Caring for Nature: From Fact to Value, from Respect to Reverence

Abstract. Despite the classical prohibition of moving from fact to value, encounter with the biodiversity and plenitude of being in evolutionary natural history moves us to respect life, even to reverence it. Darwinian accounts are value‐laden and necessary for understanding life at the same time that Darwinian theory fails to provide sufficient cause for the historically developing diversity and increasing complexity on Earth. Earth is a providing ground; matter and energy on Earth support life, but distinctive to life is information coded in the genetic molecules that superintends this matter‐energy. Life is generated and regenerated in struggle, persists in its perishing. Such life is also a gift; nature is grace. Biologists and theologians join in celebrating and conserving the genesis on Earth, awed in their encounter with this creativity that characterizes our home planet.     

Natures,Human Nature,Genes and Souls: Reclaiming Theological Anthropology Through Biological Structuralism

Abstract : Within the field of Theology and Science, discussions regarding the relationship between biology and theological anthropology have tended to focus on the themes of ‘human uniqueness’ and ‘human nature’. These ideas have continued among theologians and anthropologists despite the widespread agreement among neo‐Darwinian evolutionary biologists that such general or universal accounts of ‘natures’ in general, or ‘human nature’ in particular, have no proper place within the neo‐Darwinian evolutionary framework. In view of this neo‐Darwinian rejection of universal human nature and the subsequent undermining of theological anthropologies based on such, Biological Structuralism is proposed as an alternative theoretical framework through which to construct a theological anthropology in light of evolution. Within the Structuralist framework scientific resources are provided which facilitate fresh perspectives on ancient theological discussions regarding the nature of the soul and the place of nonhuman animals within theological anthropology.     

Exploring reciprocity through the lens of the psychological contract: Employee and employer perspectives

This article explores reciprocity within the exchange relationship between the employee and employer using the psychological contract framework. Specifically, we examine the bi-directionality of the norm of reciprocity. We hypothesize that there will be a positive relationship between perceived employer obligations, fulfilment of obligations, and employee obligations and fulfilment. In addition, we hypothesize that employee fulfilment of obligations will be positively associated with perceived employer obligations. Using a longitudinal survey of 1400 public sector employees and 84 managers, our findings suggest that there is broad agreement between the two parties regarding the norm of reciprocity that governs the relationship. We found that perceived employer obligations at time 1 is positively associated with employees' fulfilment of obligations at time 2 and perceived employer fulfilment of obligations at time 1 is positively related to employee obligations and fulfilment of obligations at time 2. Furthermore, we found that employee fulfilment of obligations at time 1 is positively associated with perceived employer obligations at time 2. Overall, these findings provide initial empirical support for the norm of reciprocity in exchange relationships from both the perspective of employees as well as managers, as employer representatives.     

The effect of applicant–employee fit and temporal construal on employer attraction and pursuit intentions

Although applicant–employee fit has emerged as an important topic in recruitment research, little is known about how job seekers’ perceived similarity with the employees working for an organization affects employer attraction. In this research, we introduce temporal construal as a crucial moderating variable and study how the temporal decision context affects the weighting of applicant–employee fit. In particular, we argue that applicant–employee fit is construed in abstract, high‐level terms, and exerts a stronger influence when prospective applicants hold a distant time perspective. In contrast, instrumental attributes such as pay level represent low‐level construals and gain greater relevance when prospective applicants hold a near time perspective. Two experiments involving a student sample and a sample of unemployed job seekers supported these predictions.     

The psychological contract and individual differences: The role of exchange and creditor ideologies

The present study examines exchange and creditor ideologies (two dispositional characteristics that are strongly related to exchange relationships) and their moderating effects on the psychological contract. Five hundred public-sector employees were studied over a 3-year period. Respondents’ were surveyed as to their perceptions of what they believed their employer owed them (e.g., job security, training, involvement in decision making, etc.) and the extent to which these “employer obligations” had been met. In addition, we assessed respondents’ perceptions of their own obligations to their employer (e.g., agreeing to work extra hours, volunteering for non-job-related activities, working unpaid hours, etc.) and the extent to which they believed that these “employee obligations” had been fulfilled. The results indicate that creditor ideology related positively to employee perceptions of their obligations to the employer and the extent to which they fulfilled those obligations while exchange ideology related negatively to employee obligations and fulfillment of obligations. Exchange ideology moderated the effects of perceived employer obligations on employee obligations and fulfillment of obligations while creditor ideology moderated the relationship between perceived employer fulfillment of obligations and employee obligations. This article provides preliminary evidence to the benefits of examining the role of individual dispositions in psychological contract research—a previously neglected topic—and discusses the potential implications for the practice of management.     

