Love, Hate, Fear, or Respect

Love, Hate, Fear, or Respect
Marc D. Donohue Whiting School of Engineering Johns Hopkins University March 28, 2006 What I do. For about the last 30 years my research has been concerned with problems in Molecular physics. In particular the Thermodynamics of phase behavior and phase transitions. While we do some experiments, we work mostly on theory and simulations. I have worked on these problems using a variety of theories including perturbation theories, lattice theories, chemical and quasichemical theories. Most of our recent work has been using lattice density functional theory.

How Love, Hate, Fear, and Respect Affect Leadership and Organizational Structure.
For about the last 5 years I have been interested in the field of mathematical sociology and this in turn has led to an interest in leadership, particularly change leadership and in how leadership style and organizational structure are related. Today, I want to talk about the roles of love, hate, fear, and respect in organizational structure and their implications for leadership. It turns out that the fields of molecular physics and mathematical sociology have a great deal in common. In fact, the mathematical models and simulations that are used for molecular systems are nearly identical to those used in mathematical sociology.

What Molecular Behavior Can Tell Us About Leadership and Organizational Structure
Therefore, since we know a lot about how molecules behave, but relatively little about the way people behave, the question is whether molecular behavior can tell us anything about social behavior?

Love or Fear Is it better for a Prince (leader) to be loved or feared?
Fear is better than love. Better still is both love and fear. Avoid being hated. Machiavelli: Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved… Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you. And the prince who, relying on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails. Nevertheless, a Prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women… Men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Niccolo Machiavelli, “The Prince”

Assumption For organizations to produce something of value, they must have structure and be hierarchical. I need to point out right up front that much of what I am going to talk about today is based on a very fundamental assumption. It is that companies and other organizations that mass produce things of value must have a structure and be hierarchical. Hence, I am not talking about a mom and pop shop that makes handicrafts, or even a small business, but rather large organizations that mass produce products of some kind. This could be automobiles or widgets, or it could be organizations that produce knowledge like computer software. So I am going to be using two terms. They are: Structure: People behave in a orderly way Hierarchical: People pay more attention to what some people say than others.

Fear and Structure Is it possible to have a structured, hierarchical and productive organization without fear? Already assumed that for the organization to be structured and hierarchical

Analogies Statistical mechanics ~ Sociology Quantum mechanics
~ Psychology The talk is based on two analogies. The first is the analogy between statistical mechanics or molecular physics with mathematical sociology. As I said, the mathematics is essentially identical. The second is the analogy between quantum mechanics and psychology. Here I am not talking about the quantum mechanics of systems where the energy levels are quantized. Rather, I am talking about quantum mechanics in the sense of molecular orbital theory where the properties of one molecule or atom affect the properties of another molecule or atom. There is an analogy in human behavior where the behavior, emotional state, or mood of one person can affect another person and even affect how that person interacts with others. For example, consider the situation where you come home from work after a really bad day at work. You are in a foul mood and your spouse confronts you with the fact that he or she had an automobile accident while talking on the cell phone. You get angry, yell at your spouse who in turn yells at your kids. This happens all the time.

Questions Why do gases condense? Why do humans form social groups?
Bridge clubs Book clubs Quilting bees Soccer teams

Questions Why are some liquid mixtures immiscible?
Why are most neighborhoods narrow demographically? I.e. why are they segregated?

Questions Why do fluids crystallize?
Why are work environments structured? Why are structured work environments hierarchical?

Questions Is it better for a leader to be loved, hated, feared, or respected? Can a leader be both feared and loved? Can a leader be both feared and respected?

Phases of Matter Gases Clusters Liquids Crystals

Phases of Matter “Phases” of People
Gases Clusters Liquids Crystals Hermits, widows Families Social groups (clubs and neighborhoods) Structured and hierarchical organizations

Key Concepts Molecules SR Repulsions LR Attractions Interchange energy
Directional interactions Potential function

Key Concepts Molecules LR Attractions SR Repulsions Interchange energy
Directional interactions People Love Fear The enemy of my enemy is my friend Deference A friend of a friend is a friend.

