rule makers, rule breakers: how tight and loose cultures … · 2019. 5. 21. · •jaguars versus...
Post on 25-Sep-2020
0 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
RULE MAKERS, RULE BREAKERS:How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World
Michele J. Gelfand
Hey Boys,
How’s The Water?
s the water? What the hell is
water?
CULTURE
Omnipresent… but invisible
Distinctly human … no other species has it
Affects everything from politics … to parenting
Pavalena/Shutterstock.com
Pavalena/Shutterstock.com
Saul Steinberg, View of the World from 9th Avenue
Cover of The New Yorker, March 29, 1976
© The Saul Steinberg Foundation /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Cover reprinted with permission of The New Yorker magazine. All rights reserved.
It’s just like going
from New York
to Pennsylvania!
Used by permission.
Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash
ADD CREDIT HERE – Otago times will send once they receive payment
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62140256@N04/8236987723
By Jerryhattric (Flickr: wizard's wishes) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By Bachrach44 [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons By Serenity [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons
Derived from NHANES data
Unique baby names in the U.S.
Data source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_15_16/obesity_adult_15_16.htm
Prevalence of Obesity Among U.S.
Adults Aged 20-74
Data source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_15_16/obesity_adult_15_16.htm
What Ties These Examples Together?
• Human ability to develop, maintain and enforce rules
• The glue that binds us together
Social Norms
TIGHT O
Strong Norms& Punishments
Weak Norms &Permissive
33 Nations
7000 Individuals
6 Continents
22 Languages
International Investigation
TIGHT O
Lower Crime
Uniformity
Self-Control
ORDER
Different People
Creativity
Change
O P E N N E S S
0
5
10
15
0 1 2 3 4
Pop Density
0
5
10
15
0 100 200 300
Food Deprivation
0
5
10
15
0 5 10 15
Territorial Threat
0
5
10
15
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Pathogen Prevalence
0
5
10
15
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Disasters
A Fractal Pattern of Human Difference
Source: NOAA Climate.gov (https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2016-historic-year-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters-us)
Personality Openness
State Tightness State Looseness
Personality Conscientiousness
Order•More Law Enforcement•Less Homelessness•Less Divorce
Self Control•Lower Drug Use•Less Debt
Creativity•More Patents•More Fine Artists
Equality•Fewer EEOC claims•Minority-owned Businesses
FOLLOW THE RULES
The Culture of Class
Middle Class
• Working Class versus Upper Class• Meaning of Rules
• Jaguars versus Plumber Vans
• Greater threat:
• Falling into poverty
• Dangerous occupations
• Threatening neighborhoods
• Tight loose trade-off
• Age 3: Max the puppet
Photo included with permission from the child’s parents
Within Our Organizations
Organizational Culture• Rules and predictability; Formal• Strong socialization (training) and monitoring• Prevention-focus (avoids mistakes) and impulse control
Industries• Manufacturing, Hospitals, Airlines
Context • Greater threat • High volume of oversight & regulations
Tight Organizations
Loose Organizations
Organizational Culture• Flexibility and experimentation; informal• Less monitoring• Promotion-focus (taking risks) and openness
Industries• Start-ups, Design, Tech
Context• Safety risks are minimal • Mobility and change
Leaders, Tight and Loose
• Over 15,000 managers across 700 organizations in 62 societies
• Leadership behaviors that contribute to being an “outstanding leader”
Tightness autonomous Looseness Charismatic, team-oriented
Challenges to Tight-Loose Mergers
• Method
– 4,638 CBAs across 32 Countries, 1989-2013 (SDC Platinum database)
– CBA performance = ROA Change Acquirer’s ROAt-1 –ROAt+3
Gelfand , Gordon, Li, Choi, & Prokopowicz (2018) Harvard Business Review
Results• CTL differences reduce CBA performance
• 1 Std. dev. change in CTL diff. => .6 percentage loss, US$ 204 million change in net income
• Relation strengthened by directionality (tight acquirer), …
Variable Model
Cultural tightness-looseness (CTL) differences (H1) -0.633*
(0.264)
Controls, year, and industry dummies are included
Observations 4,638
R-squared 5.40 %
Lessons Learned• Prepare to Negotiate Culture
– Cultural assessment
– Which domains need to be tight?
– Which can be loose?
• TL Ambidexterity
Reaching Ambidexterity
Which is Better?
An Age-Old Debate • Freedom or Constraint?
– Plato, Confucius, Hobbes
– John Stuart Mill, Freud
• Neither?
– Too tight or too loose is maladaptive
• The Goldilock’s principle of TL
Depression
Blood Pressure
Suicide
Happiness
TL Balance
• Identify contexts where we need to tightenloose norms – Tesla, Uber– The wild west of the internet
• Identify contexts where we need to loosen tight norms– United; some manufacturing firms
Our Own TL Mindsets
• Are you an order Muppet or a chaos Muppet? (Dalia Lithwick, 2012)
• Cultivate empathy for others’ mindsets
• Identify and negotiate tight-loose conflict in our daily lives
top related