Showing papers in "The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science in 1967"

The Design of Cross-Cultural Training: An Alternative to the University Model:

Abstract: The inapplicability of traditional university-based training has become a chronic complaint in organizations which must prepare large numbers of persons for service overseas. In the Peace Corps, for example, which in almost seven years now has trained more persons for overseas work than any other civilian government agency, complaints about the irrelevance of traditional classroom training have been growing steadily since the first Volunteers entered training. (The Peace Corps continues to train most of its Volunteers at universities, for a variety of reasons not having to do with the quality of training; but a vigorous effort is made to influence the training institutions to design programs that differ sharply from the standard curriculum design.)The complaints are not directed toward the content of the traditional academic disciplines that bear on overseas work. The content can be relevant to performance in an alien culture; moreover, the acknowledged experts in the subject matter fields appropriate to ...

An Organic Problem-Solving Method of Organizational Change

Abstract: In the opinion of the author, behavioral science literature does not give proper emphasis to the principle of confrontation as it relates to the improvement and development of organizations. Furthermore, sensitivity training is not effectively put into a larger context as a means to an end. This paper describes an extensive organizational development effort within TRW Systems which places a heavy emphasis on confrontation and the use of sensitivity training as part of an effort to improve the culture of an organization. The improvement focuses on the quality of working relationships between interdependent individuals and groups. The elements of this organic approach to organizational change are discussed and a generalized time-phased model is presented.

The Reduction of Prejudice through Laboratory Training

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that increases in self-acceptance, resulting from sensitivity training, have the the oretically predictable but indirect effect of reducing an ind...

Comparison of Behavioral Changes Resulting from Human Relations Training Laboratories of Different Lengthsa

Abstract: The present paper reorts a comparative study of enduring behavior changes following human relations training laboratories of three weeks' and two weeks' duration. A behavior change description questionnaire was used eight to ten months after training to elicit descriptions of a subject's postlaboratory behavior changes as seen by the subject himself and seven of his co-workers (including superiors, peers, and subordinates). A matched control sample was obtained and assessed in the same manner.Two interrelated measures of change were derived from the questionnaires: the "total change score," composed of the total number of different changes mentioned by a subject and his co-workers; and the "verified change score," composed of those behavior changes which are mentioned by two or more persons in a set of descriptions. A set of 17 inductively derived content categories were also used to make a qualitative analysis of the changes.While both laboratory trained samples differed from the control sample on both m...

On the Future of Laboratory Education

Abstract: The primary reason for the creation of laboratory education was to help human beings to deal more effectively with complex human relationships and problems. As such, laboratory education shares the same goals with many other types of education. What distinguishes laboratory education from most other education is its basic assumptions concerning the process of education. The traditional educational methods primarily emphasize substance, rationality, the in-appropriateness of feelings, direction and control by the teacher, and so on. Laboratory education assumes that these emphases are not adequate by themselves. New ones need to be added such as the importance of maintaining the effectiveness of the learning groups, the admission of all data that are relevant, including feelings, and the enlargement of responsibility by giving the students greater direction and control over their education (Bradford, Gibb, & Benne, 1964; Schein & Bennis, 1965).Because feelings, group maintenance, and student control are so...

Antecedents of Planned Organization Change

Abstract: Recent literature extolling the virtues of "planned" organization change through massive training programs frequently overlooks the historical preconditions which may determine the success or failure of such programs. This article reports findings describing the history of an organization and its management prior to a decision to begin a Managerial Grid organization development program. In it we see how a consultant made use of roots put down in the unplanned stages many years before to build top management support for Managerial Grid training. It is quite possible that the presence or absence of such early events spells the difference between a mediocre and a highly successful organization change effort.

Resistance to Research and Research Utilization: The Death and Life of a Feedback Attempt

Abstract: Some of the problems scientists encounter in making their feedback of research findings relevant and useful to educational practitioners are explored in this paper Feedback of research findings is considered as the transmission-reception link in the research utilization chain Two sessions of scientist-practitioner collaboration are described: one in which their interaction was unproductive and alienative, and one in which major progress was made in the direction of scientist clarity and utility and practitioner trust and acceptance Drawing from the events of these two sessions, a conceptualization of the feedback process is made, with force fields representing the dilemmas facing practitioners in their postures toward scientists and scientific resources, and vice versa A series of suggested "rules of the game" includes attention to the client's preparation and contract formation, the establishment of trust, the demonstration of valued resources, and the facilitation of client autonomya

The Clinical-Experimental Approach to Assessing Organizational Change Efforts

Abstract: Attempts to gain valid knowledge about the effects of organizational improvement efforts are fraught with difficulties. This article proposes the "clinical-experimental" method as a solution; it involves the separation of researcher and change-agent roles, the construction and testing of general and specific clinical hypotheses, thoroughgoing experimental design, and careful documentation of change-agent assumptions, plans, strategies, and effects.Organization improvement is regarded as the induction of increased "organization health"; a case study of such an effort in a large school system-which did not evoke the short-run changes hoped for-is presented to illustrate the clinical-experimental method.