Condensation Condensation is caused by attractive forces between molecules

Friendship People socialize with those they like.

Crystallization Simple crystals form because the molecules repel each other.

Structured Organizations
Most organizations have structure because of fear.

Fear Death Pain Starvation Inability to provide for one’s family
Loss of connection to group Imprisonment Loss of Income Loss of face Loss of face / loss of reputation / loss of standing / loss of power Loss of connection to group / excommunication

Fear and Structure Is it possible to have crystals without molecular repulsions? Is it possible to have structured, hierarchical and productive organizations without fear? Already assumed that for the organization to be structured and hierarchical

Terry Tate Corporate Linebacker

L-L Immiscibility Water and Oil don’t mix.

L-L Immiscibility

Segregation Racial Immiscibility

Segregation

Mathematical Sociology
Thomas Schilling, “Dynamic Models of Segregation”

Original 10 x 10 Grid

Thomas Schilling, “Dynamic Models of Segregation”
Assumptions Whites would prefer to have white neighbors and blacks would prefer to have black neighbors, but whites are indifferent to blacks and blacks are indifferent to whites. Thomas Schilling, “Dynamic Models of Segregation”

Pair A

Pair A’s original neighbors
RRo = 4 BBo = 2 RRo + BBo =6

Pair A’s new neighbors RRo = 4 BBo = 2 RRo + BBo =6 RRn = 6 BBn = 4
RRn + BBn > RRo + BBo; the switch takes place

Pair B

Pair B’s neighbors RRo = 4 BBo = 5 RRo + BBo =9

Pair B’s new neighbors RRo = 4 BBo = 5 RRo + BBo =9 RRn = 3 BBn = 4
RRn + BBn is not > RRo + BBo; the switch does not take place

Pair C

Pair C’s neighbors RRo = 3 BBo = 4 RRo + BBo = 7

Pair C’s new neighbors RRo = 3 BBo = 4 RRo + BBo = 7 RRn = 4 BBn = 5
RRn + BBn > RRo + BBo; the switch does takes place

Pair D

Pair D’s neighbors RRo = 3 BBo = 3 RRo + BBo = 6

Pair D’s new neighbors RRo = 3 BBo = 3 RRo + BBo = 6 RRn = 5 BBn = 5

Pair E

Pair E’s neighbors RRo = 7 BBo = 6 RRo + BBo = 13

Pair E’s new neighbors RRo = 7 BBo = 6 RRo + BBo = 13 RRn = 2 BBn = 1
RRn + BBn is not > RRo + BBo; the switch does not takes place

Pair F

Pair F’s neighbors RRo = 0 BBo = 3 RRo + BBo = 3

Pair F’s new neighbors RRo = 0 BBo = 3 RRo + BBo = 3 RRn = 5 BBn = 5

Pair G

Pair G’s neighbors RRo = 2 BBo = 2 RRo + BBo = 4

Pair G’s new neighbors RRo = 2 BBo = 2 RRo + BBo = 4 RRn = 3 BBn = 6

Thomas Schilling, “Dynamic Models of Segregation”
Schilling’s conclusion: Racial segregation is not necessarily due to discrimination; it may be the result of a number of benign, individual choices. Thomas Schilling, “Dynamic Models of Segregation”

Interchange Energy  = 2 Eab – Eaa - Ebb
Definition:  = 2 Eab – Eaa - Ebb What is important is not energy, but difference in energies. The zero point is not relevant.

