Managing an ageing workforce

I spent yesterday morning at the launch of ‘Managing An Ageing Workforce’; this is a new report sponsored by the CMI (CharteredManagement Institute) in collaboration with CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development).  Their survey looked at the response to changes in retirement age and retirement practices, and how prepared organisations were for these changes.  [...]

Does your survey reflect reality, or is it just wishful thinking?: Lessons from the Mirror of Erised

One of my favourite devices in the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is the Mirror of Erised.   Harry comes upon this old mirror one day, and when he looks into its depths, he sees his (dead) parents standing behind him.   His friend Ron sees himself winning at Quidditch.  The mirror, [...]

63% of poll results are entirely made up

The Home Office published a report last week, entitled ‘Sexualisation of Young People.’ It was trailed on the radio, along with some of its radical recommendations, which include relegating ‘lad’s mags’ like Nuts to the top shelf.  It’s an entirely worthy subject, and as the mother of a young teenage boy and a preteen girl, I was [...]

That’s why it’s called ‘research’

A wee rant.  I came across this conversation about online communities on Research Live.  There is a discussion of the pros and cons of research-based online communities, branded online communities, and right at the end a commenter who says that all this community talk is ridiculous and simply listening to internet buzz (via networks like) [...]

The curious case of the game show neuroscientists, or how NOT to research an online community

I’m a fond member of the blogging/social networking site, Livejournal.   Over the last few days, I’ve seen the most incredible shitstorm unfold, over the cack-handed efforts of two rogue academics to research what they were pleased to call ‘the cognitive neuroscience of fanfiction’. Background First, a bit of background: Livejournal (one of the original social [...]

Words and labels and ambiguity

This Tuesday I went along to the Occupational Psychology/Organizational Behaviour catch-up day at Birkbeck and experienced the luxury of a full day noodling around new research concepts and the thrill of hearing the word ‘critical’ from someone else’s lips. It was an interesting mixture of heavy content and some of the worst Powerpoint I have [...]

Learning to love the stacks

I’m just starting a new project that involves doing a literature search before getting stuck into interviewing. I spent untold years doing ad hoc research, in a cab-style ‘take the next project’ sort of way, and I can’t tell you what a complete pleasure it is to be allowed to go and look at the [...]

Generation Y as managers

One of the most interesting projects I’ve worked on recently was a study for the Chartered Management Institute on understanding young managers at work.  The report, which is published tomorrow, shakes out some of the myths about young workers as ambitious fly-by-night – well, they’re certainly ambitious and impatient, but you still need to know [...]

10 tips for productive online conversations

I’ve been trying to have online conversations for a while now, in different spheres of my life, and here are my top 10 tips for running online forums and groups.  There may be more along later, but these are the ones that occur to me first. 1. Aim for an intimate public conversation Conversational style [...]

Can researchers engage?

Ray Poynter has an interesting item on what he calls Insight 2.0 – the implications of participatory culture (OK, Web 2.0) for clients.   One implication is the short-circuiting of formal research and research management by decision-making departments who are keen to listen to their customers more closely (possibly, without the filter of those pesky researchers). [...]