John N. Yanouzas

An Analysis of Managerial Helping Responses Based on Social Role Theory

Social role theory suggests that how managers respond to employees seeking help depends on the managers gender. Consistent with social role theory, we found that women managers tended to use significantly more gender-consistent helping behaviors, such as understanding, and less masculine-related behaviors, such as evaluating, than their male counterparts. On the other hand, when helping behavior was examined within each sex group, we found that both men and women managers tended to rely less on understanding and more on evaluating, suggesting that the managerial role plays a greater part in shaping helping behavior.

Differences Between American and Greek Managers in Giving Up Control

This study seeks to explain under what conditions managers tend to give up control in decision-making groups and to what extent the impact of these condi tions differs between U.S. and Greek managers. Contrary to expectations, the results show that Greek managers give up control in decision-making groups less frequently than U.S. managers. The results also suggest that U.S. managers have a somewhat greater tendency to give up control under the following conditions: (1) When they have no personal commitment to the task; (2) When their task mastery expectations are low; (3) When they believe another member of the group has greater expertise; (4) When they believe another member of the group has a stronger argument; and (5) When they feel group pressure to conform. In addition, it was found that lower-level managers perceive themselves as giving up control more frequently than senior-level managers, irrespective of their country of origin.

A Socialization Exercise: Learning the Ropes in an Experiential Course

a four-stage model. Learning begins with a concrete experience which provides an arena for &dquo;experiencing&dquo; in which students must take action. Structured debriefing questions provide the vehicle for reflecting and generalizing about the experience. Subsequent exercises or life experiences provide opportunities for applying and testing the new learning. In part, experiential learning is an outgrowth of the teachings of John Dewey, who asserted that experience and learning are inextricably linked. Dewey (1916) proposed that a &dquo;backward-forward&dquo; connection must be made for learning to occur: &dquo;To learn from experience is to make a backward and forward connection between what we do to things and what we enjoy or suffer from things in consequence&dquo; (p. 140). Successful experiential learning depends on at least three factors: The student’s ability to learn affectively as well as cognitively; the instructor’s skill in making the backward-forward connection between experience (doing or feeling) and cognitive learning; and, the instructor’s effectiveness in &dquo;socializing&dquo; students into the experiential learning classroom. Socialization refers to the process by which new members learn the value system, the norms or required behavior patterns of the society, organization or group they are entering (Schein, 1968). In the classroom, socialization includes the process or method the instructor uses to inform students of expectations, i.e., what is expected of them, the role of the instructor and desired outcomes. Getting students involved in their own learning and expecting them to utilize affective as well as cognitive processes in learning may be a difficult barrier to over-

Commentary On the Development, Validation, and Use of the Experiential Socialization Index

The Experiential Socialization Index (ESI) was developed originally as a self-reflective device for a classroom exercise on organizational socialization. The initial self-assessment instrument consisted of sixteen statements soliciting student agreement or disagreement with attitudes and beliefs related to learning in classroom activities. Subsequently, it was used to assess the degree of participant (student) acceptance of pivotal and peripheral norms associated with experiential learning (Sanders &

The Bus Rider Exercise

to demonstrate perceptual error often lose learning potential because students regard them as gimmicky and mere optical illusions. Moreover, such demonstrations lack the added dimension of allowing students to observe live behavior. Since perception is an important building block in a course on organizational behavior, the Bus Rider Exercise was developed to supplement or replace these other visual aids. The Bus Rider was designed primarily to demon-