Condensation Eaa attractive

Eaa attractive Ebb attractive Eab zero OR Eaa and Ebb zero Eab, Eba repulsive We get the same behavior of A likes A and B likes B, but A is indifferent to B and B is indifferent to A as when A is indifferent to A and B is indifferent to B, but A dislikes B

Interchange Energy Schilling’s result of racial segregation also can be obtained with the assumptions that whites are indifferent to whites and blacks are indifferent to blacks, but whites hate blacks and blacks hate whites (i.e. repulsions).

Interchange Energy Crystallization is caused by repulsive Eaa

Ionic crystal behavior dominated by  = 2 Eab – Eaa – Ebb

Interchange Energy Crystals normally are formed by repulsive interactions. However, they also can be formed without repulsions if unlike species attract strongly, e.g. NaCl I don’t have time to discuss this here, but this has significant implications for the behavior of pairs of interacting species when one is male and the other is female.

Directional Interactions
Directional (or anisotropic) interactions also can lead to ordered and hierarchical structures.

Streptavidin Tetramer

Streptavidin Tetramer of Tetramers

Streptavidin 2D Crystal

Streptavidin Red – Blue Strong Green – Green Weak

Streptavidin

Hierarchy Multiple ways to get such a hierarchical system.
Green fears blue Red fears green and blue The structure will be stronger if Yellow likes yellow, pink likes pink Recall that this is what Machiavelli said. Fear and love is stronger than fear alone. The military tries to do both of these things. However, we can get the same structure if Or Green likes blue Red likes green Yellow likes yellow and pink likes pink However, there questions about the nature of these attractive interactions. What does it mean that green likes blue and red likes green.

Hierarchy in Social Systems
Fear allows structured social system. Hierarchy caused by deference (which is caused by fear of those higher in the organization). Multiple ways to get such a hierarchical system. Yellow likes yellow, green likes green, light blue likes light blue Or Yellow and green are deferential to light blue Light blue is deferential to orange. The military tries to do both of these things.

Hierarchy Can be caused by directional interactions (attractions or repulsions) coupled with specific attractions between subgroups Or by differential directional interactions. Multiple ways to get such a hierarchical system. Green fears blue and red fears both green and blue. Adding attractions of pink with pink and yellow with yellow strengthens the organization. Or Red likes green but green likes blue more. Again with attractions among the pinks and among the yellows. The military tries to do both of these things.

Assumption For organizations to produce something of value, they must have structure and be hierarchical.

Hierarchy Can we have productive organizations without fear?
Can we have structured, hierarchical social systems with positive emotions? If so, how? Multiple ways to get such a hierarchical system. Yellow likes yellow, green likes green, light blue likes light blue Or Yellow and green are deferential to light blue Light blue is deferential to orange. The military tries to do both of these things.

Negative Emotions Fear - escape Anger – attack Disgust – expel
Thomas Harbin, “Beyond Anger”

Negative Emotions Fear Mobilize to action Anxiety Increase strength
Anger Mobilize to action Increase strength Reduce pain Shorten response times Focus thought processes Reduce creativity Negative emotions cause psychological and physiological reactions. Thomas Harbin, “Beyond Anger”

Positive Emotions Joy Interest Contentment Pride Gratitude Love
Fredrickson: Joy creates the urge to play, push the limits, and be creative, not only in social and physical behavior, but also in intellectual and artistic behavior. Interest creates the urge to explore, take in new information experiences, and expand one’s self in the process. Pride follows personal achievements and creates the urge to share news of the achievement with others and to envision even greater achievements in the future. Contentment creates the urge to take time to savor current life circumstances and integrate these circumstances into new views of self and the world. Positive emotions enlarge the cognitive context. Whereas the negative narrowed mindsets of negative emotions carry direct and inmediate adaptive benefits in situations that threaten survival, the broadened mindsets of positive emotions which occur when people feel safe are beneficial in other ways. In particular, these broadened mindsets carry indirect and long-term adaptive benefits because the broadening builds enduring person resources. The personal resources accumulated during states of positive emotions are durable and outlast the transient emotional states that lead to their acquisition. These resources can be drawn on at later times to help deal with stress. Relative to neutral states, positive emotions produce patterns of thought that are flexible, creative, open to new information and efficient. Positive emotions broaden the scope of people’s visual attention as well as thought-action repertoires. Positive emotions can reverse the effects of negative emotions. Effects like increased heart rate, vasoconstriction and high blood pressure. Positive emotions can generate upward spirals that are the opposite of the downward spirals found in depression. These upward spirals increase productivity and emotional well being. They can broaden people’s ways of thinking and make people more resilient, socially integrated, function better. Positive emotions also improve health and lengthen life. A study of elderly nuns found that those who expressed the most positive emotions in early adulthood lived up to ten years longer than those who expressed the least positive emotions Barbara Fredrickson, “Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations”

