Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science presents two special issues in which nine research-based articles and two overviews address various theoretical and empirical perspectives on the process of collaboration and the forms of collaborative alliances. In the first overview, the articles are mapped onto six theoretical perspectives according to how they address the preconditions, process, and outcomes of collaboration. In this overview, the research findings are analyzed in terms of the following overarching issues essential to a comprehensive theory of collaboration: (a) a definition of collaboration, (b) the auspices under which a collaboration is convened and the role of the convener, (c) implications of the collaboration for environmental complexity and participants' control over the environment, and (d) the relationship between individual participants' self-interest and the collective interests of all involved in the collaborative alliance. This theoretical analysis indicates several fruitful avenues for future research.

This research explores how group- and organizational-level factors affect errors in administering drugs to hospitalized patients. Findings from patient care groups in two hospitals show systematic differences not just in the frequency of errors, but also in the likelihood that errors will be detected and learned from by group members. Implications for learning in and by work teams in general are discussed.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, affected the U.S. airline industry more than almost any other industry. Certain airlines emerged successful and demonstrated remarkable resilience while others languished. This investigation identifies reasons why some airline companies recovered successfully after the attacks while others struggled. Evidence is provided that layoffs after the crisis, although intended to foster recovery, instead inhibited recovery throughout the 4 years after the crisis. But, layoffs after the crisis were strongly correlated with lack of financial reserves and lack of a viable business model prior to the crisis. Digging deeper, the authors find that having a viable business model itself depended on the development and preservation of relational reserves over time. Our model shows that the maintenance of adequate financial reserves enables the preservation of relational reserves and vice versa, contributing to organizational resilience in times of crisis.

Work is increasingly complex, specialized, and interdependent, requiring coordination across roles, disciplines, organizations, and sectors to achieve desired outcomes. Relational coordination theory proposes that relationships of shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect help to support frequent, timely, accurate, problem-solving communication, and vice versa, enabling stakeholders to effectively coordinate their work across boundaries. While the theory contends that cross-cutting structures can strengthen relational coordination, and that relational coordination promotes desired outcomes for multiple stakeholders, the empirical evidence supporting the theory has not previously been synthesized. In this article, we systematically review all empirical studies assessing the predictors and outcomes of relational coordination published from 1991 to 2019. We find evidence supporting the existing theory and discuss how that evidence supports expanding the theory from a linear structure–process–outcomes model to a dynamic model of change. An agenda for researchers and practitioners is proposed.

This article analyzes the role that is played by affect in negotiations. I analyze the origins of affect and its implications for negotiation processes and outcomes. Negotiation may entail both positive and negative affect; in addition, the two kinds of affect may have positive as well as negative consequences. My analysis of the role played by affect occurs primarily at the level of the dyad; however, I do explore the impact of organizational context and its impact on the development of the negotiation process. Implications for future research are discussed.

Organizations in the health care industry and beyond face pressures to lower their costs while maintaining quality, resulting in high levels of stress for their workers. In a nine-hospital study, this article explores the role that relationships play in enabling resilient responses to external pressures and the organizational practices that enable workers to respond in a resilient way when organizational change is required. The article argues that relational coordination—communicating and relating for the purpose of task integration—is a resilient response to external threats that require a coordinated collective response across multiple functions or roles. Findings suggest that workers engage in higher levels of relational coordination when they perceive this type of threat but that the presence of a particular type of high performance work system—a relational work system—greatly strengthens this resilient response.

This article examines the importance to the study of organizational change and development of the first phase of the Harwood studies, which were conducted between 1939 and 1947. It examines the studies and their place within Lewin's broader research agenda and personal philosophy. The article shows that the Harwood studies marked a significant break with the past by moving research on group behavior from the laboratory to the real world, changing the focus of research from understanding group behavior per se to understanding and changing group behavior, and pioneering the use of participative management. The article concludes that the first phase of the Harwood studies can be seen as having laid the foundations of organization development (OD) and as having a continuing relevance to the challenges facing organizations today.

The article presents a concrete paradigm which may be useful in the facilitation and evaluation of social change, particularly in relatively small groups with moderate to high amounts of interaction among their members. The methodology includes (1) the systematic assessment of the social environment, (2) individualized feedback to participating members, (3) concrete planning of specific methods by which change might occur, and (4) reassessment of the social environment in order to monitor the results of the change process. Preliminary applications of the method have been made on psychiatric wards, small correctional units or cottages for young juvenile offenders, university residence halls, and high school classrooms. Examples of the use of the methodology in studies of a psychiatric ward and an adolescent residential center are presented.

The article assesses the role played by national cultural values in shaping the evolution of international strategic alliances. The authors build on a systems dynamic model of alliance evolution in which the developmental path of an alliance depends on how the partners manage process and outcome discrepancies that may emerge during the course of an alliance. They argue that national culture affects alliance evolution by influencing partners’ sensitivity to discrepancy detection, shaping the nature of attributions they make, and by affecting the partners’ reactions to discrepancies. They focus on differences in three value orientations among cultures. Activity orientation, mastery over nature, and assumptions about human nature are the value orientations that affect alliance functioning. The authors argue that alliances are prone to interpretational, attributional, and behavioral conflicts originating from differences in value orientation among partners. The three value orientations are shown to be the most useful in explaining the dynamics of alliances.