Part 2 - Cycle 2 References Index

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Responsibility Departmei5 ri
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Planning Teai
Cycle 2 Job Description
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Job Summary
The Responsibility Department secures members’ commitment to the
organization’s values, mission, goals, and objectives.
The Planning Team trains teams to respond to an environment of
uncertainty. U
Qualifications
1) An ENT profile on the Myers-Briggs Test. Seep. 211.
2) Coaching experience
3) Previous study of history, especially military history, or political
science.
Job Duties and Responsibilities

Concept Responsibilities U
1) Demonstrate strategic planning: how to analyze the environment, how
to identify threats, opportunities, and distinctive competence and how
to state a mission. U
2) Continue Planning supervision from Cycle 1:
a. Members should set SMART goals in their individual memos.
b. Teams and departments should set SMART goals.
c. The Planning Team should schedule presentations if —
appropriate. In some XB divisions Cycle 2 Planning does not

stabilize the environment by scheduling presentations. Instead,
each team must seize opportunities to accomplish their objectives.
Administrative Responsibilities
1) Create experiences where members have to make decisions without
knowing everything they want or need to know, environments of
a. growth. The key word: new. These experiences could involve new
markets, new opportunities, or new frontiers.
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b. competition. Create activities where you need a strategy to win.
Tasks
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1) Have each team outline its presentation plan.
2) In addition, have each team write an insurgent’s strategic plan for
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teaching its concepts, a plan that requires no presentation but traps
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or tricks people into learning the team’s material. Such a plan
requires a SWOT analysis. Questions such as these can focus their
thinking:
a. What are the distinctive characteristics of your task for Cycle 2?
b. What will other teams probably do? What are they planning?
c. What opportunities do you see to attach a lesson to an experience
that is already happening, to an unforgettable experience?
d. What could prevent your team from accomplishing its objective?
Usually time creates one obstacle because twelve teams want to
get time in front of the organization before the semester ends, but
other aspects of the situation could block you.
3) Or lead the organization in developing a mission statement and
strategic plan. This more difficult alternative requires XE to respond
to an external environment.
4) Work out in detail how you will evaluate members of the division on
their knowledge of your material (see below). Develop a system of
record keeping, and report your criteria and procedures in writing to
Control.
Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes. Has each person:
1) Defined the term ‘strategy?’
2) Given an example of a strategy in sports, military history, or
marketing?
3) Listed and explained the nine steps in strategic planning?
4) Explained the terms ‘environment, SWOT analysis and competitive
advantage?
5) Listed and explained Quinn’s nine characteristics of effective strategy?
6) Added the tenth characteristic (cooperation when appropriate) and
explained its meaning?
7) Followed the nine steps in strategic planning for XE?
8) Defined XE’s mission and defended your statement of it?
9) Set a strategic goal within the context of XE’s mission?
Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures
1) Each team will submit a written strategic plan.
2) Strategic thinking demonstrated in the individual memo. Members
who use the memo to strategize about their lives or careers should
alert The Planning Team.
3) Number of times a person has used concepts of strategy in live
discussion. The Planning Team will make a grid of these concepts
and of members and mark members’ use of terms throughout Cycle 2.
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Planning: Cycle 2
Strategy
El
Now that you know how XE operates, what are you going to do with
it? Top management answers this question through strategic planning,
and an ambitious manager at any level should know the organization’s
strategy. This chapter defines strategy, describes the steps in strategic
planning, discusses effective strategy, and begins to apply strategic
planning to our organization.
What Is Strategy?
Military historians, sports fans, and those familiar with Darwin’s
Theory already know basic strategic thinking; it fits any activity.
Strategy is a pattern of actions that an organization takes in its own
interest, to survive and prosper in its environment.
Dealing with the environment makes strategic planning different
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from operational planning (Cycle I). Operational planners usually
assume stable working conditions that will allow the organization to
reach its goals. Strategic planners don’t; they think big; they help the
organization prepare for an unpredictable and unknowable future.
Strategic planners in the military speak of “the fog of war:” by the time
you know what you need to know, it’s too late. In the same vein,
Murphy’s Law says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
The strategic planner seeks to build a posture so strong that it will
succeed despite unforeseeable setbacks.
Steps in Strategic Planning
You may need to jump back and forth among stages in strategic
planning as you do in decision-making. It is important, however, to do
each step thoroughly and completely.
Define mission
Managers use the term ‘mission’ to identify the purpose of the
organization (soldiers use it to identify a task to accomplish). They
answer the question “What business are we in?” 0
XE members usually try to avoid value judgments, but this is the
appropriate place for them. The most important (core) values of an
organization include policies, guidelines (less specific than rules) that
channel managerial thought in certain directions and place self-imposed
limits on actions taken in the organization’s name. Some policies,
notably policies on ethics, make strategic planning more difficult
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because they say what people may not do, rather than what they should
do.
A complete mission statement sets forth a positive direction for the
organization. Because of the values involved, defining the mission
should be an emotional experience, and the mission statement should
evoke members’ personal commitment. Rather than asking “What
business are we in?” strategic planners might start by completing this
statement: “No matter what (i.e., under any circumstances) we are here
to ...“
Set scope and objectives

The next statement to complete, “Under the present circumstances
we are here to actually involves three questions.
..., “
First, define “we;” that is, define the level (scope) at which you are
operating; this is your planning unit. Strategic thinking works at any
level from the total organization through departments down to the
individual. In XE or any other organization, you may want to plan
strategy in your own personal self-interest.
Second, begin to consider whether a win/lose (competitive) or a
win/win17 (cooperative) strategy will best serve your interests. Do not
assume that you must beat others in order to do the best for yourself (or
whomever “we” refers to). Ranking in KB creates arenas of competition
where you want to win, but competition can spill out and poison the
whole organization’s culture. So be careful. You do not know yet which
strategy will work better, but make sure you consider both types.
Third, set the objectives of the planning session. These objectives
apply the organization’s mission within the scope that you have defined.
They must, of course, be behaviorally verifiable or measurable so that
you can know whether or not you have accomplished them.
Scan the environment
In a large unit, an environmental scan can take several days.
Graphics can make the process fun and the data accessible: cover a wall
with a double thickness of white butcher’s paper and use colored
markers and artistic talent to create a mural that records your planning
process.
Draw a circle representing the planning unit (us). Divide the area
outside the circle into domains, areas that contain anything in the
environment that affects you. Make a map of your world, an old-
fashioned map with dragons or other figures representing the entities in
your environment. Leave plenty of room around each entity or figure on
the map. You, in turn, can influence some elements of your
17 See any book on negotiating for a discussion of win/win versus win/lose strategies.
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environment. Put them nearer to your circle. Elements over which you
have no influence make up an outer ring.
Most important among the entities in your environment, your
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customers, if you can identify them, should have an important influence
on your strater. Identifying them may not be easy, though. Who is the
customer for a textbook publisher: the student who reads it, the
professor who assigns it (the department, not the professor may select it),
or the parent, student, or funding source that pays for it? Who is a U
teacher’s customer: the department? Organizations that employ
graduates? The student? In what sense should we consider a student
the customer, if the student always wants less work? Despite possible
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difficulty of identifying the customer, the customer’s wants and needs are
so important that many planning models include customer input to the
mission statement.
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Each entity in your environment makes demands on you or, in effect,
is saying something to you. Near each write a brief but concrete
summary of these demands. The registrar of a college, for instance,
demands grades from XB (if it is a course).
Unforeseen events or technological developments can ruin large-
scale, long-term plans. Use your imagination; seek out people who
have unconventional views; read. In this scan you should use every
means available to peer through the mist into the future.
Forecast
The environmental scan leads naturally into forecasting, making
specific predictions about what the future will bring in an unmanaged
environment (i.e., if you do nothing).
As you discuss the future, you develop various scenarios, stoHes
about what is likely to happen. You should develop several of them,
based upon different assumptions. Handle assumptions with great care
because they have many pitfalls.
Don’t assume a pleasant future. Don’t mistake assumption for
fact. The environmental scan may identify specific areas of concern.
Find out more; conduct research on these areas. Don’t be satisfied with
your intuitions; get facts. Don’t mistake the minor for the windshield U
(McLuhan, 1967) or assume that the future will be like the past.
Generals, it is said, have an unfortunate tendency to fight the last war.
Don’t reject pessimistic forecasts or kill the bearer of bad news. Good U
strategic planning should scare you at times.
Analyze resources
Assess your own organization’s resources. This step can be done
independently of steps 3 and 4 (before, after, or by different people). It
contains two of the four key elements of strategic planning, the “SWOT”
analysis.
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S stands for strengths. You need to identify what you do well and,
above all, what you do better than anyone else. An organization usually
focuses its strategy on its key strength or competitive advantage. A
racehorse that does well on a wet track (its competitive advantage)
should compete in Florida rather than Arizona.
Strategy Quotes
“We have met the enemy, and they are ours.” Oliver Hazard
Perry
“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Walt Kelly in
Pogo
“The true aim is not so much to seek battle as to
seek a strategic situation so advantageous that if
it does not produce the decision, its continuation
by a battle is sure to achieve this.” 3.H.L. Hart
“The whole art of war consists in a well reasoned
and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by
a rapid and audacious attack.” Napoleon
“Supreme excellence consists in breaking the
enemy’s resistance without fighting. Thus the
highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s
plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of
the enemy’s forces; the next in order is to attack
the enemy’s army in the field; the worst policy of
all is to besiege walled cities.”
“In all fighting, the direct method may be used
for joining battle, but indirect methods will be
needed in order to secure victory.” Sun Tsu
“The most complete and happy victory is this: to
compel one’s enemy to give up his purpose, while
suffering no harm oneself.” Belisarius
W stands for weaknesses. Identify them. Find ways to rectify them

or keep them from affecting your performance. In a competitive
situation, discuss how your rivals may exploit them. Talk about them.
Assess Opportunities and Threats
This step uses the conclusions of the three previous steps to specify
what the future may hold for your organization.
O stands for opportunities. Many American businesses enforce
optimism by making the word “problem” taboo so that their planners
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focus on opportunities. What can your organization accomplish that no
one else has ever done?
T stands for threats. What dangers lie ahead? What must you do to
protect yourself?
List alternative strategies and their consequences
From this point on, strategic planning follows forms of planning and
decision-making that you have already learned. The content is a
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strategy.
Generate different strategies. Identify the probable costs, benefits,
and consequences of each strategy.
Choose
Choose one strategy, or combine strategies into a new one. Be
careful, however, not to sacrifice coherence when you combine strategies.
If one possible strategy for winning a football game emphasizes passing
and another, running, you can’t do both without giving players
contradictory orders.
Plan operations
Once you have chosen a strategy, you need to undertake a completely
new type of planning, operational planning, to tell you how to implement
the strategy.
Characteristics of Effective Strategies
How do you assess a strategy? A pragmatist might ask only one
question, “Does it work?” But this criterion takes too long to determine.
Besides, if you have bet your whole future on a strategy, you don’t simply
wait to find out how good it is.
The great military strategist, B.H.L. Hart’s phrase “concentration of
force against weakness” probably provides the most succinct description
of sound strategy. So the short evaluation would ask, “Does the strategy
put you in a position of strength in relation to your environment?”
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J. B. Quinn (1980) offers the following set of criteria:
1) Clear, Decisive Objectives: Do all aspects of the strategy lead
towards the accomplishment of overall goals that key people
understand and that the organization can reach?
2) Maintain Initiative: Does the strategy put you in a pro-active posture
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relative to your environment? For the most part, an organization or a
person with a strategy should be making things happen (even if it
does not appear that way). If something happens to you, you should
see it coming; you should be prepared.
3) Do you concentrate powerful resources at the time and place when
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they will win the day? Concentrations of power may include alliances,
whereby one organization makes use of another’s power. In the
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business world, joint ventures combine the resources of different
companies.
4) Concede selected positions: Businesses often speak of “doing less
better.” Quinn says, “No entity has sufficient resources to overwhelm
all its opponents at all points.” (166) The points conceded should,
however, put the enemy (if there is one) in an exposed position.
5) Flexibility: France’s Maginot Line of fortresses dug into mountains
proved useless against the German blitzkrieg in World War II and has
come to symbolize inflexibility in a changing environment. America’s
passenger railroads died because they had no flexible response to the
airplane and the automobile. Educational institutions throughout the
world will soon face competition from electronic media and from
private industry; they too will succumb, unless they develop flexible
strategies. Remember, you read this prediction in The XB Manual.
6) Coordinated and committed leadership: A grand strategy includes
components that are smaller strategies unto themselves, and the
people who execute these strategies cannot wait for the single leader
to micro-manage. The values and interests of these players must fit
in with the roles they are expected to play in the overall scheme.
7) Surprise: Businesses succeed by “breaking the rules,” i.e., acting
outside the unquestioned assumptions that competitors make. In XB
participants perform many of the functions assumed to belong to
teachers and trainers. In business and in organizations only poor
strategists, short-sighted people, break ethical rules because doing so
energizes the competition and gives them reason to unite.
8) Security: This criterion can include intelligence (research), logistics
(adequate preparation for operations), and simply being prepared for
the worst case. Does the strategic plan include provisions for effective
action when things go wrong?
9) Communications: American military strategy places a high priority
on preserving its own communications capability and destroying the
enemy’s. In the heat of the action, an organization must be able to
react to developments in a coordinated fashion.
A final point should be added to Quinn’s list: cooperation when
appropriate. Effective strategy always means sewing your own self-
interest; it may also mean cooperating with others. Understanding
management through the metaphor of sport can lead to sloppy thinking
about self-interest: winning means beating someone. It doesn’t
necessarily. In fact the very notion of innovation implies opening up
new areas for human endeavor, areas where no competition exists.
Instead of thinking of battles to be won, think of the first horses that
escaped the Spanish conquistadors and found themselves with almost no
natural enemies on the vast plains of North America. Similar
opportunities await us in many fields, if we use our imagination.
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Strategy in XB
This section presents analytical notes towards the development of a
strategy for XE, not a finished strategy for you to follow. It is more
important that XE members understand strategy than that they come up
with some brilliant new thrust for XE as an organization. In twenty
years XE has made only incremental improvements from semester to
semester. It has spread to about twenty teachers besides the Founder.
It can continue to muddle through, although a more ambitious strategy
would clearly be desirable.
Differences of scope, time, and culture of each division (class or
training group) make it difficult to articulate one vision that makes sense
for each reader, but we will proceed by thinking big and include small-
scale strategizing as we go along.
1) Define mission
The beginning and end of the Manual come pretty close to defining
XE’s mission. The goals of the organization are:
1) To learn management by doing it.
2) To learn organizational behavior by observing what happens in the
organization.
3) To build the XE organization
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The Oath, on the last page of the Manual restates these goals as
procedures and commitments for individual members. Some divisions
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have come to the conclusion that the oath is the mission.
The Founder would like to attempt the broadest possible statement of
XE’s mission: open-ended, experience-based learning using the
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concepts and tools of management and organizational behavior. XE
is a laboratory, a place for open-ended experimentation (not merely for
repeating previously conducted experiments). Management is not a
subject to learn and half forget, like other subjects we study. It is a set
of principles, skills, beliefs, attitudes, and values that can enrich our
lives and help us accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible,
working together in organizations. Continual learning is fast becoming a
necessity for educated people worldwide. Learning cannot remain the
alienated undertaking that we have tolerated throughout our school
years. Learning and work must involve us. They must become fun if -
one gives this word a definition sufficiently broad so that the anger and
frustration we all experience in XE can be considered “fun.” They involve
us. They attach concepts to movements of our bodies and souls. They
enable us to learn and to work better.
XE does not need to remain a class or training program. It can
become a university, an elementary school, a network, or a business.
Any organization can use it because its beliefs about reality are simple:
reality is complex, changing, and hard to grasp, messy. The subject [j
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matter of a course on reality should have these same characteristics.
We should not attempt to pin reality to a board like a dead butterfly but
should allow it into our learning process. If we grapple with it and use
its power and complexity to our advantage, we have learned the
fundamental lesson of management and organizational behavior. Of
course there is always more to learn.
No matter what, therefore, XB operates as an organization and uses
real events as opportunities to learn.
2) Set scope and objectives
As participants reach the point of learning about strategy, they
determine the scope of XB’s strategic plan, by how they think and feel
about the organization.
In a best case scenario, participants appreciate the hurly-burly of XB
and understand its relevance to their lives. It makes sense to call it a
learning revolution and think strategically for the organization over a
10-year period. What would this organization look like if XB divisions
operated year-round, at different universities, schools and training sites?
How would a team, such as Dyad, operate if five divisions were running
at once? Could they work together, perhaps via the Internet? Is it
possible or desirable to maintain uniformity (standardization) across
divisions? Here is a question that plagues many organizations that
outgrow their entrepreneur: How can this organization achieve a life
independent of its founder?
A worst-case scenario takes place in a college class where X3 does
not “take” with a significant number of students. They approach the end
thinking only about finishing the semester and remain fixated on getting
the best possible grade for the course. Strategic thinking still applies.
In this case, because the participants do not see further, the Senior
Manager becomes the environment or, in a sense, the enemy to be
conquered, and the division’s objective is to convince the Senior Manager
that they have learned the skills, concepts, and values of management
and organizational behavior. Their major weakness, as they try to
strategize, usually comes in their lack of cohesiveness as a group (a more
cohesive group would probably feel better about and take a broader view
of XB). Participants will probably find it difficult, this late in the game, to
think strategically and operate as an organization when they have not
done so before.
The rest of this section will assume a middle-of-the-road scenario,
where a significant percentage of participants value XB and want (i.e., set
as their objective) to spread its approach to learning beyond the limits of
one course. This scenario defines XE as an element of institutional
change (at this college) and plans within a 2—year horizon.
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3) Scan the environment
A large body of research describes experiments with organizational
change’5. Pockets of change within an institution usually meet
resistance from conservative forces within the institution. Managers of
these pockets perform different activities from normal managers, who
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often perceive them as derelict in their duty (“You didn’t prepare
anything for today’s class? You didn’t come to class!”).
Messages come from each of the boxes in the environment. The
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Administration’s grading procedures, for instance, assume a more or less
normal (or at least standard) distribution of grades for a course. A
teacher may report high grades but may be perceived as contributing to
grade inflation. If XB were to become a high—performance organization,
could the college recognize it19? In other words, they are telling us, U
“Whatever happens in your course, report grades that don’t look too
different from those of other teachers.”
Students come into XB with a set of cultural expectations that take a
month to overcome: “I learn from the teacher. The teacher knows the
truth, will tell it to me, and will tell me if I learned it. What other U
students do in class doesn’t matter.”
4) Forecast U
Crisis lies ahead for higher education. A university degree costs too
much and offers too little preparation for prospective employers who
want to hire people with organizational skills. Universities will soon be
pushing for productivity, as other sectors of the economy have over the
past decade.
5) Analyze XB’s Resources
XB’s strengths: U
1) The ability to involve participants physically and emotionally in
learning. Key elements in this involvement: differentiation of work
group responsibilities, working with peers, and delegated grading.
These are XB’s competitive advantage over other teaching
approaches.
2) Veterans who help present participants. A culture that helps to
3)
prepare participants.
This manual.
U
4) The ability to incorporate a wide range of events into learning.
Key words include: organization development, sociotechnical systems, re

engineering.
19 Read the discussion of appreciation systems in the works of Sir Geoffrey Vickers.
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Participants’ other time
commitments
• Other courses
• Sports
• Work
Other
Departments and
I Our
Academic
Department
Professors
• Allies
Allies, enemies,
• Enemies
etc.
• Neutral
Related courses:
parties
Possible links?
Environment
outside
University
Future
employers’ needs
Changing
technology
/\ .
Students in other
courses
Reputation of XE
Can we recruit and
train for specific
groups before they
Schools in crisis enter XE?
The Culture Administration

• What do learning
• Academic issues they
and fun mean face
here?
• Financial issues
• What are
• Grading procedures
teachers
• Course evaluations
expected to do?
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XB’s weaknesses:
1) (In the past) Ranking rancor: conflict over grades can easily
distract participants from their primary task, learning.
2) Incomplete manual. []
3) Character deficiencies of the Senior Manager (vague, dislikes
overdependency, uses conflict too much).
4) A reputation that often does not match the present reality of XE.
5) Too much chaos: it may confuse some participants so much that
they cannot act.
6) Too little chaos: participants sometimes follow the manual blindly
instead of thinking for themselves.
6) Assess Opportunities and Threats U

Threats
1) XE depends on the life, career, and whim of one person. Change
any of these conditions, and XE disappears.
2) Changes in course requirements by the college or the department
could reduce the participant pool below the critical mass needed
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to run an organization.
3) Failure to demonstrate conceptual learning or intellectual content
could limit demand for XE.
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Opportunities
1) Students’ continued desire for active learning creates demand for
XE as long as its reputation holds.
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2) New requirements permitting organizational studies may increase
demand.
3) Other professors, interested in the concept, could be brought into
the functioning of the organization.
4) Students from other fields, psycholor, journalism, literature, and
computer science, can be recruited to enhance resources of XB
divisions.
5) Each division should conduct its own strategic planning at the
beginning of the second cycle. These notes may help, but they
cannot provide the depth of detail, which would be needed, for a
division facing an actual set of circumstances to have a useable
plan. U
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XB’s Mission
Analysis byXB Fall, 1991
1) Use concepts to improve management

a) Ask “why?” and answer with concepts
2) Work as a group
a) A bonding experience
b) Step back and see the whole
c) See things from the group’s perspective
3) Discover our path
a) Speak my mind
b) Be my own authority
c) Teach each other
d) Use ourselves as resources
4) Recover from failure
a) Experience personal and organizational failure in a safe learning
environment
b) Learn to learn
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Responsibility Department
Control Team
Job Summary
The Control Team leads members to exercise self-control.
Qualifications
1) Unshakable honesty.
2) Experience with the mechanics of The Control Team. One member of
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Control from Cycle 1 should remain with the team.
3) The ability to respond rationally and assertively to anger.
4) Previous study of statistics, social science research methods.
Concept Responsibilities
1) Foster discussion of ethics in XB, particularly in relation to the evaluation
system. Emphasize
a. Ranking as an opportunity to be ethical. Other courses preach ethics to
you. XB gives you the opportunity to experience an ethical or an
—
unethical organization.
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b. The opportunity and necessity for ethical leadership. XB’s ranking

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system can only work if you trust each other. You must develop this
trust amongst yourselves; no one can impose it upon you.
c. The benefits to the organization as a whole, and thus to every member of
it, of a culture of honesty in ranking.
2) Encourage the use of data to answer questions people have about their
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peers or about the organization.
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1) You have two difficult responsibilities:
o to record accurate grades on time and
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o to keep members informed of their ranks.
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2) Frequently post a list of who will submit what grades by when. Put
pressure on teams to turn in their grades and hold them to deadlines.
3) Record the grades.
4) Report grades to members every week. You are only doing your job if XB
members know where they rank, i.e., that they have one up-to-date
number and they know what it means.
5) Maintain and enhance the integrity of the grading system.
Tasks
1) Have each team specir how it will grade members’ mastery of its concepts
for Cycle 2.
Two means should be encouraged:
a. performing specific behavior that demonstrates mastery and
b. describing in a specific section of the weekly memo the application of
the concept to a situation in XB.
Two means should be discouraged:
c. quizzes, written paragraphs, or any other reversion to the classroom
way of doing things
d. repeating in memos the concepts from notes taken in class without
applying them
2) Work out in detail how you will evaluate members of the division on their
knowledge of your material (see below). Develop a system of record keeping.

1) Demonstrated a commitment to an ethical culture in XB? Like every
organization, we expect everyone to abide by the rules; this act would
involve taking a risk.
2) Discussed ethical questions related to evaluation in each appropriate team?
The initiators and leaders of these discussions deserve high evaluation.
3) Reported the results of the discussion to the team in charge of evaluation
for the team in question?
4) Identified a terminal value and an instrumental value in use in XB?
5) Analyzed the moral intensity of an issue in XB using the six factors of
Jones’s model?
6) Analyzed behavior in XB using Kohlberg or Fisher and Torbert’s stages of
moral development?
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1) Quality of evaluation criteria that a team submits. H
2) Order in which they submit their written criteria; did they submit them on
time, late, or not at all?
3) Moral leadership. The Control Team will keep notes on specific behavior
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that influences the ethical environment.
4) Number of times a person has used the bolded concepts from the chapter in
live discussion. The Control Team will make a grid of these concepts and of
members and mark members’ use of terms throughout the cycle. U
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Control: Cycle 2
Ethics: Necessary Value Judgments

To make you more aware of what is going on in XB, the Observing
Department discourages value judgments that interfere with perception. But
an organization or person devoid of values has neither direction nor dignity.
When and how should values come into play?
An organizations goals derive from values shared among its founders and
leaders. The discussion of strategy development (p. 186) includes identifying
core values, at the heart of the enterprise and of those who work in it.
Values
Values are ideas of worth or importance that guide our thinking and
behavior. Terminal values are ideal goal states that we want to reach, such as
being respected or wealthy or understanding organizational behavior.
Instrumental values govern the way we behave, such as telling the truth,
dressing in vivid colors, or speaking clearly. We often act out our dearest
values with moral fervor, whether or not the values are moral.
Most of us find it difficult to articulate explicitly our most dearly held
values. Do you know someone who starts a sentence and leaves it unfinished
at its most important part? The feeling function (see p. 71) has intervened, as
if to say, “Words cannot express the importance of this matter.” Instead of
expressing our values directly, we tend to express them through metaphor, art,
gesture, or action.
In fact, many enterprises are born as expressions in action of their founders’
values. When Tom Scott, President of Nantucket Nectars, says, “You have to
love your product20,” he means that your product must have some
extraordinary importance for you, or you will not have the drive to succeed in
producing and marketing it. His statement implies a lesson for each of us.
Our work adds value or has no value. A person’s values aren’t necessarily
those of the culture. Perhaps capitalism succeeds partly because a man who,
in this case, values real fruit juice can add value to the lives of others through
his own passion.
Organizations work for the dominant values of the culture (helping the poor,
cleaning up the environment, etc.) in several ways. First, governments,
charities, and non-profit organizations exist to further causes and interests
that consumers will not support; they add value.
20 During a class lecture in March, 1998.
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Secondly, in Anglo-Saxon countries at least, some large companies take up
the burden of “social responsibility,’ encouraging and sometimes requiring
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their employees to serve on local committees, work on clean-up projects, coach
teams and otherwise add value to society in activities that do not directly profit
the company. Dominant social values notwithstanding, these practices have
their critics. Led by Milton Friedman (1962), neo-classical economists claim
that companies add less value to the society when their employees are not
producing or selling the company’s product. Other critics point to the irony of
asking a single mother working for a low wage to care for the child of another
single mother, while leaving her own child home alone. U
Should XB members use their formidable management skills to make
money for charity or paint a poor person’s house? The author (and first Senior
Manager) says, “No. It violates Rule Number One.” Like a small struggling
company, XE can not take success for granted. Participants work hard on
such projects but easily forget to go through the learning cycle, to articulate
their experience and attach concepts to it. Learning, our first priority, remains
a precarious undertaking.
You may not agree with this policy; you may not agree with XE’s evaluation
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process; or you may not agree with some other practice in XB. Fitting your
values together with those of the organization poses a major challenge to you
as a manager. Unless you have founded the organization or it has selected you
specifically because of your values, you and it will fmd common ground or will
part company. If you cannot find anything worthwhile or important in the
organization, you cannot bring to the job enough motivation to initiate, to lead
others, to take responsibility for achieving results; you should resign. Finding
common values requires articulating both sets of values and ruminating over
them. OK, you don’t like evaluating your peers. If you consider it immoral, say
so and try to change the organization. If you consider it merely distasteful,
think of other aspects of XE that you like (surprises, action, etc.) and try to
reconcile yourself with this organization. It will not be the last time you do so.
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Ethics
This subject drives authors of management articles and texts into hiding; it
makes us intensely uncomfortable. We view ourselves as professionals, as
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people who bring scientific knowledge to the practice of management; we don’t
like to sound as if we were preaching or ordering people around. True,
spirituality has recently found a home in the business literature (Bolman,
1994; Fisher and Torbert, 1995). But ethics means obeying rules and laws -
not transcending to a higher spiritual plane. Ethics brings us uncomfortably

close to religion, a subject taboo because it brings in metaphysics and strife.
Business authors prefer discussions based in science and directly related to
work.
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“It’s too late to dwell on ethics,” some business teachers claim. “You either
learn it as a child or you don’t learn it.” This statement is a rationalization (an
excuse for not tackling the subject); one could make the same argument about
management itself. Authors also avoid the subject by making an exciting claim
about social responsibility: ethics is profitable. It creates positive public
relations and assures fmancial credit. True, we hope but irrelevant. An
-
ethical person does the right thing as an ethical, instrumental value because
-
it is right not because it achieves any objective whatsoever (terminal value).

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Ethical Principles
Ethicists claim to present ethical principles that “transcend cultural,
religious, and socio-economic differences’ (Aspen Declaration on Character
Education, Press Release of August 7, 1992). Compare the principles of The
Josephson Institute, a non-profit center for the advancement of ethics in the
workplace, with principles recently stated by an American and Chinese team of
authors of an organizational psycholor textbook:
. Lawson and Shen (1998)

The Josephson Institute
. Suggested Universal
Core Ethical Values
Human Values
. Trustworthiness • Truth telling or honesty

Justice and fairness • Promise keeping or integrity
Caring • Fair play or equity
Respect • Mutual respect and caring
. Responsibility
Civic virtue & citizenship
The lists have strong similarities. One might question whether

responsibility, in particular responsibility towards one’s organization or society,
has the universality of the more personal virtues. Given that XB devotes an
entire department to Responsibility and that we regularly pledge to “make this
organization work,” we subscribe to the Josephson values.
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The Institute also supplies three rules to convert ethical thinking into
action:
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The Josephson Institute
Ethical Decision-making Model
• Core ethical values and principles always take
precedence over non-ethical ones.
• It is ethically proper to violate an ethical value only
when it is clearly necessary to advance another true
ethical value which, according to the decision
maker’s conscience, will produce the greatest
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balance of good in the long run.
• All decisions must take into account and reflect a
concern for the interests and well being of all
stakeholders (people affected by the decisions).
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A Model of Ethical Behavior
So far ethics seems to imply reasonably strthghffoiward action: We know
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what’s right; let’s just do it. Perhaps we should take the discussion no further
and let the reader endure the consequences of this approach. Notice, however,
that having ethics take precedence over non-ethical values takes us outside the
realm of management. We are no longer necessarily getting things done
through people or making an organization work. In the introduction to a
textbook on ethics, Fenell and Fraedrich (1991) note
Just being a good person and, in your own way, having sound personal
ethics may not be sufficient to handle the ethical issues that arise in a
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business organization. Many people who have limited business experience
suddenly find themselves making decisions about product quality,
advertising, pricing, hiring practices, and pollution control. The values they
learned from family, church, and school may not provide specific guidelines
for these complex business decisions. For example, is a particular
advertisement deceptive? Should a gift to a customer be considered a bribe,
or is it a special promotional incentive? ...Many business ethics decisions
are close calls. Years of experience in a particular industry may be required
to know what is acceptable. (quoted in Kreitner, 1995)
Although some might question whether simplicity violates the authors
instrumental values, we need a more elaborate model of ethical behavior:
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Ethical Decision-making in Organizations21
Moral Intensity
Magnitude of Consequences
Social Consensus
Probability of Effect
Temporal Immediacy
Proximity
Concentration of effect
Recognize Make Establish Engage

Moral Moral Moral 0 in Moral
Issue Judgment Intent Behavior
Individual Factors Organizational Factors
Personality type Training, Rules, Authority,

Values Norms, Culture
In this model, based on (Rest, 1986) and Jones (1991), a person faces an
ethical dilemma, makes a judgment, establishes moral intent, and finally acts.
Each stage has its own internal variations and most are influenced by
individual and organizational factors.
First, whether or not a person recognizes a moral or ethical issue and then
makes a judgment depends on individual factors, such as the psychological
orientations described in Staffing, Cycle I (see p. 70). It also depends on the
person’s stage of moral development. Kohlberg (1962) outlines six stages,
which Fisher and Torbert (1995) give more graphic names (and use to chart
managers’ growth in both morality and effectiveness):
21 Based on Jones (1991) and Rest (1986)
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Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg Fisher and Torbert U
Preconventional Following rules to avoid
Level
.
punishment.
Opportunist
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Following rules in your
Diplomat
Conventional
. .
immediate interest.
.
Living up to the expectations

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Technician
Level of people close to you.
Abiding by the conventional
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social contract you have Achiever
agreed to. 0
Principled Valuing others’ rights;
1.evel upholding values and rights
even against the will of the
Strategist U
majority.
Following your own principles
. . .
even in violation of the law--.

Magician
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People at the preconvenfional level do not recognize moral issues. Most of
us need practice recognizing that we face a moral issue; after all, moral
issues do not come with labels. What we conventionally call ethical behavior U
begins with convention, i.e., by defining and deciding moral issues in terms of
what respected people would think. Not all group norms (see p. 81) are
ethical norms. Beyond the conventional level, ethical consciousness develops
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into an appreciation of generalizable reasons for action. In their research Fisher
and Torbert found only 10 percent of managers at the strategist level;
magicians are rare indeed. People who act on principle, according to this
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model, are likely to come into ethical conflict with other people and with
organizations or will have to lead them towards their own understanding. In
brief this model says that most of us have a conventional view of ethics and do
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not readily recognize moral issues, frame moral intent, or act.
If we know the right thing to do, will we take ethical action? According to U
Jones (1991), we must understand characteristics of the issue itself in order to
predict whether a person will act. Issues themselves have different levels of
moral intensity that influence whether a person is likely to take action or not.
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22 work your way through Fisher and Torbert’s book before imagining yourself in this category.
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Moral Intensity
Dimension Explanation Example
Magnitude of How big is the harm (or Theft of $1,000,000.00 is
Consequences benefit) done? greater than theft of
$1,000.00
Concentration An act of a given Theft of$ 1.00 from each of
of effect magnitude has a less 1,000,000 people is less
concentrated effect when concentrated than theft of
spread over many $ 1,000,000 from one person.
people.
Probability of How likely is it that the Children in suburban schools
Effect act will take place and are more likely to be struck
cause harm or benefit? by lightening than by gunfire.
Proximity Does the act feel near or Television brings school
. far? shootings into our
households.
Temporal What time elapses Reducing pension rights to
Immediacy between the act and its 75 year-olds affects them
consequences? [similar right away; 30 year-olds will
to Delay, p. 2221 not feel the pinch for years.
Social To what extent do people Should native peoples receive
Consensus agree that the act is evil compensation for past wrongs
or good? from national governments?
These dimensions help us explain why people react to one issue and not to
another.
Organizational Factors
Other parts of this manual deal with the many organizational factors that
can influence a persons ethical response to a situation. The norms of the
organization will establish whether a person may voice moral qualms about a
situation. Ethical training and the presence of ethical ombudsmen can
increase the legitimacy of such action. Perhaps most important, however, is
the design of the formal organization, including its degree of decentralization.
A low-level manager who feels responsible and empowered will be much more
likely to take ethical initiative than someone who normally only follows orders.
An ethical challenge in XB: peer evaluation
Management texts usually list steps that organizations take to foster ethical
behavior among employees: making ethical awareness and reputation selection
criteria for new employees and evaluation criteria for present employees,
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seminars for raising ethical consciousness, written codes of ethics, confidential
consultants, protection for whistleblowers (people who question current
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practice within the organization), and formal procedures that facilitate ethical
inquiry. XB gives you practice. U
Peer evaluation poses a major ethical challenge to every XB division,
particularly those using rank-ordering. Other sections of the manual deal with
this issue from other theoretical perspectives. This issue elicits enerr and
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offers each division a chance to practice ethical behavior and to establish an
ethical culture. Members of an ethical culture, defined at the conventional
level of morality, respect and enforce rules and agreements. These cultures
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minimize costs of policing and, more importantly, reap the benefits of fairness.
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Evaluation in XB with
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High ethical standards Low ethical standards
Friends discuss friendship, agree to ‘Friends’ conspire to give each U

put it aside when evaluating, and other undeseiwedly high ranks
remind each other of this
agreement.
(e.g., in memos).
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Participants trust each other and
tell each other the truth.
Participants value politeness and
friendliness over truth.
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Participants put self-interest aside
and evaluate objectively
Participants put self-interest first
and fly for high ranks whether they
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Participants challenge the ranking
system, discuss and perhaps
deserve them or not.
Participants complain about the

evaluation system and undermine
ci
change it keeping the
-
organization’s needs in mind,

it or change it so that it doesn’t
hurt or bother them.
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Evaluation takes little time. Evaluation takes a lot of time. U
Fair evaluation becomes a source of An atmosphere of moral
pride and contributes to high
performance.
compromise makes participants
cynical and detracts from the
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divisions performance.
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The organization needs you to behave ethically. Except where honesty
becomes a habit, XE members find it difficult to render unto the organization
true and accurate information. Sometimes they short-circuit the process by
drawing lots, rotating ranks, favoring friends, taking the lowest rank (as) if it
doesn’t matter, bullying, or simply refusing to submit data. Fudging the
evaluation process is wrong. It hurts XB, and it hurts you morally to
participate in it. As a participant you must respond to this moral challenge.
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Responsibility Department
: Staffing Team
fl
Job Summary
The Staffing Team helps members understand the structure of their jobs in XE. fl
Qualifications
1) Interest in work methods. U
2) Interest in motivation.
3) High GPA. Ability to understand models. U
Job Duties and Responsibilities 0
1) Explain the Job Characteristics Model to class members. Members should
understand how the design of a job either motivates or discourages the
jobholder.
2) Survey members to find out if they feel more motivated to work and learn in
XE than in traditional classes or less motivated. Use the Job
—
Characteristics Model to explain the results, or criticize the model.

3) Work out in detail how you will evaluate members of the division on their
knowledge of your material (see below). Develop a system of record keeping,
and report your criteria and procedures in writing to Control.
1) Recommend job changes for unproductive members. Counsel those fired
from their jobs.
2) Place members in their Cycle 2 jobs (see below).
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Tasks
1) Make sure that members understand their job descriptions.
2) If not already done, place members in jobs according to their METI (Myers
Briggs Type Indicator) test profiles. The Staffing Team should choose one:
a) http://www.advisorteam.com/user/ktsintro.asp
b) http://www.humanmetrics.com/ cgi-win/JTypes 1 .htm
c) Services offered at the Student Resource Center.
3) Help each member to obtain at least one professional recommendation
(but not from the Senior Manager) on a professional networking site
(“endorsed” on Linked In).
Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes. Has each person

1) Outlined the job characteristics model and applied it to X3.
2) Defined the terms job analysis, job description, job specification, job
design?’
3) Listed personal and work outcomes (key words ‘performance’ and
‘satisfaction and applied them to XB?
4) Listed and explained the five core job dimensions?
5) Discussed skill variety as a key difference between the job of student in a
normal class (participant in a normal framing program) and XB member?
6) Listed and explained the five implementing concepts?
7) Defined ‘growth need strength’ and given examples of members with high
and low growth need strength?

1) The Staffing Team wifi ask members in their individual memos to apply
the Job Characteristics Model to ajob that they have had and to note
whether the model adds to their understanding of their experience at that
job. Alternatively, members could interview people at work and apply the
model.
2) Number of times a person has used the bolded concepts from the chapter
in live discussion. The Staffing Team will make a grid of these concepts
and of members and mark members’ use of terms throughout the cycle.
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Staffinc:
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Designer Jobs
XE grabs you; you get involved; you learn more than in other classes. It
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happens by design, the same design used by sophisticated companies to create
high-performance work units. This chapter explains the elements of job
design so that you can spot any future workplace’s potential to achieve high
C]
productivity with highly motivated employees. It examines your job as a
student and then combines it with the job of a teacher exactly as workers’ and
managers’jobs are being combined in industry. We will first present job
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analysis and then present the Job Characteristics Model,23 which summarizes
job design principles. U
Job analysis
Describe the tasks that people are supposed to perform (Staffing, Cycle 1). U
It involves behavior in the formal organization.
Here we list separately the tasks traditionally assigned to a student and to a
teacher to show whose job is more interesting. If we were working in industry,
fl
we would make a point of not assigning tasks to one role until later in the
process, in order to drive home the notion of redesigning work. U
Student Teacher
in class in class U
Sits Often Stands, walks Often
Listens to teacher
Takes notes
Often
Often
Speaks
Writes on board
Often
Often
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Asks teacher
. Sometimes Takes attendance Sometimes
questions
Takes tests Sometimes Answers questions Often
Moderates discussion
Works equipment
Often
Often U
between classes between classes
Reads assignments
Writes papers
Often
Sometimes
Plans classes
Confers with students
Often
Often
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Studies for tests Sometimes Reads new material Often
Reads papers, exams
Grades papers, exams
Often
Often
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Confers with faculty Sometimes
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23 Most material in this chapter comes from Hackman, J.R., Oldham, 0., Janson, R. and
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Purdy, K. (1975).
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The teacher has more activities and, qualitatively, more interesting
activities. Let us assume an older teacher with considerable experience
speaking in front of groups. The student, younger, has a greater need to move
physically and to practice speaking in front of groups. Yet traditional
classroom organization assigns these motivating tasks to the teacher.
If we examine behavior in the informal organization, i.e., as we actually act
in normal classrooms, the picture looks even less motivating for the student.
Many students do not ask questions in class and have no particular need to
read assignments before classes, except to prepare for tests. Few seem to have
the aptitude or training to absorb information from a lecture.
Before we proceed with redesigning these jobs, note that human resource
departments in organizations use job analyses to construct job descriptions
similar to those found in this manual at the beginning of each team’s section
for Cycle I. These descriptions form the bases for job specifications, which set
forth the skills and knowledge required for candidates for each job. Our job
descriptions contain rudimentary job specifications. Consider a comparable list
of activities for XE members:
Sit, stand or walk Often
Listen or speak Often
Take notes Often
Write on the board Often
Ask or answer questions Often
Speak to other members Often
Argue Often
Take attendance Often
Moderate class discussion Often
Schedule meetings outside class Often
Write memos Often
Evaluate others by observation Often
Evaluate division’s progress Often
Certify learning Often
Read memos of other members Often
Grade memos Often
Communicate with others via e-mail Often
Plan presentations Often
Evaluate presentations Often
Read assigned reading Often
Read supplementary material for own subject, etc Often
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Job Characteristics Model
These lists describe the example that you are experiencing in XB, the
redesign of your role so that you will get more involved in the organization and
learn more than if this were a traditional class or training program. This
redesign results from a straightforward application of Hackman, Oldham,
Janson, and Purdy’s (1975) model of job characteristics that put together hail a
century of research-based knowledge.
A manager wants high productivity, high quality work, highly satisfied
workers, low costs, low absenteeism, and low turnover (people leaving the fl
organization). Research by Frederick Herzberg (1968) suggests that getting
more money does not motivate employees for very long. Thus managers have
long sought ways to make the job itself motivate. The Job Characteristics
Model aims at the following outcomes:
Personal and Work Outcomes
1) High Internal Work Motivation
2)
3)
High Quality Work Performance
High Satisfaction With the Work
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4) Low Absenteeism and Turnover
These states exist naturally in people at play, and psychologists have
identified three critical psychological states that cause them. Employees must
associate value with the work; the authors call this dimension experienced
meaningfulness of the work. They must connect their own efforts with the
results attained; the authors call this sense of accountability experienced
responsibility for outcomes of the work. They must find out how they did;
the authors use the phrase knowledge of the actual results of the work
activities. Please note the similarities between these psychological states and
the conditions that shape behavior in behavior modification (see p. 250).
Most important to this model are the core job dimensions, by which one
0
can analyze any job’s potential to motivate. Three of these aspects of the job
influence experienced meaningfulness of the work. We will define each and
explain it using XB roles.
Skill variety refers to the number of different activities that the employee
performs. Compare the long list of relatively demanding activities of the X3
member with the short list of less demanding activities that describe the role of
a student in a normal class. The more skills (or skill) you use, the more you
invest value in your labor.
Task identity means doing a whole job, from beginning to end. In a shirt
factory a person who only sews buttons on will not have the same sense of
adding value that someone who sews a whole shirt will have. In 5(13 the
Directing Team does not just teach moderating: they plan; they demonstrate
and explain moderating to individuals; they supervise moderators; they 0
critique, discuss, and evaluate the performance of moderators. They do the
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whole job from the beginning to the point where other XE members can
moderate.
Task significance: to what degree does the job affect the lives or work of
others? In recent years managers have come to use the term customer for any
person who receives your work. Your customers can be outside or inside the
organization. If one person doesn’t show up to a normal class or training
program, it doesn’t make much difference; for us it does. In XE, if Control
delays reporting ranks to people, they come in for criticism. In most
workplaces people produce a product or service together. One person’s
blunders hinder others in their work. More optimistically, people get
satisfaction from seeing that their work matters to someone else.
Traditionally, this is why people like teaching; XE gives everyone the chance to
serve others high task significance.
-
Autonomy leads to experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work.

Can you make decisions independently? Can you determine when and how
you are going to do the job? Although The XB Manual spells out how to do
many jobs, XB members, like people in most wefl run organizations, don’t go
strictly by the book. Our results orientation (see p.269) is intended to leave
you considerable choice in how you reach your goal, as long as you reach it.
Feedback gives a person knowledge of the results of his or her work. The
most powerful feedback comes from the task itself. If you put together a stereo
set, you turn it on to see if it works. Other characteristics of effective feedback
can be found in Control, Cycle 1 and, again, in Directing, Cycle 2 discussion of
consequences. Quick, accurate feedback becomes more difficult as the job
becomes more complex, more long-term, more managerial. In XE we try to
have a great deal of feedback from the people closest to the action and whose
opinions matter most, peers. We try to keep the feedback cycles short by giving
immediate reactions to things members do and by reporting ranks and grades
as soon as possible.
Remember these five core job dimensions above all else when you want to
diagnose a job. The implementing concepts that foUow are methods used to
create satisfying and productive jobs, i.e., they are means to an end.
Combining tasks contributes to both skill variety and task identity. In XE
we combine the tasks of teachers and students (trainers and participants) in
normal classes (programs).
Forming natural work units or teams of employees to accomplish a set of
tasks contributes to task identity because the team naturally works on a whole
project, or at least on a more identifiable piece of a larger project. It also
contributes to task significance because people work together and depend on
each other. Most classes and programs assume that learning is an individual
activity, but XE’s culture considers much learning to occur in groups (see
Management Theory, Cycle II). That is, we tend to think as group members
more than we realize. Once XE members get used to it, they learn more from
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and teach more to their peers than from teachers or trainers because of the
underlying assumption that they are equal.
The authors describe establishing client relationships as involving skill
variety, autonomy, and feedback. Dealing with the customer (external or
internal) adds a new dimension to running a machine. You must exercise
considerable judgment, and the customer gives straight feedback on your work.
We could add task identity and task significance to this implementing concept.
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In reality dealing with a customer affects every aspect of the redesigned job. In
XB our clients (customers) are our peers, the Senior Manager, and ourselves as
learners. Members who work hard at these relationships feel more satisfied
with XB and learn more than those who neglect their clients.
Vertical loading, giving an employee tasks at a higher level of
responsibility, although it increases skifi variety, mainly enhances the
autonomy dimension of the job. XB members perform many tasks done
elsewhere by teachers and trainers, moderating class discussions and grading
being two important and motivating examples. The seriousness with which
most )W members perform these tasks demonstrates their enhanced sense of
responsibility for outcomes, as the model predicts. U
Vertical loading usually requires reducing the importance of supervisors
and may involve changing the organizational structure, a process called job
enrichment. Sometimes job designers do not want to undertake such an
ambitious program; they simply give an employee more tasks at the same level
of responsibility, a process called job enlargement.
Opening feedback channels obviously increases the amount of feedback
coming to an employee. In XB we try to create many different kinds of
feedback and to encourage members to value feedback rather than questioning
or rejecting it.
Thus, to varying degrees, XB makes use of all five of the implementing
concepts to redesign the job of the student or participant.
Growth Need Strength: You gotta wanna U
Does it work? Do workers rise to the challenge of redesigned jobs and
become more satisfied and more productive? Do XB members rise to the
challenge, take on greater than normal responsibility, enjoy the experience,
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and learn more than they would in a less innovative setting? The answer to
both questions is, frankly, “not everyone.”
Hackman, Oldham, Janson, and Purdy include growth need strength as a
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mediating variable (popularly known as a fudge factor) in their model:
Some people have strong needs for personal accomplishment, for learning
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and developing themselves beyond where they are now, for being stimulated
and challenged, and so on.
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Workers whose growth needs are not so strong may ... balk at being
“pushed” or “stretched” too far.
everyone has at least a spark of the need to grow and
develop personally unless that spark is pretty strong,
chances are that it will get snuffed out by one’s experiences
in typical organizations. (p.321)
So, if you don’t like X3, the Job Characteristics Model would suggest that
you don’t like learning. Alternatively, this model is wrong. If you don’t agree
with it, please feel free to show how it ens.
Beyond Job Design
In the XB Manual we only examine job redesign. XB implements broader
principles from sociotechnical systems, a discipline that redesigns entire
organizations. Popular management programs such as quality circles and
Total Quality Management (TQM, see p. 284) derive partly from this discipline.
If your division of XB succeeds, you can claim to have lived and worked in a
sociotechnically designed organization.
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Job Characteristics Model
Critical Personal and
Implementing Core Job
Psychological Work
Concepts Dimensions
States Outcomes
Combining
Skill Vanety
k
Fomi:g Experienced High Internal

Natural Work N / Task Identity Meaningfulness Work
Units of Work Motivation
Quali Work
ClieR&abns Sigficance
3 Performance
Experienced
Vertical Responsibility
Autonomy Satisfaction
Loading \ for Outcomes of
witn tue Wor
the Work
Opening Knowledge Low

Feedback Feedback of Actual Absenteeism
Channels Results and Turnover
Employee
Growth Need
Strength
I I__________________
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C C C C C = C C = C C C C C C C
Doing Department
Directing Team
Job Summary
The Doing Department ensures that work is being done towards
personal, team, departmental, and organizational objectives.
The Directing Team teaches behavior modification and uses it to improve
members’ public speaking.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of psychology, especially behavior modification or
group psychology.
2) ETJ MBTI Profile (or the opposite, if you want to put a quiet person in
charge of moderating).

1) Teach members the principles of behavior modification, making sure
that they understand
a. That consequences shape behavior (The ABC, 123 Model).
b. Negative reinforcement (as opposed to punishment).
2) Show members how to use the Premack Anti-Procrastination Tool and
make sure that they understand how to use negative reinforcement on
themselves to become more effective.
1) Take over management of the moderating function, including scribing
and minute taking.
2) Get the evaluation records from the previous members of The
Directing Team.
3) Learn how to moderate. Moderate class twice; then have others do it.
4) Schedule, train, supervise, critique, and evaluate each XE member as
a moderator, a scribe, and a meeting secretary. Assign these tasks; do
not ask for volunteers. Keep records of their performance.
Tasks
1) Obtain clickers from the Senior Manager and distribute them.
2) Have class members click the use of “um,” “like,” “y’know,” etc.
3) Let people have fun, but don’t let it get out of hand.
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4) Make sure that they understand the principles of behavior
modification that this exercise illustrates.
Behaviorally stated learning outcomes. Has each person [1

Moderating:
1) read the directions for moderating a meeting? U
2) discussed them with Directing in preparation for moderating a
meeting?
3) moderated a meeting?
U
4) discussed his or her performance as a moderator with Directing?
5) written an assessment of his or her learning about moderating?
U
6) received a grade on the assessment?
fl
Directing Cycle 2 Behavior Modification. Has each person
1) theoretically described the shaping of specific behavior by describing
it and noting its antecedents and the three characteristics of its
consequences?
2) explained the hot stove rule?
3) experimented with changing a specific, observable, repeated act of
another person or other people?
U
4) distinguished among positive reinforcement, punishment, negative
reinforcement?
U
5) evaluated the advantages and drawbacks of feedback and money as
reinforcements?
Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures U

