Ralph H. Kilmann

Interpersonal Conflict-Handling Behavior as Reflections of Jungian Personality Dimensions:

This study has sought to investigate the Jungian psychological correlates of an individuals choice of different interpersonal conflict-handling modes: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. These five modes were defined according to the two basic behavioral dimensions of assertiveness and cooperativeness and were also related to integrative and distributive dimensions. The results suggest that the Jungian functions related to judging (thinking vs feeling) and the type of enactment (introverted vs extraverted) are significantly related to an individuals conflict-handling behavior. The study concludes with a schematic illustration of these Jungian functions plotted upon the basic behavioral dimensions which define and characterize the five conflict-handling modes.

Organization Change and Development: A Systems View

The article reviews the book “Organization Change and Development: A Systems View,” by Michael Beer.

Issues in Understanding and Changing Culture

The current popularity of corporate culture has raised some important issues. Does culture have an impact? How deep seated is culture? Can culture be changed? Corporate culture is not merely a passing fad but represents a fundamental shift in our effort to understand the complex, multifaceted organizations of today. However, it cannot be approached as a quick fix solution to a complex and changing problem. Culture needs to be managed along with all the other elements of management theory, such as strategy, structure, reward systems, skills and human resource management, if a company is to devise an integrated program for improving its performance.

Comparison of Four Instruments Measuring Conflict Behavior

Test-retest reliabilities, internal consistencies, and convergent test validities were examined for four measures of interpersonal behavior in handling conflict. Subjects were 86 graduate students in management. Instruments were those developed by Blake and Mouton, Lawrence and Lorsch, Hall, and by Thomas and Kilmann. Reliabilities were in the low-to-moderate range, with more recent instruments somewhat superior. Some problems with the first two measures were observed. The two most recent instruments, by Hall and by Thomas and Kilmann, show some convergence across all five modes of handling conflict. Convergence among other instruments varies by mode of handling conflict. Inspection of items suggests some reasons for the limited convergence.

Participant Perceptions of Positive and Negative Influences on Large-Scale Change

Individuals who have participated in large-scale change programs were asked to identify issues that have a highly positive impact or a highly negative impact on the change process. Managers, researchers, internal consultants, and external consultants listed over 900 issues that they believe have an impact on the ultimate success of large-scale change programs. Content analysis was utilized to group responses into meaningful categories. These categories of issues as well as differences in the responses of the four groups of individuals surveyed are discussed. The research provides an overview of key issues for consideration in the management of large-scale change efforts.

The Social Desirability Variable in Organizational Research: An Alternative Explanation for Reported Findings

Because questionnaires are quite prevalent in management research, awareness of the effects of social desirability is critical. Data on measures of conflict behavior are presented to illustrate two...

The role of the reward system for a total quality management based strategy

This study examines the impact of reward practices on the relationship between an organizational strategy based on the principles of total quality management (TQM) and perceptions of firm performance. Major findings include: higher levels of firm performance were significantly correlated with greater use of TQM practices, but not with greater use of quality rhetoric in either formal strategic documents or informal strategic discussions; the use of extrinsic reward practices – including profit sharing, gainsharing, employment security, and comp time – exhibited a significantly positive moderating effect on the relationship between TQM and perceived firm performance. Regarding implications for practitioners, it is insufficient to include quality rhetoric in the formal and informal strategy. As the anecdotal literature has often advocated, the current research provides empirical support that management must “walk the talk” with regard to TQM efforts. Further, in order to realize even higher levels of firm performance, an organization should utilize reward practices which specifically complement its TQM‐based strategy.

A holistic program and critical success factors of corporate transformation

Corporate transformation is fundamentally changing how all employees in an organization perceive, think, and behave -- so that they can satisfy the diverse needs of all key stakeholders for an extended period of time. Due to our turbulent global economy, achieving corporate transformation continues to be at the forefront of senior managements attention -- and responsibility. Yet this incredibly complex problem is often addressed as if it were quite simple. Otherwise, why would senior executives continually subject their organizations to singular, quick-fix approaches that rarely, if ever, result in long-term survival and success? In this article, Ralph Kilmann presents a holistic approach for succeeding at corporate transformation by identifying -- and integrating -- the great variety of improvement activities that are usually implemented in a singular manner. The essence of this holistic approach is a sequence of eight interrelated tracks, which consists of five system tracks (culture, skills, team, strategy-structure, reward system) and three process tracks (gradual process, radical process, learning process). This paper concludes by highlighting eighteen critical success factors that were learned by implementing this approach in a variety of organizations -- in both the US and Europe.

On evaluating scientific research: The contribution of the psychology of science

Abstract This paper critically discusses the nature various schemes for evaluating scientific research. Through the use of Jungian personality theory, it attempts to explicate the psychological forces and assumptions underlying the vast majority of evaluation schemes. The paper argues that most schemes are greatly restricted in their choice of an underlying psychological basis. It is argued that science administration, evaluation, and technological forecasting all require a greater ability to appreciate, and even more important to integrate, the psychological functions described in this paper. “It has been lately fashionable in some quarters to think that physical science iormally progresses by moving on the whole fairly calmly in one direction, and that such progresses is interrupted only at certain periods of great upheaval in science. “But this can be true only in a limited sense. Not far below the surface, there have coexisted in science, in almost every period since Thales and Pythagoras, sets of two or antithetical systems or attitudes, for example, one reductionistic and the other holistic … “Science has always been propelled and buffeted by such contrary or anithetical forces. Like vessels with draught deep enough to catch more than merely surface current, , scientist of genius are those who are doomed, or privileged, to experience these deeper current in their complexity. It is precisely their special sensitivity to contraries that has made it possible for them to do so, and it is an inner necessity that has made them demand nothing less for themselves [5, pp. 375–376].”

A Contingency Approach to Laboratory Learning: Psychological Types Versus Experiential Norms

This study investigated the psychological dynamics and situational factors that determine whether an individual will experience support and/or confrontation in a laboratory setting. The psychological dynamics were represented by C. G. Jungs psychological types and the situational factors were the experiential norms that manifest these psychic functions. A Contingency framework was derived to suggest the conditions that will lead to the acceptance or rejection of the laboratory experience, or to self-awareness and personal growth. The research data give reasonable evidence to this framework, and the implications of the study are given for: (1) the identification of the rejectors of particular laboratory experiences, (2) the design of different laboratories via alternative experiential norms, and (3) the intervention strategies for staff and trainers according to the laboratory setting and goals.