and theories can mutate, change meaning, be presented differently than originally conceived. Our story about Maslow’s pyramid is probably representative. 
 
2. There are insights to be learned, studied, from scholars before empiricism became the benchmark. 
 
3. To understand Maslow, start with his 1943 paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation.”
 
And my take-aways:
 
1. Maslow spoke to knowing yourself and realizing your potential, and that was not necessarily striving for money and power. It was allowing yourself to be, to grow, to express yourself in the world, in relationships, in community, and yes in the workplace.
 
2. Maslow was not a perfect individual. He was to some degree the product of his times when many attitudes were very different from today. But he wrote about, talked about ideas that speak to the very best of what it means to be a human being. 
 
3. On a personal note: Recently our Maslow paper was selected for the 2019 Best Paper Award in the Academy of Management Learning & Education journal. I thank Todd and Steve for inviting me along on this part of their journey.  

Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Ballard, J. (2019). Who built Maslow’s pyramid? A history of the creation of management studies’ most famous symbol and its implications for management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 18, 81-98. 

Davis, K. (1957). Human relations in business. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4): 370-396.

McDermid, C. D. (1960). How money motivates men. Business Horizons, 3(4): 93-100.
​
Image, "Maslow's journals", © John Ballard, 2019
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​
 

Several years ago I was gifted a three-handled loving cup, a tyg. The Arctic Club (now the Explorers Club) presented the tyg to Amos Bonsall in 1907. He was the last surviving member of the second Grinnell expedition of 1853-1855 led by Dr. E. K. Kane in search of Sir John Franklin. In the mid-nineteenth century Arctic explorers were like space explorers 100 years later. Daring, adventurous, and willing to endure hardships, understanding the adventures before them were dangerous.

The gift of the tyg started a quest for knowledge that I have not finished. I've researched Amos Bonsall at the Chester County Historical Society (PA) and found his grave at Fernwood Cemetery near Philadelphia (surprisingly the grave site was in disrepair). 

My research took me to the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. In 1915 Bonsall’s daughters donated relics from his Arctic expedition to the U. S. National Museum. Today the National Museum preserves some of these relics. It was my good fortune to examine several of these artifacts. 

My take-away for today: Perseverance. How hard it is to continue toward an objective when it seems the environment is against you? At the National Museum I held objects from an Arctic adventure over 160 years ago, an adventure from which not all crew members returned. Disease, numbing cold, hunger. A ship trapped in ice. I held a rifle and a knife, tools for food and protection. I held medals awarded to Americans by a British queen who honored the exploration. Amos Bonsall persevered. He pushed through. Against great odds, he survived and helped others.

When the challenge before us seems insurmountable, perhaps it is time to dig deeper, to try to beat the odds, to be sustained by reflecting on those who have persevered. I was standing in a grocery line with just a few items. No lane was open for 12 items or less. I spoke to a cashier and a lane was opened. A young woman and I moved to the new lane. “Actually I don’t mind standing, “ she said. “Three years ago I was in an accident. I was told I would never walk again. Here I am.” She paid for her items and walked out the door. 

Persevering is an attitude, a mindset, doing all that you can to overcome obstacles to achieve a goal. If you have it, great. If not, you can put it there.

Image, © John Ballard, 2012

Modified from my blog of May 30, 2013.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​

What have you learned from the pandemic? The Wall Street Journal asked 10 business leaders that question. Their replies were in a recent issue (June 27-28, 2020). Here are the comments from those leaders which I have sorted into four categories:
 
On community

• I wish we had done a better job of sticking with community building with weekly all-hands or town halls. I worry culture will start to fray.
• It’s important for me to see you, for you to see me and that you’re ok and I’m ok and we’re getting business done. 
• What struck me is that all of us are really looking for anchors and safe harbors during this time.... Until this time, though, I didn’t really see the company—or a company, an employer—as necessarily filling that role for people. But people are looking for us to fill that role. Every day, I try to call three to six people, just to check in, just to say hi, see how they’re doing. I wouldn’t necessarily have done that before.
• Acknowledgments have to be much louder. Giving someone credit at an-all hands in person is much different than on Zoom. Leaders have a responsibility to ensure that success and achievements are especially acknowledged in a time like this.
• How to maintain culture and connectivity on Zoom is something you have to learn. . . Managers have to be inclusive and take extra care to make sure all voices are heard.

On working from home:

• The notion of putting 7,000 people in a building may be a thing of the past…It is absolutely remarkable that we have over 70,000 people working remotely and keeping a very complicated $1.7 trillion balance sheet bank functioning...people are doing it from their kitchens.
• It’s definitely overrated...The temptations of staying home and listening to music and going in the garden and going shopping, and cooking or reading an interesting book suddenly—they eat into the working time.
• Wondered what they were doing when they weren’t at the office, but the productivity has been off the roof, so I need to just trust them. If they say they’re working at home, they’re working at home.
• One thing we talk about is mental fatigue. I talk about the brain as a muscle. I’m pushing my people to say: Take a break. Put in a lunch hour. Cut yourself off at five o’clock.
• There’s no such thing as too much communication... 