Positive Emotions Joy Interest Contentment Pride Gratitude Love
Broaden thought processes and increase creativity Build enduring resources Fredrickson: Joy creates the urge to play, push the limits, and be creative, not only in social and physical behavior, but also in intellectual and artistic behavior. Interest creates the urge to explore, take in new information experiences, and expand one’s self in the process. Pride follows personal achievements and creates the urge to share news of the achievement with others and to envision even greater achievements in the future. Contentment creates the urge to take time to savor current life circumstances and integrate these circumstances into new views of self and the world. Positive emotions enlarge the cognitive context. Whereas the negative narrowed mindsets of negative emotions carry direct and inmediate adaptive benefits in situations that threaten survival, the broadened mindsets of positive emotions which occur when people feel safe are beneficial in other ways. In particular, these broadened mindsets carry indirect and long-term adaptive benefits because the broadening builds enduring person resources. The personal resources accumulated during states of positive emotions are durable and outlast the transient emotional states that lead to their acquisition. These resources can be drawn on at later times to help deal with stress. Relative to neutral states, positive emotions produce patterns of thought that are flexible, creative, open to new information and efficient. Positive emotions broaden the scope of people’s visual attention as well as thought-action repertoires. Positive emotions can reverse the effects of negative emotions. Effects like increased heart rate, vasoconstriction and high blood pressure. Positive emotions can generate upward spirals that are the opposite of the downward spirals found in depression. These upward spirals increase productivity and emotional well being. They can broaden people’s ways of thinking and make people more resilient, socially integrated, function better. Positive emotions also improve health and lengthen life. A study of elderly nuns found that those who expressed the most positive emotions in early adulthood lived up to ten years longer than those who expressed the least positive emotions Barbara Fredrickson, “Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations”

Deference Structure can be caused by either fear or respect.
Hierarchy is caused by deference.

Respect Being predictable in: Character – honest Values – fair Skills
Ronald Heifetz, “Leadership without easy answers”

Respect Skills Character Values 40% character 40% values 20% skills

Question Is it better for a leader to be loved, hated, feared, or respected? Machiavelli asked if it is better to be loved than feared Here I want to ask whether is better to be loved, hated, feared, or respected. The answer depends on what you want. It depends on how you want the people to behave and whether you want them to have a narrow focus or a broad one, etc.

Narrow thought processes
Hierarchical Systems Fear General Colonel Lieutenant Sergeant Private If you want people to obey orders, even in life and death situations, or if you want people to work on an assembly line doing repetitive tasks, then you want a traditional hierarchical organization based on fear. A consequence of this is that the soldiers or workers will be focused on their tasks and have narrowed thought processes. Narrow thought processes

Hierarchical Systems Fear Respect Creative thought processes
General Colonel Lieutenant Sergeant Private Faculty Chair Dean Vice President President If, on the other hand, you want people to be creative, you have to have a hierarchy that is based on respect. In such an organization, the leaders aren’t bosses in that they don’t tell people what to do. Instead, they serve the rest of the organization. Leadership is action. It is not sitting at the top of an organization making decisions, it is helping the organization adapt to the ever-changing environment. In today’s world, change is inevitable and the pace of change is steadily increasing. Creative thought processes Narrow thought processes

