Leading business minds

Prison officers rely on a specific set of de-escalation techniques to shape the atmosphere around them and prevent violence before it starts. This ‘atmospheric work’ goes far beyond managing physical space – it's an active, moment-to-moment skill that officers develop through sensing rising tension, and either amplifying it as a deterrent or dampening it before it boils over. The implications reach well beyond prison walls: as security personnel become a bigger presence in shops, schools and other everyday settings, understanding how they read and control atmosphere matters for anyone who encounters them, according to research by 3 academics associated with Cambridge Judge Business School.

Many studies over the decades have examined how diversity affects team performance. Yet those studies did not also explore the role that status plays in how diversity impacts team functioning and results. Research by Professor Prithviraj Chattopadhyay and Professor Elizabeth George of Cambridge Judge fills this scholarship gap.

Research on innovation in organisations usually focuses on the actual adoption of new technologies. Research by Dr Virginia Leavell of Cambridge Judge says the preceding period in which tech is analysed, budgeted and planned for is a crucial period in which companies can avoid being constrained by past experience and get the most out of innovative opportunities.