真正能在一個組織中促成改變的人是誰？不見得總是擔任最高階主管職務的人。越來越多的研究顯示，非正式領導者的重要性不容忽視。研究人員稱這些人為「中間人」，特質是具有以積極的新方法把企業員工結為一體的稟賦。

New research by Raina A. Brands of the London Business School and Martin Kilduff of University College London has uncovered a bias surrounding brokerage roles.

倫敦商學院教授蕾娜•布蘭德斯與倫敦大學學院教授基爾杜夫的研究發現，人們對中間人扮演的角色存有偏見。

Professor Brands and Professor Kilduff examined what are known as “friendship networks” within organizations. In this sense, friends are the people you turn to for help, advice and information, whether or not they are in your work group. Simply put, you like and trust them, Professor Brands says. It’s within these friendship networks that much of an organization’s work gets done, Professor Brands says.

布蘭德斯與基爾杜夫檢視一個團隊內部所謂的「友誼網絡」。此處所謂朋友指的是你尋求協助、意見與訊息的對象，無論對方是不是你工作團隊的成員。布蘭德斯表示，簡單的說，你喜歡並信任對方。她說，一個團隊有許多工作是在這些友誼網絡內完成的。

In a study of two separate groups — employees of an electronic- components distributor and a cohort of M.B.A. students — she and Professor Kilduff identified brokers based on the high level of connectivity they displayed. They also identified the people who were perceived by their colleagues to be brokers.

她與基爾杜夫對兩組不同的人進行研究，分別是一家電子零組件經銷商的員工及企管碩士班學生。兩人根據他們展現的高度連結性挑出中間人。他們還挑出被工作夥伴視為中間人的那些人。

Researchers asked members to evaluate their colleagues, including the actual and perceived brokers. This is where gender differences emerged. The researchers found that people tended to ignore the activities of female brokers and to exaggerate how much men served as brokers. If women were recognized as brokers, they were perceived more negatively.

研究人員要求這些成員評估他們的夥伴，包括實際上與感知的中間人。這是性別差異出現的地方。研究人員發現，一般人傾向於忽略女性中間人的活動，同時誇大男性充當中間人所發揮的作用。如果女性被視為中間人，給人的觀感往往比較負面。

“ They incurred reputational penalties,” Professor Brands says. “They were seen as more competent, but less warm.” Other research, she says, has shown that men who take on brokerage roles tend to receive benefits in the form of compensation and promotions, whereas female brokers’ careers are negatively affected.

布蘭德斯教授說：「她們會在聲譽方面遭受懲罰。人們會認為，她們或許能力比較強，卻不那麼和藹可親。」她又說，另有研究顯示，扮演中間人的男性往往會獲得津貼與升遷等實質的好處，女性中間人的職業生涯卻反會受到不利的影響。

Professor Brands and Professor Kilduff also analyzed the performance of the brokers’ teams. They found that women who were thought by their teams to be brokers tended to perform well individually, but at the expense of their overall team’s performance.

兩位教授還分析中間人所屬工作團隊的整體表現，結果發現，被團隊成員視為中間人的女性往往個人的表現比較突出，卻會影響整個團隊的表現。

The professors noted that men are traditionally defined by words like aggressive, forceful, independent and decisive. Women are expected to be kind, helpful, sympathetic and concerned about others.

他們指出，傳統上人們描述男性所用的形容詞不外乎積極進取、強有力、獨立且果斷。對女性的期待則是親切、對別人有幫助、富有同情心及關心別人。

Women are thought to excel in the social realm — so you would think that they would be seen as good work brokers, the researchers said. But “despite the widespread notion of women as social specialists, perceptions of the network position of women will be distorted because of the expectation that brokerage is man’s work,” they wrote.

研究人員說，一般認為，女性在社交領域略勝一籌。因此你會認為，她們會被視為良好的工作中間人。不過他們在研究報告中指出：「雖然多數人認為，女性是社交領域的專家，有關女性的團隊網絡觀感卻會受到扭曲，因為一般人認為，扮演中間人是男性的工作。」

Much of this distortion may be below the level of conscious awareness, Professor Brands says, and simply bringing it to employees’ attention could help minimize the reputational bias that women incur at work.

布蘭德斯教授說，許多扭曲可能是不自覺的，如能使它引起企業員工的注意，或許有助於將女性在職場遭受的聲譽偏見降到最低程度。

已有數百萬兒童經診斷罹患注意力不足過動症（ADHD）。有人擔心，這種症狀有以處方藥物過度治療之虞。

Yet now some in mental health are claiming to have identified a new disorder that could vastly expand the ranks of young people treated for attention problems. Called sluggish cognitive tempo, the condition is said to be characterized by lethargy, daydreaming and slow mental processing.

