DOCSLIB.ORG

Disertation V4

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Disertation V4 Errors in Judgment: Status, Values, and Morals Influence on Judgments of Guilt and Punishment By Jessica Dawson Department of Sociology Duke University Date:_____________________ Approved: ___________________________ Stephen Vaisey, Supervisor __________________________ Lynn Smith-Lovin, Chair __________________________ Edward Tiryakian __________________________ Kenneth Spenner Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 ABSTRACT Errors in Judgment: Status, Values, and Morals Influence on Judgments of Guilt and Punishment By Jessica Dawson Department of Sociology Duke University Date:_____________________ Approved: ___________________________ Stephen Vaisey, Supervisor __________________________ Lynn Smith-Lovin, Chair __________________________ Edward Tiryakian __________________________ Kenneth Spenner An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2016 Copyright by Jessica Dawson 2016 Abstract This study investigates how actor status, moral foundations, and individual values influence the moral judgments of guilt and punishment. I argue that the consequences of individual values for actions can be understood only if considered alongside organizational values and larger frameworks of institutional logics. Building on Zerubavel’s (1999) conception of a three-level cognition, I argue for a tri-level conception of values and morality in order to more fully understand how moral judgments work within the social context that shapes them. Zerubavel (1999) argued that cognition operated at the individual, social, and macro levels. Based on original research, I offer evidence of three levels of morality. I evaluate individual level morality two ways. First, I evaluate individual moral culture using Schwartz values (Schwartz 2012; Vaisey and Miles 2014). I then account for the social level through the impact of the organization on moral culture measure through the use of status hierarchies (Sauder, Lynn, and Podolny 2012). Finally, I account for the macro level and evaluate broader cultural morality using moral foundations theory (Graham et al. 2016; Kesebir and Haidt 2010). Taken together, these three levels of morality provide a more ecologically valid understanding of how moral culture operates from the individual level to the meso-social level, and to the macro level culture. iv I demonstrate the complex ways in which moral judgments are influenced by universal moral concerns contained in individual characteristics, organizational influences, and culturally anchored institutional logics. I find that actor status most strongly predicts the outcomes of guilt and punishment, demonstrating that social context has a powerful influence on individual moral judgments. Moral foundations theory conceptions of harm do not predict judgments of guilt and punishment, but Schwartz values do influence these moral judgments. The research provides a foundation for future research on the influence of actor status on moral judgments of guilt and punishment beyond the limited moral community of the current study. v Dedication To my professors, friends, and classmates who replaced the voice in my head that said I couldn’t do this with louder ones that refused to let me believe it. vi Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... vi Contents ........................................................................................................................................ vii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... xii 1. The Problem of Moral Universals ........................................................................................... 1 2. The Halo Effect: How Status Influences Moral Judgments in the Moral Community of the U.S. Army ................................................................................................................................ 5 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Durkheim’s Morality and Moral Communities ........................................................... 9 2.3 The Act Approach .......................................................................................................... 10 2.4 The Status Approach ...................................................................................................... 12 2.5 The Deviance Approach ................................................................................................ 15 2.6 The Present Study ........................................................................................................... 19 2.6.1 Data ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.6.2 Method ........................................................................................................................ 22 2.6.1.1 Experiment 1 ......................................................................................................... 22 2.6.1.2 Experiment 2 ......................................................................................................... 23 2.6.3 Measures ..................................................................................................................... 25 2.6.4 Analytic Approach .................................................................................................... 29 vii 2.7 Results and Discussion .................................................................................................. 30 2.8 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 42 3. Individuals, Organizations, and Culture: Evidence for a Tri-Level Conception of Morality ........................................................................................................................................ 45 3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 45 3.2 The Abandonment and Slow Return of Values ......................................................... 47 3.3 Schwartz Values ........................................................................................................... 49 3.4 Moral Foundations as Measures of Institutional Logics ........................................... 