scholarly journals William H. Whyte Jr.: How the creator of 'groupthink' was forgotten, and why it matters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Oliver Pol
Keyword(s):  
Historical Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
The Past ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
Clear Shift ◽  
Primary Form

<p>This thesis examines the presentation of management theories in textbooks, focusing on groupthink as an indicative case. The groupthink theory warns that positive consensus leads to the exclusion of other ideas, with potentially disastrous results. It is credited to the psychologist Irving Janis, but William H. Whyte Jr. used the phrase groupthink in 1952, nineteen years before Janis’ first usage. I ask how this happened - why do most textbooks credit Janis if he did not create the term? To answer this, the study takes a critical view of management’s dissemination of knowledge. A critical study acknowledges that all knowledge is subjective, and no interpretation can precisely represent the past. The primary method was the collection historical data primarily composed of textbooks, academic studies, and journal articles. This data represents the primary work of Whyte and Janis regarding groupthink, and their representation elsewhere. This allows for the construction of a ‘counter-history’ to the accepted version of history where Janis is groupthink’s creator. My findings demonstrate a clear shift within management history, discovering early evidence of Whyte’s groupthink being embraced by prominent writers, followed by a gradual marginalisation of Whyte’s contribution. This was due in part to Janis’ sudden popularity but it is evident that management studies deliberately moved away from questions of conformity asked by Whyte and peers in the 1950s. I also found that Whyte himself moved away from the groupthink terminology, rebadging the same concept as ‘the organization man’. These findings contribute a new case study to the field of management literature calling for the importance of directly embracing history. It also makes a case for textbooks as a study’s primary form of data. Future research can further explore the extent of the continued relevance of William H. Whyte’s ideas in a modern context.</p>

scholarly journals William H. Whyte Jr.: How the creator of 'groupthink' was forgotten, and why it matters

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Oliver Pol
Keyword(s):  
Historical Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
The Past ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
Clear Shift ◽  
Primary Form

<p>This thesis examines the presentation of management theories in textbooks, focusing on groupthink as an indicative case. The groupthink theory warns that positive consensus leads to the exclusion of other ideas, with potentially disastrous results. It is credited to the psychologist Irving Janis, but William H. Whyte Jr. used the phrase groupthink in 1952, nineteen years before Janis’ first usage. I ask how this happened - why do most textbooks credit Janis if he did not create the term? To answer this, the study takes a critical view of management’s dissemination of knowledge. A critical study acknowledges that all knowledge is subjective, and no interpretation can precisely represent the past. The primary method was the collection historical data primarily composed of textbooks, academic studies, and journal articles. This data represents the primary work of Whyte and Janis regarding groupthink, and their representation elsewhere. This allows for the construction of a ‘counter-history’ to the accepted version of history where Janis is groupthink’s creator. My findings demonstrate a clear shift within management history, discovering early evidence of Whyte’s groupthink being embraced by prominent writers, followed by a gradual marginalisation of Whyte’s contribution. This was due in part to Janis’ sudden popularity but it is evident that management studies deliberately moved away from questions of conformity asked by Whyte and peers in the 1950s. I also found that Whyte himself moved away from the groupthink terminology, rebadging the same concept as ‘the organization man’. These findings contribute a new case study to the field of management literature calling for the importance of directly embracing history. It also makes a case for textbooks as a study’s primary form of data. Future research can further explore the extent of the continued relevance of William H. Whyte’s ideas in a modern context.</p>

scholarly journals Men and muscularity research: a review

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharron J. Lennon ◽  
Kim K. P. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Major Area ◽  
Masculine Norms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Undergraduate Men

AbstractOver the past 25 years, understanding males’ interest in and outcomes of muscularity has developed into a major area of study. Research has been fueled by the development of measures of both the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of a desire to increase muscularity. Our research purpose was to critically assess muscularity research. Using a database search, the ancestry approach, and searching key journals, we identified empirical refereed journal articles with men as participants published from 2000 to 2019 to serve as our data. Our analyses revealed several individual characteristics (e.g., perfectionism, holding to traditional masculine norms) and socio-cultural influences (e.g., media, verbal commentary) that fueled men’s desire to be muscular. In experimental research, exposure to muscular male ideal images has resulted in low body image scores for young men in investigations that utilized pre-test, post-test designs. In survey research, muscularity was positively related to several risky behaviors or behaviors that could become risky if taken to the extreme. Overall, the reviewed research was conducted in western countries and researchers primarily utilized non-probability samples of undergraduate men. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Experimenting on the past: a case study on changing analysability in English ly-adverbs

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENDRIK DE SMET ◽  
FREEK VAN DE VELDE
Keyword(s):  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Frequency Change ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Past ◽  
Analogous Composition ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Experimental Findings

While it is undoubtedly true that historical data do not lend themselves well to the reproduction of experimental findings, the availability of increasingly extensive data sets has brought some experimenting within practical reach. This means that certain predictions based on a combination of synchronic observations and uniformitarian thinking are now testable. Synchronic evidence shows a negative correlation between analysability in morphologically complex words and various measures of frequency. It is therefore expected that when the frequency of morphologically complex items changes, their analysability will change along with this. If analysability decreases, this should in turn be reflected in decreasing sensitivity to priming by items with analogous composition. The latter prediction is in principle testable on diachronic data, offering a way of verifying the diachronic effect of frequency change on analysability. In this spirit, the present article examines the relation between changing frequency and priming sensitivity, as a proxy to analysability. This is done for a sample of 250 English ly-adverbs, such as roughly, blindly, publicly, etc. over the period 1950–2005, using data from the Hansard Corpus. Some of the expected relations between frequency and analysability can be shown to hold, albeit with great variation across lexical items. At the same time, much of the variation in our measure of analysability cannot be accounted for by frequency or frequency change alone.

scholarly journals The past, present and future of open innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Bigliardi ◽  
Giovanna Ferraro ◽  
Serena Filippelli ◽  
Francesco Galati
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Open Innovation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThrough a comprehensive review of the literature on open innovation (OI), this study aimed to achieve two objectives: (1) to identify the main thematic areas discussed in the past and track their evolution over time; and (2) to provide recommendations for future research avenues.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the first objective, a method based on text mining was implemented, with the analysis focusing on 1,772 journal articles published between 2003 and 2018. For the second objective, a review based on recent and relevant papers was conducted for each thematic area.FindingsThe paper identified nine thematic areas explored in existing research: (1) context-dependency of OI, (2) collaborative frameworks, (3) organizational dimensions of OI, (4) performance and OI, (5) external search for OI, (6) OI in small and medium-sized enterprises, (7) OI in the pharmaceutical industry, (8) OI and intellectual property rights, and (9) technology. The analysis of the most recent papers belonging to the more investigated areas offers suitable suggestions for future research avenues.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, no review has yet been undertaken to reorganize the OI literature.

Electronic Payment Systems Evaluation

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Peterson ◽  
Caroline Howard
Keyword(s):  
Historical Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Electronic Payment ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Payment Systems ◽  
Organizational Survival ◽  
Global Marketplace ◽  
Internet Service ◽  
Alternative Measures

As e-commerce is increasingly critical to organizational survival in the 21st century global marketplace, business organizations are challenged with selecting the best payment alternatives to meet both their requirements and the needs of their customers. This paper develops and validates a performance-based tool, the Electronic Payment Efficacy Quotient (EPEQ), designed to assist merchants in selecting the appropriate EPS and measuring effectiveness. The research aims at addressing the need for EPS research to aid merchant selection and use of EPS. The paper presents the case study of a single source Internet Service Provider (ISP), which was analyzed to determine merchant’s needs regarding EPS and develop measures. Historical data was then used to determine and test the validity of the most effective alternative measures. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to assist in optimizing merchant use of EPS.

scholarly journals EO Model for Tacit Knowledge Externalization in Socio-Technical Enterprises

10.28945/3680 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 099-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreyas Suresh Rao ◽  
Ashalatha Nayak
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Web Application ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Activity ◽  
Certainty Factor ◽  
Ontology Model ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Enterprise Ontology

Aim/Purpose: A vital business activity within socio-technical enterprises is tacit knowledge externalization, which elicits and explicates tacit knowledge of enterprise employees as external knowledge. The aim of this paper is to integrate diverse aspects of externalization through the Enterprise Ontology model. Background: Across two decades, researchers have explored various aspects of tacit knowledge externalization. However, from the existing works, it is revealed that there is no uniform representation of the externalization process, which has resulted in divergent and contradictory interpretations across the literature. Methodology : The Enterprise Ontology model is constructed step-wise through the conceptual and measurement views. While the conceptual view encompasses three patterns that model the externalization process, the measurement view employs certainty-factor model to empirically measure the outcome of the externalization process. Contribution: The paper contributes towards knowledge management literature in two ways. The first contribution is the Enterprise Ontology model that integrates diverse aspects of externalization. The second contribution is a Web application that validates the model through a case study in banking. Findings: The findings show that the Enterprise Ontology model and the patterns are pragmatic in externalizing the tacit knowledge of experts in a problem-solving scenario within a banking enterprise. Recommendations for Practitioners : Consider the diverse aspects (what, where, when, why, and how) during the tacit knowledge externalization process. Future Research: To extend the Enterprise Ontology model to include externalization from partially automated enterprise systems.

Is it a New Tulip Mania Age?

