Bullish on Uncertainty : How Organizational Cultures Transform Participants (Hardcover)--by Alexandra Michel [2008 Edition] ISBN: 9780521869966

Bullish on Uncertainty provides rare insight into the secretive world of Wall Street high finance, which has shaped influential business, governmental, and cultural leaders and keeps supplying new business practices to other organizations in dynamic and complex environments. The book studies how two highly successful Wall Street investment banks managed the uncertainty of their high-velocity environment through different work practices. One bank chose the familiar route of decreasing bankers' uncertainty. The other bank used the novel and effective practice of increasing bankers' uncertainty to make them more alert to new situations and more likely to draw on the bank's entire range of resources. The book explains why the two banks differed in their ability to notice market changes and adapt to them. It thereby illuminates current events in the financial markets. Through vivid accounts of newcomers during their first two years, the book traces how the two banks' initially similar participants were transformed into fundamentally different kinds of persons by the different kinds of work practices in which they participated. Half-title......Page 3 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Foreword......Page 11 Acknowledgments......Page 15 THE TWO BANKS’ APPROACHES......Page 17 THE PUZZLE......Page 22 WHY STUDY INVESTMENT BANKS?......Page 26 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE BOOK......Page 29 UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION AND UNCERTAINTY AMPLIFICATION......Page 31 DIVERGENT DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAYS......Page 36 DIFFERENT FORMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING......Page 40 COGNITIVE AND SOCIOCULTURAL THEORIES AS PRACTICES......Page 43 PLAN OF THE BOOK......Page 49 Part 1 WORK PRACTICES......Page 51 STRATEGY AND STRUCTURES......Page 53 ROLES......Page 61 STAFFING......Page 65 FEEDBACK......Page 68 TRAINING......Page 71 3 Practices That Amplified Cognitive Uncertainty at Organization Bank......Page 77 STRATEGY AND STRUCTURES......Page 78 ROLES......Page 89 STAFFING......Page 93 FEEDBACK......Page 96 TRAINING......Page 100 INDIVIDUAL-CENTERED AND SOCIOCENTRIC THEORIES IN PRACTICE......Page 106 Part 2 PSYCHOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION......Page 109 4 Recruiting......Page 111 APPLICANT IDENTITIES AND THE BANKS’ RECRUITING APPROACHES......Page 112 THE RECRUITING PROCESS......Page 119 RECRUITING CRITERIA......Page 124 THE RECRUITS’ DECISION-MAKING PROCESS......Page 129 5 Individual-Centered Transformation......Page 135 INTRODUCTORY TRAINING......Page 141 THE FIRST SIX MONTHS AT INDIVIDUAL BANK......Page 147 Self-Interpretation......Page 148 Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation......Page 154 Self-Interpretation......Page 164 Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation......Page 168 SUMMARY......Page 174 6 Organization-Centered Transformation......Page 176 INTRODUCTORY TRAINING......Page 179 Self-Interpretation......Page 185 Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation......Page 189 Self-Interpretation......Page 200 Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation......Page 202 SUMMARY......Page 224 7 An Alternative Approach to Organizational and Psychological Transformation......Page 226 Self-interpretation......Page 228 Cognition, Emotion, and Motivation......Page 230 CENTRAL INSIGHTS......Page 234 UNCERTAINTY AMPLIFICATION......Page 236 PERSISTENT UNCERTAINTY: AN ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORY......Page 240 CLEARING AWAY THE SELF......Page 242 THEORIES IN THE WILD......Page 252 References......Page 265 Index......Page 275 "Bullish on Uncertainty provides rare insight into the secretive world of Wall Street high finance, which has shaped influential business, governmental, and cultural leaders and keeps supplying new business practices to other organizations in dynamic and complex environments. The book studies how two highly successful Wall Street investment banks managed the uncertainty of their high-velocity environment through different work practices. One bank chose the familiar route of decreasing bankers' uncertainty. The other bank used the novel and effective practice of increasing bankers' uncertainty to make them more alert to new situations and more likely to draw on the bank's entire range of resources. Through vivid accounts of newcomers during their first two years, the book traces how the two banks' initially similar participants were transformed into fundamentally different kinds of persons by the different kinds of work practices in which they participated."--Jacket.