52 3.5 Values in Organizations ................................................................................................ 54 3.6 The Present Study ........................................................................................................... 56 3.7 Data and Methods .......................................................................................................... 58 3.7.1 Data ............................................................................................................................. 58 3.7.2 Method ........................................................................................................................ 63 3.7.3 Measures ..................................................................................................................... 65 3.7.4 Analytic Approach .................................................................................................... 66 3.8 Results and Discussion .................................................................................................. 68 3.8.1 Guilt ............................................................................................................................. 68 3.8.2 Punishment ................................................................................................................ 73 3.9 Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 76 3.10 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 77 4. Beyond Moral Foundations ................................................................................................... 81 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 81 viii 4.2 Individual or Group Moral Concerns ......................................................................... 85 4.3 Moral Psychology and Morality ................................................................................... 87 4.4 Sociology and Sacredness .............................................................................................. 90 4.5 Universal or Group-Based Morality ...........................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Dynamic Model of Idiosyncrasy Credit in Top Management Team Behavior Bill Provaznik Central Washington University
    Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012) Volume 5 Article 2 Number 2 Journal of Business & Leadership 1-1-2009 Pushing The aM rgins: A Dynamic Model of Idiosyncrasy Credit In Top Management Team Behavior Bill Provaznik Central Washington University Larry W. Hughes Central Washington University James B. Avey Central Washington University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.fhsu.edu/jbl Part of the Business Commons, and the Education Commons Recommended Citation Provaznik, Bill; Hughes, Larry W.; and Avey, James B. (2009) "Pushing The aM rgins: A Dynamic Model of Idiosyncrasy Credit In Top Management Team Behavior," Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012): Vol. 5 : No. 2 , Article 2. Available at: http://scholars.fhsu.edu/jbl/vol5/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FHSU Scholars Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012) by an authorized editor of FHSU Scholars Repository. Provaznik et al.: Pushing The Margins: A Dynamic Model of Idiosyncrasy Credit In To Provaznik, Hughes, and Avey Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice and Teaching 2009, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1-9 PUSHING THE MARGINS: A DYNAMIC MODEL OF IDIOSYNCRASY CREDIT IN TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM BEHAVIOR Bill Provaznik, Central Washington University Larry W. Hughes, Central Washington University James B. Avey, Central Washington University Top management teams (TMT) behave both conventionally and unconventionally to implement strategic change in organizations. These behaviors are information used by organizational stakeholders to evaluate the TMT. However, because of limited cognitive resources, the cost of cognitive changes and the inherent variability of environments and relationships, stakeholders operate using the “latitude of norms,” which provides thresholds to measure the need for reappraisal and change.
    [Show full text]
  • Deviance Credit: Tolerance of Deviant Ingroup Leaders Is Mediated by Their Accrual of Prototypicality and Conferral of Their Right to Be Supported
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Open Repository of the University of Porto Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 74, No. 1, 2018, pp. 36--55 doi: 10.1111/josi.12255 This article is part of the Special Issue “Leadership and Social Transformation: The Role of Marginalized Individuals and Groups,” David E. Rast, III, Michael Hogg, and Georgina Randsley de Moura (Special Issue Editors). For a full list- ing of Special Issue papers, see: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ josi.2018.74.issue-1/issuetoc. Deviance Credit: Tolerance of Deviant Ingroup Leaders is Mediated by Their Accrual of Prototypicality and Conferral of Their Right to Be Supported ∗ Dominic Abrams and Giovanni A. Travaglino† University of Kent Jose´ M. Marques and Isabel Pinto University of Porto and Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon John M. Levine University of Pittsburgh Leaders often deviate from group norms or social conventions, sometimes inno- vating and sometimes engaging in serious transgressions or illegality. We propose that group members are prone to be more permissive toward both forms of deviance in the case of ingroup leaders compared to other ingroup members or outgroup members and leaders. This granting of “deviance credit” is hypothesized to be underpinned by perceptions of an ingroup leader’s prototypicality of the group (“accrual”) and belief that occupancy of the role confers a right to be supported (“conferral”). Analyses of data from four studies demonstrate that both accrual and conferral (1) mediate evaluations, inclusion and punishment of deviant lead- ers, and (2) they make independent contributions to deviance credit.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Essays on Family Firm Succession
    TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre – Controlling THREE ESSAYS ON FAMILY FIRM SUCCESSION Alexandra Katharina Zehe Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Technischen Universität München zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Wirtschaftswissenschaften (Dr. rer. pol.) genehmigten Dissertation. Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hugo Kehr Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gunther Friedl 2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz Die Dissertation wurde am 28.01.2016 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften am 15.04.2016 angenommen. I TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... VI LIST OF APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................... VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. VIII 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................... 1 2 ESSAY 1 ........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Remarks by Edwin P. Hollander on Receiving ILA Lifetime Achievement Award Friday
    Remarks by Edwin P. Hollander on Receiving ILA Lifetime Achievement Award Friday - October 29, 2010 (Leadership Legacy Award Luncheon Reception Honoring Edwin Hollander) I appreciate and am humbled by this legacy honor, not only for the recognition that is gratifying, but because it comes from the ILA, a splendid organization that models good leadership and followership relations. The caring and participation it provides are very much in harmony with the values in leadership of respect, recognition, responsiveness, and responsibility both ways, which are basic in my book on Inclusive Leadership (2009), emphasizing doing things with people, rather than to people. These values are evident for its members at ILA meetings, and in the periods between them, through the connections with each other it offers and encourages members to make. Life is about connections that may bloom into longer-term relationships. Three of the past legacy awardees, Bernie Bass, Warren Bennis, and Jim Burns, have each had a connective role in my life, and coincidentally in that alphabetical order. Bernie and I were young researchers on group processes with ONR support a in the 1950s, often together then and later at meetings here and abroad. Warren was also associated with that group and organizational area, while at MIT. He came from there to SUNY at Buffalo in 1967 as Provost of Social Sciences and Administration, the largest full-time faculty in the largest SUNY unit. I was then co-founder with Ray Hunt, and long-time director, of the doctoral program in social/organizational psychology there. In 1971, I accepted the provost role when Warren’s associate, my psychology colleague Ira Cohen, stepped down after initially succeeding Warren, who became vice president for development.
    [Show full text]
  • Are Transformational Leaders Sustainable? the Role of Organizational Culture Shan Ran Wayne State University
    Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2017 Are Transformational Leaders Sustainable? The Role Of Organizational Culture Shan Ran Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, and the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Ran, Shan, "Are Transformational Leaders Sustainable? The Role Of Organizational Culture" (2017). Wayne State University Dissertations. 1736. http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1736 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. ARE TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS SUSTAINABLE? THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE by SHAN RAN DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2017 MAJOR: PSYCHOLOGY (Industrial / Organizational) Approved By: _________________________________________ Advisor Date _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY SHAN RAN 2017 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Marcus Dickson, for his excellent mentorship on my dissertation, academic career, and professional development beyond the I-O psychology program. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Lisa Marchiondo, who served as my advisor during my pre-candidacy years and prepared me to become a better scholar. On my dissertation committee, I am very grateful to have Dr. Boris Baltes and Dr. Alyssa McGonagle, who have also provided invaluable guidance on my dissertation, doctoral study, and scientific research. To make the dissertation possible, I especially thank Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Advances in Social & Organizational Psychology: a Tribute to Ralph Rosnow
    Advances in Social & Organizational Psychology A Tribute to Ralph Rosnow This page intentionally left blank Advances in Social & Organizational Psychology A Tribute to Ralph Rosnow Edited by Donald A. Hantula Temple University LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS 2006 Mahwah, New Jersey London This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2006 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinany form,byphotostat,microform,retrievalsystem,oranyothermeans, without prior written permission of the publisher. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 www.erlbaum.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Advancesinsocial&organizationalpsychology:atributetoRalph Rosnow/ edited by Donald A.Hantula p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-5590-4 (cloth :alk. paper) 1.Socialpsychology.2.Organizationalbehavior.3.Psychology— Research.4.Rosnow,RalphL.I.Rownow,Ralph.II.Hantula, Donald A. HM1033.A39 20062005050732 CIP ISBN 1-4106-1744-0 Master e-book ISBN Contents Preface ix I Context 1 The Bolton Legacy 3 Peter B. Crabb II Methods and Ethics of Research 2 Praising Pearson Properly: Correlations, Contrasts, 25 and Construct Validity Robert Rosenthal 3 Estimating Treatment Effects From Nonrandomized 41 Studies Using Subclassification on Propensity Scores Donald B. Rubin 4 On Model-Based Inferences: A Fitting Tribute to a Giant 61 Howard Wainer 5 Retrieving Literature for Meta-Analysis: Can We Really 75 Find It All? MaryLu C. Rosenthal 6 Rebuilding the Ship at Sea: Coping With Artifacts 93 in Behavioral Research David B.
