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USE OF RETRACTORS AND EXPLAINERS IN CHARISMATIC RHETORIC: THE CASE OF FOUR AMERICAN PRESIDENTS Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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Dos Algarves: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal no. 22 - 2013 ISBN 2182-5580 © ESGHT-University of the Algarve, Portugal

Use of retractors and explainers in charismatic rhetoric: the case of four

American presidents

O uso de retratores e explicadores em retórica carismática: o caso de quatro presidentes americanos

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of the Algarve, Faro, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract

This study examines the use of retractors and explainers in prepared political speeches of American charismatic presidents. It is based upon the results of psychological analysis of 24 speeches of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Gerald Ford. The research shows that certain differences may be found in the use of explainers and retractors not along the axis “Charismatic versus Non-Charismatic Presidents”, but with regard to their party affiliation. Rhetoric of Democratic presidents (Kennedy, Obama) is characterized by a more explanatory communication style than of Republican ones (Reagan, Ford), which results in respective differences in the use of explainers. As for the retractors, all the four presidents under study tend to use the category moderately, which reveals them as emotionally controlled individuals, able to reconsider their decisions if necessary. Keywords: charisma; psychological analysis; retractors; explainers.

Resumo

Este estudo analisa o uso de retratores e explicadores em discursos políticos preparados de presidentes americanos considerados carismáticos. O estudo baseia-se em resultados da análise psicológica de 24 discursos de John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, e Gerald Ford. A pesquisa mostra que podemos encontrar diferenças no uso de explicadores e retratores não relativamente ao eixo "Presidentes Carismáticos versus Não-Carismáticos", mas em relação à sua filiação partidária. A retórica dos presidentes democratas (Kennedy, Obama) é caracterizada por um estilo de comunicação mais explicativo do que a dos republicanos (Reagan, Ford), o que resulta em diferenças respectivas no uso de explicadores. Quanto aos retratores, todos os quatro presidentes em estudo tendem a usar a categoria de forma moderada, o que os caracteriza como indivíduos emocionalmente controlados e capazes de reconsiderar as suas decisões, se necessário. Palavras-chave: carisma; análise psicológica; retratores; explicadores.

mailto:[email protected]

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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1. Theoretical bridge between charisma and personality research

The concept of charisma is used in everyday communication to denote personal

magnetism of an individual, his or her ability to be liked and followed. These

characteristics of charismatic individuals are believed to contribute to the emergence

and effectiveness of leadership. However, leaders should not necessarily be

charismatic in order to become successful and conversely – the attribution of charisma

to a person does not guarantee that the latter will manage to be an efficient leader.

For instance, Mumford et al. (2008) classify outstanding leadership into three types:

charismatic, ideological, and pragmatic, while arguing that different contexts may

require different behavioral patterns and different sets of psychological traits from a

leader.

In fact, charisma should not be perceived exclusively as a set of personality

attributes. Klein and House (1995) regard charisma as an interplay between specific

personality qualities of the leader, particular followers’ characteristics and context

features, which favorably influence the establishment of charismatic relationship

between leader and followers. Similarly, Conger and Kanungo (1989) define

charismatic leadership as an influence process consisting of leader, followers and

context and dynamic relationship between them. Such an approach explains why the

same behavioral patterns of the leader may be perceived differently by various

audiences and why the charismatic leader may have ups and downs in his or her

political career though the public image undergoes little change.

Although charisma is a complex phenomenon based on the interdependence of

three structural components – leader, followers and context, specific personality

characteristics of the leader play an especially important role in forging a charismatic

appeal. House (1977) claims that these characteristics include the qualities of

dominance, self-confidence, a need to influence, and a strong conviction in the moral

righteousness of leader’s beliefs (Conger, 1989: 30). According to Bass (1989),

charismatic leaders generally exhibit such attributes as extraordinary emotional

expressiveness, self-determination, and freedom from internal conflict (Bass, 1989:

46). Conger and Kanungo (1989) claim that the distinguishing attributes of charismatic

Dos Algarves: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal no.22 - 2013

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leaders include vision, emotional expressiveness, articulation skills, high activity level,

and exemplary behavior (Conger and Kanungo, 1989: 325).

Being the advocates of treating charisma as a constellation of personality

attributes, Verčič and Verčič (2011) argue that a charismatic leader is usually perceived

as “a good communicator, inspiring and visionary, honest and reliable, attracting other

people’s attention and dominant in uncertain situations” (Verčič and Verčič, 2011: 17).

In this regard an important contribution to specifying the charismatic attributes

has been made by the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness

(GLOBE) Research Program. As a result of the longitudinal and cross-cultural study, the

scholars have determined two groups of charismatic attributes: universal and culturally

endorsed. Thus, in universal terms charismatic leaders are supposed to be motive

arousers, encouraging, communicative, trustworthy, dynamic, positive, and

motivational; to have foresight and to build up followers’ confidence (Den Hartog et

al., 1999: 250). On the other hand, such attributes as being enthusiastic, risk-taking,

ambitious, self-effacing, unique, self-sacrificial, sincere, sensitive, compassionate and

willful are culturally endorsed (Den Hartog et al., 1999: 250).

Most personality attributes, some of them – in a direct way, others – more

implicitly, are manifested in the communication style of political leaders. For instance,

a number of studies (Pennebaker and King, 1999; Fast and Funder, 2008) demonstrate

reliable correlations between word use and the Big Five personality dimensions (both

observed behavior and self-reports of extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness,

conscientiousness, and openness to experience). Moreover, even function words,

which contain rather limited semantic loading, may reveal additional information on

speaker’s gender, age, emotional state and personality characteristics. Articles,

prepositions, and conjunctions may carry an array of psychological meanings and set

the tone for social interactions (Chung and Pennebaker, 2007: 355). These

observations are united under the heading of a linguistic style – the way how people

put their words together to create a message (Chung and Pennebaker, 2007: 345).

In our current research we will try to study the use of relevantly narrow linguistic

categories of explainers and retractors in political discourse and to observe how these

categories correlate with politicians’ behavioral patterns. We presume that the

speeches of charismatic John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama have

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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equally moderate mean scores of retractors and equally low scores of explainers,

which are discourse indicators of the ability to reconsider previous decisions and non-

rationalizing verbal style respectively. At the same time we expect the speeches of

non-charismatic Gerald Ford to contain different mean scores of retractors and

explainers comparing to the charismatic American presidents under study.

2. Methodology

Retractors and explainers are defined as separate categories of psychological

analysis by Walter Weintraub (Weintraub, 2003). At its core psychological analysis is

based upon quantitative content analysis. All the categories are manually coded and

the frequency is calculated per 1000 words. High or low scores of each category allow

researchers to make conclusions about specific psychological characteristics of a

speaker. The validity of observations increases when the sample of unprepared

speeches is taken for the analysis.

According to Weintraub, retractors, also referred to as adversative expressions,

are used to “weaken or reverse previously spoken remarks” (2003: 144). The most

commonly used retractor is the conjunction but. Other examples of the category in our

research include expressions such as however, nevertheless, although, though, despite

the fact that, on the other hand, on the other end, contrary to, while (in the meaning of

though), and words yet and still at the beginning of the sentence.

Weintraub (2003) argues that “the frequent use of retractors suggests a difficulty

in adhering to previously made decisions and imparts a flavor of impulsivity to the

speaker's style” (Weintraub, 2003: 144). Conversely, the moderate use of retractors is

associated with “the ability to reconsider a decision after it has been made”

(Weintraub, 2003: 148). We presume that the speeches of charismatic leaders should

be characterized by moderate frequencies of retractors as a charismatic politician is

not expected to reveal high levels of impulsivity. At the same time rational use of

retractors provides opportunity for maneuvering, that is to say – reconsideration of

decisions if it is necessary. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

Hypothesis 1: The speeches of charismatic presidents will include equally moderate

frequencies of retractors.


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In contrast to retractors, Weintraub (2003) defines explainers as “words and

expressions that suggest causal connections or justification of the speaker's thoughts

and actions” (Weintraub, 2003: 145). While the most widely used explainer is because,

in our research, under the category of explainers, we also count the following

expressions: that is why, therefore, since and for in the meaning of because, so in the

meaning of therefore.

High explainers score indicates “a didactic, apologetic, or rationalizing verbal

style”, whereas speakers who use few explainers tend to be perceived as “categorical

and dogmatic” (Weintraub, 2003: 145). Taking into account that, according to Le Bon

(1952), communication of a charismatic leader should be based on emotional

expressiveness rather than on rationalizing style and he or she should “never attempt

to prove anything by reasoning” (Le Bon, 1952: 51), we may presume that:

Hypothesis 2: The speeches of charismatic presidents will include equally low

scores of explainers.

3. Sample

Our research is based upon the corpus of 24 political speeches, which includes 18

speeches of three most charismatic U.S. presidents over the last 50 years (John F.

Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama), and 6 speeches of the least charismatic

American president of the period – Gerald Ford.

The time span of 50 years is taken due to two reasons. First of all, rapid

development of mass media significantly influenced American presidential rhetoric

since every president’s statement and remark are subject to media scrutiny, at the

same time allowing politician to appeal to larger audiences and build up his or her

public image more efficiently. All in all, Seyranian and Bligh (2008) argue that the

modern presidency in the USA has begun with Franklin D. Roosevelt and it may be

briefly characterized by historical changes such as increased media exposure and

public scrutiny, the beginning of oral traditions, more frequent speeches, and changes

in presidential motives and qualifications (Seyranian and Bligh, 2008: 61). Secondly,

due to the dynamic development of language itself, the modifications of presidents’

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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linguistic style may occur regardless of their personality characteristics, thus the

selection of smaller time period ought to minimize the influence of this factor.

The selection of presidents is based on the previous studies on charismatic

leadership. First of all, Fiol et al. (1999) conducted study in which eight reputable

political historians were asked to identify all 20th century American presidents through

Ronald Reagan as charismatic, non-charismatic, or uncertain, based on their

relationships with cabinet members. The charismatic leadership was defined by the

effects the leader had on his followers: whether the latter had high degree of loyalty,

identified with the leader, emulated his values and goals, saw him as a source of

inspiration, derived a sense of high self-esteem from their relationship and had

exceptionally high degree of trust in the leader (Fiol et al., 1999: 466). Thus, Theodore

Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were identified as

the most charismatic 20th century American presidents.

Seyranian and Bligh (2008) extended Fiol et al.’s (1999) study, having included 17

presidents beginning with Theodore Roosevelt (1901) through George W. Bush (2000).

