The promise and perversity of perspective-taking in organizations

When people start getting real: The Group Living Skills Survey for extreme work environments

Introduction

Group living skills (GLS), that is, being tidy and considerate of others, are an important skillset for teams who live and work together. However, this construct does not have a validated measure to enable an understanding of how group living skills influence team dynamics over time. We developed and validated a short measure of group living skills for teams living in extreme work environments.

Methods

We collected data from 83 individuals in 24 teams living and working in space and spaceflight analog environments on missions of 45-240 days.

Results

We provide evidence of reliability and validity for the GLS Survey over time and identify a two-factor structure. We also demonstrate its use as a measure of team-level dynamics and its utility as a sociometric measure to identify a person's degree of group living skills.

Discussion

We outline recommendations for using this new measure in future research and applied settings to understand this unique aspect of teams living and working together.

Organized crime requires dynamic decision making

It is extremely hard to successfully fight organized crime, not only because there are ambiguous and complex interactions between factors and actors, but also because organized crime is volatile and adaptive to changing conditions. This paper argues that, in addition to acquiring knowledge on criminal processes and behavior, we also need a better understanding of organizational decision-making processes to select the most effective and sustainable interventions aimed at organized crime. To date, one-shot decisions from a single organizational perspective are predominant in fighting organized crime. This type of decision often ignores the system response to the intervention. There is a need to acknowledge the dynamic nature of criminal behavior and networks, and to take that into account in the design of an intervention strategy. Such an approach entails a sequence of interdependent steps, iteratively applied, to reach sustainable effects. However, this way of decision making does not come naturally for most people. This paper concludes that investments should be made in training and decision support for teams fighting organized crime.

Self- and Other-Orientation in High Rank: A Cultural Psychological Approach to Social Hierarchy

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

Social hierarchy is one fundamental aspect of human life, structuring interactions in families, teams, and entire societies. In this review, we put forward a new theory about how social hierarchy is shaped by the wider societal contexts (i.e., cultures). Comparing East Asian and Western cultural contexts, we show how culture comprises societal beliefs about who can raise to high rank (e.g., become a leader), shapes interactions between high- and low-ranking individuals (e.g., in a team), and influences human thought and behavior in social hierarchies. Overall, we find cultural similarities, in that high-ranking individuals are agentic and self-oriented in both cultural contexts. But we also find important cross-cultural differences. In East Asian cultural contexts, high-ranking individuals are also other oriented; they are also concerned about the people around them and their relationships. We close with a call to action, suggesting studying social hierarchies in more diverse cultural contexts.

The identification environment matters: Students' social identification, perceived physical school environment, and anxiety - A cross-level interaction model

The social identity approach to health argues that well-being depends on the psychosocial circumstances of the groups to which individuals belong. However, little is known about how the average level of identification in the group - 'the identification environment' - buffers the negative health consequences of stressors. We used multilevel modelling to investigate whether identification environment in a school modified the association between the students' perceptions of the quality of their school's physical environment and their reported levels of anxiety. In two representative samples of Finnish school students (N = 678 schools/71,392 students; N = 704 schools/85,989 students), weak identification environment was related to increased anxiety. In addition, in schools where identification environment was weaker, the student level relationship between perceived physical environment and anxiety was stronger, and students were more anxious. Our results provide evidence that identification environment needs to be considered when we analyse how group membership affects well-being.

Perspective-taking with affected others to promote climate change mitigation

Prior evidence suggests that perspective-taking may promote pro-environmental behavior, at least for low-cost behaviors or local environmental problems. Climate change, however, requires costly mitigation efforts and is a global problem. Thus, in this study, we examine whether perspective-taking in the context of climate change is effective in promoting mitigation behaviors, including actual and/or costly behaviors, the mechanisms through which perspective-taking works, and if the distance to the person adversely affected by climate change matters for the effect. We conducted an online experiment with a non-student sample from Germany (n = 557), utilizing a 2 × 2 factorial design, to investigate the impact of perspective-taking and distance on three outcome measures: a climate donation, signing a petition, and approval of mitigation policies. We find that perspective-taking does not promote these mitigation behaviors, yet it raises the degree perspective-takers value and - for close others - feel connected with the affected person. Exploratory analysis shows that dispositional perspective-taking and empathic concern are correlated with mitigation behaviors.

