Employee resistance to organizational change: managerial influence tactics and leader-member exchange

The authors explored the relationship between managerial influence tactics and employee resistance to organizational change. Using attribution theory, the authors developed a series of hypotheses concerning the effects of influence tactics on employee resistance to change and the ways in which these relationships are moderated by leader-member exchange. Results, which are based on multisource data, suggest that employee resistance reflects both the type of influence a manager uses and the strength of leader-member exchange.     

A dyadic assessment of how couples indicate their commitment to each other

This study investigated the behaviors couples use to indicate their commitment in romantic relationships and explored the complex ways in which these behaviors are interconnected. Survey data were collected from 121 romantically involved couples in the United States. Dyadic analysis of the data revealed that the greater the levels of commitment, the more frequent the use of certain behaviors to indicate commitment. In addition, couples were similar in their use of the indicators, tended to project their self‐perceptions onto their partners, and had a degree of accuracy in perceiving their partners’ use of indicators. The research sheds light on some of the complex ways intimate couples experience and express commitment in the everyday lives.     

The Implicit Domain in Couples and Couple Therapy

At this point in the evolution of our field, developments in psychoanalysis and family systems, as well as findings from cognitive neuroscience and research in infant development are pointing to convergences in our understanding of the human experience. One central point of convergence has been the understanding of implicit modes of experience, particularly as this relates to affective communication. Through the lens of couples and couple therapy, this paper examines the ways in which the patterning of couple and family relationships takes place in the enactive domain through nonconscious, implicit communication processes. With the understanding that it is in the nature of implicit experience that it must be enacted to be accessed, this paper argues that some of that which is stored in the implicit domain remains embedded and enacted in one's most intimate relationships and therefore can only be accessed within the context of those relationships. This paper then explores some of the implications of implicit processes as this relates to the triad of the therapist and the couple in couple therapy.     

The temporality of intimacy: Promise,world, and death

This paper explores the temporal character of intimacy. I begin by examining the significance of “promise” and “habit” in intimate relationships. These themes are developed through the work of M. Merleau-Ponty and J.H. van den Berg to reveal the embedded or en-worlded character of intimacy. These analyses help to articulate and to problematize the sense we often have of “established” relationships as possessing a fixed, already determined character. The final section discusses the issues of intimacy that surround the situation of dying. Specifically, it analyses (1) ways in which the issue in death is the stripping away of one's world, but also ways in which the meaning of one's death is still something futural, and thus “to be shaped”; and, (2) ways in which the shaping of this meaning with intimate others is significant both for the one manifestly dying and for those whose death seems distant.     

Systems Theory,Family Attachments and Processes of Triangulation: Does the Concept of Triangulation Offer a Useful Bridge?

This article reviews the usefulness of the systemic concept of triangulation as a bridge between systemic thinking and practice and attachment theory. Traditionally attachment theory has theorized and researched with dyads, parent‐child and adult romantic partners, whereas systemic theory has worked therapeutically with the triangle as the basic human relationship; that is, when any two people interact, their interactions are influenced by their respective relationships with the same third person. Here it is argued, for example, that a child's attachment representations are shaped not only by the relationship with each parent but with the relationship between them. Thus, the process of triangulation in intimate relationships is seen in this article to link attachment theory with systemic thinking, as systemic theory needs a theory of love and attachment theory needs to consider how intimate relationships are nested and interconnected in an attachment network.     

Images: Preliminary scale construction

Abstract

In a series of papers, Bagarozzi and Giddings outlined a theoretical model of mate selection and marital interaction based upon principles of cognitive matching (Bagarozzi, 1982, 1986; Bagarozzi&Giddings, 1983, 1984). Briefly, this theory postulates that individuals seek out, develop intimate relationships with, and eventually marry persons whom they perceive to: (a) possess specific personality traits, qualities and characteristics; (b) share similar values, beliefs, and ideas concerning husband/wife roles; and (c) subscribe to a similar set of rules and assumptions governing interpersonal power, distributive justice, and the exchange of value messages between intimates. Essentially, one marries a person whom he/she perceives to fit an internal cognitive model or schema of an “ideal spouse.” The term “ideal” does not denote perfection. It merely represents an enduring image that becomes a standard against which all prospective mates are judged and evaluated. This cognitive matching takes place at both conscious and unconscious levels of awareness.     