Ten reputable political scientists were asked to provide generalized ratings of

presidential charisma in two ways: as a dichotomous measure (to categorize a

president as charismatic or non-charismatic), and as a continuous measure (to rate him

on scale from 1 (not charismatic at all) to 7 (extremely charismatic)). According to this

study, presidents that scored highest in charisma (who were in the top 75% quartile of

ratings across presidents, or above 4.63) included Theodore Roosevelt (M=6.30),

Franklin Roosevelt (M=6.10), John F. Kennedy (M=5.60), and Ronald Reagan (M=5.50),

while the remainder of the presidents [except for Bill Clinton with M=4.90] received

lower charisma ratings (Seyranian and Bligh, 2008: 60).

As for Barack Obama’s attributed charisma, to our knowledge, its empirical

assessment is provided in Williams et al.’s (2012) study. At the final stage of the

research the scholars asked 414 undergraduate and graduate students from four

American universities to rate Barack Obama’s attributed charisma, employing eight

items from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. This approach is primarily

associated with assessing leader’s influence on followers through emotional

attachment and identification with the vision. For each charismatic item a seven-point

scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) was employed. With


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reliability coefficient of 0.93, the aggregated data evaluated Barack Obama’s attributed

charisma at the level of 5.14.

Based on the aforementioned data, we may conclude that personalities of John F.

Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama form a specific cluster in terms of

perceptions of charisma (with mean indices of 5.60, 5.50 and 5.14 respectively), which,

coupled with their belonging to the same historical period, increases the validity of

general assumptions that may be drawn while analyzing the specific features of their

verbal communication styles.

As for the least charismatic American president over the period of the last 50

years, Seyranian and Bligh (2008) measure the level of Gerald Ford’s charisma as the

lowest one with a mean index of M=2.20.

Moreover, the selection of political speeches for analysis is not random either.

Both Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy had six speeches included into the index of

the 100 most significant American political speeches of the 20th century (Lucas and

Medhurst, 2009). Since we have not found any comparison studies of different

speeches of Barack Obama and Gerald Ford with regard to their “greatness”, we have

selected six speeches of each president on the basis of two criteria: 1) they should be

well known and represent major landmarks in their presidential career; 2) the types of

audiences, speeches and context variables should match the ones of John F. Kennedy

and Ronald Reagan.

In order to control the influence of contextual variables on the category

frequencies, we have grouped all the speeches into six sets. Thus, Speech 1 set

includes first inaugural addresses of the four presidents.

Speeches delivered before politicians took presidential office, namely, “Houston

Ministerial Association Speech” by John F. Kennedy, “A Time for Choosing” by Ronald

Reagan, “A More Perfect Union” by Barack Obama, and “Remarks upon Accepting the

1976 Republican Presidential Nomination” by Gerald Ford, belong to Speech 2 set. It

should be noted that “A Time for Choosing” was delivered by Ronald Reagan in 1964

while supporting presidential candidate, but not while running as one. Another

reservation concerns the candidate speech by Gerald Ford, which was delivered when

the latter was an incumbent president.

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Speech 3 set contains speeches delivered abroad: “Ich bin ein Berliner” by John F.

Kennedy, “Brandenburg Gate Address” by Ronald Reagan, “A New Beginning” by

Barack Obama, and “Address before the Conference on Security and Cooperation in

Europe” by Gerald Ford.

In Speech 4 set we have included speeches either delivered abroad or at least

indirectly connected with foreign policy issues: “Cuban Missile Crisis Address” by John

F. Kennedy, “40th Anniversary of D-Day Address” by Ronald Reagan, “Nobel Prize for

Peace Acceptance Speech” by Barack Obama, and “Remarks Announcing a Program for

the Return of Vietnam-Era Draft Evaders and Military Deserters” by Gerald Ford.

Speech 5 set contains university commencement addresses by John F. Kennedy,

Barack Obama and Gerald Ford. As no commencement address by Ronald Reagan was

included into the index of the 100 most significant American political speeches of the

20th century, we have referred his “Evil Empire” speech, delivered at the Association of

Evangelicals, to this set.

Speech 6 set may be called Miscellaneous, as it includes “Civil Rights Address” by

John F. Kennedy, “Shuttle “Challenger” Disaster Address” by Ronald Reagan,

“President-Elect Victory Speech” by Barack Obama and “The 1975 State of the Union

Address” by Gerald R. Ford.

The inclusion of diverse speech material which “cuts across a period of time,

across different substantive topics, across different audiences, and inside or outside of

the leadership group” is designed to help us determine the stability of certain

leadership traits (Hermann, 2003: 206). Moreover, Hermann (2003) claims that “by

examining different aspects of the context such as the topic, audience, and whether

the focus of attention is on the domestic or international domains, we can learn if

leaders are sensitive to certain cues in their environment and not to others”

(Hermann, 2003: 206). It also gives the researcher insights into whether leaders may

adapt their public image to the situation they find themselves in, in which way they are

likely to change their behavior and what contextual features may cause such change

(Hermann, 2003: 206).


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4. Results and discussion

In political communication retractors are used for several reasons: to reverse

previously spoken statements and present an alternative viewpoint; to “achieve

"pseudo-consensus", an apparent but not genuine agreement with another speaker's

point of view” (Weintraub, 2003: 144); and to add up stylistic coloring to political

speeches through producing contrast, also referred to as antithesis (Den Hartog and

Verburg, 1997; Clark and Greatbatch, 2011). The examples of retractors in our research

would be:

(1) Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect. But we have

never had to put a wall up to keep our people in (Kennedy, “Ich bin ein Berliner”).

(2) We must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so

we must strive to reduce arms on both sides (Reagan, “Brandenburg Gate Address”).

(3) In Ankara, I made clear that America is not – and never will be –at war with

Islam. We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave

threat to our security… (Obama, “A New Beginning”).

Our research demonstrates that the speeches of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan

and Barack Obama contain similar mean frequencies of retractors: 8.3, 6.6 and 8

respectively (see Diagram 1), which generally supports our Hypothesis 1.

Another observation concerns the fact that the frequencies of retractors do not

fluctuate drastically in the speeches of charismatic presidents, which displays the

category as less context-dependent. For instance, in 10 out of 18 speeches the

frequencies of retractors range from 5 to 8. We consider this range as a moderate use

of the category, based on the mean score of retractors for seven post-World War II

American presidents, which was measured at the level of 6.5 units per 1000 words

(Weintraub, 2003). In our research standard deviation is 2.2 for John F. Kennedy, 2.5

for Ronald Reagan and 1.3 for Barack Obama while the range indices are 6.6, 6.6 and

3.3 respectively.

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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It should be noted that the overall mean score of retractors in the speeches of

Gerald Ford is similar to those of charismatic presidents – 7.6. However, the range of

scores (8.2) and standard deviation (3) is bigger for Gerald Ford in comparison with

charismatic presidents.

John F. Kennedy used retractors most frequently in his “Inaugural Address” – 12.3

whereas the lowest score of the category for him is in “Cuban Missile Crisis Address” –

5.7 (see Diagram 2). Again, relatively low use of retractors in the latter may be

perceived as the intention to position oneself as a decisive leader who has a clear

solution for the security crisis the nation faces and who will adhere to the course of

action he announces.

Ronald Reagan used retractors most frequently in “Shuttle “Challenger” Tragedy

Address” – 10.7, while his “Inaugural Address” contains the lowest score of the

category – 4.1.

The mean scores of retractors in the speeches of Barack Obama have insignificant

variance. The only exception is “Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech”, which has

the highest score of the category – 10.1. The lowest score of the category is 6.8 units

per 1000 words in “President-Elect Victory Speech”.

8,3 6,6

8 7,6

0

2

4

6

8

10

Diagram 1. Overall mean frequencies of retractors (units per 1000 words)

Kennedy

Reagan

Obama

Ford


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Gerald Ford uses retractors least frequently in “1975 State of the Union Address” –

3.6, whereas the highest score of the category is in his “Inaugural Address” – 11.8

Contrary to the scores of charismatic presidents, Gerald Ford uses retractors

moderately (from 5 to 8 units per 1000 words) only in two speeches out of six under

study.

It should be noted that all the four presidents under study have practically

identical scores of retractors in the speeches delivered abroad. Thus, the mean score

of the category in “Ich bin ein Berliner” (Kennedy) is 7.1, in “Brandenburg Gate

Address” (Reagan) – 7.7, in “A New Beginning” (Obama) – 7.3 and in “Helsinki Address”

(Ford) – 8.2. Moderate use of retractors in the above mentioned speeches adds more

diplomatic style to the communication of the presidents, allowing them to make clear

statements, at the same time leaving space for maneuvering. When there arises a

need to deliver a sharp and explicit message to the international community, the

amount of retractors decreases, as it was the case with “Cuban Missile Crisis Address”

by John F. Kennedy (mean score of retractors – 5.7) and “40th Anniversary of D-Day

Address” by Ronald Reagan (mean score of retractors – 4.3).

In general, our findings prove that the speeches of both charismatic and non-

charismatic leaders have similar frequencies of retractors and that these frequencies

are moderate. A rather stable use of the category by charismatic speakers indicates

that the category does not heavily depend on the context in which a speech is uttered.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1 2 3 4 5 6

Diagram 2. Frequencies (axis 0Y) of retractors in different speech sets (axis 0X)

Kennedy

Reagan

Obama

Ford

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

15|

At the same time the moderate use of retractors characterizes American presidents as

emotionally controlled personalities, able to reconsider their own decisions in case of

necessity.

Unlike retractors, explainers are employed to rationalize the message,

demonstrate causal connections between particular statements or events and justify

one’s point of view. The examples of explainers we have identified in our research

include:

(4) Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's

religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state in our union (Obama, “A New

Beginning”).

(5) Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man

(Kennedy, “American University Commencement Address”).

(6) Since this is Notre Dame I think we should talk not only about your

accomplishments in the classroom, but also in the competitive arena (Obama,

“Commencement Address at the University of Notre Dame”).

(7) Divided there is little we can do – for we dare not meet a powerful

challenge at odds and split asunder (Kennedy, “The Inaugural Address”).

(8) So as we begin, let us take inventory (Reagan, “The Inaugural Address”).

The mean score of explainers for the first seven post-WWII American presidents is

5.5 units per 1000 words (Weintraub, 2003). The average frequency of explainers in

the speeches of John F. Kennedy is 4.9, in the speeches of Ronald Reagan – 2.9 and in

the speeches of Barack Obama – 5.2 (see Diagram 3).

