Daniel J. Svyantek – författare

This volume is based around 14 chapters and two critical analyses which provide new perspectives on important organizational constructs. The first half of the book provides chapters by advanced graduate students who are making their first contributions to understanding organizational behavior. The second half of the book provides chapters illustrating new views of organizational constructs but from the perspectives of more established researchers in the field. All chapters share a common theme of attempting to provide new ways of viewing organizations and organizational behavior. Each chapter is based on the premise that, when presented with problems that seem impossible to solve, often the best results are achieved by finding new perspectives on the basic constructs being studied. These new perspectives provide insights which illuminate the problems for the theory of organizations as well as improving the ability of organizational members to solve practical organizational problems.

This volume is based around 14 chapters and two critical analyses which provide new perspectives on important organizational constructs. The first half of the book provides chapters by advanced graduate students who are making their first contributions to understanding organizational behavior. The second half of the book provides chapters illustrating new views of organizational constructs but from the perspectives of more established researchers in the field. All chapters share a common theme of attempting to provide new ways of viewing organizations and organizational behavior. Each chapter is based on the premise that, when presented with problems that seem impossible to solve, often the best results are achieved by finding new perspectives on the basic constructs being studied. These new perspectives provide insights which illuminate the problems for the theory of organizations as well as improving the ability of organizational members to solve practical organizational problems.

This volume of the Research in Organizational Sciences is entitled “Received Wisdom, Kernels of Truth, and Boundary Conditions in Organizational Studies”. Received wisdom is knowledge imparted to people by others and is based on authority and tenacity as sources of human knowledge. Authority refers to the acceptance of knowledge as truth because of the position and credibility of the knowledge source. Tenacity refers to the continued presentation of a particular bit of information by a source until this bit of information is accepted as true by receivers. The problem for organizational studies, however, is that this received wisdom often becomes unquestioned assumptions which guide interpretation of the world and decisions made about the world. Received wisdom, therefore, may lead to organizational practices which provide little or no benefit to the organization and, potentially, negative organizational effects, because this received wisdom is no longer valid. The 14 papers in this volume all, in some way, strive to question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior in some way. The chapters in this volume each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom has often led to confirmation bias in organizational science. The knowledge that some perceived truths are actually the products of received wisdom and do not stand up to close scrutiny shakes up things within research areas previously thought settled allowing new perspectives on organizational science to emerge.

This volume of the Research in Organizational Sciences is entitled “Received Wisdom, Kernels of Truth, and Boundary Conditions in Organizational Studies”. Received wisdom is knowledge imparted to people by others and is based on authority and tenacity as sources of human knowledge. Authority refers to the acceptance of knowledge as truth because of the position and credibility of the knowledge source. Tenacity refers to the continued presentation of a particular bit of information by a source until this bit of information is accepted as true by receivers. The problem for organizational studies, however, is that this received wisdom often becomes unquestioned assumptions which guide interpretation of the world and decisions made about the world. Received wisdom, therefore, may lead to organizational practices which provide little or no benefit to the organization and, potentially, negative organizational effects, because this received wisdom is no longer valid. The 14 papers in this volume all, in some way, strive to question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior in some way. The chapters in this volume each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom has often led to confirmation bias in organizational science. The knowledge that some perceived truths are actually the products of received wisdom and do not stand up to close scrutiny shakes up things within research areas previously thought settled allowing new perspectives on organizational science to emerge.

This Research in Organizational Sciences volume to explore and question the received wisdom of organizational sciences. The chapters in this volume (and the companion volume) seek to establish boundary conditions for important organizational constructs and processes. They illustrate the importance of context for interpreting the received wisdom of organizational science by showing when constructs must be adapted to changing circumstances.The volume begins with four chapters looking at the construct of leadership. Each of these addresses an important aspect of our understanding of leadership and its practice. The four chapters on leadership are followed by five chapters dealing with other organizational processes including motivation, organizational change, the role of diversity in organizations and organizational citizenship. The last three chapters deal with the issue of knowledge in large systems. Two chapters address how information may be transmitted across organizations and generations of workers. The final chapter deals with the use of information by organizational decision-makers.The 12 papers in this volume all, in some way question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior. These chapters each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom does not always lead to best practice in research or application. It is our hope that these chapters illustrate how challenging received wisdom in organizational studies can provide new ways of thinking about organizational processes. These new ways of thinking in turn can provide better understanding of the processes necessary to increase organizational effectiveness.

This Research in Organizational Sciences volume to explore and question the received wisdom of organizational sciences. The chapters in this volume (and the companion volume) seek to establish boundary conditions for important organizational constructs and processes. They illustrate the importance of context for interpreting the received wisdom of organizational science by showing when constructs must be adapted to changing circumstances.The volume begins with four chapters looking at the construct of leadership. Each of these addresses an important aspect of our understanding of leadership and its practice. The four chapters on leadership are followed by five chapters dealing with other organizational processes including motivation, organizational change, the role of diversity in organizations and organizational citizenship. The last three chapters deal with the issue of knowledge in large systems. Two chapters address how information may be transmitted across organizations and generations of workers. The final chapter deals with the use of information by organizational decision-makers.The 12 papers in this volume all, in some way question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior. These chapters each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom does not always lead to best practice in research or application. It is our hope that these chapters illustrate how challenging received wisdom in organizational studies can provide new ways of thinking about organizational processes. These new ways of thinking in turn can provide better understanding of the processes necessary to increase organizational effectiveness.

