Examining Your Theorist
The
purpose of this blog is to examine John Broadus Watson’s theory of behaviorism
and human conditioning in comparison to the role of organizational
culture. In addition, I will expose five
proposals that state missed opportunities in the theories of psychological
development. I will also make an
assumption in how the theorist may address my concerns.
John
Broadus Watson
The
manipulation of behavior was the importance of psychologist John Broadus Watson
(Watson, 1913). He believed in
discouraging behavior that is not considered pleasant in social
communities. Furthermore, Dr. Watson
considered the stimuli and receptors to human engagement. In communities where behavior is masked, Dr.
Watson made analogies that human kind acted on self-interest and false
pretenses. Human acceptance lies in the
consciousness. He found examining human
behavior, and the drive for the decisions is difficult to change since it
exists deep in the human conscious.
Through direct observation and compiling empirical data, predictions can
be made. He understood that behavior
considered unethical by the majority would require measurement, analysis, and
evaluation. Mr. Watson made connections
to visual receptors, and that people are driven to acceptance of similar
individuals and push alien variations.
He was fascinated by the mental
response to choices that were not relevant to the necessities that we have in
providing the basics to survival. He
also thought predictions are possible since behavior is consistent.
Worldviews
Social
problems surrounding organizations and my interest to organizational
performance fuel my desire to examine personal worldviews. My personal worldviews are social advocacy
and participatory because of social problems, which reflect perceptions that exist
in marginalized groups. Social advocacy
and participatory worldviews to examine the marginalized sectors of social
dynamics intimidating equal footing that is central to business cohesion and
the issue of social clusters participates in the theory (Creswell, 2009). The difficulty
with complex social structures is that the structures experience rejection by
communities due beliefs of androcentric, ethnocentric, and heterocentric by
communities (Nunez-Smith et al., 2009). The people need empowerment from political
sectors to overcome diversity in organizations and provide the marginalized
groups with momentum to survive the challenges with oppression (Creswell, 2009). The change in
worldviews led me to choose different approaches of inquiry to focus on a mixed
method strategy. The mixed method
approach allows depth and assures integration by offering a sound research
strategy.
The
Economic Trouble With Social Structures
I
found a few examples in how social structures can strain organizational
effectiveness. From 1972 to 2004, the
U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted interviews of
approximately 50,000 households. The
study provided that Blacks unemployment rate equal to 12.4% compared to 5.4% to
Whites (Couch & Fairlie, 2010). In a separate study of pooled times-series
data from 1979 to 2006, average earnings for Whites equate to approximately
$5,000 more than Blacks, and Whites make $2,000 more than Latinos (Hodges & Budig, 2010). An online sample of 178 citizens of the
United States in 2011 showed the results of an omnibus test shows with a 97%
accuracy that people envision and preferred a white Caucasian worker over other
ethnic group worker (Brown-Iannuzzi, Payne, & Trawalter, 2012). From several types of discrimination and
considering only racial discrimination, a dichotomous study of 830 employees,
62 claimed discriminant experiences (Hirsh & Lyons, 2010). Although the count of people searching for
lawsuits is few, the event represents ethical and practical considerations to
organizations because test show a large number of counts claiming
discrimination bias (Brown, 2011; Brown-Iannuzzi et al., 2012; Byron,
2010; Cooper, 2012; Couch & Fairlie, 2010; Crowell & Guy, 2010; Dillon,
McCaughtry, & Hummel, 2010; Goenner, 2010; Hodges & Budig, 2010;
Jacobi, 2009; Mertens, 2010; Mong & Roscigno, 2010; Mujtaba & Sims,
2011; Puhl & Heuer, 2011; Roberts & Chitewere, 2011; Stevens, Hussein,
& Manthorpe, 2011; Walsh & O'Shea, 2010). The unfairness to wage differentiation not
based on the ability of stakeholders given the path to understand the business
problem.
I
wanted to stay objective in my research and select the subject of the business
problem based on the majority subtopics of my literature review. Apparently, 64% of my literature review is
based on race discrimination, and the rest is based on other forms of
discrimination (Berry & Bell, 2012; Brown, 2011; Brown-Iannuzzi
et al., 2012; Byron, 2010; Coggburn et al., 2010; Cooper, 2012; Corbin &
Duvall, 2013; Coston & Kimmel, 2013; Couch & Fairlie, 2010; Crowell
& Guy, 2010; Dillon et al., 2010; Edo, Jacquemet, & Yannelis, 2013; Gau
& Gaines, 2012; Goenner, 2010; Heller, Arnold, van Heumen, McBride, &
Factor, 2012; Hirsh & Lyons, 2010; Hodges & Budig, 2010; Hudson,
Puterman, Bibbins-Domingo, Matthews, & Adler, 2013; Jacobi, 2009;
Khosrovani & Ward, 2011; Langford, 2011; Levashina & Campion, 2009;
Malos, 2012; Mertens, 2010; Mong & Roscigno, 2010; Morgan Parmett, 2012;
Mujtaba & Sims, 2011; Nunez-Smith et al., 2009; Paillé, 2013; Puhl &
Heuer, 2011; Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008; Roberts & Chitewere, 2011;
Ross, Rouse, & Bratton, 2010; Smith, 2010; Stevens et al., 2011; Tacneaux,
2012; Turnipseed & Calicdan-Apostle, 2013; Walsh & O'Shea, 2010;
Wright, Domagalski, & Collins, 2011). Figures 1 and 2 below depict the literature
review.
