Engineering interaction: Structural change,locus of identification,and the formation and maintenance of cross-unit ties

Cross-unit ties–relationships that facilitate discretionary information sharing between individuals from different business units–offer a range of organizational benefits. Scholars argue that organizations can promote cross-unit ties by: (a) formally bringing together individuals from different business units into structural links (e.g., cross-unit strategic committees) to encourage the formation of new cross unit ties and, (b) transferring individuals across units, which can increase cross-unit interaction when ties to the prior unit are maintained. This study considers the notion that the success of these formal interventions in fostering cross-unit interaction is contingent on identification with the local unit relative to identification with the broader organization. Specifically, we propose that structural links are more likely to foster cross-unit ties when organizational identification is high and unit identification is low. In contrast, lateral transfers are more likely to result in cross-unit ties when both organizational identification and unit identification are high. We find general support for these propositions in data obtained from a sample of senior leaders of a Fortune 200 agribusiness company before and after a restructuring designed to stimulate cross-unit information sharing. Our model and results make important contributions to our understanding of the relationship between formal and informal structure and reconcile conflicting views regarding the moderating effect of unit identification on intergroup relations.     

Offender-Victim Relationships in Criminal Homicide Followed by Offender's Suicide,North Carolina, 1972–1977

ABSTRACT: An analysis of 90 cases of criminal homicide followed by suicide in North Carolina, 1972 to 1977. Homicidal victim-offender relationships were investigated in regard to age, sex, race and whether victim and offender were member of the same family, friends, acquaintances, or strangers. These results were compared with victim-offender relationships in 994 criminal homicide cases in North Carolina in which offenders did not commit suicide. Married white males over 30 years were much more involved in homicide-suicide than they were in homicide alone. In these homicide-suicide cases, the victim was usually the spouse. Except for marital status, characteristics of homicide offenders who killed themselves resembled those of suicide-only individuals much more than those of homicide-only offenders. In the homicide-suicide cases, the killing of someone in close relationship to the offender, often a wife, appeared to be part of the evolving process of suicide. This clearly has implications for intervention into marital strife and also for immediate treatment of homicide offenders who kill spouses and other family members.     

Priming the Identification of Environmental Sounds

Three experiments were conducted using a repetition priming paradigm: Auditory word or environmental sound stimuli were identified by subjects in a pre-test phase, which was followed by a perceptual identification task using either sounds or words in the test phase. Identification of an environmental sound was facilitated by prior presentation of the same sound, but not by prior presentation of a spoken label (Experiments 1 and 2). Similarly, spoken word identification was facilitated by previous presentation of the same word, but not when the word had been used to label an environmental sound (Experiment 1). A degree of abstraction was demonstrated in Experiment 3, which revealed a facilitation effect between similar sounds produced by the same type of source. These results are discussed in terms of the Transfer Appropriate Processing, activation, and systems approaches.     

Repetitive exploration towards locations that no longer carry a target in patients with neglect

About 50% of neglect patients show ipsilesional target re-exploration on neglect tasks and in daily life. The present study examines whether omissions and revisitings are due to disengagement failure from visible stimuli on the ipsilesional side. Thirteen patients with neglect and nine healthy controls were tested with three versions of the Bells test on touch screen, i.e. a standard cancellation in which targets have to be marked, an erase cancellation in which targets have to be erased, and a condition in which all items (including distracters) have to be erased. Whereas omissions decreased in the full-erase condition, revisitings were the most prominent in this condition. Our study shows that neglect patients also return to previously visited locations which no longer carry a target.