Social Rationale Quarter

Social Rationale Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the first of four lectures of Operations Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise discovery, or, in other words, to concepts related to obtaining data needed to administer the enterprise effort; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Outline

The predecessor lecture is Communication Quarter.

Concepts

1. Social rationale.
   • Social psychology. An area of psychology that blends concepts from psychology and sociology to focus on the influence of people on one other.
   • Sociology. The study of people in relation to their social environment and culture.
   • Anthropology. The study of societies to learn about human beings and their activities.
2. Group. Two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve particular goals.
   • Informal group. A group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined; such a group appears in response to the need for social contact.
   • Formal group. A designated workgroup defined by an organization's structure.
   • Interacting group. A typical group in which members interact with each other face to face.
   • Reference group. An important group to which individuals belong or hope to belong and with whose norms individuals are likely to conform.
3. Role. A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit.
   • Role ambiguity. When role expectations are not clearly understood.
   • Role expectations. How others believe a person should act in a given situation.
   • Role overload. Having more work to accomplish than time permits.
   • Role perception. An individual's view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation.
4. Status. A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others.
   • Status characteristics theory. A theory that states that differences in status characteristics create status hierarchies within groups.
5. Group cohesiveness (also known as group cohesion or social cohesion). The extend to which members of a group support and validate one another, attracted and emotionally attached to one another, share the group's goals, and motivated toward the group.
6. Norm. An acceptable standard or expectation within a group that is accepted and shared by a group's members.
7. Social identity theory. Perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups.
   • Outgroup. The inverse of an ingroup, which can mean everyone outside the group, but more usually an identified other group.
   • Ingroup.
   • Faultiness. The perceived divisions that split groups into two or more subgroups based on individual differences such as sex, race, age, work experience, and education.
   • Boundary spanning. When individuals form relationships outside their formally assigned groups.
8. Institutions. Cultural factors that lead many organizations to have similar structures, especially those factors that might not lead to adaptive consequences.
9. Ingroup favorism. Perspective in which we see members of our ingroup as better than other people, and people not in our group as all the same.
10. Diversity. The extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from, one another.
    • Deep-level diversity. Differences in values, personality, and work preferences that become more important for determining similarity as people get to know each other.
    • Discrimination. Noting of a difference between things; often we refer to unfair discrimination, which means making judgments about individuals based on stereotypes regarding their demographic group. Unfair discrimination occurs when someone acts out their prejudicial attitudes toward people who are the targets of their prejudice.
11. Surface-level diversity. Differences in easily perceived characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, or disability, that do not necessarily reflect the ways people think or feel, but may activate or trigger certain stereotypes.
    • Biographical characteristic. A personal characteristic -- such as age, gender, race, and length of tenure -- that are objective and easily obtained from personnel records. These characteristics are representative of surface-level diversity.
    • Race. The biological heritage (including skin color and associated traits) that people use to identify themselves.
12. Cultural intelligence. Cultural awareness and sensitivity skills.
    • Dominant culture. A culture that expresses the core values that are shared by a majority of the organization's members.
    • National culture. The values and attitudes shared by individuals from a specific country that shape their behavior and beliefs about what is important.
    • Strong culture. A culture in which the core values are intensely held and widely shared.
    • Ethnicity. Social traits (such as cultural background or allegiance) that are shaped by a human population.
13. Culture attribute.
    • Power distance. A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society accepts that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
    • Collectivism. A national culture attribute that describes a tight social framework in which people expect others in groups of which they are a part to look after them and protect them.
    • Individualism. A national culture attribute that describes the degree to which people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups.
    • Long-term orientation. A national culture attribute that emphasizes the future, thrift, and persistence.
    • Short-term orientation. A national culture attribute that emphasizes the present and accepts change.
    • Masculinity. A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which the culture favors traditional masculine work roles of achievement, power, and control. Societal values are characterized by assertiveness and materialism.
    • Femininity. A national culture attribute that indicates little differentiation between male and female roles; a high rating indicates that women are treated as the equals of men in all aspects of the society.
    • Uncertainty avoidance. A national culture attribute that describes the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid them.
14. Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project (GLOBE project). The research project that studies cross-cultural leadership behaviors.
15. Cultural attitude.
    • Parochialism. Viewing the world solely through your own perspectives, leading to an inability to recognize differences between people.
    • Geocentric attitude. A world-oriented view that focuses on using the best approaches and people from around the globe.
    • Ethnocentric attitude. The parochial belief that the best work approaches and practices are those of the home country.
    • Polycentric attitude. The view that the managers in the host country know the best work approaches and practices for running their businesses.
16. Preconceived attitude.
    • Prejudice. A preconceived belief, opinion, or judgment toward a person or a group of people.
    • Stereotyping. Judging a person based on a perception of a group to which that person belongs.
    • Stereotyping. Judging a person based on a perception of a group to which that person belongs.
    • Stereotyping. Judging someone on the basis of our perception of the group to which that person belongs.
17. Emotional intelligence. The ability to notice and to manage emotional cues and information.
    • Emotional intelligence. The ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information.
    • Emotional dissonance. Inconsistencies between the emotions people feel and the emotions they project.
    • Surface acting. Hiding one's inner feelings and forgoing emotional expressions in response to display rules.
    • Deep acting. Trying to modify one's true inner feelings based on display rules.
    • Mindfulness. Objectively and deliberately evaluating the emotional situation in the moment.

Methods

• Means, motive, and opportunity

Practices

The successor lecture is Stakeholder Arrangements Quarter.