Social Psychology Of Organizations Research Articles

Columbia in the Nation’s Service: Warner Burke and the Education of U.S. Army Leaders

In 1969, Columbia University banned Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) from campus. In 2004, Teachers College’s Warner Burke, a senior professor of psychology and Army officer veteran, saw an opportunity to close this civil–military gap. Burke partnered with West Point to educate West Point cadets’ primary leader developers, its 36 company tactical officers, through hosting them annually in a world-class Master of Social-Organizational Psychology. In 2010, Burke welcomed the Army Fellows program to campus, bringing in one or two senior Army officers a year to study under his mentorship. Since Burke courageously showed the way, Columbia has welcomed ROTC back to campus and now boasts the largest numbers of veteran students in the Ivy League. Most recently, Burke built a third program, this one to educate critical Army leaders who historically did not have access to elite higher education, its noncommissioned officer corps.

Unconscious Processes of Organizing: Intergroup Conflict in Mental Health Care

AbstractA critical but overlooked issue in Weick’s seminal work, The Social Psychology of Organizing (1969/1979), concerns ‘the heat’ of organizing processes, namely, the underground emotional processes underpinning the organizing of conflictual work relationships. We present a qualitative case study of psychiatric agencies mandated by public policy to collaborate but instead engaged in persistent conflict despite its deleterious effects on their working relationship and on the wellbeing of the clients they intended to serve. To explain these conflictual features of organizing, we integrate Weick’s organizing theory with systems psychodynamics to deepen the understanding of emotions in organizing, specifically the motivational forces underpinning sensemaking and actions between interacting psychiatric agencies. This integration of theories reveals a critical feature of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious organizing processes: When a threat is involved, sensemaking and action are overtaken by social defences, resulting in dysfunctional organizing of the primary task. Drawing on these findings, we enrich Weick’s seminal work by developing a model that portrays organizing as the ritualized interaction of emotions, sensemaking and behavioural responses.

The social psychology of organizations: Diagnosing toxicity and intervening in the workplace. Joanna Wilde. New York: Routledge, 2016,224 pages

The social psychology of organizations: Diagnosing toxicity and intervening in the workplace. Joanna Wilde. New York: Routledge, 2016,224 pages

Policy Process in Higher Education: The Roles of Higher Education Institutions

In the policy process of higher education, the higher education institutions not only play a role in the policy making process, but also are directly affected by the policies toward building quality culture in their organizations. From this perspective, the paper uses the policy cycle model combined with the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) of Kingdon (1984) and the quality culture model of the European Union Association (EUA) in order to analyze, clarify and propose groups of solutions to enhance the critical role of higher education institutions in policy process.
 Keywords
 Policy entrepreneurs; quality culture; multiple streams framework
 References
 [1] Viennet, Romane, and Beatriz Pont. "Education Policy Implementation: A Literature Review and Proposed Framework. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 162." OECD Publishing (2017). [2] Howells, J., R. Ramlogan, and S. L. Cheng, The role, context and typology of universities and higher education institutions in innovation systems: A UK perspective, Discussion Papers and Project Reports, Impact of Higher Education Institutions on Regional Economics: A Joint Research Initiative, 2008.[3] Dill, David D, and Maarja Soo, Academic quality, league tables, and public policy: A cross-national analysis of university ranking systems, Higher education 49.4: 495-533, 2005.[4] Kraft, Michael E., and Scott R. Furlong. Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives. Sage, 2012.[5] Kingdon, John W, Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies, 2nd edition, New York and London, Longman, 2003.[6] Weick, Karl E, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd ed, New York, Random House, 1979.[7] Feldman, Martha S, Order without Design: Information Production and Policy Kaking, Vol. 231, Stanford University Press, 1989.[8] March, James G, Primer on Decision Making: How Decisions Happen, Simon and Schuster, 1994.[9] Wilson, James Q, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It, Basic Books, 1989.[10] Chow, Anthony, Understanding policy change: multiple streams and national education curriculum policy in Hong Kong, Journal of Public Administration and Governance 4.2 (2014) 49.[12] Zhou, Nan, and Feng Feng, Applying Multiple Streams Theoretical Framework to college matriculation policy reform for children of migrant workers in China, Public Policy and Administration Research 4.10 (2014) 1.[12] Ha, Bui Thi Thu, Tolib Mirzoev, and Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, Shaping the health policy agenda: the case of safe motherhood policy in Vietnam, International journal of health policy and management 4.11 (2015) 741.[13] Kane, Sumit, The Health Policy Process in Vietnam: Going Beyond Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Theory: Comment on “Shaping the Health Policy Agenda: The Case of Safe Motherhood Policy in Vietnam”, International journal of health policy and management 5.7 (2016) 435.[14] European University Association, Quality Culture in European Countries: A Bottom-Up Approach, EUA Publications, 2006. [15] Liên hiệp các hội khoa học và kỹ thuật Việt Nam, Bản kiến nghị đề xuất một số biện pháp nhằm tiến tới cải cách triệt để và toàn diện nền giáo dục VN, 2005.[16] Bingham, Lisa Blomgren, Tina Nabatchi, and Rosemary O'Leary, The New Governance: Practices and Processes for Stakeholder and Citizen Participation in the Work of Government, Public Administration Review 65.5 (2005) 547.