Suicidal women and their relationships with husbands, boyfriends, and lovers

This study describes the specific conflicts which suicidal women experience in their intimate relationships with men. Fifty women who had made suicide attempts were studied with a focus on the contributing role of their relationships with men to the genesis of the suicidal acts. Four major themes were found in the relationships: "smothering love", infidelity, battering, and denial of affection. The women experienced these conflicts as major precipitants in their suicidal behaviors. Examples of the four themes are described and analyzed.     

How prisoners and their partners experience the maintenance of their relationship during a prison sentence

Research shows that intimate relationships, and their maintenance via prison visits, have a positive impact on factors associated with prisoner well‐being and reduced likelihood of recidivism. It is therefore in the interest of corrections, government, and wider society to enable prisoners to maintain healthy relationships with their family and intimate partners throughout their prison sentence. Despite this evidence, little is known about how prisoners experience the maintenance of a significant intimate relationship in prison. This study aims to explore heterosexual couples' experiences in maintaining their well‐established intimate relationships, while the male partner is incarcerated. Four main themes were identified: how they experienced “having a special connection” that they were motivated to maintain; “coping with challenges and threats” to that connection; “developing reciprocal behaviours” to meet those challenges; and “maintaining a belief in the future.” Implications for how the relational context of rehabilitation can best be supported is considered.     

When it is better to give than to receive: long-term health effects of perceived reciprocity in support exchange

The authors examined esteem enhancement theory and equity theory in explaining the long-term health status of men (n = 178) and women (n = 575). Baseline characteristics were measured in 1990-1993, intimate reciprocity in 1993, and recorded sickness absences for a 9-year period during 1993-2001. Among women, giving more support than receiving in intimate relationships positively affected subsequent health status, as indicated by fewer sickness absences. Among men, receiving more support than giving predicted fewer absences. These effects remained even after significant covariates were included in the model. Thus, women seem to benefit from giving support in intimate relationships, and men seem to benefit from receiving support in intimate relationships. The findings on women are in line with the esteem enhancement theory. No support was obtained for the equity theory.     

A Phenomenology of Depth

In this paper, I re-vision the depth metaphor in a more contemporary epistemological frame. Rather than using depth as a “vertical” metaphor referring to the hidden, remote, or regressed, I use depth as a “horizonal” metaphor referring to the dimensionality of experience, to the ways in which all experience is structured in a figure–ground relationship. A foreground is always contextualized in relation to its background, and the series of relationships of form to field, self to world, subject to other constitute the ways in which meaning is formed, unformed, and transformed in a movement that characterizes how experience becomes what it is. The analyst’s role in deepening involves attending to the immediacy of the immersive perceptive moment, where embodied feeling-states might emerge from an unspecified ground, where the gap between what forms and its context becomes the crucible for new meaning. This entails receptivity to absence as much as presence, to the ways in which formation is always a play between what becomes and what it is not yet there.     

Defining a family heritage and a new relationship identity: two central tasks in the making of a marriage

The roles of origin family environmental characteristics and couple consensus-building process within the development of marital relationships were examined prospectively in 16 premarital couples. Three important findings emerged. First, significant correlations were found between dimensions of origin family environment and the reported level of satisfaction within the couple's current relationship. Second, measures of the couple's ability to reach consensus concerning important interpersonal relationships appeared to be important mediators of the association between origin family environment and current relationship satisfaction. Third, important gender differences emerged that replicate and extend prior findings that portray women in the role of "relationship specialist" within their marriages. As a group, these findings were best explained by a developmental model of early marriage that envisions the young couple as facing two entwined tasks: to define both their family heritage and their new relationship identity. Overall, the importance of examining family-of-origin characteristics and consensus-building process as critical determinants of the fate of intimate relationships received strong support. The gender differences found in the literature reviewed, as well as the results of this study, have largely been overlooked by the theory and practice of family therapy. Efforts on both the research and theory construction fronts are needed to increase our understanding of the mechanisms whereby prior family experience is brought forward into current intimate relationships.     