    [Show full text]
  • Innovation Credit: When Can Leaders Oppose Their Group's Norms?
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Kent Academic Repository Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Copyright 2008 by the American Psychological Association 2008, Vol. 95, No. 3, 662–678 0022-3514/08/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.95.3.662 Innovation Credit: When Can Leaders Oppose Their Group’s Norms? Dominic Abrams and Georgina Randsley de Moura Jose´ M. Marques University of Kent University of Porto Paul Hutchison London Metropolitan University Two preliminary studies and 5 experiments examined judgments of leaders who challenge their group’s norms. Participants viewed information about group members whose attitudes were normative or deviated in a pronormative or antinormative direction. The antinorm member was identified as (a) either a nonleader or an established leader (Study 1), (b) an ex-leader (Studies 2 and 5), or (c) a future leader (Studies 3, 4, and 5). Antinorm future leaders were judged more positively and were granted greater innovation credit (license to innovate and remuneration) relative to antinorm members, ex-leaders, and established leaders. Results are discussed in terms of the idea that leadership can accrue from proto- typicality and can also confer the right to define prescriptive norms. However, innovation credit is only granted in the case of future leaders. Keywords: leadership, deviance, prototypicality, innovation, subjective group dynamics A challenge for many leaders in organizations is to drive orga- idiosyncrasy credits had been accumulated by being loyal to the nizational change and take the group in new directions (cf. Coser, group, the leader should be permitted to introduce innovation and 1962; Homans, 1974).
    [Show full text]
  • Getting Credit for Proactive Behavior Supervisor Reactions Depend On
    PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY 2009, 62, 31–55 GETTING CREDIT FOR PROACTIVE BEHAVIOR: SUPERVISOR REACTIONS DEPEND ON WHAT YOU VALUE AND HOW YOU FEEL ADAM M. GRANT University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill SHARON PARKER University of Sheffield CATHERINE COLLINS University of Sheffield Although proactive behavior is important in organizations, it is not al- ways appreciated by supervisors. To explain when supervisors reward proactivity with higher overall performance evaluations, we draw on attribution theory. We propose that employees’ values and affect send signals about their underlying intentions, which influence supervisors’ attributions about whether employees deserve credit for proactive be- haviors. More specifically, we hypothesize that if employees express strong prosocial values or low negative affect, the proactive behaviors of voice, issue-selling, taking charge, and anticipatory helping will have stronger relationships with supervisors’ performance evaluations. We test these hypotheses with samples of 103 managers and their direct supervisors (Study 1) and 55 firefighters and their platoon supervisors (Study 2). The hypotheses were supported in both studies, suggesting that proactive behaviors are more likely to contribute to higher supervi- sor performance evaluations when employees express strong prosocial values or low negative affect. Recently, an employee at a large hospital provided physical evidence to his superiors that bacteria that cause pneumonia and other serious diseases were growing in anesthesia equipment. The equipment was not cleaned fol- lowing each use, thus risking the already precarious health of patients using the same equipment ...The employee was not thanked for being vigilant about safety ...No changes were made, the employee was reprimanded, and his access to sections of the hospital was restricted.
    [Show full text]
  • Engaging Developers in Open Source Software Projects: Harnessing Social
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2015 Engaging developers in open source software projects: harnessing social and technical data mining to improve software development Patrick Eric Carlson Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Computer Engineering Commons, Computer Sciences Commons, and the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Carlson, Patrick Eric, "Engaging developers in open source software projects: harnessing social and technical data mining to improve software development" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 14663. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/14663 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Engaging developers in open source software projects: Harnessing social and technical data mining to improve software development by Patrick Eric Carlson A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major: Human-Computer Interaction Program of Study Committee: Judy M. Vance, Major Professor Tien Nguyen James Oliver Jon Kelly Stephen Gilbert Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2015 Copyright c Patrick Eric Carlson, 2015. All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to my parents who have always supported me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES . vi LIST OF FIGURES . vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . ix ABSTRACT . x CHAPTER 1.