J.P. Rushton’s theory of ethnic nepotism

Unreciprocated aid among co-ethnics and the emotional intensity of ethnic conflict have long been explanatory challenges to evolutionary science. J.P. Rushton’s theory of assortative ethnic affiliation–altruism, mating and friendship directed towards fellow ethnics–derives from his more general theory of genetic similarity (GST). GST proposes that humans give preferential treatment to others in whom they detect genetic resemblance and that such behavior enhances genetic fitness. The theory coincides with W.D. Hamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness as applied to relations between populations. GST helps explain core features of ethnicity, including its basis in putative kinship and correlation with gene frequencies. Ethnic nepotism due to similarity is a weak social force compared to social identity. However its pervasiveness makes it a potential driver of evolutionary and social change, a potential borne out by sociological studies of the impact of ethnic diversity on social cohesion and public altruism. Genomics confirms the theory for interactions within populations with sufficient genetic diversity, such as ethnically mixed societies. GST applied to ethnicity is promising for further research in evolutionary social science because it unifies evolutionary and behavioral mechanisms in a single theory.     

Colonial and Post‐Colonial Elaborations of Avataric Evolutionism

Avataric evolutionism is the idea that ancient Hindu myths of Vishnu's ten incarnations foreshadowed Darwinian evolution. In a previous essay I examined the late nineteenth‐century origins of the theory in the works of Keshub Chunder Sen and Madame Blavatsky. Here I consider two major figures in the history of avataric evolutionism in the early twentieth century, N. B. Pavgee, a Marathi Brahmin deeply involved in the question of Aryan origins, and Aurobindo Ghose, political activist turned mystic. Pavgee, unlike Keshub, used avataric evolutionism in expounding his nationalistic goals for an independent India. His rationale was bolstered by the idea that India was the fountainhead of all science and civilization. Aurobindo saw in avataric evolutionism a possible key to understanding the involution and evolution of the supreme spirit in the realm of matter as taught in traditional Vedanta. This material‐spiritual evolution represented for Aurobindo the necessary knowledge for the true liberation of India, transcending purely political independence. Such knowledge he also saw as the means for the spiritual liberation of the whole of humankind. The processes of involution and evolution he claimed were not in conflict with modern science, and Western evolutionary thinking seems to have inspired many of his own evolutionary reflections, even though in the end he rejected the Darwinian transmutation of species. I conclude with an overview and assessment of recent, post‐colonial Hindu assimilations of avataric evolutionism.     

Newcomer psychological contracts and employee socialization activities: Does perceived balance in obligations matter?

We sought to determine the extent to which one’s beliefs about the relationship between an employee and an organization at the start of employment influence subsequent socialization activities. The balance of employee exchange relationships, employee perceptions of both their own obligations and the employers’ obligations, were collected from 120 newcomers in a public sector organization on the first day of employment and again three months later. We found the relationship between employee obligations and two socialization activities (time with mentor and time spent in training) depended on the employee’s perceptions of what the employer owed the employee, such that employees in unbalanced relationships tended to engage in more socialization activities than employees in balanced relationships.     

THE EXPLORATION OF ECOSPACE: EXTENDING OR SUPPLEMENTING THE NEO‐DARWINIAN PARADIGM?

