Emily Heaphy

The Role of Positivity and Connectivity in the Performance of Business Teams

Connectivity, the control parameter in a nonlinear dynamics model of team performance is mathematically linked to the ratio of positivity to negativity (P/N) in team interaction. By knowing the P/N ratio it is possible to run the nonlinear dynamics model that will portray what types of dynamics are possible for a team. These dynamics are of three types: point attractor, limit cycle, and complexor (complex order, or “chaotic” in the mathematical sense). Low performance teams end up in point attractor dynamics, medium perfomance teams in limit cycle dynamics, and high performance teams in complexor dynamics.

Social closeness increases salivary progesterone in humans

We examined whether interpersonal closeness increases salivary progesterone. One hundred and sixty female college students (80 dyads) were randomly assigned to participate in either a closeness task with a partner versus a neutral task with a partner. Those exposed to the closeness induction had higher levels of progesterone relative to those exposed to the neutral task. Across conditions, progesterone increase one week later predicted the willingness to sacrifice for the partner. These results are discussed in terms of the links between social contact, stress, and health.

Relationship Quality and Virtuousness Emotional Carrying Capacity as a Source of Individual and Team Resilience

Virtuousness in organizations involves individuals and teams being resilient, or bouncing back from setbacks in ways that allow them to adapt and grow. In two studies, we focus on emotional carrying capacity (ECC), wherein relationship partners express more of their emotions, express both positive and negative emotions, and do so constructively, as a source of resilience in individuals and in teams. Study 1’s findings indicate that ECC is positively related to individual resilience and that ECC mediates the link between relationship closeness and individual resilience. Study 2’s findings indicate a similar pattern for resilience at the team level: ECC is positively related to team resilience and mediates the connection between trust and team resilience. Together, these studies provide insight into how emotional expression in relationships is a key mechanism in explaining resilience, a foundational element for the pursuit of long-term virtuousness for individuals and for teams.

Repairing Breaches with Rules: Maintaining Institutions in the Face of Everyday Disruptions

This study reveals the institutional work required to maintain taken-for-granted beliefs about roles in the face of everyday breaches of role expectations. Through a comparative qualitative study of hospital-employed patient advocates in teaching and Veterans Health Administration hospitals, I demonstrate that patient advocates repair breaches in the taken-for-granted beliefs about the patient, family, and staff roles in hospitals. My research shows that patient advocates skillfully used rules—or formal policies and procedures—to restore, clarify, or initiate organizational changes in rules, all to maintain institutionalized role expectations. This analysis expands our understanding of the work of maintaining institutions by specifying how constellations of roles are maintained in the face of breaches of role expectations and across different institutional contexts. It highlights the roles of pressure specialists and furthers theorizing on individual agency by specifying how rules can be source of individual agency.

Cultural Impressions of Professionalism

Two studies with working managers and corporate recruiters examined evidence that impressions of professionalism are influenced by cues of whether one appropriately minimizes personal referents at work, particularly within certain industrialized cultures. Study 1 showed that proportion of office objects symbolic of ones personal life differentiated the mental image of a professional versus unprofessional worker. This effect was moderated by experience living in the U.S., suggesting this standard for professionalism may be culturally bounded. Study 2 showed that for American but not foreign job candidates, adherence to this minimization ideology led to more favorable recruiting evaluations. Implications for cultural imprints on organizational dynamics are discussed.

Ann K. Boulis and Jerry A. Jacobs: The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America.BoulisAnn K.JacobsJerry A.The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America.Cornell University PressIthaca, NY:2008. 280 pp.

Starting in 1970, women in the U.S. began entering medical schools and becoming physicians in far larger numbers than at any previous point in history. Today, women make up about half of medical school graduates and a quarter of practicing physicians. Academics and the public alike have theorized about the importance and impact of this demographic shift. The Changing Face of Medicine sorts through these competing explanations and examines the reasons for the “feminization” of medicine, its impact on the practice of medicine and the profession as a whole, and gender differences in physicians’ careers and family decisions.