The overall mean score of explainers in the speeches of Gerald Ford is 3.1. At the

same time all of his speeches under study contain lower than average level of

explainers. We may conclude that charismatic leaders should not avoid reasoning in

the speeches, though it was suggested by Le Bon (1952). Contrarily, it is more

important to balance emotional and rational components of the speeches in the way

that one’s communication style does not sound too apologetic or too categorical. The


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speeches of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama demonstrate such moderation,

whereas Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford project an image of more rigid and decisive

politicians, for whom decision-making process does not encompass extensive

discussions.

Such a consistent pattern made us shift perspective on the presidential discourse.

We assume that the above mentioned personality traits may be linked not to the

charismatic appeal of politicians, but to their party affiliation. A number of empirical

studies (e.g. Benoit, 2004; Jarvis, 2004; Cho and Benoit, 2005; Cho and Benoit, 2006)

prove that partisanship influences political discourse features not only in terms of its

ideological content, but also in terms of deeper psycholinguistic structures. According

to Jarvis (2004), Democrats need to be “careful with their discourse in the face of

many loosely organized cadres of heterogeneous interests” whereas Republicans are

“constrained in a different manner, required to bespeak more confident claims prized

by a more unified group” (Jarvis, 2004: 414).

Benoit’s (2004) study reveals even more differences in Democratic versus

Republican discourse. For instance, Democratic candidates discuss policy more than

Republicans whereas Republicans tend to devote more attention to character in their

speeches. Such a division is natural as Republican politicians “embrace the philosophy

of a limited role for government and of heightened individual responsibility” (Benoit,

2004: 92). That is why they stress governmental policy less than Democratic politicians,

who often look to the government to solve societal problems (Benoit, 2004: 92). In

terms of policy there are typically Democratic (education, health care, environment)

4,9

2,9

5,2

3,1

0123456

Diagram 3. Overall mean frequencies of explainers (units per 1000 words)

Kennedy

Reagan

Obama

Ford

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

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and typically Republican (taxation, foreign policy, crime) issues. In terms of character

utterances the Democrats employ more empathy words (e.g., cares for voters,

compassionate, understands voters), and linguistic units associated with drive (e.g.,

hard-working, determined, strong). On the other hand, Republicans use more words

related to sincerity (e.g., consistency, honesty, trust) and morality (e.g., ethical, just,

moral).

Since Republicans are less prone to debate over their policy issues and they often

appeal to the moral values of the followers, which are dogmatic and do not require

extensive explication, the representatives of this party will tend to be less explanatory

in their communication style. Hence Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, who were

Republican American presidents, have lower scores of explainers in their speeches

than Democratic John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama.

Furthermore, based on the results of our study, we may conclude that there exists

a certain dependence of the frequency of explainers on the context, in which a speech

is delivered. In its turn, it influences the variance of explainers mean scores. For

example, the mean scores of explainers in the speeches of John F. Kennedy range from

1.6 in “Cuban Missile Crisis Address” to 7.4 – in “Houston Ministerial Association

Address” (see Diagram 4).

In “Cuban Missile Crisis Address” the last thing one would expect from the

president of a nation under threat is an explanatory style. Due to the fact that the

012345678

1 2 3 4 5 6

Diagram 4. Frequencies (axis 0Y) of explainers in different speech sets (axis 0X)

Kennedy

Reagan

Obama

Ford


| 18

threat is evident and tangible and the president is expected to come up with a detailed

plan of actions, but not their justification, the amount of explainers in this speech is

low. On the other hand, “Houston Ministerial Association Address” is not a presidential

speech, but an address of a candidate who runs for the highest office in the country.

Since John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic to be elected as U.S. president, in his

address he tried to explain why his religious beliefs should not influence the final vote

and perception of his candidacy by the public. It correlates with a high score of

explainers in this speech.

Ronald Reagan uses explainers less frequently than John F. Kennedy and Barack

Obama. The mean scores of explainers in his speeches range from 0 in “Shuttle

“Challenger” Tragedy Address” to 4.8 – in “Brandenburg Gate Address”. “Shuttle

“Challenger” Tragedy Address” is the only speech out of 24, in which no explainer was

used. It may be explained with a small length of the speech (652 words) and extreme

emotionality of the address as the president was speaking to the public not on some

political or security issues, but rather he was trying to re-unite the nation in the

moment of grief and express his condolences to the families who were directly

affected by the tragedy. Contrarily, “Brandenburg Gate Address” contains Reagan’s

appeal to demolish Berlin Wall and re-unite East and West Germany into one country,

so relatively high score of explainers in this speech may be viewed as an attempt to

justify these actions.

In terms of explainers use, the style of Barack Obama is similar to the one of John

F. Kennedy. The mean scores of the category in his speeches range from 2.4 in “A

More Perfect Union” address to 7.4. – in “Nobel Prize for Peace Acceptance Speech”.

Awarding Barack Obama with Nobel Prize for Peace after less than one year of his

tenure as U.S. president and in the times, when American troops were still at war in

two countries, caused a lot of controversy and debate worldwide. Frequent use of

explainers may be interpreted both as an indicator of apologetic style and an attempt

to justify U.S. military actions on the world scene. The low amount of explainers in “A

More Perfect Union” address, to a certain degree, would contradict our previous

conclusions on John F. Kennedy. In many ways “A More Perfect Union” address is

similar to Kennedy’s “Houston Ministerial Association Address”. It is a candidate

speech, in which Barack Obama mentions that his candidacy is not the most

Iaroslav Kovalchuk

19|

conventional one (he was the first Afro-American to be elected as U.S. president), and

in which he comments on the racially charged remarks of his former pastor Jeremiah

Wright, which put the whole Obama’s campaign under threat (Rowland and Jones,

2011). However, instead of rationalizing and explanatory style, Barack Obama shifts

the focus of his speech and appeals to the need of re-uniting all the Americans,

regardless of the color of their skin or ethnicity, in the face of economic crisis and

social security issues. Hence, employment of such a strategy may justify a low amount

of explainers in this speech.

In the speeches of Gerald Ford the mean scores of explainers range from 1 in

“Republican Nomination Address” to 5.2 – in “Commencement Address at Chicago

State University”. It should be noted that all three university commencement

addresses in our research have identically moderate scores of explainers (Kennedy –

5.8, Obama – 5.3 and Ford – 5.2).

To sum up, our findings do not support Hypothesis 2. Though overall mean scores

of explainers and respective scores in majority of speeches are slightly lower than in

the speeches of the first seven post-WWII U.S. presidents, no clear connection

between charismatic appeal and the use of explainers may be traced. Moreover, on

the basis of explainers analysis we may draw a clear distinction between Gerald Ford

and Ronald Reagan versus Barack Obama and John Kennedy. The latter two tend to

use explainers moderately, trying to balance emotionality and rationality in their

speeches, while Reagan and Ford are more categorical, which is rooted in specific

features of Republican party discourse. In general, we may say that explanatory or

apologetic style is not typical of charismatic leaders. However, the frequencies of

explainers may be modified in accordance with the purpose of a speech or its topic. It

may be interpreted as a capability of charismatic politicians to accommodate their

communication style to the final aims of communication and as an indicator of

charismatic leader’s rhetorical flexibility.

5. Conclusion

Our research demonstrates that all the four presidents under study have

moderate scores of retractors, which may be explained with their desire not to express


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high levels of impulsivity, at the same time leaving some space for verbal maneuvering.

A slight difference in the use of retractors by charismatic presidents concerns their

relatively stable frequencies across different contexts, whereas for non-charismatic

Gerald Ford the index of standard deviation is higher.

The differences in the use of explainers by the four presidents are more explicit.

However, they are revealed not in the framework of charismatic versus non-

charismatic rhetoric, but in the opposition of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama

versus Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. Democratic presidents tend to use explainers

more frequently since Democratic discourse in general is characterized by a more

explanatory communication style. Nevertheless, charismatic presidents are more

skillful in adjusting their use of explainers to the context requirements than non-

charismatic Gerald Ford.

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CLARK, T. and GREATBATCH, D. (2011). Audience perceptions of charismatic and non-charismatic oratory: The case of management gurus. The Leadership Quarterly 22, 22–32.

CONGER, J. A. (1989). Theoretical foundations of charismatic leadership. In J. A. Conger and R. N. Kanungo (Eds), Charismatic Leadership: The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness (pp.12-39). San Francisco and London: Jossey-Bass.

CONGER, J. A. and KANUNGO R. N. (Eds). (1989). Charismatic Leadership: The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness. San Francisco and London: Jossey-Bass.

CONGER, J. A. and KANUNGO, R. N. (1989). Conclusion: Patterns and trends in studying charismatic leadership. In J. A. Conger and R. N. Kanungo (Eds), Charismatic Leadership: The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness (pp.324-336). San Francisco and London: Jossey-Bass.

DEN HARTOG, D. N. and VERBURG, R. M. (1997). Charisma and rhetoric: Communicative techniques of international business leaders. Leadership Quarterly 8(4), 355-391.

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DEN HARTOG, D. N., HOUSE, R. J., HANGES, P. J., RUIZ-QUINTANILLA, S. A. and DORFMAN, P. W. (1999). Culture specific and cross-culturally generalizable implicit leadership theories: Are attributes of charismatic/transformational leadership universally endorsed? The Leadership Quarterly 10(2), 219-256.

FAST, L. A. and FUNDER, D. C. (2008). Personality as manifest in word use: Correlations with self-report, acquaintance report, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 94(2), 334-346.

FIOL, M. C., HARRIS, D. and HOUSE, R. (1999). Charismatic leadership: strategies for effecting social change. Leadership Quarterly 10(3), 449–482.

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HOUSE, R. (1977). A 1976 theory of charismatic leadership. In J. G. Hunt and L. L. Larson (Eds), Leadership: The Cutting Edge (pp.189-207). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

JARVIS, S. E. (2004). Partisan patterns in presidential campaign speeches, 1948-2000. Communication Quarterly 52(4), 403-419.

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Speeches, 1900-1999. New York: Oxford University Press. MUMFORD, M. D., ANTES, A. L., CAUGHRON, J. J. and FRIEDRICH, T. L. (2008). Charismatic,

ideological, and pragmatic leadership: Multi-level influences on emergence and performance. The Leadership Quarterly 19, 144-160.

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SEYRANIAN, V. and BLIGH, M. C. (2008). Presidential charismatic leadership: Exploring the rhetoric of social change. The Leadership Quarterly 19, 54-76.

VERČIČ, A. T. and VERČIČ, D. (2011). Generic charisma – Conceptualization and measurement. Public Relations Review 37, 12-19.

