Publisher Description

Examines beliefs and values generally shared by the Japanese and the importance they place on social interactions, relationships, and proper conduct.

Many companies today are either undergoing drastic organizational changes or are faced with the prospect of having to make these changes in the near future. The need for change may arise from internal sources—growth in the size of the company, the problem of aging—or, more frequently, from external sources: changes in the nature of markets, in the technology of the industry, or even cultural beliefs about the “proper” rewards of work and behavior for employers and employees. This book is concerned with the process of change by which organizations achieve their purposes and meet the needs of their individual and group contributors. Lawrence's study is centered on a medium-sized supermarket chain in which several important management functions were being shifted from the home office to newly created store managers. The origin and reasoning behind these organizational changes, the methods of introducing them, the process of shifting the roles of key individuals, and the consequences of the changes are considered in detail. The author's inquiry proceeds from four essential research questions: What is the nature of the basic behavior patterns in this organization? What are the key factors involved in changing those patters? Did significant measurement change occur? If so, how was it accomplished. This volume, first published in 1958, broke new ground in devising techniques to measure changes in behavior patterns of individuals, in focusing attention on the behavior patterns of individuals at the management levels of an organization, and in clarifying the stubborn facts of human behavior involved in changing administrative patterns. The book will be of continuing interest to managers and administrators concerned with making key changes in customary supervisory practices and to sociologists for the way the book addresses the general issue of the conflicts between the shifting demands of large organizations and the integrity of the individual. The new 1990 introduction by the author nicely illustrates his belief that the process of organizational change remains a central issue for American society.

Ethology, the study of the biology of behavior, has grown tremendously during the last few decades. The large number of accumulated facts is difficult to survey, understanding and an appreciation of the ethological approach to the study of behavior have grown, and the number of attempts at holistic explanations for certain behavioral phenomena has increased. Because of this development it has become more difficult to gain an overview of the field, to keep up with new developments, and to update the subject matter by the inclusion of new facts in the proper place. The nonspecialist is unable to evaluate the more general statements in the popular literature, especially when such works are aimed at a broader audience. Hence, this book has a dual purpose: (1) to lend some order to the dizzying array of information and thus simplify inquiry into ethology; and (2) to present relevant facts and knowledge that will help the reader confronted with numerous studies and articles in the ethological literature.

Modern neuroscience has presented new opportunities for exploring the molecular and neural mechanisms controlling specific social responses. This book reviews insights into the neural circuits underlying a particularly fascinating form of social interaction, parental behavior. This book presents a detailed review of maternal and paternal behavior of particular mammalian species. It offer neuroscientists a spectrum of specific mammals that can be used as experimental models to explore particular topics on the functions of the nervous system. It shows that results coming from the laboratory can be translated into useful information for raising mammals on the farm, and it stimulates biologists to gain insights into the underpinnings of the complex mechanisms governing mammalian behavior in the wild. It also discusses the implications of this research for human parental behavior.

A major objective of this monograph is to present an agent-based simulation of artificial populations. The focus is on possible unexpected or catastrophic events that may spontaneously appear in simulations. A short recall of the tenets of the theory of catastrophes is given. Several examples of artificial society simulations are provided as the main topic of the book. With agent-based modeling, possible catastrophes and unexpected events in artificial populations are simulated. The book presents a new modeling and simulation tool, applied to social system simulation. The models are coded in the object- and agent-oriented language Bluesss (Blues Simulation System), related to the C++ language. The program code consists of a series of generic declarations of processes. Each of them includes a number of events that are coded in C++. At the runtime, a population of objects is generated. All the objects (agents) start to execute their own events, and interact with one another. During the simulations it is possible to observe the macro-behavior of the population, where some unexpected or "catastrophic" events occur. The examples include a stock market crash, catastrophes in extended prey–predator systems, growing organisms and cancer, epidemics, social inequality and economic decay, mass-service systems, and more. Remarks on possible simultaneous events are also included.

Anthropology is a science specialized in the study of the past and present of societies, especially the study of humans and human behavior. The disciplines of anthropology and consumer research have long been separated; however, it is now believed that joining them will lead to a more profound knowledge and understanding of consumer behaviors and will lead to further understanding and predictions for the future. Anthropological Approaches to Understanding Consumption Patterns and Consumer Behavior is a cutting-edge research publication that examines an anthropological approach to the study of the consumer and as a key role to the development of societies. The book also provides a range of marketing possibilities that can be developed from this approach such as understanding the evolution of consumer behavior, delivering truly personalized customer experiences, and potentially creating new products, brands, and services. Featuring a wide range of topics such as artificial intelligence, food consumption, and neuromarketing, this book is ideal for marketers, advertisers, brand managers, consumer behavior analysts, managing directors, consumer psychologists, academicians, social anthropologists, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students.

In the past decade, the field of comparative cognition has grown and thrived. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, examinations of animal intelligence are useful for scientists and psychologists alike in their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence. Extensive field research of various species has yielded exciting new areas of research, integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition contains sections on perception and illusion, attention and search, memory processes, spatial cognition, conceptualization and categorization, problem solving and behavioral flexibility, and social cognition processes including findings in primate tool usage, pattern learning, and counting. The authors have incorporated findings and theoretical approaches that reflect the current state of the field. This comprehensive volume will be a must-read for students and scientists who want to know about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition.