Edward J Lawler
Biographic Data
| ID | 3610941 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edward J Lawler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edward J |
| FAMILY NAME | Lawler |
| SIGNATURE | LAWLER E J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 79 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1148 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 71 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 8 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Interview with Ed Lawler for Theory and Society
Improving Performance in Work Groups
We report the results from an experiment that examines how and when joint tasks and financial incentive structures promote group performance on an objective task. The purpose is to identify behavioral mechanisms produced by these factors that link structural interdependencies to task accuracy. The context is a cooperative four-person group that seeks to resolve a collective problem (i.e., find a solution to a survival task). The experiment manipu…
The Formation of Group Ties in Open Interaction Groups
We examine how task jointness and group incentive structures bear on the nature and strength of the affective and cognitive ties that people forge to a group. The argument is that affective group ties have stronger effects on social order than cognitive group ties. There are two general hypotheses. First, joint tasks generate stronger cognitive and affective ties to groups, whereas group incentives generate cognitive but not necessarily affective…
The Problem of Social Order in Nested Group Structures
Advances in Group Processes
Advances in Group Processes
Handbook of the Social Psychology of Inequality
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of social psychological research on inequality for a graduate student and professional audience. Drawing on all of the major theoretical traditions in sociological social psychology, its chapters demonstrate the relevance of social psychological processes to this central sociological concern. Each chapter in the volume has a distinct substantive focus, but the chapters will also share common e…
Being on the Edge of Chaos
Exchange and cohesion in dyads and triads
The Emergence of Embedded Relations and Group Formation in Networks of Competition
This study examines how and when small networks of self-interested agents generate a group tie or affiliation at the network level. A group affiliation is formed when actors (a) perceive themselves as members of a group and (b) share resources with each other despite an underlying competitive structure. We apply a concept of structural cohesion to small networks of exchange and identify two dimensions of such networks that foster a group affiliat…
Advances in Group Processes
Altruism and Prosocial Behavior in Groups
In this volume scholars from a variety of disciplines address a range of phenomena related to the general question of when people behave in an altruistic fashion. The specific topics addressed in this volume include how empathy induced altruism can actually be a threat to the some larger collective good, the role of egoism in the production and maintenance of social order, the basis of cooperation in social dilemmas, an evolutionary account of se…
Social Exchange and Micro Social Order
This study uses an affect theory of social exchange (Lawler 2001) to investigate how and when network structures generate "micro social orders." Micro social order entails recurrent interactions, emotional reactions, perceptions of a group, and affective sentiments. The core theoretical argument is that micro orders, involving behavioral, cognitive, and affective dimensions, develop and are stronger to the degree that (1) actors engage in highly …
Advances in Group Processes
Chapter four compares and contrasts two classes of theoretical explanations for gender inequality: economic theories of statistical discrimination and social psychological theories of status discrimination. After evaluating both programs of research, the paper illustrates how status based theories may be relaxed to encompass more of the empirical landscape. The next chapter examines how legitimacy (or a lack thereof) in male or female dominated o…
Social psychology of the workplace
Introduction of Cecilia Ridgeway
The Cooley-Mead Award for career con tributions to social psychology is the highest award given by the social psychological com munity of the American Sociological Association. It is a great privilege and honor to be a part of this award session and to intro duce the 2005 recipient of this award, Professor Cecilia Ridgeway. Cecilia is cur rently the Lucy Stern Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. In this introduction I review the develo…
Commitment in Structurally Enabled and Induced Exchange Relations
Network structures both enable and constrain the development of social relations. This research investigates these features by comparing the development of commitments in structurally enabled and structurally induced exchange relations. We integrate ideas from the theory of relational cohesion and the choice process theory of commitment. In an experiment we manipulate and compare a structurally enabled relation with a structurally induced relatio…
Social Identification in Groups
Chapter eight examines the emergence of ideology in the context of theory and research on uncertainty, group identification, group prototypes and entitativity. The final chapter in the volume seeks to understand how multiple identity standards can be activated simultaneously, and how identity perceptions shift from members of separate groups to members of a single, more inclusive group. Overall, the volume includes papers that reflect a wide rang…
Advances in Group Processes