WEINTRAUB, W. (2003). Verbal behavior and personality assessment. In J. M. Post (Ed.), Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders: with the Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton (pp.137-152). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

WILLIAMS, E. A., PILLAI, R., DEPTULA, B. and LOWE K. B. (2012). The effects of crisis, cynicism about change, and value congruence on perceptions of authentic leadership and attributed charisma in the 2008 presidential election. The Leadership Quarterly 23, 324-341.


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IAROSLAV KOVALCHUK is a PhD student in Language Sciences at the University of the Algarve, Portugal, for the period of 2010-2013. The title of his research is “Linguistic component of a charismatic leader appeal”. His academic interests include verbal behaviour of political leaders, critical discourse analysis, psychological content analysis, personality assessment, charismatic leadership and impression management techniques. The major focus of his research is American presidential discourse. He has presented results of his research at several international academic conferences in Poland, Sweden, and Portugal. In 2009, Iaroslav Kovalchuk graduated from the National University of Ostroh academy (Ukraine) with an MA in English and Literature, and served an internship as Canada Ukraine Parliamentary Program coordinator. Submitted: October 2012. Accepted: January 2013.


Free relative clauses: a new teaching approach for Italian learners of Latin and

German

Orações relativas sem antecedente: uma nova abordagem de ensino para estudantes italianos de Latim e Alemão

Sabrina Bertollo • Guido Cavallo

Department of Linguistics, University of Padova, Padova, Italy [email protected] • [email protected]

Abstract

In this work we would like to present a new teaching proposal for free relative clauses, with a comparative perspective. The proposal is addressed to Italian learners of Latin and German with an advanced knowledge of the morpho-syntax of the three languages and tries to combine the theories proposed within the Generative Grammar framework with the needs which emerge from school teaching experiences. In the path we will develop, the students will be led to get familiar with this construction, first in the native language and then in German and Latin. Students will be stimulated to analyze the syntactic constraints, which are different in the three languages, so as to develop a new grammatical awareness and be in a position to correctly handle complex syntactic structures such as free relative clauses. This will be helpful to adequately cope with this specific construction, but it will also improve the overall skills.

Keywords: free relative clauses; Italian; Latin; German; syntax; teaching.

Resumo

Neste trabalho vimos propor uma nova técnica de ensino das orações relativas sem antecedente ou livres de uma perspetiva comparativa. A proposta dirige-se a italianos, alunos de Latim e Alemão, com conhecimentos avançados de morfosintaxe nas três línguas e procura combinar as teorias propostas no seio do enquadramento da gramática generativa com as necessidades que surgem da experiência de ensino na escola. No caminho delineado, os estudantes serão orientados para ganhar familiaridade com esta construção, primeiro na sua língua-mãe e depois em Alemão e Latim. Os estudantes serão incentivados a analisar os constrangimentos sintáticos, que são distintos nas três línguas, de forma a desenvolver consciência gramatical ficando aptos a manusear corretamente estruturas sintáticas complexas como as orações relativas sem antecendente. Esta técnica será útil para lidarem adequadamente com esta construção específica, e desenvolverá as suas competências em geral.

Palavras-chave: orações relativas sem antecedente; italiano; latim; alemão; sintaxe; ensino.




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1. Introduction

The aim of this paper is to propose a cross-linguistic teaching approach for free

relative clauses, a topic which isn’t organically treated by school grammars, but needs

to be explicitly taught, as school teaching experiences clearly show. The path we will

develop has been specifically planned for Italian High School students with an

advanced knowledge of the morpho-syntax of the languages we will take into account

(Latin and German). As the mother tongue of our students is Italian, we have thought

of a path which takes into consideration the specific syntactic behavior of this

construction in the three languages and we will adopt a comparative perspective.

We will first present the syntactic behavior of free relative clauses in Italian, by

providing the students with examples in their native language to elicit grammaticality

judgments and improve their familiarity with the construction. In the second part of

the proposal we will present the syntactic behavior of free relative clauses in Latin and

German to lead the students to compare the three languages and identify the different

constraints which can be at work. We will show that this method turns to be very

useful also in the active competence of the foreign languages: the new grammatical

awareness will stimulate the students to increase their degree of control in the L2.

For our teaching proposal to be effective, it is essential that our target students

have reached a very high level in the knowledge of the syntax of Latin and German,

which enables them to tackle this theme with all the necessary tools and allows them

to cope with a critical approach to the grammatical question.

The goals we expect to attain are:

o Correct comprehension/formation of free relative clauses in German

o Correct comprehension/translation of free relative clauses from Latin and

German into Italian

The goals we have planned to achieve require that a series of cognitive processes

take place. As for comprehension the students are led to analyze the structures of the

target language, so that they fully understand the message without any ambiguity.

Moreover the students are led to correctly learn the formation rules of free relative


25|

clauses in German and to enrich their active syntactic competence on the basis of a

new awareness. Finally the students are stimulated to make comparisons between

languages and are led to initiate a complex transfer process, which is unavoidable to

consciously translate from a language into another. Once they are aware of the specific

constraints of the three languages, they have to appropriately deal with the syntactic

structures and be prepared to model their translation according to the requirements

of the target language.

2. Theoretical framework

Free relative clauses have been thoroughly described by scientific literature and

different models have been proposed. Within the Generative Grammar framework,

one of the most relevant was outlined by Bresnan & Grimshaw (1978): they claimed

that the wh- pronoun which introduces the free relative clause is an argument of the

matrix clause. As we will see further on in the discussion, this approach is problematic

as it doesn’t account for the so-called non-matching cases, this means the instances in

which the Case required by the matrix verb is not the same displayed by the wh- item.

Another proposal - cited in Pittner (1991) – and first made up by Haider in 1988

supposes that the wh- item is both the complement of the matrix clause and the

relative clause introducer. This approach has been partly unconsciously assumed by

many Italian school grammars, which often refer to this kind of wh- pronouns as mixed

pronouns being allegedly simultaneously both the complement of the matrix verb and

a relative pronoun. Once again the main problem with this theoretical proposal is that

it doesn’t account for the non-matching cases displayed by languages, such as German

and Latin, with a rich case morphology. Groos & van Riemsdijk (1981) are probably the

first who hypothesize that there must be a null, silent element governed by the matrix

clause, while the wh- pronoun is part only of the secondary clause. The model we will

adopt is the one adapted by Benincà (2010) on the basis of Cinque (2003), which is one

of the further developments of Groos & van Riemsdijk (1981):

(i) [DP_ [CP who/what THAT you saw]].


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This model combines two main requests: it guarantees scientific accuracy and, if

we adequately simplify it, it can serve as a basis to develop effective teaching paths.

We will now explain the model we have sketched above. Free relative clauses are

introduced by a pronoun (chi in Italian) which can be syntactically compared to the

English pronoun who. This pronoun always appears at the beginning of the relative

clause, in the left periphery, which, in the Generative Grammar framework, is referred

to as CP layer. The model contains also the THAT item, which accounts for the

possible/obligatory presence of this element immediately after the relative pronoun.

Though this is not superficially visible in Italian – which is a language that doesn't

display morphological distinction for Case – the introducer of the relative clause is

assigned by the embedded verb both a Case and a thematic role. This is evident if we

consider languages such as Latin or German, which have morphological marks for Case:

German:

(1) Ich lade ein, wem du geholfen hast.

I invite, whoDAT you helped have2nd SING

Latin:

(2) Cui permittit necessitas sua, circumspiciat exitum mollem

WhoDAT allows necessity his, looks-for exit easy

“The person to whom his personal situation allows it, has to look for an

easy way to go out of this” (Seneca, Epist. 70, 24)

The German and the Latin examples clearly show that the pronoun has received its

Case from the verb of the subordinate clause. If the Case were assigned by the matrix

verb, the pronoun would bear Nominative for the Latin clause and Accusative for the

German. As we will see further on in the paper, the wh- item always has to meet the

syntactic requirements of the embedded verb and can never remain silent.

Another element of the model is still to be explained: DP_. It indicates the nominal

phrase, to which the entire relative clause refers. Intuitively, as headed relative clauses

always have an antecedent, free relative clauses have one, as well, but the key point is

that it remains silent, it is not lexicalized, though it is still there at an abstract level.


27|

Thinking of a silent antecedent is not only epistemologically correct, but it also has

the advantage of being very helpful in teaching this syntactic construction; in enables

us, in fact, to ask our students to insert the lacking antecedent in all the cases in which

the target language has to lexicalize it, while the source language doesn't need to.

Complex sentences in Latin and German that contain free relative clauses with

formation rules which differ from Italian are very difficult for our students to process.

Learning that this construction works differently in the three languages and specifying

what these constraints actually are, enable the learners to adopt new strategies to

correctly understand, translate and produce in the foreign language.

Before turning to the actual teaching proposal, however, it is essential to overtly

make clear (first of all for teachers) what the syntactic configurations for free relative

clauses in the three languages are, so as to effectively focalize on the difficulties

students have to face. Naturally, when the formation rule of the clause is identical in

the native and in the foreign language, the students don't encounter any specific

difficulties, whereas they tend to wrongly extend the pattern of the native language to

the foreign.

2.1 Free relative clauses in Italian

Italian introduces free relative clauses with the wh- item chi, which is not

morphologically distinct for Case: it can serve as subject, object, or other complements

(in case of matching of the P which governs the wh-):

(3) Invito a cena chi mi è simpatico

Invite1st SING to dinner, whoNOM to me is nice

(4) E’ venuto anche chi hai avvertito ieri

Is come also whoACC have2nd SING told yesterday

(5) Mario parla solo con chi gli conviene parlare

Mario talks only with whoIND him it is worth to talk


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Italian can form the semantic equivalent of a free relative clause with a light headed

relative clause, whose head is either a pronoun (colui/quello – with no deictic content)

or a noun generically referring to a human being such as la persona. The relative clause

is introduced by the complementizer CHE, or, in some specific contexts, it can be

introduced also by the relative pronoun IL QUALE. The relative pronoun CUI can be

used only in indirect cases1.

(6) a. La persona che ha sbagliato deve pagare

The person who has made a mistake must pay

b. Chi ha sbagliato deve pagare

Who has made a mistake must pay

Although there is not always full semantic equivalence between light headed

relative clauses (6a) and free relative clauses (6b), the opportunity to transform free

relatives into headed relatives has to be borne in mind, since – under certain syntactic

configurations – it is the only possible solution to translate German and Latin

sentences into Italian.

We will now see in detail what the Italian possible configurations are. As our

purpose is to concretely deal with this construction, whenever it is problematic, we will

just concentrate on the configurations in which the constraints are not the same in the

three languages. In this respect, the contrastive perspective and the comparison with

the native language are particularly helpful.

