Resources for Conflict and Justice In Trump’s America
by MD-ICCCRIn light of the turmoil following the election, we at MD-ICCCR know the importance of sharing resources to protect, enrich, and flourish despite the conflict that surrounds us.Here is a preliminary list of resources meant to help you get started. Continue Reading...
Peter Coleman in Huffington Post: Don’t Blame Trump: Heal Thyself, America
by Peter ColemanYes, Donald Trump, the current Republican candidate for President of the United States, is a fear-mongering, narcissistic, opportunistic, reality TV celebrity with no experience in public office, little concern for the truth, and a strong penchant for racism, xenophobia and autocratic fascism.
But that is beside the point.
The history of the world is filled with such pathological persons. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Hirohito, Mao, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Tito, Idi Amin, Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, Charles Taylor, Joseph McCarthy, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, the list of strongmen is endless.
The focus of our attention should not be on these destructive, delusional men – their histories, personalities, psychologies, character or the food they eat. Really, who cares? At times like these we tend to focus on these individuals because, frankly, it is easier to understand, celebrate or attack single individuals than it is to comprehend and address the context that gives rise to them. Psychologists call this the fundamental attribution error, the tendency to place undue emphasis on the individual rather than on the context that supports their behavior. But there will always be plenty of these tyrants around, and focusing so much energy on them just incentivizes their actions and feeds their egos. Continue Reading...
How to grow your relationship (and protect it from conflict side-effects) with expressions of gratitude
by Ljubica ChatmanWe know that positive interactions among people buffer their relationship from potential deterioration in times of conflict. A recent study unpacks just what is meant by “positive”. Feeling good in interactions with your friends and significant others could arise from all kinds of positive emotions: joy, awe, hope, pride. However, unlike the rest, gratitude is an intrinsically relational emotion: we are grateful to someone (benefactor) for something good (kind deed) they did for us. Previous research has shown that expressions of gratitude strengthen our social bonds, but what the active ingredient of this social glue had largely been a mystery. Continue Reading...
Peter Coleman in Huffington Post: Racism and Violence in America: What are White Allies to do?
by Peter ColemanI see no changes, all I see is racist faces Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races We under, I wonder what it takes to make this One better place, let’s erase the wasted
Tupac Shakur, Changes (1998)
Fifty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, Tupac’s words seem prophetic. Despite decades of tireless work by activists and advocates of social justice, the mixture of ethnocentrism, racism, violence and oppression on which the U.S. was partially founded seems immovable. Yes, more overt forms of racism can seem to ebb, but more implicit forms of bias and civilized oppression often replace them, and in periods of economic downturn, overt racism and xenophobia come roaring back triggered by despotic politicians leveraging fear and hate. In an exceptionally militarized country awash in firearms (with more guns than persons) and security personnel, where income inequality is extreme and where the incarceration of 2.4 million of our own citizens (the highest in the world) disproportionately imprisons members of minority groups, high levels of criminal and state-sanctioned violence come to seem inevitable. As Tupac said, “That’s the way it is”. Continue Reading...
Non-Violent Resistance: How Sustainable Democracies Are Born?
by Kristen RuckiNonviolent resistance, which can include tactics like peaceful demonstrations, strikes, and civil disobedience, is a powerful strategy for social and political change. While research has shown that campaigns of nonviolent resistance (NVR) appear to be more successful than violent rebellions in ousting dictators from power, a recent study also suggests that these nonviolent resistance campaigns have lasting positive effects for new democracies. Bayer, Bethke, and Lambach (2016) tested the relationship between the presence of NVR during transitions to democracy and the durability of the democratic regimes they helped establish. The authors studied countries that transitioned to democracy after 1955 and found that if NVR is present during democratic transition, the resulting democracies survive longer than those that experienced violent resistance or no resistance campaign at all. In fact, the presence of NVR during transitions to democracy reduces the risk of democratic breakdown by over 50%. This held true even after accounting for other circumstances that may contribute to a sustainable democracy, like economic conditions, previous regime changes, neighboring democracies, and more. Continue Reading...
How much power do our leaders have to shape cultural norms and how we react to wrongdoing?
by Becca BassWhen people break the rules of ethical behavior, we usually look for explanations by studying the personality of individual rule-breakers. Because of this, we don’t know as much about how unethical behaviors spread within groups and organizations. When we start to think about how people’s behaviors influence each other and become almost contagious, it raises a couple of important questions, including: Who has the most power to influence group norms, and how do these norms change how groups react to unethical behaviors specifically? Continue Reading...
Open Source your Analysis: Participatory Approaches to Systems Mapping
by Stephen Gray, Adapt Research and Consulting People living and working on complex systems, which is pretty much all of us, find ourselves baffled and inspired in equal measures by their unpredictable behavior. Complex systems, be they storm systems (environmental), the endocrine system (biological), or the dancefloor at your office Christmas party (social), can be impossible to predict, let alone control. Continue Reading...Integrative conflict management style influences how we express dissent to our supervisors
by Regina KimDissent is an important feedback mechanism that can lead to greater employee satisfaction and commitment as well as creativity and innovation. Organizational dissent is defined as the verbal expression of contradictory opinions and disagreements (Hegstrom, 1990). Upward dissent entails the expression of disagreement to supervisors, superiors, or management and it has been found to be an indicator of work engagement. Continue Reading...
Knowledge is Power—When Do You Chose to Share It?
by Aimee LaceIt is often said that “Knowledge is power,” and this plays out in the choices made in organizations. Perhaps you have a colleague who could be your rival for a promotion. You consider sharing an idea with them, but refrain because it may help them advance over you. While strategic thinking in how you share information can be helpful, there are situations in which it is beneficial to share information more freely. To explore how this might happen, Balau and Utz (2016) looked into how a person’s view of their power over others influenced how they chose to share information. Continue Reading...
Multilingualism and language diversity at work
by Regina KimPeople learn new information from a variety of sources, including from conversing with one another. How credible the new information is to the listener often depends on how reasonable the information sounds, but also the credibility of the person who says it. A person’s credibility may in turn be related to how they say it. Continue Reading...