1) Members’ performance as moderators, scribes, and meeting
secretaries. The Directing Team will obtain records from Cycle 1 and
continue to keep an on-going record.
2) Members’ appropriate use of Behavior Modification tenninolo,. The
Directing Team will construct a grid of terms and tally members’ use.
3) In their individual memos, members wifi observe behavior
modification in everyday life. Members who write about it must notify
The Directing Team in order to get credit.
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ii
Ii
P’ Directing: Cycle 2
Behavior Modification
Do you ever get the feeling you are being manipulated in XE? OK,
‘manipulation and ‘management’ both refer to getting people to do
things. But aside from this point, it would be nice to know exactly how
you are being manipulated and not only in XE but in every other
organization. Every situation manipulates you. If we are puppets, this
chapter helps us to see some of the strings that make us move. After a
short intellectual background piece, it presents a simple model and then
discusses positive reinforcement, punishment, negative reinforcement,
and feedback and money as reinforcements.
Serious Control from Darwin through Skinner
Few management textbooks talk about “directing” any more. They
refer to Fayol’s fourth function now as “leadership” because today’s
managers don’t simply tell their highly educated employees what to do.
XB uses this older term in the spirit and context of the Doing
Department, which focuses on action and results, not on sophisticated
psychological phenomena. Yet the second school of psychology
mentioned in Individual Team’s Cycle II chapter (see p. 250) takes very
much this results orientation: if you want specific people to do specific
things, here’s how you make it happen. Managers can use this morally
neutral approach for good or for ill; it is pure technology (see p. 164).
It begins with a specific application of Darwin’s notion that the
environment determines survival. Here we are dealing not with species’
survival nor even with the survival of a business (economics) but with the
survival of specific behavior (see p. 120). Behavior Modification began
with Thomdike’s (1911) Law of Effect, which in simplified form says that
behavior accompanied or followed by satisfaction will recur (survive),
while behavior accompanied or followed by discomfort will not. For
Behavior Modification’s most controversial and readable advocate, B. F.
Skinner (1971), behavior is determined by its consequences, what
happens to the actor after the act.
ABC and 1,2,3
Changing specific, observable behavior is as easy as ABC, 1,2,3:
A. Antecedents
What cues elicit the behavior you want to change? What aspects of
the environment are associated with this action? List them all (see force
field analysis, p. 112 for a similar exercise), noting cues for positive
behavior and cues for negative behavior. Changing these antecedents
may change the consequences and therefore the behavior.
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B. Behavior
Actually, B comes before A because you should start by specifying the
behavior you want to change. Do you want people to stop coming to
class late? To drop certain expressions from their speech? To lean
forward? You must select concrete, specific acts. If you can measure fl
them, you can change them. Do you want people to have a better
attitude? To learn concepts? To speak more eloquently? Behavior
modification wont work for these changes because you have not
specified the behavior by which one recognizes them. See p. 120.
C. Consequences
What consequences follow the specific behavior? Most importantly,
the consequences must fit the desired act. Consequences will shape
behavior appropriately if they have the right
1) Valence or values
Understand the person’s most concrete values, which most people
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share. We don’t like to hear loud, sharp noises, touch hot stoves, or
be laughed at. We do like praise, sweets, and information about how
we are doing (feedback).
Does the consequence fit the behavior? Does desired behavior get
rewarded or punished? Does undesired behavior provoke negative
consequences? When people ramble on, talking nonsense, does the
moderator thank them for sharing their ideas? Does the audience sit
in polite silence, making them think they are speaking effectively? Or U
do they give verbal or visual feedback that discourages rambling? If
the consequence does not fit the behavior, the organization is
committing the “folly of hoping for A while rewarding B” (Kerr, 1975).
2) Delay
How quickly does consequence follow the behavior? The shorter the
9
delay, the more effective the shaping of the behavior. A hot stove
burns immediately, so normal people quickly learn not to touch one.
Unprotected sex persists because an immediate consequence,
pleasure, shapes behavior more effectively than a (possible)
consequence that takes ten years to develop, AIDS.
Because consequences should quickly follow behavior, XB members
should know their ranks as soon as possible (see p. 59).
3) Frequency
9
Does the consequence follow the behavior every time? Behavior
changes quickly if the correct consequence follows immediately U
consistently. If it only follows sometimes, the behavior will not change
or will soon revert to its previous shape.
Once the new behavior is learned, however, it may be desirable to
9
wean the person from the shaping process by making the reward or
negative consequence happen less frequently. The literature on
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behavior modification includes sophisticated discussion of
reinforcement schedules.
Reinforcement
Consequences reinforce behavior. Once you have analyzed
behavior according to ABC and 1,2,3, you control or change it by
rewarding desired behavior and arranging negative consequences for
behavior you want to eliminate.
Forms of Reinforcement
Valence + Desirable or Undesirable or
I Action Pleasurable Unpleasant
. . Positive
Administer . Punishment
Reinforcement
or apply . . (behavior decreases)
( behavior_increases)
Punishment or Negative
Withdraw Extinction Reinforcement
(behavior decreases) (behavior increases)
Positive Reinforcement
Rewarding desired behavior produces the best results at the least
cost when it works. One boisterous XB division showered shy
—
members who dared to speak out with praise or candy (wrapped, if you
please). In the spring of 2000, the Group Team randomly assigned
maintenance behaviors to various members. Drew Milliken drew
“encouraging” (see p. 140) and shouted, “I support you!” several times
when people proposed concrete action during the ensuing discussion.
Even as a joke this reinforcement so stimulated people that “I support
you!” became part of the division’s unusually positive culture.
The management literature emphasizes the careful analysis and
planning that would, for instance, replace workers’ gambling during
working hours with the distribution of lottery tickets for meeting
production quotas. Critics call such manipulation “psycho-
administrative fascism,” which Skinner supporters qualify as “fascism
without tears” (Dowling, 1973).
Punishment
Administering negative consequences or withdrawing positive
consequences constitutes punishment. It has two drawbacks. First, the
person administering it may also be positively reinforcing behavior. An
unpopular teacher who reprimands a popular smart aleck may be raising
the latter’s status instead of discouraging behavior.
Secondly, people resent punishment and want revenge.
223
F]
Luthans (1992) refers to punishment as a lose-lose approach,” the
very opposite of win/win Theory Y (see p. 180) and recommends that
managers attempt to reinforce rather than punish.
We have tried to eliminate irritating speech habits with punishment
in XB. Directing distributes noisemakers (clickers). Use of the
U
interjection ‘urn” or “like” instantly provokes a choms of unpleasant
clicks. Speech behavior changes quickly, but the exercise takes energy’
from other activities. So this effective punishment tends to fade out.
Instead of punishment think ‘discipline.’ The need for punishment
arises in a circumstance; discipline exists as a constant condition. The
U
Hot Stove Rule applies a slight variation of ABC 1,2,3 principles to
discipline. A stove’s radiated heat warns (A) or cues us that, if touched
(B), it will burn (C). It immediately (2) burns (1) anyone who touches it
(discipline should be impersonal) always (3).
Negative Reinforcement
Removing an undesirable consequence, negative reinforcement,
provokes much less resentment than punishment. Honors XE compared
them in the spring of 1999: Directing wanted the quiet members to speak
more and the talkative members, less. So the quiet members had to
remain standing (an unpleasant condition) until they spoke. Speaking
removed the condition. The talkative ones had to preface anything they
said with an unpleasant phrase like “I can’t stop myself from saying
this.” They resented this punishment. Of course it wasn’t a fair test
because they spoke out about everything, not just their resentment.
Still, negative reinforcement changed behavior, and punishment did not.
Structures of reinforcement surround us in daily life. In Vermont we
U
return empty bottles for deposit, but you often have to wait several
minutes for the clerk to arrive, sort the bottles, and write you a receipt,
which you often misplace while shopping anyway. On the counter a little
plastic box containing other receipts bears the name of a local charity. If
you just leave the bottles, you save several minutes, you join the
generous people who have left their slips, and feel good because the
money goes to charity. In this example charity benefits from both
positive and negative reinforcements.
Reinforcers in Organizations
Luthans and Kreitner (1985) distinguish between contrived and
natural rewards used at work, the former done consciously and
intentionally, the latter constituting part of the work itself.
Premack (1965) advocates using one job as a reward for another. We
U
should perform a less pleasant task first and thus look forward to a more
pleasant task. Did you wash the dishes before reading this chapter, or
does washing dishes seem like a reward to you now?
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U
U
On-the-job Rewards
Contrived Natural
Things you can
. Tokens Social Premack
Consume Manipulate See or hear
Company Office with Pat on the Job
Free lunch . Money
car a window back rotation
Company Company Verbal Special
Watch Stock
picnic literature recognition assignment
Christmas Music at Stock Feedback More res
Trophy
turkey work options about work ponsibthty
Parties Rings or lie Decorated Trading Non-verbal Time off
after work pins workplace stamps recognition with pay
. . Personal
Food Club mem- Lectures or Vacation Comph-
useoiç co.
baskets bership discussions trips ments
equipment
Based on Luthans and Kreitner (1985)
Feedback
Our appreciation of information grows with the Internet. We also
value information about our work, feedback.
Related to our esteem needs (see p. 252), we have a need for
achievement (McClelland, 1985). This need includes a strong desire to
know how well we are doing our work (see p. 212). Since we value this
information, it reinforces our work behavior, especially if we always
receive it soon after we finish a task (1,2,3).
As mere information, feedback often costs less than Christmas
turkeys, vacation trips, or other contrived rewards.
XB values feedback even more than other organizations value it
because we want to learn. Feedback includes criticism of our action, an
acquired taste. We want to know how were doing. In this context before
you decide to do away with reading task forces, ranking within, or any
other feedback, please consider the consequences: you will reduce the
information that motivates and enlightens members.
Money
Money stores value, and managers often want to use it to increase
production. Two warnings here. First, using money to increase
production costs money.
Second, money doesn’t always stimulate work. Some people want
money only to satisfy the lowest levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy (see p.252).
When they have earned enough money to survive, they stop working and
enjoy life. You only live once. Some students have the same attitude
towards grades; you’re only young once.
Money stimulates work at the Esteem Level of Maslow’s Hierarchy
because it represents membership, success, achievement or something
—
else complex and emotional. Money works as a symbol (see p. 305). We

225
E
can never earn enough money, just as we never seem to feel fulfilled.
This chapter aims not to philosophize but to explain how to exploit this
human foible! To the extent that we are confused and deluded, money
motivates us. And we are confused and deluded.
Perhaps confusion and emotion explain why in many organizations
salary is taboo; you may not discuss it. Does the lout in the next cubicle
really deserve to earn $100 more per week than you? To get to the heart
of the matter we would have to explore the depths of our own values and
fl
uncertainties, so we don’t talk about how much we earn. Did Marjorie
really deserve a 17 on that memo? See Rule 2 (p. 23).
Issues of behavior and delay also complicate the use of money as
[
reinforcement. Start with the example of one man painting designs on
pottery. To encourage him to work hard, we offer a bonus. It costs too
much for us to sit with a stopwatch and reward him for each pot
efficiently produced. Suppose the worker hustles for three hours, slacks
off for an hour, and then immediately receives a bonus; are we
reinforcing hard work or slacking?
Next, an assembly line worker does not determine the rate of
production. Suppose you tie a bonus to the whole factory’s production.
U
Quality may suffer, so you add measurements. In the end every
employee must learn the entire panoply of financial measures for a
company. Until recently executives considered financial measures too
difficult for the hourly employee to understand.24 The experience of
Springfield Remanufacturing shows otherwise. This company teaches all
its employees how to keep score in “The Great Game of Business,’ and
they all benefit from increases in its profitability (Stack and Burlingham,
1994). But we are no longer talking about money reinforcing an
individual’s work; financial measures go beyond behavior modification.
XB can’t pay bonuses until we have better measures of a divisions
performance against other divisions or other ways of teaching
0
Management and Organizational Behavior. Some day a measurement
and accounting genius will figure out how we too can learn more by
better keeping score.
Conclusion on Behavior Modification
Behavior Modification, like other techniques, puts the grail of high
0
productivity just beyond our grasp. To improve our measurement and
our compensation schemes, we must understand this non-psychological
model: consequences shape behavior. Consequences in the human
organizational environment turn out to be just as complicated as
explorations of the soul.
Li
24 “All Pulling Together to Get the Carrot’ The Wall Street Journal. Apr. 30, 1990. p.
BL
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[I
Memo
From: Hannah Taylor

To:[St. Michael’s XB, BU 303 C
November 4, 2010
My Actions and their Consequences
I wasn’t in class on Monday, but from what I’ve heard from other people, I
would have had plenty to say, so it’s probably good I wasn’t there since one of
my goals was to not get caught in fruitless discussion and my personal growth
goal has a lot to do with me shutting my mouth. Since I have had time to think
about the changes that the class implemented on Monday, I can voice my
...
opinion now without breaking my goals.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with the course lately, and until I found out
about Monday I didn’t quite know how to articulate what was bothering me so
much about the way things are going. ... this class has turned into a bunch of
people interested in punishing members who aren’t doing the work, and
motivating through punishment. In my Learning and Behavior class last year,
we were learning about animal behavior and how it can relate to human
behavior in terms of shaping techniques that will be most effective. Punishment
is what we view to be the most effective modifier of behavior in our culture,
however, it is actually the least effective. Rewards, on the other hand, motivate
behavior and foster creativity. There are two types of punishment and two types
of rewards. The types are positive and negative. From these terms, it would be
easy to assume that positive refers to rewards and negative refers to
punishment, but this is not the case. There are positive and negative forms of
each, and these are not value judgments. A positive punishment is the
administration of an unpleasant stimulus, for example, when a person is using
filler words such as urn, uh, or like, we administer a positive punishment by
making the annoying clicking noise. A negative punishment is when we
withdraw a pleasant stimulus, such as when we don’t make eye contact or
polite conversation with someone who has pissed us off. A positive reward is the
administration of a pleasant stimulus, such as praise or accolades for a
wonderful presentation. A negative reward is the removal of an unpleasant
stimulus, such as Putzel shutting up when we do the oath right.
As an organization we are doing a lot of punishing. Punishing of both forms
can lead to inactivity on the part of the person punished. It fosters an
unpleasant environment for all. For example, we have developed an idea of a
positive punishment for those who are late to class: they must rearrange the
desks at the end of class. Let’s enter the mind of a class member who wakes up
late, and realizes he is going to be 5-10 minutes late to class. If he believed he
would not be punished for lateness, he would probably get his ass in gear and
get to class, and he and everyone else would benefit from his presence.
However, if he believes that he will have the unpleasant task and public
humiliation of having to move the desks back all by himself, he may decide to
not show up to class at all. Instead of administering a positive punishment to
someone who is late, we should be rewarding those who are on time. If we want
people to be engaged in XB and really trying their hardest, we should be
creating a pleasant environ-ment that people want to engage in. In this
environment, the guy who woke up late for class would not only feel guilty for
227
letting his classmates down, he would also feel as though he was missing out
on the treat of engaging with people who are excited to learn and want him
rLi
around.
Fear and punishment are good motivators of specific behaviors, but we are
not interested in specific behaviors in XB. We are interested in overall attitude, U
attentiveness, contribution, and willingness to learn, which cannot be forced.
Our attitude right now in this class can be summed up by the phrase, “Beatings
will continue until morale improves.” You can’t beat someone into a good U
attitude. In fact, the more you punish someone, the greater the chances are
that they will be paralyzed into inaction by learned helplessness. Especially if
they are actually trying, punishing them will send the message that no matter
what they do, nothing will improve their situation so they should just not try.
You can’t force someone to take responsibility, and when someone is asking for
help, the last thing you should do is punish them for doing so. ...every time I
have asked for help in this course, I have been punished for doing so. When I
said that the deadlines were not clear to me, an unpleasant discussion ensued
which accused those who are not meeting deadlines of laziness. If I did not want
to meet deadlines, why would I bring up my problem? Again, when I voiced the
problems I’ve been having with MediaFire, a similar situation occurred, and
Dan even wrote about it in his memo, suggesting that I was unwilling to take
responsibility and was trying to fit the organization to my own needs. I assumed
that if I was having a problem, perhaps others were as well, and ...it was an act
of taking responsibility to mention my problem and suggest a solution. Right
now we are interested in punishing, because we are ascribing to Theory X, that
people are lazy, rather than expecting great things and fostering an environ
ment for people to show us their best. At this point I’m so discouraged that I
[can’t) bring up any problems I am having with the course, and I never ever
want to come to class. I hate the energy of the class, and the [bs] and the
elementary school feel. We are far less productive than we could be because of
this hostile dog-eat-dog environment we have developed, and if we want real
results from our organization, we need to start viewing each other as learning
tools rather than slackers or competition.
U
What I Learned
I explained this theory in much shorter terms to Putzel today, and he said
that I should bring it up in class, but that was just my point; I [can’t] bring up
anything in class and have it be well received or taken the way I mean it. I don’t
know if it’s people’s perception of me in particular, or of anyone who is going to
be a thorn in peoples’ sides and try to improve things, but for some reason
people in the class take what I say in the worst way it could be taken every
time, and don’t listen when I say that wasn’t what I meant. U
I’m learning... to stand up for myself [or] just
...buck up and deal with
the [bs]. But ... what I’ve said in this memo is a message to my coworkers that
we need to change around our attitude about the class in order to get the best
results. At the moment, there are a few people benefiting from XB, a few people
who are totally indifferent, and at least me who feels like XB is the worst part of
my life.... if we were able to turn around our culture everyone would benefit.
228
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U
Doing Department
Communications Team

Job Summary
The Communications Team ensures that people send messages
properly through appropriate media.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of computer science, English, especially grammar and
writing.
2) Use of electronic mail, computer networks, or spreadsheets at work.
3) Assertiveness Training
4) A high F score on the MBTI.

1) Teach members the theory of assertive communication.
2) Encourage members to work through conflict instead of avoiding it.
1) Manage the weekly memoranda. Get members to write clear,
grammatically correct, useful, interesting memos. Make sure each
department or other grading group grades each memo, gives written
feedback to the writer, discusses significant points in class, and
reports ranks to Control before the deadline.
2) Make the Senior Manager’s memoranda copies, with comments,
available for everyone to read.
3) Make sure that members read each other’s memos; use a sign-up
sheet or electronic equivalent.
4) The communications needs of XB may change in Cycle 2. Adapt
communications procedures to the new needs.
5) Train members to recognize aggressive, non-assertive, and assertive
behavior and to express themselves assertively.
6) conduct public discussions of assertiveness, conflict, conflict
management, and negotiation, linking experiences in X3 to
organizations in the work world.
229
Tasks
1) Take over management of the individual memos from members of
1]
the previous Communications Team, including evaluation records
that they have kept.
2) Design a way of teaching members about aggressive, passive, and
assertive communication that does not require a long presentation.
See ideas on the website.
Control.
Behaviorally stated learning outcomes. Has each person:
U
1) Listed our four rights, when we interact with others?
2) Listed and explained the three ways of communicating?
3) Given verbal and non-verbal examples of the three ways of
communicating?
U
4) Identified someone using each of the three ways of communicating
in live communication?
5) Helped another person communicating aggressively or passively to
communicate assertively?
6) Explained why assertiveness may not make sense in some cultures?
7)
8)
Listed four positive and four negative effects of conflict?
Discussed the differences among yielding, compromising,
U
dominating, and collaborating?
9) Demonstrated and articulated concepts and practices of conflict
management and negotiation?
Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures 9
1) Quality and frequency of members’ ranking of individual memos.
This grade is reported separately to Control as “Ranking of
Rankers.” U
2) Number of times a person has pointed out assertive, aggressive, and
passive communication or negotiation tactics. Make a grid of these
concepts and of members and mark members’ use of terms
throughout the cycle.
3) Helping another member act assertively. The Communications Team
will keep notes on members throughout the cycle. A member who
writes about helping another become more assertive should noti&
Communications so that they can give appropriate credit.
U
230
[1
Li
Communications: Cycle 2
Assertiveness, Conflict Management,

and Negotiation
American culture, disguised as management, is being sold to unwary

students, according to certain European management experts. We argue
the issue on p. 301, but if American culture does cover the same ground
as management in one area, it is certainly in the psycholor of leadership
and in particular a behavioral prescription called Assertion Theory.
Americans idealize assertive communication; it leaves people from some
other cultures cold; you will judge its usefulness for yourself.
Each individual, according to Assertion Theory, has rights,
comparable to the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States
or the UN’s Declaration of the Rights of Man. Here we are talking not
about legal rights but about social rights when we interact with other
people. Colleen Kelley (1979) cites:
1) the right to refuse requests without having to feel guilty or selfish

2) the right to have one’s own needs be as important as the needs of
other people
3) the right to make mistakes
4) the right to express ourselves as long as we don’t violate the
rights of others
If you object to the term “right,” think of an attitude of self-esteem and

self-confidence that shows up in our behavior when someone attacks us
or makes an unreasonable demand on us. Examples would include your
boss angrily accusing you of incompetence in front of your co-workers or
a drunken friend asking to borrow your new car.
Self-esteem begins with a sense of being centered, like clay on a
potter’s wheel or physically balanced like a practitioner of the martial
arts. It shows up in assertive communication, self- expression where
we defend our own rights without encroaching on those of other people.
We recognize and maintain certain boundaries between others and
ourselves. We respect ourselves and respect the feelings and the normal
emotions of other people.
One can be off center or out of balance in one of two ways. First, we
can be passive or non-assertive, not standing up for our own rights and
231
letting ourselves be pushed around or invaded by someone else. The
passive person feels fear, anxiety, guilt, depression, fatigue, or H
nervousness but keeps the feelings inside.
The second way of being off center or out of balance is through
aggression, disrespect of the rights of other people. We may attack
people physically or, more frequently in organizations, verbally,
expressing feelings against the other person: anger, hostility, hatred, etc.
Balance and both forms of imbalance are visible in specific aspects of
non-verbal behavior and in our choice of words.
Most of us would resist a physical attack or at least nan away. But
-
U
many of us offer no resistance to a verbal attack; we nan away
psychologically. A passive or non-assertive non-verbal response is
recognizable when someone doesn’t look directly at the person he (she) is
talking to, when they slouch, whine, or laugh in a nervous way. In
verbal behavior the same response shows up in hesitation (“uh,” “you U
know”) or in phrases which reduce the effect of speech (“maybe,” “I
guess,” “somewhat”) or negate the effect of speech (“This is silly, but
“I know that you won’t want to do this, but “It’s not important.”).
...“
fl
In addition to outright violence, physical aggressiveness includes any
unwelcome encroachment on a person’s body or personal space. Rough
play, unwelcome sexual overtures, touching, or even standing too close
to someone could be interpreted as aggression. Cultural differences
often make it difficult to interpret non-verbal behavior, which may
appear aggressive to one person but not to another. Aggressive language
includes threats (“If you don’t..., I will ...“), provocations (“I dare you”
“Chicken!”), or making fun of someone (“You’ve got to be kidding.”),
rhetorical questions (“How can you be so stupid?”), and racist or sexist
epithets.
Assertiveness has a relaxed, firm style, both physically and verbally.
U
Physically balanced, you face the other person directly but without any
menace. You neither invade nor retreat from the other person’s space.
You speak calmly or forcefully but do not mumble or shout. Assertive
words encourage cooperation by talking about “us” (“Let’s try to “Why
don’t we ...?“). Assertive people ask questions only to get information
(“What do you think of...?”) and above all express their feelings by
talking about themselves (“I am happy that “I am frustrated by ...““I
...“
am not comfortable ....““I feel...“ but not “I feel that you ...“).
-
Assertiveness is a way of life, an attitude of respect towards oneself

and towards others. As a style of communication, it becomes most
useful in situations where people’s rights are in doubt. Someone
interrupts you. You need to criticize someone, or they need to criticize
you. You need to get someone’s permission to do something. You need
to negotiate something. You want to compliment someone. Someone
flatters you.
232
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Li
Assertiveness doesn’t always work. As a communicating style, it
simply gives the other person an accurate idea of your feelings and your
desires in a given situation. There is no guarantee that the other person
will be reasonable or accommodating or will not try to get the better of
you. And you may need to have a back-up style. You may need to show
the other person that you are tough, or you may need to run like hell.
But if you start out aggressive or non-assertive, you don’t give the
other person the chance to be assertive with you. Being assertive means
showing your openness to reason, to fairness, to the other person as far
-
as, but no further than you want to go. Your assertiveness expresses
your desire to have a frank relationship or to reach a fair resolution of a
conflict, without cheating the other person or sacrificing your own rights
or interests. In social or work settings, assertiveness opens the way to
honest, direct, effective communication.
As previously noted assertiveness may be a peculiarly American
concept. All cultures, however, face conifict, where being assertive
becomes most difficult, potentially most valuable.
Conflict and conflict management

When actions or outcomes that benefit one party seem to come at the
expense of another party, the two parties are in conflict. We attach
value judgments to most conflicts. A fight over water rights might strike
us as bad; the conflict benefits no one. In sports, however, the more
conflict within the rules, the better. The struggle benefits participants
and spectators.
In Cycle 1 (see p.181), we saw that conflict may benefit one party at
the expense of another, may hurt both parties, or may benefit both
parties.
Modern conflict theorists point out that conflict may have a positive
effect on organizational productivity. They note increases in:
1) Effort. In many cultures competition (regulated conflict) brings
out the competitors’ best performance. In XB’s reading task forces
people push themselves to excel in reading, discussing, and memo
writing because they know that they will be compared to other
groups and other members of their own group. XB tries to make
use of the formidable motivating power of the reference group.
2) Creativity. To meet competition, people develop new work
methods and invent new products.
3) Feedback. Forced to evaluate themselves, XB members articulate
standards and measure their performance by them. Conflict
increases the information that we receive about our work.
4) Cohesiveness. A group, when attacked, usually draws together.
Groups and organizations increase their sense of identity,
solidarity, or community when challenged or threatened.
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Of course conflict may also produce negative consequences:
1) Excessive stress harms employees’ physical and mental health.
2) Goal distortion. The goals of an organization are to produce, to
survive, and to benefit its members. Too much competition, and
members think only about beating the enemy. Much of the
turbulence following the Cold War comes as the industrialized
countries redefine and rediscover their goals.
3) Waste. Trying to win, rather than to produce or learn, people end
up wasting time, energy, and money. XE groups, for example,
frequently spend more time fighting over ranks than working. This
4)
is a big mistake; fortunately, our job is to learn from our mistakes.
Lass of common ground. Dramatic human and economic loss
fl
during a civil war such as in Bosnia and Rwanda show how easily
we forget that even parties in conflict have common interests. The
narrow interest of one group, departmentalism, can make
employees forget what benefits the whole organization. In
negotiations, parties that focus on beating the other side (playing
the win/lose game, p1236) often have negative outcomes.
Three causes of conflict in organizations

Ivancevich, Konopaske, and Matteson (2011) cite three common
causes for conflict in organizations: work interdependence, goal
differences, and perceptual differences.
Geo-temporal differentiation (see p. 154) creates a low level of
interdependence called pooled interdependence. Different reading
0
groups in XE have no interaction with each other, but together they
detennine whether the organization has mastered the material. XE has
them compete with each other (a form of conflict) and regulates their
functioning through procedures.
Sequential interdependence happens when one team’s input comes
from on another team’s output. Control cannot enter memo ranks until
Communications reports them; Communications can’t report them until
the rankers have done their job. Here, as in leadership, planning
substitutes for conflict resolution; good planning avoids conflict.
When functionally different teams (see p.154) exchange inputs and
outputs with each other, they are reciprocally interdependent. Such
complex organization requires coordination, communication, and
decision-making, the human skills that you acquired in Cycle 1.
At the beginning of XE, you probably experienced interdepartmental
conflict that began with each team working to achieve its goals without
taking the other teams into consideration. The conflict was resolved
when each team became aware that other teams had different goals.
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Such goal conflict often produces perceptual differences. Often
teams with different goals perceive each other as intentionally
obstructing. They can even develop negative stereotypes of each other.
Skills and tips for managing conflict

1) Set goals. Try to describe a future state that both parties can agree
on. Then they can jointly plan how to reach them. Focus on the
future and the present; translate the past (grievances that cannot
change) into the present (feelings that can be expressed).
2) Tackle personal, group, and emotional issues separately from
work issues. Both are real. Often emotional issues masquerade as
work issues, sometimes vice versa. If Tom doesn’t like Bill, or if they
are competing to become department heads, Tom may disagree with
anything Sill suggests. Don’t pretend it isn’t so; no UVJs; bring it
out into the open. Deal with their feelings; then deal with the
suggestion.
3) Work the process. Don’t panic; be comfortable with the conflict.
Remember, you want some conflict about work issues. And the
personal issues should be worked through, not pushed aside. Use
your process observation skills. Listen figuratively (see p. 128);
speak literally (see p. 231). Understand how each party perceives
the other (see p.258).
The topography of conflict and negotiation

Conflict management requires understanding conflict and building
trust. The Prisoners’ Dilemma game (see p.181) gave us a grid which
requires only minor revision to orient us in conflict and negotiation.
Included in this table is a small pun intended to help you see a large
pattern of management thinking: My interest lies in getting my job done,
in accomplishing my task. If I am only task oriented, that’s Theory X
(see p.179); so this orientation becomes the X-axis of the graph. If I
accommodate or yield to you, I am people oriented, which is, roughly
speaking, Theory Y, the Y-axis25.
The diagonal from the upper left to the lower right describes win/lose
thinking, where one party’s gain is the other’s loss. Traditional
negotiation, such as hard bargaining over the price of something, occurs
25 Theory Y actually aims for what we are here calling Win/Win but is often
conceived as simply trusting in other people, the Y-axis. Assertiveness, too, aims
for the Win/Win and can be conceived as trusting the process.
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along this line. A negotiator trying to win at the other’s expense often
uses the tactics described in the Win/Lose Tactics box on the next page. U
Conflict Management and Negotiation
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High
Yield
or Lose
Collaborate
or Win/Wm
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People
Orientation
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(other y Compromise
party’s
interest)
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Low
Avoid
or Ignore
Dominate
or Win
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x
Low
Task Orientation
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( or my interest)
High U
Two skilled negotiators of roughly equal power usually will reach a
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compromise somewhere between their interests. Compromise still means
that one person’s gain means the other’s loss. Compromise does not
necessarily result from a fight. Roger Fisher’s classic book on
U
negotiating, Getting to Yes, advocates analysis of the interests of each
party and the use of a rational criterion for arriving at agreement. U
Much modern management, including negotiation theory, seeks the
“win/win” solution, where both parties benefit. Win/win solutions
require imagination, rethinking of assumptions, and sometimes the
tEl
commitment of more resources than either party had thought of.
Although placed the upper right corner of the graph, they may require
thinking outside the box.
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Win/Lose Tactics
Tactic Example
Extreme Initial Position Starting by asking $ 20,000.00 for a beat-up
old car.
Anger “Stop wasting my time!”
Tears
Ridicule “You brought a sandwich? We’re taking a
break at Maxim’s.”
Silence
Walking away
Limited authority “I have to talk to my boss.”
Threat “I have six other projects to turn to.”
Guilt “Building that dam will flood my mother’s
grave.”
Flinching
Vise Technique “You’ll have to do better than that.”
Interrupting See p. 144
Techno Dazzle brochures, powerpoint, prepared notebooks
Boulewarism “I don’t negotiate. Here’s the deal.
(best offer first) Take it or leave it.”
Br’er Rabbit “Don’t throw me in that briar patch.”
(distorting your interest) (Br’er Rabbit was born and bred there!)
Good cop, bad cop A negotiating team consists of one nice and
one tough person.
Belly-up (Pretending “You win. Be kind to me.”
you’re beaten)
Ignoring Time Limits The other person seems to forget that you
have a plane to catch.
Petty concessions “A Mercedes? I can’t, but how about this
magnificent ball-point pen?”
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Doing Department
Effectiveness Team
Cycle 2 Job Description fl

Job Summary
I]
The Effectiveness Team leads members to a productive relationship with
the Senior Manager and other bosses.
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Qualifications
1) Military Training to be a officer.
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2) Previous study of psychology, especially counseling.
3) A high ‘S score on the MBTI.
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Job Duties and Responsibilities fl
1) Train individuals, teams, and the whole organization to understand
their own action in terms of reaching a goal (effectiveness) when the
boss appears as an obstacle.
2) Train individuals to be able to state an objective and what they are
I:]
doing to reach it at that moment.
3) Train members to study their boss, to find out what the boss needs
9
and what they need and don’t need.
—
4) Inform members about counterdependence, independence, and

interdependence in boss / subordinate relationship.
Administrative Responsibilities 11
1) Observe and comment on members’ attitudes towards the Senior
Manager.
2) Manage the learning cycle, which reinforces XB’s fundamental method
9
for learning from experience. Members should henceforth forever be
able to situate themselves in Observing, Understanding, Taking
Responsibility, or Doing and know which stage comes next.
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Tasks
1) Take over management of the weekly meeting of heads or
representatives of the four departments. In this meeting they should
a. evaluate the effectiveness of the division (XE) to date. Are they
satisfied with the performance of this learning organization?
b. rank the departments. The Effectiveness Team must
immediately submit these ranks in writing to Control.
c. set objectives for the division for the coming week.
d. prepare a report on this meeting. They should brief all members
in the next general meeting.
2) The organization’s needs may change in Cycle 2. Using the Learning
Cycle, adapt the weekly meeting procedure to changing needs, being
very careful to respect
a. The organization’s need for accurate work performance
assessment (ranks).
b. Demands on class time.
c. The levels of trust and ethics existing among members.
3) Make sure that open forum meetings frequently end with a methodical
application of the learning cycle to one observation.
4) Towards the end of the course, have members list the three most
important decisions made in Cycle 2. Tally the responses and present
them on one slide to the organization and in a short, written report to
the Senior Manager.
Control.
Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes. Has each person
1) Defined dependence and related it to Bions Theory (see p. 292)?
2) Defined overdependence and counterdependence and given
examples of each from your experience in X3?
3) Defined interdependence and explained why it should characterize
the relationship between a boss and a subordinate?
4) Listed the Senior Managers goals and objectives?
5) Listed the goals and objectives of a boss you have worked for or are
working for outside XE?
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6) Listed the outside pressures on the Senior Manager and your other
boss?
[
7) Described the personality of the Senior Manager and your other
boss? U
8) Listed the work habits and preferences of the Senior Manager and
your other boss?
9) Compared your own goals, objectives, pressures, personality, and
preferences point-for-point with those of the Senior Manager and
your other boss?
10) Planned specific steps to improve your relationship with these two
bosses, based on your analysis?
11) Reported on the steps you took to improve these relationships?