Based
on the literature review, the problems with the workplace are the inadequate
controls in employment practices and diversity in the workplace. Even with an adequate education, various
social groups experience discrimination in the workplace. Communities have preset ideas about
differences that spill over into the workplace maintaining a high level of
turnover, wage differences, and unemployment.
The
Need to Self-Actualize
Stakeholders
are not trained to depress differences in characteristics that prompt
discriminating behavior. Self-actualizing
is the desire and passion for a person to seek self-fulfillment (Maslow, 2000). When people are able to fulfill the basics of
life, people are able to commit to responsibility, and give society discipline
in values. Organizations with a demand
in competition, appraisals, and incentives do not allow individuals to focus efforts
in learning, growth, and innovation. The
essential needs for individuals include physiological, safety, love, esteem,
and self-actualization. The level of
potency of these elements dictates the severity the individuals will seek to
the preservation and maintenance of needs.
Communities with social tendencies introduce a limiting effect to the
pursuit in higher levels of needs. Figure
3 below depicts Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
The
Need to Correct Organizational Issues
Maslow’s
observations to human curiosity are not present in organizations. If a majority of the stakeholders would be
self-actualized, in theory, discrimination should not be present in
organizations. Effective managers use an
intuitive design to troubleshoot organizational issues (Morgan, 2006). As managers gain experience, the reaction to
issues can occur at a subconscious level.
An effective manager has an outward image of content towards the
organization and career path. In
addition, effective managers consider many variables to correct a situation not
just fixed points. All points in an
organization lead to a fixed path that effective managers can foresee and make
decisions based on the outcome.
Implicit
Association Test
If
discrimination represents an attitude, I propose to observe the attitude of
discrimination using the Implicit Associate Test (IAT) (Meissner & Rothermund, 2013). The IAT will allow to measure the direct
impact discrimination makes on organizational cost and other factors such as
community impact can be measured.
Furthermore, the IAT will allow to see the opportunity cost to
organizational attitudes that serve no positive purpose and invite the need to
condition the human mind. My proposal is
to measure the direct impact discrimination takes onto organizations.
My
Five Proposals
John
Watson, a psychologist and the founder of behaviorism and understanding of
human conditioning believed that all behavior channels through the mind through
a learning process (Weiner, 2013). In addition, he considered that humans do not
have instinct behavior, but learned behavior (Weiner, 2013). Considering John Watsons’ views, I stipulate
that community’s task is to predict and control irrational patterns of human
behavior. Moreover, John Watson did not
anticipate the variance in wage gaps among stakeholders (Watson, 1913). Discrimination and neglect to complex social
structures such as racial/ethnic/immigrant groups result a drain to resources
and represent a challenge to maintain a healthy organizational atmosphere (Nunez-Smith et al., 2009; Purdie-Vaughns &
Eibach, 2008). John Watson would want to implement a system
to manipulate negative attitudes that stakeholders have. I want to offer complex social structures establish
acceptance into pre-establish social groups, not anticipated by John Watson
(Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). The
problem with adverse social groups attempting to fit into local communities
represents long periods of unemployment, not participating in local events, and
plainly treatment of outcast. These
events are essential to connect to organizational processes since it represents
a cost opportunity to organizations. The
focus to the last proposal incorporates streamlining hiring practices by the
implementation of ethnography and phenomenological research and cross-reference
the research to surveys to develop a theory to assist organizations in
positioning an organizational strategy to realize long-term sustainability (Creswell, 2009; Newman, Ridenour, Newman, &
DeMarco, 2003). The
proposals:
1.
Predict irrational behavior patterns of
stakeholders.
2.
Implement a system that manipulates irrational
behavior.
3.
Establish a system of implementation of cohesion
between complex social structures and substructures.
4.
A need of ethnography and phenomenological
research to cross-reference the research.
5.
Assure the research will offer long-term
sustainability to organizations with the correlation between irrational
behavior and organizational opportunity cost.
Conclusion
John
Watson believed in discouraging behavior that is not considered pleasant in
social communities. Considering personal
worldviews is essential to research in maintaining objectivity. The literature reviews shows evidence that a
misalignment in social cultures and acceptance of different, social complex,
cultures exist in organizations. According to Abraham Maslow, people that
self-actualized are in harmony with peace and tranquility to communities. If communities displayed harmonious actions,
internal conflict would not exist as shown by the literature review. The use and implementation of an IAT will
allow to measure the direct impact discrimination makes on organizational cost. Once the IAT shows variables, manipulation of
human behavior is necessary by (a) predicting irrational behavior patterns of
stakeholders, (b) implementing a system that manipulates irrational behavior,
(c) establishing a system of implementation of cohesion between complex social
structures and substructures, (d) ethnography and phenomenological research to
cross-reference the research, and (e) assuring the research will offer
long-term sustainability to organizations with the correlation between irrational
behavior and organizational opportunity cost.
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