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Managerial influence on attitude formation in organizations: how to manage emergence

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Abstract

The emergence of a shared attitude in organizations can be regarded as a self-organizing complex process in which a majority attitude emerges from the ensemble of interactions among individuals. Almost by definition, emerging processes seem beyond the control of management, which is in conflict with the task of management to steer an organization. By modeling the emergence of a shared attitude in organizations, we were able to demonstrate that management had a distinct influence on this process. Furthermore, the first round of interactions was decisive for the outcome. The key to influencing the emergence of a shared attitude is to reduce resistance against the preferred attitude. High levels of group conformity inhibited conversion to the preferred attitude. Although the emergence of a shared attitude can be influenced by management, there remains an intrinsic uncertainty in the outcomes of attitude development processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organization Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Free University of Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter van Woensel, Dick de Gilder, Peter van den Besselaar & Peter Groenewegen

  2. Department of Human Genetics, UMC St Radboud, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Peter van Woensel

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  1. Peter van Woensel
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  2. Dick de Gilder
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  3. Peter van den Besselaar
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  4. Peter Groenewegen
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Correspondence to Peter van Woensel.

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van Woensel, P., de Gilder, D., van den Besselaar, P. et al. Managerial influence on attitude formation in organizations: how to manage emergence. Comput Math Organ Theory 23, 496–523 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-016-9239-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-016-9239-8

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