Exteme Enacted Environments in Sensemaking Episodes: A Mixed-method Study of Ferguson Missouri

The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Weick's The Social Psychology of Organizing is catalyzing international research on the anatomy of sensemaking episodes (Tsoukas, Patriotta, Sutcliffe, & Maitlis, 2017). Simultaneously, business schools around the world are being asked to participate in interdisciplinary social science research agendas that have the reduction of human suffering as an explicit global grand challenge (var der Vegt, Essens, Wahlstrom, & George, 2015). In response, we used a mixed-method research methodology to study enacted extreme environments in sensemaking episode. First, we conducted on-the-ground fieldwork in Ferguson, Missouri, with people from several constituencies who experienced the racial unrest after the 9 August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown (an African-American man) in Ferguson, Missouri, in the United States, by a White police officer. Second, we conducted a qualitative meta- analysis of sensemaking episodes embedded in 138 management research articles on extreme contexts (Hallgren, Rouleau, & de Rond, 2018). The juxtaposition of rich data from a single sensemaking episode and rich data from multiple sensemaking episodes allowed us to elaborate nine components of sensemaking episodes: bracketed triggering events, deference-to-expertise leadership, extreme team decision-losing, improvisational retrospective audits, commitment to identity- leveraging improvisation, improvisational social sense-giving, extreme team decision-remaking, reluctance-to-simplify reorganizing, and re- equilibrium tipping points.

Karl E. WEICK (1979), The Social Psychology of Organizing, Second Edition.

Karl E. WEICK (1979), The Social Psychology of Organizing, Second Edition.

‘Space, the final frontier’? Social movements as organizing spaces for applying HRD

This article suggests a qualitatively different type of ‘space’ that fits the classic definition of what constitutes an ‘organization’, but that is frequently rejected as being beyond the scope of HRD because it does not fit preconceived notions of an ‘organization’. In this article, I describe how social movements are spaces analogous to organizations that can enrich our understanding of HRD principles and that may benefit from our professional experience in fostering learning and development for and within organizations. Using concepts of sensemaking in the organizing process (Weick, K. E. 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications) and concepts of space (Foucault, M. 1986. “Of Other Spaces.” Translated by J. Miskowiec. Diacritics 16 (1): 22–27; Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell), I show how the social movement, Occupy Wall Street, can be seen as an important site of HRD practice and research.

How past becomes prologue: a sensemaking interpretation of the hindsight-foresight relationship given the circumstances of crisis

Foresight is rooted in deep understanding [ A.N. Whitehead. Lecture notes from address to the Harvard Business School, 1931]. Such understanding requires that we shall have first looked back to the past before venturing forward into the future. This paper uses Weick’s and colleagues’ sense making perspective in order to explore this critical relationship between the past and the future [ Communication Monographs 44 (1977) 171; Strategic Management Journal, 9 (1986) 559; Human Resource Management, 34(1 Spring) (1995) 27; Academy of Management Journal, 33 (1990) 286; K.E. Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd edn, Random House, Inc., New York, 1979; K.E. Weick, Sense Making in Organizations. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California, 1995]. In particular, key sense making properties will be applied to a crisis, an occurrence of school-place violence that occurred in the United States in 1999. We shall then ask how this organization and its diverse external stakeholders used their understanding of this event to learn how to prevent such crises from occurring in the future. In other words, how capably was hindsight constructed and then how was it used to strengthen foresight into the future? This paper will conduct a theory-based empirical examination of a crisis event and its aftermath to understand how hindsight can be sharpened and then used to improve organizational foresight.

