Johnny Mccullor
August 10, 2012
Bus 311 Research

Correlational Research are used for various reasons such as researched in research experience. You may see the outcome of the research, but how can it be used? I believe the well known Stanford Prison Experiment, popular in Sociology can be used in the workplace, as far as stopping negativity or controlling it and seeing what it can do to the moral of staff.
Body (3 paragraphs)
The study I chose was the Stanford Prison Experiment, which is information that can be used in prisons to date to help manage the prison population for various reasons. The variables were the participants themselves. All of the same age, background, and education, but some were made prisoners and some guards. The variable is the role they played in the research experiment. The researchers were able to mentally manipulate the prisoners in to thinking the guards were bigger and stronger than they were, but they were in fact not. The overall experiment was to determine what the impact of prison life has on someone mentally and physically. I believe the warden or manager that is running the prison could use this data to begin the rehabilitation process immediately. In the study the mental breakdown began immediately. This would also be a tough sell; they did after all do something to get them there and were unable to be contributing citizens. Outside a prison you may use this at work and the two variables would be how do Help Desk staff react to negative change verses trainers who are on the road more. Is there more of a negative mental impact to those that sit in the office all day at their cubicle then those that get to be out on the road, and are more removed from the day to day reminders and impacts. The impact in the prison is negative, and many negative things can happen in the workplace for many reasons. Some people see simple change as negative. How can a manager better communicate with their staff across the board, regardless of physician location throughout the day? For those in the office, the communication could be made more of an activity, a planned event then just an announcement or lack thereof.
Conclusion
Negativity cab be consuming in the workplace, and was shown in the Stanford Prison Experiment as well. I believe negatively can also impact a whole team and spreads quickly. Managers can use these types of variables to see how to stop the negativity, or how to prevent it all together
References
AIU (2011) Unit Five Course Material Text
Bluman, A. G. (2010). Elementary statistics: A step by step approach, a brief version. (5thed.). New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Ratnesar, Romesh (n.d.) Stanford Magazine. The Menace Within. Retrieved August 15, 2012 from website: http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2011/julaug/ features/spe.html
Zimbardo, Philip G (1999 – 2011) Stanford Prison Experiment. A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University