1) The Effectiveness Team will ask members in their individual memos to
describe a boss they have had and to note whether the chapter adds
to their understanding of their experience with that boss.
Alternatively, members could interview people at work and apply the
chapter’s concepts.
2) Number of times a person has used the bolded concepts from the
chapter in live discussion. The Effectiveness Team will make a grid of
these concepts and of members and mark members’ use of terms
throughout the cycle.
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Effectiveness: Cycle 2
Managing Your Boss26
In traditional management thinking, the boss knows everything and
tells you what to do. Today this approach would hamper productivity for
organizational and psychological reasons, which we can understand
through our experience in XE. This chapter warns you to examine
carefully your relations with your boss and not to take your boss’s
expectations for granted.
A boss hires a subordinate to work, and because management means
getting things done through the subordinate, the more work the boss
delegates, i.e., the more work the subordinate takes over from the boss,
the better. At first the subordinate depends on the boss to define the
work, to say what needs to be done. In the transfer of responsibility
subordinates often refuse.. subtly, even unconsciously to take over one
-
aspect of work, thinking. At this moment they depend too much on the
boss.
Dependence
We have already encountered dependence. The forming stage of
group development and the dependency group in Bion’s Theory gave us
theory, and the first day of XE gave us an example, since dependence
typifies the first meeting of almost any group. Not knowing what to do,
participants sit down and wait to be told. The trainer or teacher knows;
the participants don’t. Notice also that
1) XB is complex and hard to understand at first.
2) Despite a sincere effort, the Senior Manager could not give enough
directions to allow participants to act independently with
confidence. His apparently premature efforts to put the participants
in charge may have made many wonder whether he really knew
what he was doing.
3) A period of confusion and disappointment began when participants
discovered that they could not depend on the Senior Manager and
ended when they decided to act without worrying too much about
the Senior Manager.
Psychological dependence is neither good nor bad in itself. According
to the psychiatrist Takeo Doi, for example, typical Japanese never leave
amae, dependence on their elders. And Japanese society is not lacking
in dynamism.
26 This chapter draws heavily on Qabarro, J. J. and Kotter, J. P. (1980).
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Excessive dependence, however, places a serious and unnecessary
burden on the boss. Although complex for a course, XB is simple
11
compared to any organization where you are likely to work. This manual
contains clear and explicit directions, but in the beginning XB members
wait to be told to act. And the same thing happens in businesses and
government agencies. The boss delegates responsibilities down through
the formal organization. Overly dependent subordinates, by doing
nothing, delegate the responsibility right back up.
Counterdependence
If the boss cannot explain the task and motivate the subordinate to do
good work, dependence may take a sinister turn which we observe
frequently. The behavior can be summarized in the word ‘no.’ Like three fl
year-olds or early adolescents reacting to theft parents, employees
oppose any action, request, or policy which comes from the boss.
Because the parent or boss’s behavior defines it, the reaction is
considered a form of dependence, counterdependence. And like a group
in the confrontation stage, the counderdependent person is flying to find
power but has not yet found a positive outlet.
Counterdependence is painful for parents and bosses. Children pass
through this stage, but many employees spend theft careers fighting
theft bosses. This struggle causes losses in enerr, productivity, and
morale for employers and employees; in Prisoners’ Dilemma terms it’s a
lose/lose outcome (see p. 236).
If you are dissatisfied with your boss’s decisions or your boss’s
relations with you if you consider your boss incompetent- think long
-
and hard about the situation. Write down, in detail, a description of the
boss’s actions and their consequences avoiding value judgments, of
-
course. Suppose that in XB for example, the Senior Manager’s facial

expressions show his displeasure with developments in the general
meeting (forum). His gestures distract and frustrate participants, who
don’t understand what is bothering him.
Now assume hypothetically that you yourself are counterdependent in
your reaction and take responsibility yourself for the boss’s behavior. In
the present example, you are watching the Senior Manager more closely
than you are watching other members (except that certain someone
across the room who may be physically more attractive). You are
responsible for what you are looking at. As a participant, you also have
the right to ask the Senior Manager to calm down or even to leave the
room. You are answerable for your own action or inaction. Conclusion:
responsibility for the employee’s frustration with the boss is almost
always shared.
Here’s the bad news: it’s up to you to manage your difficulties with
your boss. A few bosses out there may want to adapt to you, but most
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‘—I L___i L__J L....J Lfl) L_J L__J L_J L_J L_.J ‘_.J LZLJ L—J L—J L_J C_i LZJ L_._J LLD
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expect you to adapt to them. As an officer in the Israeli army, a simple
baker in civilian life, said to my highly educated friend Gidon Bar Kama:
“I may be as dumb as you think I am. My stupidity may cost you your
[1
life. But as long as I am wearing these epaulets and you’re not, you’re
going to obey my commands!’
So it is up to us, the employees, to look realistically at relationships in
organizations and overcome our natural tendency to rebel. We need to
create interdependence between our bosses and ourselves; we need to
make sure that the boss can depend on us. It is up to us to respect
legitimate authority, to recognize power that others have over us and,
above all, if we want to succeed, to understand the human being who
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happens to be our boss.
How to study your boss
Without maldng value judgments write down your boss’s goals and
objectives, including his (her) organizational mandate (goals which the
organization requires the boss to have) and his (her) personal ambitions.
What is the boss trying to accomplish, and by what means? Some
bosses would like to read your attempt to understand their plans. Paul
Johansen, who went from XB to Wall Street, credits his success partly to
having listened actively; he understood his boss’s goals.
Where does your boss feel pressure from? What are the goals and
objectives of your boss’s boss or customer? Who judges your boss’s
performance and by what criteria? Knowing the answers to these
questions may help you understand your boss’s behavior. Department
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heads and contracting organizations, which pay for XB, can be skeptical
of it; they definitely want to know if it works. The Senior Manager (RP)
likes to hear that a participant is using things learned in XB at work but
has fits of ecstasy when reading the same message. Why? Because he
can use the written memorandum to show his bosses and customers
that XB works.
What kind of person is your boss? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
and the chapter entitled “Matching People and Jobs” (p. 65) have
introduced you to personality differences. Each of us has strong, weak,
and blind points. What are your boss’s? The boss doesn’t need to take a
test; you can figure it out. Which XB department would your boss feel
U
most comfortable in? Least comfortable? Does your boss value, or
denigrate, functions that are difficult for him (her)? Get to know, but do
not try to change your boss.
Observe your boss, in the same way you observe your colleagues in
XB, by describing his (her) typical work style. Does (s)he like arguing?
What is his (her) favorite color? Does your boss prefer to receive new
information by hearing it, reading it, or seeing it in graphic form? Ask
yourself any kind of question about the boss. Take note of any kind of
detail about the boss’s behavior, office, or verbal expression. Get to
know your boss.
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et, tu
Do the same analysis of yourself, but in greater depth since you are
free to explore this subject without limits. Study your Myers-Briggs
results. Take other psychological tests. Without throwing yourself
blindly into the anns of charlatans, consult with psychologists or
personnel specialists who can help you understand your own style. Ask
your friends or colleagues to give you feedback on your personality and
your behavioral style. And don’t get too upset at criticism included in
the feedback; your purpose is to learn about yourself.
This chapter has warned you about excessive dependence. Do you
tend to depend too much on other people? Do you have strong feelings
about authority figures? Think of specific incidents in your work
experience or personal life, and describe in detail what you did and why.
A new relationship with the boss
You have studied your boss and yourself. Now put the two together,
to work out a new and better relationship. Only your behavior will
change; you cannot expect the boss to change. If the boss notices a
difference and listens more carefully to your views, so much the better.
But don’t count on it; don’t expect it; and don’t write the boss off if it
doesn’t happen.
If you like details, and the boss gets impatient when you go through
things thoroughly, change the procedure. Try to articulate a general rule
instead of the details, or submit the details in writing. If you tend to skip
the details, and the boss gets lost, train yourself to be more methodical.
Obviously there are limits to adapting to the boss’s style. You should
not break ethical rules (see page 201) to improve your relationship with
your boss. If you can improve your relationship with your boss only by
breaking ethical rules, then get help. If revealing your reservations about
the boss’s ethics looks too dangerous for your career, get help. Find a
mentor (a senior person whom you can trust) to help you before you
undertake any discussion that might make things worse with your boss.
Avoid judging your boss, if you can. If you can’t avoid conflict with your
boss on moral grounds, then at least scout out the emergency exits from
your organization beforehand.
You are trying to build a relationship with your boss based on mutual
expectations. Often the boss will be glad to discuss them with you
explicitly, especially if doing so will reduce the need to control your work.
Keep your boss abreast of your important activities. If you
understand your boss’s goals and strategies, you will be able to act with
considerable initiative. In one XB division that had department heads,
Mike Manna set the goal of “staying one step ahead of my boss so that
she will never have to tell me what to do.”
You undertake a new relationship with your boss for your own
benefit, but the boss and the organization will benefit, too. If the two of
245
you work out a relationship based on honesty, trust, and dependability,
you will seem like colleagues at work. Many bosses talk about their
“colleagues” and “associates.” Don’t be fooled by this friendly
atmosphere. If need be, the boss can go back to being an authority
figure, a right which you should not begrudge.
Time is money; the higher you go in organizations, the truer this
cliché becomes. Do not take up more of the boss’s time than work
requires or the boss wants. It is better for the boss to ask you to stay fl
than to ask you to leave.
In modern management everyone is a manager, and almost everyone
has a boss. Manage your boss.
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Observing Department
Individual Team
Job Summary
The Observing Department ensures the flow of feedback. It gets
members to perceive and describe members behavior and its
consequences without judging them.
The Individual Team trains members to look behind behavior at
childhood, motives, consequences, and feelings that may explain it.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of psycholo’.
2) A high P score on the Myers-Briggs Test.
3) The ability to describe human behavior without judging it.

1) Lead members to describe specific behavior without judging or
interpreting it and then to speculate about its causes.
2) Emphasize the past, the present, and the future (childhood, feelings,
and consequences) as different ways of understanding behavior.
3) Have members make inferences from specific behavior to Maslow’s
need hierarchy.
4) Apply the concept of personal growth to events and people in XB.
1) Manage attendance. The Individual Team is responsible for having
members attend not just for reporting absences.
—
a. Review the attendance policy from Cycle 1.

b. Take attendance (visually), and report absences weekly to Control.
c. When members fail to attend, call them or visit them.
2) At least once during each class have someone recount a significant
event in the class, noting specific behavior and its consequences.
Tasks
1) Ask each XE member to identify a personal improvement project, a
next developmental step for them. This doesn’t have to be a major
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breakthrough, but the member should be proud of accomplishing it.
This assignment may overlap with Group’s act of influence
assignment. Post a list of these steps so that the organization has a
sense of its positive influence.
Control. [3
1) Explained how different schools of psychology use goals, causes,
and feelings to explain behavior? I.E., explained behavior by linking
it to the future, the past, or the present?
2)
3)
Outlined, explained and given examples of Maslow’s Hierarchy?
Explained behavior in XB using any of the approaches in this
fl
section?
4) Given alternative explanations of specific behavior in XE?

1) The Individual Team will ask members to identify personal
improvement projects and write about them in their individual U
memos. Members should notify The Individual Team of these write
2)
ups or send them a copy.
The Individual Team will ask members to discuss causes of behavior
U
of interest to them in their individual memos. Members should
notify The Individual Team of these write-ups or send them a copy.
3) Number of times a person has used concepts of causes and motives
of behavior in live discussion. The Individual Team will make a grid
of these concepts and of members and mark members’ use of terms
U
throughout Cycle 2.
Li
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— — -‘ Individual: Cycle 2
Motives and Feelings Associated with
Behavior
Once you have disciplined yourself to describe behavior objectively,
you can begin to understand people’s acts, or as we loosely say, to
understand what motivates people. This section presents three different
ways to understand motivation and discusses how to use each
appropriately in XB.
Behavior
The term ‘motive’ in our language suggests to us that a person’s

behavior has a goal, the same sort of desired end state that the Planning
Team talks about. If A thumbs his nose at B, he is seeking to insult B.
That is, we can explain his behavior by a change he is trying to produce
in B’s behavior.
Cause Behavior
A Motive (1)
The arrow leading to the goal becomes the phrase “in order to” or
simply “to” in our explanations (which we formerly considered
descriptions.) of behavior; “A thumbed his nose at B to get him mad.’
Notice that we separate act and motive in time; the act precedes the
goal. If a goal motivates an act, then we can guide our acts by choosing
our goals. This way of understanding behavior underlies the basic
managerial thinking we call planning. By judiciously setting appropriate
goals, we take responsibility and then do what we set out to do.
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The Directing Team provides a simple but sophisticated version of this
way of thinking called Behavior Modification, which uses the term
consequence’ instead of goal. Because behavior that produces
satisfactory consequences tends to repeat itself, Behavior Modification
tries to assure that positive consequences always result from desired
behavior (see p 56).
The managerial mentality of Responsibility and Doing thinks of
behavior as something to control. Not so, the Organizational Behavior or fl
psychological mentality of Observing and Understanding.
Traditional psycholor looks in the past for the source of behavior by
putting the motive before the act. Here we speak of an act’s having a
U
cause, rather than a goal.
Cause 4 Behavior
A Motive (2)
“A thumbed his nose at B because C told him to.” Notice that motive
and act still occur separately, at different times. In this example the
cause lay outside the actor, in the recent acts of another person. We
might well hear a person say, “He told me to do it.” The manager who
hears this explanation will get nervous, because the speaker is avoiding
responsibility. fl
The traditional psychologist is not trying to get the actor off the hook
(to relieve the actor of responsibility) however. In traditional Freudian
psycholor, one does not know the cause of one’s own behavior; behavior
is unconscious. Like computers, we have programs that tell us to act in
certain ways. Each of us repeats certain behavior, uses certain phrases,
which others recognize as our style. We learned these programs or fl
routines when we were very young and are no longer even conscious of
them. That is, we do not experience ourselves as being programmed.
Some of these routines (programs) help us get work done through
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others, but all of us have some routines that reduce our effectiveness as
managers. Other people whom we trust can speak frankly with us, can
help us discover our own routines. We can trace the causes of our
behavior through our programs to our childhood or to our parents’
behavior. We can learn to value some programs, and we can try to
change others.
A word of warning here: XB is designed as a safe place for this kind of
personal learning. We expect to make ‘mistakes’ and learn from them.
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Despite the Senior Manager’s fanaticism, it’s a class, not psychotherapy,
just a class. Still we must all work hard to make XB a safe learning
environment, by understanding and respecting each other’s feelings.
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Feelings
1) Feelings are often unspoken, which makes them hard to think
about.
2) Feelings are value clusters inside us, notions of good and bad, of
right and wrong, of fear, awe, desire, etc. associated with people,
objects, or ideas. Like glue on our fingers, they attach us to these
things, sometimes when we don’t want to be attached. When I have
stage fright, for instance, I don’t want to feel afraid, but I do feel
afraid.
3) We speak of having feelings, but we do not have them. They have
us (lUages, source unknown). Feelings are sovereign. We cannot
control or change them, although we can usually control how we
express them in behavior. It is useful to think of them as having no
causes and no goals, to consider them facts inside us, to respect
them as they are, without judging them.
Feelings? Back to the topic of motivation. The third way of

understanding behavior seeks the motive neither before the act in a
cause nor after the act in a goal but underneath the act in a feeling, i.e.,
in a jumble of value and perceptions inside the actor.
The feeling expresses itself in the act; the feeling pushes out of us.
Our acts give birth to our feelings.
What are feelings? It’s hard to say and that’s their first and most
-
important characteristic. Rarely do people actually express their feelings

explicitly. Usually we hint at our own, which we- especially men may-
be unaware of in the first place, and try to guess other peoples’.

You have just read a short history of psychology. Freud and the
Psychoanalytic School look to a person’s past to understand the causes
of present behavior. Skinner and the Behaviorist School (The Directing
Team’s Cycle II presentation) focus on Behavior Modification through the
control of the behavior’s consequences. And the “Third Wave,”
Humanistic Psychology, regards feelings as one important source of
behavior. To understand someone’s behavior in this third way, we use
empathy, the ability to articulate to yourself and indeed to feel another
person’s feelings.
This third way of understanding motivation implies a theory of
organizational life: organizations consist of people who, in addition to the
work they have to do, always have feelings about what they are doing,
about the organization, and about each other. Imagine the organization
as a bunch of feelings parading around wearing our skins as containers -
or as masks. These feelings may be helping us work together or they
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may be hindering our working together, but we cannot directly change
r
them, and they never go away.
And because they are sovereign and never go away, we managers
[1
must take them into account as we get things done through people. We
do this by understanding that an actor (somebody doing something) is
almost always expressing a feeling as well as accomplishing a task. In
most circumstances, the mature actor can choose between different acts
that express the feeling that will inevitably come out. Most importantly
in organizational life, the actor can take responsibility for articulating the
feeling, putting it into words so that it doesnt come out in non-verbal
acts which are easily misinterpreted.
P
Hence while responsibility for a manager may mean articulating ones
goal, for a person in an organization responsibility means
1) assertiveness, telling people your feelings as they relate to the work
situation or
2) empathy or so-called active listening (which The Dyad Team calls
‘listening behavior’) by which we hear another person’s unspoken
fee lings
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy in XB

What feelings will you encounter in XE? Don’t let this or any other
book blind you to the feelings that people actually have. But we can
understand much behavior in this organization by realistically applying
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy, a model of how people mature.
According to Maslow, “Man is a wanting animal and rarely reaches a
state of complete satisfaction except for a short time. As one desire is
satisfied another pops up to take its place (Maslow, 1970, p. 24).” A
need is a kind of goal; it elicits a certain kind of behavior.
The preceding section discussed how feelings too can be associated
with behavior. So let us consider not only the needs or goals associated
with behavior commonly observed in XE but also the feelings we have.
At the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy, we have our most fundamental
needs, for physical well-being. Suppose you are sitting in the middle of
an XE presentation and have to urinate very badly. The worse it gets,
the less you hear. You feel discomfort, and sooner or later your behavior
expresses this feeling: you get up and go to the bathroom.
[1
Need Feeling Behavior
+ +
Physiological Discomfort Leaving Room
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Self Actualization
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Note
A native of Zaire, self-taught Raphael Zahiliiwa drew this illustration
in Kigali, Rwanda, in January 1994. At the bottom malaria incapacitates
an artist. Up a level, scared of a sorcerer, he cannot work. Next up, he
goes dancing with his friends. Then, telling his friends to leave him
alone, he begins to work. Finally work becomes his world.
Although twice interrupted by riots, a division of X3 ran successfully
in February and March, 1994. In April several of the participants were
massacred in the Rwandan genocide; the rest (and Zahilirwa) fled to
refugee camps.
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At the next level on Maslow’s Hierarchy, the presenter has Security
Needs: she wants to make an effective presentation but fears (a feeling)
that she is boring people. Imagine how she perceives your walking out.
Perhaps she comments on it:
Need
Security
Feeling
Fear
Behavior
Saying “Am I boring you?” U
Perhaps she doesn’t comment on it; the need and feeling are still
there. In fact, needs and feelings often do not get expressed in overt
behavior. Many XB members, afraid to speak out in open meetings,
have security needs.
11
,
Security Fear Not Speaking
When people feel secure, according to Maslow, they become social

animals. We need others to like us; so we smile and joke. We feel
friendly. We go along. We try not to be different.
U
Need
Social
+
Feeling
Friendly
Behavior
Doing what others do. fl
Social needs dominate college life but have their limits in a work
organization. XB members who are friends outside class often object
U
strenuously to the rank-order grading system which forces people to be
different.
Maslow writes of ‘being useful and necessary in the world as one
U
aspect of the Esteem Needs. Most but not all XB members think of
- -
themselves as good organization members. They work.

Esteem Self-esteem (pride) Work
Blyth Welch had been trying for two weeks to get reports on a certain
topic from members of the other teams in her division. No one
responded. At the end of a particularly chaotic class, she stood in the
door and shouted that no one, including the Senior Manager, was going
to leave the room without looking her in the eye and telling her when the
report would be in her hand. Named “Employee of the Week” (the first in
the organization’s history), Blyth received a citation for “caring more
about doing her job than about keeping her friends,” an adequate
description of Esteem Needs becoming more important than Social
Needs. By the way, she lost no friends.
0
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[1
U
Whether Self-Actualization needs appear in XE or not would make an
interesting debate. XE keeps some people from sleeping. They see an
opportunity in it for themselves. But does it amount to the ‘desire to
become more and more what one idiosyncratically is, to become
everything that one is capable of becoming” of which Maslow writes?
Who knows? At this stage behavior goes beyond mere work. It no longer
refers to concrete goals, particularly external ones. It may seem more
like play, something done for its own sake. And the Seif-Actualizer may
seem like what Peter Vaill calls a ‘kamikaze,’ someone who throws
himself into his job.

Self-actualization Passion Play
If you have moments of feeling this way or know someone who is

losing sleep because of XE, pay attention to the phenomenon. Every so
often an entire organization lights up with this passion (e.g., Apple
Computer, PeopleExpress) and produces wonders. In XE one sometimes
gets intimations of what education could become.
Self-actualization has a dark side, however. These passions play
themselves out; depression often follows. And other aspects of society
may suffer from the very success of an organization: consider that many
people find more satisfaction at work than away from work. Their
families disintegrate; their lives outside work atrophy. Self-actualization
is the atomic energy of human motivation. It has boundless potential; it
also has its dangers.
Psychology itself can become a passion for better or worse. When we
open our eyes and watch behavior, we behold wonders and see awesome
possibilities for human development. Managing in the real world
(including XE), taking responsibility for getting things done through
other, real people has the benefit of mitigating potentially dangerous
psychological passion. When we feel like sprouting wings, it may be a
good time to ask, “Who’s minding the store?
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Dyad Team
U
Job Summary
members to perceive and describe members’ behavior and its
The Dyad Team leads members to give each other interpersonal
feedback, to tell them how they perceive them.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of social psychology.
2) A high ‘P score on the MBTI.
3) The ability to observe human behavior without judging it.

1) Learn about interpersonal feedback from various websites. Explain
it to XB members, and encourage them to give each other feedback.
U
2) Present the Johari Window model of perception and use feedback,
active listening, and assertiveness to increase shared perception.
1) Perform Quality Control on presentations by giving straight feedback
to presenters. Encourage originality in presentations. See Guidelines
for Presentations (p. 134).
2) Make sure that someone is sitting beside and giving emotional
support to any organization member involved in serious conflict.
U
U
ii
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Tasks
1) Visit a student or employee counseling center and ask them what they
do. Report to the Senior Manager how their function applies to XB.
2) See the website for a suggested presentation.
Control.
Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes: Has each person:

1) Drawn the Johari Window model, labeling the quadrants?
2) Explained how each quadrant label describes the perceptions that
members of a dyad have about each other?
3) Explained how self-disclosure and feedback increase shared
perception in an interpersonal situation?
4) Explained how a large Quadrant I increases shared perception?
5) Explained how the norms of a group and the culture of an
organization affect how members deal with the contents of quadrants
II, III, and IV where things are not known in relationships, problem
situations, and communications?

