Wise enough to play the fool?
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4033731
Jun 2nd 2005
From The Economist print edition
In praise of lovable bunglers
IT IS a universal dilemma. What to do with the jerk at work, the person
who is so disliked by their colleagues that no one wants to work with
them? The traditional answer is to tolerate them if they are at least
half-competent-on the grounds that competent jerks can be trained to
be otherwise, while much-loved bunglers cannot.
An article in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review suggests
that such an approach seriously underestimates the value of being
liked. In a study of over 10,000 work relationships at five very
different organisations, Tiziana Casciaro and Miguel Sousa Lobo,
academics at Harvard Business School and the Fuqua School of Business
respectively, found that (given the choice) people consistently and
overwhelmingly prefer to work with a "lovable fool" than with a
competent jerk.
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