I.C.E. World Information,Consciousness, Energy

There is underway a worldwide shift in society from an industrial‐based to an information‐based metaindustrial way of living and working. This will require innovative organization and management. Three factors are described as propellers of this industrial transformation: technological innovations, technology transfer, and global marketplace. Trends in post‐industrial organizations are mapped out, and a profile of metaindustrial organization culture is created.?     

The world looks better together: How close others enhance our visual experiences

People derive a number of benefits from sharing experiences with close others. However, most research on this topic has been restricted to forms of sharing involving explicit socializing, including verbal communication, emotion expression, and behavioral interaction. In two studies, these complexities were eliminated to find out whether merely experiencing visual stimuli (photographs) simultaneously with a close other—without communicating—enhances people's evaluations of those stimuli relative to coexperiencing the same stimuli with a stranger or alone. Compared to when viewers were alone, visual scenes were enhanced (better liked and seen as more real) when coexperienced with a close other and were liked less when coexperienced with a stranger. Implications for close relationships are discussed.     

Protest,Exit, or Deviance: Adjunct University Faculty Reactions to Occupational Rank‐Based Mistreatment1

University faculty hired for short‐term contracts rated occupational rank‐based mistreatment; as well as willingness to protest, leave their position, or engage in workplace deviance. How respondents reacted to mistreatment was shaped by identification with their occupational rank and source of mistreatment (administrators or colleagues). Administrative mistreatment increased willingness to protest and engage in workplace deviance for respondents who were less identified; faculty mistreatment decreased willingness to protest. Respondents who identified more with occupational rank were less sensitive to differences in mistreatment. These data suggest that if the mistreatment source “fits” the intergroup context, people will challenge the situation, but if it does not fit respondent expectations, collective challenge is less likely, particularly among people who identify less with their group.     

Perceptions of Religious and Nonreligious Targets: Exploring the Effects of Perceivers' Religious Fundamentalism

While research has shown that religious individuals are perceived as being more moral than the nonreligious, the present studies suggest that these findings are affected by in‐group bias. Participants low and high in religious fundamentalism (RF) were asked to form an impression of a target's moral and social dimensions. The target's religious identity was presented either explicitly (in Studies 1 and 2) or implicitly (Study 3). Participants high in RF consistently rated the religious target more favorably than the nonreligious target on both dimensions. In contrast, LF individuals' morality ratings did not differ as a function of target religiosity across all 3 studies. Our results suggest that future research exploring the religion–morality link must control for perceiver religiosity.     

Religious Diversity in America: The Emergence of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Others

America has always been a religiously diverse nation, but this has increased in recent decades. Changes in the non–Judeo–Christian population in the United States in general and the market share held by Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus in particular are examined. While the share of the population following these faiths has increased appreciably in recent decades, both the size of these groups and their growth has often been exaggerated.     

ISSUES AND STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING THE LENGTH OF SELF-REPORT SCALES

Greater understanding of the complex interrelationships among work-relevant constructs has increased the number of constructs on organizational surveys. Good psychometric practice also dictates the use of multiple items per construct. The net result has been longer surveys. Longer surveys take more time to complete, tend to have more missing data, and have higher refusal rates than short surveys. Arguably, then, techniques for reducing the length of scales while maintaining psychometric quality are worthwhile. Little guidance exists on how to reduce the length of a multi-item scale and we argue that the most common technique, maximizing internal consistency, is problematic and should be avoided. We present a set of item "quality indices" to help conceptualize the competing issues that influence item retention decisions. Statistical analysis of an example case using these indices suggested that there are 3 key aspects of item quality to consider when reducing a scale. We describe strategies that can assist scale developers in using these 3 aspects of item quality when making scale reduction decisions.     

Some Historical Conditions of Narrative Work

Written to honor the immense contribution of Michael White as a leader in the development of narrative therapy, this historical essay contrasts the origins of psychoanalysis, family therapy and narrative therapy. Changes in the understanding of therapeutic strategies, methods of training and supervision, styles of leadership, the involvement of audiences in the therapeutic and training processes, and conceptions of the nature of the mind are described. A style of direct demonstration of methods, especially of the formulation of questions, is important in narrative work. The central master-role of the therapist in analysis and family therapy is replaced in narrative work by eliciting local knowledge, and the recruitment of audiences to the work. This is consistent with narrative therapy's "de-centered" image of the therapist.