Norwegian citizens' responses to influxes of asylum seekers: comparing across two refugee crises

We compared Norwegians' attitudes to immigration, perspective taking, and intergroup behaviors directed at asylum seekers in 2016 (Syrians and Afghans) and 2022 (Ukrainians). We find evidence for a stronger exclusionary response to the asylum seekers in 2016 than in 2022. Attitudes to immigration were more negative in 2016 than in 2022, and skepticism and avoiding asylum seekers was more common. However, the dominant behavior in both years was prosocial (greeting and donating) and Norwegians' willingness to take asylum seekers perspective was similar in 2016 and 2022. These results may reflect an absence of a symbolic threat in 2022 and may be connected to differences in the political rhetoric about asylum seekers in 2015/2016 and 2022.

Rags and Riches: The Effects of Social Class Diversity on Team Viability

Social class inequality is growing at a record pace. What happens when individuals from different social classes work on the same team? We examined the direct and moderating influences of social class as an underexplored form of diversity on team viability in 132 student project teams. Guided by an overarching framework from the team diversity literature, we explored perspective taking and conflict resolution norms as moderators that may safeguard against the negative effects of social class diversity on team viability. As predicted, teams with a mix of higher and lower social class members who were less able to see their teammates’ points of view or develop open conflict resolution norms reported less desire to work together in the future. Given these promising results and the ongoing importance of social class inequality in organizations, future research should continue to examine social class in a team context.

The Power of Empathy: Experimental Evidence of the Impact of Perspective-Focused Interventions on Support for Prison Reform

As a result of COVID-19, individuals have experienced situations that may help them relate to others, including more limited ability to interact with their environment. Thus, this survey experiment (N = 2,229) tests whether perspective-focused interventions can help increase support for prison reform. Findings suggest that perspective-getting (providing the perspective of an incarcerated individual via a narrative description of dealing with confinement) increased self-reported support for prison reform initiatives, compared with information only. In addition, a perspective-taking prompt-nudging participants to put themselves in the shoes of the incarcerated individual when reading their narrative-may help boost intention to take action in support of prison reform. Future avenues for research and implications are discussed.

Using Relational Frame Theory to Examine Racial Prejudice: A Tool for Educators and an Appeal for Future Research

Canadian colleges and universities have begun to acknowledge systemic and institutionalized racism by developing equity statements and policies in support of diverse and accessible learning environments. To encourage these equitable statements and policies as actionable, analysis of racial bias and methods for reducing its occurrence are warranted. In this article, literature on relational frame theory in the context of racial prejudice is reviewed, including treatment approaches shown to be less effective and those that appear promising. The integration of a functional contextual approach into pedagogy is considered with an aim to better understand the origins of racial prejudice. Finally, recommendations on the examination of personal and sociocultural bias among educators and their students are provided.

Pains and gains of feedback source: the dual effects of subordinates' feedback-seeking events on leaders' work engagement

Despite the well documented research on workplace feedback-seeking behavior from the seeker's perspective, limited attention has been devoted to the feedback source-the individual providing the feedback. Drawing from the affective events theory (AET), we developed a theoretical model and examined the potential impacts on leaders (i.e., the feedback source) when asked for feedback by subordinates. We conducted a 5-day experience sampling study with 106 leaders. Research findings revealed that subordinates' feedback-seeking events (SFSE) was positively related to leaders' positive and negative affect; SFSE had a positive indirect effect on leaders' daily work engagement through increased positive affect, and a negative indirect effect through increased negative affect. In addition, the relationship between SFSE and affective reactions was moderated by emotion suppression, such that leaders with higher levels of emotion suppression experienced less positive affect elicited by SFSE. This study helps to enrich the workplace feedback-seeking literature by examining how and when responding to feedback seeking influences feedback sources' emotional and work experiences.

