Terror Management Theory and Work Life

Yıl 2016, , 43 - 52, 06.04.2016

Zuhal Yeniçeri

https://doi.org/10.18394/iid.41167

Cited By: 2

Öz

Terror Management Theory posits that individuals try to buffer the anxiety that stems from the awareness of being mortal by (1) maintaining high self-esteem that enables people to see themselves as valuable contributors in a meaningful world, and (2) defending their cultural worldviews, thus attaching meaning, permanence, order and stability to their lives. The aforementioned hypotheses of this theory have been empirically tested and investigated in different cultures, taking numerous variables into account. However, effects of mortality salience on work life and concepts related to the work life have not been adequately studied yet. People spend most of their lives at work. Therefore the organization they are working for might as well influence their social identity. So, organizational identification and commitment might be considered as important sources for buffering death anxiety, which is an existential threat. The main purposes of this article are to introduce Terror Management Theory by reviewing certain experimental research, and to evaluate the reflections of the theory on work life. With this purpose in mind, the research, in which the main hypotheses of Terror Management Theory were tested on variables related to work life such as organizational identification, will be presented.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Terror management theory, Social identity; Cultural worldview; Self-esteem; Work life; Organization

Dehşet Yönetimi Kuramı ve İş Yaşamı

Öz

İnsanların ölümlülüklerine yönelik farkındalıklarının yarattığı ölüm korkusunun (dehşet), özsaygı ve/veya kültürel dünya görüşüne artan bir aidiyetle bağlanma isteğiyle hafifletilebileceğini ileri süren Dehşet Yönetimi Kuramı, Türkiye de dahil olmak üzere farklı ülkelerde yapılan birçok deneysel çalışma ile test edilmiştir. Ancak, çeşitli kültürlerde ve farklı değişkenlerle deneysel olarak test edilen kuram, insanların günlük yaşamlarının önemli bir bölümünü kapsayan iş yaşamında ve bu yaşamın beraberinde getirdiği özellikler ve kavramlar bağlamında pek çalışılmamıştır. Belirli bir şirkette ya da örgütte çalışıyor olmanın önemli bir sosyal kimliğe işaret etmesi nedeniyle; bireylerin çalıştıkları şirket ya da örgütlerle özdeşleşmelerinin ve bu içgrupları destekleyen davranışlar sergilemelerinin de varoluşsal bir tehdit olan ölümlülük farkındalığı ile baş etmede önemli bir kaynak olabileceği düşünülmektedir. Bu bağlamda, mevcut çalışmanın amacı, öncelikle Dehşet Yönetimi Kuramının temel varsayımlarını belli başlı araştırmaları sunarak tanıtmak ve söz konusu kuramsal yaklaşımın iş yaşamındaki yansımalarını değerlendirmektir. Bu amaçla, kuramın temel varsayımlarının bireylerin çalıştıkları şirket ya da örgüt kimlikleri üzerinde test edildiği ve yine bireylerin iş yaşamındaki davranışları ve örgüt kimliği üzerindeki etkilerini araştıran çalışmalar aktarılacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Dehşet yönetimi kuramı, Sosyal kimlik, Kültürel dünya görüşü, Özsaygı, İş yaşamı, Örgüt

