Firms compete for reputational status in institutional fields. Managers attempt to influence other stakeholders' assessments by signaling firms' salient advantages. Stakeholders gauge firms' relati...

What's in a Name? Reputation Building and Corporate Strategy

Among the many traditions of research on "identity," two somewhat different yet strongly related strands of identity theory have developed. The first, reflected in the work of Stryker and colleagues, focuses on the linkages of social structures with identities. The second, reflected in the work of Burke and colleagues, focuses on the internal process of self-verification. In the present paper we review each of these strands and then discuss ways in which the two relate to and complement one another Each provides a context for the other: the relation of social structures to identities influences the process of self-verification, while the process of self-verification creates and sustains social structures. The paper concludes with examples of potentially useful applications of identity theory to other arenas of social psychology, and with a discussion of challenges that identity theory must meet to provide a clear understanding of the relation between self and society. The language of "identity" is ubiquitous in contemporary social science, cutting across psychoanalysis, psychology, political science, sociology, and history. The common usage of the term identity, however, belies the considerable variability in both its conceptual meanings and its theoretical role. Even when consideration is restricted to sociology and social psychology, variation is still considerable.'

http://kulturiskvlevebi.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/3/7/18376403/burke_pastpresent...of_identity_theory.pdf

The Past, Present, and Future of an Identity Theory*

Social Psychology of Organizations

Research on organizational diversity, heterogeneity, and related concepts has proliferated in the past decade, but few consistent findings have emerged. We argue that the construct of diversity requires closer examination. We describe three distinctive types of diversity: separation, variety, and disparity. Failure to recognize the meaning, maximum shape, and assumptions underlying each type has held back theory development and yielded ambiguous research conclusions. We present guidelines for conceptualization, measurement, and theory testing, highlighting the special case of demographic diversity

/pdf/what-s-the-difference-diversity-constructs-as-separation-26wv9bj3r1.pdf

What's the difference? Diversity constructs as separation, variety, or disparity in organizations.

The dynamics of proactivity at work

There exists a variety of situations in which the dispersion of data, rather than their mean or other central value, is of interest. The coefficient of variation, which is a measure of dispersion divided by the appropriate measure of central tendency, is preferable to a raw measure of dispersion for this purpose. However, these measures do not have a constant range, and the common practice of dividing the variation value obtained by 100 and expressing the result as a per cent is particularly inappropriate, as all have maxima larger than unity for n>2. The present paper provides standardization procedures for coefficients of variation. The resulting standardized coefficients (called S-measures) have a zero-to-one range, and the common practice of dividing the variation value obtained by 100 and deviation) for descriptive purposes is demonstrated. It is suggested that S-measures replace, or at least supplement, coefficients of variation and raw dispersion measures when the problem of interest is relative dispersion between groups.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2093089.pdf

Measurement of Relative Variation: Sociological Examples

Les theories du choix se repartissent en deux groupes: celles qui traitent des evenements «obtenus» (arrives): tels que renforcements et celles qui traitent des evenements programmes, tel que taux attendu d'un renforcement. Les modeles traitant des evenements projetes ont des implications quant aux politiques a suivre qu'il n'est pas facile d'inferer des modeles d'evenements «obtenus». Deux modeles generaux bases sur des evenements projetes dans l'avenir sont compares dans des situations: 1) de renforcement positif; 2) de punition effective

Theories of Choice: Contingent Reward and Punishment Applications

We describe and test a sequential process model derived from socialization theory and designed to expand on previous explanations of the transmission of marital conflict across generations. The model seeks to explicate the reported relationship between parental divorce and offspring's marital conflict by positing a five-phase process that combines in sequential order childhood experiences, self-images, trust, and magnitudes of disagreements. The first two factors are measured at the individual level; the last two at the couple level. The model is tested with data from a three-year panel study of newly married couples. We obtained good fits with Year 1 data. We then constructed a dynamic model to test data for all three years. The results show that the individual factors had significant direct effects only in the first year, whereas couple level factors appeared to mediate the relationship between parental divorce and couple's marital conflict over all three years.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2695861.pdf

The intergenerational transmission of marital conflict : Testing a process model

Nonexperimental (homicide) and experimental data are used to study the effects of the certainty and severity of punishment. Many deterrence researchers, working without systematic theory of how punishments should operate to influence behavior, have opted for a simple additive model of certainty and severity. However, a satisfaction balance model-a social psychological theory representing a modification of the matching equation and positing interactive effects of certainty and severity-fits both sets of data well and substantially better than an additive model. The implications of the satisfaction balance model for a theory of deterrence are discussed

Louis N. Gray

Papers

Measurement of Relative Variation: Sociological Examples

Theories of Choice: Contingent Reward and Punishment Applications

The intergenerational transmission of marital conflict : Testing a process model

Modeling the Deterrent Effects of Punishment

A satisfaction balance model of decision making and choice behavior