Combining Value‐focused Thinking and Balanced Scorecard to Improve Decision‐making in Strategic Management

Goal orientation is key to strategic management. In this field, the Balanced Scorecard is one of the most widely used management tools. It structures a company's main objectives from different perspectives based on the strategy of the firm and uses performance indicators to measure the achievement of objectives and strategy. However, its method of creation is not theoretically sound. Value‐focused thinking is a decision‐making philosophy that fits perfectly with Balanced Scorecard creation. It provides methods and techniques for the identification and structuring of objectives that are suitable to systematically derive a scorecard from a means‐ends network. However, such a means‐ends network is often too complex for enduring use in strategic management. By adapting the network's structure to the Balanced Scorecard's layout, the profound and clear set of derived objectives and their measures serve as a reasonable basis for applying methods of multi‐criteria decision‐making in an organization. This paper aimed to outline a procedure that merges the Balanced Scorecard and value‐focused thinking by preserving each concept's strengths while eliminating their weaknesses. A six‐step process was developed theoretically and employed empirically in a case study. This process included (1) identifying objectives; (2) structuring objectives; (3) characterizing clusters of objectives; (4) formulating mission, vision, and strategy; (5) designing the scorecard; and (6) monitoring and adapting to change. On the basis of this approach, a Management Scorecard was produced that enabled strategy development and execution, put forth a clear and comprehensive means‐ends network, and visualized a company's most important objectives and their relationships structured through perspectives roughly following the Balanced Scorecard. It acts as a foundation for research to generalize and compare findings regarding goals of organizations. Our procedure demonstrates how scientific methods, such as value‐focused thinking, can yield benefits to practitioners' instruments, like the Balanced Scorecard, and how management tools can likewise improve scientific methods. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

John Polkinghorne and the Task of Addressing a "Messy" World

As a physicist-theologian, John Polkinghorne has done a great service for the community of scholars engaged in the theology-and-science dialogue as well as for a broader audience of interested persons. We examine Polkinghorne's theological method to see what it suggests about his understanding of the function of systematic theology and his philosophy of science. His strong emphasis on rationality in theology corresponds to his epistemological discussions. Polkinghorne links his methodology to "thinking," so "experience" seems relegated to the minds, and not the lives, of the believers. Consequently, his theology does not easily engage ethical, political, and cultural landscapes where the concrete contexts of particular people's lives engage their faith. The challenge for those of us in religion-and-science is to come to grips with this messy, complicated world.     

The significance of organizational factors for the incidence of bullying

It is frequently assumed that a poor psychosocial working environment will create conditions that encourage bullying. However, few studies have examined this assumption while comparing work environment ratings of bullied and non-bullied employees who work in the same organization and/or department. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between organizational factors and the incidence of acts of bullying based on two different approaches: the first by comparing bullied with no-bullied, the second by comparing departments with widespread bulling with departments with little bulling. The study was a part of a general survey study of the work environment and employee well-being in 12 different local social security offices. A total of 898 persons participated in the study (a response rate of 88%).
First, the results showed a clear relationship between bullying and fear of organizational change; secondly, weak, but significant, correlations between bullying and other organizational factors; thirdly, the subsequent analyses compared departments in which bullying were most widespread with the rest of the departments. The results supported the hypothesis that departments that suffer from much bullying also have a poorer psychosocial work environment, results that support the assumption that organizational factors such as changes in one's position, pressure of work, performance demands, autocratic management and role conflict and lack of role clarity, as well as a poor social climate can contribute to the emergence of higher incidences of bullying.     

The relationship of GMA to counterproductive work behavior revisited

Recent research reported that general mental ability (GMA) predicted counterproductive work behavior (CWB), whereas some previous studies failed to find such a relationship. We tested occupational homogeneity of the sample and criterion measurement as two potential explanations for these inconsistencies. Study 1 replicated major design features of one previous study, which found no GMA–CWB relation in a heterogeneous sample, with occupationally homogeneous groups. Results confirmed previous null findings, indicating no effect of sample homogeneity. In Study 2, using a controlled laboratory setting, GMA was again unrelated to self‐reported CWB, but partially predicted observed CWB negatively. Combined findings suggest that GMA is consistently unrelated to CWB self‐reports but may predict objectively measured CWB independently of the likelihood of being caught. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