Organizational science profits from taking new perspectives using a simple model to understand why behaviors of particular types occur within them. This volume provides readers with a rich source of casestudies and empirical studies of the role played by the interaction between individual actors, organizational contexts, and the actual behaviors being performed the actors. These chapters each seek to describe how these three interact in to create organizational practices with negative effects on either internal members of the organization or external stakeholders (e.g,. clients). The chapters provide insight into how organizations may control these negative behaviors with basic Human Resource Management practices. It is this volume’s hope that these chapters may provide insight into the important role these three factors plays in understanding negative organizational behavior within organizations across the world.

Organizational science profits from taking new perspectives using a simple model to understand why behaviors of particular types occur within them. This volume provides readers with a rich source of casestudies and empirical studies of the role played by the interaction between individual actors, organizational contexts, and the actual behaviors being performed the actors. These chapters each seek to describe how these three interact in to create organizational practices with negative effects on either internal members of the organization or external stakeholders (e.g,. clients). The chapters provide insight into how organizations may control these negative behaviors with basic Human Resource Management practices. It is this volume’s hope that these chapters may provide insight into the important role these three factors plays in understanding negative organizational behavior within organizations across the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an illustration of how chaotic changes to large systems are caused by small, seemingly insignificant environmental events such as the initial case(s) of COVID-19 in China. From this small starting point for the pandemic, there have been (and continue to be) millions of lives lost and trillions of dollars spent trying to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. World government and corporate leaders are striving to deal with this pandemic, but uncertainty is felt across the globe.Unprecedented strategies (e.g., the United States government’s multi-trillion-dollar stimulus package (s)) have been used to halt the spread of COVID-19. These small events cascade throughout larger and larger systems leading to unforeseeable consequences. Organizations must experiment and make decisions on how to react. Decisions must be made and implemented to see what the effects of these decisions are.The chapters in this volume provide important insights for all organizations during this time of crisis. The chapters express bottom-up and top-down approaches to a crisis-initiating environmental change by organizations. The chapters provide insight into the way organizations perceive the effect of COVID-19 as 1) a permanent or transitory change in the organization’s environment; and 2) as a crisis or opportunity. Taken together, the chapters provide both scientists and practitioners with a starting point for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on organizational theory and on management practice for readers.

The COVID-19 pandemic provides an illustration of how chaotic changes to large systems are caused by small, seemingly insignificant environmental events such as the initial case(s) of COVID-19 in China. From this small starting point for the pandemic, there have been (and continue to be) millions of lives lost and trillions of dollars spent trying to alleviate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. World government and corporate leaders are striving to deal with this pandemic, but uncertainty is felt across the globe.Unprecedented strategies (e.g., the United States government’s multi-trillion-dollar stimulus package (s)) have been used to halt the spread of COVID-19. These small events cascade throughout larger and larger systems leading to unforeseeable consequences. Organizations must experiment and make decisions on how to react. Decisions must be made and implemented to see what the effects of these decisions are.The chapters in this volume provide important insights for all organizations during this time of crisis. The chapters express bottom-up and top-down approaches to a crisis-initiating environmental change by organizations. The chapters provide insight into the way organizations perceive the effect of COVID-19 as 1) a permanent or transitory change in the organization’s environment; and 2) as a crisis or opportunity. Taken together, the chapters provide both scientists and practitioners with a starting point for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on organizational theory and on management practice for readers.

This volume provides readers with a rich source of sports metaphors for understanding organization and management processes and how to use metaphors to become more effective leaders and managers within their organizations. Each chapter discusses how sports may be used to help improved organizational productivity and effectiveness.These chapters each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs using sports as a metaphor. It is this volume’s hope that these chapters may provide insight into the important role sports plays in understanding organizations across the world. Organizational science profits from taking new perspectives that may be found when sports is used as a lens for this study.

This volume provides readers with a rich source of sports metaphors for understanding organization and management processes and how to use metaphors to become more effective leaders and managers within their organizations. Each chapter discusses how sports may be used to help improved organizational productivity and effectiveness.These chapters each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs using sports as a metaphor. It is this volume’s hope that these chapters may provide insight into the important role sports plays in understanding organizations across the world. Organizational science profits from taking new perspectives that may be found when sports is used as a lens for this study.

Neurodiversity in the workplace is an increasingly important topic with critical implications for the workforce. However, organizations still struggle to support neurodivergent employees. The following chapters explore the challenges and opportunities associated with neurodiversity at work by presenting different perspectives on neurodiversity in organizations.The authors provide an overview of how organizations can better support neurodivergent employees, particularly those with Autism and ADHD. These chapters address structural barriers, recruitment and hiring practices, and disclosure for neurodiverse employees. The chapters also offer practical recommendations for workplace accommodations and emphasize the need for organizational changes to support a more inclusive workplace culture. Ultimately, the insights presented in these chapters look to bridge the gap between science and practice, providing a roadmap for creating workplaces that not only value, but empower neurodiverse talent.The collective insights from these chapters highlight interventions for organizations to consider for developing a career-long inclusive culture and improving person-organization fit for neurodiverse employees. From recruitment and hiring processes that accommodate different communication styles, to leadership development programs that foster neurodiverse workers, the authors provide clear evidence that workplaces are able to move beyond awareness of neurodiversity (i.e.., the “fitting in” form of person-organization fit) to taking meaningful steps towards an inclusive culture for neurodiverse employees across a career (i.e., the “doing well” form of person-organization fit).The goal of this volume, Neurodiversity in the Workplace, is not only to call attention to the experience of neurodivergent individuals at work, but also to highlight methods for organizations and employees seeking to support neurodivergent individuals at work to use.