A general strain theory of intimate partner homicide

Men and women who kill an intimate partner experience qualitatively different situations and emotions in the months and weeks preceding the homicide event. Theoretical explanations of intimate partner homicide are either gender-specific or gender-neutral, and, as such, fail to take these gender differences into account. This article extends current theory by presenting a general strain theory of intimate partner homicide. General strain theory suggests that men and women who kill an intimate partner experience different types of strain and emotions, and that homicide occurs in response to these experiences. This application not only affords gender-sensitivity, but also incorporates negative emotions (often neglected by other theory-building), explains coping mechanisms, and combines proximal and distal etiological factors.     

Authenticity as an aim of Psychoanalysis

This paper will present a series of predominantly clinical observations concerning the lengthy work a patient carries out, with the help of the analyst, in order to achieve greater personal authenticity. When this work is drawing to a close and the patient has gained a degree of authenticity, this authenticity remains within him, almost without his realizing it. The power of authenticity is instead revealed through the patient's most intimate and important relationships. In the long term, the patient's authenticity also alters his perception of himself and of his role in the world. He feels more alive and less overcome by a sense of futility, if earlier this had been the case.     

Gender, Mentoring Experiences, and Salary Attainment among Graduates of an Historically Black University

The effects of gender and the development of mentoring relationships on salary attainment were examined among African-American graduates of an historically black institution of higher education. After controlling for a series of background, career, and organizational factors, there were no gender-based pay differences, and only those who had established mentoring relationships with white-male mentors displayed compensation advantages over graduates who had never formed mentoring relationships. These results are comparable to findings reported for majority and minority graduates of majority-culture schools of business and have implications concerning the ways in which companies and individuals work to maximize career potential.     

The Mating Sociometer and Attractive Others: A Double-Edged Sword in Romantic Relationships

Eighty-one participants were recruited to test the sensitivity of the mating sociometer to mate-value feedback in the context of ongoing intimate relationships. Experiences of social rejection/acceptance by attractive opposite-sex confederates were manipulated. The effects of this manipulation on self-esteem, relationship satisfaction and commitment, perceptions of dating alternatives, and friendship-dedication were assessed. Social rejection/acceptance by members of the opposite sex altered relationship satisfaction and commitment; this causal link was amplified by changes in state self-esteem; and these effects were specific to intimate relationships and did not generalize to friendship-dedication. This research supports a domain-specific conceptualization of sociometer theory, extending the theory in important directions.     

To have and to hold: gratitude promotes relationship maintenance in intimate bonds

This multimethod series of studies merges the literatures on gratitude and risk regulation to test a new process model of gratitude and relationship maintenance. We develop a measure of appreciation in relationships and use cross-sectional, daily experience, observational, and longitudinal methods to test our model. Across studies, we show that people who feel more appreciated by their romantic partners report being more appreciative of their partners. In turn, people who are more appreciative of their partners report being more responsive to their partners' needs (Study 1), and are more committed and more likely to remain in their relationships over time (Study 2). Appreciative partners are also rated by outside observers as relatively more responsive and committed during dyadic interactions in the laboratory, and these behavioral displays are one way in which appreciation is transmitted from one partner to the other (Study 3). These findings provide evidence that gratitude is important for the successful maintenance of intimate bonds.     

Assessing the Development of Relationships: A New Measure

This paper describes the development and application of a procedure (The Relationship World Index) to measure the development of intimate relationships. Grounded in symbolic interaction theory, the Relationship World Index is a measure of agreement on important aspects of relationships between members of intimate dyads. The development of the measure was guided by assumptions inherent in symbolic interactionism that predict the emergence of a shared construction of reality that bonds relationship members. Research results are presented providing evidence for the reliability and validity of the measure.     

Empirical tests of aspects of a theory of love as a story

We provide empirical tests of aspects of a theory of love as a story. According to this theory, people develop—as an interaction between their personality and their experiences—stories of what they believe loving relationships should be. Examples of such stories are addiction, mystery, police, and travel stories. They then seek out and find greatest satisfaction with partners whose stories correspond more closely with their own. The data from two studies indicate that the theory and instrument have some promise for understanding people's ways of conceptualizing love. In particular, couples involved in intimate relationships tend to share similar profiles of love stories; the more similar the stories of two members of a couple, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their relationship. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.