Ralph H. Kilmann

University of Pittsburgh | Pitt · Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

Corporate transformation is fundamentally changing how all employees in an organization perceive, think, and behave — so that they can satisfy the diverse needs of all key stakeholders for an extended period of time. Due to our turbulent global economy, achieving corporate transformation continues to be at the forefront of senior management's atten...

This paper describes the rationale and development of a new measure of five interpersonal conflict-handling modes (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating), which attempts to control for the social desirability response bias. The instrument is entitled: "Management-of-Differences Exercise," or the MODE instrument. The re...

Diverse explanatory conflict models and intervention strategies reflect key perceptual/attributional choices. Two key choices are used as organizing devices to identify four broad perspectives upon conflict: external process, external structural, internal process, and internal structural. Diagnostic concepts and intervention strategies from the lit...

For theoretical and methodological convenience, accountants often assume that the divisions of an organization are largely independent of one another and that divisional managers therefore can make decisions consistent with global optimality. Along with these assumptions, accountants have taken the structure of an organization as fixed and not chan...

Even though the 2020 election has been decided, the issues underlying it will be around for a long time. For this reason, we return once again to the topic of Leadership and examine it from the standpoint of a different perspective on Mental Health.

In the last chapter, we showed that Defense Mechanisms operate on at least two levels, the personal and the organizational. They also apply equally to institutions and thus to societies as a whole. Indeed, they relate to every aspect of our Being.

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of assumptions. For this reason, we want to describe a general method known as Assumptional Analysis for uncovering and analyzing key assumptions. It’s best described in terms of an important case with which Mitroff was involved.

No less problematic than the various elements we’ve been discussing are the kinds of knowledge that are needed to navigate a complex world of Wicked Messes. As we shall see, it’s not just a matter of Epistemology, i.e., formal theories of knowledge, but how they are affected by and interact with different Psychological states of mind, especially th...

Given the importance of Wicked Messes, we need to say more about ways of dealing with them. In a series of publications, we and our colleagues have developed a number of Heuristics for Coping with Messes. If the underlying conditions are met, there is every reason to believe that they will accomplish their intended job. Nonetheless, they are only H...

We want to summarize and thereby tie together all of the previous discussions on Mental Health, Attachment Theory, Inquiring Systems, Culture, the Jungian Framework, Conflict Management, Surfacing Assumptions, and Defense Mechanisms. Used appropriately, they are indispensable in helping people deal with Reality.

Since we’ve talked repeatedly about the importance of Systems Thinking, we want to examine the Coronavirus from a different form. It brings out different aspects of the Virus that along with the Psychodynamic theories we examined in Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-71764-3_1 are difficult to ascertain without it.

First and foremost, Inquiry Systems or ISs are major models for the production and authentication of credible knowledge in which, along with Ethics, we put our basic trust to guide our lives. However, at the same time, ISs also serve as fundamental coping mechanisms to alleviate the intense anxiety that accompanies the immense uncertainty associate...

We want to turn to another major crisis that demands our serious attention. Not only is it important in its own right, but it reveals other important factors that bear on the nature of complex messy Systems.

The first two chapters have presented major challenges to what we commonly take as Reality and what we need to know and do if we are to stand any hope whatsoever in managing it. This chapter shows that it’s even more complex than we have dared imagine in our wildest dreams.

We begin our examination of Enlightened Leadership by exploring a number of Psychoanalytically based theories, in particular with regard to what they have to teach us about the human condition. Thus, we briefly examine some of the key concepts and ideas of Melanie Klein, Sigmund Freud, Donald Winnicott, Eric Berne, and John Bowlby. One of the major...

This open access book provides a comprehensive look at the pluses and minuses of leadership in times of an unparalleled crisis, such as the COVID-19 global pandemic. It examines the COVID-19 crisis in terms of psychodynamics, crisis management, and especially from the standpoint of complex, messy systems. It analyses how leaders need to think and a...

Purpose To present the Organizational Courage Assessment (OCA) and explore its construct validity. Design/Methodology/Approach The OCA assesses the frequency that members (1) observe potential acts of courage in their organization and (2) fear performing those acts of courage—which defines four types of organizations: bureaucratic organizations (li...

This study examines the impact of reward practices on the relationship between an organizational strategy based on the principles of total quality management (TQM) and perceptions of firm performance. Major findings include: higher levels of firm performance were significantly correlated with greater use of TQM practices, but not with greater use o...