然而精神醫學界有些人說，他們發現了另一種新疾病，可能使需要接受注意力問題治療的年輕人大幅增加 。它名為「遲鈍認知步調」（SCT），症狀包括沒有活力、做白日夢與心智處理過程緩慢。

Experts pushing for more research into sluggish cognitive tempo say it is gaining momentum toward recognition as a legitimate disorder — and, as such, a candidate for pharmacological treatment.

主張對SCT進行更多研究的專家說，SCT已經逐漸累積列為法定疾病，以及必須接受藥理治療的分量。

The Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology devoted 136 pages of its January issue to papers describing the illness, with the lead paper claiming the question of its existence “seems to be laid to rest as of this issue.” The psychologist Russell Barkley of the Medical University of South Carolina has claimed in research papers and lectures that sluggish cognitive tempo “has become the new attention disorder.”

「兒童異常心理學」期刊一月號以136頁刊載多篇描述這種疾病的研究報告。主要的報告說，這個疾病的存在似乎已經隨著這些報告的發表而「毋庸置疑」。南卡羅來納醫科大學心理學家巴克萊在多項研究報告與演講中指出，SCT已經成為「新的注意力疾病」。

Keith McBurnett, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said: “When you start talking about things like daydreaming, mind-wandering, those types of behaviors, someone who has a son or daughter who does this excessively says, ‘I know about this from my own experience.’ They know what you’re talking about.”

舊金山加州大學精神病學教授麥柏尼特說：「你開始談論做白日夢、心思遊移等行為的話題時，兒子或女兒也有相同問題的某人會說，『我因為自己的經驗而對此頗有瞭解』。他們知道你在說什麼。」

Yet some experts, including Dr. McBurnett , say there is no consensus on the new disorder’s symptoms, let alone scientific validity. They warn that the concept’s promotion without vastly more scientific rigor could expose children to unwarranted diagnoses and prescription medications.

然而包括麥伯尼特在內的部分專家說，醫學界尚未就這種新疾病的各種症狀取得共識，遑論科學上的有效性。他們並警告，如果未經更嚴謹的科學研究就逕行宣傳這個觀念，可能導致孩子們接受沒有根據的診斷與處方藥治療。

“We’re seeing a fad in evolution: Just as A.D.H.D. has been the diagnosis du jour for 15 years or so, this is the beginning of another,” said Dr. Allen Frances of Duke University in North Carolina. “This is a public health experiment on millions of kids.”

北卡羅來納州杜克大學的法蘭西斯教授說：「一種一時流行的觀念正在演進中。就像過去15年，ADHD是主流診斷項目，這是另一種趨勢的開始。這是針對數百萬孩子展開的公衛實驗。」

Though the concept of sluggish cognitive tempo, or S.C.T., has been researched since the 1980s, it has not been recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, used by the American Psychiatric Association.

醫學界早自1980年代即已開始研究SCT的概念，然而它迄未獲得美國精神醫學學會的「精神疾病診斷與統計手冊」承認。

Steve S. Lee, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said he was conflicted over the psychology journal’s emphasis on sluggish cognitive tempo. He expressed concern that A.D.H.D. had already grown to encompass too many children with common youthful behavior, or whose problems are derived from inadequate sleep, a different learning disability or other sources.

洛杉磯加大心理學副教授史帝夫李表示，「兒童異常心理學」期刊對SCT的強調令他感到矛盾。他擔心的是，ADHD已經納入太多青少年時期行為相同的孩子，或者問題肇因於睡眠不足、有不同的學習障礙或其他原因的孩子。

About two-thirds of children with an A.D.H.D. diagnosis take medication that quells impulsiveness and inattention but carries risks for insomnia, appetite suppression and, for teenagers and adults, abuse.

經診斷患有ADHD的孩子大約2/3服用可紓解衝動或注意力不集中等狀況的藥物，但同時承擔失眠、食慾不振，以及青少年、成人都可能濫用等風險。

“The scientist part of me says we need to pursue knowledge, but we know that people will start saying their kids have it, and doctors will start diagnosing it and prescribing for it long before we know whether it’s real,” Dr. Lee said. “A.D.H.D. has become a public health, societal question, and it’s a fair question to ask of S.C.T. We better pump the brakes more diligently.”

史帝夫李說：「我科學的那一面說，我們必須追求知識。不過我們也知道，人們會開始說自己的孩子有這種問題。遠在我們確定是否真有其事之前，醫師就會開始診斷並開立處方藥。ADHD已經成為一個公衛與社會問題。對SCT也該有這方面的量。我們最好多踩踩煞車。」