The perfectly obvious assumption that there is a direct correlation between high intelligence and fitness leadership has been called into question by researchers from the University of Lausanne. In a paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the team of academics suggest that too much intelligence might actually harm the effectiveness of leaders, describing the correlation between IQ and perceived leadership ability as ‘curvilinear’. This means that, at a certain level of intelligence, people can become too clever for their own good – and the good of their colleagues and employer.

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Companies with high levels of staff satisfaction perform better financially, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) published in the journal Economics Letters. The study examined the effect of staff satisfaction on corporate performance using employees’ online reviews of where they work. Writing in the journal Economic Letters, the researchers from Norwich Business School say that firms rated highly by their current employees in terms of satisfaction achieve greater financial performance compared to firms characterised by low levels of employee satisfaction.  More →

Mergers and acquisitions often fail because workers struggle to integrate, and new research from King’s Business School and the University of Helsinki claims that successful integration is much more likely when organisations actively help employees feel that their jobs are safe. Organisations must also ensure that their integration procedures are seen to be fair and just. Professor Martin Edwards and his co-authors studied the merger of three universities and the acquisition of a manufacturing organisation by a larger multinational. As the first study to track employees during and after a merger and an acquisition, it identifies the factors that influence the likelihood and rate of employee integration.

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