The Italian possible configurations are:

1 OK Quello che ha chiesto il suo aiuto non prende mai bei voti

*Quello il quale …. OK Colui che / colui il quale (very formal, less formal in the plural: coloro i quali) OK La persona che… * La persona la quale OK La persona con la/della/ per la/ … quale ho parlato …. OK La persona con/ di/ per/…cui


29|

I. Both silent antecedent and wh- in a structural Case (not necessarily the same)

(7) Chi vuole del pane lo chieda

WhoNOM wants some bread it ask

(8) Ho incontrato chi ha parlato alla conferenza

Have1st SING met ØACC whoNOM has talked at the conference

In (7) there is perfect matching between the Case required by the matrix verb and the

Case governed by the embedded verb: they both require the Nominative. As happens

in most languages there is no problem in forming free relative clauses under these

conditions. In (8) there is no Case matching: the silent antecedent bears Accusative

Case, while the wh- is the subject of the relative clause and has therefore Nominative

Case. This configuration is fully grammatical in Italian and would be generally accepted

by speakers.

II. P which governs a silent antecedent and wh- in a structural Case

(9) Ho dato il libro a chi lo ha chiesto

Have1st SING given the book to Ø whoNOM it has asked

(10) Ho comprato il regalo per chi mi ha offeso

Have1st SING bought the present for Ø whoNOM me has injured

Also this type is always possible in Italian.

III. Silent antecedent in a structural Case and wh- governed by a P

(11) *Ho incontrato per chi lavori

Have1st SING met ØACC for whoIND.OBJ work2nd SING

With the exception of a very specific range of cases, which we will not cope with in

this paper, this configuration is always impossible in Italian. We won’t discuss the

reasons why this type is ungrammatical either2. For teaching purposes the important

2 For a detailed discussion on this see Bertollo and Cavallo (2012).


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aspect is that (11) is only grammatical if it is rewritten as in (12) (or in an equivalent

manner):

(12) Ho incontrato la persona per cui lavori

It is necessary to bear in mind the ungrammaticality of this type, since it is

responsible for most translation and production errors in Latin and German.

2.2 Free relative clauses in Latin and German

The configuration in I (always possible in Italian if the antecedent and the relative

pronoun bear either the Nominative or the Accusative) regardless of the fact they have

the same thematic role, is possible in German if

- the silent antecedent is inanimate:

(13) Ich mache was mir am besten gefällt

I do only what medat best like

(14) Ich lese nur was mein Lehrer mir empfohlen hat

I read only what my teacher me recommended has

- The silent antecedent is animate provided that there is matching between its

Case and the Case of the pronoun:

(15) Wer mir geholfen hat ist ein guter Kerl

Who me helped has is a good boy

(16) Heute habe ich getroffen wen du gestern schon getroffen hattest

Today have1st SING I met whoACC you yesterday already met had

This configuration is possible in Latin as well, even though it is generally avoided if

the antecedent is animate and there is no Case matching between the pronoun and

the antecedent.


31|

The configuration in II (silent antecedent governed by a preposition and relative

pronoun as subject or direct object of the clause) is widespread in Italian, is

grammatical in Latin, although it is very rare, and is impossible in German. This is

instantiated by the following sentences:

(17) Ho comprato un regalo per chi ha vinto

Have1st SING bought a present for who has won

(18) Scipio cum quos paulo ante nominavi interiit

Scipio with Ø whoACC short ago cited died

Scipio died with those I mentioned a short time ago

(B. Afr. 96.2)

(19) *I habe ein Geschenk gekauft, für wer gewonnen hat

I have a present bought for whoNOM won has

We won’t further discuss why this configuration is marginally possible in Latin. It is

however interesting to note that the ungrammaticality of (19) seems to be due to a

morphological reason: while in Italian the wh- doesn’t display any morphological

distinction for Case, in German it does and wer can in no way serve as the superficial

object of für which governs the Accusative. This seems to be confirmed by the [-

animate] case of German, in which a similar configuration is possible with was being

both the Accusative and the Nominative form (see Pittner 1991 and Vogel 2001 for a

detailed discussion on this).

The configuration in III (the silent antecedent is either the subject or the object of

the main clause, while the relative pronoun is governed by a preposition or bears a

Case different from Nominative or Accusative) is basically always impossible in Italian,

but is fully grammatical in Latin and German, as shown by examples such as:

(20) Cui permittit necessitas sua, circumspiciat exitum mollem

WhoDAT allows necessity his, looks-for exit easy

“The person to whom his personal situation allows it, has to look for an easy

way to go out of this”

(Seneca, Epist. 70, 24)


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(21) Ich lade ein, wem du geholfen hast

I invite, whoDAT you helped have2nd SING

(22) *Ho incontrato con chi sei uscito ieri

Have met Ø with whom are gone-out yesterday

This means that Latin and German can avoid to lexicalize their antecedent in a

structural Case, also when the wh- bears an oblique Case (a prepositional phrase in

Italian). The antecedent is somehow recovered in the syntactic chain and the sentence

correctly works.

Table 1: Formation rules of free relative clauses

P which governs

a silent antecedent and

wh- in structural Case

Silent antecedent

in structural Case and

wh- governed by a P

Italian YES NO

Latin RARE YES

German NO YES

In table 1 we will sum up the contrasts we would like to focus on in our teaching

proposal.

2.3 The teaching proposal

After having shown what the distribution of this construction in the three

languages is, we will now turn to the actual teaching proposal, which will be developed

on the basis of a comparison between the three languages.


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2.3.1 The most common errors

School teaching experience and, more specifically, a corpus formed by translation

and analysis tasks submitted to Italian High School students show that the errors made

by learners are very consistent and can be traced back to the contrasts between the

three languages which have been outlined in the previous sections.

Translation and production difficulties of Italian students are basically due to the

over-extension of the requirements and constraints of their mother tongue to the

target languages:

- They form free relative clauses in German according to the pattern in II (first

column of the table): they keep the antecedent silent, though it is governed by

a preposition, and they introduce the relative clause either with the case

governed by the preposition or with the case required by the embedded verb.

It is in any case wrong.

- They wrongly translate into Italian the pattern in III (second column): they

cannot correctly put into their native language a configuration in which the

silent antecedent bearing a structural case has not been lexicalized. This means

that they do not manage to insert the lacking antecedent and they look for last-

resort solutions, which try to reproduce the Latin syntax, though the result is

not grammatical in Italian. In most cases they fail to understand the meaning of

the sentence.

- They have a poor production of free relative clauses in German: students tend

to over-extend the constraints of Italian to German and avoid to produce free

relative clauses which would instead be grammatical. This is of course not a

real error if the student succeeds in finding an alternative solution. However, in

the light of a general improvement of active competences, this goal can be

legitimately pursued.

We claim that these errors are mainly due to at least three co-occuring factors,

which aren’t generally considered by many teaching approaches: there is no


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systematic reflection on free relative clauses; an in-depth knowledge of the syntax of

free relative clauses lacks; an effective contrasting analysis is absent. These aspects will

be crucial in the teaching proposal we will outline.

2.3.2 What is a relative clause and how does it work?

First of all we will briefly remind the students the basic structure of a relative

clause. The only way to tackle with a theme of such a complexity is to “decompose”

the syntactic structure of relative clauses and to analyze their characteristics.

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that expands a nominal phrase. By means

of a relative clause two sentences which share an argument can be joined:

a. Gianni had an idea

b. The idea convinces everybody

a+b The idea that Gianni had convinces everybody

This argument receives two thematic roles, which are assigned by two different

verbs. In a. idea is the object of the verb to have, while in b. the argument idea is the

subject of the verb to convince. Free relative clauses differ from headed relative

clauses in that they have no visible antecedent.

The mechanisms which are at work with free relative clauses are, however, not

that different: they are formed by two units, which are syntactically different, though

interdependent. The arguments selected by the verbs separately receive a thematic

role and a Case. The separateness of these mechanisms is a basic assumption of the

path we will propose. We will assume that the students have already been made

familiar with these notions before starting a syntactic reflection on free relative

clauses.


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2.3.3 The actual proposal

To raise the students’ familiarity with the construction, we will first provide them

with some simple Italian free relative clauses and ask them to gradually reconstruct

the thematic grids of both the matrix and the embedded verb.

A sentence of this type can be:

(23) Ho invitato chi è venuto

Have1st SING invited who is come

Intuitively, the sentence (which displays a mismatch between the Case of the

silent antecedent and the Case of the wh-) is fully grammatical for any speaker of

Italian. An overt analysis is therefore necessary to come to a syntactic awareness

which otherwise would lack.

After stimulating the students’ own reflection, we will come to the following

analysis3:

(24) IoAgent Nom ho invitato ØThemeAcc [SUB4 chi Agent Nom è venuto]

The explicit syntactic analysis will clearly show the unaware mechanisms we apply

whenever producing or even processing a free relative clause. The emergence of these

mechanisms can lead the students to critically use these cognitive tools for the foreign

languages as well.

The analysis in (24) is the starting point which will be crucial for the following steps

of our path.

We will now go back to the two series of errors we have outlined, which are due

to the contrasts we have formalized in table 1. We will now analyze them separately

on the basis of the new grammatical awareness of (24).

3 For the present proposal we will adopt the following simplification of the classification of thematic

roles: we will use the labels Agent and Patient only for verbs of process which involve volition and a change of state; Theme will be used for direct objects of verbs which do not involve an Agent. 4 SUB stands for “subordinate clause”


|36

Silent antecedent in a structural Case and wh- in oblique case

Most problems in this type of configuration emerge whenever a student has to

translate from Latin and German into Italian. Italian learners of Latin (a language which

in Italy is learned mainly passively and therefore is not spoken, but translated)

generally make two errors when they put the sentence into Italian. A possible

stimulus-sentence is the following:

(25) Ille amat cui odio est (adapted from Terence)

He loves to-whom in hate is

If the students have to deal with a sentence such as (25), in which the Accusative

antecedent is not lexicalized, two typically wrong translations they propose are:

(26) *Egli ama a chi è in odio

He loves to whom is in hate

(27) *Egli ama chi è in odio

He loves who is in hate

In (26) the student chooses to maintain the Case of Latin and doesn’t insert the

antecedent, which is compulsory in Italian, being this configuration ungrammatical. In

(27) the student recovers the government of the Italian verb “amare” (to love), but the

case required by the embedded verb is not signaled in any way and the interpretation

is therefore wrong.

Following the model we proposed in (24), (25) can be analyzed as in (28):

(28) IlleExperiencer Nom amat ØTheme Acc [SUB cui Experiencer Dat odio est]

The Case and the thematic role of the null antecedent are selected by the verb

“amare” and are easily recoverable in the context.