The neo‐Darwinian paradigm, focusing on natural selection of genes responsible for differential adaption, provides the foundation for explaining evolutionary processes. The modern synthesis is broader, however, focusing on organisms rather than on gene transmissions per se. Yet, strands of current biology argue for further supplementation of Darwinian theory, pointing to nonbiotic drivers of evolutionary development, for example, self‐organization of physical structures, and the interaction between individual organisms, groups of organisms, and their nonbiotic environments. According to niche construction theory, when organisms and groups develop, they not only adapt to their environments but modify their environments, creating new habitats for later generations. Insofar as ecological niches persist beyond the lifecycle of individual organisms, an ecological inheritance system exists alongside genetic inheritance. Such ecological structures may even facilitate the development of a cultural inheritance system, as we see in humans. The article discusses theological perspectives of such new developments within holistic biology.     

Newcomer psychological contracts and employee socialization activities: Does perceived balance in obligations matter?

We sought to determine the extent to which one’s beliefs about the relationship between an employee and an organization at the start of employment influence subsequent socialization activities. The balance of employee exchange relationships, employee perceptions of both their own obligations and the employers’ obligations, were collected from 120 newcomers in a public sector organization on the first day of employment and again three months later. We found the relationship between employee obligations and two socialization activities (time with mentor and time spent in training) depended on the employee’s perceptions of what the employer owed the employee, such that employees in unbalanced relationships tended to engage in more socialization activities than employees in balanced relationships.     

Resolving the paradox of common, harmful, heritable mental disorders: which evolutionary genetic models work best?

Given that natural selection is so powerful at optimizing complex adaptations, why does it seem unable to eliminate genes (susceptibility alleles) that predispose to common, harmful, heritable mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? We assess three leading explanations for this apparent paradox from evolutionary genetic theory: (1) ancestral neutrality (susceptibility alleles were not harmful among ancestors), (2) balancing selection (susceptibility alleles sometimes increased fitness), and (3) polygenic mutation-selection balance (mental disorders reflect the inevitable mutational load on the thousands of genes underlying human behavior). The first two explanations are commonly assumed in psychiatric genetics and Darwinian psychiatry, while mutation-selection has often been discounted. All three models can explain persistent genetic variance in some traits under some conditions, but the first two have serious problems in explaining human mental disorders. Ancestral neutrality fails to explain low mental disorder frequencies and requires implausibly small selection coefficients against mental disorders given the data on the reproductive costs and impairment of mental disorders. Balancing selection (including spatio-temporal variation in selection, heterozygote advantage, antagonistic pleiotropy, and frequency-dependent selection) tends to favor environmentally contingent adaptations (which would show no heritability) or high-frequency alleles (which psychiatric genetics would have already found). Only polygenic mutation-selection balance seems consistent with the data on mental disorder prevalence rates, fitness costs, the likely rarity of susceptibility alleles, and the increased risks of mental disorders with brain trauma, inbreeding, and paternal age. This evolutionary genetic framework for mental disorders has wide-ranging implications for psychology, psychiatry, behavior genetics, molecular genetics, and evolutionary approaches to studying human behavior.     

Social closeness of MZ and DZ twin parents towards nieces and nephews

Twins' marriages to non‐twins yield genetically and socially informative kinships. Monozygotic (MZ) twins' genetic identity makes them ‘genetic parents’ of their nieces/nephews, and their nieces/nephews their ‘genetic children’. The present study is the first to apply twin‐family models to study social relatedness. Analyses of twin families (MZ: N = 248; DZ: N = 75) tested evolutionary‐based concepts concerning social closeness, perceived similarity and caretaking. Hypotheses based on Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory were supported: MZ twin aunts/uncles expressed greater social closeness towards their nieces/nephews than DZ twin aunts/uncles; and female twins from same‐sex pairs expressed greater closeness towards their nieces/nephews than male twins from same‐sex pairs. This study underlines benefits of associations between behavioural‐genetic and evolutionary psychological theories, methods and interpretations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Genetic influences on core self-evaluations,job satisfaction,and work stress: A behavioral genetics mediated model

In this study we investigated the mediated influence of core self-evaluations (CSE) on employee health problems via job satisfaction and work stress, and the degree to which genetic factors explain these mediated relationships. Based on data obtained from a sample of 594 Swedish twins (114 monozygotic twin pairs and 183 dizygotic twin pairs), conventional path analysis results supported the mediated effects of CSE on employee health via job satisfaction and work stress, after controlling for conscientiousness and extraversion. Behavioral genetic analyses showed significant heritability of all four variables. Moreover, we found that the mediated relationships via job satisfaction and work stress are explained by genetic factors, such that the genetic source of job satisfaction and work stress mediates the genetic influence of CSE on health problems. These results highlight the role played by genetic factors in better understanding the relationships between CSE, work attitudes, and health outcomes.     