An overview is given on a research conducted to validate the importance of aligning the reward system in support of TQM and to shed light on how management can use the reward system to ensure that TQM is as effective as possible. It is emphasized that the increased use of appropriate intrinsic and extrinsic reward practices should be seriously cons...

Although the topic of organizational learning is still in the early stages of development, there are two interrelated issues that guide most discussions in the literature. How is knowledge acquired and used by individuals and organizations? How can the speed at which knowledge is acquired and used be increased? This article resolves these key quest...

Storytelling has often been presented as one way of assessing the subjective, hard-to-measure variables that affect organizational success such as corporate culture and group norms. The content of organizational stories, however, can provide valuable information concerning both the informal and formal organization. As such, stories can be used much...

In the rush to stay in tune with the rapid pace of change, many organizations are now implementing total quality management (TQM)--often without first examining whether they are ready to take full advantage of what this approach has to offer. Indeed, if TQM is implemented as a quick fix (for example, getting everyone involved in learning tools and...

Investigated the reasons why organizations initiated major planned change efforts, what they were changing, and how changes were being made. Individuals with large-scale change (LSC) program experience provided descriptions of 310 such efforts. A typical LSC effort was initiated in response to or in anticipation of external environmental changes. S...

Individuals who have participated in large-scale change programs were asked to identify issues that have a highly positive impact or a highly negative impact on the change process. Managers, researchers, internal consultants, and external consultants listed over 900 issues that they believe have an impact on the ultimate success of large-scale chan...

This article discusses the results of a study designed to identify key issues in the large-scale planned change process. 80 internal consultants, 58 external consultants, 71 researchers, and 189 managers indicated the extent to which they perceived various issues as having a positive or negative influence on the process of large-scale change. These...

The results of a study designed to investigate issues in large-scale change efforts are presented. The sample for this study consisted of 398 individuals with expertise in the area of planned change. Individuals were asked to indicate the types of issues they perceived as having a positive or negative impact on large-scale change programs in genera...

Leading authorities share their approaches to understanding, managing and changing organizational cultures. Includes methods for identifying cultural norms, reinforcing the positive aspects of existing culture, and building new cultures that support organizational goals and strategies.

The current popularity of corporate culture has raised some important issues. Does culture have an impact? How deep seated is culture? Can culture be changed? Corporate culture is not merely a passing fad but represents a fundamental shift in our effort to understand the complex, multifaceted organizations of today. However, it cannot be approached...

Describes the psychological dynamics of troublemakers (TMs) in organizations, why organizational change efforts expose TMs, and a process for managing these individuals. TMs are not well-intentioned individuals who simply disagree with company policy; they exhibit unhealthy or destructive behaviors such as lying, cheating, stealing, harassing, inti...

Numerous typologies have been offered for sorting the major contingencies of organizational functioning. Types of effectiveness, environments, technologies, structures, controls, strategies, goals, decision-making processes, leadership styles, job designs, and cognitive preferences, are just some examples. This paper proposes that the variations in...

It is argued that the necessary step in the formulation of “good” theories and their subsequent testing and refinement is uncovering the relevant underlying assumptions that different scientists make concerning the nature of human behavior, social environments, and the interactions between these. Since assumptions are, by definition, implicit, unco...

A number of different design alternatives are distinguished according to whether each is best for addressing a well-defined or an ill-defined problem. The latter is reserved for a collateral design, one that coexists with the formal, operational design but is structured as a flexible, open, loose, " organic-adaptive " system of problem-solving grou...

The concept of values has been defined differently within each discipline in the social sciences and many different methods have been proposed to measure individual values. For the purpose of deriving a unique concept of values it was necessary to distinguish values from other related concepts. This was accomplished by viewing values as evaluative...

A philosophy of science is discussed that distinguishes knowledge development from knowledge utilization. As an integrating link, a technology is defined as a sequence of decision and action steps that seeks to create purposeful change based on whatever knowledge is available currently, subject to ethical considerations. The MAPS design technology...

A philosophy of science is discussed that distinguishes knowledge development from knowledge utilization. As an integrating link, a technology is defined as a sequence of decision and action steps that seeks to create purposeful change based on whatever knowledge is available currently, subject to ethical considerations. The MAPS design technology...

This paper deals with the critical role that assumptions play in strategic planning and strategic problem forming. It attempts to formulate a methodology or systematic procedure for (1) uncovering (surfacing), (2) analyzing the effect, and (3) challenging key policy assumptions. The paper shows how the dialectical approach to strategic planning fir...

