Do perceived differences in religion matter at work?

Over 90% of the United States population affiliates with an organised religion. There has been, however, very little research regarding religion in work organisations. This study focuses on the effects of individual perceptions of religious dissimilarity, as a characteristic of deep-level diversity, on perceived cohesion. A scale is developed to measure individual perceptions of the dissimilarity of religion. Two different studies are used to establish reliability and validity of this scale. In addition, some implications of the negative relationship between individual perceptions of religious dissimilarity and perceived cohesion for organisations are discussed.     

Blame Game and Rotten Apples in Private Investigation Reports: The Case of Hadeland and Ringerike Broadband in Norway

Blame game is a term often used to describe a phenomenon that happens in groups of people when something goes wrong. The blame game hypothesis postulates that private investigators may be misled in their search for suspects and that suspected individuals do not necessarily become subject to a fair investigation by financial crime specialists and fraud examiners. The rotten apple hypothesis postulates that it is comforting to assume that one bad apple within an organisation is essentially responsible for the crime that is all too prevalent. The rotten apple view of white‐collar crime is a comfortable perspective to apply to business and public organisations as it allows them to look no further than suspect a single individual. Based on a case study of the Norwegian company Hadeland and Ringerike Broadband, this paper discusses blame game and rotten apple issues in an internal investigation report written by an external financial crime specialist. The study finds support for both hypotheses, as blame is mainly isolated to the criminal and his superior, and both board and top management are protected from scrutiny. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Negotiating inclusion: Revealing the dynamic interplay between individual and group inclusion goals

We aim to improve our understanding of how perceptions of social inclusion come about, unfold over time, and relate to individual and group outcomes. To do so, we draw on the MARGINI model, which offers a novel theoretical account of inclusion by delineating that inclusion is the result of a dynamic interplay between the individual's motivation to be included in the group (individual inclusion goal) and the group's willingness to include the individual (group inclusion goal). In a longitudinal field study (3 waves) following project teams (n = 304, divided into 46 teams) working on an eight-week consultancy project, we found that individual and group inclusion goals (a) mutually influenced each other over time and (b) in conjunction determined group members' individual outcomes as well as overall group performance. Together, this research sheds new light on the dynamics and effects of inclusion on individuals and groups.     

Dealing with difference and dissensus within the tertiary environment

Abstract

An important challenge that many South African organisations face, is to find a way of dealing with difference that allows for unity amidst diversity. To make this possible, institutional frameworks should function as guiding and unifying forces without becoming repressing, totalising structures. Part of this process entails recognising that difference and dissensus need not result in fragmentation and a loss of organisational identity. In fact, when harnessed effectively, difference and dissensus can become valuable resources for renewal and realignment within organisations. When one looks at the contemporary tertiary environment, these insights can prove valuable in creating an intellectual environment within which the full potential of the intellectuals working there can be realized, and within which the intellectual activities that should be pursued there can flourish. This paper develops a framework for dealing with diversity that connects intellectuals and the University as an organisation while respecting individual value-configurations and input. Institutional guidelines should neither become totalising structures that repress difference, nor oppositional differences that exclude commonality and ongoing connectedness between individual members and organisational structures.     

Values at Work: The Impact of Personal Values in Organisations

This paper reviews and integrates past research on personal values in work organisations, seeking to portray the role personal values play in shaping the choices and behaviour of individuals in work settings. We start by addressing the role of values in the occupational choice people make. We then review research on the relationships of personal values to a variety of behaviours at work. We continue with discussing the multiple paths through which managers’ values affect organisations and their members. In the last section, we address the interplay between organisational levels, and discuss the congruency between personal and organisational values and its implications for organisations and their employees. Together, the research reviewed indicates how the broadness and stability of values make them an important predictor of behaviour at various levels of the organisation. We end by discussing directions for future research on values in organisations.     

Multiple Organisations of Events in Memory

Theories of memory organisation propose that activity knowledge organises autobiographical memory globally. According to these views, memories that share a participant, location, or time are only organised together if they also share an activity. If they do not, they are nested within their respective activity organisations locally rather than being organised together globally. Two experiments that assessed people's clustering of laboratory events consistently obtained findings that contradict this view. Both experiments found that people organise event memories globally in non-activity clusters, cross-classify events into multiple organisations, and pivot between activity and non-activity clusters. Consistent with studies of naturalistic events, these studies of laboratory events indicate that people crossclassify event memories simultaneously into multiple global organisations.     