Kaynakça

• Arndt, J. & Greenberg, J. (1999). The effects of a self-esteem boost and mortality salience on responses to boost relevant and irrelevant worldview threats. Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 1331-1341.
• Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S. & Simon, L. (1997). Suppression and accessibility of death-related thoughts and worldview defense: Exploring the psychodynamics of terror management. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 5-18.
• Ashforth, B. E. & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14(1), 20-39.
• Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: Free Press.
• Bozo, O., Tunca, A. & Simsek, Y. (2009). The effect of death anxiety and age on health-promoting behaviors: A terror-management theory perspective. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 143(4), 377-389.
• Castano, E. (2004). In case of death, cling to the ingroup. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 375-384.
• Castano, E.,Yzerbyt, V., Paladino, M. P. & Sacchi, S. (2002). I belong, therefore, I exist: Ingroup identification, ingroup entitativity, and ingroup bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 135-143.
• Dechesne, M.,Janssen, J. & Knippenberg, A. V. (2000). Derogation and distancing as terror management strategies: The moderating role of need for closure and permeability of group boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 923-932.
• Dechesne, M., Pyszczynski, T., Arndt, J., Ransom, S., Sheldon, K. M., van Knippenberg, A. & Janssen, J. (2003). Literal and symbolic immortality: The effect of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem striving in response to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (4), 722-737.
• Diggory, J. C. & Rothman, D. Z. (1961). Values destroyed by death. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 205-210.
• Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1997). Fear of death and the judgment of social transgressions: A multidimensional test of terror management theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 369-380.
• Florian, V. & Mikulincer, M. (1998). Symbolic immortality and the management of the terror of death: The moderating role of attachment style. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 725-734.
• Frankl, V. E. (2000). İnsanın anlam arayışı (7. Baskı). (S. Budak, Çev.). İstanbul: Öteki Yayınları. (Orijinal çalışma basım tarihi 1963).
• Goldenberg, J. L., McCoy, S. K., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J. & Solomon, S. (2000). The body as a source of self-esteem: The effect of mortality salience on identification with one’s body, interest in sex, and appearance monitoring. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 118-130.
• Grant, A. M. & Wade-Benzoni, K. A. (2009). The hot and cool of death awareness at work: Mortality cues, aging, and self-protective and prosocial motivations. Academy of Management Review, 34(4), 600-622.
• Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Schimel, J., Pyszczynski, T. & Solomon, S. (2001). Clarifying the function of mortality salience-induced worldview defense: Renewed suppression or reduced accessibility of death-related thoughts?.Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(1), 70-76.
• Greenberg, J., Arndt, J., Simon, L., Pyszczynski, T. & Solomon, S. (2000). Proximaland distal defenses in response toreminders of one’smortality: Evidence of a temporal sequence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(1), 91-99.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T. & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: A terror management theory. İçindeR. F. Baumeister, (Ed.), Public self and private self (189-192). New York: Springer-Verlag.
• Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A. Veeder, M., Kirkland, S. & Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58 (2), 308-318.
• Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., Rosenblatt, A., Burling, J., Lyon, D., Simon, L. & Pinel, E. (1992). Assessing the terror management analysis of self-esteem: Converging evidence of an anxiety-buffering function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 913-922.
• Halloran, M. J. & Kashima, E. S. (2004). Social identity and worldview validation: The effects of ingroup identity primes and mortalitysalience on value endorsement. Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 915-925.
• Harmon-Jones, E., Simon, L., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T. & McGregor, H. (1997). Terror management theory and self-esteem: Evidence that increased self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 24-36.
• Heine, S. J., Harihara, M. & Niya, Y. (2002). Terror management in Japan. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 5, 187-196.
• Hogg, M. A. (2000). Subjective uncertainty reduction through self-categorization: A motivational theory of social identity processes. European Review of Social Psychology, 11(1), 223-255.
• İmamoğlu, E. O. (1987). An interdependence model of human development. İçinde Ç. Kağıtçıbaşı, (Ed.), Growth and progress in cross-cultural psychology (138-145). Lisse, The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger.
• İmamoğlu, E. O. (2002). Doğu - Batı kavşağında benlik: Dengeli ayrışma - bütünleşme modeli. The 12th National Psychology Congress, Ankara, Turkey.
• İmamoğlu, E. O., Küller, R., İmamoğlu, V. & Küller, M. (1993). The social psychological worlds of Swedes and Turks in and around retirement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 24, 26-41.
• Jonas, E., Kauffeld, S., Sullivan, D. & Fritsche, I. (2011). Dedicate your life to the company! A terror management perspective on organizations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41(12), 2858-2882.
• Koca-Atabey, M. & Öner-Özkan, B. (2011). Defensive or existential religious orientations and mortality salience hypothesis: Using conservatism as a dependent measure. Death Studies, 35(9), 852-865.
• Kökdemir, D. & Yeniçeri, Z. (2010). Terror management in a predominantly Muslim country: The effects of mortality salience on university identity and on preference for the development of international relations. European Psychologist, 15(3), 165-174.
• Lifton, R. J. (1979). The broken connection. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Markus, H. R. & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation. Psychological Review,98, 224-253.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J. & Solomon, S. (1999). A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: An extension of terror management theory. Psychological Review, 106, 35-85.
• Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J. & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130 (3), 435-468.
• Pyszczynski, T. A., Solomon, S. & Greenberg, J. (2003). In the wake of 9/11: The psychology of terror. New York: American Psychological Association.
• Pyszczynski, T., Wicklund, R. A., Floresku, S., Koch, H., Gauch, G., Solomon, S. & Greenberg, J. (1996). Whistling in the dark: Exaggerated consensus estimates in response to incidental reminders of mortality. Psychological Science, 7, 332-336.
• Roberts, S. E. (2002). Hazardous occupations in Great Britain. The Lancet, 360(9332), 543-544.
• Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T. & Lyon, D. (1989). Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 681-690.
• Salgado, A. X., Pues, D. N. & Casa de Calvo, M. P. (2015, Aralık). Working in the shadow of mortality: Terror management in an organizational context. Journal of Scientific Psychology, 25-35.
• Slaughter, V. & Griffiths, M. (2007). Death understanding and fear of death in young children. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12(4), 525-535.
• Solomon, S., Greenberg, J. & Pyszczynski, T. (1991). A terror management theory of social behavior: The psychological functions of self-esteem and cultural worldviews. İçinde M. P. Zanna, (Ed.),Advances in experimental social psychology(93-159). New York: Academic.
• Stein, J. H. & Cropanzano, R. (2011). Death awareness and organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32, 1189-1193.
• Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup relations. İçinde W. G. Austin & S. Worchel, (Ed.), Psychology of intergroup relations (33-48). Montery, CA: Brooks-Cole.
• Toscano, G. (1997). Dangerous jobs. Compensation and Working Conditions, 2, 57-60.
• Triandis, H. C. (1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts. Psychological Review, 96, 506-520.
• Vandecreek, L. & Nye, C. (1993). Testing the death transcendence scale. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32, 279-283.
• Yalom, I. (1999). Varoluşçu psikoterapi. (Existential psychotherapy). (Z. İ. Babayiğit, Çev.). İstanbul: Kabalcı. (Orijinal çalışma basım tarihi 1980).
• Yavuz, H. & Van den Bos, K. (2009). Effects of uncertainty and mortality salience on worldview defense reactions in Turkey. Social Justice Research, 22, 384-398.