Empirical Support for a Decision Theory View of Social Power

Author(s):  
William E. Pollard ◽  
Terence R. Mitchell ◽  
Lee Roy Beach
1974 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Pollard ◽  
Terence R. Mitchell ◽  
Lee Roy Beach

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 478-494
Author(s):  
Yael Ben David

The current research sheds new light on the power dynamics between a national majority and minority in the context of inter-group conflict, specifically Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Drawing on Giddens, it broadens the dualistic approach to power suggested by the literature to demonstrate how the manifestation of power depends on the interpretation actors give to their social positioning in different life contexts. Drawing on 32 in-depth interviews with undergraduate students on their daily experience of power, four themes emerge reflecting the co-creation and alteration of power dynamics through reflexivity and agency: insecure power, ambivalent power, subversive power and internal power. The results provide empirical support for the role of agency and subjectivity in the manifestation of social power. The discussion explores the various ways in which these themes come into play in the socio-political context of Israel.


1972 ◽  
Vol 78 (6) ◽  
pp. 433-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Pollard ◽  
Terence R. Mitchell

1975 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Pollard ◽  
Terence R. Mitchell ◽  
Lee Roy Beach

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 692-704
Author(s):  
Jochen Christopher Theis

When corporate ownership and control are separated, information asymmetries arise between the uniformed principal (investor) and the informed agent (manager). Within this principal agent conflict, the communication of risks faced by the entity is crucial within a corporate governance context, as investor decisions concerning a company are mainly driven by the evaluation of chances and especially of risks regarding the future prosperity of the company. Risks can thereby only be communicated reliably as part of corporate communication (i.e. without inducing unexpected behaviors), when the informational needs of the investors are understood. In order to derive insight about which variables are important in explaining how investors perceive risks disclosed by an entity, I develop a structural equation model in which I combine two theoretical approaches of human risk perception: the “decision theory view” and the “behavioral risk perspective”. For estimating the model, I make recourse to data derived from a survey that was conducted with 32 students who were asked to assess five risks which the fictitious “Alpha group” discloses in its management commentary. I chose the management commentary as the object of study, as it has a unique and increasing relevance as an instrument of capital market communication. My results suggest that both theoretical approaches are important in explaining investors´ risk perceptions. This finding calls into question that standard-setters predominantly adopt a decision theory view concerning risk reporting, and has further implications for the development of a company´s risk communication strategy within a corporate governance context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dayan

Abstract Bayesian decision theory provides a simple formal elucidation of some of the ways that representation and representational abstraction are involved with, and exploit, both prediction and its rather distant cousin, predictive coding. Both model-free and model-based methods are involved.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-17
Author(s):  
Patrick R. Walden

Both educational and health care organizations are in a constant state of change, whether triggered by national, regional, local, or organization-level policy. The speech-language pathologist/audiologist-administrator who aids in the planning and implementation of these changes, however, may not be familiar with the expansive literature on change in organizations. Further, how organizational change is planned and implemented is likely affected by leaders' and administrators' personal conceptualizations of social power, which may affect how front line clinicians experience organizational change processes. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to introduce the speech-language pathologist/audiologist-administrator to a research-based classification system for theories of change and to review the concept of power in social systems. Two prominent approaches to change in organizations are reviewed and then discussed as they relate to one another as well as to social conceptualizations of power.


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