Standing in customers’ shoes: How responsible leadership inhibits unethical pro-organizational behavior

Although the negative impact of responsible leadership on employees’ unethical pro-organizational behavior has been documented in the literature, little is known about its underlying processes and boundaries. Drawing on social information processing theory and social learning theory, we built a moderated mediation model to explain why and when unethical pro-organizational behavior could be inhibited by responsible leadership. We conducted a two-phase questionnaire survey to collect data. The empirical results based on the sample of 557 Chinese salespeople showed that customer-oriented perspective taking partially mediated the negative link between responsible leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior and that leader competence strengthened the direct effects of responsible leadership on customer-oriented perspective taking and unethical pro-organizational behavior as well as the indirect effect of responsible leadership on unethical pro-organizational behavior via customer-oriented perspective taking. These findings enrich the current understanding of how responsible leadership relates to unethical pro-organizational behavior, extend the limited literature on customer-oriented perspective taking, and offer some suggestions that managers can follow to inhibit unethical pro-organizational behavior. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Visuospatial and Affective Perspective-Taking

Abstract. Perspective-taking is the ability to intuit another person’s mental state. Historically, cognitive and affective perspective-taking are distinguished from visuospatial perspective-taking because the content these processes operate on is too dissimilar. However, all three share functional similarities. Following recent research showing relations between cognitive and visuospatial perspective-taking, this article explores links between visuospatial and affective perspective-taking. Data of three preregistered experiments suggest that visuospatial perspective-taking does not improve emotion recognition speed and only slightly increases emotion recognition accuracy (Experiment 1), yet visuospatial perspective-taking increases the perceived intensity of emotional expressions (Experiment 2), as well as the emotional contagiousness of negative emotions (Experiment 3). The implications of these findings for content-based, cognitive, and functional taxonomies of perspective-taking and related processes are discussed.

Accent Speaks Louder than Ability: Elucidating the Effect of Nonnative Accent on Trust

Nonnative accent often leads to prejudicial judgments. In this paper, we examine the effect of a job candidate’s Mandarin Chinese accent on a hiring manager’s perceptions of trust and the three dimensions of trustworthiness. The results of an online experiment with 179 working adults suggest that speaking with a nonnative accent (vs. no accent) adversely affects hiring decision-makers’ perceptions of trust and the ability dimension of trustworthiness, but not the benevolence and integrity dimensions. We also examined the effects of perspective taking (vs. no perspective taking) on trust and trustworthiness to test its beneficial role in interpersonal evaluations. The findings suggest that perspective taking may significantly mitigate the effect of language-based stigma on people’s judgments, providing evidence-based insights for organizational leaders and HR professionals.

Distinguishing the Roles of the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex and Right Temporoparietal Junction in Altruism in Situations of Inequality: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which are involved in social cognition, have been proposed to play key roles in guiding human altruistic behavior. However, no study has provided empirical evidence that the rTPJ and dmPFC play distinct roles in altruism under situations of inequality. A total of 107 healthy young adults were randomly assigned to receive anodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to either the dmPFC or rTPJ, and they participated in a modified dictator game. The stimulation of the dmPFC increased the level of altruistic behavior, while the stimulation of the rTPJ did not. Furthermore, we determined that the increase in altruism induced by tDCS of the dmPFC could be modulated by perspective taking. These results demonstrate that the dmPFC and rTPJ play distinct roles in the enhancement of altruism in situations of inequality; this finding is consistent with theories proposing that the dmPFC has evolved mechanisms dedicated to perspective taking.

