Costello Research Teams

We’ve all become familiar with the pandemic-related reasons behind the upheaval in the labor market, as well as the standard-issue solutions like trying to infuse work with purpose or offering employees remote working. While these are practical suggestions, they have not restored stability to the workforce. It is our contention that any broad-brush advice for retaining employees in the current environment will be insufficient. Whether managers like it or not, employees will demand sensitivity and adjustment to their psychological needs as individuals.

Victoria Grady, associate professor of management and program director of the Masters of Science in Management at Mason, has a new book, Stuck: How to WIN at Work by Understanding LOSS, which is the result of years of research and writing with her co-author Patrick McCreesh, an adjunct management professor at Mason. Stuck plumbs an area of psychology known as attachment theory, first developed in the mid-20th century by John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst.

Recent research from Heather Vough, associate professor of management at Mason, argues that gaffes have potential negative consequences that go far beyond an awkward or uncomfortable moment.

Women who join tech companies must find a way to navigate a toxic workplace. Mandy O’Neill's forthcoming paper in Organization Science, written with Natalya M. Alonso of Haskayne School of Business, documents the “sexist culture of joviality” among trainees at a Latin American site run by a major U.S. tech company.

“We all approach the world with knowledge that is infused by our own values,” says Matthew Cronin, co-author (with Laurie R. Weingart) of the research study Conflict Across Representational Gaps: Threats to and Opportunities for Improved Communication.