    [Show full text]
  • BRAND LATITUDE by AARON B. CHARLTON a DISSERTATION
    BRAND LATITUDE by AARON B. CHARLTON A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Marketing and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2019 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Aaron B. Charlton Title: Brand Latitude This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Marketing by: T. Bettina Cornwell Chairperson Joshua Beck Core Member Conor Henderson Core Member Gerard Saucier Institutional Representative and Janet Woodruff-Borden Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2019. ii © 2019 Aaron B. Charlton iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Aaron B. Charlton Doctor of Philosophy Department of Marketing June 2019 Title: Brand Latitude This dissertation addresses the topic of brand latitude, defined herein as a public entity’s capacity to deviate from category norms or to transcend the normal function of a brand without incurring adverse responses from the public. The study of brand latitude is important because modern managers use brands to achieve much more than greater market share relative to similar competitors. Established brands are often leveraged to facilitate entry into new product categories, gain attention for social causes, and attract talent, among other uses. While managers hope every branding effort to be successful, these non-standard uses of brands may be received positively, negatively, or indifferently. This dissertation explores both the brand attributes and styles of approach that can lead to increased brand latitude.
    [Show full text]
  • Bulletin Personality and Social Psychology
    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin http://psp.sagepub.com/ Effective Leadership in Salient Groups: Revisiting Leader-Member Exchange Theory From the Perspective of the Social Identity Theory of Leadership Michael A. Hogg, Robin Martin, Olga Epitropaki, Aditi Mankad, Alicia Svensson and Karen Weeden Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2005 31: 991 DOI: 10.1177/0146167204273098 The online version of this article can be found at: http://psp.sagepub.com/content/31/7/991 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of: Society for Personality and Social Psychology Additional services and information for Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin can be found at: Email Alerts: http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://psp.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://psp.sagepub.com/content/31/7/991.refs.html >> Version of Record - Jun 10, 2005 What is This? Downloaded from psp.sagepub.com at UNIV OF UTAH SALT LAKE CITY on April 16, 2014 10.1177/0146167204273098PERSONALITYHogg et al. / SOCIAL AND SOCIAL IDENTITY PSYCHOLOGY AND LEADERSHIP BULLETIN Effective Leadership in Salient Groups: Revisiting Leader-Member Exchange Theory From the Perspective of the Social Identity Theory of Leadership Michael A. Hogg Robin Martin University of Queensland Olga Epitropaki Athens Laboratory of Business Administration Aditi Mankad Alicia Svensson Karen Weeden University of Queensland Two studies compared leader-member exchange (LMX) theory ory of leadership (e.g., Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995) would and the social identity theory of leadership. Study 1 surveyed 439 recommend the latter. The social identity theory of lead- employees of organizations in Wales, measuring work group ership (e.g., Hogg, 2001a) would argue that the most salience, leader-member relations, and perceived leadership effec- effective leader-member relationship will depend on tiveness.
    [Show full text]
  • Are Groups More Or Less Than the Sum of Their Members? the Moderating Role of Individual Identification
    BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2016), Page 1 of 56 doi:10.1017/S0140525X15000618, e137 Are groups more or less than the sum of their members? The moderating role of individual identification Roy F. Baumeister Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306- 4301 [email protected] Sarah E. Ainsworth Department of Psychology, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224 [email protected] Kathleen D. Vohs Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 [email protected] Abstract: This paper seeks to make a theoretical and empirical case for the importance of differentiated identities for group function. Research on groups has found that groups sometimes perform better and other times perform worse than the sum of their individual members. Differentiation of selves is a crucial moderator. We propose a heuristic framework that divides formation of work or task groups into two steps. One step emphasizes shared common identity and promotes emotional bonds. In the other step, which we emphasize, group members take increasingly differentiated roles that improve performance through specialization, moral responsibility, and efficiency. Pathologies of groups (e.g., social loafing, depletion of shared resources/commons dilemmas, failure to pool information, groupthink) are linked to submerging the individual self in the group. These pathologies are decreased when selves are differentiated, such as by individual rewards, individual competition, accountability, responsibility, and public identification. Differentiating individual selves contributes to many of the best outcomes of groups, such as with social facilitation, wisdom- of-crowds effects, and division of labor. Anonymous confidentiality may hamper differentiation by allowing people to blend into the group (so that selfish or lazy efforts are not punished), but it may also facilitate differentiation by enabling people to think and judge without pressure to conform.
    [Show full text]