The Advances in Group Processes series publishes theoretical analyses, reviews and theory-based empirical chapters on group phenomena. Volume 19 includes papers that address fundamental issues of solidarity, cohesion and trust. Chapter one shows how solidarity is a consequence of group-level phenomena (competition) and individual level phenomena (similarity). The second chapter examines solidarity among injection drug users, showing that the cohe…
Group Cohesion, Trust and Solidarity (Advances in Group Processes)
Micro Social Orders
ing the Theory The theory can be abstracted by recasting key terms more broadly. Social interaction S On the basis of these propositions about joint tasks, the affect theory of exchange offers several hypotheses about structural effects on micro social orders. Aside from analyzing the different forms of exchange (negotiated, etc.), the theory can predict when networks are likely to evolve into groups and when attachments to relations are stronger…
Advances in Group Processes, Vol. 15
An Affect Theory of Social Exchange
This article develops a theory that explains how and when emotions, produced by social exchange, generate stronger or weaker ties to relations, groups, or networks. It is argued that social exchange produces positive or negative global feelings, which are internally rewarding or punishing. The theory indicates that social units (relations, groups, networks) are perceived as a source of these feelings, contingent on the degree of jointness in the …
Advances in Group Processes
Advances in Group Processes publishes theoretical analyses, reviews, and theory-based empirical chapters on group phenomena. The series adopts a broad conception of 'group processes', including work on groups ranging from the very small to the very large, and on classic and contemporary topics such as status, power, justice, influence, decision making, intergroup relations, and social networks. This volume covers a broad section of theory and res…
Comparison of Dependence and Punitive Forms of Power
This paper deals with the impact of power on tactical action in conflict. The theory and research is organized around two conceptual distinctions: one between power based on dependence versus punitive capability, and the other between relative power (i.e., power difference) and "total power" in a relationship (i.e., across actors). The paper will argue that these distinctions are important on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Theoretically,…
An Affect Theory of Social Exchange
This article develops a theory that explains how and when emotions, produced by social exchange, generate stronger or weaker ties to relations, groups, or networks. It is argued that social exchange produces positive or negative global feelings, which are internally rewarding or punishing. The theory indicates that social units (relations, groups, networks) are perceived as a source of these feelings, contingent on the degree of jointness in the …
Commitment in Exchange Relations
Les AA. proposent un modele d'evaluation de la theorie de la cohesion relationnelle. Celle-ci permet de predire comment et quand les individus dans le cadre des echanges se sentent engages dans le jeu relationnel. Celle-ci met en avant une conception dyadique de ce type de relation sociale et affirme qu'une situation percue de plus grande egalite de pouvoir stimule des echanges concus positivement et induit une perception de la relation concue co…
Social Exchange and Micro Social Order
This study uses an affect theory of social exchange (Lawler 2001) to investigate how and when network structures generate "micro social orders." Micro social order entails recurrent interactions, emotional reactions, perceptions of a group, and affective sentiments. The core theoretical argument is that micro orders, involving behavioral, cognitive, and affective dimensions, develop and are stronger to the degree that (1) actors engage in highly …
Power and the Emergence of Commitment Behavior in Negotiated Exchange
Dans cet article, les AA. examinent l'impact du pouvoir sur le developpement de l'engagement affectif dans les relations entre deux personnes. Lorsque l'engagement se developpe, les acteurs tendent a rester en relation en depit des alternatives et a utiliser les benefices necessaires au maintien de la relation
Bringing Emotions Into Social Exchange Theory
We analyze and review how research on emotion and emotional phenomena can elaborate and improve contemporary social exchange theory. After identifying six approaches from the psychology and sociology of emotion, we illustrate how these ideas bear on the context, process, and outcome of exchange in networks and groups. The paper reviews the current state of the field, develops testable hypotheses for empirical study, and provides specific suggesti…
Network Structure and Emotion in Exchange Relations
Network structures promote cohesive social relations among some actors and not others. Based on the theory of relational cohesion (Lawler and Yoon 1996), we hypothesize that an emotional/affective process explains how and when network structures produce such effects. The main ideas are: (1) If a network produces differential exchange frequencies among component dyads then, ceterus paribus, that network will tend to produce different degrees of in…
Affective Attachments to Nested Groups
This paper offers a theory linking choice processes with the experience of transitory emotion and the development of enduring affective attachments to nested collectivities, i.e., subgroups within a larger group, organization, or society. According to the theory, persons become emotionally attached to groups that strengthen their generalized sense of control. The underlying propositions are that: (1) choice processes that foster a high sense of c…
Emotion and Group Cohesion in Productive Exchange
This study refines and experimentally tests a theory of relational cohesion that explains how and when actors become committed to one another in the context of multiactor exchange. The theory asserts that frequent social exchange results in (1) positive emotions that solidify and strengthen the person‐to‐group bond and (2) uncertainty reduction that renders the focal group more salient in relation to others. These two mechanisms produce a sense o…