1) After its presentation, the Dyad Group will ask members to write a
reaction to the personal feedback that they have received and will
evaluate these reactions.
2) Number of times a person has used the Johari Window or given
feedback in live discussion. The Individual Team will make a grid of
these concepts and of members and mark members’ use of terms
throughout Cycle 2.
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Dyad Team, Cycle 2
Communication of Perception
by Tuck Taylor
XB’s Rule # 5 tells us not to use the phrase “lack of communication”
fl
because whenever things get screwed-up in an organization, people paste
this phrase on the situation and think that they’ve made a diagnosis.
You have two tools for improving communication, listening (Dyad,
cycle 1) and assertiveness (Communications, Cycle 2). This chapter puts
them in the context of how we perceive each other and provides a
communications vehicle for improving X3 or any other organization.
In Pepperdine XB 1, the Senior Manager perceived the majority of the
division members to be learning. Several members disagreed. They
shared their perceptions. He based his judgment on the weekly memos;
they based theirs on class presentations. Communicating and
discussing these perceptions changed the Senior Manager’s perception
and focused attention on the presentations. Until they communicated
their perceptions, the Senior Manager and the division members did not
share an understanding of the situation; they perceived it differently.
Sharing perceptions can lead to improved effectiveness.
Each of the two people in a dyad (a situation where two people are
communicating) perceives or has an experience of the other person or of
the situation they share. Subjective perspectives include feelings,
imaginings, and thoughts, which although not behavior we can
- -
observe within ourselves. Perceptions influence our behavior, and we

can talk with others about them under the right circumstances. When
-
communications break down in an organization, sharing perceptions

may help.
Like listening, communicating about perceptions is not easy.
Perceptions are not observable behavior; they are not immediately
accessible to both parties in a dyad. Perceptions can be camouflaged or
masked in three ways: U
1) Other people can hide their perceptions of us by not telling us about
them.
U
2) We cannot be aware of our own perceptions (thinking instead that we
are perceiving reality accurately).
U
3) We can be entirely unconscious of them.
Communicating about perceptions, about our feelings, images and
{]
impressions, requires assertiveness, active listening, and empathy but
can help us understand each other.
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U
U
Improving Interpersonal Communications
Good communication about persistent organizational problems takes
time. Observations need to be generated and communicated candidly
and in detail before new and useful understandings can emerge.
Such communication occurs rarely because it runs counter to norms and
expectations about acceptable organizational communication. In XE, for
example, we may observe these norms:
1) Do not express your feelings about what is occurring if these feelings
cause discomfort in another member,
2) Do not mention the name of another member, even when observing.
3) Do not intrude into the area of responsibility of another team or
department.
4) Don’t try to change or interrupt the meeting routine we have
established, even if it is ineffective.
5) Pretend that meetings and presentations are OK, even if they aren’t.
Such norms exist in the work world because organizations need to
control complex activities. Members need coherent directions in order to
plan, do tasks, and achieve their goals. The rational world of formal
organization considers feelings inappropriate.
To stay focused on work, no one talks about what is actually going on
(the informal organization), including people’s feelings. This tactic
prevents distraction from a stable, effective task but does not help the
organization face non-routine situations or recurring or escalating
ineffectiveness. Without straight, feeling-oriented, detailed, name-
naming, specific, risk-taking, exploratory exchanges, problems don’t get
solved.
Joe and Harry’s Window
Joe Luft and Harry Ingham ran groups somewhat like XB. Starting as
strangers to one another, members learned about human behavior and
about themselves by observing the way they interacted among
themselves. Joe and Harry noticed that as members came to know more
and more about each other, their perceptions of each other’s feelings
became more accurate and they began to communicate better. Luft and
Ingham devised a window model that has come to bear their name,
Johari.
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U
The Johari Window
Known to Self Not Known to Self
I II
Known to Others
Open Area Blind Area
U
III U
Not Known to Others Hidden Area
Unknown Area
(Mask, Persona)
Open Area
We communicate to one another only about things that we both know
about in the situation we share including what we know about (our
-
perceptions of) each other. When we meet as strangers, we share little

knowledge about each other. About each other we know only basic U
demographics --gender, race, age. We talk about the weather or food or
sports. Similarly, when we confront a situation, we stick to obvious
interpretations of it and solutions to it. As in the Forming stage of group U
development (see p. 168), we treat the situation as we treat each other,
superficially.
Hidden Area
U
Here is an example of sharing from the hidden area: As I spend time
with others in XB, I become aware of my perceptions and feelings. I may
U
feel irritated with an individual. I think, ‘He’s just spouting the XB line.’
Once this perception comes into my awareness, I can disclose it to the
other person, moving it into the Open Area of communication. Until I do,
however, it is not known to the other person and thus remains hidden
from that person. Because I am aware of some perception and can
choose to not reveal it, Quadrant III also carries the names “Mask,’
whose Greek equivalent, “Persona, dramatizes how others and we
experience avoiding or hiding.
Blind Area
As time goes by, I begin to have perceptions or develop hunches
about other people that they may not realize themselves. E.g., “That
person has so over-scheduled their life they can’t take any time to really
[j
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listen or learn anything new.’ This perception and the feeling (of regret)
that come with it are my subjective experience of the person and the
situation. They may have no validity beyond me. However, they may be
interesting or useful for the other person to know. Until I communicate
these perceptions and feelings to the other person, they are blind to
them. I may choose to share these perceptions with them. If I do, I
reduce the size of Quadrant II and increase the size of Quadrant I.
Unknown Area
New perceptions about me and about the other person come to me.
In this model they come from Quadrant IV, the unconscious area. Like a
gold deposit, this area remains to be opened up if we develop attitudes
—
and techniques for exploiting it.
Dynamics of Sharing Perceptions:

Opening and Closing the Window
Known to Self Not Known to Sell
II
Known to Others
i Blind Area
Open Area
Iv
III
Not Known to Others Unknown Area
Hidden Area
(Mask, Persona)
Self-disclosure
When I feel somewhat comfortable with another person or in a
situation, I may begin to reveal my perceptions, feelings, etc. I am taking
a risk in making such a self-disclosure particularly if I suspect that
-
other people may not accept what I reveal from behind my mask.
Disclosing my hidden perceptions enlarges Quadrant I and shrinks
Quadrant III.
Feedback
When another person asks to hear my perceptions of him or her, I
may reveal what I have been thinking or feeling about them. If my
perceptions do not correspond to the other person’s self-image, he or she
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has an opportunity to learn something new. However, they will probably,
wisely, take in my perceptions in a tentative way. They may ask me to
describe in some detail, how I came to my perception and what I saw
them doing that led me to my perception. So the feedback will probably
include both descriptions of observable behavior and statements of my
feeling (which may reflect on the other person or may simply reveal
something about me).
If the other person experiences my feedback of my perceptions as
critical or not accepting of them as someone I value just as they are, an
important phenomenon occurs. The other person, often without even
knowing it, blocks my feedback from getting through to their awareness.
El
This is called a ‘defense. We all defend our egos, our positive self-
images, against painful feelings. The more we distrust each other, the
more we will defend ourselves by arguing with, rationalizing, or denying
what others say to us about ourselves. The more we trust each other,
the more we can accept information, even criticism. I can help my
feedback get through by accepting others as they are, by giving them a
description of what I perceive in non-evaluative tenns. Avoiding
unnecessary value judgments will help them accept my feedback.
How can I accept others as they really are? How can I avoid making
unnecessary value judgments in my feedback? Basically, I must be as
honest with myself as with others, and I must accept myself as I am.
Styles of Communication
Controlled Communication U
Known to Self Not Known to Self
I II
U
Known to Others
Blind Area
Open Area
Li
Not Known to
III
Hidden Area Iv U
Others (Mask, Unknown Area
Persona)
U
This configuration of the Johari Window describes routine El
interaction, at work or in public, where we don’t want to communicate on
a deep, personal level. Still we expend some effort to maintain our mask,
particularly someone or some situation is frustrating us.
U
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U
U
F Spontaneous Communication
Known to Self Not Known

to Self
I II
Known to Others
Open Area Blind Area
III Iv
Not Known to Others Hidden Area Unknown
(Mask, Persona) Area
With your friends, close colleagues, or people with whom you have
regular conffict, you may want to consider this enlarged Quadrant I
configuration of the Johari Window. It takes an emotional investment to
open your window to others, but you will benefit from knowing another
person and from their knowing you at a deep level of authenticity. In a
large Quadrant I, personal and work issues can be resolved creatively
and to the benefit of all parties. Enlarged Quadrant I involves a
relationship where both parties express openly, spontaneously, and
regularly their feelings, both positive and negative you don’t judge the
-
feelings.
The Johañ Window suggests self-disclosure and feedback as ways to
communicate more effectively with others. With practice you can become
a better manager and leader.
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Group Team
Job Summary
[1
members to perceive and describe members behavior and its
U
The Group Team influences members to influence each other.
Qualifications
1) Evidence of having influenced other XB members.
2) Previous study of group psychology or sociology.
3) A high F score on the MBTI.
U
4) The ability to observe human behavior without judging it.

U
1) Lead members to apply the path-goal model to acts of leadership
within the organization.
2) Lead members to understand the importance of leadership in
decentralized organizations.
U
1) Publicize acts of leadership within XB, using them to demonstrate
the Path/Goal Model and the Kouzes and Posner Model.
U
2) Conduct public discussions of power and leadership, linking
experiences in XB to organizations in the work world.
Tasks
1) Ask each person in XB to plan, execute, and report on a non-trivial
act of influence. This assignment may overlap with Individual’s -
2)
personal improvement project.
Keep notes on each XB member’s project and use the notes as part
U
3)
of your ranking scheme at the end of Cycle 2.
Work out in detail how you will evaluate members of the division on
U
Control.
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1) Explained why leadership belongs in an informal (emergent)
description of organization rather than a formal description?
2) Listed and explained the different sources of power?
3) Identified the exercise of different kinds of power in X3?
4) Listed and explained the characteristics of an effective leader?
5) Identified the exercise of leadership in XB?
6) Used the Path-Goal Theory to describe an act of leadership in XB?
7) Used the Kouzes and Posner Model to describe an act of leadership
in KB?

1) The Group Team wiU ask members to plan, execute, and report on a
non-trivial act of influence. They wifl evaluate these reports by
a) The level of challenge of the project.
b) Application of theory.
c) The quality of the report.
2) Number of times a person has used concepts of the Path/Goal or
Kouzes and Posner models and other concepts from Group, Cycle 2.
The Group Team will make a grid of these concepts and of members
and mark members’ use of terms throughout Cycle 2.
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Group: Cycle 2
Cycle 2: Leadership
In physics power is defined as the capacity to do work. Based on our
definition of management, we define power as the capacity to get work
fl
done. And we end up with the paradox that a leader can gain power by
losing it. A manager who delegates loses control (power) over the task
but may accomplish more than the hands-on manager.
XB assigns the terms leadership and power to the Observing
Department because they cannot be programmed; they emerge. The XB
Manual gives you the formal organization. The informal organization
emerges by itself: unpredictable events occur and define the division’s
culture, and certain individuals become more influential than others. fl
Here is a rough analogy:
The power of a leader
Informal organization
= The authority of a boss
Formal organization
U
A leader gets things done in the informal organization as a boss does
in the formal organization. To get things done, a manager uses both
U
authority and power.
This section presents the sources of a leaders power, the
characteristics of an effective leader, a comprehensive model of
leadership called Path-Goal, and a short discussion of conflict.
U
Sources of Power
Leaders’ influence over other people’s behavior comes from two
sources: position and character. So we speak of position power and
U
personal power.
A discussion of position power uses the concepts of formal
organization. A manager wields position power when subordinates
respect the manager’s authority or legitimate power, which come with
the position (Barnard, 1938). Organizations are established by law,
which is the ultimate source of this kind of power. The formal power of
position also enables the incumbent (the manager who holds the
position) to use reward power: the manager determines the subordinate’s
salary and other “perks” (perquisites) such as who gets awards or the
best office space. The manager may also exercise coercive power in
punishing, reprimanding, or firing people or reducing rewards.
Personal Power
A person may acquire expertise through education, training, or
U
experience. A similar form of power, information power, comes from -
having access to information that other people need or to people who

have that information.
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U
When people admire or are attracted to somebody, that person has
referent power or charisma, power whose source is purely personal.
Leaders sometimes use their magnetism to influence the actions of other
people. We tend to think of movie stars and great political leaders in this
context, but don’t overlook a more domestic form of personal power:
commitment. An ordinary person gets considerable power from being
personally committed to achieving an objective. See for example, the
description of XE participant Devon Brady in Getting the Right Thing
Done (see p 108).’ People who disregarded other participants
nevertheless delivered reports to Devon because if they did not, there was
a consequence (see p 56): she would take as many hours as necessary to
explain to them why they should deliver them.
Each source of power has its costs and benefits. Relying on reward
power, for example, can be expensive for an organization. Note also the
cost of using legitimate power. Employees may comply with the requests
of a manager who relies on position power, but they will not exert
themselves. A leader elicits extraordinary performance from other people
using personal rather than position power.
XE members have some position power in their functional authority.
Even a shy moderator, for instance, can maintain order in a meeting.
You have some reward and coercive power in the ranks that you assign
for knowledge of your topic. But to bring others to master your concepts
you do not have very much positional power. XE creates this position
power vacuum intentionally, to give you the opportunity to use your
personal power, to become a leader. So it’s up to you to study your
concepts and feel your expert power. And it’s up to you to dare to show a
personal commitment to getting the job done. Knowing the theory isn’t
the same as leading. The person who dares wins.
The characteristics of an effective leader

Philosophers and researchers have long debated whether leaders are
born or made nature or nurture? Since XE is in the training business,
-
we firmly believe that every participant can be a leader. Philosophers

and researchers have also debated whether, given the great variety of
leaders, it is possible to characterize a leader at all. In spite of these
reservations and warning the reader of possible distortion and
oversimplification, here is a list of character traits and behavior patterns
typical of a leader (based on DuBrin, 1990 and Hellriegel, Slocum, and
Woodman, 1992).
1) Need for achievement. Leaders need goals. Once they have
achieved an objective, they will look for another. They can’t sit still
and in many cases are not happy people.
2) Intelligence.
3) Self-confidence. Other people will not follow someone who dwells
in uncertainties when it is time to act.
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4) Interest in other people. Leaders must at least know the people
they will lead (cohorts), know what they want and what motivates
them. A leader who is determined to help others not all leaders
-
help others will also have respect and sympathy for them.
-
5) Self-knowledge. A leader should know his (her) own needs,

strengths, and weaknesses. Socrates only knew one thing: that he
didn’t know anything. A person who knows that (s)he doesn’t
know how to do something can still get it done but not the person
-
U
who doesn’t know that (s)he doesn’t know.
6) Humor. Hi-potential employees often have the “helicopter [J
perspective,” i.e., detachment. Humor, too, detaches us and allows
us to see our projects from a different perspective. There is plenty
to laugh about in XE, where people spend more enerr getting
others to do something than it would take to do it themselves.
7) Vision. Linked to the concepts of intuition (see p. 70) and culture
(see p. 300), vision gives the leader direction, enerr and
-
U
sometimes madness. Not-yet leaders are often considered crazy,
until other people understand the vision and begin to follow. A
leader, Joan of Arc for example, gets power by using her (his) own
faith (vision) to bring others to believe.
As in our discussion of commitment, the same principle holds in
small organizations as on the great battlefields of history. XB is a
vision. In the beginning only the Senior Manager can see it. Then
a few participants understand the idea of a learning organization
inside a course. Most people don’t believe in X3 until they have
seen the organization work. And when it does work, when
someone speaks of “the Doing Department” in a matter-of-fact way,
without wondering whether “the Doing Department” is a complete
fantasy, the vision has become reality. The culture of the
organization (XE) now considers this vision reality, but for
outsiders it remains a fantasy. And so it is in many great,
innovative organizations: the leader’s vision precedes reality.
8) The ability to communicate. The leader must communicate the
vision to other people through some medium that fits both the
leader and the vision. Using his training as an actor, President U
Reagan, for example, carefully chose and convincingly delivered to
the television camera simple phrases that communicated a rather
complex political message to the American people. U
9) Sometimes action speaks louder than words (see p. 70). The
Senior Manager may say, ‘You can run this meeting without me”
but gives the message more force by leaving the room.
[1
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The Path-Goal Theory
Leaders don’t just have traits; they perform acts of leadership in
settings. The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership (House and Mitchell, 1974)
describes how a leader defines a goal, helps others, and reduces barriers
to task accomplishment. In a specific circumstance the leader seeks to
accomplish a task and to enhance the human organization (the definition
of management). In this research model, the leader chooses among four
kinds of behavior, adapting to the people to be lead we9.l call them
—
“cohorts” and to the task.

-
Styles of Leadership
When cohorts do not clearly understand the task, a directive leader
can boost both productivity and morale by explaining in detail what they
should do. But this same directing behavior runs the risk of
discouraging cohorts who already understand the task, who don’t want
to be treated like idiots. Directive leadership also runs the risk of
maintaining the psychological dependence of people who simply don’t
believe themselves capable of working without close supervision. When
the leader like the Senior Manager of XB refuses to explain in detail
- -
and supervise closely, cohorts who expect directive leadership may

complain, demonstrate their incompetence, or appeal to higher authority.
The supportive leader focuses on the well being of cohorts, showing
emotional understanding or consideration for them while they work.
This style is appropriate for highly trained people who work in stressful
or frustrating circumstances, such as air traffic controllers. XB members
have the training they need; they face stressful and frustrating
circumstances, and the Senior Manager often gives them sympathy and
encouragement. Observe his (her) leadership style carefully. In the
middle of conflict or confusion, (s)he will smile and say, “Don’t worry; it’s
normal.” The supportive leader may even encourage people to act but -
will not tell them what to do.

The participative leader asks for other people’s opinions. This style
works with capable cohorts who are already motivated. Leading by
example also fits with this style. In organizations people often do what
the boss does, not what the boss says, which presents a dilemma for the
manager who, rather than doing the work, gets other people to work. A
manager who carries the definition of management to an extreme could
create an organization of do-nothing manipulators. This is a particular
danger in cultures that consider physical work demeaning.
The results-oriented leader uses his (her) vision to set goals, often
goals difficult to reach, and talks a lot about the benefits that will accrue
to those who succeed. This kind of leader sets target dates and
establishes standards of quality but gives neither orders nor directions
for reaching the objective nor necessarily encouragement. This style
-
of leadership works smoothly with capable, psychologically independent

cohorts or through stress and strain familiar to XB members
- -
269
produces capable, psychologically independent cohorts. In other words,
r
members who reach objectives under this hands-off style of leadership
gain a great deal of confidence in themselves.
Characteristics of
cohorts or
followers
Leadership style Accomplish Task

• Directive ___________________S—--... (Productivity)
• Participative .—__________________-.._— Enhance Human
• Supportive Organization
(Motivation) fl
• Goal-oriented
JJ
Characteristics of
the task
Researchers tend to restrict the definitions of leadership behavior
(directive, participative, supportive, goal-oriented) and of task (the
follower knows or does not know how to do it) and followers (cohorts
motivated or not motivated to do the task). Don’t let these restrictions
limit your understanding of leadership. In a given situation describe the
task, followers, and leadership behavior in any way you find useful,
relevant, and accurate.
U
In a high-performing organization every employee manages, which
sometimes means taking the lead. At the appropriate time every
employee should be able to articulate a vision that others do not yet
understand and convince them to take the path towards this goal. The
structure of XB makes it possible for you to lead. Try it. U
Transformational Leadership
Imagination in both leadership behavior and its description becomes
particularly useful when we analyze the actions of leaders who raise their
followers to a higher moral level. In the mid20tl2 century Mahatma
Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. both took advantage of the Judeo
Christian values of the parties in power and of the power of the press to
accomplish social and political change through non-violent
demonstrations. Some of their opponents became their followers.
The recent movie Inuictus describes one example of Nelson Mandela’s
transformational leadership, which led South Africa out of the era of U
apartheid in peace and relative prosperity. Having ceded their unjust
power, white Afrikaners were uncertain of their status under a
predominantly black, African National Congress government. By
supporting the Afrikaner-dominated rugby team (an important cultural
270
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symbol, see p.305), Mandela communicated to the whole nation his
vision of multi-racial, multi-cultural national unity.
Servant Leadership and Leadership Substitutes

In contrast to Mandela, contemporary leadership thinking
emphasizes two less visible forms of leadership. Servant leaders are
people in visible positions who avoid the limelight and act with humility,
emphasizing the abilities and accomplishments of their colleagues. This
leadership style avoids conflict over who gets credit for the organization’s
success. In XB, the Senior Manager should be a servant leader.
The concept of leadership substitute is a backhanded way for
leadership theorists to recognize the rest of management. Organization,
both formal and informal, makes leadership unnecessary and thus
substitutes for it. A well-trained team of paramedics, for instance,
requires no leader to tell them what to do or to motivate them. No
Mandela is needed in Canada, whose culture of diversity and inclusion
substitutes for multicultural leadership. In the Senior Manager’s
absence, XB carries on as usual.
Cut to the chase

Businesspeople may not want to deal with leadership theory, which
seems dauntingly complex; they say, “Just tell me what to do to be a
leader.” Based on extensive research, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner
(www.leadershipchallenge.com) provide five practices that could help
many people lead in many situations. Here, in their words, are the five
practices, followed by a short comment.
Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices
1. Model the Way
Leaders establish principles concerning the way people (constituents,
peers, colleagues, and customers alike) should be treated and the way
goals should be pursued. They create standards of excellence and then
set an example for others to follow. Because the prospect of complex
change can overwhelm people and stifle action, they set interim goals so
that people can achieve small wins as they work toward larger objectives.
They unravel bureaucracy when it impedes action; they put up signposts
when people are unsure of where to go or how to get there; and they
create opportunities for victory.
2. Inspire a Shared Vision
Leaders passionately believe that they can make a difference. They
envision the future, creating an ideal and unique image of what the
organization can become. Through their magnetism and quiet
persuasion, leaders enlist others in their dreams. They breathe life into
their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities for the future.
271
L
3. Challenge the Process
Leaders search for opportunities to change the status quo. They look
for innovative ways to improve the organization. In doing so, they
experiment and take risks. And because leaders know that risk taking
involves mistakes and failures, they accept the inevitable []
disappointments as learning opportunities.
4. Enable Others to Act U
Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively
involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains
extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and
human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable
and powerful.
5. Encourage the Heart
Accomplishing extraordinary things in organizations is hard work. To
keep hope and determination alive, leaders recognize contributions that
individuals make. In every winning team, the members need to share in
the rewards of their efforts, so leaders celebrate accomplishments. They
make people feel like heroes.
These five practices repackage and perhaps simplify many of the

U
skills, attitudes, and procedures that you have already learned in X3.
Using Kouzes and Posner’s terms, you speak a widely understood
leadership language.
0
U
U
U
U
U
272
U
U
Leadership Observation Form
Use the Path/Goal Theory to describe leadership behavior in XB.

• Does the observed person succeed in leading?
• Does the leadership style fit the task and the cohorts?
• Does the person perform actions that Kouzes and Posner
recommend?
Characteris- Outcome:
Characteris-
tics of the Leadership Lesson or
tics of the Productity
cohorts style comment
Task Motivation
(Followers)
Inspire a Enable
Model the Challenge Encourage
Shared Others to
Way the Process the Heart
Vision Act
273
E
Understanding Departm
Formal Organization Teai

Job Summary
The Understanding Department ensures that members can articulate the
theories, concepts, and models underlying their actions.
The Formal Organization Team raises the aspirations of XB. 1]
Qualifications
1) Strong belief in XB.
2) A high ‘N’ score on the METI.
3) A high GPA. Good grades in academic, theoretical subjects.
1) As the organization loosens up, lead members to distinguish
between the organic model and the mechanistic model describing
how organizations work.
2) Post Collins and Porras’s nine characteristics of a High Perfonning
Organization on the wall and help participants learn them by
U
comparing them with our experience in XB.
1) You are responsible for participants doing the reading.
a. Re-organize the reading task forces to reflect the new
assignments and perhaps the new modus operandi (operating
procedures) of Cycle 2. Put members who value RTF meetings
together.
b. If Cycle 2 adopts a non-sequential modus operandi, set a
definite schedule for readings.
c. Have the appropriate team (the team presenting) rank order
the written reading task force reports, report the ranks to
Control, and make sure each task force knows how it scored in
the evaluation.
d. Monitor the RTF system, keeping records. Watch out for
i. Free riding (individuals who don’t attend, participate, or
write memos).
ii. Groups that don’t meet (The Formal Team should
establish a policy on electronic meeting).
274
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[1
e. The presenting team should extract good ideas from these
reports and incorporate them in their presentation, with
appropriate acknowledgment.
f. Have those who rank reading task force memos report to the
division including
i. a critique of the reading
II. insights that will help people and task forces read better.
N.B.- Successful reading task forces contribute substantially to the
success of the XB organization.
Task Deadline
1. Announce to the class that each team should read As soon as
its own section of this manual and supplementary teams are
reading. formed.
2. Produce an organization chart with names and e As soon as
. *
mail addresses of people in each department and

. teams are
section. Give each member a copy of the chart and
.
forme d
put it on the class account on network.
. . As soon as
3. Set up reading task forces (RTF5) with each
teams are
department represented.
formed.
4. Ask members to write a description of a winning
. . . . 10 days before
team or of a particularly effective organization that
. . your
they know. What sets it apart from ordinary
presentation.
organizations?
.
5. Create a visual display of interesting items from

. Before your
members descnptions and of their ideas for High
, . . .
. presentation.
Performing XB.
6. Work out in detail how you will evaluate members
of the division on their knowledge of your material By the end of
( see below). Develop a system of record keeping, the first week of
and report your criteria and procedures in writing Cycle 2.
to Control.
275
[
1) Demonstrated understanding that this chapter deals with an ideal
organization, XB or other?
2) Listed and characterized the four stages of civilization, noting how
3)
each differs from the others?
Explained how Agricultural, Industrial, and Post-Industrial society
U
4)
improved on what came before?
Noted the shortcomings and dangers of each stage?
U
5) Explained how Weber and Fayol’s principles apply even in Post
Industrial society?
6) Demonstrated understanding of Lawler’s old and new organization
principles and their relevance to Weber and Fayol?
7) Listed the arguments (factors) for and against the idea that we live
in a time of unprecedented change?
8) Listed and explained Collins and Porras’s eight characteristics of
visionary companies?
9) Listed and explained Lawler’s five elements of programs for involving
employees?
10) Listed the characteristics of Total Quality Management and
explained why TQM is more widespread and less risky than
Employee Involvement?
11) Applied Collins and Ponas’s characteristics of visionary companies
to the notion of a high performing X3 (HPXB)?
12) Given a personal opinion about control and HPXB? 11
13) Given a personal opinion about HPXB?