Paradox and Performance: Toward a Theory of Behavioral Complexity in Managerial Leadership

The concept of paradox has received increasing attention in the study of leadership, but these new ideas have not yet had much influence on empirical leadership research. This paper examines the development of these ideas in the literature and attempts to clarify what influence they might have on empirical research. One general implication of the paradox perspective, that more effective leaders generally display a more complex and varied set of behaviors, is then examined empirically with respect to Quinn’s (Quinn, R. E. 1984. Applying the competing values approach to leadership: Toward an integrative model. J. G. Hunt, R. Stewart, C. Schriesheim, D. Hosking, eds. Managers and Leaders: An International Perspective. Pergamon, New York; Quinn, R. E. 1988. Beyond Rational Management: Mastering the Paradoxes and Competing Demands of High Performance. Jossey-Bass Inc., San Francisco, CA.) model of leadership roles. This model is one of few that allows for an empirical test of some of the central ideas developed by the paradox perspective. The paper also contrasts the recent emphasis on cognitive complexity in the organizational literature (Weick [Weick, K. 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. Random House, New York.], Kiesler and Sproull [Kiesler, S., L. Sproull. 1982. Managerial response to changing environments: Perspectives on problem sensing from social cognition. Admin. Sci. Quart. 27548–570.], Streufert and Swezey [Streufert, S., R. W. Swezey. 1986. Complexity, Managers and Organizations. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.]), with the relative lack of attention given to behavioral complexity. Cognitive complexity, the paper argues, may well be a necessary condition for the effective practice of leadership. Behavioral complexity, however, must certainly be the sufficient condition. Leadership must inevitably be performed through action, not cognition, and it would thus appear to be time for leadership researchers to begin to develop theories of behavioral as well as cognitive complexity. The paper also examines several existing leadership theories that are consistent with this point of view (Mintzberg [Mintzberg, H. 1973. The Nature of Managerial Work. Harper and Row, New York; Mintzberg, H. 1975. The manager’s job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Bus. Rev. 5349–61.], Yukl [Yukl, G. 1981. Leadership in Organizations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.]; Bass [Bass, B. M. 1981. Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Theory in Research. Free Press, New York.]), and have (in effect) already offered useful definitions of behavioral complexity. The empirical results of this study come from a study of 176 executives whose leadership role behavior is rated by their subordinates, and whose effectiveness is rated by their superiors. The analysis relies upon a nontraditional analysis technique based on multidimensional scaling that is well suited to this unorthodox analytic problem. The results show that the more effective executives exhibit a greater variety of leadership roles than their less effective counterparts, and that these roles are much clearer to their subordinates. The results also show that more effective executives show much more of the underlying structure of leadership roles proposed by the Quinn model than do less effective executives. Finally, this paper suggests that the concepts of paradox and behavioral complexity are instrumental to a fuller understanding of managerial leadership, and concludes with a discussion of the future research agenda in this area.

The Social Psychology of Organizations and Inequality

Structural explanations of the production of inequality in organizations often mimic economics in their choice of both variables and theoretical accounts. The «new structuralism» typically has neglected important social psychological processes such as social comparison, categorization, and interpersonal attraction and affiliation. This paper illustrates how some basic social psychological tenets can substantially enrich the analysis of the division of labor in organizations, the assignment of wages to positions, and the process through which individuals are matched with work roles

BOOK REVIEW

Heller, F. (Ed.). Decision‐Making and Leadership.Reed, M. The Sociology of Organizations: Themes, Perspectives and Prospects.Hosking, D. M. and Morley, I. E. A Social Psychology of Organizing: People, Processes and Contexts.Whitehill Arthur M. Japanese Management: Tradition and Transition.Hodgkinson, ChristopherEducational Leadership, the Moral Art.Gospel, Howard. Markets, Firms and the Management of Labour In Modern Britain.Mills Albert J. and Murgatroyd, Stephen J., Organizational Rules: A Framework For Understanding Organizational Action.Cooper, C. L. and Roberton, I. T. (Eds.), International Review of Industrial & Organizational Psychology 1992, Volume 7.Bradley, K. (Ed.), Human Resource Management: People and Performance.Gerwin, D. and Kolodny, H. Management of Advanced Manufacturing Technology: Strategy, Organization & Innovation.Gomez‐Mejia, Luis R. and Balkin, David B. Compensation, Organizational Strategy, and Firm Performance.Henry, Jane and Walker, David (Eds.). Managing Innovation.Curran James, and Blackburn, Robert A. (Eds.). Paths of Enterprise: the Future of Small Business.Dastmalchian, Ali, Blyton, Paul and Adamson, Raymond. The Climate of Workplace Relations.

The Application of Organizational Learning Theory to Japanese and American Management

Karl Weick, in The Social Psychology of Organizing, theorized in effect that organizational learning must be governed by a theory of action. Such a theory can be described in terms of variety amplification by senior managers and variety reduction by junior managers. In a study of senior American and Japanese executives, the Japanese showed a stronger commitment to this theory of action than the Americans did. Implications for strategy-setting behavior in both cultures are discussed.

The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2d ed.

The book is generally well written, the study is well documented, and the authors have a sound grasp of the fundamentals and of the agencies involved. Still, it is essentially limited to the Canadian experience. The book could have been enhanced if greater efforts had been made to compare findings within a larger bureaucratic theory to results in other governments. Generally, however, the book contributes to the scientific understanding of administration in that it is a solid, well-based, and well-carried out empirical study of the major agencies of an important government. In this sense, although some of the implications may be limited to Canadian institutions, others are certainly available as a basis for formulating theoretical questions which might be applied to institutions in other governments. The appendix contains a thorough description of the research approach, including the questions used. An additional appendix also summarizes information gathered by the research questionnaire fromr the various agencies, valuable for the development of further research efforts. Because of its relatively successful attempts to relate empirical evidence to bureaucratic theory and the depth with which it examines certain agencies, the book is valuable reading for serious students of the bureaucratic phenomenon and of government function in general.

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Instrumentation for Psychology. By A. CLEARY.Managers and Work Reform. By IVAN BERG, MARCIA FREEDMAN & MICHAEL FREEMAN.Human Relations in Management By SAMUEL D. DEEP.The Social Psychology of Organizations, By DANIEL KATZ & ROBERT L. KAHN.

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Social Psychology of Organizations. By Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn. Wiley, 1978. 2d ed. 838 pp. $16.50

The Social Psychology of Organizations. By Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn. Wiley, 1978. 2d ed. 838 pp. $16.50

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The Regulatory Mechanisms of the Katz and Kahn Framework.

The Katz and Kahn framework (The Social Psychology of Organizations, 1966) provides a comprehensive open system framework suitable for building a role theory of communication, but it is loosely con...

Self-Actualization: Resolving the Individual-Organization Conflict

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesSalvatore R. Maddi, Personality Theories: A Comparative Analysis (Illinois, The Dorsey Press, 1968), p. 86.Thomas J. Sergiovanni, “Factors Which Affect Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction of Teachers,” Organizations and Human Behavior: Focus on Schools, ed. by Fred D. Carver and Thomas J. Sergiovanni (New York, McGraw Hill Book Company, 1969), p. 258.Ibid., p. 257.Ibid., p. 258.Chris Argyris, “Individual Actualization in Complex Organizations,” Organizations and Human Behavior: Focus on Schools, ed. by Fred D. Carver and Thomas J. Sergiovanni (New York,. McGraw Hill Book Company, 1969), p. 196.Douglas McGregor, “The Human Side of Enterprise,” Organizations and Human Behavior: Focus on Schools, ed. by Fred D. Carver and Thomas J. Sergiovanni (New York, McGraw Hill Book Company, 1969), p. 154.Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn, The Social Psychology of Organizations (New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1966), pp. 76–77.