Cattin [Cattin, P. Comment on designing scientific journals. Management Sci. 25 (3) 295-296.] makes an interesting point in that the unstandardized comparisons made in King, Kilmann and Sochats [King, W. R., Kilmann, R. H., Sochats, K. 1978. Designing scientific journals: issues and survey results. Management Sci. 24 (7, March) 774-784.] do not acc...

Although many different approaches are currently being used to create planned change in organizations, Kilmann and Mitroff feel that too little attention has been paid to determining the effectiveness of these different methods in solving the organizations' problems. Based on intervention theory and the consulting process, the authors offer a metho...

Test-retest reliabilities, internal consistencies, and convergent test validities were examined for four measures of interpersonal behavior in handling conflict. Subjects were 86 graduate students in management. Instruments were those developed by Blake and Mouton, Lawrence and Lorsch, Hall, and by Thomas and Kilmann. Reliabilities were in the low-...

This paper describes the ongoing development and evolution of a highly particular and important planning process known as Idealized Planning (IP). IP was originally developed to free planners from self-imposed, psychological constraints in the planning process. Instead of regarding any situation as fixed and hemmed in, no matter how rigid the const...

The design parameters of scientific journals are important policy choices for journal editors as well as for the professional areas which they represent. The editorial structure of a journal presents a set of choices which importantly affect the variety of papers which are published, those that are submitted, and to some degree, the nature of futur...

An experimental study was designed to test whether task composition, people composition, or their interaction affected various aspects of group process, e.g., satisfaction, influence, conflict, communication, etc. Each composition variable was varied according to homogeneous or heterogeneous characteristics resulting in a 2 × 2 design. 18 groups of...

Training of managers generally emphasizes "well-structured" problems and puts little emphasis on "ill-structured" problems-the sort often encountered by working businesspeople. The authors cite the necessity of accurate problem formulation and knowledge of the various approaches to problem solving. They report and analyze a study of the opinions of...

This paper describes the results of a two-and-a-half year effort in proactive planning at the Bureau of the Census in Washington, D.C. Most large-scale organizations merely react to their future(s) instead of actively planning for and thus anticipating the future(s) they would like to bring about; would the Bureau be bold enough to try and break ou...

Not defining the organization's problems correctly before various change methods are designed and implemented is seen to be a major pitfall of most consulting/intervention processes. In order to overcome this critical deficiency, a number of guidelines and methods are proposed to involve the consultants and organization members in conscious, effect...

Because of increasingly dynamic and changing environments there is a greater need to create particular problem-solving designs so that frequently emerging problems can be defined and addressed. The MAPS Design Technology is a systematic set of methodologies to actually create problem-solving designs distinct from the organization's operational desi...

Kenneth Clark suggests that as far as social problems are concerned, "Social scientists plan for the past, rather than the future." It is In order to confront the norm, that this paper is written. It attempts to analyze the problems of sex-role stereotyping as these affect organizations today. This paper argues for a planned technology for change,...

This paper neither presents the kind of data nor the kinds of symbols that are found in the typical paper in Management Science. It deals with an important class of variables that have been slighted in the literature of OR/MS, qualitative variables. This paper presents a methodology for gathering and for analyzing a special class of qualitative var...

This study has sought to investigate the Jungian psychological correlates of an individual's choice of different interpersonal conflict-handling modes: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. These five modes were defined according to the two basic behavioral dimensions of assertiveness and cooperativeness and were also...

This paper critically discusses the nature various schemes for evaluating scientific research. Through the use of Jungian personality theory, it attempts to explicate the psychological forces and assumptions underlying the vast majority of evaluation schemes. The paper argues that most schemes are greatly restricted in their choice of an underlying...

When top management decides to partake in an extended organization-development program, its members should assure themselves that the existing organization design will not undermine the OD effort by having the wrong people and the wrong set of tasks in the subsystems to be developed. A theory and technology are represented in the MAPS method, which...

A projective instrument entitled the "Kilmann Insight Test" (KIT) was devised to measure the Interpersonal Value Constructs (IVCs) of individuals, defined as; the mental categories through which an individual perceives and interprets the desirable and undesirable features of interpersonal behavior. The KIT requires an individual to differentiate on...

This paper proposes a broader design objective based on recent concepts of purposefulness in organizational systems. A multivariate analysis was used, which allowed a wide variety of faculty members of a School of Management to participate in the design decision. Results of the analysis are compared with groupings of faculty members 20 months after...