Table 1 warns us that it is impossible to translate the sentence into Italian without

integrating the silent antecedent. Its lexicalization is compulsory.


37|

It is anyway sufficient to take only one logical step: we only need to insert the

pronoun (our head) in the Case required by the structure in (28).

We easily come to (29):

(29) IlleExperiencer Nom amat eum [SUB cui Experiencer Dat odio est]

The translation is now straightforward. The most effective translation strategy is

to form a light-headed relative clause, which is, as already noted, semantically very

similar to a free relative clause.

(30) Egli ama colui a cui è in odio

This sentence, which is stylistically not particularly good, is at least grammatically

correct and guarantees that the meaning of the sentence has been captured. Now a

better version can be quickly found: e.g. “Egli ama chi lo odia”.

When the silent antecedent is in the Nominative, the situation is even more

complicated for students:

(31) Cui permittit necessitas sua circumpspiciat exitum mollem

They tend to translate this sentence as in (32):

(32) *A chi permette la sua condizione, cerchi una facile via di uscita

Once again, if there is no systematic grammatical reflection, the student tends to

preserve the structure of the target language and confines Italian into syntactic

possibilities that it does not have.

(31) poses a further problem, which is common also to German: that is the

prolepsis of the relativizer. The relative clause comes first and the matrix comes after

it. This is particularly frequent in Latin with the Nominative as a silent antecedent, but

can be found in German also when the antecedent is in the Accusative or Dative form5.

5 Wem du geholfen hast, ist sicherlich ein guter Kerl.

Wen du geliebt hast, den liebt jetzt Maria Wer wenig Geld hat, *(dem) verleihe ich gerne mein Auto.


|38

This has nearly always pragmatic implications, which we do not necessarily aim to re-

create in the target language, being it probably too difficult for our target students.

In Italian the antecedent must obligatorily precede the wh- and the sentence in

(31) can be correctly translated as:

(33) Colui al quale la propria condizione lo permette, cerchi una facile via

d’uscita

To come to this result we need to make some logical steps explicit, so that the

reconstruction of the sentence according to the syntax of Italian is easy attainable. (31)

has therefore to be analyzed as (34):

(34) Ø i [SUB Cui permittit necessitas sua], circumspiciat exitum mollem

This enables the student to make visually clear that something is lacking in front of

the wh-. The further step will be the co-indexation of the silent antecedent with the

verb it agrees with in the matrix clause:

(35) Ø i [SUB Cui permittit necessitas sua],circumspiciati exitum mollem

If we now use the scheme in (18) we will have the following result:

(36) ØiAgentNom [SUB CuiBeneficiaryDat permittit necessitas suaInitiatorNom],

circumspiciati exitum mollemThemeAcc

The lexicalization of the antecedent is the following step:

(37) IsiAgentNom [SUB cuiBeneficiaryDat permittit necessitas suaInitiatorNom],

circumspiciati exitum mollemThemeAcc

The correct translation is the one we proposed in (33).

If we want to optimize the potentialities of our method, however, we have to

show that it is effective in learning a spoken language such as German. This language

doesn’t display any peculiarity with respect to this construction, if we compare it with


39|

Latin, therefore the pattern we proposed for Latin can be totally applied to German,

with no substantial modification.

Sentences such as (38) can be analyzed exactly as we did for Italian and Latin (39):

(38) Ich liebe wem du geholfen hast

I love whoDAT you helped have2nd SING

(39) IchExperiencerNom liebe ØThemeAcc [SUB wemBeneficiaryDat du geholfen hast

The sentence can be easily translated if we insert the antecedent, which in

German can remain silent: “Io amo la persona a cui hai prestato aiuto”.

German poses however a further problem of different nature: Italian native

speakers tend to avoid the formation of sentences such as (38) because they extend

the constraints of Italian to the target language. Ideally, if we aim at making the

students reach proficiency, and be aware of all the possible structures of the foreign

language and actually produce them, we can adopt the same pattern we outlined in

(36-37) and just reverse it.

Starting from an Italian input such as (40), table 1 suggests that in German we can

simply delete the antecedent and the sentence can be re-analyzed and translated into

German as in (41):

(40) IoAgent Nom ho incontrato coluiThemeAcc [SUB a cuiBeneficiaryAcc hai

I have met the guy to whom have2ndSing

dato il libro

given the book

(41) IchAgent Nom habe ØThemeAcc getroffen [SUB wemBeneficiaryDat du das Buch

gegeben hast


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Antecedent governed by a preposition and wh- in a structural Case

We will repeat as (42 - 43) the sentences which exemplify the typical contrasts of

this configuration:

(42) Ho comprato un regalo per chi ha vinto

(43) Scipio cum quos paulo ante nominavi interiit (B. Afr. 96.2)

(44) *Ich habe ein Geschenk gekauft für wer gewonnen hat

As the type in (43) is very rare in Latin, we will focus on the problem posed by

German. The most common error this time is the inappropriate formation of sentences

such as (44) because this type is possible in Italian. Students do not take into

consideration that in German morphology blocks this configuration.

For this type of error we have to carefully analyze the structure of the sentence in

Italian and use the model in (24):

(45) IoAgentNom ho comprato un regaloPatientAcc per ØBeneficiaryAcc6 [SUB chiAgentNom

ha vinto

The table 1 reminds us that this configuration is impossible for German: the silent

antecedent must be somehow lexicalized. This can be done for instance through a light

head.

Starting from (42), we insert the antecedent where required, before we translate

into German:

(46) IoAgentNom ho comprato un regaloPatientAcc per coluiBeneficiaryAcc [SUB che ha

vinto

To form a correct sentence in German of course the student has to pay attention

to the Case that the preposition governs. Per is translated into German as für and

requires the Accusative Case.

6 We assume that the P in Italian always assigns the Accusative Case on the basis of Caha (2009).


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(47) IchAgentNom habe ein GeschenkPatientAcc gekauft für(+ACC)

denjenigenBeneficiaryAcc, [SUB derAgentNom gewonnen hat

Naturally in (47) we cannot use the wh- item we normally use for free relative

clauses, because this is not a free relative clause but a light-headed relative clause,

which requires the insertion of the d- pronoun.

3. Final remarks

The teaching proposal we have outlined offers many advantages. It enables the

students:

- To deeply understand the syntactic structures of their own language: they have

learned them spontaneously and use them with no awareness.

- To think of the universality of the syntactic structures used by the human brain

to process language.

- To further develop their awareness of the differences among natural languages

in the domain of syntax and in its interface with morphology.

- To pass from a language to another with a new grammatical awareness.

What led us to think of this teaching proposal is the idea that the methods we use

to learn languages must have solid epistemological bases. The aim is to offer the

students the tools to reflect on human languages, so as to improve their skills and,

indirectly, to develop their cognitive abilities as well. Generative Grammar combined

with formal syntax is, in our opinion, a very robust basis from which we can start to

create an effective path which improves the grammatical reflection of the students

and pursues the goals we have prefixed. Previous attempts of joining formal syntax

and, more specifically, Generative Grammar with school teaching practice have been

successfully carried out for instance with headed relative clauses, interrogative clauses


|42

in English, negation in German, the concept of transitivity, the noun phrase in French7.

Further research and future developments

The work we are carrying out is in fieri. Much research still has to be done also in

the field of teaching, specifically in the perspective of combining formal linguistics and

school praxis. As the path we have proposed is specifically restricted to a small chunk

of the bigger topic of free relative clauses, many other themes could be developed and

proposed in the schools. We will just cite some of these possible developments:

- Teaching proposals on the pragmatics of free relative clauses (how to translate

a focused or topicalized free relative clause into the target language). The

problem emerges both for Latin and German.

- Reflections on how to teach the type with the [- animate] antecedent.

References

BENINCÀ, P. (2010). Headless relatives in some Old Italian varieties. In R. D’Alessandro, A. Ledgeway, I. Roberts, Syntactic variation. The dialects of Italy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

BENINCÀ, P. (in press). Lexical complementisers and Headless Relatives. In L. Brugè et alii (Eds.), Functional Heads. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.

BERTOLLO S. & CAVALLO G. (2012). The syntax of Italian free relative clauses. Generative Grammar in Geneva, 8: 59-76.

BOSCO COLETSOS, B., COSTA M., (2004). Italiano e tedesco: un confronto. Torino: Edizioni dell’Orso, 33-116; 263-279.

BRESNAN, J. E GRIMSHAW, J. (1978). The Syntax of Free Relatives in English. Linguistic Inquiry, 9, 331-91

CAHA, P., (2009). The nanosyntax of Case. PhD Thesis. University of Trømso. CINQUE, G., (2003). The Interaction of Passive, Causative, and ‘Restructuring’ in Romance. In

C.Tortora, The Syntax of Italian Dialects, New York: Oxford University Press. DUDEN, (2006). „Die Grammatik”, vol. 4, Mannheim: Dudensverlag.

7 A good number of articles on these topics have appeared in the on-line journal Grammatica e

Didattica which was started in 2007 within the Department of Linguistics at the University of Padova (Italy). Articles are downloadable for free from the website: http://www.maldura.unipd.it/ddlcs/GeD/quaderni_grammatica_didattica.html. Further projects involving the introduction of Generative Grammar schemas into school practice have been led by Prof. Renato Oniga at the University of Udine (Italy).

http://www.unige.ch/lettres/linge/syntaxe/journal/journal.html

http://www.unige.ch/lettres/linge/syntaxe/journal/journal.html

http://www.maldura.unipd.it/ddlcs/GeD/quaderni_grammatica_didattica.html


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GROOS, A. & VAN RIEMSDIJK, H. (1981). Matching Effects in Free Relatives. In A. Belletti, L. Brandi & L. Rizzi (Eds.), Theory of Markedness in Generative Grammar. Pisa: Scuola Normale Superiore, 171-215.

GROSU, A. (1996). The Proper Analysis of Missing P Free Relative Constructions. Linguistic Inquiry, 27, 257-93.

LARSON, R. K. (1987). Missing Prepositions and the Analysis of English Free Relative Clauses. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 239-66.

PITTNER, K., (1991). Freie Relativsätze und die Kasushierarchie. In E. Feldbusch, R. Pogarell & C. Weiß (Eds.), Neue Fragen der Linguistik. Akten des 25. Linguistischen Kolloquiums, Padeborn. Tubinga: Max Niemeyer, 341-347.

