What Benefits the Group Can Also Benefit the Individual: Group-Enhancing and Individual-Enhancing Motives for Collective Action

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda R. Tropp ◽  
Amy C. Brown
Author(s):  
Ursula Renz

This chapter discusses the implications of Spinoza’s concept of individual bodies, as introduced in the definition of individuum in the physical digression. It begins by showing that this definition allows for an extremely wide application of the term; accordingly, very different sorts of physical entities can be described as Spinozistic individuals. Given the quite distinct use of the terms divisibilis and indivisibilis in his metaphysics, however, the chapter argues that the physical concept of individuality is not universally applied in the Ethics but reserved for physical or natural-philosophical considerations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the problem of collective individuals. It is argued that, while societies or states are described as individual bodies, they do not constitute individual group minds in the strict sense of the term for Spinoza. This in turn indicates that minds are not individuated in the same way as bodies.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey

Groups are often said to bear responsibility for their actions, many of which have enormous moral, legal, and social significance. The Trump Administration, for instance, is said to be responsible for the U.S.’s inept and deceptive handling of COVID-19 and the harms that American citizens have suffered as a result. But are groups subject to normative assessment simply in virtue of their individual members being so, or are they somehow agents in their own right? Answering this question depends on understanding key concepts in the epistemology of groups, as we cannot hold the Trump Administration responsible without first determining what it believed, knew, and said. Deflationary theorists hold that group phenomena can be understood entirely in terms of individual members and their states. Inflationary theorists maintain that group phenomena are importantly over and above, or otherwise distinct from, individual members and their states. It is argued that neither approach is satisfactory. Groups are more than their members, but not because they have “minds of their own,” as the inflationists hold. Instead, this book shows how group phenomena—like belief, justification, and knowledge—depend on what the individual group members do or are capable of doing while being subject to group-level normative requirements. This framework, it is argued, allows for the correct distribution of responsibility across groups and their individual members.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 3887
Author(s):  
María Luisa Sein-Echaluce ◽  
Angel Fidalgo-Blanco ◽  
Francisco José García-Peñalvo ◽  
David Fonseca

Active educational methodologies promote students to take an active role in their own learning, enhance cooperative work, and develop a collective understanding of the subject as a common learning area. Cloud Computing enables the learning space to be supported while also revolutionizing it by allowing it to be used as a link between active methodology and students’ learning activities. A Cloud Computing system is used in conjunction with an active methodology to recognize and manage individual, group, and collective evidence of the students’ work in this research. The key hypothesis shown in this work is that if evidence management is made clear and evidence is consistently and gradually presented to students, their level of involvement will increase, and their learning outcomes will improve. The model was implemented in a university subject of a first academic year using the active Flipped Classroom methodology, and the individual, group and collective evidence is constantly worked with throughout the implementation of a teamwork method.


1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F.A. Milders

The application of object-relations theory to the psychotherapy of severe personality disorders owes much to the writings of Otto Kernberg. According to Kernberg, object-relations theory facilitates analysis of the psychotherapeutic process and the clarification of personality pathology. It is a concept that integrates theories of psychic process in the individual, group process and the organization of the clinical setting, and has found general support among Dutch (group) psychotherapists treating patients with borderline and psychotic disorders. However, the scope of object-relations theory is seldom addressed. When object-relations theory is separated from clinical psychiatry it can be overvalued as a universal explanatory model.


Author(s):  
Valerie I. Sessa ◽  
Ashley Finley ◽  
Beyza Gullu

Continuous, “lifelong” learning is not just needed in individuals. Groups and organizations need to learn continuously as well. Although we know a fair amount about how individuals learn (Meltzoff, Kuhl, Movellan, & Sejnowski, 2009) and there is a growing body of literature about how groups and organizations learn (Scribner & Donaldson, 2001, Senge, 2006, Sessa & London, 2006), little is known about continuous learning prompted by the interface between individuals, groups, and organizations. We begin by identifying parallel learning constructs and processes at the individual, group, and organizational levels, and then we briefly discuss a few theories that have addressed learning flow between these three levels. Finally, we analyze a case of an interorganizational project team encompassing subgroups from a number of different universities who are charged with making change within their institutions and sharing their learning at the project team level. While the original aim of the project was to impact student learning, the project team (and the organization housing the project team) soon learned that in order to do so, they also had to concentrate simultaneously on student (individual), faculty (group), and university (organizational) learning as well.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Max Pensky