The Relationship Between Perceived Leader Busyness and Perspective Taking and Interaction Behavior of Followers

How leaders influence followers have been a hot topic in both research and practice. Yet, prior studies have primarily focused on the impact of one leadership style, while overlooking how a leadership role may influence behavioral expressions of leaders. Particularly, being a leader means having to face time demands and workload pressure, and thus, busyness becomes a common phenomenon for leaders. Focused on perceived leader busyness, we had examined how it may influence employee interactions with leaders and how those interactions influenced leader evaluations of the performance of followers. Based on sensemaking theory, we propose that when followers have a high level of perspective taking, they are more likely to take avoidance behavior when perceiving leaders as of high busyness. Further, when followers engage in interaction avoidance behavior, leaders may consider followers as hiding errors or intentionally concealing their work process, which reduces positive evaluations (i.e., task performance and conscientiousness evaluation) while enhancing negative evaluation (i.e., deviance behavior) toward followers. We conducted two studies. Study one was conducted with a 25 participants interview and data of 297 employees to show scale validity of perceived leader busyness. Study two was conducted with 377 employees and their direct supervisors. Applying the complex modeling method, we found that followers with low-level perspective taking are less likely to engage in interaction avoidance behavior, even when perceiving leaders as high busyness; interaction avoidance behavior of followers has a positive relationship with counterproductive behavior evaluation of leaders, but a negative relationship with conscientiousness behavior evaluation. This study enriches the dyadic interactions between leaders and followers. In addition, it also shows the burden of perspective taking.

Knowledge transfer to industry: how academic researchers learn to become boundary spanners during academic engagement

Research on academic engagement and technology transfer or commercialization offers important insights into the relationship between characteristics, activities and abilities of individual academic researchers, with outcomes such as successful technology transfer and commercialization. In particular, the activity of boundary spanning proves central in the successful transfer and commercialization of university developed technologies. However, the process by which academic researchers become boundary spanners remains relatively unexplored. This investigation serves to shed new light on the matter. We draw on an in-depth case study of a large European publicly funded initiative, directed to stimulate industry adoption of a university-developed technology across Europe. Our rich dataset is a result of following the project from start to finish, triangulating from multiple sources over a three-year period. Our analyses offer novel insight into the role of perspective taking as a mechanism both enabling academics to understand knowledge boundaries faced during engagement activities and a critical input to developing and improving boundary spanning abilities. Our findings offer important implications for research on academic engagement and technology commercialization.

Perceptions of cruise travel during the COVID-19 pandemic: Market recovery strategies for cruise businesses in North America

The study aims to identify consumer perceptions of the cruise industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to provide market recovery strategies for cruise businesses. The relationship between perceptions among cruise experience and COVID-19 financial status groups were explored. The results of analyses of data from 759 respondents indicated that travel constraints negatively influence behavioral intention through negativity bias. Further, perceived crisis management positively affects behavioral intention through attitude-trust. New consumers' behavioral intention is significantly affected by the negativity bias, and the perceived crisis management manipulates the trust of financial-affected consumers.

Perspective taking reduces intergroup bias in visual representations of faces

Intergroup biases shape most aspects of person construal, including lower-level visual representations of group members' faces. Specifically, ingroup members' faces tend to be represented more positively than outgroup members' faces. Here, we used a reverse-correlation paradigm to test whether engaging in perspective taking (i.e., actively imagining another person's mental states) can reduce these biased visual representations. In an initial image-generation experiment, participants were randomly assigned to a minimal group and then composed a narrative essay about an ingroup or an outgroup target person, either while adopting the person's perspective or while following control instructions. Afterward, they generated an image of the person's face in a reverse-correlation image-classification task. Subsequent image-assessment experiments using an explicit rating task, a sequential priming task, and an economic trust game with separate samples of participants revealed that ingroup faces elicited more likability and trustworthiness than did outgroup faces. Importantly, this pattern of intergroup bias was consistently weaker in faces created by perspective takers. Additional image-assessment experiments identified the mouth (i.e., smiling cues) as a critical facial region wherein the interactive effects of group membership and perspective taking emerged. These findings provide initial evidence that perspective taking may be an effective strategy for attenuating, though not for eliminating, intergroup biases in visual representations of what group members look like.

