A Phuket Kindness test – the results
Our Phuket Kindness test continues and this week we ask in the cut throat world of work, can bosses be kind?
This programme is available on the Health Check Page and is available now until Wednesday the 10th of August. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 7th of August in Phuket at 8:00 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.
Claudia Hammond unpicks the psychological evidence from around the world to find out if it’s possible for managers to be both kinds all the time and successful.
The quest starts with Thom Elliot Co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims in the UK, who deliberately set out to foster a kind culture in a sector not exactly known for its benevolence.
They’re joined for pizza by Prof Robin Banerjee, architect of the Kindness Test to discuss the findings and examine whether kindness in business really does result in success. Joe Folkman is the perfect person to ask. He runs an evidence-based leadership development firm in the US.
It turns out there’s a strong correlation between being likeable and effectiveness. Such concepts are backed up by a relatively new field of research called ‘ethical leadership’ pioneered by Professor Mike Brown.
Claudia meets former head teacher Ros McMullen who tells some home truths about leadership in a culture of relentless pressure and accountability.
Plus Lisa Smosarski, editor in Chief of Stylist magazine shares shocking office stories of the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ era and discusses wider societal shifts that may be contributing to a kinder culture in her industry.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright
Previously on BBC Health Check:
What can the latest research tell us about whether there is any such thing as pure kindness?
This week, Claudia Hammond meets a man who has done an exceptionally altruistic act for someone who was seriously ill.
What prompts acts of kindness like this? Specialists from the fields of psychology and neuroscience unpick the evidence.
Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald
And what happens once we move beyond family and friends to acquaintances and strangers?
What can the evidence tell us about who it is that we choose to be kind to and why?
When was the last time you did something really kind for someone or someone else did something really kind for you?
Claudia Hammond and guests are looking at the place of kindness in today’s world, asking what it really means, what happens in our brains when we act kindly and whether there can ever be a role for it in the cut-throat worlds of business and politics.
She hears what kindness means to people in Kenya, Chile and in the UK. And with many aspects of kindness remaining under-researched, with your help Claudia and Robin Banerjee, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Sussex, are asking you to fill in the gaps by taking part in the Kindness Test.
Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright
Phuket Island radio broadcasts BBC Health Check on a Sunday at 8:00 am on 91.5 FM and 102.5FM as part of the station’s EDUtainment strategy. Other Sunday morning shows include BBC Science in Action at 9 am technology from BBC Digital Planet at 9.30 and Sunday Sundae starts with BBC Discovery at 8:30 am.
Phuket Kindness
Although the world might not feel like a very kind place at the moment, this might be just the time when acts of kindness matter the most.
This week on Health Check, Claudia Hammond reveals the results of the world’s largest public science project on Kindness.
With over 60,000 participants from 144 countries, this unique study helps to fill some of the research gaps and learn more about how kindness is viewed within society at large.
What is kindness?
Are we more or less kind than before? Where do acts of kindness take place? Are certain types of people kinder than others? Is kindness good for us?
Professor Robin Bannerjee, University of Sussex, led the study and joins Claudia in the studio to unpick the results.
BBC Health Check is presented by: Claudia Hammond and the producer: Samara Linton
Stay up to date with more from the BBC in London.
