The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

Political correctness represents a regression in university functioning in which paternal influences are repudiated and a biparental model of authority is replaced by one revolving around a primordial conception of the mother. Paternal influences are those that represent the engagement with external reality, and regression to the primordial mother is therefore a rejection of external reality. Aspects of university functioning that are explained by this model include the inversion of valuation, the assault against white males, the subordination of rationality in decision making, the balkanization of the university, the drive to the extreme, and the anomaly of female power.

The author refutes Schwartz's thesis that "political correctness" (PC) stems from a narcissistic, unconscious desire to substitute unconditional love for objective standards of performance. The author argues that "objective" assessment is not achievable; that supporters of PC seek standards based on more inclusive criteria, not the abdication of standards; and that Schwartz's dichotomized "biparental" model for universities excludes other sources of support and standards available to students.

This study assessed Chinese women's motivation to manage and its relationship to managerial success in Chinese state-owned enterprises. It was found that overall managerial motivation of Chinese women in this study was as high as that of Chinese men. In addition, overall managerial motivation was positively related to the hierarchical job level. Of the various component motives, the desires to exercise power and to stand out from the group were the significant predictors. Research and practical implications of the study are discussed.

As organizational leaders undertake cultural transformations to make themselves more competitive, they engender complex responses by those who lead and experience them. Some are intended, others not, and the latter, the unanticipated side effects of cultural agendas, can undermine-even defeat-the intended change process. Drawing on their observations of a diverse array of companies and managers that have undergone cultural transformations, the authors identify four leading side effects: (a) ambivalent authority, manifest in such directives as "ordering" employees to become "empowered"; (b) polarized images, evident in rhetoric that casts all that is new as progressive and all that is old as regressive; (c) disappointment and blame, seen in finger-pointing up and down the management hierarchy for the inevitable setbacks that accompany change; and (d) behavioral inversion, displayed in empowerment slogans that mask a reassertion of hierarchy. Cultural transformations generate fewer unwanted side effects when top managers openly address them during the transformation process.

Theories and methods in the field of organization development have historically been based on the experience of researchers and practitioners studying and consulting with large organizations. However, the vast majority of firms in the world today are small, entrepreneurial ventures. Thus the purpose of this article is to articulate an alternative framework for diagnosis and intervention in these kinds of organizations.

This study reports a single time-series quasi-experiment in a Canadian firm to evaluate the effect over a five-year period of implementing a structured, seven-step strategy to obtain improved organization performance through employee-centered management. A significant change in the condition of the human organization resulting from the intervention was measured over the five-year period and shown to be correlated with a 66% increase in profitability. The results of the study indicate that in the Canadian/U.S. context, employee-centered management is at least compatible with high performance and competitive advantage. There is also evidence that in some instances organization performance can be significantly enhanced through the participation and contribution of employees in problem-solving and decision-making processes.

Organizational literature heralds the value of team learning but does not provide a research-based description of it. This article describes a model of team learning that was derived empirically from case studies in two companies, one with a cross section of employees in a petrochemical company and the second in a data-processing unit that had been reorganized into self-managed teams in a manufacturing company. The authors draw conclusions about changes in learning processes, conditions, and perceptions of time and explore research implications regarding human dynamics.

It is an open secret that one's place of work can be, and indeed often is, a hotbed of intrigue, loyalty, betrayal, back-scratching, back-stabbing, pain, and laughter. In short, work is a home away from home. The article uses aspects of the scientific method to reveal the submerged variable of emotion in an organization. It does not put forward suggestions of how emotion should or could be investigated more fruitfully, nor does it pretend to have produced knowledge of theoretical significance. It does not even tell academics anything that they might not otherwise have noticed about the emotional aspects of their academic lives. Nevertheless, the results of this semiscientific (or pseudoscientific) investigation may strike a cord in its academic readers, who will smile or even chuckle as they recognize themselves in what they read. The finest comedy works because it is serious at its core. This article may amuse, but the kernel of what it has to say is in no way amusing.