Matching Items (5)
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- All Subjects: Organizational Behavior
- All Subjects: Character
- Creators: Bekki, Jennifer
- Creators: Corley, Kevin
Description
After decades of dormancy, character is re-emerging as an important research topic among organizational leadership researchers in response to the need to better explain the source of certain exemplary and ethical leader performance (Hannah & Avolio, 2011; Leonard, 1997; Thompson & Riggio, 2010; Wright & Goodstein, 2007). However, efforts to operationalize character are criticized for their abstract and idealistic trait-based conceptualizations that fail to capture the reality of leadership and situational dynamics (Conger & Hollenbeck, 2010). The purpose of this study is to develop a more robust theoretical approach to character that is empirically grounded in the real life complexities of leadership. Combat provides the context for this study because the adversity of such an extreme context tends to make character a more salient and readily observable phenomenon than in more conventional organizational contexts (Wright & Quick, 2011; Hannah, Uhl-Bien, Avolio, & Cavarretta, 2009). I employed an ethnographic grounded theory design to gain a unique insider's perspective absent in many studies of leader character (Charmaz, 2009; Parry & Meindl, 2002). Data collection involved (1) physically embedding for six months with U.S. Army small unit infantry leaders operating in combat in Afghanistan; (2) participant observation in the full range of combat activities engaged in by these leaders; and (3) in-depth semi-structured interviews with key informants. An important contribution of this study is that the emergent concept of leader character is fully situated in the leader's social and environmental context represented by the leader's inner struggle to resist the adversity of combat and uphold the standards of leadership. In this dialectical framework, certain agentic resources important to resolving this inner struggle emerge as the locus of leader character. This agency-based concept of character is rooted in the internalization of the standards of leadership through identity-conferring normative commitments and entails particular motivational and volitional capacities. These produce a distinct mode of functioning--a strong form of personal moral agency--characterized by the leader's willingness to sacrifice in upholding standards in the face of adversity. This primacy of leader agency over adversity is the hallmark of leader character--what I call the character to lead.
ContributorsJennings, Peter L. (Author) / Corley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Waldman, David (Thesis advisor) / Hannah, Sean T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Recently, philosophers have charged that Aristotelian-based virtue theories are empirically inadequate because the conception of character in which they are grounded is largely unfounded by findings in psychology. These philosophers argue in favor of situationism, the theory from social psychology that situational rather than dispositional differences among individuals are in large part responsible for human behavior. Situationists dispute the existence of traits that remain consistent across time and diverse situations and argue that features of situations can better explain and predict human behavior. After analyzing the psychological literature and historical cases put forth as evidence for situationism as well as the basic premises grounding arguments against situationism, I make some conclusions about the best responses to situationism. I agree with situationists that Aristotelian-based virtue and character are not quite empirically adequate but disagree that human behavior owes more to situational rather than dispositional determinants. Basing my theory on literature from social psychology, I argue instead that a concept of character grounded in social-cognitive theory is more psychologically realistic and can explain and predict human behavior and ground a character-based virtue theory. A social-cognitive conception of character would highlight the dynamic role between situations and individual psychological factors like beliefs, values, desires and the way that an individual perceives a situation. I sketch out a non-ideal theory of virtue based in a social-cognitive conception of character that is partially dependent on social networks for its maintenance and is fragmented, or contextualized to particular types of psychological situations. However, fragmented and socially dependent virtue is not an optimal type of virtue because it is vulnerable to situational features that place strong psychological pressures on agents to behave in various ways, including ways they would not have normally endorsed. I agree with Aristotelian virtue ethicists that argue that a type of practical wisdom can help to counter the often unwanted and dangerous influence of these strong situations but also maintain that some measure of moral luck is inevitably involved, even in the development of practical wisdom.
ContributorsValadez, Mayra (Author) / Calhoun, Cheshire (Thesis advisor) / Walker, Margaret U (Committee member) / French, Peter A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Although knowledge about effective teaching and learning exists, and theories of change strategies are considered, the lack of the understanding of the behavior of engineering faculty during curricular change remains a major contributor against robust efforts for change. In this work, faculty adaptability is conceptualized as self-regulation during curricular change. Faculty participants were recruited from two divergent curricular change contexts: one that is prescribed with interdependence while the other is emergent with uncertainty. In this study, attitude toward context’s strength is conceptualized along the four dimensions of clarity, consistency, constraints, and consequences of the context, while faculty’s self-efficacy and willingness for adaptability are conceptualized along the three dimensions of planning, reflecting, and adjusting. This study uses a mixed method, quantitative-qualitative, sequential explanatory research design. The quantitative phase addresses the question of “How does faculty group in the first context differ from faculty group in the second context in terms of self-efficacy and willingness for planning, adjusting, and reflecting?” The qualitative phase addresses the question of “How do faculty respond to curricular change, as exhibited in their activities of planning, adjusting, and reflecting during change?” Findings point to differences in patterns of correlations between attitude toward context with both self-efficacy and willingness across the two contexts, even though analysis showed no significant differences between attitude toward context, self-efficacy, and willingness across the two contexts. Moreover, faculty participants’ willingness for adjusting, in both contexts, was not correlated with neither attitude toward context’s clarity nor constraints. Furthermore, in the prescribed context, Group A faculty (self-identified as Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, or Adjunct Faculty) showed higher willingness for planning, adjusting, and reflecting activities, compared to Group B faculty (self-identified as Assistant, Associate or Full Professors). Also, in the prescribed context, Group A faculty showed no overall significant correlation with attitude toward context. This study has implications on the way change is conceived of, designed, and implemented, when special attention is given to faculty as key change agents. Without the comprehensive understanding of the adaptability of faculty as key change agents in the educational system, the effective enacting of curricular change initiatives will remain unfulfilled.
ContributorsAli, Hadi (Author) / McKenna, Ann (Thesis advisor) / Bekki, Jennifer (Committee member) / Roscoe, Rod (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Significant efforts are underway by engineering organizations to diversify their workforce. However, research findings on workplace diversity are mixed, with insufficient clarity into what makes heterogeneous work environments successful. Acknowledging the role of individual behavior in building diverse workplaces that are cohesive and productive, researchers have called for more theory-based investigation into individuals’ workplace behaviors and their determinants. This three-part study bridges the gap within an engineering context by leveraging Berry's acculturation framework (Berry, 1972, 2005) from cross-cultural psychology to examine the factors influencing engineers’ acculturation behaviors in workplaces. Acculturation refers to the process by which individuals adjust to people different from themselves in their daily interactions (Berry, 1972, 2005). Based on Berry’s framework, the study postulates four acculturation attitudes and behaviors for engineers—Integration, Assimilation, Separation, and Marginalization. Acculturation attitudes are based on acculturation preferences, such as the importance an individual places on retaining individual values and the importance an individual places on receiving acceptance from coworkers. These acculturation attitudes and perceived acceptance together influence behaviors. The first study designed and validated an instrument to measure engineers’ acculturation preferences, acculturation behaviors, and perceived acceptance from coworkers. The results provided complete to partial support for the expected correlations among factors. The second study conducted cluster and Chi-square analyses focusing on the two acculturation preferences. The results revealed four clusters corresponding to Berry’s acculturation attitudes and revealed findings, such as women’s preference for Integration attitude over men’s. The third study used a path model to gain insight into gender differences in engineers’ acculturation behaviors and revealed acceptance as a crucial factor. The results quantitatively substantiated prior findings, namely, that women engineers prefer Assimilation and Separation behaviors more and Integration behavior less mediated by factors related to acceptance.
The developed instrument and study findings offer researchers another lens to study organizations’ diversification efforts, along with other personal and contextual factors. The study findings could also help engineering organizations recruit employees with acculturation attitudes favorable to the organization’s diversity goals and design trainings that highlight the importance of coworker acceptance. Such interventions would facilitate the creation of more diverse work environments.
ContributorsAbhyankar, Rohini N. (Author) / Brunhaver, Samantha R (Thesis advisor) / Bekki, Jennifer (Committee member) / Jordan, Shawn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Individuals have multiple identities, and several of them may be simultaneously driving enacted behavior in a given context. Scholars have suggested that intrapersonal identity networks – the combination of identities, relationships between identities, and identity characteristics – influence enactment. However, very little is known about the process by which several components of one’s identity network result in a single stream of enactment. This is important because different factors (e.g., leader actions) may impact this process and, in turn, change the way people act in organizations and interpret the actions of others. I examined a healthcare system designed to surgically treat cancer patients. Taking an inductive interpretivist approach, and using grounded theory methodology, I developed a process model of intrapersonal identity network enactment that also takes into account interpretations of other system members’ enactment. My findings contribute to the social identity literature by suggesting that a common, highly central identity is not enough to align behavior in organizations. Instead individuals may enact a common “higher-order” identity in combination with the rest of their identity network in ways that actually work against each other, even as they genuinely work toward the same purpose. I also extend the literature on multiple identities by explicating a process by which four different identities, and four characteristics of each identity, foster enactment toward the surgical system. Finally, I show how one’s intrapersonal identity network influences how they interpret the enacted behavior of others. In doing so, I extend the identity threat and opportunity literature by showing how one person’s identity threat is another’s identity opportunity, even when they share a common higher-order identity. In short, my study shows how individuals can work against each other, even when they are genuinely working toward the same purpose.
ContributorsFenters, Virgil (Author) / Ashforth, Blake (Thesis advisor) / Corley, Kevin (Committee member) / Luciano, Margaret (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020