STERNFELD, W. (2005). Do Free Relative Clauses Have Quantificational Force? In H.-M. Gaertner, S. Beck, R. Eckardt, R. Musan, B. Stiebels (Eds.), Between 40 and 60 Puzzles for Krifka.http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/publications/40-60-puzzles-for-krifka/pdf/sternefeld.pdf

VOGEL, R. (2001). Case conflict in German free relative constructions. An optimality theoretic treatment. In G. Müller e W. Sternfeld, Competition in Syntax. Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

SABRINA BERTOLLO and GUIDO CAVALLO are two Ph.D. students in Linguistics, at the University of Padova (Italy). Their research programs involve the investigation of German relative clauses, not only in the Standard, but also in dialectal varieties and of Latin Accusative, especially with respect to psych verbs. They are editor (S. Bertollo) and director (G. Cavallo) respectively of the on-line scientific journal Grammatica e Didattica (Grammar and Teaching), which is edited by the Department of Linguistics of the University of Padova. They have participated as speakers in conferences on teaching and on general linguistics. They have organized a conference (held in Padova, Italy, on 13th-14th December 2012) devoted to teaching in its interface with the developments of formal linguistics. Submitted: October 2012. Accepted: January 2013.


La simulación empresarial como experiencia relacionada con el Marketing.

Una propuesta empírica

Business simulation as an experience related to marketing. An empirical proposal

Francisco J. Liébana-Cabanillas • Myriam Martínez-Fiestas

Departamento de Comercialización e Investigación de la Universidad de Granada [email protected]•[email protected]

Resumen

El trabajo analiza la influencia del uso de las TIC y la importancia del trabajo en equipo en las asignaturas de marketing de titulaciones de empresariales. El eje principal de este trabajo se basa en identificar si la utilización de las TIC en grupo favorece el aprendizaje de la disciplina del marketing, así como las habilidades sociales del alumno. Con el objetivo de evaluar la influencia de la utilización del simulador Markops Online en el aprendizaje del alumno, fue aplicado un cuestionario a 784 alumnos de la Universidad de Granada.Los resultados muestran como los alumnos perciben que el uso de dichas herramientas, a pesar de requerir un mayor esfuerzo que las tradicionales prácticas de casos, les genera mayor satisfacción, incrementa su aprendizaje de manera más atractiva y fomenta el desarrollo de sus habilidades sociales.

Palabras clave: TIC; satisfacción; educación; aprendizaje; marketing; trabajo en equipo.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the influence of the use of ICT and the importance of teamwork for marketing subjects in business studies. The central theme of this paper is to identify whether the use of ICT in groups enhances the learning of the marketing discipline, as well as students’ social skills. At the University of Granada, we conducted a questionnaire to 784 students over three academic years (2006-2009) with the aim of evaluating the influence of using the Markops Online simulator on the student’s learning process. The results show how students perceive that the use of these tools, although requiring greater effort than conventional case studies, provides them greater satisfaction, increases their interest in the learning process and helps developing social skills.

Keywords: ICT; satisfaction; education; learning; marketing; teamwork.



45|

Resumo

Este artigo analisa a influência da utilização das TIC e a importância dos trabalhos de grupo nas unidades curriculares de marketing nas licenciaturas em gestão. O objetivo principal deste artigo é verificar se o uso das TIC melhora quer a aprendizagem nas unidades curriculares de marketing, quer as competências sociais dos alunos. Na Universidade de Granada, aplicámos um questionário a 784 aluno em três anos letivos (2006-2009) com o intuito de avaliar a influência da utilização do simulador Markops Online no processo de aprendizagem dos alunos. Os resultados mostram como os alunos percecionam o uso deste tipo de ferramentas que, embora lhes exija um esforço maior do que os tradicionais estudos de caso, dá-lhes maior satisfação, aumenta o interesse pelo processo de aprendizagem e desenvolve competências sociais.

Palavras-chave: TIC; satisfação; educação; aprendizagem; marketing; trabalhos de grupo.

1. Introducción

La reciente reforma de los planes de estudios universitarios en el marco

delpopularmente denominado como Proceso de Bolonia, fomenta la aplicación de

nuevas tecnologías docentes (Diniz et al., 2011), permitiendo que el alumno controle

su propio aprendizaje (Ruiz et al., 2006). Además, entre los nuevos retos y

compromisos planteados para el futuro en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior

(EEES) cabe destacar el planteamiento de un nuevo enfoque metodológico que

transforme nuestro sistema educativo basado en la “enseñanza” a otro basado en el

“aprendizaje”. Este proceso de mejora debe ser interactivo y se sustenta en tres

principios básicos (MEC, 2005): Mayor implicación y autonomía del estudiante;

utilización de metodologías más activas (como el uso de tecnologías multimedia); y el

papel del profesorado, como agente creador de entornos de aprendizaje que

estimulen a los alumnos. Esta visión constructivista del aprendizaje favorece el

conocimiento en otros entornos diferentes a los convencionales como el virtual

(Sanchez y Hueros, 2010).

El uso de equipos se ha convertido en una forma habitual de organizar el trabajo

en cualquier clase de organización (Nielsen, et al., 2005), por lo que su uso en la

educación superior universitaria está empezando a tener una importancia relevante,

considerándose un medio para mejorar la interactividad, potenciar las habilidades del

alumno para la resolución de problemas, su capacidad analítica y reflexiva, así como el


|46

auto-aprendizaje. Por todo ello, se considera necesario realizar un análisis de las

percepciones y resultados obtenidos por los alumnos tras el uso de las mismas.

Por otro lado, este trabajo pretende contribuir a un mejor conocimiento de la

didáctica colaborativa utilizada en espacios virtuales, dado que se analiza si la

experiencia a través de la utilización de Markops Online en grupos de trabajo,

contribuye al desarrollo y formación de los alumnos para el mercado laboral. El Espacio

Europeo de Enseñanza Superior da una importancia elevada al trabajo en equipo,

tanto como metodología de aprendizaje activa y participativa, como por su relevancia

como competencia profesional de alta valoración. Por tanto se estima necesario

incorporar en las enseñanzas regladas, el entorno virtual en el proceso de aprendizaje

de los alumnos para el desarrollo de habilidades de trabajo en equipo (Lin y Tu, 2012),

dado que dichas habilidades se consideran vitales en la actualidad en el mercado

laboral.

En definitiva, el presente trabajo trata de resumir tres años de experiencia en la

aplicación del simulador Markops Online en las prácticas de marketing,

fundamentando se en dos premisas principales: la evidente necesidad de las nuevas

tecnologías y del trabajo en equipo en el entorno laboral actual.

2. Los juegos de simulación empresarial

La formación universitaria ha experimentado en los últimos años profundos

cambios por la implementación de las Nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y

Comunicación, TIC, las cuales están cambiando la manera de concebir los procesos de

enseñanza-aprendizaje (Ferro-Soto et al., 2009). Ante este nuevo contexto tecnológico,

los simuladores se configuran como una alternativa innovadora y atractiva a los

métodos de enseñanza tradicionales a través de la reproducción de una realidad de

forma virtual, pero con un grado de precisión elevado, (Martín y Mc Evoy, 2003) e

incluso como una herramienta complementaria a los métodos tradicionales de

educación (King y Newman, 2009; Avramenko, 2012). En este sentido, la simulación

permite observar el comportamiento de los alumnos en situaciones reales de mercado,

pero sin asumir costes por los posibles errores derivados en la toma de decisiones.


47|

Los juegos de simulación comenzaron a usarse en la década de los 50 cuando los

desarrollos tecnológicos de carácter informático lo permitieron principalmente en las

escuelas de negocio americanas (Marting, 1957), si bien es cierto que fue en los años

70 y 80 cuando su uso se generalizó y comenzó a expandirse por el resto del mundo

(Schriesheim y Schriesheim, 1974; Horn y Cleaves, 1980).

Hasta la fecha estas tecnologías han resultado útiles en el aprendizaje de

asignaturas relacionadas con los negocios, más concretamente en economía (Izquierdo

et al., 2007), organización de empresas (Arias-Aranda et al., 2008) así como en el área

de marketing (Liébana-Cabanillas et al., 2012)

Las ventajas de los juegos de simulación para los alumnos se pueden resumir en

(StratX Simulations, 2012): (1) los juegos de simulación no suponen riesgos derivados

de las decisiones reales, pero implican una experiencia real donde el alumno debe de

recapacitar sobre cada una de las decisiones que se le plantean en cada situación

determinada, (2) la implementación de este tipo de simulaciones permite a los

alumnos desarrollar una perspectiva a largo plazo, observando cómo éstas

repercutirán en el valor y el beneficio de la empresa en los próximos ejercicios, (3) las

decisiones operativas de los juegos de simulación implican la gestión de todas las

variables propias de la situación diaria de gestión de una empresa, (4) además

refuerzan el pensamiento competitivo y el propio conocimiento del mercado, ya que

de las decisiones que se lleven a cabo supondrán un efecto inmediato tanto en los

clientes como en el resto de los equipos que compiten en el mismo mercado y (5)

finalmente, se favorece el entorno de la propia herramienta a través de la propia

diversión de estas iniciativas.

La implementación y uso de este tipo de herramientas requiere de un tiempo de

adaptación del alumno a la herramienta por su complejidad (ya que aglutina la

“realidad virtual” de un mercado) lo que le obliga a una dedicación y un esfuerzo

adicional, si bien es cierto que mejora el aprendizaje, la retención y el nivel de

implicación (véase Figura 1).


|48

Figura 1: Evolución del conocimiento

Fuente: Elaboración propia.

3. Metodología

3.1. El Contexto: Markops Online

La simulación a través del interface Markops Online es utilizada desde hace más de

25 años y se encuentra presente en más de 500 centros de formación, utilizando lo 8

de las 10 primeras escuelas internacionales de negocios. Este software proporciona la

posibilidad de que los alumnos tomen decisiones desde cualquier ordenador

conectado a Internet a cualquier hora del día, aplicando los conceptos teóricos de

Marketing en un entorno realista. Sus aplicaciones fundamentales son: (1) simular

negocios reales, aunque con una simplificación de la realidad con el objetivo de

maximizar su efectividad pedagógica; (2) crear un ambiente de negocio específico con

características propias respecto a productos, tamaño del mercado, canales de

distribución, etc.; y (3) adoptar un conjunto de decisiones relacionadas con el área de

marketing de la empresa que generen un entorno de aprendizaje realista.

El software Markops Online pertenece a la empresa StratX, la cual ofrece múltiples

software de simulación para estudiantes universitarios, profesionales del sector del

marketing e incluso para ejecutivos de alto nivel. En la actualidad se emplea en más de

90 países, 50.000 profesionales y 4 millones de estudiantes.


