Leadership and Organizational Culture: Linking CEO Characteristics to Cultural Values

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to empirically examine organizational culture theorists’ assertions about the linkages between leadership and the cultures that emerge in the organizations they lead. Specific hypotheses were developed and tested regarding relationships between chief executive officers’ (CEO’s) personality traits, and the cultural values that are shared among their organization’s members. Design/Methodology/Approach  Thirty-two CEOs completed measures of the Big-Five personality traits and personal values. A total of 467 employees across the 32 organizations completed a competing values measure of organizational culture. Findings  Results indicate support for several hypothesized relationships between CEO personality and cultural values. Exploratory analyses indicated that several CEO personal values were related to culture values. Implications  Organizations need to seriously consider the “fit” between the current or desired organizational culture and CEO characteristics. Organizations attempting to change fundamental aspects of its functioning may need significant behavioral—or personnel—changes at the top of the organization in order to achieve those changes. Originality/Value  This is the first empirical study to establish a link between specific CEO characteristics and the cultural values of their organizations. This study provides evidence that CEO characteristics are felt throughout the organization by impacting the norms that sanction or discourage member behavior and decision making, and the patterns of behavior and interaction among members.     

Strukturen der Alterskriminalität

The group of the over 60-years-old does only contribute a relatively small part to the registered crime – compared to their continuously growing percentage in the population. Crimes committed by elderly persons are predominantly property offences with shoplifting playing an outstanding role. Elderly persons are also overrepresented concerning offences of insult, (negligent) arson and environmental offences whereas violent crimes are rare. Elderly men are also slightly overrepresented concerning sexual abuse of children, but this is very rare, too. As a whole, the fear that Germany will be overrun by a wave of old-age crime does not seem to be confirmed. Elderly offenders are still very rare and the offences committed are significantly less heavy than those committed by younger offenders.     

Kriminologischer Beitrag

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Policy Attitudes,Ideological Values and Social Representations

This article reviews research on policy attitudes and ideological values from the perspective of social representations theory. In the first part of the paper, key features of lay political thinking are presented, its pragmatic imperative, its focus on communication and the social functions of shared knowledge. Objectification transforms abstract and group‐neutral ideological values into concrete and socially useful knowledge, in particular stereotypes of value‐conforming and value‐violating groups. Such shared understandings of intergroup relations provide citizens with common reference knowledge which provides the cognitive and cultural basis of policy attitudes. Social representations theory further suggests that lay knowledge reflects the social context in which it has been elaborated (anchoring), an aspect which allows conceptualising aggregate‐level differences in policy attitudes. In the second part of the paper, a model of lay conceptions of social order is outlined which organises four shared conceptions of social order, along with the stereotype‐based thinking associated with each conception: Moral order, Free Market, Social diversity and Structural inequality. We conclude by arguing that policy attitudes are symbolic devices expressed to justify or to challenge existing social arrangements.     

The Generality/Specificity of Expertise in Scientific Reasoning

Previous research on scientific reasoning has shown that it involves a diverse set of skills. Yet, little is known about generality or domain specificity of those skills, an important issue in theories of expertise and in attempts to automate scientific reasoning skills. We present a study designed to test what kinds of skills psychologists actually use in designing and interpreting experiments and contrast expertise within a particular research area with general expertise at designing and interpreting experiments. The results suggest that psychologists use many domain-general skills in their experimentation and that bright and motivated Carnegie Mellon undergraduates are missing many of these skills. We believe that these results have important implications for psychological and artificial intelligence models of expertise, as well as educational implications in the domain of science instruction.     

Imitative violence in the real world: A reanalysis of homicide rates following championship prize fights

Recently, Phillips [Am Soc Rev, 1983; 48:560–568] reported that the homicide rate increases on the third day after heavyweight championship prize fights. The present paper reports a reanalysis of Phillips's data using more sophisticated statistical techniques and examining several theoretically important variables not discussed by Phillips or his critics. Using a conservative analysis strategy, our results suggest that the increases in homicides reported by Phillips were not a methodological artifact as suggested by Baron and Reiss [Am Soc Rev 1985; 50:347–363, 372–376]. The homicide increases only occur on the first weekend or holiday after prize fights that receive the greatest publicity.     

The influence of chemical cues on the territorial prior residence effect in convict cichlids (cichlasoma nigrofasciatum Günther)

The importance of accumulated chemical cues on the occurrence of the territorial prior residence effect was investigated in two experiments using adult convict cichlids (Cichlasonul nigrofasciatum). In the first experiment, pairs of fish, matched on a number of criteria, were randomly assigned to three independent treatment conditions in which (1) the territorial marker (pot or clump of plants) was removed just prior to a direct encounter in the aquarium of the resident (pair member in whose aquarium the encounter took place) with accumulated chemical cues remaining intact; (2) the marker was removed, as well as the chemical cues; or (3) the marker was present, but the chemical cues were removed. Results showed that a significant prior residence effect occurred when the marker was present, but did not occur in either condition in which the marker was removed. A second experiment, in which the marker was removed and the gravel substrate altered, also did not reveal a signficant prior residence effect. Apparently, the territorial resident recognizes his territory by using certain visual cues, with accumulated chemical cues being neither necessary nor sufficient in this process.