The postwar era saw a remarkable transformation of international law, from a loose arrangement of agreements designed to reduce collective action problems to a normative commitment to the inherent dignity of the individual person. Seyla Benhabib’s new book shows the extent to which this transformation was a matter of deeply personal experiences. Understanding this dialectic between the personal and the universal is crucial for understanding not just the genesis of contemporary normative international law, but also its prospects for survival. This article focuses on Benhabib’s adoption of the process of jurisgenesis as an exemplary form of this dialectic, ending with a critical reading of Hannah Arendt’s attempt to contribute to this process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Salvador López ◽  
Víctor Yepes

Deciding whether certain factors should be considered drivers of innovation in construction firms is crucial in terms of improving their performance and survival in an environment that is changing by leaps and bounds. Throughout the years, construction companies have been considered to be traditional and without the tendency to innovate. However, several studies have confirmed that this perception of the sector is evolving and that successful instruments from other industries are gradually being adapted for the benefit of the industry. The objective of this paper is therefore to investigate the potential factors affecting the performance of these organizations. Eighteen factors related to the individual, group, and organizational levels were identified through a review of the literature and an instrument developed that was validated by experienced professionals. A questionnaire was sent to 103 people working in the sector at the national level to obtain their views. The results of the classification analysis indicate that “technology and equipment” and “software acquisition” are considered the two most significant factors. In addition, these 18 factors can be classified into 7 groups: (i) internal drivers of innovation; (ii) innovation within the organization; (iii) technological innovation; (iv) technological links with the environment; (v) external drivers of innovation; (vi) innovation in processes; (vii) a culture of innovation in the company. Innovation in processes has the highest level of impact. This research deepens the current understanding of the factors at different organizational levels that must be highlighted in the implementation of an R&D system in order for companies to improve their performance and survival in future processes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohan P. Pokharel ◽  
Sang Ok Choi

Purpose The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Dimensions Of Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) framework from the perspective of public sector organizations. We have used performance indicator data after organizational learning inspired intervention in a semi-autonomous network of public sector organizations. Design/methodology/approach This study used original administrative data to track the learning progress, as measured by a ratio of access to funding sources. The study also collected survey data using tailored DLOQ instruments and then determined the efficacy of DLOQ framework for public sector organizations. Several data analysis techniques were used to specify a final set for the learning organization instrument with construct validity and instrument reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis was selected to test the construct validity for the measurement of the dimensions of the learning organization and to verify the adequacy of the item to factor associations and the number of dimensions underlying the construct. Findings We found evidence that confirms that the organizational level (particularly the system connection) has a positive impact on organizational performance and a mediating effect on the relationships between the individual/group levels of learning organization characteristics and organizational performance. This study extends the Watkins and Marsick’s (1993, 1996) learning–organization framework that helped to produce case-specific outcomes such as the extent of error reduction. This framework provides a useful structure for other researchers to study learning dimensions and their relationships with other organizational performance variables. The results also show evidence of internal consistency and the construct reliability of the dimensions of the learning organization. Research limitations/implications Care should be taken in generalizing the structural equation model identified in this study. Because of the multidimensional and complex nature of the learning organization, the research setting for this study might be only one of the possible settings that specify the relationships among different levels of the learning organization and performance outcomes. There are rather complicated interactions among these dimensions and in each attribute of a learning organization. Originality/value This study theoretically confirms that the organizational level (particularly the system connection) has a positive impact on organizational performance and a mediating effect on the relationships between the individual/group levels of learning organization characteristics and organizational performance. This study also methodologically shows evidence of internal consistency and the construct reliability of the learning organization measures along with significant efficiency gain in theory.


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