Need and Value Shifts in College Training Groups

Abstract: To evaluate the effects of human relations training on individual values (measured by the Study of Values) and interpersonal need orientation (measured by the FIRO-B), college subjects ranked their peers to determine which were the most valued members of the training groups. It was predicted that people will change their values and needs during a human relations course to become more like those of the highly valued members. Expressed control and political value were found to be positively correlated, and religious value to be negatively correlated with peer ratings. The prediction was tested that students would show positive change in expressed control and political value and negative change in religious value. Only the predicted change in religious value was demonstrated. Other unpredicted changes were observed (largely among highly chosen females and low-chosen males): wanted control increased, wanted affection decreased, and aesthetic value increased. The concept of an internal criterion of change seem...

Confrontation as a Training Design in Complex Organizations: Attitudinal Changes in a Diversified Population of Managers

Abstract: The "confrontation technique" has been used successfully in training designs in complex organizations, and this study at once reinforces and extends existing experience. Specifically, what follows ...

Institutional Objectives and Student Development in College

Abstract: Two general objectives, the development of independence and the development of purpose, were translated into six more specific variables of student development: Venturesomeness; Interdependence; Resourcefulness and Organization; Goal Directedness; Full Involvement, Motivation, and Persistence; Personal Stability and Integration. Next, for each variable, questions concerning concrete behaviors and attitudes reflected in the self-evaluations and instructor comments comprising the students' records were developed. Then, for 1964 graduates, each semester was rated for each question and ratings were pooled to generate scores for each of the six variables. Multiple discriminant analysis and covariance analyses revealed significant change on all variables. Ratings on Goal Directedness changed most, followed by Personal Stability and Integration; Venturesomeness; Resourcefulness and Organization; Full Involvement, Motivation, and Persistence; and Interdependence.Two major patterns were found. Goal Directedness an...

The Anarchist Movement and the T Group: Some Possible Lessons for Organizational Development:

Abstract: Spanish anarchism was an extremely cohesive but ineffective movement espousing many of the ideals similar to those advanced in laboratory training. This paper argues that there may be some parallels between the history of Spanish anarchism and the contributions of T-Group training to organization development, if insufficient attention is paid to the organizational learning that must take place along with the personal and interpersonal learning of the T-Group experience. Eight approaches are described for increasing organizational learning in the context of laboratory training and follow-up.

Changing Behavior as a Means to Increased Efficiency

Abstract: A firm in a highly competitive industry, operating below tolerable levels and sensing "problems," hired a new GM who sought help from a change agent. An in-house laboratory was created where Ss, un...

A Moment in Forever (The Personal Story of a Trainer)

Abstract: There are many dimensions to the application of laboratory training in our work and in our personal lives. Many of the articles that have appeared in this journal have explored the improvement of individual skills and abilities in work roles. This article explores a deeply personal side of the application of laboratory training. It is a frequent occurrence that individuals have intense and moving experiences in laboratory T Groups composed of persons who have never met one another before and who have no reason to believe that their paths will cross again. There is also the persistent dilemma of learning how to build into the enduring and significant relationships of our lives the same elements of openness, honesty, closeness, and caring that emerge in the T Group.This article-or perhaps what might better be described as an autobiographical essay-is published with the hope that it illustrates both the possibilities and the dilemmas of using the momentary laboratory training experiences as a springboard for...

Behavioral Science, Nursing Services, and the Collaborative Process: A Case Study

Abstract: This is the story of an effort by an anthropologist to use behavioral science to help the administrative staff members of the Department of Nursing Services in a university medical center improve their ways of working. The account begins with the simple request from the director of nursing services for a discussion leader to help them review their operations. It leads to a broader research project based on observation; copes with conflicts which arose because of differences in the viewpoints of the two sets of participants; shows how the new, temporary intersystem arose and functioned; and identifies the critical moment when direction shifted from the research-oriented behavioral scientist to the action-oriented administrator. It provides a thoughtful appraisal of the consultant role at each stage from the first request to the termination of the project.