Skills: What Leaders Do
See the future Engage and develop people Reinvent continuously Value results and relationships Embody the values Leadership is action. It is not sitting at the top of an organization making decisions, it is helping the organization adapt to the ever-changing environment. In today’s world, change is inevitable and the pace of change is steadily increasing. So what do leaders do? They do five things. They see the future. They don’t deal with today’s problems or tomorrows problems, they look to the future and deal with next year’s problems. They engage and develop the people in the organization. In knowledge industries like software companies, universities, and the Space Telescope, the key is not what you know but what you can do with your knowledge. What new problems you can solve. This takes continuous evolution and improvement of one’s knowledge and abilities. Leaders must reinvent continuously. They must reinvent themselves, they must reinvent the processes that are used, and they must reinvent the structure of the organization. Leaders must value both results and relationships. They must understand what metrics are important for the organization, and they also must understand what is important to the people in the organization. The workers in the organization won’t respect a leader if the leader doesn’t respect them. Finally, the leader must embody the values. This means they must walk the talk, they must practice what they preach. They must reward what they say is important. K. Blanchard & M. Miller “The Secret!: Discover what great leaders know and do”

Level 5 Leaders Humility + Will
Honest Fair Humble, with “compelling modesty” Understated Unwavering resolve NOT Charismatic Genius with a thousand helpers Egocentric Larger than life Jim Collins did a study of what it takes to transform a good company into a great company. His book, GOOD TO GREAT, is excellent. In it he discusses the kind of leadership required to go from being good to being great and he defines these leaders as Level 5. These leaders have an unexpected set of traits that have the paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are driven to make the company successful, no matter how hard the decisions. Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great institution. It’s not that Level 5 Leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. They are more like a plow horse than a show horse. Jim Collins, “Good to Great”

Leaders Serve Faculty Chair Dean Vice President President

Catalysts Catalysts change the way molecules interact.
Leaders change the way the people in the organization interact. Catalysts change the way molecules interact. Leaders change the way the people in the organization interact. Barbara Fredrickson’s research on positive emotions shows that positive emotions can lead to upward spirals of increased creativity and productivity in both people and in organizations. Both positive emotions and negative emotions can be contagious. When people exhibit positive emotions, these can be transmitted both up and down the organizational ladder. Barbara Fredrickson, “Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations”

Leadership Up and Down Faculty Chair Dean Vice President President

Fear and Respect Can a leader have it both ways?
Can one lead with both fear and respect? Can a leader have it both ways? Can one lead from both fear and respect? The answer is yes, sometimes. Consider politicians, they can lead their constituents through respect and popularity and they can lead in congress through fear. In fact, a senator’s power in congress depends on a combination of their positional authority that comes from being chair of important committees and the fear they can induce in their colleagues by virtue of that position. Similarly, a President of a university leads two different hierarchies. One that involves the Provost, the Deans, Department Chairs and Faculty and another hierarchy that involves the non-academic functions of the university. The first is an inverted pyramid, the second is a normal pyramid. The president can lead one through respect and service and the other through fear. However, as Machiavelli said in the quote I read at the beginning of this lecture, it is difficult to have both in a single person. This is true also for fear and respect. However, both these examples beg the question as to whether it is possible for a leader to lead through both fear and respect in a single hierarchy. I think the answer is no, but I don’t have any proof for this.

Peter Drucker, “Management Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”
Conclusion A person should never be appointed to a [leadership] position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths. The person who always knows exactly what people can not do, but never sees anything they can do, will undermine the spirit of the organization. An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic. A person should never be appointed to a [leadership] position if his vision focuses on people’s weaknesses rather than on their strengths. The person who always know exactly what people can not do, but never sees anything they can do, will undermine the spirit of her organization. An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic. Peter Drucker, “Management Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”

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