1) The Formal Team will judge the quality of members’ use of concepts
from Formal Cycle 2 in memos and in class discussion. -
2) The Formal Team will note individual and team efforts to make XB
into a high-performing organization.
U
U
U
276
U
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Formal Organization: Cycle 2
High Performing Organization
After coming to terms with the mechanics of XB, participan
ts tend to
want to rise above the detail and ask: Are we learning
how to manage, or
are we learning what the confused and mismanag
ed real world looks
like? Where is this organization headed? How does the
organization
function when we get there? What is the ideal, and how
does XB’s ideal
relate to organizations we Will work in?
This section places XB in the context of the history of
civilization, for
how an organization works when it is working very well
depends on its
environment, including its historical, cultural, and techn
ological setting.
For over 50 years business best sellers have listed presc
riptions for a
new kind of organization. Our small sample of these work
s will fit into a
framework that will contrast this new organization with
older ones.
TerminoIor threatens to complicate matters, so for the
sake of clarity
we will talk about four stages of organization or four
stages of civilization:
Hobbesian, Agricultural, Industrial, and Information.2
7 Organizations,
micro societies, use the same mechanisms as the socie
ty at large. So
understanding the broad stroke of history and technolor
may simpli
our work as managers. This chapter argues a thesis: muc
h patholor
(organizational misbehavior, confusion, and mismanag
ement) derives
from a logic that held society and organizations together
from the
agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution and
prevails in many
countries and organizations to this day. We will learn
to recognize old
organizational behavior and to imagine new organizat
ional behavior.
Stages of Civilization
In 1980 Alvin Tofflers The Third Wave added to the work
of Ferdinand
Tönnies and proposed to a broad public audience that
we are entering a
new era. To understand its novelty, we must understan
d what caine
before.
I. Hobbes’s State of Nature
It is useful to describe a (perhaps mythical) primary
stage of
humanity, similar to Thomas Hobbes’s man in the state
of nature, ‘a
condition of war of everyone against everyone. No arts; no letters; no
...
society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and

danger of violent
death; and the life of man, solitary poor nasty, brutish, and
short.’ Even
at the dawn of the new millennium, trapped in a dark
alley or a civil war,
27 This discussion blends the work of giants of Wester

n thought (Hobbes and
Tannies), of cultural anthropologists (Stewart and Benne
t), and of business
researchers writing for the popular business press (Lawle
r, Collins and Porras,
and Peters), and of the business press itself (Busin
ess Week and Fortune).
277
[1
thinking adapts to
we may experience moments of this state. And our
short-term survival and
this Darwinian environment: we concentrate on
trast this dire kind of
distrust everything and everyone around us. Con
omics sublimates or
situation with the worries of our normal lives; econ
tituting bankruptcy or
refines this war of everyone against everyone, subs
aps for low ranks for
being fired for death for people at work and perh
-
es from “man in the

XE members. But some of our behavior still deriv
And it is useful to
state of nature” thinking, short-term and selfish.
n to an environment
think of such behavior as an appropriate adaptatio
recognize in short-
where no organizations protect us. Thus we may
ing enough about
term, selfish behavior the hallmark of people not think
their organizational environment.
II. Agricultural: Gemeinschaft Society
fl
traditional,
In 1887 Ferdinand TOnnies distinguished between
communal (gemeinschaft) societies and modern,
developed, corporate
(gesellschaft) societies. Think of gemeinschaft (geh
MINE shuft) society
U
; it defines your
as the culture of a farming village. Tradition rules
culture (see p. 300). You unconsciously think of your
self as a member of
munity’s values,
U
your community (see p. 310). You accept the com
you value what
beliefs, and customs. Instead of thinking for yourself,
else believes. No rigid
everyone else values and believe what everyone
een work and play or
separation (alienation, Man called it) exists betw
what your family
between a work organization and the family. You do
for they are your reality
and other community members expect you to do,
1976).
(Stewart and Bennett, 1991 and Diaz-Guerrero,
, for it constitutes a
Do not think of gemeinschaft society as primitive
state of nature in
monumental advance over the state of nature. The
stability and safety of
some sense preceded history, and the comparative
humanity since the beginning of recorded histo
ry testir to the benefits of
that moderni
[
community. Indeed, Stewart and Bennet (1991) claim
einschaft organization:
zation does not require the abandonment of gem
between
Events of the 1970s cast new light on the relation
technical
gemeinschaft and gesellschaft. The economic and
United States), usually
supremacy of the West (and particularly of the
Japan. Japan is
associated with gesellschaft has been challenged by
haft organization in
an industrial and modem state based on gemeinsc
blend one into the
which social, political, and economic institutions
1991, p. 10)
other, virtually inseparable. (Stewart and Bennett,
UI. Industrial: Gesellschaft Society
LE shuft) society
TOnnies contrasted corporate, gesellschañ (ga ZEL
rated work from
with gemethschaft. This form of civilization sepa
from worker, personal
family, producer from consumer, management
introduces
relations from legal relations. Gesellschaft society
You question the
individualism: You think of yourself as a person.
in your society. You
values, beliefs, and customs of many organizations
278
think for yourself. You have your own set of values. And the impersonal
rule of law protects you from those who would dictate to you. On a
contractual basis individuals in gesellschaft society form large, efficient,
specialized organizations. Tonnies and his compatriot Max Weber (see p.
153) described the mechanisms that enabled modem, large organizations
to dominate the world economy and which enabled the Western countries
to dominate the world during the industrial era.
Henri Fayol’s Fourteen Principles of

Management
1) Division of Work. Task specialization increases efficiency (Adam
Smith’s division of labor).
2) Authority. Managers have the right to give orders but must also
act responsibly, using expert and personal power their power.
—
3) Discipline. Employees must obey orders and respect rules. Their

compliance results from effective leadership.
4) Unity of Command. Each subordinate should have only one boss.
5) Unity of Direction. Everyone should work toward the same
objectives.
6) Subordination of Individual Interests to the General Interest.
The good of the organization as a whole takes precedence over
benefits to an individual or group within it.
7) Remuneration. Pay employees fair wages.
8) Centralization. Delegate decisions optimally (neither maximally
nor minimally).
9) Scalar Chain. Subordinates should communicate up the line of
authority unless authorized to communicate laterally.
10) Order. Materials and people should be in their assigned places.
11) Equity. Managers should treat subordinates with kindness and
fairness.
12) Stability of Tenure of Personnel. Because employees need to
learn their jobs, high turnover is inefficient. Management should
keep employees and have a plan for replacing those who leave.
13) Initiative. Those who participate in planning are motivated to carry
out the plan
141 Esprit de Corps. Team spirit leads to success.
The industrial era is ending; gesellschaft society cannot survive in

today’s environment of constant, rapid change. And professional
279
[1
managers, who cope with this environment, turn to the popular business
press for guidance. A typical book in the popular business press, written
by an academic trying very hard to write simple English, contrasts an old
r
way of managing with a new way (see box below). And while the author
(Lawler, 1996) is using the old way as a straw man (a simple contrast to
help the reader grasp the new way), remember that the old way was once
[1
the new way, management techniques for the Industrial Revolution that
still apply in certain managerial environments.28 ci
Old versus New Logic Principles U
(Lawler, 1996)
•
Old Logic Principle
Organization is a secondary
New Logic Principle
Organization can be the
U
source of competitive
advantage.
ultimate competitive advantage
U
• Bureaucracy is the most • Involvement is the most
•
effective source of control
Top management and technical •
effective source of control.
Mi employees must add
LI
experts should add most of the significant value.
value.
Hierarchical processes are the • Lateral processes are the key to
U
key to organizational organizational effectiveness.
effectiveness
Organizations should be Organizations should be
El
designed around functions. designed around products and
customers. U
• Effective managers are the key • Effective leadership is the key to
to organizational effectiveness, organizational effectiveness.
El
28 Three environments specifically seem relevant for XB participants: government,
development, and industrial-age organizations.
Government creates an environment; it aims to provide stability and equity for
people and institutions within its purview. In modem government, a creation of
Gesellschaft Society; the classic definition of authority still applies.
In the developing world, workers and managers probably cannot simply skip over
the principles of gesellschaft organization to learn how to cope with the Networked
Society. A society and organizations and people within it must probably master
U
Weber’s principles- purpose, rationality, impersonality, and routine- and Fayols
classic principles before attempting to relax some of these principles. Otherwise
informal relationships degenerate into graft, for example. XB participants in
U
developing countries, please note!
Finally, as responsible authors of the popular business press (e.g., Lawler, 1996)
note, the new principles apply for certain types of people using certain
U
technologies in certain environments. The rest of us should respect our limits
and take the organizing principles of the industrial age seriously.
280
The organizing principles of the industrial era constitute much of the
Responsibility and Formal Organization content of Cycle I. Look at the
summaries of Henri Fayol’s original principles of administration (box)
and Max Weber’s description of an ideal bureaucracy (box). They make
good sense, so Lawler and other contemporary writers are bold in stating
principles that supersede them.
Indeed, how do we dare contradict Weber and Fayol, who programmed
us? Their rules are second nature to those of us who have grown up in
industrialized societies. We unconsciously assume them and can hardly
imagine much less implement management without them. So read
- -
about post-modern, networked management with great caution.

Participants in developing countries probably need to assimilate
industrial principles before moving on to post-industrial principles. And
participants from Western countries should understand post-industrial
principles as exceptions to or overlays upon the modem, industrial
ones. The Authority, which exists by law and by nature, has delivered
the coup de grace to many an experiment in post-industrial management;
it must be so (Robbins, 1987, Chapter 10).
IV. High Performance, Excellent, Post-bureaucratic,
Visionary Organization in Networked, Post-Industrial,
Post-Modern Information Society 29
Most popular management books start with a discussion of todays
dynamic environment, which for organizations includes competition, the
economy, laws, ethical standards, our culture and other cultures,
technolor and scientific discovery, knowledge, politics, and the physical
ecolor. Things have never changed so fast; we are in pennanent white
water (Vain, 1996). Change is happening so fast in the environment that
organizations cannot survive using old ways of managing and old
organizational structures. So the argument goes.
Again, beware! Historians might well argue that a person born in
Europe in the latter half of the 19th century would have experienced
more change and upheaval than someone alive today. The point is
particularly relevant for this discussion because the principles authors
today call “old” were developed during and in relation to rapid change a
century ago. Be skeptical of post-modern” principles superseding
“modern” principles because of rapid environmental change.
On the other hand, the management environment has two features
that do differentiate it from that of the industrial age: globalization and
29 In a classic article on management writing called The Management Theory

Jungle,’ Koontz (1961) described a profusion of terms. Nowhere does this jungle
grow thicker than on the subject of high-performing, excellent, post-bureaucratic,
visionary you get the point companies. Many of these books are worth reading.
- -
In addition to Collins and Ponas (1994) cited here, look the works of Peter Senge,
Tom Peters, Robert Waterman, Peter Vaill, and Ralph Kilmann.
281
r
instant communication. Much work today consists of information r
manipulation. With the advent of e-mail, one can exchange written Ii
communication as easily with someone on the other side of the world as
with someone in the next office. And the reduction of trade barriers
makes such communication necessary. Sellers of products, services,
and labor compete world-wide. Perhaps the environment has changed.
The concept of High-Performing System originated with Peter Vaill
(1978), who pointed to their idiosyncratic, weird nature. Members of the
organization, although passionate about their system, speak their own
jargon and have difficulty explaining to outsiders how the system works.
They develop their own, system-specific measures of system
performance and circumvent external controls.
Humbled by Japanese competition in the late 70s and early SOs, U
American businesspeople became concerned with high performance. A
book which defined a genre, Peters and Waterman’s (1982) In Search of
Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-run Companies, told managers to U
spend less time planning and more time doing: “Ready, Fire, Aim!” But
some of the companies they lauded fell on hard times, and critics
questioned their precepts. U
By studying companies that have performed extraordinarily for a long
time, “visionary companies,” Collins and Porras (1994) discerned seven
principles, contrasting them- we see the pattern again to “myths” about
-
modern management:
1) Focus on the organization itself.
Neither a great new idea nor a charismatic leader propels the
company to superior performance. Products, people, and processes
contribute to building the organization, not vice versa.
2) A core ideology.
Courses on finance define a company’s goal as maximizing profit or
[1
shareholder wealth, but deeply held values and a sense of purpose
lead visionary companies to take on projects or produce products that
do not make economic sense. They reinforce the sense of company
mission.
3) Audacious goals.
The prosperous and secure look of many visionary companies hides
their history. At critical moments management “bet the company,”
i.e., they risked the whole enterprise on certain projects. And they
continue to take chances.
4) Cult-like cultures.
Each visionary company has its own, idiosyncratic culture. Those
who do not conform to the norms and do not see the world as other {]
employees do find the atmosphere oppressive. They leave. Only those
who fit in find the organization “a great place to work.”
282
U
Li
5) Experimentation: Try a lot of stuff and see what works.
R. W. Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson) said, “Failure is our most
important product.” Far from knowing what will work, these
companies experiment to find out. Then they use rigorous selection
criteria (control) for discarding ideas that don’t work.
6) Promotion from within.
These companies tend to promote their own employees instead of
bringing talent in from outside. Trained and selected in-house, the
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) embodies the core values of the
company. The visionary company also has a “deep bench,”
management development efforts and succession plans which look far
ahead 25 years!
-
7) Continual improvement.
These companies do not judge themselves by the performance of
competing companies; instead they set high, difficult standards for
themselves. “Good enough never is.”
8) Alignment.
Merely drafting a mission or vision statement does not make an
organization visionary. The visionary company translates “its core
ideology and its own unique drive for progress into the very fabric of
the organization— into goals, strategies, tactics, policies, processes,
cultural practices, management behaviors, building layouts, pay
systems, accounting systems, job design into everything that the
—
company does. A visionary company creates a total environment that

envelops employees, bombarding them with a set of signals so
consistent and mutually reinforcing that it’s virtually impossible to
misunderstand the company’s ideology and ambitions.” (p. 201)
How to create a high-performing organization

The preceding characteristics describe a culture; cultures change
slowly. A company does not simply decide one day to adapt to the
information age. In Creating High-Performance Organizations, Lawler
(1995) surveys current practice in Fortune 1000 companies. He
distinguishes between Employee Involvement (El) and Total Quality
Management (TQM) programs. El programs redesign organizations from
the bottom to the top so that employees control their destiny and
participate in the business of the organization. TQM programs
systematically measure and improve work processes to ensure that they
add value and meet the needs of the customer.
283
Employee Involvement Programs
El programs attempt to change the culture of the organization
through four categories of activities:
1) Sharing information about business performance, plans, and
goals.
[1
Giving employees information about the company’s overall results,
their units’ operating results, new technology, business plans and
goals, and their competitors’ relative performance helps employees
understand how the business is doing and make meaningful
contributions to its success.
2) Skill development
Most jobs require skills that require training. High-performing
fl
organizations also train employees in interpersonal and group skills,
quality! statistical analysis, and business understanding. Team
members also learn each others’ jobs (cross-training or multiskilling).
3) Basing rewards on performance, especially work-group and
organizational performance
What gets measured and rewarded gets done. Organizations that
want people to accomplish a great deal together should reward them
both for producing and for working together.
4) Redistributing Power
Power is delegated to individuals through job redesign (see p. 212), by
U
creating self-managing work teams, which operate without close
supervision, and by creating minibusiness units to enable more
employees to exercise entrepreneurship.
El programs involve risk, expense, and commitment. They have
remained quasi-experimental, at the cutting edge of management, since
the 1950s. So Lawler’s finding, that 75% of Fortune 1000 companies
have few or no programs of this kind, comes as no surprise (Lawler,
1995, p. 35).
Total Quality Management Programs
TQM, a set of organizational strategies, practices, and tools for
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organizational performance improvement, involves less risk, expense,
and commitment because the basic structure of the organization does
not change. ft includes activities such as
1) Parallel Practices
Quality circles, suggestion systems, and survey feedback
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(questionnaires), conducted away from the workplace, which generate
information about product and production processes.
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2) Measuring and improving work processes.
Specific procedures are analyzed and measured, to ensure that they
add value and meet the needs of the customer.
3) Simplifying work
Unnecessary steps are eliminated. A currently popular form of work
simplification, reengineering involves reconceptualizing work, often
incorporating information technolo,.
4) Coilaborating with suppliers.
Representatives of the company meet with suppliers to discuss how to
improve quality, cost, timeliness of raw materials delivered.
5) Monitoring customer satisfaction.
The customer ultimately judges quality. To make certain that quality
remains high, the customer regularly evaluates the product or service.
In 1993 76% of Fortune 1000 companies were running TQM
programs, which included, on average, half of their employees. In fact,
all employees participated in 25% of these companies.
The contrast between TQM, so popular, and El and other organization
development programs, so perpetually experimental, raises disturbing
questions. Can we read this contrast as evidence that Industrial Age
organization is not about to pass from the scene, or will change only
superficially? Does it say that the sophisticated concepts and techniques
of Organizational Behavior that you are learning add only marginal value
to the practice of management? Or is the transformation happening -
but very slowly? The XB Manual does not presume to answer.

High Performing XB: An Acquired Taste for Learning
As a full-fledged organization within a course or training program, XB
is an anomaly weird. Although not every weird organization delivers
-
high performance, we can look to our idiosyncrasies as sources of

excellence. This weirdness consists of three elements: experience,
complexity, and delegation.
In XB learning (articulated Understanding) comes from and returns to
experience (Doing and Observing). Many members, having never before
participated in an experience-based learning program, find this ldnd of
learning strange.
Complexity makes many computer programs (e.g., Myst) fun, but
most class and training program designers try to avoid having a complex
organization in a class or program because they want to make sure that
students learn a certain set of concepts. Complex XB is strange.
Delegating teaching and evaluation makes us bizarre. We do it, of
course, to make managers out of participants, to have members assume
responsibility for achieving the goals of XB and, in the present context, to
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learn how to function in a high-performing organization where members
must rely on each other and function with a minimum of supervision.
Using Collins and Porras’s principles, here are suggestions of what a
high-performing XB would look like:
1) Focus on the organization itself
fl
Participants think of XB as an organization, not as a class and really
use the organization. Someone who has an idea (or doesn’t fl
understand something), instead of asking the Senior Manager, turns
to one or several teams in XB that might have something to
contribute. A clear idea that the product is our learning gets
associated with building the XB organization; members perceive
learning and building XB as two aspects of the same thing. People
share, value, and celebrate learning.
There is constant activity inside and outside class. A class hour
looks and feels like being in a factory or a consulting firm; only rarely
do people gather in one large group, and never out of habit. Having
several activities occurring simultaneously creates the need for a real
communications system, so real memos keep people informed.
Participants not only meet but also share learning outside class.
Amnpliring feedback creates high performance: Participants
deliberately use the skills and concepts that they have learned and
fl
are learning. Usually these skills and concepts work; they improve
individual and group performance and learning. When they don’t
work, people find it interesting, ask why they don’t work, and report
their findings to others.
2) Guided by core ideology (core values and sense of purpose)
There is a widely shared, individual taste for learning. Early in this
division’s experience those who were excited about XB put pressure to
work on those not excited. Gradually the excitement spread. People
still put pressure on each other, but no one talks much about work
any more. Members have developed their own vocabulary for
describing what they do, how they do it, and why.
3) Audacious goals (betting the company)
Do you want some serious fun? My Uncle Fred Eiseman taught
science at Phoenix Country Day School. His students got excited
about science. Being teenagers they still got into trouble. He used to
punish them by not allowing them in the lab on Saturday morning.
Think about it. It is possible for learning to reach a different level of
motivation, to transcend itself. [
Make it happen in XB.
[j
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4) Cult-like culture
Members already find it difficult to explain XE to outsiders. We have
our own culture. Cults cultivate their own cultures because they
have their own ways of looking at the world and dealing with it. At
times in XE we glimpse a new universe of learning:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez3° when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific and all his men
—
Looked at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

John Keats
or, as XE member Spring Knower wrote:
“XE is a serious wake-up call for those willing
to listen.”
In a high-performing XE members wake up and explore new worlds.
Caution! Cults can push people into unwise action and make them
less able to communicate with and deal with the outside world. XE
withal should cultivate wisdom and should strive to help members
communicate better with organizations and individuals in their lives.
Those who do not fit in with the culture leave. Whom do we want to
leave or not to join? Only those who must minimize stress in their
lives. People learn differently, through reading, writing, direct
experience. Some people at a given time are not learning. XB must
recognize many forms of learning and times to learn.
5) Experimentation (Try a lot of stuff and see what works)
Most XE divisions find ways to experiment. A high performing XE,
like a visionary company, will reward people for experimenting but
will also frankly evaluate experiments, adopting some aspects and not
others. Today’s experiment will not become tomorrow’s standard
operating procedure. HPXB will find ways of making sure that new
stuff is tried tomorrow.
6) Promotion from within
Some XE divisions may want to appoint department managers, with
authority over several teams. Obviously only internal promotion can
happen in XE, although it never has happened.
Emergence of leaders will happen. Repeated ranking is intended to
desensitize participants to criticism and give each person a sense of
place in one of several hierarchies of ability. A high-performing
organization should openly value talent. Most American classes and
30 Keats made a slight error; it was actually Ealboa.

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virtually all training programs finesse the differences in talent and
effort. Mi humans have equal rights, but we should not pretend that
everyone has equal abilities or makes an equal effort.
7) Continual improvement
When people talk about organizations running smoothly, they are
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comparing organizations to machines old logic from the industrial
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age. It is an illusion, a dream, to think of an organization functioning

smoothly in permanent white water (an environment of constant
change). Reread this manual’s introductory discussions of continual
improvement and of our stinky product. XB should not run smoothly
or smell sweet but should always be in ferment, bubbling, developing,
changing. Stop to celebrate, by all means, but then improve it again!
One sees continual improvement in projects undertaken at
participants’ initiative, e.g., an improved web site, new chapters for
the manual, a new control system that accounts for learning, a way
for participants to own stock in XB, world-wide sharing of learning by
XB participants, development of a recruiting and training system for
future XB divisions.
8) Alignment
Alignment already exists in this manual in the many manifestations of
the idea that we are doing what we are learning. The departments, for
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instance, have the same names as the phases of the learning cycle so
that members will constantly recite this most important model of
managerial behavior. Alignment also emerges in the culture of a
HPXB. In the beginning we may act as if only our department, its
concepts, and its ranks matter. In HPXB we have learned to sense
what is going on in the rest of the organization and to anticipate how
our action will affect the organization as a whole. Again, we take care
to communicate to others, writing memos that really inform.
As participants talk with managers in the work world, awareness of
the environment increases, especially of XB as a way of giving
participants the skills, knowledge, and attitudes they need out there.
Participants perceive XB as relevant, both generally and on specific
dimensions.
You can feel alignment in three manifestations of trust. First,
participants trust themselves. They take risks with a manageable fear
of failure (it’s still there). Secondly, participants trust each other. U
They believe in each other’s expertise and rely on each other’s good
intentions and hard work. Third, a trust relationship develops with
the Senior Manager, upon whom participants make high demands for
[]
help after asking their other colleagues. In particular the Senior
Manager helps participants find resources beyond the XB Manual.
People pay little attention to the presence, absence, expressions or
moods of the Senior Manager and (probably with much humor) have
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developed a high collective ability to distinguish between the Senior
Manager’s expertise and foibles.
9) Control
Lastly, adding a category, participants perceive control in HPXB as a
useful tool or as a game, but no longer as a personal threat. A great
deal of energy goes into testing against outside measures, finding new
ways of proving what you know. This occurs partly so that even low-
ranked participants can point with pride to their accomplishments.
Charts on the wall indicate team progress, not individual competition.
Measures proliferate because people consider them useful (congenial
controls).
Enterprising XB members may replace ranks with better evaluation
systems, but in HPXB internal control continues no matter how high
the division flies. Control, like a tennis net, keeps us honest. When
you hit a tennis ball into the net, you know you have failed. Hitting it
over the net into the court defines success. Receiving negative
feedback feels like hitting the ball into the net; positive feedback
constitutes success within the contrasting context of criticism. As
long as members perform the ritual of criticizing each other frankly,
they know they can believe the positive feedback others later give
them. In HPXB control becomes a game.
Conclusion
A mythical monk proclaimed, “Now that I have reached
enlightenment, I’m just as miserable as ever.” HPXB will never become a
comfortable place.
Through constantly changing experience in a group in an
organization, having discerning faith in their colleagues and in
themselves, in a high-peffonning XB participants acquire a taste for
learning and feast on it. A weird feast!
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Understanding Department
Informal Organization Team

Job Summary
The Informal Organization Team keeps the organization aware of its
mode of functioning and effectiveness.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of psycho1o,’, especially Freud and Jung, or
anthropo1or. The ability to stand back and see the big picture.
2) The ability to create an appealing and practical visual aid.

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Concept Responsibilities LI
1) Present Bion’s Theory and ensure that each member can identir
the division’s Basic Assumption Group and effectiveness at any
moment.
2) Comment publicly on whether the social atmosphere (culture) of the
XB division encourages or avoids work. U
1) Invent and implement new ways to make the emergent (informal)
organization compatible with the work organization.
2) Get teams to create eye-catching visual displays of theories, models,
and concepts.
3) Get teams to display graphs showing members’ use of their concepts
from class to class.
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1.3
Tasks
1) Construct or obtain a large Bionometer with an indicator that will
stay in place when you change its position.
2) Display this Bionometer at all times during Cycle 2. Do not wait for
any presentation schedule. Don’t worry about interpreting the Basic
Assumption Group wrong; this is the easiest task in XB if you just
do it. Change what the meter indicates (or assign someone else to
change it) as the effectiveness and Basic Assumption Group change.
3) Report to the Senior Manager and the organization the number of
graphs showing members’ use of their concepts.
Control.

1) Drawn the Bionometer and explained the characteristics of each
stage of Bion’s Theory?
2) Demonstrated understanding of the terms: basic assumption,
unconscious behavior, savior?
3) Pointed out behavior that indicates that the group is operating
under a given basic assumption?
4) Listed the contrasting characteristics of Bion’s theory and the theory
of stages of group development?