On adapting

• In any business you get used to operating at a certain cadence, and then all of the sudden when the world around you is changing as fast as it was, you have to kind of pick up your feet way faster and make changes much, much more quickly.
• In this time of ambiguity, you have to be open to learning. Because if you don’t learn, you don’t know how to adapt.... Being transparent, being inquisitive are good ingredients.

On introspection

• I’ve always thought leadership meant I was right there and frankly, I think I get on my staff’s nerves sometimes. I probably had some control issues myself . . . 

 
My take-aways
 
1. The Wall Street Journal provided short sound bites. Longer interviews with each business leader would have probably been more informative and more representative of each leader's thinking about lessons learned.
 
2. The main themes were about remote work:  maintaining culture and maintaining productivity. Sustaining culture in the absence of in-person interactions is tougher. Working remotely is different from being in the workplace. While communication is important, there could be too much communication. Some supervisors have difficulty finding the balance. 
 
3.  The comments about productivity are not surprising but for me they were somewhat disappointing. In companies that value people, the employees will get the job done. There is nothing sacred about the 8-hour day or the hours in which work gets accomplished (unless there are structural issues, e.g., customers and such during certain hours). Research supports that for many jobs there is no differences in productivity between the 6-hour day and the 8-hour day. The attitude that people working at home would be less productive reminds me of McGregor’s Theory X way of thinking about people. 
 
4.  Introspection, reflecting about oneself, should be a characteristic of leaders. For most of us, the pandemic has brought moments in which we ponder issues that we are usually too busy to think about. Now is a good time to pull back, create a space in our days to reflect on where we are, where we are going, what our priorities are, what our priorities should be. 
 
“What I Learned from the Pandemic” (June 27-28, 2020). The Wall Street Journal. 
 
Image, "Growth" by Gerald. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/growth-suit-work-bank-economy-453485/   Free to use.
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. 

This is an unusually stressful time. Health, finances, income, relationships to name just a few possible sources of stress. Exercise is one key to managing stress. For me I swam most days at a local fitness club until the pandemic. It may be months until I can return to my normal exercise routine. 
 
Roles are major sources of stress in our lives in the best of time. During this pandemic role conflicts may come into sharper focus. Over 50 years ago Kahn and colleagues described six types of role conflict:

• interrole – conflicts among several of your roles. For example, conflict between role as a parent and role as an employee
• intersender – different expectations from different people
• intrasender – different expectations from the same person, such as at different times
• person-role – conflict between demands of role and your values, personal standards
• role ambiguity – not knowing what is expected of you
• role overload – just can’t do everything on your plate

If you work remotely, how has the pandemic affected role-related conflict? Some hypotheses:

• Interrole conflict may be greater. For employees working from home with children, roles as parent and roles as employees are more likely to clash. Children may be in same room or nearby. Roles as parent are more salient. The child needs you and you are right there, unlike going to a workplace miles away. 
• Intersender role conflict will vary with the chain of command but should be less. It is easier to talk with someone in the workplace than it is virtually. In other words, it is less likely someone other than your boss will drop in with different guidance or contradictory requests. 
• Intrasender role conflict depends on the person so there should be no change. A boss that says one thing on Monday and another on Wednesday most likely will do the same virtually.
• Person-role conflict may grow. Working at home there may be more moments to reflect on how you’re living your life now versus months ago. Priorities, perhaps even values, may change. 
• Role ambiguity will probably increase initially if remote working is new. In the workplace we have access to information from others, we can ask questions, we can have processes clarified. These can still be done remotely but involve more effort, more energy. For some, how to do the job remotely may be a challenge, a challenge with no clear guidance.
• Role overload will most likely increase. Working remotely may require learning new skills. It may be harder for supervisors to understand workload levels. Additionally there are the other responsibilities from other roles that are more visible because you are working at home. 

 
My guess is there are large individual differences here. Some will adjust to remote work fine. Others will find it more stressful. Regardless the experience of working at home will become more common in the months and years ahead. Recognizing your sources of role-related stress may help manage these conflicts.
 
Kahn, R. L., Wolfe, D. M., Quinn, R. P., Snoek, J. D., & Rosenthal, R. A. (1964). Role stress: Studies in role conflict and ambiguity. New York, NY: John Wiley.
 
Image, "Woman Typing" by Taryn Elliott. Retrieved from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-woman-typing-on-laptop-4112289/    Free to use.
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2020. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Ron Riggio, Book Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback.