Socioanalytic Perspective Research Articles

Anxieties, defenses and perverse dynamics in a manufacturing firm

AbstractThis paper aims to demonstrate how a socioanalytic perspective deepens an anthropological one. We focused our attention on the instrumentalization of personal and collective anxieties within a small organization, in order to reveal how and why power works. By using psychoanalytic concepts, we were able to draw the space of possibles that nests the relations of dominance. Our research draws on fieldwork conducted in a rural community in Northern Romania. We used participant observation, semi‐structured and unstructured interviews. Relying on the observed vulnerabilities and local idiosyncrasies that create specific necessities and expectations, we tried to show how defense systems, basic assumptions and perverse dynamics shape the organization's culture.

The (in)congruence effect of leaders' narcissism identity and reputation on performance: A socioanalytic multistakeholder perspective.

Judgments about others' personal characteristics intertwine with social interactions in the workplace. The personality and social psychology literatures show forming impressions of what others are like is vitally important, in part, because it facilitates the forecasting and acceptance of others' behavior. Interestingly, very few studies consider others' (i.e., subordinates) judgments about their leaders' personality and whether correspondence between leaders' self-perceptions and these others' judgments is capable of providing meaningful and unique information. Using a socioanalytic perspective that considers multiple stakeholders, this study explores the (in)congruence effects between leaders' self-perception of narcissism (i.e., identity) and subordinates' perceptions of their leaders' narcissism (i.e., reputation) on two types of performance outcomes. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis indicate that congruence between leaders' narcissism identity and subordinates' aggregated ratings of leaders' narcissistic reputation related to group task and contextual performance via shared justice perceptions and collective effort in Study 1. Results of Study 2, which focused on leader-subordinate dyads, found leaders' narcissism identity-reputation congruence effects were related to individual subordinates' task and contextual performance via the subordinate's individual justice perceptions, but not by way of individual effort. These findings have important implications for leaders and organizations and suggest that to fully understand the implications of leaders' narcissism, one should consider the perspectives of interacting parties and how they converge or diverge when investigating relationships with aspects of performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Political Skill and Informal Leadership: A Socioanalytic Perspective

We propose a theoretical model of the socially constructed process of leadership emergence to clarify why and when political skill predicts team members’ emergence as informal leaders within teams. Drawing upon the socioanalytic theory, we propose that team-member exchange (i.e., getting along with others on the path to leadership) and perceived competence (i.e., getting ahead of others on the path to leadership) underlies the relationship between political skill and informal leadership emergence. Additionally, we examine whether outcome interdependence serves as a boundary condition for political skill in team members’ interactions. The results of a multi-time and multi-source survey indicate that politically skilled individuals could acquire informal leadership by getting along with and ahead of others in teams. Further, outcome interdependence enhances the positive effects of political skill on team-member exchange and perceived competence. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of political skill and informal leadership are discussed.

Not using social media. A socioanalytic perspective

This research investigated Facebook avoidance motives from a socioanalytic perspective, by arguing that individuals' motives behind Facebook avoidance are the same as the reasons for using Facebook, namely the need to belong and the need for self-presentation. The difference is that these needs are pursued differently by Facebook non-users. We argued that these differences are driven by protective self-presentation strategies that should characterize Facebook non-users, and that these strategies should be reflected in the content of their mentioned motives for Facebook avoidance. We also hypothesized that emotionality will predict Facebook avoidance and that political skill will moderate this relationship. Political skill is defined as ‘the ability to effectively understand others at work and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one’ s personal and/or organizational objectives' (Ferris et al., 2005). Using a mix of qualitative techniques, five dimensions of Facebook avoidance were identified: (1) Doubt, (2) Fear of rejection, (3) Fear of addiction, (4) Uninterest in exposure, and (5) Fear of conflict. The content of these Facebook avoidance dimensions was interpreted as expressions of protective self-presentation, being positively predicted by personality dimensions that are associated with protective self-presentation such as emotionality, irrespective of the level of political skill. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

‘From where I’m looking it just seems like two people have missed the boat …’: understanding set behaviour from a socioanalytic perspective

Accounts of practice within the action learning literature tend to omit the more mundane session-to-session details of the inner-workings of the action learning set. As well as concentrating on the problem, individuals in all sets spend some of their time in unproductive interpersonal exchanges. These exchanges may be considered trivialities and not worthy of mentioning within an account of practice. The behaviour could, however, hold the key to understanding how the action learning group manages its unconscious anxieties associated with problem solving. In this article, using empirical research from his Ph.D. dissertation, the author explores how the insights developed by Wilfred Bion on groups, their unconscious behaviour and the anxiety of problem solving can help both action researchers and set participants better understand the working of their sets.

Do they know how hard I work? Investigating how implicit/explicit achievement orientation, reputation, and political skill affect occupational status

ABSTRACTResearchers have yet to precisely test the Socioanalytic proposition that social skill moderates the personality identity–personality reputation relationship. Further, although research has found personality to have both explicit and implicit aspects, scholars have not examined these differences with respect to the Socioanalytic perspective on personality. The present study investigates how explicit and implicit achievement orientation identities relate to one’s reputation for that trait in the workplace and to career success, as measured by occupational status. We propose that explicit and implicit achievement orientation, political skill and their interplay positively relate to reputation of achievement orientation at work, which, in turn, is positively related to occupational status. We found that (1) both explicit and implicit achievement orientation were positively associated with its reputation, as rated by co-workers; (2) reputation mediated both relations between implicit/explicit achievement orientation and occupational status and (3) heightened political skill strengthened the relationship between explicit achievement orientation and its reputation, as well as its indirect effect on occupational status via reputation (first stage moderated mediation). Our research provides a potential explanation for why observer ratings of personality are more strongly associated with outcomes than self-ratings: Observers perceive both implicit and explicit personality behaviours.

Career Ambition and Performance: A Socio-Analytic Perspective

Career ambition and its relationship with performance are important but understudied. Drawing on the socio-analytic theory, we develop a model of career ambition framed as ‘getting ahead’ and ‘gett...

Do You Put Your Best Foot Forward? Interactive Effects of Task Performance and Impression Management Tactics on Career Outcomes

ABSTRACTThis study aims to investigate the interactive effects of task performance and impression management tactics on career outcomes from the socioanalytic perspective. Based on a survey of 195 employee-supervisor dyads from various industries in Taiwan, a hierarchical regression analysis revealed that (1) the relationship between task performance and a one-year salary adjustment was greater among employees who frequently employ ingratiation than among those who do not, (2) the relationship between task performance and a one-year salary adjustment was greater among employees who frequently employ exemplification than among those who do not, and (3) the relationship between task performance and career satisfaction was greater among employees who frequently employ self-promotion than among those who do not. This study concludes by suggesting implications for research and practice, and offers some directions for future research.

Political Skill as Moderator of the Trait Sincerity–Task Performance Relationship: A Socioanalytic, Narrow Trait Perspective

Hogan's (e.g., R. Hogan & Shelton, 1998) socioanalytic perspective on performance prediction from personality examines whether personality factors produce greater effects on task performance when interactively combined with measures of social effectiveness. Specifically, this study hypothesized that the relationship between the HEXACO personality facet of sincerity and task performance would be positive for individuals high in political skill (or networking ability) and negative for individuals low in political skill (or networking ability). The results supported the hypotheses for those high in political skill and for those high in networking ability, thus implying that social effectiveness, as a more proximal indicator, energizes personality into action in its effects on performance. Contributions of the results, strengths, and limitations of the study, and directions for future research, are discussed.

Antecedents and Consequences of Peer–Rated Intelligence

The current study investigated the antecedents and consequences of peer–rated intelligence in a longitudinal round robin design, following previously unacquainted members of small student work groups. Results indicated that peer–reputations of intelligence were reliable, stable and weakly correlated with objective intelligence. Bias was shown by correlations with interpersonal liking (decreasing across time) and idiosyncratic rating tendencies (increasing across time). Agreement between self–ratings and peer–reputations increased over time but was not based on increasing accuracy but on reciprocal associations between self–ratings and peer–reputations in the beginning of the acquaintanceship process, and on peer–reputations predicting changes in self–ratings later on. Finally, it was shown that peer–rated intelligence reputations predict academic achievement across two 4–month periods (even when tested intelligence was controlled) and dropout from university after 8 months. Overall, the pattern of results demonstrates the utility of a socioanalytic perspective in analysing personality and social processes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Before the Surrogate of Motivation: Motivation and the Meaning of Work in the Golden Age of the American Whaling Industry Part 2

This article focuses on the meaning of work in organizational contexts during early US industrialization before motivation was invented as a management tool, specifically the American whaling industry. It explores how and to what extent the meaning of work was ultimately lost and ‘perverted’ in whaling, when the industry turned from a profession into a capitalist business that reached its peak by the early 1840s. Written from a socioanalytic perspective, this paper is based on the working hypothesis that while organization studies, and psychoanalytic ones in particular, focus predominantly on contemporary organizations and their respective working conditions as their objects of study, the dramatic changes in the American whaling industry during the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century provide insight into the conscious and unconscious dynamics underlying the transition from an organizational reality based on the relatedness of members of a community to one driven exclusively by profit. While the first part, in Critique 49, 37:3 (2009), pp. 391–413, gave a brief overview of the history of the American whaling industry and elaborated its deterioration of working conditions during the period from 1690 to 1850, this second part contains further reflections on the relatedness of meaning and motivation at work in this industry.

Political skill as moderator of personality – Job performance relationships in socioanalytic theory: Test of the getting ahead motive in automobile sales

Based on the socioanalytic perspective of performance prediction ( Hogan, 1991; Hogan & Shelton, 1998), this study tests whether the motive to get ahead produces greater performance when interactively combined with social effectiveness. Specifically, we investigated whether interactions of the five-factor model constructs of extraversion and openness to experience (i.e., operationalizations of the getting ahead motive in the socioanalytic framework) with political skill predict sales performance. The hypotheses were tested in a sample of 112 car salespersons, and the results supported the extraversion × political skill interaction, but not the openness to experience × political skill interaction. For individuals high on political skill, higher levels of extraversion were associated with higher levels of sales. For individuals low on political skill, higher levels of extraversion were associated with lower levels of sales. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided.

Before the Surrogate of Motivation: Motivation and the Meaning of Work in the Golden Age of the American Whaling Industry Part 1

In an earlier paper, ‘Beyond the Surrogate of Motivation’, the author posits that the fragmentation of organizational work has led to the loss of meaning and thus to the invention of motivation in the second half of the 20th century. In this paper, the focus is on the meaning of work in organizational contexts during early US industrialization, specifically the American whaling industry, before motivation was invented as a management tool. The paper will explore how and to what extent the meaning of work was ultimately lost and ‘perverted’ in whaling, when the industry turned from a profession into a capitalist business that reached its peak by the early 1840s. The paper is written from a socioanalytic perspective and based on the working hypothesis that while organization studies, and psychoanalytic ones in particular, focus predominantly on contemporary organizations and their respective working conditions as their objects of study, the dramatic changes in the American whaling industry during the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century provide insight into the conscious and unconscious dynamics underlying the transition from an organizational reality based on the relatedness of members of a community to one driven exclusively by profit. In the whaling example, this change can be understood partly as one from a profession into a business that finds its expression in the increasing alienation of the work force, its exploitation by ship-owners and captains alike and the exclusive pursuit of money and wealth by ship-owners. (Part 2 will contain some further reflections on the relatedness of meaning and motivation at work in the whaling industry.)

Personality, political skill, and job performance

Based on the socioanalytic perspective of performance prediction [Hogan, R. (1991). Personality and personality assessment. In M. D. Dunnette, L. Hough, (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 873–919). Chicago: Rand McNally; Hogan, R., & Shelton, D. (1998). A socioanalytic perspective on job performance. Human Performance, 11, 129–144.], the present study tests whether motives to get along and to get ahead produce greater performance when interactively combined with social effectiveness. Specifically, we investigated whether interactions of the Five-Factor Model constructs of agreeableness and conscientiousness with political skill predict job performance. Our results supported our hypothesis for the agreeableness-political skill interaction. Additionally, after correcting for the unreliability and restricted range of conscientiousness, we found that its interaction with political skill also significantly predicted job performance, although not precisely as hypothesized. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided.

Power and politics

This special issue emphasizes psycho-/socio-analytic perspectives and elaborations on the relatedness of power and politics at a particularly sensitive moment in history. Both profit and non-profit institutions and organizations have been deeply affected by significant world events as well as their own problematic internal processes, all with profound implications for the economy and for leaders, executives and managers in groups of all kinds, from global corporations to small businesses and community organizations. Employees have been particularly beset as they struggle to remain vital and effective in a time of enormous vulnerability. From a psychoand socio-analytic perspective, there is also a challenge in our current world situation to locate the Self in the Enemy Other and to identify those circumstances that obstruct negotiations and peace initiatives in the most volatile areas of our world (paying attention to the fact that the world is, at least in part, a construction of the mind). The articles selected for this special issue contribute various perspectives on power and politics and its potential impact both on organizations and society at large. They represent an interdisciplinary approach to scholarly research and writing and thus, cross disciplinary boundaries. In his article, ‘Conflict, ambivalence and the contested purpose of public organizations’, Paul Hoggett argues that pubic organizations are inherently more complex than private ones. The public sphere is the site for the continuous contestation of public purposes. Because government partly acts as the receptacle for the alienated subjectivity of citizens, public organizations have to contain much of what is disowned by the society in which they are situated. Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, in ‘The spirit of despotism: Understanding the tyrant within’, focuses on the developmental history of despotic

Using theory to evaluate personality and job-performance relations: a socioanalytic perspective.

The authors used socioanalytic theory to understand individual differences in people's performance at work. Specifically, if predictors and criteria are aligned by using theory, then the meta-analytic validity of personality measures exceeds that of atheoretical approaches. As performance assessment moved from general to specific job criteria, all Big Five personality dimensions more precisely predicted relevant criterion variables, with estimated true validities of .43 (Emotional Stability), .35 (Extraversion-Ambition), .34 (Agreeableness), .36 (Conscientiousness), and .34 (Intellect-Openness to Experience).

A Socioanalytic Perspective on Job Performance

This article presents a perspective on the relation between personality, job performance, and performance appraisal. The article is largely descriptive and discursive, but the key assumptions are primarily data-based. We begin by defining personality in terms of motivation, identity, and reputation-as opposed to traits. We then describe the role of social skills in allowing people successfully to pursue their major occupational goals. Finally, we suggest that performance appraisals reflect supervisors' judgments of rewardingness-the degree to which an incumbent meets or fulfills his or her boss's expectations regarding his or her performance-and these expectations may not necessarily concern the degree to which important organizational goals are met.

A Socioanalytic Perspective on Job Performance

A Socioanalytic Perspective on Job Performance

The Five-factor model of personality: theoretical perspectives

Digman, The Curious History of the Five-Factor Model. Saucier, Goldberg, The Language of Personality: Lexical Perspectives on the Five-Factor Model. McCrae, Costa, Toward a New Generation of Personality Theories: Theoretical Contexts for the Five-Factor Model. Wiggins, Trapnell, A Dyadic-Interactional Perspective on the Five-Factor Model. Hogan, A Socioanalytic Perspective on the Five-Factor Model. Buss, Social Adaptation and Five Major Theories of Personality.