Discrepancy in internalized values of workers in extreme situations: Consequences for soldiers and risk for the organization

IntroductionIn the present paper, we address the double-edged role of values among Army personnel and how they can be used in information warfare. We suggest that value discrepancy may impact the agent's trust and consequently, affect behaviour and ultimately destabilize the organization.ObjectivesBased on cognitive dissonance theory and the meaning maintenance model, we hypothesized that exposing trained soldiers to information which confronts their core values and involves both their peers and their institution could promote an overwhelming reaction that could finally alter their trust in the organization.MethodTo examine the proposed model, interviews were conducted with 38 active-duty soldiers that permits to stress the importance of values for their personal life. To complete the interviews, a staged observation was led with the second set of participants (n = 21). Its goal was to evaluate the soldiers’ reaction to a message aiming at their values.ResultsQualitative and quantitative analysis of the Interviews confirmed both the importance of the said values and stressed the ambivalence toward their institution. The results of the staged observation suggested that a low credibility source of information aiming at their central values could lead to a direct emotional reaction, that could potentially lead to a decrease in institutional trust, and therefore ultimately in the organisation performance.ConclusionThe discussion focuses on the consequences of this mechanism, the fundamental necessity for the organization of taking this process into account. Finally, we suggest ways to cope with this risk which can alter strategy deployment and goal achievement.     

Validation française d’un questionnaire des perceptions de justice en milieu judiciaire

To improve the quality of the national justice system, the aim is to test the validity of a questionnaire on the justice perceptions of the criminal procedures and the justice decisions. One hundred and thirty-two defendants were questioned. A factorial analysis directs to a four factors solution: the distributive justice, the procedural justice, the interpersonal justice and the informative justice. After regression analyses, the procedural justice predicts the sentence satisfaction and the procedure satisfaction as well as the anger and the trust. The interpersonal justice predicts the procedure satisfaction and the trust, and the informative justice the satisfaction of the procedure. The results confirm the importance of the perceptions of the justice dimensions to favor positive attitudes towards the judicial institution.     

Facteur d’impact et mondialisation culturelle

In the present article, we recall the principle of articles consummation as defined by the ISI creator (Institute for Scientific Information). That principle justifies the impact factor (IF) used as a measure of a journal scientific value, of a researcher or of a researcher group… We expose some assumptions that support the IF validity. Further we demonstrate that, on the one hand, these assumptions are not very well established and, on the other hand, that principle and the IF success bias the scientific activity. We consider next two shapes that this bias could take: at best a phenomenon of fashions, at worst, an ideological war having as purpose the American way of thinking domination.