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About ODDA
- Organizational Design and Development Associates
- Hamden, CT, United States
- We are an organizational development consulting firm that helps people work together better. We're interested in how organizations can become more balanced, more compassionate, more energizing, more ethical, more responsible and still be profitable. We're also interested in how people thrive and struggle as individuals in group and organizational life. Why is group and organizational life so hard sometimes? So great at others?
Maybe human brains are hard-wired for hierarchy?
ReplyDeleteI just read a 2008 study by the Nation Institute of Mental Health (part of the National Institutes of Health), in which brain circuitry associated with social status was identified. Imaging studies showed that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order.
The study focus was on public health issues, but it made me think about hierarchy in organizations and organizational health. If we as humans have biochemical reactions in response to social power structures, then what does this mean in terms of our responsibilities as leaders and managers? We need to be aware of the impact our organization's formal and informal structures have on our staff. Is reporting responsibility ambiguous? Some workers may be happily autonomous, but for others it may increase stress. Is overt competition among workers healthy? Maybe there's a better way to achieve the results you seek.
"Our position in social hierarchies strongly influences motivation as well as physical and mental health," said NIMH Director Thomas R Insel, M.D.
You can read about the study at: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/apr2008/nimh-23.htm
I'm interested in what other OD practitioners have to say about this...