Threats,Promises, and Coalitions: A Study of Compliance and Retaliation in a Simulated Organizational Setting1

This research sought to examine the effects of threats and promises on compliance and the formation of subordinate coalitions in a simulated employeremployee conflict situation. It also sought to determine some of the motives underlying coalition decisions-tangible and intangible-and the conditions under which each of these possible motive types would be salient. Coalition motives were examined by manipulating the consequences for coalition members following their use of coalition power (presence vs. absence of monetary gain). A control condition was present in which no such power was available. Ninety male undergraduate business students were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions in a 3 × 2 factorial design. Three Ss engaged in a modified bilateral monopoly bargaining task in which two of them (the “employees”) believed they were exchanging a series of offers and counteroffers with the third (the “employer”) over a hypothetical wage increase for a maximum of eight rounds. Ss were told they would earn a sum of money proportional to the effectiveness of their bargaining. In actuality, all Ss were assigned the employee role and all employer “offers” were pre-programmed. On round six, the Ss were “sent” either a threat or promise message by the employer demanding that they accept his round five offer. Compliance-noncompliance was defined as employee acceptance-rejection of this demand, respectively. In addition to compliance behavior, S s in coalition conditions had the power to form an alliance with the other employee against the employer after the latter used his threat or promise power. Coalitions could confiscate up to 25% of the employer's earnings and, depending on experimental condition, could either keep or not keep any money their coalition acquired. It was hypothesized that threateners would elicit less compliance, and be responded to with more, and more severe subordinate coalitions than would promisers. It was further assumed that there would be less compliance when subordinates had coalition power, and that the effect of monetary reward on the likelihood of coalition formation would be contingent on the type of power (threats vs. promises) the employer used. Specifically, it was assumed that a majority of S s in the Threat condition who had this power would form coalitions against the employer regardless of whether or not they realized any tangible gain for doing so. In the promise condition, however, it was expected that coalition decisions would be based primarily on whether Ss stood to gain monetarily. The hypotheses were supported. These results were discussed in terms of the impact of power acquisition as a variable mediating perception and compliance behavior, and in terms of the role of economic vs. retaliatory motives as factors underlying subordinate coalition decisions. Some of the conditions which influence the relative salience of these two coalition motives were proposed, and the organizational implications of these findings were suggested.     

A Plantingian Pickle for a Darwinian Dilemma: Evolutionary Arguments Against Atheism and Normative Realism

Two of the most prominent evolutionary debunking arguments are Sharon Street's Darwinian Dilemma for Normative Realism and Alvin Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument against Atheism. In the former, Street appeals to evolutionary considerations to debunk normative realism. In the latter, Plantinga appeals to similar considerations to debunk atheism. By a careful comparison of these two arguments, I develop a new strategy to help normative realists resist Street's debunking attempt. In her Darwinian Dilemma, Street makes epistemological commitments that ultimately support Plantinga's structurally similar argument. If Street succeeds in debunking normative realism, I argue, then she also succeeds in debunking atheism. But atheism is a suppressed premise of the Darwinian Dilemma as well as a commitment of almost all normative anti‐realists. If Street's argument entails theism, then the Darwinian Dilemma is internally incoherent and should be abandoned by almost everyone. 1     

Exploration of the attitudes of employees towards the provision of counselling within a profit‐making organisation

The provision of workplace counselling has risen significantly over the last 20 years in response to the increase in stress‐related illness amongst employees in UK profit‐making organisations. Despite this expansion there is very little exploration of employee attitudes towards this provision. This paper describes a case study of employee attitudes towards counselling in a UK profit‐making organisation utilising an Employee Assistant Programme (EAP) for staff counselling. The method used for the research was a quantitative approach administered using a short questionnaire distributed to employees by e‐mail. The responses to the questionnaire illustrated that most employees were highly aware of the service and believed stress to be the highest presenting issue to the EAP counsellors. However, stress was actually the lowest presenting issue. The results from this study also suggested that managers had a more negative attitude towards counselling than non‐managers. Men and women were found to have the same highly positive attitude towards counselling. Respondents felt that wider, constant and regular positive promotion of counselling, by the employer as well as the EAP, was needed to increase utilisation of the EAP counselling service. Concerns over confidentiality for those using, or contemplating using, the service were also found — as in other studies — but this study found concerns particularly in relation to managers finding out that an employee had attended counselling. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

How leaders stimulate employee learning: A leader–member exchange approach

This study investigated how leader–member exchange (LMX), goal setting, and feedback are related to employee engagement in learning activities. Two different mechanisms were proposed: a mediating mechanism holding that LMX elicits specific leader behaviours (i.e., goal setting and feedback) which would mediate the LMX‐learning relationship, and a moderating mechanism, holding that LMX would strengthen the effect of these leader behaviours. A sample of 1,112 employees from 7 organizations completed questionnaires that measured LMX, goal specificity, feedback, and self‐reports of employee engagement in learning activities. The 233 direct leaders of these employees completed questionnaires that measured goal difficulty and leader ratings of employee engagement in learning activities. Multi‐level analysis showed that goal difficulty and goal specificity mediated the relationship between LMX and employee engagement in learning activities, and that LMX moderated the relationship of goal difficulty with employee engagement in learning activities. With these findings, the present study contributes to the literatures on LMX, goal setting, and employee development.     

Incest avoidance: oedipal and preoedipal, natural and cultural

Why do most people experience a subjective aversion to the idea of incestuous sexual relations? To help answer this question, recent strands of thinking in both cultural and evolutionary anthropology are considered together with psychoanalytic theories regarding incest avoidance. Coevolutionary theories that propose ways to think about genetic and cultural inheritance as partially independent of each other, evolutionary arguments about the reproductive advantages of incest avoidance, structuralist theory arguing for a kind of incest aversion unrelated to any possible Darwinian selective advantage, and other trends in biosocial research into the origins of the incest avoidance are considered. Finally, a synthesis is proposed that seeks to expand our understanding of the oedipal and preoedipal dynamics of the aversion as these are conceptualized in psychoanalytic theory.     

A multi‐level mediation model of the relationships between team autonomy,individual task design and psychological well‐being

The past decade and a half witnessed a global trend towards the use of participatory team‐based interventions. In the present contribution, we address the widespread idea that the resulting increase in team autonomy fosters employee psychological well‐being. Specifically, we address the common but mostly implicit rationale for this widespread idea that the well‐being effect occurs because the increase in team autonomy is reflected in individual task design. We collected survey data from 733 members of 76 healthcare teams. The results of multi‐level mediation analyses were supportive of our theoretical framework. The higher the team autonomy, the more active learning behaviour and the less emotional exhaustion team members reported. These relationships were mediated by the individual job characteristics of autonomy, variety and demands. These results draw attention to individual task design in a team context.     

Extra‐Role Behavior among Mexican Employees: The Impact of LMX,Group Acceptance,and Job Attitudes

The current field study took place within a Mexican work setting, consisting of 100 white‐collar employees representing a variety of professional job categories. The study investigated the direct effect of the supervisor–employee relationship (leader–member exchange) quality and group acceptance on employees' propensity to engage in activities beyond their formal work roles (extra‐role behavior). The mediating influences of the employees' job satisfaction level and organizational commitment were also taken into consideration when accounting for extra‐role behavior. Results suggest that relationships Mexican employees share with their supervisor have a direct impact on their extra‐role behavior. Social exchange, key to both extra‐role behavior and leader–member exchange, is proposed as the operating mechanism associating the two constructs. Results also indicate that organizational commitment plays a partial mediating role between leader–member exchange and extra‐role behavior.