PMGM7001 Chap.4 Fit, Attitude Polarization and Reality Sharing
Fit, Attitude Polarization and Reality Sharing
The pressure to fit
The second topic starts with fit, defined as the compatibility of person, job and organisational characteristics, and with the pressure on minorities to fit in.
The lecture reports survey evidence of that pressure in Asia Pacific finance, international findings on discomfort with women leaders, and a double standard in which the same behaviour reads as assertive in a majority member and aggressive in a minority one.
Accounts of senior professionals describe micro-aggressions and years spent adapting who they were to belong.
Why challenged views harden
The lecture then asks whether people's views change naturally or under challenge. Its answer is attitude polarization: after receiving more information, attitudes become more extreme in the direction they started.
Challenged people seek confirming information, defend themselves, take in the other view without adopting it, and lean on the group they belong to. The lecture's example is two camps in a 2020 election reading the same event as proof of what they already believed.
How shared reality forms instead
The alternative is reality sharing, the process by which people make sense of the world together.
Research the lecture presents found that couples whose shared reality was challenged worked to restore it, and that strangers who interpreted ambiguous images together felt closer and more certain of their own views.
Similarity, one researcher concludes, is often created in the conversation rather than found beforehand.
What it means for a manager
The practical lesson is to stop asking divided groups to argue about conclusions and to give them a shared object to interpret. Self-disclosure that moves from shallow to deep, authenticity and consideration are the ingredients the lecture lists.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Three kinds of fit and what each costs
- 02
Evidence of pressure to look the part
- 03
Micro-aggressions and adapting to belong
- 04
Attitude polarization and its four reactions
- 05
Why more information can widen a divide
- 06
Reality sharing and its indicators
- 07
Behavioural signatures of a merged view
- 08
Fitting out, fitting in, and fitting in with individualities
Worked example · free
Choose between a debate and a shared task
- 2Predict the effect of the debate using attitude polarization.
- 2Propose a shared-reality alternative.
- 2Say what would show it had worked.
Key terms
- Person-organisation Fit
- The match between a person's attributes, such as values, and the characteristics of the organisation they work in.
- Micro-aggression
- A comment or action that subtly and often unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude, signalling to the target that they are not part of the group.
- Attitude Polarization
- The tendency of attitudes to move further in the direction they already leaned once people receive more information about the issue.
- Confirmation Bias
- The tendency to search for and favour information that confirms what one already believes.
- Reality Sharing
- The process by which people make sense of the world together until they experience it in a similar way, which increases closeness and certainty.
- Self-disclosure
- Sharing information about oneself, which the lecture lists as moving from shallow to deep as shared reality develops.
Fit, Attitude Polarization and Reality Sharing FAQ
Is wanting employees to fit in a bad thing?
Not in itself. Fit between person, job and organisation has real benefits. The lecture's concern is pressure to conform that makes minorities hide what is different about them, which can cost confidence and wellbeing and deprive the team of the diversity it hired for.
Why doesn't presenting more evidence change people's minds?
Because challenged people tend to seek confirming information and defend their view, so extra information can push attitudes further in the direction they started. Evidence works better when people interpret it together than when it is used to challenge them.
How can I use reality sharing in my project group?
Begin by interpreting the case or the company data together before anyone proposes an argument. Listen for joint conclusions and shared shorthand; they are signs that the group is forming a common view it can then defend together.
Assessment move
Recall the last disagreement in a group you belonged to and classify what happened, polarization or shared reality, naming the feature that decided it. Then rewrite the meeting so that it would have produced the other outcome. That rewrite is the application the lecture wants to see.
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