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-67
Author(s):  
Serkan Akar ◽  
Ezgi Akar
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
The Past ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
Legal And Ethical Issues ◽  
Development And Evolution

Although cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology can be considered new advances, they have started to be recognized widely, and this has been discussed and investigated in lots of research studies. In parallel, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the development and evolution of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology over the past years in the academic world. To this end, 334 scholarly journal articles are examined to: (1) conduct a comprehensive literature review in the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain; (2) identify the possible trends and changes in this field over the ten years; (3) compare the publishing productivity of journals; and (4) guide future research in this field. The results highlight that the researchers mainly concentrate on legal and ethical issues of them; their benefits, challenges, and risks; their conceptualization, evolution, and future; the economic dimension of them; and financial and accounting related issues of them.

scholarly journals Memories of Faraway Visitors to Southeast Asia: the ‘Portuguese fort’ in Amurang

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (50) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Johanna Schouten
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
The Past ◽  
Positive Image ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Town

ABSTRACT: This article examines today’s perception among Indonesians of the Portuguese presence in Eastern Indonesia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite evidence of the often violent pursuit of supremacy and material benefit by European navigators, the local population has different understandings of the past. An assessment of these from an anthropological perspective is guided by twin concepts such as emics and etics, and memory and history. Our case study combines documentary research and fieldwork, focusing on a colonial fort in the town of Amurang, on the island of Sulawesi. The present-day accounts of the local population and of some official organizations attribute a Portuguese origin to this fort, and narratives about the Portuguese abound in folk memory, often contradicting the findings of scientific research. Most significant is the positive image of the Portuguese prevalent among the population. The article includes historical data on the Portuguese and Spanish presence in Indonesia and ethnographic data of Amurang, as well as architectural and archaeological details of the fort.Keywords: Forts Folk memories Postcolonialism Portuguese Indonesia Memórias de visitantes longínquos ao Sudeste Asiático: a ‘fortaleza portuguesa’ em AmurangRESUMO: Este artigo examina a perceção existente na atualidade entre os indonésios relativamente à presença portuguesa no arquipélago entre os séculos XVI e XVII. Apesar de as evidências demonstrarem que a busca por supremacia e benefícios materiais por parte de navegadores europeus foi realizada com recurso à violência, a população local apresenta versões diferentes deste passado. Numa análise destas versões, seguindo uma abordagem antropológica, é útil a aplicação de binómios como emics e etics, e memória e história. Para o presente estudo foi efetuada investigação de terreno e documental sobre um forte colonial da cidade de Amurang, na ilha de Sulawesi. Nas numerosas narrativas populares e no discurso oficial sobre os portugueses, estes foram os construtores deste forte, contradizendo conclusões de investigação científica. Sobressai a prevalência junto da população de uma imagem positiva dos portugueses. O artigo inclui informação histórica relativa à presença portuguesa e espanhola na Indonésia, dados etnográficos de Amurang, assim como detalhes arquitetónicos e arqueológicos do forte.Palavras-chave: Fortalezas; Memórias populares; Pós-colonialismo; Portugueses; Indonésia

scholarly journals Approaches to Spatial Analysis in a Local Cinema History Research

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Terézia Porubčanská
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Temporal Context ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geographical Space

In a growing interest in spatial visualisation of historical data emphasized within the field of the new cinema history, identifying the methodologies, their benefits as well as obstacles, is crucial for the development of optimal approaches to the research of the past of the local film culture. The main goal of this paper is to introduce several possibilities of treatment of historical data in a geospatial context. On the case study on the local cinema history and culture in Brno, the Czech Republic, during the 1930s, this paper proposes methodologies of visualisation and analysis of historical data transferred to the spatial context, identifies the challenges of visualisation of ambiguous qualitative data and introduces the treatment of temporal dimension of data within geographical space. This paper aspires to become a contribution to growing field of spatial approaches to cinema history. It proposes several methodologies of how to visualize, analyse and understand historical data in spatial-temporal context.

scholarly journals The Political Economy of Ivory as a “Conflict Resource”

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha White
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Policy Discourse ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Political ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media

The past year has seen attention directed, both in policy discourse and the media, towards the implication of Central African non-state armed groups in poaching and ivory trafficking. Engaging with both mainstream political economy analyses and work on the “geographies of resource wars,” this paper turns to the case of ivory as a “conflict resource,” through the case study of the Lord’s Resistance Army. It begins by outlining the contextual specificities and conditions of access, before assessing the compatibility of the resource’s biophysical, spatial and material characteristics with the needs of regional armed groups and the LRA in particular. Though the direction of causality is difficult to untangle, the paper finds that poaching and the trade in ivory by armed groups in Central Africa appears to incur low opportunity costs for relatively high potential gains. Moreover, that ivory qualifies as a “conflict resource” under Le Billon’s (2008) definition in the extent to which it is likely to be implicated in the duration of conflict in the region, both financing and benefitting from a context of insecurity. Future research would benefit from more accessible and robust data; interesting avenues would include an evaluation of the effects of the increasing militarization of poaching strategies - including shoot-to-kill policies - and the potential of igniting grievance-based conflict.

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