Contemporary economic models present the typical consumer as deliberative and highly forward-looking, not subject to impulsive behavior. Shopping for a product or a service is seen as an information-gathering exercise in which the buyers look for the best possible deal for products and/or services they have decided to purchase. Consumption choices represent optimizing within an environment of deliberation, control, and long-term planning. Whether such a picture is accurate it...

I have learned that not all time is the same quality. In times when I am very alert, rested, focused and efficient, I can be three to five times as productive as other times. My goal is to have more of these highly productive hours. This harkens back to Stephen Covey's Seventh rule of Highly Effective People - sharpening the saw. The vignette is of a wood cutter who is desperately sawing at a huge tree. A passerby asks the woodcutter why he does not sharpen the saw so he c...

Most of us, if not all of us have felt nervous at one time or another in our lives. Public speaking is something that makes most of us nervous. All those eyes staring straight at us. That's a lot of attention thrust our way. We feel the butterflies take flight, and they usually don't land until we're done with our speech. Aren't we glad we're done! Nerves and other feelings like feeling scared are natural and very necessary. Ever wonder how you'd react or what would happen to...

Is high performance achieved through sympathetic management, or discipline and fear? This question was first put in the 1920s, and has made repeated appearances in managerial literature - indeed, most of those who have done a management training course will have heard of Likert?s ?System 4? or McGregor?s ?Theory Y?. For a long time, however, it was a matter of personal conviction which option you went for, despite repeated attempts by the human relations and related schools o...

Why do managers use temporary contracts and agency staff? Sometimes it is for short-term projects. But often it is simply a device to try and get round the constraints of employment legislation, in the hope of keeping flexibility in an uncertain future ? in essence, shifting the risk of job security from the firm to the individual. Of course, European legislation has recently made this more difficult. But there is a bigger question underlying the practice: whether using tempo...

So, you?ve started your own business. You saved the money, carefully constructed a business plan, thoroughly studied your potential consumers or clients based on their needs for your product or service, rented a space from which to work, hired a few people, and posted the ?Open? sign on the door. But wait ?more goes into business management that just planning your business, hiring employees, and selling a product or service. As a business owner, you need to consider risk mana...

Focus is a very interesting thing. It?s kind of confusing for a lot of people. Sometimes people have focus when they don?t know that they?re focused. Some people just can?t seem to focus. Some people find that they?re focusing on the wrong things, and not the things they want to focus on. It?s difficult to measure. Focus is a concept. It?s very difficult to say, ?I?m focused" right? Versus, ?I?m not focused,? because it?s very, very subjective. Where?s the focus scale? How...

PT Barnum (born Phineas Taylor Barnum) is best known for being a great showman who staged elaborate extravaganzas through his world-famous Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, a top attraction during the latter-1800s. For many of today's PR professionals, he is also the first great PR man. Barnum first made it to the public eye in 1835 when he staged exhibits showcasing a blind and near-paralyzed African-American woman named Joice Heth whom he claimed was the nu...

Everybody suffers from anxiety at some point or anther. Anxiety is just a normal part of everyday life. It can actually be a useful emotion in helping us to cope with stressful situations. Other times, anxiety can be out of control and interfere with our ability to function normally in stressful situations even if the stress is just manufactured in our minds. There will always be reasons to feel anxious. All ages experience anxiety. Children feel it in school before a test...

Worry, fear, and anxiety are a normal part of our life. Have you experienced feeling anxious before taking an exam and later find out that you got a higher result more than what you?ve expected? Or, feeling anxious for a job interview and ended up getting hired, or feeling frightened walking down an alley where bad things often happened? Normal anxiety helps us cope in any stressful situation, it also keeps us watchful. Mental health professional are not concerned with nor...