A comprehensive new review published in the Journal of Management synthesizes decades of research to understand the epidemic of workplace loneliness. By analyzing 233 empirical studies, researchers from Portland State University have identified how workplace conditions contribute to isolation and offer evidence-based paths to reconnection.

The research emphasizes that loneliness is distinct from social isolation. While isolation is about being alone, loneliness is the subjective feeling that one’s social relationships are deficient—meaning employees can feel deeply lonely even in a crowded office.

"Given the connection between workplace characteristics and loneliness, organizations should consider that loneliness is not a personal issue, and instead is a business issue," said Berrin Erdogan, professor of management at Portland State. "Businesses have an opportunity to design jobs and organizations in a way that will prioritize employee relational well being."

What kinds of marketing messages are effective — and what makes people believe certain political slogans more than others? New research from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management explores how people constantly evaluate whether messages are true or false and finds that a surprisingly small ingredient — whether a word has an easy opposite — can shape how confident people feel when deciding whether a message is true.

PBMs' slim profit margins may be strongly influenced by their accounting practices, and widespread industry consolidation has made assessing PBM profitability more difficult.

Financial penalties for Medicare readmissions have hit some hospitals harder than they should, for a seemingly unrelated reason: They happen to serve higher percentages of older adults who have chosen to enroll in Medicare Advantage plans.

 

A new study reveals that people are far more emotionally affected by anticipating negative future outcomes than by imagining positive ones, helping to explain why many individuals avoid uncertainty and prefer decisions to be resolved sooner rather than later.