Performing under Pressure; on the Biology, Psychology and Sociology of stress in high-performance professions VIII – TEAM-PERFORMANCE UNDER STRESS Completion between individuals vs completion between groups Competition between individuals  Internal struggle between individuals within the group  Struggle over excess to mates, recourses and position in the social hierarchy  In its core, egocentricity  Testosterone (its not aggression!!) Testosterone & interpersonal competition  Non-linearity  Testosterone & competition, rather than aggression  Low levels associated with lower position on the social hierarchy  Posturing Crespi, B. J. (2016). Oxytocin, testosterone, and human social cognition. Biological Reviews, 91(2), 390–408. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12175 Boksem, M. A. S., Mehta, P. H., Van den Bergh, B., van Son, V., Trautmann, S. T., Roelofs, K., … Sanfey, A. G. (2013). Testosterone Inhibits Trust but Promotes Reciprocity. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2306–2314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613495063 Edwards, D. A. (2006). Competition and testosterone. Hormones and Behavior, 50(5), 681–683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.09.005 Sapolsky, R., & Balt, S. (1996). Reductionism and variability in data: a meta-analysis. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 39(2). Intra-group conflict as a backdrop for inter-group competition  Inter-group competition can, and often does, involve efforts to outdo one another in the extend to which victories are gained against otherwise anonymous members of targeted outgroups. Intra-group competition  In-group coordination  Teamwork  Cooperation  Leadership  Group-identity Costly signalling and the free rider problem  Humans are extremely vulnerable alone but united, we dominate almost any environment we enter.  Teamwork serves the group  But abstaining from cooperation, while reaping the benefits of the team effort serves the individual most  Groups need to control for free riding  Costly signalling  Hard to fake Sosis, R., & Bressler, E. R. (2003). Signaling Theory of Religion. CrossCultural Research, 37(2), 211–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397103251426 Dunbar, R., Barrett, L., & Lycett, J. (2007). Evolutionary Psychology. Sun, S., Johanis, M., & Rychtář, J. (2020). Costly signalling theory and dishonest signalling. Theoretical Ecology, 13(1), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12080-019-0429-0 Lying and deceit as an attempt to fake cooperation and health  Stigmatisation  Health cues: Infection, parasites, etc.  Social cues: willingness to invest in the collective  We are NOT naturally truthful!!!!  Ad hoc cost / benefit analysis Levine, T. R. (2014). Truth-Default Theory (TDT): A Theory of Human Deception and Deception Detection. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33(4), 378–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X14535916 Verschuere, B., & Shalvi, S. (2014). The Truth Comes Naturally! Does It? Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33(4), 417–423. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X14535394 McCornack, S. A., Morrison, K., Paik, J. E., Wisner, A. M., & Zhu, X. (2014). Information Manipulation Theory 2: A Propositional Theory of Deceptive Discourse Production. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33(4), 348–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X14534656 Leadership, the great undefinable !  A minimum of 66 different theories on leadership in the expert literature  Massive methodological issues in the field  The main problem  Philosophical reflection upon phenomenological observations of behaviour in search of universal tendencies  Ethics?  Transformation?  Service? Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2016). Intellectual Failure and Ideological Success in Organization Studies: The Case of Transformational Leadership. Journal of Management Inquiry, 25(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492615589974 Atwater, L. E., Mumford, M. D., Schriesheim, C. A., & Yammarino, F. J. (2014). Retraction of leadership articles: Causes and prevention. Leadership Quarterly, 25(6), 1174–1180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.10.006 Leadership: an evolved behavioural solution to a specific problem  Coordinated action  Leadership can only exist, where there is a problem to be solved, i.e. a stressor.  Leadership effectively modulates stress reactions  The range of human crises, which require communal action, is so large, that it is not feasible that one behavioural action can produce effective leadership in all cases.  Observable behavioural and physiological changes in followers  Context related behavioural and physiological changes in leaders Leadership as an evolutionary tool  A means for coordinating action amongst individuals. For people this is extremely important for survival  Leadership occurs in all human, and some non-human cultures.  Follow the first to move  Follow the dominant male  Follow context related competence King, A. J., Johnson, D. D. P., & Van Vugt, M. (2009). The Origins and Evolution of Leadership. Current Biology, 19(19), R911–R916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.027 Three levels of analysis  The leader  The followers  Context Slides 12-16 are based on ongoing research at the Czech University of Defence. For any further information, contact me directly. The leader  Perceived relevant competences  Perceived ressillience (if stress is an issue)  Perceived value to followers  Care  Reputation  Position in the hyrarchy  Endorsment by higher authority  Convention  Previous experience The followers  Can be more or less anyone, but must be willing to, temporarily, suspend their individual initiative, in favour of that of the leader.  Downregulation of critical faculties  Partially passive coping mechanisms  A perceived benefit of doing so for the follower, which cannot be achieved as easily in other ways. Context  Culture  Meaningful symbols, behaviours and competences may be meaningless within other cultural contexts.  Immediate context  What is the immediate issue that is being addressed.  Perceived risk  What are risk-levels involved in the activity at hand and how do followers perceive the behaviour of the leader in response to them. The main attributes of leadership  Competence  Resilience  Leadership techniques