Transmission and refutation of organisational rumours: Consumer identification and processing types

If consumers accept rumours without verifying them, considerable damage to individuals or organisations could result. By applying the appraisal theory of emotions, this article provides a framework for clarifying rumour communications by people who identify strongly or weakly with an organisation that is the object of a rumour. Study 1 reveals that when people identify strongly with the rumour object and hear an important rumour, they spread positive information more readily than negative information. They are also more likely to transmit information of high (vs. low) importance when the rumour is positive. Conversely, weak identifiers are equally likely to spread positive and negative information, regardless of importance. Study 2 incorporates a heuristic‐systematic model and demonstrates that strong identifiers process refutations systematically when those refutations refer to a positive, less important rumour. Conversely, they process refutation information heuristically if they confront positive, important rumours or if they receive a refutation of a negative rumour. Identification with the rumour object affects its spread, but rumour objects can develop refutation strategies to halt the spread of negative rumours or encourage the spread of positive rumours about the organisation. Rumour refutation efforts cannot be generalised but instead should be targeted according to consumers' strong or weak identification.     

Bridging the Gap: How Supervisors’ Perceptions of Guanxi HRM Practices Influence Subordinates’ Work Engagement

This study aims to provide new insights into the relationship between supervisors' perceptions of guanxi human resource management (HRM) practices and their subordinates' work engagement. We used a three time‐lagged sample from 45 work groups and 205 employees in a state‐owned organisation (Study 1) and cross‐sectional data from 101 work groups and 413 employees in 101 different organisations (Study 2) to test our hypotheses. The results revealed that supervisors' perceptions of guanxi HRM practices were positively related to subordinates' perceptions of guanxi HRM practices, which, in turn, negatively affected subordinates' work engagement. This indirect effect was stronger when group power distance was low or when individual power distance orientation was low.     

‘He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune’: Muslim Sponsors of Islamic Revival in Crimea

Abstract

The article examines the role that foreign Islamic organisations play in the whole process of Islamic revival in Crimea. Their role can be observed in every sphere of that process: support for autonomous Muslim communities; building of mosques; organisation of Islamic education; financing pilgrimage to Mecca. Despite their huge role, the presence of foreign Islamic organisations is often seen by national Crimean Tatar leaders as a threat to the unity of the people and even to stability in the peninsula. Foreign sponsors of the Islamic revival are often charged with fostering ‘radical’ Muslim organisations which are forming an Islamic opposition to the major Crimean Tatar national and religious bodies. To explain this ambivalence requires a more detailed analysis of the role of foreign Muslim organisations in the Islamic revival in Crimea. To achieve this, I propose to examine their role both through a quantitative analysis of their impact in the revival process and from the point of view of the Crimean Tatars themselves.     

Employee Attributions of Corporate Social Responsibility as Substantive or Symbolic: Validation of a Measure

Using three samples aggregating over 1,000 working adults, we developed and tested a measure of Substantive and Symbolic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR‐SS). The resultant 14‐item CSR‐SS scale is a reliable and parsimonious measure that is best represented by two broad and distinctive factors—substantive and symbolic attributions of CSR. Our findings provide evidence of a solid nomological network and criterion validity, supporting predictions that when employees attribute CSR as substantive, greater benefits accrue to the individual and the organisation as a whole than when CSR is attributed as symbolic. This measure contributes a valid and reliable tool toward the advancement of micro CSR research on both negative and positive consequences of organisations’ CSR proclaimed initiatives.     

Blame game in private investigation reports: The case of Deloitte examination at Telenor VimpelCom

Business and public organisations hire fraud examiners to conduct private investigations when there is suspicion of misconduct or financial crime. Fraud examiners carry out their investigation based on a mandate. Often, individuals in the organisation are suspects. The blame game hypothesis is concerned with factors that cause blame attribution to some individuals but not to others. In this case study, only executives were blamed who had not disclosed corruption information to a major shareholder and to the chief executive officer.     

Careers in Recession?

Purely individualistic approaches to careers are contrasted with organisational human resource strategies related to career management. It is argued that individual and organisational interests can be reconciled by means of repeated negotiations of the psychological career contract, and that such negotiations constitute the organisational career. However, many organisations cannot currently offer a broad range of career contracts because they are of one particular strategic type; others cannot reliably offer one at all, since they are in the process of shifting from one strategic type to another; while others again are in reactor strategic mode as a result of recession. It is concluded that it is difficult but not impossible for the individual to discover an organisation where satisfactory negotiations can be enjoyed.     

Individual differences in susceptibility to inattentional blindness

Inattentional blindness refers to the finding that people do not always see what appears in their gaze. Though inattentional blindness affects large percentages of people, it is unclear if there are individual differences in susceptibility. The present study addressed whether individual differences in attentional control, as reflected by variability in working memory capacity, modulate susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Participants watched a classic inattentional blindness video (Simons & Chabris, 1999) and were instructed to count passes among basketball players, wherein 58% noticed the unexpected: a person wearing a gorilla suit. When participants were accurate with their pass counts, individuals with higher working memory capacity were more likely to report seeing the gorilla (67%) than those with lesser working memory capacity (36%). These results suggest that variability in attentional control is a potential mechanism underlying the apparent modulation of inattentional blindness across individuals.     

Person–Organisation Fit Across Cultures: An Empirical Investigation of Individualism and Collectivism

The present study extended person–organisation fit research by concentrating exclusively on one national culture dimension affecting organisational values: individualism–collectivism (I–C). Volunteers ( N =581) from two matched organisations (hospitals and management consultancies) in Australia and in South‐East Asia completed questionnaires measuring individuals' orientations on I–C and other organisational variables. Two types of fit were analysed: interactions between (1) individual I–C and national culture, and (2) individual I–C and organisational culture. These interactions were tested in relation to three outcome variables: organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and tenure. Both national and organisational differences were found with respect to I–C. Asian organisations were more collectivistic than Australian organisations, and hospitals were more collectivistic than management consultancies. In support of person–nation fit hypotheses, collectivists were more committed to their organisations and had longer tenure than individualists in Asian, as compared to Australian organisations. Interaction terms were significant even in the presence of direct effects of collectivism on organisational commitment and tenure. The same results were not found for job satisfaction. Predicted effects of person–organisation fit were not found at the organisational level within cultures.     

Charakterpathologie – Persönlichkeitsorganisationen – Strukturniveaus

Following the recent development of special treatment for people with defective ego structures, the diagnosis of ego structures has become highly relevant. Four models, developed during the last 40 years for the differentiation of particular levels of the ego structure are presented: the classification of character pathology (Kernberg 1966), the personality organisations (Kernberg 1977 and 1996), the structure axis of the OPD (Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis 1996) and the personality organisations of the STIPO (2006). Because the levels of character pathology, the personality organisations as well as the structural levels of the OPD are widely used and the last two often even in parallel, it is worthwhile comparing them concerning their strengths, weaknesses and compatibility. It turns out that especially the categories between the neurotic and the borderline personality organisation (Kernberg 1977) show significant differences. The fact that the OPD as well as the STIPO pay much more attention to these levels as the models of personality organisations also do, is to be considered because of its great clinical significance as an advantageous innovation. In addition, both instruments offer the possibility to assign different structural levels to particular dimensions and, due to their operationalization, assure comparability and allow change measurement.     

The Development of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in Europe: Some Reflections and Concerns

This paper outlines the development of pan European systemic thinking and practice. This development has been enabled and supported with the establishment of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA). EFTA has evolved over the last decade from an organisation of individual members to an organisation of organisations—representing also national associations of family therapy and family therapy training institutes across 28 European countries. There are three sections to this paper: (1) a brief summary of the development of family therapy practice in Europe; (2) a brief summary of the work of the national associations of family therapy in EFTA; and (3) a brief summary of current concerns of some senior family therapists and family therapy trainers within the EFTA organisation.     

A new framework for the design of career interventions in organisations

There has often been an assumption that the school-to-work transition is fundamental for careers guidance and that mid-career interventions are supplementary. This approach can no longer be maintained. Frequent changes of job are now common. The relationships we have with employing organisations have become important and must become prominent in careers interventions. A model is presented to clarify what is needed. Two problems arise: the need to reconcile individual and organisational perspectives; and the need to look at careers in terms of life-career purpose as well as in terms of goals. It is recommended that individuals' plans mirror strategic management in the organisation. A number of ways are identified which extend the scope of career interventions.     

Individual Differences in Commitment to Value‐Based Beliefs and the Amplification of Perceived Belief Dissimilarity Effects

The commitment to beliefs (CTB) framework (Maxwell‐Smith & Esses, 2012) proposes that there are individual differences in the extent to which people generally follow beliefs that are a reflection of their values. The current research hypothesized that CTB would amplify the effects of perceived belief dissimilarity or incompatibility, such that individuals higher in CTB would display more pronounced reactions to belief‐relevant groups, events, or individuals seen as incompatible with their value‐based beliefs. We tested our hypothesis in three studies that assessed participants' CTB and their perceptions of belief dissimilarity or incompatibility with regard to other religious groups (Study 1), political parties during a national election (Study 2), and their romantic partner (Study 3). CTB amplified the effects of perceived belief dissimilarity or incompatibility on people's biases toward other religious groups, voting intentions and behavior in a national election, and their evaluative and behavioral responses toward their romantic partner. These results collectively suggest that perceptions of belief dissimilarity or incompatibility are particularly important cues for individuals with higher levels of CTB as they encounter other people or events that are relevant to their beliefs.