Functions of Organizational Leaders in Cultural Change: Financial and Social Well-Being

Abstract

Social responsibility looms as a key feature of leadership decision making and citizenship behavior as the world's resources are depleted, health and education crises increase, and communities, societies, and cultures adapt to a new context shaped by emerging technologies, political upheavals, global warming, and other drivers of behavior change. In this article we call for future work in behavior analysis, emphasizing the importance of organizational leaders' decision-making behaviors in establishing organizational practices that support prosocial behavior and eliminate aversive conditions within cultural systems. The discussion expands on recent behavior analytic literature on cultural change and leadership behavior by first providing a summary of popular definitions of human well-being and relating this concept to prosocial behavior. By drawing upon these definitions, we then summarize the behavior analytic concepts of metacontingencies

What Studying Leadership Can Teach Us About the Science of Behavior

“…I concur. As a field, we have much to do to address complexity, in spite of the valuable work of many behavior analysts trying to advance cultural studies from a behavioral perspective (e.g., Baker, et al 2015;Foxall 2015;Houmanfar, et al 2015;Houmanfar, Rodrigues, and Smith 2009;Houmanfar, Rodrigues, and Ward 2010;Malagodi and Jackson 1989;Mattaini 2003aMattaini , 2003bMattaini , 2004Pennypacker 2004;Sandaker 2009;Smith, Houmanfar, and Louis 2011;Todorov 2013;Todorov, Moreira, and Moreira 2004;Ulman 2004).…”

Discussions and Research: Leadership, Cultural Change, and Beyond

“…They also address the potential of how collaborative research among academic groups, businesses, and communities can affect the well-being of organizational members as well as consumers of organizational services and products. Focusing on the well-being of organizational members, consumers plus the overarching social and physical environments, pomotes the challenge of examining the pro-social value in light of the financial value of our interventions (Houmanfar, Alavosius, Morford, Reimer, & Herbst, 2015;Houmanfar & Mattaini, 2016).…”

Organized Cooperation: a Behavioral Perspective on Volunteerism

“…Houmanfar and colleagues (2015) suggest shifting the emphasis to establishing organizational practices that support and maintain prosocial behavior and eliminate aversive conditions. Leadership practice is essential in shifting organizational values through communication, motivating the workforce, and ensuring the necessary resources to do so (Houmanfar et al, 2015). When leadership cultivates a more reinforcing system, volunteers can then respond to immediate contingencies resulting in long-term benefits to the system and ultimately those served.…”

“…Prosocial leadership and organizational rule generation reinforcing prosocial behaviors are integral factors to consider when evaluating strategies for cultural change (Houmanfar, Alavosius, Morford, Herbst, & Reimer, 2015). In order to do so, a larger cultural analysis of creating and sustaining prosocial environments is necessary.…”