Structural Social Psychology and the Micro-Macro Problem
A unique multilevel perspective is explicated to help build theorical bridges between micro and macro levels of analysis in sociology. The perspective portrays actors as having minimal properties of purposiveness and responsiveness, encounters as interaction episodes between multiple actors, microstructures as local patterns of interaction emerging from and subsequently influencing encounters, and macrostructures as networks of social positions. …
Time Pressure and the Development of Integrative Agreements in Bilateral Negotiations
A laboratory experiment examined the effects of time pressure on the process and outcome of integrative bargaining. Time pressure was operationalized in terms of the amount of time available to negotiate. As hypothesized, high time pressure produced nonagreements and poor negotiation outcomes only when negotiators adopted an individualistic orientation; when negotiators adopted a cooperative orientation, they achieved high outcomes regardless of …
Coercive Capability in Conflict
Edward J. Lawler, Rebecca S. Ford, Mary A. Blegen, Coercive Capability in Conflict: A Test of Bilateral Deterrence Versus Conflict Spiral Theory, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 93-107
The Emergence of Embedded Relations and Group Formation in Networks of Competition
This study examines how and when small networks of self-interested agents generate a group tie or affiliation at the network level. A group affiliation is formed when actors (a) perceive themselves as members of a group and (b) share resources with each other despite an underlying competitive structure. We apply a concept of structural cohesion to small networks of exchange and identify two dimensions of such networks that foster a group affiliat…
Power Processes in Bargaining
This is a theoretical article that integrates and extends a particular program of work on power in bargaining relationships. Power is conceptualized as a structurally based capability, and power use as tactical action falling within either conciliatory or hostile categories. The core propositions are (1) the greater the total amount of power in a relationship, the greater the use of conciliatory tactics and the lower the use of hostile tactics; a…
Exchange and cohesion in dyads and triads
Commitment in Structurally Enabled and Induced Exchange Relations
Network structures both enable and constrain the development of social relations. This research investigates these features by comparing the development of commitments in structurally enabled and structurally induced exchange relations. We integrate ideas from the theory of relational cohesion and the choice process theory of commitment. In an experiment we manipulate and compare a structurally enabled relation with a structurally induced relatio…
Micro Social Orders
ing the Theory The theory can be abstracted by recasting key terms more broadly. Social interaction S On the basis of these propositions about joint tasks, the affect theory of exchange offers several hypotheses about structural effects on micro social orders. Aside from analyzing the different forms of exchange (negotiated, etc.), the theory can predict when networks are likely to evolve into groups and when attachments to relations are stronger…
An Experimental Study of Factors Affecting the Mobilization of Revolutionary Coalitions
Revolutionary Coalition Strength and collective failure as determinants of status reallocation
Commitment to Nested Organizational Units
Relying on the fact that many organizations exhibit nested organizational structures, we identify several basic principles for understanding what produces different levels of employee commitment to the nested units. The principles identify the importance of the unit's distance from the employee, the capacity of the more proximate units to produce positive emotions, and the attribution process whereby employees assign responsibility for their posi…
Power and Tactics in Bargaining
This paper develops and tests an analytical framework for analyzing the selection of tactics in bargaining. Using a variant of power-dependence theory, the authors propose that bargainers will use different dimensions of dependence, such as the availability of alternative outcomes from other sources and the value of the outcomes at stake, to select among different tactics. To test this model, the authors conducted two simulation experiments that …
Coalition Formation
Power Dependence in Individual Bargaining
This study examines the impact of certain dimensions of dependence on the expected effectiveness of an influence attempt in a two-person bargaining situation. Assuming the role of employer, employee, or outside observer, 1,056 college students estimated the utility of an attempt by an employee to influence his employer with respect to a pay raise under various conditions of dependence. The results show that respondents attributed greatest utility…
The Formation of Group Ties in Open Interaction Groups
We examine how task jointness and group incentive structures bear on the nature and strength of the affective and cognitive ties that people forge to a group. The argument is that affective group ties have stronger effects on social order than cognitive group ties. There are two general hypotheses. First, joint tasks generate stronger cognitive and affective ties to groups, whereas group incentives generate cognitive but not necessarily affective…
Advances in Group Processes, Vol. 2
Comparison of Dependence and Punitive Forms of Power
Journal Article Comparison of Dependence and Punitive Forms of Power Get access Edward J. Lawler, Edward J. Lawler University of Iowa Address correspondence to Edward J. Lawler, Sociology Department, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Samuel B. Bacharach Samuel B. Bacharach Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Soci…
