Some acts of terrorism are the consequence of an individual or group's imitation of an act of terrorism, which has previously been publicised through the media. Media reports of terrorism appear to be rising, feeding a potentially increasing number of imitative behaviours. Such reports may provide individuals who are frustrated, angry, suicidal and/or suffering from personality disorders with the means and the motivation to copy what is perceived to be a method of gaining attention or what is perceived to be an acceptable method of venting anger and frustration. Through memetic engineering, the interpretations that are placed upon acts of violence can be manipulated to appear undesirable to even the most unbalanced minds, which it is argued, should inhibit the spread of imitative terrorism.
Authors and researchers have enthusiastically extolled the benefits of innovation for business and other organisations for a number of years. Ironically, although most of today's organisations claim they encourage innovative and creative behaviour, many are in reality unable or unwilling to tolerate such behaviour amongst their employees. This is partially due to the fashionable managerial trends in cost cutting and downsizing. Another cause for the lack of creative behaviour may be due to a high need for conformity amongst organisational members. Normative influence is an instinctive survival mechanism serving to establish and maintain uniformity and stability. Although conformity helps group stability and group cohesiveness, and the act of copying others may be an effective method of learning, the subsequent "groupish" rigidity of behaviour and thought also serves to stifle creativity and innovation. Attempts to explain the phenomenon of normative influence and its detrimental impact on creative human performance in an organisational context. The emphasis on innovation and creativity should be particularly relevant for what Kugler predicts will be a turbulent twenty‐first century.
This paper examines the organizational consequences of aberrant decision making processes in terms of the continuum of knowledge management alluded to by T.S. Eliot (1969); namely information acquisition and use, knowledge and, in turn, insight and wisdom. The thesis of the paper is that a raft of recent corporate failures can be explained away in terms of managerial decision‐making processes that have destroyed the integrity of the organizational learning experience for these organizations, through the corrupt and dysfunctional behavior of their respective managerial elite. It is further argued that when viewed from an anthropological perspective this dysfunctional behavior is akin to cannibalism of the body corporate.
PurposeOrganisations sometimes select and promote the wrong individuals for managerial positions. These individuals may be incompetent, they may be manipulators and bullies. They are not the best people for the job and yet not only are they selected for positions of authority and responsibility, they are sometimes promoted repeatedly until their kind populate the highest levels of the organisational hierarchy. The purpose of this paper is to address this phenomenon by attempting to explain why it occurs and why organisational members tolerate such destructive practices. It concludes by proposing a cultural strategy to protect the organisation and its stakeholders from the ambitious machinations of the organisational sociopath.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop an explanatory framework by attempting to combine elements of the theory of memetics with structuration theory. Memetic theory helps to analyse culture and communication of beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. Structuration theory can be used to identify motives and drives. A combination of these theoretical approaches can be used to identify the motives of organisational sociopaths. Such a tool is also useful for exploring the high level of organisation tolerance for sociopathic managers.FindingsOrganisational tolerance and acceptance for sociopathic managerial behaviour appears to be a consequence of cultural and structural complexity. While this has been known for some time, few authors have posited an adequate range of explanations and solutions to protect stakeholders and prevent the sociopath from exploiting organisational weaknesses. Reduction of cultural and structural complexity may provide a partial solution. Transparency, communication of strong ethical values, promotion based on performance, directed cooperation, and rewards that reinforce high performing and acceptable behaviour are all necessary to protect against individuals with sociopathic tendencies.Originality/valueThe authors provide a new cultural diagnostic tool by combining elements of memetic theory with elements of structuration theory. The subsequent framework can be used to protect organisations from becoming the unwitting victims of sociopaths seeking to realise and fulfil their needs and ambitions through a managerial career path.
PurposeThis article aims to develop and explore diagnostic frameworks to enhance one's understanding of the religiously‐inspired terrorist. It seeks to examine the relationship between the culture and conditions from which terrorists are recruited, as well as the psychological impact of fundamentalist religious teachings upon the minds of susceptible people.Design/methodology/approachThis paper synthesises the theories of memetics with structuration to create a diagnostic framework facilitating greater understanding of terrorism and its appeal to those being recruited to its cause. This diagnostic framework assesses the influence and power of selective religious teachings when combined with a culture and history of violence, and their impact on susceptible minds in a fractured society.FindingsBy combining the theory of memetics with structuration theory it is possible to develop a diagnostic framework that examines psychological, cultural, and religiously‐inspired factors driving the phenomenon that has been labelled as terrorism. Memetic theory assesses culture and communication of beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. Structuration theory identifies motives and drives.Originality/valueThe authors conclude that the current terrorism problem bears little relationship to US foreign policy. The concept of a free society will never be fully enacted until the religious and cultural scaffoldings that support terrorism have been dismantled.
PurposeModern society has found its nemesis in the terrorist, fundamentalist criminals attempting to halt progress and force society back into the Dark Ages. This article aims to build on the work of Pech, arguing that many acts of terrorism are rooted in mimicry of acts of violence.Design/methodology/approachThe article argues that the number of terrorist copying behaviours can be reduced through the concept of memetic engineering, which is the altering of the message that motivates terrorists and the copying of their violent activities. A model is developed for identifying and re‐engineering vulnerable constructs within the terrorist's causal algorithm.FindingsThis terrorist algorithm can be modified by: eliminating media portrayal of terrorists as freedom fighters and heroes; minimising potential causes of disinhibition; editing the terrorist's script that initiates and engenders empathy with violent acts; reconstructing the religious, cultural, and environmental support for violence as an acceptable means of communication, protest, and negotiation; reducing factors that facilitate susceptibility to the terror meme, identifying and moderating influences that initiate a state of cognitive priming for violence, and weaken the appeal of the terror meme. Introduces a diagnostic model for assessing key elements responsible for creating and sustaining terror memes.Originality/valueThe article describes an original and radically different approach to responding to terrorism. Essentially this means re‐engineering toxic scripts, using the mass media to moderate fundamentalist messages, re‐engineering of scaffolds that maintain some societies in cultural empathy with acts of violence, and the removal of environmental factors that enable terrorism to emerge.