The Relationship Between Proactive Behavior and Work-Family Conflict: A Moderated Mediation Model

This study aimed to explore the linking mechanisms and conditional processes underlying the relationship between proactive behavior and work-family conflict. Considering the conservation of resources theory, we argue that workplace anxiety mediates the relationship between proactive behavior and work-family conflict. Furthermore, we suggest that immediate supervisor perspective taking and employee emotional intelligence moderate this proposed indirect effect. Two-wave, multisource lagged data were collected from 450 employees of seven domestic Chinese firms to examine the hypothesized moderated mediation model. Our findings support the hypothesis that proactive behavior is positively related to work-family conflict and that workplace anxiety partially mediates this relationship. Immediate supervisor perspective taking moderates the positive association of proactive behavior with workplace anxiety and the indirect relationship between proactive behavior and work-family conflict through workplace anxiety. Emotional intelligence moderates the positive association of proactive behavior with workplace anxiety and the indirect relationship between proactive behavior and work-family conflict through workplace anxiety. The results deepen our theoretical understanding of the consequences of proactivity by demonstrating the positive associations between proactive behavior and work-family conflict. The current study also contributes to the literature by identifying workplace anxiety as a mediating mechanism explaining the relationship between proactivity and work-family conflict. Furthermore, supervisor perspective taking and employee emotional intelligence moderate the above mediating effect.

Increasing Career Advancement Opportunities Through Sponsorship: An Identity-Based Model With Illustrative Application to Cross-Race Mentorship of African Americans

The sponsorship function of mentoring has vast potential to increase career advancement for African American protégés in cross-race mentoring relationships but is not well understood. We conceptualize the processes, practices, and challenges involved in cross-race sponsorship of African American protégés through an identity perspective. We provide a theory regarding how identity processes are involved at different stages of cross-race sponsorship involving African American protégés, as well as for their mentors, by drawing on identity, diversity, and mentoring research. This work is suggestive of opportunities for improvement in the sponsorship function of mentoring in order to increase career advancement for African American protégés and provides theoretical contributions to research on identity, diversity, and career advancement.

Psychosocial Interventions for the Enhancement of Psychological Resources among Dyslexic Adults: A Systematic Review

Dyslexic employees are likely to be more at risk of low levels of personal resources because of their cognitive makeup compared to their non-dyslexic counterparts. Low personal resources, in turn, may lead to low employability because of difficulties in positively facing transitions. This research aimed to systematically review evidence on interventions for improving psychological resources in dyslexic adults. We searched Scopus, ERIC EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index Web of Science, and Universe up to May 2020. We also examined the reference lists of published studies. We included studies that compared any intervention format against no intervention, any other intervention considered as a comparator by the authors, or that had no control group. Participants were dyslexic adults aged minimum 18 years old. We included four studies with 278 participants. Studies were run in the UK, Sweden, and Finland. Two studies involved a control group, and two studies were observational. Interventions varied between studies in intensity, duration, and format (individual and small groups). Risk of bias was unclear for most risk criteria. Findings from this review show that there is initial evidence suggesting initiatives can be effective in supporting a set of personal resources, i.e., self-confidence, organization, time, and stress-management, which are important in allowing dyslexic adults’ positive adjustment in the workplace. Yet, more studies are needed to improve outcome assessment and study design.

Perceptions of an evidence-based empathy mobile app in post-secondary education

Cognitive empathy (also known as perspective-taking) is an important, teachable, skill. As part of a knowledge translation project, we identified a) interest in an evidence-based cognitive empathy mobile app and b) which faculties believe that cognitive empathy is important for their profession. Students (n = 638) and instructors/professors (n = 38) completed a university-wide survey. Participants in Education, Social Work, and the Health Sciences were among those most interested in the app. The majority of participants said that they would prefer for the app to be free or less than $3 for students. Most participants preferred a one-time payment option. Across 17 faculties, all but one had 60% or more of its sampled members say that cognitive empathy is important for their profession. Results illuminate perceptions of cognitive empathy instruction and technology. Results also provide insight into issues to consider when developing and implementing an educational communication app.

