When modesty wins: Impression management through modesty,political skill,and career success—a two-study investigation

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of employees' upward self-presentation through modesty and political skill on their subsequent career success. Study 1 used a predictive design over a 3 year period with 141 employees, controlling for age, gender, and self-esteem. Political skill positively moderated the relationship between employees' upward modesty and career success (attained position, career satisfaction) after 3 years. Study 2 (n = 132 employees) provided construct validation, demonstrating high discriminant validity of the impression management through modesty scale used in Study 1 with a trait-modesty scale, thus attenuating rival explanations of the findings in Study 1. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.     

Stripped of illusions? Exploring system justification processes in capitalist and post‐Communist societies

Sociologists and political scientists have often observed that citizens of Central and Eastern Europe express high levels of disillusionment with their social, economic and political systems, in comparison with citizens of Western capitalist societies. In this review, we analyze system legitimation and delegitimation in post‐Communist societies from a social psychological perspective. We draw on system justification theory, which seeks to understand how, when and why people do (and do not) defend, bolster and justify existing social systems. We review some of the major tenets and findings of the theory and compare research on system‐justifying beliefs and ideologies in traditionally Capitalist and post‐Communist countries to determine: (1) whether there are robust differences in the degree of system justification in post‐Communist and Capitalist societies, and (2) the extent to which hypotheses derived from system justification theory receive support in the post‐Communist context. To this end, we summarize research findings from over 20 countries and cite previously unpublished data from a public opinion survey conducted in Poland. Our analysis confirms that there are lower levels of system justification in post‐Communist countries. At the same time, we find that system justification possesses similar social and psychological antecedents, manifestations and consequences in the two types of societies. We offer potential explanations for these somewhat complicated patterns of results and conclude by addressing implications for theory and research on system justification and system change (or transition).     

Are conservatives happier than liberals? Not always and not everywhere

Prior research has shown that conservatives report higher levels of subjective well-being than liberals (happiness gap). We investigate to what extent this phenomenon exists in different time periods within the United States (Study 1, N = 40,000) and in different countries (Study 2, N = 230,000). Consistent with our hypotheses grounded in the “shared reality” and person-culture fit literature, conservatives were happier and more satisfied with their lives than liberals to the extent that the conservative political ideology prevailed in their socio-cultural context, be it a specific time period in the U.S. or a specific country. These results show that the happiness gap between conservatives and liberals is less universal than previously assumed.     

群体断层激活及负面效应涌现：熙宁变法缘何从志同道合走向四分五裂？

群体断层构念与决定组织变革成败的高管团队多重人际交互及其演进表征十分契合。但群体断层因为什么而激活?激活了的群体断层是如何影响高管团队的群体过程及组织绩效产出?这些问题亟需实证性的探索和检验。本研究基于《王安石年谱长编》,辅以《宋史》及后人相关专题研究,采用质性研究中的扎根理论方法,以王安石越次入对宋神宗到王安石第二次罢相为观察窗口期,对此期间与他存在密切交互关系的52个关键人物的交互过程、交互结果及成因进行了编码分析。结果发现：(1)群体断层激活及负面效应涌现能完美解释熙宁变法的演进过程及最终的失败;(2)关键岗位人员王安石人际交互风格的不同构面是激活熙宁变法中不同群体断层的主要变量;(3)王安石与直接上级宋神宗、本位群体变法新晋和他位群体同朝老臣之间交互的聚散性,决定了活化的群体断层效应正负及交互演进表征,进而决定了熙宁变法的失败。本研究为群体断层激活变量的识别及不同群体断层在同一时空下的叠加效应提供了新的洞见,同时为组织变革及高管团队多样性的管理提供了实证资鉴和理论指导。     

The rehabilitation of the case-study method

The controversy surrounding the scientific nature of the case-study research method in psychotherapy is not new and can be traced to the time when Freud started publishing his works. Traditional, quantitative researchers have argued thatthe case-study method is anecdotal and non-scientific, dismissing the results and findings obtained by this method on the grounds that they lack validity and reliability.This article seeks to dispel the traditional misconceptions about case study.It conclusively argues that the case study,perceived from the postmodern perspective, is a completely legitimate research method and, moreover, better suited to a holistic, democratic psychotherapy as a discipline dealing with the understanding and change of interwoven complexities of intrapsychic and interpersonal processes that emerge and unfold within a wider socio-historical context.     

政治文明的伦理分析

政治明不是一种孤立的明,它与道德明有着十分密切的关系,它们有着共同的契合机制和互补机制;从西方政治明的发展来看,始终没有离开理性主义、制度主义、个体主义等伦理精神;政治要真正实现明,必须使政治意识要宽容、政治制度的制衡、政治行为要有序。     

A Neo-Kantian foundation of Corporate Social Responsibility

‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is conceptualized in many ways. We argue that one cannot be indifferent about the issue of its conceptualization. In terms of methodology, our position is that any conceptual discussion must embed CSR in political theory. With regard to substance, we link up with the discussion on whether CSR must be defined on the basis of a tripartite or a quadripartite division of business responsibilities. We share A.B. Carroll’s intuition that a quadripartite division is called for as a basis to define CSR. However, defending the quadripartite division of business responsibilities requires that the distinctions between economic, legal, ethical and discretionary business responsibilities be made intelligible. Carroll’s account is defective in this respect. We argue that contemporary Neo-Kantian political ethics is able to make sense of these distinctions, because of its specific interpretation of liberalism. Interestingly, from a conventional liberal perspective this interpretation of liberalism is atypical, as it extends public morality beyond the domain of the law.