Organisational Behaviour

This paper explores the notion of organisation health as a factor contributing to the organisation's ability to learn and create its future. Ill health or dysfunctionality is seen as blocking learning and change. The authors develop a diagnostic map, drawn from a psychodynamic perspective. This map aims to help change consultants pinpoint the blocks to a healthy organisational culture in order to be more specific in their interventions to the client system.

This chapter discusses the psychoanalytic foundations of organizational paradox. It argues that psychoanalytic theories offer a framework for the study of emotions in organizations and for the paradoxical tensions arising from emotions. It develops an analytical framework to discuss three core constructs of psychoanalytic thinking: unconscious emotions; defense mechanisms; and “the analytic attitude,” which is used to gain awareness of unconscious emotions, and as the basis of interventions to balance the contradictions (or paradoxical nature) of defense mechanisms. These constructs manifest in three dimensions of the workplace: among leaders, within groups, and in the organization itself. In the leadership dimension a new concept, the paradox of authority, to describe the tension between internal pulls and external roles that both support and undermine leadership, is introduced. It is shown how psychoanalytic theory can help to comprehend the power relationships embedded in implici...

A novel decision bias, called the evaluation bias (EB), was reported by White et al. (2014). In a sequence of two stimuli of opposite affective valence, evaluating the first stimulus leads to a more contrasting evaluation for the second one, compared to when the first stimulus is just observed. The EB is consistent with a long tradition of constructive influences or decision biases in questionnaire judgments. The prediction of the EB was based on the application of a quantum probability model, taking advantage of the unique role of evaluations in quantum probability. In the present work, we develop the quantum model so as to examine whether similar predictions are possible in the context of real questionnaires, where precise control over the relative valence of stimulus pairs is impossible. It is shown that an EB prediction can be extracted and we test this prediction in an organizational opinion survey, administered to a range of organizations across four experiments (total N = 868 and 84 organizations) and with two different languages. In all experiments, there was clear evidence for an EB. We examine the result with the quantum model and Hogarth and Einhorn's (1992) belief-adjustment model. Both models can broadly capture the empirical findings and so offer promise for providing a formal understanding of constructive influences.

This article examines the role of strategic leadership groups in radical organisational change. Previous research has focused on how ‘heroic’ individual leaders guide change. In contrast, we argue that strategic leadership groups are indispensable to understanding and supporting radical organisational change. Building on a longitudinal study in a global European company, our research identifies four phases of ‘negotiated order’ that shape group and organisational responses to change. Our findings reveal that strategic leadership groups help manage emotions and understand the shifting authority relations that inevitably arise during periods of change. Drawing upon the psychoanalytic concept of ‘projective identification’, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the tensions of change. The model shows how emotional coalitions that develop in strategic leadership groups afford a source of political and psychological containment against the anxieties of radical organisation...

Abstract The ability of humans to display bodily expressions that contradict mental states is an important developmental adaptation. The authors propose that mind–body dissonance, which occurs when bodily displayed expressions contradict mentally experienced states, signals that the environment is unusual and that boundaries of cognitive categories should be expanded to embrace atypical exemplars. Four experiments found that mind–body dissonance increases a sense of incoherence and leads to category expansion.

Because the choice to trust is inherently risky, people naturally assess others' trustworthiness before they engage in trusting actions. The research reported here suggests that the trust development process may start before the conscious assessment of trustworthiness, via the activation of a relational schema.

Abstract A complete model of smile interpretation needs to incorporate its social context. We argue that embodied simulation is an unlikely route for understanding dominance smiles, which typically occur in the context of power. We support this argument by discussing the lack of eye contact with dominant faces and the facial and postural complementarity, rather than mimicry, that pervades hierarchical relationships.

The ability of humans to display bodily expressions that contradict mental states is an important developmental adaptation. The authors propose that mind-body dissonance, which occurs when bodily displayed expressions contradict mentally experienced states, signals that the environment is unusual and that boundaries of cognitive categories should be expanded to embrace atypical exemplars. Four experiments found that mind-body dissonance increases a sense of incoherence and leads to category expansion. Recalling a happy memory while frowning or a sad event while smiling, listening to sad music while smiling or happy music while frowning, and assuming an expansive posture while being in a low-power role or a constricted posture while being in a high-power role all led to higher category inclusiveness compared to when the body and mind were coherent. The ability to display bodily expressions that contradict mental states may be an important foundation for the capacity of humans to embrace atypical ideas.

Travis Proulx and Michael Inzlicht offer an intriguing and ambitious model that seeks to parsimoniously capture the full range of meaning threats and the many psychological mechanisms that people use to cope with those threats. In this commentary, we articulate both our agreements and our disagreements with their meaning maintenance model (MMM). In general, we find the model both compelling and intriguing, and we find promise in several of its core assertions. However, we believe the current model, like any incipient model, has yet to incorporate some critical core constructs. In addition to sharing our views in this commentary, we raise questions that future theoretical and empirical work could pursue to offer greater clarification and lead to a more complete model.

The promise of ODeL and ICTs’ capacity to effectively and efficiently address the educational challenges facing Africa in terms of access to quality and relevant education could remain wishful thinking if the integration of these two innovative tools into educational processes is not subject to the formulation of conducive policies and systematic planning of their introduction in education systems. The African Virtual University, the premier Pan-African institution in ODeL provision and an enabler organization for many tertiary education institutions on the continent, has developed an ICT Master Plan covering the period 20142019 to chart how ICTs can be used in ODeL methodologies and approaches to not only meet its own organizational developmental needs to deliver its mission but also to guide African countries in creating conducive eco-systems for maximizing the impact of information and communication technologies on educational processes and outcomes.

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar o desempenho do RH em empresas brasileiras, a partir do modelo das Quatro Faces da GRH, proposto por Tanure, Evans e Pucik (2007): o executor, o construtor, o parceiro de mudança e o navegador. Para tal, foram utilizados dados secundários de uma survey com 172 presidentes das 500 maiores empresas no Brasil; e se analisaram os resultados de um estudo de caso, realizado em uma empresa financeira - Brasilprev. Os dados do estudo de caso foram coletados por meio de 14 entrevistas individuais, de três grupos focais com 15 colaboradores de diversos níveis hierárquicos, e de 68 questionários. Os resultados da survey com os presidentes indicaram que o RH é considerado predominantemente executor em empresas de capital nacional; para as de capital multinacional, predomina o RH construtor e o parceiro de mudança. Os resultados do estudo de caso indicam que, na percepção dos colaboradores da Brasilprev, o RH está caminhando para a face de parceiro de mudan...

Recently, questions about gender gaps in science have extended to academic technology transfer. Using systematic data on US medical school faculty, we capture both behavior and performance, examining the hypothesis that women are less likely than men to commercialize their research findings. We pooled faculty invention data from ten departments in three Academic Health Centers from 1991 to 1998-a period when patenting had become prevalent and other researchers note that a gender gap was pronounced. Rather than focusing on patenting, we capture the first step in the commercialization process, as well as the subsequent successful licensing of faculty inventions to a company. We find no significant gender differences in the likelihood of reporting inventions or successfully commercializing them. We do find differences in the number of inventions reported, however, with women disclosing fewer inventions than their male counterparts. Our results demonstrate that gender effects are highly conditioned by employment context and resources. We attribute differences in our findings with regards to gender to the use of outcome measures that capture both behavior and performance, and the inclusion of a more extensive set of control variables.