Revolutionary Coalition Strength and collective failure as determinants of status reallocation
Clergy Authority and Friendship with Parishioners
[Excerpt] Without challenging the general truth of the observation, one can nevertheless note considerable variation in the friendliness of clergymen. Is that variation owing simply to "personality" differences, or are there further structural features that differentially apply within the occupation? This paper argues that there are further structural features which can usefully be employed in understanding the friendship patterns of clergy with …
Professional-Bureaucratic Conflict and Intraorganizational Powerlessness among Social Workers
Since Max Weber's classic writings on bureaucracy, the relationship between professionalization and bureaucracy has been a central focus of organization theory and research (e.g., Parsons, 1947; Goulduer, 1954; Blauner, 1964; Blau, 1968, Meyer, 1968b; Blau and Schoenherr, 1971). Some research suggests that professionalization and bureaucratization are alternative or conflicting modes of organization (Udy, 1959 ; Stinchecombe, 1959; Litwak, 1961; …
Perception of power in conflict situations
Subjects rendered judgments regarding the power of the participants in a series of conflictual circumstances where an adversary threatened a target. These situations manipulated four independent variables: (a) the adversary's capacity to damage the target's interests, (b) the adversary's probability of actually attacking, (c) the target's ability to block the impending attack, and (d) the target's capacity to retaliate. Results showed that all of…
Behavior Influence and Personality
An Experimental Study of Factors Affecting the Mobilization of Revolutionary Coalitions
Coalition Formation
The Impact of Status Differences on Coalitional Agreements
This experiment investigated the impact of status differences between subordinates and face-to-face coalition negotiations on insurgent coalitional action. The effects of these variables were examined in stratified groups, where a leader established inequitable pay-rates, and subordinates could coalesce and destroy a portion of the leader's outcomes. The results showed that status differences (as opposed to status similarity) undermined the sense…
Endorsement of formal leaders
This experiment develops an integrative, path-analytic model for the endorsement accorded formal leaders. The model contains four independent variables reflecting aspects of group structure (i.e., group success-failure, the payoff distribution, the degree of support by others members for the leader, and the vulnerability of the leader). Also included are two intervening variables reflecting perceptual processes (attributed competence and attribut…
Definitions of Sociology
The Social Psychology of Bargaining and Negotiation
Outcome alternatives and value as criteria for multistrategy evaluations
Lawler35_Outcome_alternatives.pdf: 60 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020
The Perception of Power
Journal Article The Perception of Power Get access Samuel B. Bacharach, Samuel B. Bacharach Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Edward J. Lawler Edward J. Lawler University of Iowa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 55, Issue 1, September 1976, Pages 123–134, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/55.1.123 Published: 01 September 1976
Power Dependence in Individual Bargaining
This study examines the impact of certain dimensions of dependence on the expected effectiveness of an influence attempt in a two-person bargaining situation. Assuming the role of employer, employee, or outside observer, 1,056 college students estimated the utility of an attempt by an employee to influence his employer with respect to a pay raise under various conditions of dependence. The results show that respondents attributed greatest utility…
Power and Tactics in Bargaining
This paper develops and tests an analytical framework for analyzing the selection of tactics in bargaining. Using a variant of power-dependence theory, the authors propose that bargainers will use different dimensions of dependence, such as the availability of alternative outcomes from other sources and the value of the outcomes at stake, to select among different tactics. To test this model, the authors conducted two simulation experiments that …
The Social Psychology of Coalition Formation and Organizational Theory
Bargaining
Power and Politics in Organizations
The Science of Conflict
Cooptation and Threats as "Divide and Rule" Tactics
This study examined the impact of a leader's cooptation and threat tactics on the mobilization of revolutionary coalitions. The setting for the research was a stratified, three-person group in which a mythical leader established inequitable pay rates and directed a cooptation or threat tactic at one of two subordinates. The results showed that (a) both cooptation and threat tactics created a conflict of interest between the subordinates, (b) coop…
Bargaining
Negotiation Behavior
Bargaining
Negotiation Behavior
Time Pressure and the Development of Integrative Agreements in Bilateral Negotiations
A laboratory experiment examined the effects of time pressure on the process and outcome of integrative bargaining. Time pressure was operationalized in terms of the amount of time available to negotiate. As hypothesized, high time pressure produced nonagreements and poor negotiation outcomes only when negotiators adopted an individualistic orientation; when negotiators adopted a cooperative orientation, they achieved high outcomes regardless of …
Psychology (43 works) · Social Psychology (35 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Political science (23 works) · Social Power and Status Dynamics (21 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Economics (20 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Chemistry (17 works) · Team Dynamics and Performance (17 works)