1) Individual members’ use of the Bionometer. The Informal Team will
keep notes on who uses it, who discusses it, and who writes about
it.
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Informal Organization: Cycle 2
Bion s Theory
SI U
Because groups do not develop predictably or even in one direction, it
is useful to consider a tragic theory, i.e. one which says, ‘there is no U
possibility of progress; its still the same, old story. The British
psychologist Wilfrid Bion developed such a theory, building on the work
of Karen Homey, a student of Sigmund Freud.
A group (or organization) consists of two or more people with a goal.
Groups beginning XE expect to accomplish their tasks smoothly but
almost never do. They go through storming once or twice and then
expect smooth sailing. When they don’t accomplish their tasks or when
members fight repeatedly, people get frustrated and discouraged,
especially if they don’t understand what is going on (avoiding
understanding with a negative value judgment). Instead of trying to
make a group function smoothly, this theory assumes we are in a mud
hole and helps us get out of it but warns us of more mud ahead.
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You can use Bion’s Theory when you find yourself lost or bored or
unproductive in a group. Although Bion may not have intended his
theory to be used as a re-orientation device, this section treats it as such:
it suggests different ways to act in different situations. Your action U
always aims at making the group productive, but it may not seem so,
because you cannot just get down to work.
Why not? In any meeting, imagine two groups present, consisting of
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the same individuals, but working on two agendas instead of one:
The Work Group

This discussion will describe the work group only briefly. Most
participants are aware of this group and its agenda; that is, we think of U
any work group as having a job to do. Any talk not related to the job
impedes progress; so we try to slick to the job.
What do people in the work group talk about? In addition to the topic
U
at hand, their discussion may be described by a model of rational
decision-making, such as the Decisionometer (p. 85), or of organized,
informative discussion. XB meetings have tasks to accomplish.
The Basic Assumption or Psychological Group U

But even task-oriented talk contains messages from one human being
to another about non-task issues. Subtly, perhaps unconsciously,
members communicate to each other whether they trust each other,
[]
whether they are confident of getting the job done, what they expect each
other to do, or any number of personal concerns. In short, the group
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always works on more than its work. So we can speak of a second group
working on a separate usually hidden or unmentioned agenda. You
can’t just put other concerns aside because they will creep back into the
group. Suppose Mike and Jody can’t stand each other. Neither will
listen to the other; so even if they both think that computer conferencing
will save time, they won’t agree to do it. Mike daydreams about Irma,
who hates the computer. He listens carefully to her arguments against
computer conferencing. Thus XB meetings do not always get the job
done.
By the way, this theory asks us to watch Jody, Mike, and Irma not as
individuals but as parts of a group. Bion would interpret Mike’s smiles
towards Irma as indicators of the state of the group rather than as
anything specific to Mike or Irma.
XB makes use of a paradox from which few other organizations
benefit: fruitless meetings in XB present opportunities for learning (as
long as you articulate what went wrong). Similarly, Bion based his theory
on experiences in groups where the group facilitator begins the group by
not leading it to accomplish its task. The “leader’ does not lead. Chaos,
of course, results.
But chaos in groups turns out to have a structure, and
understanding that structure can help us accomplish group tasks.
Bion asks us to assume that any goal-less, leader-less group spends
its time seeking a savior, a perfect leader who will impose order on chaos.
A leader is not a goal, but we irrational humans associate the idea of
task accomplishment with the idea of leader. “A group must have a
leader,” we say, stating our basic assumption. So any group
unconsciously sets itself the task of producing or finding a leader or
savior.
This theory describes any group or meeting. Whenever people gather
with a purpose, you can watch the Basic Assumption group by looking
for the informal leader who may not exist or by articulating the
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general feeling of the group.
The Three Basic Assumption States

Bion tells us to assume that one of three states of mind prevails, one
of three basic assumptions about the savior that the group implicitly
believes. Unlike Bion, XB members want to know if the group is getting
its work done or not; so we will examine for each state of mind one
productive case and one unproductive.
The Dependency Group
Consider first groups that actually recognize a leader. In most
meetings and in traditional classes in school the leader (teacher) runs the
meeting. Other group members become an audience. They sit back and
passively absorb what the leader says or obediently do what they are told
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with a sense of comfort or complacency. The leader determines the
success or failure of the meeting.
What does a dependency group look like when it is getting the job
done? Think of a good lecture you attended. You lose yourself in it. You
hang on every word said and remember it afterwards. A good movie or fl
TV program works the same way: you surrender to it, depending
absolutely on the presenter to lead you.
When it is not getting the job done, the dependency group looks like
the classroom scene from the movie Ferris Bueler’s Day Off where
students are so bored they become catatonic. Living statues, they sit so
stupefied that they drool. The audience is not learning or accomplishing
anything of value. The leader, who has all the power, complains bitterly
that the members have no initiative, refuse to think, are dumb and
incompetent, etc.. Public discussion of public education abounds with
such complaints. We are only too familiar with the unproductive
dependency group. As long as the dependency group assumption
remains in force, members actions will give ample evidence supporting
the contention that people are lazy and hate to work or learn (Theory X).
Fight/Flight
U
When there is no recognized leader, fear may take over the group,
perhaps unconsciously. Members act out this fear by either fighting
for control of the group or leaving (flight).
American culture does not value fear, and we tend to consider fighting
non-productive. But we have productive fight/flight groups whenever it
takes conflict to get the job done. Athletic competition brings out our
best effort, at least in Western societies. Legislatures and courts cannot
work effectively unless people disagree forcefully with each other.
Boycotts and strikes can make our economic system efficient. Forceful
debates make interesting classes. Fight/flight at least keeps people
honest and awake.
In the non-productive fight/flight group, nobody wins, and the fight
itself has no value. Attend a faculty meeting sometime. Disgusted at the
fl
pointless wrangling, people may leave physically or mentally. It is hard
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to stop fighting, though, because people fight to get control, sometimes

using the task as a weapon. Unless someone takes control or an issue is
decided, people may just keep fighting, a situation we greatly fear.
Pairing
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Fear need not nile a leaderless group, however. Sometimes hope
replaces fear, and people cooperate with each other. In the tradition of
Freud, Bion interprets cooperation, like Mike’s smiles towards Irma, as
sublimated sex, the group’s unconscious attempt to give birth to the
savior.
Happy is the group that cooperates productively. When people know
their jobs and want to do them, they don’t need leaders. We notice
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courtesy in the streets of small towns and in other places where
individuals have a clear sense of themselves as responsible citizens.
Most western cultures hold the pairing group as the ideal. And perhaps
people working quietly and efficiently together, as they do in most
organizations most of the time, constitute productive, pairing groups.
But people can cooperate and accomplish nothing. Conspiracies in
restraint of trade are illegal in the United States. In organizations people
conspire to do nothing when they value being nice more than getting the
job done. We witness unproductive cooperation frequently whenever
people connect the idea of work with an ineffectual or absent leader.
When people think that only the leader is responsible for getting the job
done, but the leader isn’t present, then members present but not
working are engaging in unproductive pairing. In XE and other
organizations where leaders begin to delegate, this assumption frequently
operates in small groups, and sometimes in whole divisions until
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members decide to work.
Using Bion’s Theory

Use Bion’s theory becomes useful in a group that has lost its way.
Perhaps you have already discovered that not all meetings in XE work
smoothly, peacefully, and efficiently to the accomplishment of their goals.
Bion’s theory discourages participants in an unproductive group from
trying just to get down to work. To do so is to neglect the human, basic
assumption group, which is as real and present as the task at hand. We
might do better to analyze the group.
Which basic assumption group is present? I.E., what mood prevails
in the group? Chances are that you can characterize the mood as
complacency, fear, or hope. These words describe general patterns of
behavior; they are not value judgments about that behavior. Assuming
that the present basic assumption group is not providing a context
conducive to work, which of the other two will provide it? What action
may bring it about? What can you, as a participant, do to change the
basic assumption group?
XE, as a learning organization, gives you the opportunity to
experiment with new behavior that might be too risky elsewhere.
Imperfection, conflict, confusion, and opportunities to be unproductive
are built in. So take a risk and see what happens. Here are some
examples:
Suppose you find yourself in a boring presentation in XE, an
unproductive, dependency group. Remember the little boy who shouted,
“The Emperor has no clothes”? That broke up a dependency group. Do
it. Tell the presenter that you are not getting anything out of the
presentation. Conflict will probably ensue, but you will have successfully
changed the context from dependency to fight/flight.
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Suppose you get tired of a friendly but ineffective (pairing) group in
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XB. It won’t do any good to urge people to cooperate; they already are. [j
So do a little planning and organizing of work in your head and then very
calmly or not so calmly take over. You don’t know whether you will be
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provoking a change to dependency or to fight/flight, but at least you will

have pulled the plug from the warm bath. An anecdote: in the Fall of
1990 Directing {Cycle 2) presented the concept of power by forcefully
giving detailed orders to everyone in the organization. To their own
amazement people obeyed without a word of protest.
If people have fought for control of your group but no one has become
the leader, try supporting any action suggestion. You may be following a
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leader in the dependency group or building an alliance in the pairing
group, but at least the conflict of fight/flight will end.
Whatever you do, remember to describe it later and try to fit it into
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Bion’s theory. If you use the theory in this way, remember its tragic
nature. Whatever you do is an attempt to become the group’s savior.
But don’t let that stop you.
Furthermore, don’t expect success, especially not permanent success.
Individual action may not suffice to change the groups assumption, and
[1
even successful change probably won’t last. Group life often leads from
one mud-hole to the next. Fortunately that gives us more opportunity to
learn in XE.
Culture U
Cultural differences affect groups. People of different cultures work
productively under different basic assumptions and have difficulties
doing things that come easily to others. U
The traditional Japanese person3’ almost never leaves the dependency
group. For Japanese the world is a hierarchy (Benedict, 1946), and
arnae or dependence is considered honorable and desirable (Doi, 1981).
The Japanese put high value on harmony but have little use for conflict.
Japanese professional baseball teams play hard to tie (Whiting, 1977).
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Japanese members may have a tough time adjusting to open conflict and
undefined leadership structures in XE.
Anglo-Americans and northern Europeans who consider themselves
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pretty tough may be in for a shock in groups with Africans, African-
Americans, and people whose cultures derive from the Mediterranean
Basin (French, Arabs, Israelis, and Hispanics), whose discussions sound
like fights to Anglos and northerners. These groups have much to learn
from each other. Afros and Methtenaneans can use practice in listening,
31 You will never meet ‘the traditional Japanese person’ or any other ideal (meaning
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existing as an idea) type but will understand real people better by keeping in mind
how this ideal type would react.
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reasoning calmly, and cooperating. Anglos and northern Europeans
should learn the value and the game of vehement argument.
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A concluding plea for understanding

As intellectual tools, patterns of behavior and belief cannot be used
like a hammer and nails. Remember that the Understanding
Department (and function) seeks only to have you integrate observations
of fact into theories, to articulate broad patterns of What is Going On.
Even getting out of the mud may be too practical and too action-oriented.
You would perhaps do better to use Bions theory just to watch the
incredible show that is human interaction in groups.
Bionometer
Dependency Fight/ Flight Pairing
Effective
Ineffective
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Understanding Department
Management Theory Team

Job Summary
[1
The Management Theory Team gets members to cooperate.
Qualifications
1) Previous study of anthropolor.
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2)
3)
Familiarity with the culture of another country.
A high P score on the MBTI.
U
Job Duties and Responsibilities U
1) Make sure that members can identify and distinguish between
artifact, norm, role, belief, value, ritual, rite, symbol, and myth.
2) Point out behavior that illustrates the Hofstede dimensions of
culture.
U
1) Lead exercises and start off class with the XB Oath.
2) Use the oath as an example of a ritual and have members re
examine its significance.
3) Identify organization members with knowledge of different cultures
and use them as resources. Have the 2(3 organization try other
cultures’ ways of doing things.
Tasks
1) Have XE members recite the oath in different languages (see the
website for some translations) and then reflect on how it feels to
0
work in a second language.
2) Invite visitors from outside to visit XE and then to make
observations. Use these observations to talk about XB’s culture.
their knowledge of your material (see below). Develop a system of -
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Control.
4) Manage the ALE role.
a. Make members aware and remind them frequently that each team
will evaluate each individual on its (the team’s) material at the end
of each cycle.
b. Each team should work out in detail how it will evaluate members
of the division on their knowledge of its material and report its
criteria and procedures in writing to Control. Make these criteria
and procedures public and unavoidable.
c. Make sure each member’s weekly plan includes learning objectives
aimed at the criteria.
d. Post and maintain a graph of the number of members setting ALE
objectives per week. Report to the organization.
2) As an exercise in managing XE’s culture (aka, pride in how XE looks
to the outside world) make sure members fill out the online course
evaluation. The goal is 100% participation and 100% candor).
Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes: Has each person:
1) Defined the terms: culture, organizational culture, artifact, norm,
role, belief, value, ritual, rite, symbol, and myth?
2) Identified a culture-shaping event in XE and discussed how people
took it for granted and lost consciousness of it?
3) Discussed the contrasting perspectives of ethnocentrism, cultural
relativity, and cultural universalism?
4) Listed and explained Hofstedes four dimensions of cultural
difference?
5) Identified a cultural misunderstanding in XE and discussed its
basis?
6) Listed and explained the five Underlying Assumptions around which
cultural paradigms form?
7) Discussed cultural stewardship as the manager’s central role?

1) The Management Theory Team will judge the quality of members’
use of concepts from Management Theory, Cycle 2 in memos and in
class discussion.
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Management Theory: Cycle 2
[
Culture and Organizational Culture
Suppose you were an outsider observing XB. The oath surprises you;
either you haven’t seen such mindless recitation since elementary school
or you can hardly believe that adults are taking it seriously. More
surprises: the senior person isnt taking charge; some members are using
foul language; people are using words that have no meaning for you
(Group Team”?). To calm your frayed nerves after the meeting, you
repair to a bar, but there, where people aren’t supposed to talk about
classes, you hear more XB talk. Your surprise is culture shock, for you
have observed elements of this organization’s culture.
A manager needs to understand culture for two reasons. First,
organization members need to be sensitive to the behavior of people from
different backgrounds. Second, the manager seeks a positive
organizational culture like the Holy Grail: a positive culture allows the
manager to stay out of the way and let the organization nan itself.
After defining culture, explaining its importance and how to recognize
it, this section describes the three levels of culture and how to recognize
U
them. Then it presents Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural differences and
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck and Schein’s assumptions underlying
cultural paradigms.
Culture: unconscious, collective assumptions U

Culture32 is a collective personality, or, to borrow a phrase from
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. a “brooding omnipresence in the sky
(Southern Pacific).” Unseen, it lies behind and influences the behavior of U
groups, organizations, or nations as personality influences individual
behavior. It consists of behavior patterns, rituals, values, taboos, laws,
norms, beliefs, language structures, jargon, myths, symbols, and
technology.
Schein (1985, p 9) defines it as “a pattern of basic assumptions —
invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope

with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that —
has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be

taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in
relation to those problems.”
U
32 The word ‘culture’ (with a small c) denotes the anthropological concept we are
concerned with. The word ‘Culture’ (with a capital c) refers to upper class
activities, such as opera and art museums, the “finer’ things defined by value
judgments which anthropologists scrupulously avoid making.
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The anthropologist who introduced the term culture, A. L. Kroeber
(1952), called it “The Superorganic;” being above the physical level, it is
unobservable. Schein adds an intriguing psychological twist to this idea:
because the basic assumptions succeed (allow the organization to unify
itself and cope with its environment), people take them for granted, and
they drop out of awareness. Hence people are not usually conscious of
their culture; it is informal (see p. 164).
We have our own culture, whoever we are. In XB we personify four
cultures: a national culture (or several), managerial culture, this X3
group, and the culture of research (which makes assumptions about
knowledge). Each of these groups has its own culture. Particularly
regarding the culture of research, there is no such thing as objective,
culture-free knowledge because we always make assumptions. It
behooves us to make our assumptions conscious and consciously.
How do we get to know a culture if we swim in it, like fish in water?
Fortunately we are not fish. We can observe, describe, make inferences,
and discuss our findings with others all parts of the surprisingly
-
rigorous discipline of ethnology, the study of culture.

As we study culture and our culture, we should learn about important
controversies that affect our philosophy, morals, politics, personal lives,
and work. Uneducated people think (and many of us act as if) our way of
living is the best; such ethnocentrism has contributed to most of the
wars since the middle of the seventeenth century and continues to haunt
the post-colonial world. In response, the doctrine of cultural relativism
says that all cultures have equal status. Although one culture may do
one thing better than another (e.g., the French make excellent wine),
there is no such thing as a primitive or less valuable culture. An
important writer using extensive research on international management,
Qeert Hofstede (1993) even denies that management is a universal
discipline. Each culture has its own way of getting things done through
people. If you agree with Hofstede, read no further; throw this and every
other management book in the trash. Is there then nothing universal
about humans? A doctrine of cultural universalism can be inferred from
the disciplines of economics and psychology, which describe human
behavior without reference to a cultural context. Likewise from the
manager who says, “Planning is planning in any context.” Perhaps the
subdiscipline called social anthropology will help resolve the question;
this school considers culture as an epiphenomenon, superficial patterns
of behavior and thought ultimately traceable to economic and
environmental conditions.
Why pay attention to culture? Usefulness of the

concept.
The preceding discussion may leave practically minded readers
doubting the concept of culture as a useful managerial tool. Consider
the key role of culture in the following managerial contexts:
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1) Asia. For the past thirty years, the Asian manufacturing and
exporting juggernaut has challenged the American economy and
American management33 practices. Asians do things differently
from the rest of the world. We need to understand how their
cultural systems work.
2) The global economy. Foreign trade used to account for only a
small proportion of American business but now accounts for 22
percent of GDP. Most Americans learned to do business with other
Americans; they take for granted many practices that do not apply
to global business or management. Distrust and
misunderstandings among different cultures within XB offer
excellent opportunities for exploring cultural differences.
3) Understanding behavior you see. XB initially emphasizes
observing. The cultural perspective allows us to fit our observations
into patterns and see the system that produces the details we pick
up. If we want to make better cookies, its nice to know about the
cookie-cutter.
4) Avoiding Band-Md solutions. This same idea of the whole makes
sense from the perspective of Doing. The concept of culture allows
U
us to diagnose an underlying disease of an organization, rather than
suppress symptoms.
5) Stewardship. Capable managers do not wait to react to problems;
we should value positive aspects of our culture. No managerial tool
could be more useful than a (corporate) culture which works for
U
(i.e., in the best interests oO the company and keeps problems from
arising. The top manager’s most important role is steward
(caretaker) of the culture. This manual defines the Senior
1]
Manager’s first responsibility (p. 30) as “articulates a vision and
maintains the culture of the organization.”
6) Changing the culture. Implementing durable improvements in the
way an organization works is extremely difficult. Schein even
discourages us from hoping to change the culture. But the manager
responsible for maintaining the culture must try to improve it or -
know the limits of what is possible.

How to recognize culture
Ambling down the hill at my high-school reunion came The Conks,” a
classmate I had not seen for 25 years. Long before I saw his face, I
- recognized the way he walks, but I would have a hard time describing his
gait. The same difficulty holds for describing the culture of an
organization or country. As this manual repeatedly stresses, however,
[j
Watch out for these words: American, modern, democratic, high-tech,
management. We sometimes use one, when another might fit better. When you
read or hear one of them, substitute another to see if it makes more sense.
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managers should articulate their perceptions, put them into words,
because we use words to make and execute policy decisions. The
concept of culture is a management tool, and we must learn how to
operate it.
We take our strategy from Schein: start with observation, discuss
hypotheses with members of the culture, and aim for meaning, i.e., for
the hidden patterns that govern behavior.
Artifacts
Artifacts, the things we make and use, are easy to see but hard to
interpret (Sathe, 1985). They include things we see and hear: items of
technology, art, and language. We must use our X3 training; we observe
without judging or interpreting because we don’t know what these items
mean. Here are some examples from XB, from other organizations, from
the outside world, and from other countries.
• X3 goes on without the Senior Manager, who has gone to New York
on business.
• I was walking down the street eating peanuts.
• In a non-profit health organization, Ott (1989) describes a
microcomputer sitting unused on a table strewn with outdated
posters and old, Styrofoam coffee cups.
• The weather map in the Burlington (Vermont, USA) Free Press
shows Los Angeles, 3000 miles (5000 1cm) away but not Montréal
(Québec, Canada), 90 miles (150 km) away.
• Cross the border from Vermont into Québec, and you notice that
the stop signs say “Arrét.”
Cultural anthropologists spend years observing the details of new
sites because they do not know which details have wider meaning and
which don’t. Learn to notice anything in a culture. People in different
societies or companies have distinct color preferences, hold themselves at
different distances when conversing, do one thing at a time or many
(Hall, 1977), touch each other more (or less) when talking, use
grammatically correct speech or slang, dress up or dress down, etc. We
must notice things before we can determine whether they have meaning
or not.
As previously noted, we as researchers have our own culture,
including our own cultural limitations. We may not be capable of
perceiving significant artifacts in a culture we are studying.
1) A traditional teacher evaluating the Senior Manager in XE might
focus on the Senior Manager’s inactivity rather than the
participant’s learning how to moderate.
2) A group of computer technicians excitedly point at something on the
screen, but an observer may not even be able to recognize it.
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3) Someone speaks to you in a foreign language, and you don’t
understand the message.
The number of artifacts is infinite; these examples show how quickly
we confront patterns behind or beyond the observable.
Ritual and Rite
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Ritual, the simplest pattern, means repetition. The outsider who
observes 7(3 members reciting the oath once could interpret it as an
U
experiment. Repetition of the same behavior imparts new meaning to it.
In fact, repetition adds meaning, a feeling dimension, or sense of value to
any behavior, which is why drummers, poets, and advertisers use
rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration. A liberal arts or general education pays
off in cultural sensitivity, in your use of analytical skiUs to recognize the
poetry, the music, the context where a culture stores value.
Japanese companies use ritual intentionally (formally) to remind their
employees of their fundamental purposes and values at work. XE copies
the practice34 in having members recite the oath, but prescribed
recitation does not make the oath part of the culture, which is by
definition informal. As you recite the oath, do you believe what you are
saying? The answer will help you evaluate X3’s attempt to manage its
own culture.
One type of ritual, called a rite de passage or initiation rite, occurs in
U
most societies as they take in and make over new members. This rite
changes the identity of the initiate (the person undergoing it),
sometimes in reality sometimes merely symbolically. Examples include
bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah in the Jewish tradition, first communion
among Christians, Mozart’s Magic Flute, hazing in college fraternities,
repeated patterns of drunken behavior in college dorms. The X3 Manual
(Formal Organization, Cycle I) presented the related concept of
formalization, a way of standardizing the human resource input. Some
organizations conduct meticulously planned initiation rites. Armies all
over the world put 18-year-old recruits through boot camp, shaving their
heads, stripping them of their clothes, and restricting their speech to fl
remove their previous identity and then teaching them the army way
so thoroughly that they never forget it. A soldier in battle must fear his
sergeant more than death. The more complex and important the
lesson, the more appropriate it is to conduct an initiation rite, rather
than less stressful classes or orientation programs.
The chaotic beginning of XE may qualify as an initiation rite. We
11
must have new members
U
The common practice of changing behavior to change attitudes contains elements
of brainwashing. See Schein (1961).
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1) think of KB as an organization rather than as a class or program
2) take initiative rather than waiting for the authority figure to tell
them to act
3) experience their feelings and actions as relevant to XB rather than
as private matters
These lessons we cannot learn by reading or hearing; we must
experience them. So XB conducts an initiation rite. Of course, we could
do it more efficiently, less stressfully (?), better. If you undertake to
improve the beginning of XE, do not forget its ritual aspect and the
reasons for it.
Language
A great deal of information and understanding comes from studying
the language of a society or of a company. To begin with, it challenges
the very basis of our skill at observing objectively. If you hear me say
something that sounds like ‘money,’ you can’t recognize my behavior -
you don’t know what I am referring to unless you know what language I
-
am speaking and unless you understand that phrase in that language.

“Ma ney” means “I say’ in the Wolof language of Sénégal.
Stop signs in France say “STOP.” The “Arrét” signs in Québec are not
only telling people to stop (using incorrect French); they also convey a
cultural and political message. They symbolize Québec’s resistance to
Anglo-American culture. Signs convey rational, functional messages;
they mean what they say. Symbols convey messages too emotional and
complex to be stated directly.
Learn the language, if you can. The history of a people lies buried in
its language, sometimes buried so deeply that native speakers, in a
sense, do not know what they are saying. Although global business is
conducted in English, Americans can no longer cavalierly35 assume that
they will succeed in international management without speaking another
language. Using key phrases from another person’s language
communicates empathy and sometimes recognition of the other person’s
identity. In the fall of 1994, Choothamkhajom Permsak worked hard to
express himself in English to colleagues, many of whom tried to ignore
him. No one attempted to pronounce his name; everyone called him
“Kan.” One day he led the group saying the oath in Thai and laughed as
he got his revenge. In fact, everyone felt better.
In societies or organizations where more than one language is spoken,
the choice of language may itself have meaning (Ferguson, 1959; Putzel,
19g6). The use of a different language by top management may arouse
strong feelings among employees who speak it badly or don’t understand
it.
This word, meaning thoughtlessly, dates from the English Civil War, in the 17th
century.
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These observations also apply to different styles of speech within a
national language. Bernard Shaw’s (1979) Henry Higgins made Elba
Doolittle employable by helping her overcome ‘verbal class distinctions.’
Verbal hierarchical distinctions mark the speech of people at different
levels of organization. American students may delight in using foul
language in XB what does this behavior symbolize? In many
—
organizations employees choose their words carefully or do not rise very

high on the ladder. XB offers the opportunity to practice.
When communicating with non-native speakers, practice avoiding
jargon. Global business uses standard English, not American slang.
Practice choosing your words and pronouncing them clearly with
foreigners in XB. How do you say ‘totally bogus blow-off’ in English?
Verify the other person’s understanding. If the other person does not
speak your language very well, it’s your problem as well as that person’s.
Observers of organizational culture should pay particular attention to
jargon. Each organizational culture, XB not the least of them, has its
own expressions. Jargon performs several functions: it condenses
shared experiences; it reinforces members’ sense of belonging to the
organization; it excludes outsiders; and it communicates important U
beliefs and values of the culture (Evered, 1983). Don’t mention the
Decisionometer to people outside XB, for instance; it’s an XBism.
Metaphor
fl
Sometimes a jargon term communicates levels of meaning and feeling
in addition to information. Ott (1989), for instance, observed an
accounting firm (Jones & Jones) where “the word client is never used by
itself. Within the company office clients are called ‘assholes.’
..., At
...
Jones & Jones, the language virtually requires organization members to

think of clients as assholes.”
Informal subgroups in XB sometimes have names for each other (the
clams, the slackers, the brown-nosers), which refer to their behavior in
relation to the speaker’s expectations.
Pay close attention to these terms because they lead beyond the level
fl
of artifact, i.e., of pure behavior, into the less accessible realm of value.
Myth and Legend
Just as metaphors carry the culture, so do stories. In most
successful organizations people recount the deeds of the founder, subtly,
perhaps even unconsciously passing on a set of expectations to the
listener. At Federal Express they relate how the first president, Fred
Smith, literally bet the company at a poker table because he could find
no other sources of capital. FedEx expects people to take risks.
This chapter tells of Kan and the oath in Thai; the manual tries to
pass on such stories because the membership of XB changes almost
[1
completely with each new group. But remember the informal nature of
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the real culture; you learned the culture from your roommate who took
the course last semester, not from this official publication.
Stories do not have to be true to pass on the culture. Told with the
wink of an eye or with impossible exaggeration (like Paul Bunyan), half-
true or fictional stories still do the job. The observer of the culture
should take more interest in the fact that people are relating these
legends and myths than in their validity.
Conclusion on Artifacts
We set out to study the basic cultural facts, observable (and audible)
behavior which may carry clues about deeper concerns and unconscious
processes in a society or organization. We see fewer signs, more
symbols. Soon, objective observation gives way to decoding, which
requires broad knowledge, self-awareness, and disciplined critical
thinking. Without them, an outside observer too easily gets caught up in
the politics or events of a culture without knowing its essence.
The sensitive observer, however, begins to analyze stories, metaphors,
visual data, personal experiences, etc. and passes to the value level of
cultural knowledge.
Values and Beliefs
Culture lies behind behavior. In XB we make an effort to observe
behavior objectively, we cannot understand and can hardly recognize
behavior without the value and meaning structures behind it. All
cultures have values; each culture has its own. No culture lacks values;
even our own effort to observe behavior without making value judgments
expresses the social scientists value of value-free observation. How can
we identil5’ a culture’s values?
First, ask people. Values are what people are least ashamed of
expressing. Even organizations that espouse values that run contrary to
those of the dominant culture (a satanic cult, for instance) will relish the
opportunity to speak about their values. Fervent XB members, too, tend
to spread the word, to talk about the value of the experience.
Of course, you should understand that you are hearing the socially
acceptable values within the cultural group. People may not act in strict
accordance with the values they espouse. Their hypocrisy simply means
that they hold other values (which they may not want to talk about)
which conflict with their espoused values.
It is important for an observer to ask people about their culture.
Schein approaches culture from a background of psychotherapy. If
culture is the personality of a group, the group will become more self
aware through dialogue with a respectful outsider. And if the culture
changes, the group has to want to change itself.
Other sections of the manual discuss norms, unwritten rules that
codir cultural values. This section focuses on the cultural aspect of
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[1
norms. I was walking down the street eating peanuts in Rwanda (central
Africa). Each adult I met walking the other way looked at me and said,
with heavy irony, “Bon appetit (‘Enjoy your meal’). Later I realized I had
broken a cultural rule that forbids eating alone while doing something
else. That culture values the social aspect of eating. Ii
We discover rules by breaking them; members of the culture often
take action to enforce them. They usually forgive outsiders (at least
those of high status or value).
In XE we are flying to build a culture; so we can expect a certain
amount of norm breaking. Once we know what we value, however, we
should exercise discipline. As managers of our culture we want to
enforce the norms based on deeply held values of our organization.
Enforcement of norms gives an organization its cheapest and most
effective formalization.
Closely related to nonns, beliefs are conscious statements of what
people consider true. People arrive at their beliefs in many ways
fl
(Gardner, 1987): through intuition, scientific experimentation, faith, or
reference (when someone you respect believes something, you may, too). [1
The Japanese believe in spirit, in effort. Their work ethic expresses a
belief that determination can overcome obstacles, sometimes impossible
physical obstacles.
XE succeeds when we begin to believe in it. Along the way each
participant must learn to believe: to believe that we are an organization,
to believe in yourself, and to believe that you can learn from a peer, not
just from an authority figure. What does it symbolize, what do people
believe when XE meets when the Senior Manager has gone to New York?
Strong cultures, particularly those of high performing organizations,
have their own belief systems. These systems are conscious but
authentic. You gotta believe.
Basic Assumptions
The foundation of a culture lies beneath espoused belief in taken-for-
U
granted or unconscious assumptions. These assumptions can take
many forms, including those found in the Informal Team’s Cycle 2
material, the Basic Assumption Groups, and the manual encourages you
again (repeating a theme from Group Team, Cycle 1) to find out for
yourself, rather than selecting from the choices presented here.
Identifying the assumptions presents a major challenge to the outside
investigator. Over a long time, an anthropologist and a community build
a research relationship that permits the anthropologist to ask apparently
L
stupid questions: what do you call this melon? How do you tell the
difference between this type of melon and that type? What do you call
this speaking instrument? How do you tell the difference between this
type of telephone and that type? Gradually, the dialogue gravitates r
towards the values, goals, and beliefs described in the previous section. L
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Finally, the basic assumption level tests the strength of this relationship.
Schein (1984, p447) notes
We know we are dealing with an assumption when we
encounter in our informants a refusal to discuss something,
or when they consider us “insane’ or “ignorant” for bringing
something up. For example, the notion that businesses
should be profitable, that schools should educate, or that
medicine should prolong life are assumptions
If you are saying to yourself, “Of course they should,” you are
operating within these assumptions, in what anthropologists,
philosophers, and psychologists consider naïve realism. Conflicting
assumptions are possible: Businesses should also employ; schools
should also socialize; medicine should also enhance the quality of life.
We all (even researchers) make assumptions; to understand a culture the
researcher and members of the culture must articulate the relevant
assumptions.
Two schemas describe the dimensions of these assumptions in
different cultures. From extensive, international research, Hofstede
(1980) distilled four dimensions, along which XB’s culture contrasts to
the dominant university and training culture:
Hofstedes Dimensions of Culture

