University at Buffalo School of Management

20 Buffalo Business Autumn 2021 Insights When workers feel powerless, they get paranoid—and aggressive If employees lack power at work, they can feel vulnerable and paranoid. In turn, that paranoia can cause people to lash out against colleagues or family members and even undermine their organization's success, according to new research published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. This feeling is common, says Min-Hsuan Tu, study co-author and assistant professor of organization and human resources. If you've ever stressed over why a co- worker sent you a terse email or didn't respond at all, you've experienced it too. Tu and her co-authors ran five studies with more than 2,300 people. Their results showed paranoia increased as people felt less power at work. In addition, paranoid individuals were more likely to engage in mild forms of aggression, like being unpleas- ant toward co-workers, complaining about work tasks and purposely wasting company resources. Some even took their aggression home, getting angry with a family member or spouse. "Paranoia can cause people to interpret benign interactions—a colleague not saying hello in the hallway—as hostile or offensive," Tu says. "Even without any interaction at all, some people may worry others are talking behind their back." The researchers discovered, however, that individuals with higher socioeconomic status, and those who felt supported by their company and manager, were less likely to experience paranoia than others with simi- lar levels of power. "That's why it's especially important for leaders to create a supportive work envi- ronment," Tu says, "by allocating resources and offering promotions fairly, strengthen- ing supervisor-subordinate relationships, disincentivizing self-serving behaviors and removing job stressors." Michael Schaerer, of the Singapore Management University (SMU), led the study, along with Trevor Foulk, University of Maryland; Christilene du Plessis, SMU; Tu; and Satish Krishnan, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode. Tu "Gaming can be traced throughout human history as a way to help people relax and retreat from daily routines. But the booming popularity of online games has led to an increase in addiction, which can result in players ignoring family and job responsibilities. Severe cases can lead players to crime, health problems or even death." — Lawrence Sanders, professor of management science and systems, on his study showing that some video game players are becoming addicted amid increased popularity and the COVID-19 pandemic. The research appeared in Decision Support Systems. Read more at bit.ly/ubmgtvga. Sanders Achievement, escapism can lead to video game addiction Organizations can learn more from internet-connected devices "Designing algorithms that can learn from data is crucial for businesses. Our model allows devices to communicate with one another—making them robust against network failures— while enhancing the quality of information for decision-makers and doing it several orders of magnitude faster than other similar solutions." — Haimonti Dutta, assistant professor of management science and systems, on a new algorithm she created that allows for fast learning among the Internet of Things. The study was published in Management Science. Read more at bit.ly/ubmgtiot. Dutta

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