Rule Following in Work Organizations: What Can Psychology Contribute
Speaker
Abstract
| Recent corporate scandals have raised the salience of a long-term issue in work organizations: motivating rule following among employees. Whether it is stealing office supplies, dumping toxic waste in rivers, or violating rules restricting investing managed funds, businesses are concerned with methods of bringing worker behavior into line with rules for appropriate conduct. The issue is how to best do so. In this talk I will present the results of several studies of employees. I will argue that effective strategies are available, but those strategies are not widely used, at least within American work settings. |
| Bio: |
| Tom Tyler is a Professor of Psychology at New York University, received his Ph.D. and M.A. in social psychology from UCLA in 1978 and 1974, respectively, and received his B.A. in psychology from Columbia University in 1973. Tyler heads the Tyler Lab and focuses his research on the dynamics of authority within groups, organizations and societies. Professor Tyler particularly explores the motivations that lead people to cooperate when they are within groups. There are two aspects of such cooperation. First, there is deference to authority. The study of regulation is generally concerned with understanding why people accept the decisions made by others. Legitimacy, the quality of being viewed as being entitled to be obeyed, is consistently linked to exercising authority in fair ways. |
| Because of its implications for regulation, his work has always shared a connection with the concerns of the field of law. The question of how to manage undesirable behavior is central to the work of legal authorities, and Tyler examines the motivations that shape people's rule-related behavior. The book which best articulates these findings is Why People Obey the Law. The findings of this book have been widely cited within law. They are important because the question of how to motivate compliance with law and legal rules is central to many areas of law and these findings therefore have wide applicability. |
| Due to limited capacity (40 max) please contact Sacha Goudswaard if you would like to attend at sgoudswaard@rsm.nl |
| Contact information: |
| Dr. Taco H. Reus |