工作场所精神性的研究概况

作场所精神性是指个体在工作背景下的一种超越性体验,它是通过工作过程提升工作的意义与目的、培养与他人之间的联系感来丰富个体的内心生活体验,从而提升个体的心灵层次,实现个体的成长与进步。从工作场所精神性的概念形成、研究方法和研究热点等三个方面,对工作场所精神性的研究现状进行了介绍和评述。工作场所精神性在未来研究中主要包括：提出明确统一的定义和结构,运用新的研究范式注重对精神性作用机制的探讨等,并指出了在中国文化背景下开展工作场所精神性研究可能的方向     

Quackademia? Mass-Media Delegitimation of Homeopathy Education

In response to concerns about the standards of training for non-medically qualified homeopathic practitioners, between 1999 and 2009 a number of UK universities taught Bachelor of Science (BSc) degrees in homeopathy. All the courses were subsequently closed following media coverage of a vigorous campaign from scientists against the degree courses. A boundary-work analysis of 65 articles published in the UK print media reveals the use of metaphors from a number of different fields as rhetorical strategies to malign homeopathy education. As well as the commonly used contrasts of profit versus academic integrity, rationality versus faith and logic versus magic, media reports associated homeopathy with new universities and Mickey Mouse degrees, both of which had been denigrated in the press previously. In the press coverage, much attention was also drawn to the fact that the method of repeatedly diluting homeopathic medicines defies both logic and common sense, and the plausibility argument became a decisive blow in the debate over the legitimacy of teaching homeopathy as a science degree. It seems that the boundary work sought to protect the authority of both science and medicine by expelling homeopathy from higher education. These findings contrast with previous studies that suggest that orthodox medicine has occasionally expanded to incorporate desirable aspects of complementary and alternative therapies. Scientists carry out boundary work not just to demarcate the boundaries of science and directly defend their own interests, but also to protect the authority of other allied professions.     

新生代工作价值观结构、测量及对绩效影响

采用质化和量化相结合的方法, 运用3批共893份问卷, 探析中国情境下新生代工作价值观的结构、内涵和测量工具, 并检验新生代工作价值观对绩效的影响。结果表明, 新生代工作价值观是一个包含功利导向、内在偏好、人际和谐、创新导向、长期发展的二阶五因子结构, 其量表具有良好的信度和效度, 且对角色内绩效和角色外绩效都呈显著的正向影响效应。文章有利于管理者更全面、深刻地理解新生代员工的工作价值观, 并为构建基于工作价值观的新生代管理体系提供必要的理论基础和技术支持。     

强迫倾向个体的信息加工灵活性

摘 要 以高低强迫倾向个体为研究对象,考察其在不同概率情景设置的Flanker任务中的信息加工灵活性,研究结果表明：高强迫倾向个体的信息加工方式相对较缓慢、单一,以集中加工方式为主;高强迫倾向个体对情境的变化较少做出反应,在信息加工的灵活性上存在缺陷,而低倾向个体的信息加工方式相对较灵活;高强迫倾向个体不易受线索提示的影响,对信息加工方式的策略性调控能力不足。     

Addressing power in couples therapy: Integrating socio-emotional relationship therapy and emotionally focused therapy

Romantic relationships are more satisfying and fulfilling when power is balanced relatively equally between partners (Leonhardt et al., Journal of Family Psychology, 34, 2020, and 1). Yet, few couples therapy models explicitly outline how to confront relational power issues (Knudson-Martin & Huenergardt, 2015, Socio-emotional relationship therapy: Bridging emotion, societal context, and couple interaction, Springer). Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2020, The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy, Routledge) is a well-established, evidence-based therapy modality that many therapists use with couple clients, yet despite its effectiveness, it does not provide direction for explicitly addressing and treating power differentials in couple relationships. In this paper, we explore the integration of EFT with Socio-emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT), a model overlay that acknowledges the impact of social discourse on enactments of power in intimate couple relationships. We first address the importance of understanding power in couple relationships, addressing power in couples therapy, and provide a brief overview of SERT and EFT. We then introduce an integration of the models intended to help therapists balance power, increase connection, and secure attachment bonds between romantic partners.