Taking Familiar Others' Perspectives to Regulate Our Own Emotion: An Event-Related Potential Study

Current research on emotion regulation has mainly focused on Gross’s cognitive strategies for regulating negative emotion; however, little attention has been paid to whether social cognitive processes can be used to regulate both positive and negative emotions. We considered perspective-taking as an aspect of social cognition, and investigated whether it would affect one’s own emotional response. The present study used a block paradigm and event-related potential (ERP) technology to explore this question. A 3 (perspective: self vs. pessimistic familiar other vs. optimistic familiar other) × 3 (valence: positive vs. neutral vs. negative) within-group design was employed. Thirty-six college students participated and considered their own or target others’ feelings about pictures with different valences. Results showed that positive emotional responses were more neutral under a pessimistic familiar other perspective, and more positive under an optimistic familiar other perspective, and vice versa for negative emotional responses. In ERP results, compared with a self-perspective, taking familiar others’ perspectives elicited reductions in P3 (370–410 ms) and LPP (400–800 ms) difference waves. These findings suggested that taking a pessimistic or optimistic familiar other perspective affects emotion regulation by changing later processing of emotional information.

Perspective Taking and Self-Persuasion: Why "Putting Yourself in Their Shoes" Reduces Openness to Attitude Change

Counterattitudinal-argument generation is a powerful tool for opening people up to alternative views. On the basis of decades of research, it should be especially effective when people adopt the perspective of individuals who hold alternative views. In the current research, however, we found the opposite: In three preregistered experiments (total N = 2,734), we found that taking the perspective of someone who endorses a counterattitudinal view lowers receptiveness to that view and reduces attitude change following a counterattitudinal-argument-generation task. This ironic effect can be understood through value congruence: Individuals who take the opposition's perspective generate arguments that are incongruent with their own values, which diminishes receptiveness and attitude change. Thus, trying to "put yourself in their shoes" can ultimately undermine self-persuasion. Consistent with a value-congruence account, this backfire effect is attenuated when people take the perspective of someone who holds the counterattitudinal view yet has similar overall values.

Egocentrism in sub-clinical depression

Depression is marked by rigid thinking and the inability to generate different and more positive views on the self. The current study conceptualises this a perspective-taking deficit, which is defined as a deficit in the ability to overcome one's egocentrism. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with depression are impaired in Theory of Mind reasoning and empathy - two social cognitions that involve cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Here, it was investigated whether these deficits generalise to visuo-spatial perspective-taking. To test this, a convenience sample (N = 268; n = 62 high depressive symptoms; n = 206 healthy control participants) completed a test-battery including measures of cognitive and visuo-spatial perspective-taking and closely matched cognitive and visuo-spatial control tasks. The results showed that individuals exhibiting high levels of depressive symptoms were specifically impaired on both perspective-taking tasks but performed equally well on the control tasks. Interventions to combat rigid thinking in depression are discussed.

A Theoretical Approach to Female Team Leaders’ Boundary Work Choices

As organizations face progressively complex challenges, team leader boundary work that is relational and inclusive (i.e., work that relates to others across team boundaries and includes a wide variety of stakeholder perspectives and concerns) is more and more valued. These trends pose advantages and disadvantages for women team leaders. Although the desired leadership competencies align well with the communal qualities often attributed to and expected of women leaders, displaying boundary work behaviors that are relational and inclusive may paradoxically result in a questioning of women’s leadership competence by team members and parties external to the team. Moreover, concerns about gender stereotyping and discrimination may pressure women to adapt their boundary work behaviors to downplay or negate “femininity” as they lead. Reflective of these dilemmas, we propose that female team leaders experience conflicting internal motivations about the boundary work behaviors they display. Drawing from social role, impression management, and social identity perspectives, we examine the motives that drive women leaders to engage in or avoid boundary work that aligns with female gender roles, the contextual influences affecting the likelihood women leaders will act on these motives, and the implications of this boundary work for teams and female team leaders.

