- The Find: Handing your employees more authority and responsibility may improve their ability to make and execute plans; conversely, limiting their ability to make decisions hampers thinking.
- The Source: New research in the May issue of “Psychological Science” out of Radboud University Nijmegen, VU University Amsterdam, and the Kellogg School of Management.
The Takeaway: Dutch students were the guinea pigs for this study. First, they were either randomly assigned to play the role of the supervisor or the underling. Both groups were then asked to perform tasks that tested ‘executive functioning,’ which includes the ability to maintain and pursue goals in a distracting atmosphere. Further tests tracked the participant’s ability to make and execute complex plans.
The results? Those assigned to the role of flunky had trouble concentrating and performed significantly worse on both tasks. They struggled to keep track of continually changing information, screen out irrelevant facts, and plan a series of actions to meet a goal — all key skills managers are keen to nurture in their teams.
The researchers also concluded that the impaired thinking of the low-power group wasn’t due to simple lack of motivation. The trouble was maintaining focus on the goal. Simply by assigning someone to a low-power position, you may be dooming them to performing less well than they are capable of.