Uncertainty avoidance. Most XB members have never walked
into a class so unsure of what will happen in it or of who will make it
happen. People who need certainty drop out quickly. Life in some
countries is full of uncertainty 36; Latin Americans have no trouble with
XB. During the early years of KB on the other hand, so many Japanese
students left so quickly that the Senior Manager now routinely reframes
(puts into a new context) the experience for them after two or three
classes by saying, “I have created this confusion. I want you to go
through it because you will learn from the experience.”
Like Japanese XB members, Peace Corps volunteers learn to expect
the unexpected. An intellectual process helps us tolerate uncertainty; we
position and calm ourselves by reminding ourselves that confusion is
normal for those encountering a new culture. This confusion has earned
the name culture shock.
Power Distance refers to attitudes towards the unequal
distribution of power. In some societies (Turkey, for instance) people
with little power accept the fact that others have power over them.
Others (Haiti or the US) bridle or rebel. In traditional Japan the social
hierarchy was so clear that no two people could be equal (Benedict,
1946). When two Japanese work together, they develop a relationship
36 For a description read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of
Solitude
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called amac (dependence) in which one takes responsibility for the other
(Doy, 1981). The Senior Manager’s actions, mentioned above, obviously
use such dependence to reduce uncertainty for Japanese XB members.
XB tries to create lower power distance than the authority
relationship (Formal Organization, Cycle I) in normal organizations and
classes. The dominant culture of high power distance makes it difficult
for members to disagree with the Senior Manager or accept the Senior
Manager as a person who has personal characteristics and who makes
mistakes.
Masculinity/ Femininity deals with the values and roles of men U
and women. According to Hofstede, men value materialistic outcomes
more than women. They want results, high-quality output, and money.
Women want to like their work and their co-workers. Masculine societies
maintain distinctions between men’s and women’s work roles. In Japan,
for instance, very few women achieve positions of power in companies.
Feminine societies (such as Sweden) do not discriminate so much fl
between men and women.
The culture of universities is much more feminine than the culture of
work organizations, but some women find more opportunity to assert
U
themselves in XB than in other classes or programs. We could
characterize XB as masculine in its insistence on output (learning), but
we should also be working to maintain an atmosphere that supports
people (a feminine trait).
Individualism/ Collectivism. More than almost any other
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culture, Americans value individualism; so American readers may find it
difficult to see merit in collectivism, which means defining oneself as a
member of a group rather than as an individual. Older Americans
associate collectivism with communism.
To get beyond their cultural limits, Americans should recognize
benefits of collective living in Europe’s public transportation systems.
Also, being a person is not the same thing as being an individual. People
who think collectively are just as human as individualists. And unlike
communist societies, collective societies can compete and survive in the
free market, global economy. Witness Japan, moderately collectivist, and
Thailand, sfrongly collectivist.
XB combines collectivism and individualism and, at best, can teach
people the benefits of each. We undergo regulated conffict and value
creativity like individualist societies. But the very idea of an organization
is a collective one; we accomplish more together than as individuals. The
best XB division, in the Fall of 1992, developed a highly collectivist [
culture, a culture where members paid Utile attention to ranking, which
separates individuals. They did it; they let it happen; but they did not
spend much time or energy on it. Instead, members came to value
U
learning and sharing learning with each other. One person’s success
benefited the whole organization. XB dominated their lives. They Li
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covered the whole manual and extra readings, and the Senior Manager
ended XE at Thanksgiving and told them to work on their other courses.
Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck

and Schein’s Dimensions of Culture
Building on Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s studies of western, Native
American cultures, Schein (1985) outlines five underlying assumptions
around which cultural paradigms form.
Humanity’s Relationship to Nature
Do members of the culture dominate the environment, submit to it,
harmonize with it, or maintain a niche in it? Expanding westward
during the latter half of the 19th century, Americans took their
dominance over nature for granted. Loggers in the Pacific Northwest still
do. Ecological disasters in the Mississippi Basin, Haiti, and parts of the
former Soviet sphere suggest limits to our ability to subjugate nature.
The gardens of Japanese houses and French chateaux respectively
hannonize with nature and establish limited areas of dominance.
An organization makes similar assumptions about its business
environment. Unconscious and inappropriate assumptions can mislead
an entire organization. A business may compete because it never
occurred to its managers to form a strategic alliance with another
organization. The Japanese Government has traditionally limited the
number of finns in many internal markets, thereby establishing a stable
environment within which a few companies compete, an oligopoly. As of
this writing American companies believe that they can make money
selling insurance in Japan. They reject the idea of a government
stabilizing a business environment by limiting entry.
XE tends to cover the walls with posters, but we use our room by
permission and share it with other classes. We have been reprimanded
by authorities of the physical plant for harming the paint and plaster and
have had to ask for special strips so that we can continue to use posters.
Other users have criticized us for covering permanent displays and the
work of other classes. The voice in your head saying, “Oh. So what?” or
“the Senior Manager will take care of it,” is taking for granted
assumptions about our organization’s relationship to its environment
and about your place in it.
XE both competes with and cooperates with other management
classes and programs. Many of us want to see XE acquire a place in the
sun, which implies gaining market share at the expense of other types of
classes and programs. In the author’s opinion, however, all educated
people should study management because they will all work in and with
organizations. So XE should help advance the interests of all
management courses. Do we compete when we should be cooperating?
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The Nature Of Reality And Truth
What is true and how do you know that it is true? What is reality?
Just as personality types perceive the world differently (see p. 70), so do
cultures, whether they exist in different countries or different
departments of an organization. These philosophical questions may U
displease practically minded readers, but their consequences show up on
the bottom line.
Ask a religious fundamentalist, a Japanese salaryrnan, and a research
U
scientist what is true, and you will get answers like these:
Fundamentalist: The Book (Torah, Koran, Bible) says what is true, and
my leader (rabbi, ayatollah, priest, gum) tells me what
Salaryman:
The Book says. [Truth here is received]
The group determines what is true. For practical
U
purposes I cannot consider anything true until I have
convinced others.
Scientist: Scientific method determines what is true. No written
theory and no community of thinkers can stand up
against an accurate instrument. [Truth here is
discoveredj
We live together in this world and must make decisions together. The
scientist who wants to convince the fundamentalist about something will
have to find a relevant passage in The Book or somehow engage the
fundamentalist in a discussion about what is true. U
Most XB members have gone through school with the
fundamentalist’s approach to learning: the truth is what the teacher
says. By now you know that the Senior Manager is fallible. XB should
work like a laboratory, where we can make discoveries or test and reject
theories from the book. Yet we meet significant figures in the
environment who view even a laboratory as a place for students to
receive truth. If the experiments they ran in science laboratories reached
conclusions different from those in the book, they had obviously — an
assumption-marking word — done something wrong. Unconscious
assumptions about reality change with difficulty.
There are similar differences in the nature of reality in organizations.
U
People operate in different conceptions of time. Americans have difficulty
understanding the Balkans, where people are fighting over 500-year-old
issues; Americans easily forget the past. As the American Henry Ford
said, “History is more or less bunk.” Any time you hear the phrase
“should have,” you are hearing an orientation towards the past that may
not fit with future-oriented managerial culture (an issue of cultural
universality to be discussed below). Some cultures, like XB members
you have seen, have a present orientation which makes both
remembering the past and planning for the future difficult for them.
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A French or Arabic visitor to XB might feel more comfortable than a
German or Norwegian. In these polychronic cultures managers keep
many balls in the air at once. Interruptions, changes of subject, come
frequently and cause no surprise. A normal classroom resembles the
northern, monochronic European work environment, in which one
handles only one thing at a time.
The Nature Of Human Nature
We deal only briefly with this dimension. Are humans inherently
good, bad, or neutral? Can we change or does our behavior resist
outside influences? Are we individuals or members of a group? In
McGregor’s theories X and Y (Management Theory, Cycle 1) you have
already learned about our assumptions about human goodness, evil, and
malleability. The preceding section on Hofstede discussed individualism
versus collectivity.
The Nature of Human Activity
How do you live your life? How do you approach working? A teacher
commenting on a paper would write VAGUE beside these questions. But
we can reinterpret “vague” to mean taken-for-granted or unconscious. In
short, cultures have recipes for working and living. Kluckhohn and
Strodtbeck wrote of a doing orientation at one end of a scale, a being
orientation at the other, and a being-in-becoming orientation between
them.
You already have a feeling for different cultural approaches to human
activity through XB’s departments (Responsibility, Doing, Observing, and
Understanding), whose cultures differ in their attitudes towards action.
Doing, either the department or the orientation, involves an action
orientation towards life or work. Anthropologists have long associated
this pragmatic orientation with the dominant American culture.
American soldiers in World War II had a ‘CAN DO” spirit. Don’t waste
time planning or justilring your actions, says today’s version of this
approach; “Just do it.” The tools offered by groups in the Doing
Department apply in almost any context so that you can simply apply
them.
Neither American culture nor, of course, XB has a monopoly on this
doing orientation. The Japanese borrow things that work from many
other cultures without worrying about consistency. An educated
Japanese person uses four separate alphabets every day: Chinese
ideograms, a Japanese phonetic alphabet, a special alphabet for foreign
sounds, and English words. Several writers have described the doing
orientation as modern reinventions of the Greek deities Zeus and Athena
and to the mythical hero Prometheus (Jung, 1974; Morris, 1956; Handy,
1978).
XE has no exact equivalent of lUuckhohn and Strodtbeck’s being
orientation because it implies a non-managerial fatalism or subservience
313
r
to nature. But the Observing and Understanding departments de
emphasize doing and focus instead on the more feminine, Oriental,
contemplative activities of perceiving events here and now (as in
Japanese Zen Buddhism) and comprehending them in a broad context.
In the American-dominated field of management, Organizational
Behavior has always been a counter-culture because of its emphasis on
these non-American (or contrast American) virtues. America learned
this orientation the hard way in Viet Nam and would have done better to
follow John Lennon’s advice to “Let it be.’ Many authors have applied
these lessons to management (see, for instance, Pascale and Athos,
1978).
Dionysus, the Greek God associated with the being orientation, rules
the lives of most traditional undergraduates. Some follow this god in his
Roman form: Bacchus, God of the Grape (and brew) presides over
excesses of drink and sex. But Dionysus remains associated with
passion in all forms, without value judgments. XB seeks to tap into
undergraduate passion. We believe that college life includes an
unconscious rite initiating traditional undergraduates into the risks,
rewards, and responsibilities of adult life. Excess will occur during this
rite but need not occur in drinking and sex. In its essence the initiation
rite teaches the fundamental lessons of management and organizational
behavior. Therefore we seek an organizational culture of passionate
excess in XE work.
XB uses Dionysus but serves Apollo, bridging the chasm between
being and doing. The learning cycle (see p 24), which encompasses all
U
four departments, expresses our being-in-becoming orientation. XE
exists so that members can develop their potential and actualize
themselves. Just as the sun (Apollo) rises, shines, and sets, so we
should learn through our experience when it is appropriate to observe, to
understand, to take responsibility, or just do it.
The Nature of Human Relationships
“At the core of evenj culture,” writes Schein (1985, p.104), “will be
assumptions about the proper way for individuals to relate to each other
U
in order to make the group safe and comfortable.” Hofstede’s work (cited
above) deals extensively with this issue, and both cycles 1 and 2 of both
Group and Informal Organization sections of the 2(8 Manual present
relevant tools and theories.
Older XE members may not achieve passionate excess in this
U
organization but can become as involved in it as in any other
organization. In a safe, comfortable atmosphere (compared with the
work world they know) they can experience real risks, take their
responsibilities seriously, and reap rewards of personal learning and
growth.
314
U
U
Conclusion: Diversity and Stewardship
An organization lives; it has its own character, its culture.
Anthropolor teaches us to recognize this reality. Management bids us
use it.
In the example of Japan we see a culture very different from the
American culture so familiar to most of us, and yet a culture at least
equally able to manage successful organizations. In the spirit of
traditional anthropolor we should value the cultural diversity of our
global management world and recognize in different cultures different
alternatives for helping us achieve our goals.
But management itself also constitutes a culture, and we take this
opportunity to disagree with Hofstedes (1993) claim that each culture
has its own way of getting things done through people. Some cultures do
not produce results; they do not manage; they wifi not survive. Although
imperfect, messy, and diverse, the management culture still helps a
social organization survive and meet its objectives, whereas some other
cultures do not. If forced to choose between survival and diversity, we
must choose to survive and manage our culture (Mead, 1978).
This point of view clarifies the job of the top manager as steward of
the culture. The top manager’s most important function is to build,
maintain, and change the culture of the organization. Schein warns us
of the extraordinary difficulty of changing the culture. Suffice it to say
that achieving a strong, productive culture remains the manager’s Holy
Grail.
315
En
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Index
Cohesiveness, 234
A
Collectivism, 3 11
Academic Syndrome, 107
Color Commentator, 143
Act, 2, 25, 27, 55
Compartmentalization, 10
Action Planning, 109
Compensation, 68
Adjusting, 53
Complexity, 286
Administrative Responsibilities, 7
Computer Blindness, 93
Advice, 111
Concept, 7, 18, 19, 20, 39, 50, 63, 77,
Alignment, 284, 289 85, 88, 102, 117, 126, 134, 148, 161,
Alternatives, 81, 85 173, 184, 198, 210, 219, 230, 239,
248, 257, 265, 275, 291, 299
Antecedents, 221
Concept Responsibilities, 19, 20, 39,
Apollo, 315 50, 63, 77, 88, 102, 117, 126, 134,
Artifacts, 304, 308 148, 161, 173, 184, 198, 210, 219,
230, 239, 248, 257, 265, 275, 291,
Assertiveness, 19, 230, 232, 233, 234 299
Authority, 20, 153, 154, 282 Concurrent Controls, 58
Conflict, 20, 169, 234, 296
B
Congenial Control, 61
Basic Assumption Group, 291, 292, 309
Consensus, 138, 144
Basic Assumptions, 309
Consequences, 26, 81, 85, 96, 97, 117,
Behavior, 19, 20, 30, 45, 110, 119, 120, 222
140, 144, 222, 250, 251, 252, 253,
255, 256, 286, 315 Contingency Plan, 110
Behavior Modification, 19, 110, 251, Continual Improvement, 284, 289
252 Control, 8, 18, 19, 21, 22, 31, 37, 47,
Being, 11, 69, 105, 112, 234, 287 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 59, 61, 65, 89,
93, 106, 126, 140, 149, 198, 215,
Beliefs, 308 257, 276, 284, 290
Bion, 20, 171, 240, 242, 291, 292, 293, Coordination, 20, 175
294, 295, 296, 297, 298
Counterdependence, 19, 243
Blaming, 141
Creativity, 81, 234
Blocking, 144
Cults, 288
Boss, 19, 242
Culture, 20, 297, 301, 308, 310, 312
Brainstorm, 26
D
C
Darwin, 186
Centralization, 155
Decision Making, 84
Change, 196, 282
Decisionmaking, 19
Choosing, 85
170
Civilization, 29, 278
Delay, 222
Clanfying, 140, 144
323
Delegation, 19 Flow Chart, 95, 109
r
Departments, 8
Dependence, 242
Following, 108, 141, 144
Force Field Analysis, 46, 109
EZ
Detachment, 115
Differences, 192
Formal, 18, 20, 22, 29, 46, 69, 92, 148,
153, 161, 267, 275, 278, 282, 291,
305, 311
n
Directive, 270
Doing, 9, 10, 15,
72, 74, 77, 82,
19, 29, 37, 47, 64, 69,
88, 97, 102, 115, 118,
Formalization, 155, 156
Forming, 168, 215
U
145, 167, 219,
269, 286, 303,
230, 239, 251, 255,
314
Frequency, 222
G
0
Dominating, 142, 144
Domination, 59
DoyTakeo, 311
Gate-Keeping, 141
Gemeinschaft, 279
U
E
Effective, 19, 61, 190, 191
Gesellschaft, 279, 281
Goal, 85, 104, 235 U
Goal Distortion, 235
Effectiveness, 10, 19, 22, 46, 47, 53,
60, 102, 105, 108, 118, 156, 167,
Goals, 44, 45, 96, 97, 98 H
239, 242 Graphics, 187
Efficiency, 19
E-Mail, 90, 110
Group Maintenance, 141
Group Process, 137
U
Employee Involvement, 277, 284, 285
Encouraging, 141, 144
Growth, 216
H
U
Energizing, 140, 144
Eat, 37
Harmonizing, 141, 144
Hiding, 106, 112, 141
U
Ethical Principles, 203
Ethics, 202
Evaluation, 7
Hierarchy, 154, 249, 253, 255
High Performing Organization, 20, 22,
U
278, 286
Excuse, 108
Experimentation, 284, 288
Hofstede, 299, 300, 301, 302, 310, 311,
314, 315, 316
U
Hot Stove Rule, 220
False Readings, 56
F Human Resources, 19, 65, 68, 104 U
Humor, 269
Family, 4, 66, 177, 178, 181, 204, 279
Fayol, 277, 281, 282 I LI
Individualism, 311
Fear, 107, 112, 255, 295
Feedback, 56, 92, 215, 234 Inference, 118, 121 U
Feeling, 71, 253, 255, 256 Influence, 142
Femininity, 31 1 Informal, 20, 22, 29, 44, 59, 142, 146,

161, 164, 167, 172, 267, 291, 293,
Fight/Flight, 295 307, 309, 315
Flirting, 141, 144
324
U
U
Information, 19, 58, 91, 92, 110, 144, Mbti, 21, 64, 184, 211, 246, 248
278, 282, 285
Mcgregor, 173, 314
Information Overload, 58
Measure, 18, 47, 56
Initiating, 140, 144
Metaphor, 307
Instrumental Values, 201
Moderating, 77, 78, 86, 87, 220
Intelligence, 268
Monitoring, 19, 53, 286
Interest, 269
Moral Intensity, 205
Interpretation, 130
Motives, 20, 250
Interrupting, 142
Myth, 307
Intuition, 70, 71, 72
N
J
Nature, 278, 312, 313, 314, 315
Japan, 70, 279, 299, 303, 310, 311,
Need For Achievement, 268
312, 316
No Matter What, 187, 193
Jaques, 48
Norming, 169
Job Characteristics, 19, 212, 214, 217
Norms, 20, 142, 143
Judge, 15
Judgment, 71 0
Jung, 24, 29, 69, 70, 71, 291, 314 Objectives, 19, 44, 45, 190
Observe, 25, 80, 93, 137, 245, 270
K
Observing, 9, 15, 20, 29, 37, 44, 45, 65,
Key Facts, 25
69, 72, 85, 97, 115, 117, 120, 126,
lUuckhohn, 301, 312, 314 128, 134, 137, 141, 145, 167, 172,
248, 251, 257, 265, 267, 286, 314,
L 315
Language, 128, 131, 306 Observing A Group, 137, 167
Laziness, 107, 112 Oligarchy, 139
Leadership, 20, 267, 270 Coda Loop, 24
Leadership Substitute, 272 Opportunities, 189, 196
Leading By Example, 270

p
Learning Organization, 6
Pairing, 295
Lewin, 109
Paraphrasing, 20, 129, 131
Listening, 20, 128, 130
Participation, 47
Listening Behavior, 128
Passing The Buck, 106, 112
M Path-Goal, 266, 267, 270
Majority Rule, 139 Perception, 20, 71, 72, 129
Management By Exception, 58 Perception Checking, 129
Managing, 19, 24, 27, 49, 89, 90, 108, Performing, 170
120, 242, 256 Personal Power, 267
Masculinity, 311 Philosophy, 29
325
Plan, 19, 27, 44, 46, 82, 104, 190 S
Planning, 19, 21, 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44,
47, 55, 64, 81, 85, 106, 107, 109,
Scan, 187, 194 [j
112, 118, 121, 157, 184, 186, 250, Schein, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 308,
302
Plop, 139
310, 312, 315, 316
Scientific Management, 165
U
Scribe, 86
Plug And Chug, 83
Position, 265, 276, 292, 300 Selection, 65 U
Post-Control, 56 Self-Confidence, 268
Power Distance, 310 Self-Knowledge, 269

Sensation, 70, 71
U
Praise, 223
Pre-Control, 55
Present, 50, 161, 257, 291
Servant Leader, 272
Signs, 306
U
Prisoners’ Dilemma, 173, 174, 181,
182, 243
Size, 157
Social Capital, 178, 179 ci
Problem, 23, 26, 189, 258, 307 Social Responsibility, 202
Procedures, 46
Product, 2, 4
Sociogram, 172 LI
Sources Of Power, 267
Psychological Group, 293 Stages, 168, 278
Stereotypes, 236
U
Q
Questioning, 130
Stewardship, 303, 316
Storming, 169
U
R Strategy, 104, 186, 192
Reading, 8, 18, 140 Structure, 20, 153, 156 U
Reality, 144, 313 Styles, 270
Reforming, 170
Repeating, 141
Subordinates, 106, 112
Summarizing, 140, 144
U
Research, 29, 214
Responsibility, 9, 15, 19, 25, 26, 29, 31,
Swarming, 168
Symbols, 306
U
37, 39, 40, 50, 63, 65, 69, 72, 74, 77,
88, 98, 102, 106, 110, 115, 117, 126,
134, 148, 161, 173, 184, 198, 210,
219, 230, 239, 248, 251, 257, 265,
System, 283
T
U
275, 282, 291, 299, 314
Responsibility Chart, 110
Taoism, 115
Task Force, 14
U
Reward, 6
Risk, 6,30,43, 56, 81, 90, 110, 129,
174, 199, 260, 262, 270, 285, 296
Task-Oriented Behavior, 140
Taylor, 165 [1
Technology, 156
Rite, 305
Ritual, 305
Technomania, 94 U
Terminal Values, 201
Role, 140, 144, 153
Testing Reality, 140
326
Li
U
TheoiyX, 17, 173, 174, 179, 180, 181, Understanding, 9, 15, 20, 29, 37, 64,
295 69, 72, 98, 115, 145, 146, 148, 161,
173, 251, 275, 286, 291, 298, 299,
TheoryY, 17, 22, 173, 174, 179, 180,
303, 314, 315
181, 224
Usurping, 139
TheotyZ, 181,321
Threats, 189, 196 V
Time, 48, 49, 70, 71, 225, 247, 317, Value, 20, 72, 125
318, 319
Value Judgments, 72
Total Quality Management, 56, 217,
277, 284, 285, 286 Values, 201, 308
Training, 37, 67, 230 Vision, 269
Trash Can, 69
w
Trust, 4, 20
What Is Going On, 7, 10, 15, 26, 81, 87,
Truth, 313 137, 138, 201, 289, 293
Whistleblowers, 208
U
Work Group, 293
Uncertainty, 310
327
[
El
U
U
U
U
El
£1
I belong to XB and will make this organization work by
U
cooperating and taking responsibility.
U
I will apply concepts and theories frankly to events and
people I observe. U
I will challenge my colleagues and myself to keep improving.
U
I will do what I set out to do and enjoy
U
U
U
U
U
37 Lead by Theresa Krieger, Honors XB in the Spring of 1999 added “dammit” to this
last sentence. Feel free
328
U
L

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ES I

Job Duties and Responsibilities

appropriate. In some XB divisions Cycle 2 Planning does not

Set scope and objectives

W stands for weaknesses. Identify them. Find ways to rectify them

Key words include: organization development, sociotechnical systems, re

The Culture Administration

6) Assess Opportunities and Threats U

1) Use concepts to improve management

b. The opportunity and necessity for ethical leadership. XB’s ranking

Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes. Has each person:

Ethics: Necessary Value Judgments

20 During a class lecture in March, 1998.

not transcending to a higher spiritual plane. Ethics brings us uncomfortably

it is right not because it achieves any objective whatsoever (terminal value).

. Lawson and Shen (1998)

. Trustworthiness • Truth telling or honesty

The lists have strong similarities. One might question whether

Recognize Make Establish Engage

Individual Factors Organizational Factors

Personality type Training, Rules, Authority,

21 Based on Jones (1991) and Rest (1986)

Living up to the expectations

even in violation of the law--.

Friends discuss friendship, agree to ‘Friends’ conspire to give each U

Participants complain about the

organization’s needs in mind,

Characteristics Model to explain the results, or criticize the model.

Behaviorally Stated Learning Outcomes. Has each person

Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures

Autonomy leads to experienced responsibility for outcomes of the work.

Fomi:g Experienced High Internal

Opening Knowledge Low

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Behaviorally stated learning outcomes. Has each person [1

Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures U

else complex and emotional. Money works as a symbol (see p. 305). We

From: Hannah Taylor

opinion now without breaking my goals.

Cycle 2 Job Description

Job Duties and Responsibilities

Assertiveness, Conflict Management,

American culture, disguised as management, is being sold to unwary

1) the right to refuse requests without having to feel guilty or selfish

If you object to the term “right,” think of an attitude of self-esteem and

Assertiveness is a way of life, an attitude of respect towards oneself

Conflict and conflict management

Three causes of conflict in organizations

Skills and tips for managing conflict

The topography of conflict and negotiation

Cycle 2 Job Description fl

4) Inform members about counterdependence, independence, and

Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures

26 This chapter draws heavily on Qabarro, J. J. and Kotter, J. P. (1980).

course. Suppose that in XB for example, the Senior Manager’s facial

Job Duties and Responsibilities

a. Review the attendance policy from Cycle 1.

Cycle 2: Possible Evaluation Criteria and Procedures

The term ‘motive’ in our language suggests to us that a person’s

Feelings? Back to the topic of motivation. The third way of

important characteristic. Rarely do people actually express their feelings

be unaware of in the first place, and try to guess other peoples’.

or as masks. These feelings may be helping us work together or they