The Mapping of Contingencies in Mental Models Found in Organizations
Treat "mental models" at work as verbal rules you can rewrite by changing their payoffs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors looked at how companies talk about "mental models."
They said these models are just verbal rules shaped by workplace consequences.
They sketched how ACT could test if changing the rules changes the work.
What they found
No data were collected; the paper is a map.
It shows how to turn fuzzy culture talk into trackable rule-governed behavior.
How this fits with other research
Morrison et al. (2017) took the same ACT frame and put it in a phone app.
Depressed and anxious adults used the app for two weeks and felt better.
The 2016 map became a 2017 tool, proving the idea works outside the office.
Clarke (1998) and Iwata et al. (1990) both show that consequences control whether people follow a rule.
These lab studies back the claim that workplace rules stay strong only if reinforcers keep them alive.
Why it matters
Stop guessing why staff resist change.
List the spoken rules, track what reinforces them, then shift those consequences.
You now have a data path instead of another culture seminar.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
From a cognitive perspective, mental models held by individuals are thought to guide interactions with objects or systems, including interpersonal interactions. Frameworks that categorize types of interactions in organizations suggest that they are guided by cultures and mental models that range from the egoistic to the cosmos-centric. From a behavioral perspective, what the cognitive approach calls mental models are sets of verbal rules. Therefore, we suggest that behavior analysis could be used to reconceptualize the mental model literature, generating new research questions and more rigorous experimentation. Cognitive constructs such as more expansive mental models may simply be a function of an individual’s or group’s increased attention to interlocking contingencies. Applying behavioral interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy could be a way to examine the utility of a behavior analytic approach.
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 2016 · doi:10.1080/01608061.2016.1153015