Tag: The Conversation

I recently conducted a study on a broad range of workplace issues, including how the stress of our increasingly divisive politics is affecting worker health, productivity and relationships with colleagues. But politics seem to be dividing Americans more and more. Over a quarter said political divisions have increased their stress levels, making it harder to get things done. For example, back in September 2016, 17 percent of those surveyed by the American Psychological Association said they felt tense or stressed out as a result of political discussions at work. The association did a follow-up survey in May 2017 already revealing increased stress levels, a drop in worker productivity and other consequences following the election of Donald Trump. My data put it at 26 percent. What managers can do After conducting this study, I wondered what company managers are doing about politics-related stress in the workplace. The key point is that the business leaders I spoke with tended to agree that managers need to get their heads out of the sand and address the problem head on. At the end of the day, there’s little companies can do about how politically divided the nation becomes. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, over the last 18 years, has maintained strong political, military and economic relations – sometimes welcome, sometimes not – with these countries and their leaders in an attempt to keep them on Russia’s side. Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war and its growing alliances with Iran and Turkey makes maintaining influence over the South Caucasus states even more enticing for Putin. In extending the rule of Sargsyan, Armenia followed the Putinist model of government. The grand bargain of this model is the promise of political stability in exchange for closed-door politics. Armenia and Russia are still close allies and likely will remain allies no matter who succeeds Sargsyan. As in Armenia, Russia did not export the Putinist model to these places so much as these leaders eagerly adopted it. Nor will Russia’s. Sargsyan could build a similar model of influence over Armenian affairs and continue his own “politics of eternity.” Sargsyan’s forced resignation was a blow to the Putinist model of leadership. It is simply a loud and important statement by fiercely independent Armenians. This article was originally published on The Conversation.