When Ignorance Is Bliss: Exploring Perspective Taking, Negative State Affect and Performance

Whereas the positive relationship between positive affect in teams and team performance is well established, the relationship between team negative affect and team performance seems to be subject to moderating effects. We focus on the effects of perspective taking as one of these moderators, and posit that perspective taking impedes team performance when team state affect is negative because team members become preoccupied with others’ negative emotions. Results from 49 teams involved in a computerized interactive decision-making task support our hypothesis: Negative state affect was negatively related to performance for teams high in perspective taking, but not for teams low in perspective taking. This leads to the conclusion that when teams experience high negative affect, they benefit from low perspective taking.

The Cultural Boundaries of Perspective-Taking: When and Why Perspective-Taking Reduces Stereotyping

Research conducted in Western cultures indicates that perspective-taking is an effective social strategy for reducing stereotyping. The current article explores whether and why the effects of perspective-taking on stereotyping differ across cultures. Studies 1 and 2 established that perspective-taking reduces stereotyping in Western but not in East Asian cultures. Using a socioecological framework, Studies 2 and 3 found that relational mobility, that is, the extent to which individuals' social environments provide them opportunities to choose new relationships and terminate old ones, explained our effect: Perspective-taking was negatively associated with stereotyping in relationally mobile (Western) but not in relationally stable (East Asian) environments. Finally, Study 4 examined the proximal psychological mechanism underlying the socioecological effect: Individuals in relationally mobile environments are more motivated to develop new relationships than those in relationally stable environments. Subsequently, when this motivation is high, perspective-taking increases self-target group overlap, which then decreases stereotyping.

Do black lives really matter in the workplace? Restorative justice as a means to reclaim humanity

Purpose

Overwhelming evidence suggests that black lives have not and do not matter in the American workplace. In fact, disturbing themes of black labor dehumanization, exploitation and racial discrimination appear throughout history into the present-day workplace. Yet, curiously, organizations and organizational scholars largely ignore how racism and slavery have informed management practice (Cooke, 2003) and contemporary workplace racism. The authors address this gap, using the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as a platform. BLM is a social justice movement created in response to the pervasive racism experienced by black people. The purpose of this paper is to accomplish five goals, which are summarized in the following sections.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors outline historical themes of black labor dehumanization, exploitation and racial discrimination, providing specific examples to illustrate these themes and discussing their contemporary workplace implications. Second, key challenges that may arise as organizations seek to make black lives matter in the workplace are discussed. Third, the authors provide examples of organizations where black lives have mattered as an inspiration for how workplaces can affirm the humanity and self-actualization of black people.

Findings

Fourth, the authors provide organizations with helpful tools to truly make black lives matter in the workplace, using restorative justice as a framework to remedy workplace racism. Finally, while the paper is largely focused on business organizations, as two management scholars, the authors felt compelled to briefly articulate how academic scholarship might be influenced if black lives truly mattered in management scholarship and management education.

Originality/value

This paper begins to articulate how black lives matter in the workplace. The goal is to intervene and upend the exploitation of black workers so that they are finally recognized for their worth and value and treated as such. The authors have provided historical context to illustrate that contemporary workplace racism is rooted in the historical exploitation of black people from enslavement to contemporary instances of labor exploitation. The authors offer a restorative justice framework as a mechanism to redress workplace racism, being careful to outline key challenges with implementing the framework. The authors concluded with steps that organizations may consider as they work to repair the harm of workplace racism and rebuild trust amongst employees. Specifically, the authors discuss the benefits of organizational interventions that provide intergroup contact with an emphasis on perspective taking, and present a case example and suggested key indicators that black lives matter in today’s workplace.

It’s All About the Self

Although abundant research has documented positive interpersonal outcomes of perspective taking, a growing body of evidence indicates that perspective taking can also induce negative interpersonal outcomes—in other words, it backfires. We aim at integrating these seemingly contradictory findings, suggesting that perspective taking backfires when it causes the perspective-taking individual to feel threatened. Threat can emerge from the very act of perspective taking if the target of perspective taking is perceived as too different from the self or if adopting another’s perspective creates the potential for negative self-evaluation. Furthermore, threat may emerge if perspective taking successfully creates perceptions of self-other overlap, but the overlapping characteristics accentuate potentially threatening characteristics of the target. Our theoretical model affords predictions for other conditions in which perspective taking is linked to self-threat and may backfire.

Understanding How Leader Humility Enhances Employee Creativity

Although the construct of leader humility has received increased attention in organizational scholarship, there are large gaps in the empirical studies of leader humility and employee creativity. In this study, we find that leader humility substantially contributes to organizational effectiveness in both normal and crisis situations. Building on social information processing theory and the process model of emotion regulation, we test a model linking leader humility to employee creativity based on 451 member–leader dyads of 129 emergency medical task forces involved in the Wenchuan earthquake. We find that leader humility is positively related to employees’ perspective taking and creativity. We also find that employees’ cognitive reappraisal moderates the relationship between leader humility and employees’ perspective taking, and employees’ perspective taking mediates the interactive effect of leader humility and employees’ cognitive reappraisal on creativity. We also discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

An Intention-Based Account of Perspective-Taking: Why Perspective-Taking Can Both Decrease and Increase Moral Condemnation

Perspective-taking often increases generosity in behavior and attributions. We present an intentions-based account to explain how perspective-taking can both decrease and increase moral condemnation. Consistent with past research, we predicted perspective-taking would reduce condemnation when the perspective-taker initially attributed benevolent intent to a transgressor. However, we predicted perspective-taking would increase condemnation when malevolent intentions were initially attributed to the wrongdoer. We propose that perspective-taking amplifies the intentions initially attributed to a transgressor. Three studies measured and manipulated intention attributions and found that perspective-taking increased condemnation when malevolent intentions were initially attributed to a transgressor. Perspective-taking also increased costly punishment of a transgressor, an effect mediated by malevolent intentions. In contrast, empathy did not increase punitive responses, supporting its conceptual distinction from perspective-taking. Whether perspective-taking leads to forgiveness or condemnation depends on the intentions the perspective-taker initially attributes to a transgressor.

Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing

Existing research depicts intergroup prejudices as deeply ingrained, requiring intense intervention to lastingly reduce. Here, we show that a single approximately 10-minute conversation encouraging actively taking the perspective of others can markedly reduce prejudice for at least 3 months. We illustrate this potential with a door-to-door canvassing intervention in South Florida targeting antitransgender prejudice. Despite declines in homophobia, transphobia remains pervasive. For the intervention, 56 canvassers went door to door encouraging active perspective-taking with 501 voters at voters' doorsteps. A randomized trial found that these conversations substantially reduced transphobia, with decreases greater than Americans' average decrease in homophobia from 1998 to 2012. These effects persisted for 3 months, and both transgender and nontransgender canvassers were effective. The intervention also increased support for a nondiscrimination law, even after exposing voters to counterarguments.

Stumbling Toward a Social Psychology of Organizations: An Autobiographical Look at the Direction of Organizational Research

I recount some of my early experiences in the field and how they shaped my views about conducting research. As I describe it, my entry into organizational behavior was not at all seamless, requiring a series of adjustments along the way. Like many of my colleagues who had moved into the field of organizational behavior, I had to find a source of valued added—a new perspective or set of alternative ideas to contribute to the field. This process of adjustment, I fear, is no longer so prevalent in the field today. Although many social psychologists have migrated to business schools, they are still by and large doing social psychological rather than organizational research. They often extend social psychological theories to the business context, but they rarely seek to reframe and reformulate core organizational issues and problems. For this to change, I argue that future research needs to become more contextual and phenomenon-driven. My hope is that, with the recent upsurge in talent entering the field, we can find a way to harvest more of its creativity, moving from the application of social psychology to a genuine social psychology of organizations.