Ronald L. Dufresne

The Aesthetics of Management Storytelling A Key to Organizational Learning

An aesthetics perspective on storytelling contributes to an understanding of how and why some stories are more effective than others. Three ideas about the nature of aesthetic experience—that it is (1) felt meaning from abductive reasoning, (2) characterized by feelings of connectedness, and (3) enjoyed for its own sake-supply criteria for identifying story quality and suggest how to make stories more effective. This idea of good and bad stories informs every aspect of management storytelling, which we illustrate by reviewing the functions of management storytelling using Mintzbergs taxonomy of the roles of the manager Furthermore, through Mintzbergs taxonomy, we show the contributions of aesthetically strong management stories to organizational learning.

A Method for Measuring the Effectiveness of Simulation- Based Team Training for Improving Communication Skills

Team behavior and coordination, particularly communication or team information-sharing, are critical for optimizing team performance; research in medicine generally provides no accepted method for measurement of team information-sharing. In a controlled simulator setting, we developed a technique for placing clinical information (probes) with members of a team of trainees participating in a 1-day Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management course and later tested the teams for knowledge of the probes as an indicator of overall team information-sharing. Despite the low level of team information-sharing, we demonstrated construct validity of the probe methodology by the correlation of measured change in team information-sharing from beginning to end of training with self-rated change. There was no statistical difference in “group sharing” from beginning to end of training, despite trainees’ survey responses that the course would be useful for their education and practice.

Playing the grim reaper: How employees experience carrying out a downsizing

This article reports a qualitative study that explores how employees who are responsible for carrying out a downsizing - ‘downsizing agents’ - experience and react to their downsizing responsibilities. Our results demonstrate that, when the work of carrying out a downsizing becomes emotionally taxing, downsizing agents react by cognitively, emotionally, and physically distancing themselves from their roles. We explore forces that make carrying out a downsizing more taxing and the conditions under which distancing reactions become more likely.

On the Virtues of Secrecy in Organizations

Many authors have highlighted the detrimental aspects of secrecy, particularly as keeping secrets runs contrary to the values of open, democratic societies and institutions. In this view, secrets help the powerful maintain control over the valuable resource of information. In this essay, the authors explore the more positive view, asking what may be virtuous in keeping secrets in organizations. From the perspective of strategy development and implementation, human resource management, and trust development, there are several virtues of secrecy that emerge. Although there are very real costs to keeping secrets, there are also benefits at the organizational and the interpersonal levels.

An Action Learning Perspective on Effective Implementation of Academic Honor Codes

Facing mounting evidence of academic dishonesty on America’s college campuses, many schools in the 1990s implemented academic honor codes to stem the tide. Previous research concerning academic honor codes and other ethics codes highlight the importance of enacting a more ethical organizational culture as well as involving many organizational members in the process. Through the illustrative case of a major public university that struggled to meet this normative goal as it implemented an academic honor code, this article introduces an action learning perspective on how the design and implementation of ethics codes can help effect change in the ethical culture by instilling and reinforcing the values of honesty and integrity. It is argued that codes must be designed with full acknowledgement of the traditions and culture present in the student body, with the involvement of virtuallyall organization members, to elicit a full understanding of the ethical culture system.

The Evaluative Framework for Workplace Spirituality Assessments: Working Our Strengths and Strengthening Our Work

In this chapter, we develop and pilot-test a framework with which we evaluate workplace spirituality assessments (WSAs). WSAs are used empirically to measure some aspect of workplace spirituality. Building upon Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences and previous reviews of the workplace spirituality literature, we develop a framework with four different evaluative filters. First, we determine which approach to workplace spirituality the WSA concerns, including metaphysical transcendence, existential meaning-making, or religio-spiritual. Next, we assess which foundation of spiritual intelligence is considered, be it computational, empirical, operational, or teleological. Then, we consider whether the WSA is contextualized by cultural bounds and if the WSA considers workplace spirituality critically. Last, we argue that WSAs should be held to the standard of rigor, relevance, and reciprocality. The evaluative framework allows for study- and field-level reflection on the state of WSAs and directs our attention to potential areas of focus.

Reconciling Competing Tensions in Ethical Systems Lessons From the United States Military Academy at West Point

Ethical codes and the systems in which they are situated are complex and intricate, making them difficult for both academicians and practitioners to research and understand. Through a qualitative research lens we examine the honor and ethics system at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Our findings suggest that the complexity of ethical systems can be better understood by examining the competing tensions that simultaneously work for and against ethical systems. We find that organizational members at West Point engage in counterintuitive thinking along with reframing and repositioning to negotiate some of these tensions. This approach provides feedback loops that steer the organization away from future ethical failures and long-term ethical declines. Our findings build on and extend several organizational and ethical theories to include environmental scanning, moral awareness, peer justice, the stages of moral development, and hyper-resiliency. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.

Intentional intelligence and the intentional intelligence quotient (IIQ): construct development and scale validation integrating mindfulness, self‐agency, and positive thought flow

This study follows Braud’s (2009) recommendation for the field of management, spirituality, and religion to produce “standardized assessment instruments”. Our principal goals in this study were to (1) define the construct of intentional intelligence and (2) formulate and assess a valid and reliable measure of the intentional intelligence quotient (IIQ). Intentional intelligence is defined as one’s ability to (a) identify their current thoughts and (b) choose positive thoughts in one’s mind. We defined the intentional intelligence construct in light of related constructs of mindfulness, self‐agency, and positive thought flow. We developed and tested the 10‐item IIQ scale as a measure of intentional intelligence alongside measures of comparison constructs. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we found the IIQ to be a valid and reliable measure.

Novel Lessons on Behavioral Ethics From the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

After a spate of business ethics crises over the past two decades, management educators were put on notice: considerably more was needed to improve the ethical grounding of our graduating students. Taking stock of our progress, we contend that management education remains well short of achieving this charge and cannot be content with the state of its ethics development. In this essay, grounded on a 2-year research platform, we turn to a unique institute of higher education to comment on the pedagogical assumptions and practices they enact to enhance the ethical behavior of their students. Specifically, this essay will comment on some of the more novel and paradoxical principles and approaches employed by the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to support the positive ethical behaviors of its students. We offer meaningful prescriptions touching on core planks of behavioral ethics: moral awareness, moral decision making, and moral motivation. Given the questionable efficacy of some previous approaches at improving ethical behavior, turning our attention to this unique institution may offer some compelling insights that may be employed in management education.