December 4, 2006

Martorana Examines How Individuals Bring About Organizational Changes

By Chantelle Wallace

There are good ways and there are bad ways for an individual to attempt to bring about changes within an organization or workplace. Paul Martorana, assistant professor of management, discussed both Nov. 21 in a presentation for the Faculty Research Speaker Series.

Normative actions are the positive ways employees bring attention to problems and potential new ideas to management.  An example Martorana cited was when Hewlett-Packard workers staged a toga play to demonstrate some grievances and suggest alternatives. The production was so successful that it was eventually viewed by the company’s CEO who took their suggestions seriously enough to implement a few of them.

Video: Watch Prof. Martorana discuss organizational learning and non-normative behavior. (wmv)

The bad ways are non-normative actions, such as sabotage-type behavior like the disgruntled Bank of America employees that planted a “logic bomb” in the company’s system, which destroyed the entire client database.

Martorana said that his research shows that employees with a “sense of power” are more likely to engage in non-normative actions to affect change in their organizations.

Both males and females with a “sense of power” have higher testosterone levels as well as increased anger and pride, Martorana said. They are also more inclined to leave a job rather than try to use normative methods to create organizational change.

Employees with a sense of power may be ultimately less beneficial to an organization. Therefore, empowering individual workers is not always in a company’s best interest, Martorana said.

For example, tires manufactured at Firestone during two periods of labor unrest were found to be those implicated in the company’s tire recall of 2000, Martorana said. These defective tires led to 192 deaths and Firestone’s stock valuation decreased by $10 billion.

“So it's important to know when you become a leader or manager...the things you would want to [instill] in your employees or have your management have as a culture within your organization...is to use more normative ways to get change,” Martorana said.

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