Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management pp 49–72Cite as

The Power to Change a Social System

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Management and Industrial Engineering ((MINEN))

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is a short introduction to changing corporate culture from an evolutionary and systems thinking point of view. It highlights that some of the common observations in corporate culture are the outcome of adaptations of the human brain to complexity in social situations. Features like diversity and leadership play important roles in the ability to adjust a social system in response to internal or external pressures, however, these features are difficult to manage as typical human behavior in groups tends to favor other characteristics; there seems to be a bias against them. There are ways and means to accommodate for these behavioral preferences, but many of those options are indirect and long term and therefore need reflection, understanding, and a strategic perspective to implement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Zahra, S. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hitt, M. A. (2000). International expansion by new venture firms: International diversity, mode of market entry, technological learning, and performance. The Academy of Management Journal, 43, 925–950.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bahrami, H. (1992). The emerging flexible organization: Perspectives from silicon valley. California Management Review SAGE Publications, 34, 33–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Andriopoulos, C., & Lewis, M. W. (2010). Managing innovation paradoxes: Ambidexterity lessons from leading product design companies. Long Range Plann: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Wagner, J. A. III & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2014). Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Hechanova, R. M., & Cementina-Olpoc, R. (2013). Transformational leadership, change management, and commitment to change: A comparison of academic and business organizations. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22, 11–19 (Springer Singapore).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Belias, D., & Koustelios, A. (2014). The impact of leadership and change management strategy on organizational culture. European Scientific Journal, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Goodwin, M. (2016). Change management and leadership. In C. Baroncelli & N. Ballerio (Eds.), WCOM (World Class Operations Management) (pp. 185–196). Springer International Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Foster, C., & Harris, L. (2005). Easy to say, difficult to do: Diversity management in retail. Human Resource Management Journal, 15, 4–17 (Blackwell Publishing Ltd).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ready, D. A., & Conger, J. A. (2003) Why leadership-development efforts fail. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44, 83 (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Davidson, M. N. (2011). The end of diversity as we know it: Why diversity efforts fail and how leveraging difference can succeed. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Zipf, G. K. (2016). Human behavior and the principle of least effort: An introduction to human ecology. Ravenio Books.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chase-Dunn, C., & Hall, T. D. (2016). The historical evolution of world-systems. In G. Preyer (Ed.), Strukturelle Evolution und das Weltsystem (pp. 281–298). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gries, W. H. (2016). How the least effort principle governs human reasoning and behaviour. The Author. http://www.repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/58203.

  14. Gusnard, D. A., Raichle, M. E., & Raichle, M. E. (2001). Searching for a baseline: Functional imaging and the resting human brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2, 685–694 (nature.com).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Dunbar, R. (2010). How many friends does one person need?: Dunbar’s number and other evolutionary quirks. London: Faber & Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J. H., & Jackson, D. D. (1967). Pragmatics of human communication (p. 51). New York: New York W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kühl, S. (2015). Die blinden Flecken der Theorie U von Otto Scharmer. Systeme, 29, 190–202.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General system theory. New York, 41973, 40.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1991). Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Springer Science & Business Media.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Luhmann, N. (1995). Social systems. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Simon, F. B. (2007). Einführung in Systemtheorie und Konstruktivismus. Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Newcomb, T. M., Others. (1960). Varieties of interpersonal attraction. Group Dynamics (2nd ed.). Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Ebbesen, E. B., Kjos, G. L., & Konečni, V. J. (1976). Spatial ecology: Its effects on the choice of friends and enemies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 12, 505–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Preciado, P., Snijders, T. A. B., Burk, W. J., Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2012). Does proximity matter? Distance dependence of adolescent friendships. Social Networks, 34, 18–31.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Korzybski, A. (1958). Science and sanity: An introduction to non-aristotelian systems and general semantics. Institute of GS.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Slater, R. (1998). Jack Welch & The G.E. Way: management insights and leadership secrets of the legendary CEO. McGraw Hill Professional.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Doppler, K., & Lauterburg, C. (2008). Change Management: Den Unternehmenswandel gestalten. Campus Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Damaske, S., Zawadzki, M. J., & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Stress at work: Differential experiences of high versus low SES workers. Social Science and Medicine, 156, 125–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Cialdini, R. B., Wosinska, W., Barrett, D. W., Butner, J., & Gornik-Durose, M. (1999). Compliance with a request in two cultures: The differential influence of social proof and commitment/consistency on collectivists and individualists. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25: 1242–1253 (Sage Publications).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Cialdini, R. B., & Garde, N. (1987). Influence. A. Michel.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Bernstein, E., Bunch, J., Canner, N., & Lee, M. (2016). Beyond the holacracy hype. Harvard Business Review, 94, 38–49 (Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation 300 North Beacon Street, Watertown, MA, 02472, USA).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ulrich, D., Kerr, S., & Ashkenas, R. (2002). The GE work-out: How to implement GE’s revolutionary method for busting bureaucracy and attacking organizational proble. McGraw Hill Professional.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Laloux, F. (2014). Reinventing organizations. USA: Nelson Parker.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Warner, B. W. (2010). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Flik, H. (1990). The concept … organizing around opportunity within the GORE culture. In H. Simon (Ed.), Herausforderung Unternehmenskultur (pp. 91–129). Stuttgart: Schäffer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland

    Deane L. Harder & Kim O. Tokarski

Authors
  1. Deane L. Harder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kim O. Tokarski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deane L. Harder .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Carolina Machado

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    J. Paulo Davim

Testing Your Knowledge

Testing Your Knowledge

1.1 Answer the Following Questions as True (T) or False (F)

  1. 1.

    The human brain is easily overwhelmed by complexity.

  2. 2.

    Humans typically change their intensity of interactions depending on the total number of individuals relevant in the context.

  3. 3.

    Sending an e-mail is a form of communication.

  4. 4.

    A social system cannot be managed.

  5. 5.

    Social systems are self-stabilizing and self-sustaining.

  6. 6.

    Resistance to change can be interpreted as a lack of compatibility with the motivational structures of the people involved.

  7. 7.

    The position in the corporate hierarchy defines power in the social system “company”.

  8. 8.

    Corporate culture is an emergent property of the social system present in a company and cannot be controlled.

  9. 9.

    Power in a social system can be defined as the ability to change routine communication structures.

  10. 10.

    When people are uncertain about appropriate behavior in a situation they look for social proof.

1.2 Answers

  1. 1.

    False

  2. 2.

    True

  3. 3.

    False

  4. 4.

    False

  5. 5.

    True

  6. 6.

    True

  7. 7.

    False

  8. 8.

    True

  9. 9.

    True

  10. 10.

    True

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Harder, D.L., Tokarski, K.O. (2018). The Power to Change a Social System. In: Machado, C., Davim, J. (eds) Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management. Management and Industrial Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66864-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66864-2_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66862-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66864-2

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation