What question did this study set out to answer?

Assess the theoretical and empirical evidence for a cross-level threat-rigidity effect in individuals, groups, and organizations.

December 1, 1981Administrative Science Quarterly

Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis

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Authors

BSBarry M. StawUniversity of California, Berkeley LSLance E. SandelandsNorthwestern University JDJane E. DuttonUniversity of Cambridge

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Implication

Theoretical synthesis reveals restricted information processing and constricted control under threat across individual, group, and organizational levels, highlighting behavioral rigidity under crisis.

Key Points

Assess the theoretical and empirical evidence for a cross-level threat-rigidity effect in individuals, groups, and organizations.
Synthesized empirical literature across multiple analytical levels, from individual psychology to macro-organizational systems.
Evaluated behavioral responses to stress, external threat, and radical environmental changes.
Threat exposure consistently restricts information processing across individual, group, and organizational units.
Threat conditions induce a constriction of control, centralizing influence and reducing behavioral flexibility.
Resulting rigid behavioral patterns produce either functional survival mechanisms or dysfunctional failures depending on environmental demands.

Cite This Study

Staw et al. (1981) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69d729d83f906f6a06bef832 https://doi.org/10.2307/2392337

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Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis

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Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Threat Rigidity Effects in Organizational Behavior: A Multilevel Analysis

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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