49|

La experiencia concreta que se desarrolló para los alumnos de Universidad de

Granada supone el uso del programa Markops Online, el cual incluye las siguientes

fases:

Etapa 1: En el inicio del curso, se lleva a cabo la presentación por parte del

profesor de la experiencia y la explicación relativa a su utilidad y objetivos generales.

Igualmente se procede a iniciar la organización de la misma (fundamentalmente la

formación de equipos de trabajo compuestos por 4 o 5 personas), se produce el

registro de grupos en el sistema y se les comunica sus claves de acceso (Semana 1 a 2).

Etapa 2: Durante las primeras semanas del curso se procede también a la

explicación por el profesor del funcionamiento del programa (Semana 3 y 4).

Etapa 3: El planteamiento implica que cada grupo representa una empresa que

compite en una industria formada por un total de cuatro empresas. La situación de

partida de cada grupo-empresa, aunque distinta en cuanto a productos

comercializados, precios, etc., está equiparada. Durante 6 semanas (tiempo previsto

para la realización de 6 rondas de simulación) los alumnos toman decisiones de

marketing para su empresa, respetando siempre un calendario publicado y conocido

por todos (véase Figura 2). Cada semana el alumno cuenta con la información sobre el

ranking de empresas del sector y los resultados que ha obtenido su empresa-grupo

(consecuencia de las decisiones adoptadas en el periodo anterior). De esta forma, los

estudiantes reciben retroalimentación de forma inmediata y continua, lo que les

permite revisar sus conocimientos y, en su caso, ir corrigiendo errores. En base a esa

información tomarán las decisiones que estimen convenientes para la simulación

siguiente (Semana 5 a la 10).

Etapa 4: Terminado el periodo de decisiones los alumnos elaboran un informe

donde se precisa el análisis de la situación, los objetivos planteados y las decisiones

por periodos, y el análisis de resultados (Semana 10). Dicho informe se expone de

forma oral y pública en clase. En esta sesión final de exposiciones el profesor plantea

preguntas a los grupos y además es un foro de debate en el que los alumnos pueden

comentar sus experiencias (Semana 11 y 12).


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El calendario final se resume en la Tabla 1.

Tabla 1: Calendario tentativo de actuaciones

SEMANA TAREAS

Semana 1 a 4

Formación de grupos de trabajo (4 o 5 personas)

Identificación del estudiante en el servidor y entrega de claves de acceso

Semana 5 y 6

Estudio del funcionamiento del programa

Semana 7 Simulación 1 y 2 La simulación consta de seis periodos de

decisión, y abarca un total de tres años de actividad (en cada ronda se simulan seis meses de actividad)

Semana 8 Simulación 3 y 4

Semana 9 Simulación 5 y 6

Semana 10 Preparación de los informes finales

Semana 11 y 12

Presentación de los informes finales sobre la evolución de las simulaciones


Figura 2: Imágenes del software: Período 4

Fuente: Markops Online.


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La aplicación del simulador Markops Online pretende dos objetivos fundamentales

(Véase Figura 3) (Sánchez et al., 2007): (1) el uso de las TIC en el aprendizaje y la

mejora de habilidades, y (2) la consecución, por parte del alumnado, de las

competencias propias derivadas del trabajo en equipo (Stevens y Campion, 1994), esto

es, interpersonales (resolución de conflictos, resolución colaborativa de problemas,

comunicación) y de auto-gestión (fijación de objetivos y gestión del rendimiento,

planificación y coordinación de tareas).

Figura 3: Objetivos fundamentales


•Que el alumno aplique las TIC en el aprendizaje de esta materia.

•Desarrollar y potenciar las habilidades para la resolución de problemas del alumno, su capacidad analítica y reflexiva y el autoaprendizaje.

Objetivos relacionados con la metodología de enseñanza-aprendizaje

•El desarrollo de nuevos productos a partir del departamento de I+D.

•La preparación del lanzamiento de nuevos productos, mejorando o manteniendo los existentes.

•El trabajo con el departamento de producción para planificar la capacidad y planificación de la producción.

•La toma de decisiones de marketing.

•La decisión sobre la distribución de los productos a través de los diferentes canales.

•La adquisición y análisis de estudios de mercados en los que fundamentar las decisiones.

Objetivos concretos respecto a la materia


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4. Análisis de datos

Para la consecución de los objetivos de esta investigación se seleccionaron

alumnos, matriculados en diversas asignaturas de marketing (de diferentes

titulaciones), que habían manejado el software y se encontraban en disposición de

valorar su experiencia una vez que habían alcanzado los conocimientos requeridos

para la toma de decisiones (en materia de precios, producto, distribución y

comunicación).

Para llevar a cabo la autoevaluación se elaboró un cuestionario de evaluación de la

experiencia (al objeto de determinar la utilidad percibida por los alumnos del uso del

Simulador) que fue contestado por 784 alumnos en un periodo de tres cursos

académicos consecutivos (2006-2009).

El cuestionario fue contestado el último día de las sesiones. Dicho cuestionario

estaba compuesto por un total de 49 ítems medidos con una escala Likert (1-10). A

través del mismo se les solicitaba a los alumnos su opinión acerca de:

Percepciones relativas a la participación en la simulación (relacionadas con el

aprendizaje, desarrollo de habilidades específicas, etc.)

Percepciones relativas a la labor del profesorado.

Percepciones sobre el suministrado.

Percepciones sobre el software utilizado.

Valoración general de la simulación versus la realización de prácticas tradicionales

a través de casos prácticos.

Al objeto de analizar la efectividad de la utilización del programa en equipo, se

realizaron diversos tratamientos de los datos utilizando el software SPSS, versión 15.

Se hallaron y analizaron los estadísticos descriptivos de las variables observadas en el

cuestionario y se contrastaron diversas variables a través de la prueba estadística T-

Student para muestras relacionadas, con el objeto de identificar la existencia de

diferencias significativas entre la valoración del uso del programa y la realización de las

prácticas con metodologías tradicionales.


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5. Resultados de la investigación

Del análisis de los estadísticos descriptivos podemos destacar, en primer lugar,

que el software empleado es percibido por el alumno como una herramienta eficaz

para el fomento del trabajo en equipo (Lin y Tu, 2012), en la que se desarrollan

diferentes habilidades sociales y personales, estando íntimamente relacionado con el

contenido de la asignatura, obteniendo valoraciones medias por encima del 7 en las

respuestas relacionadas con este factor.

En segundo lugar, que la labor del profesorado es fundamental en el buen

desarrollo de la simulación, resultando valores medios por encima de 6,5 puntos.

En tercer lugar, que a pesar de que los alumnos consideran que el programa no es

fácil de usar, la valoración del uso de dicha herramienta para la realización de las

prácticas de marketing obtiene en todos los casos una puntuación media por encima

de 6 puntos.

Finalmente, la satisfacción del uso de las TIC en las asignaturas se encuentra por

encima del valor medio de 7. Así mismo, cabe destacar que las dispersiones en los

datos no eran elevadas en ningunos de estos ítems.

De las pruebas T-Student realizadas (véase Tabla 2 y 3), destacamos la existencia

de diferencias significativas entre las medias de los ítems que valoraban la diversión de

la utilización del software y la realización de casos prácticos tradiciones, así como el

conocimiento adquirido por ambas vías, siendo mejor valorado en ambos casos la

utilización del simulador Markops Online, lo que refuerza los resultados de

investigaciones similares (Bredemeier y Greenblat, 1981; Anderson y Lawton, 2009).


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Tabla 2: Análisis descriptivos de las valoraciones de la diversión, esfuerzo y conocimientos adquiridos mediante el uso del simulador frente a los casos prácticos tradiciones

Item valorado N Media Item valorado N Media

Diversión con Markops

772 6,755 Diversión

tradicional 702 5,501

Esfuerzo con Markops

770 8,272 Esfuerzo

tradicional 700 7,443

Conocimientos adquiridos con

Markops 771 7,179

Conocimientos adquiridos de

forma tradicional

697 6,878


Como se observa en la Tabla 2, la media de la muestra de la diversión con

Markops (6,755) supera en un 18,56% la valoración de los métodos tradicionales

(5,501). En relación con el esfuerzo, también se observa una puntuación superior en un

10% en el caso del simulador Markops (8,272) y los métodos tradicionales de

enseñanza. Finalmente los conocimientos adquiridos con Markops (7,179) superan un

4,19% a los conocimientos adquiridos por los métodos tradicionales (6,878).

Tabla 3: Prueba T-Student para muestras relacionadas de las valoraciones de la diversión, esfuerzo y conocimientos adquiridos mediante el uso del simulador frente a los casos

prácticos tradiciones

Prueba t para muestras relacionadas t g.l. Significación

bilateral

Diversión Markops- Tradicional 13,611 701 0,000

Esfuerzo Markops- Tradicional 12,846 697 0,000

ConocimientosMarkops- Tradicional 4,546 696 0,000


Así mismo, de acuerdo con la Tabla 3, se observó la existencia de diferencias

significativas entre la diversión alcanzada con Markops y los métodos tradicionales

(t=13,611, g.l.= 701, p=0,000), el esfuerzo (t=12,846, g.l.=697, p=0,000) y los

conocimientos adquiridos (t=4,546, g.l.=697, p=0,000).


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6. Conclusiones

Las nuevas tecnologías en la educación superior aplicadas a los simuladores de

gestión de marketing fomentan el aprendizaje delalumno, mejorando el seguimiento

de las clases, dando lugar al aprendizaje informal, favoreciendo la mejor asimilación de

conocimientos y generando una actitud favorable hacia la asignatura entre otras

ventajas (Anderson y Lawton, 2009; Santos et al., 2010; Liébana-Cabanillas et al.,

2012).

En este sentido, los simuladores de negocios se constituyen como una

herramienta docente muy poderosa, dado que la utilización del simulador (como

Nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, TIC), favorece el aprendizaje

autónomo del alumnado, el trabajo colaborativo y el desarrollo de habilidades sociales

y personales específicas, que sin duda van a ser cruciales en la formación de los futuros

profesionales (Echazarreta et al., 2009).

Integrar la tecnología en la educación universitaria de marketing no consiste tan

solo en impartir una sesión de clase con un cañón proyector o facilitar el material

docente a los alumnos/as a través de una plataforma web, sino que debe entenderse

como una verdadera integración de los contenidos teóricos y prácticos aprendidos en

el aula en la realidad empresarial, puesta a disposición del alumno gracias a los

simuladores donde deberán aplicar todos sus conocimientos orientados a la gestión de

una situación de mercado real de consecuencias limitadas.

En este sentido, los resultados alcanzados sugieren que los estudiantes perciben el

uso de las TIC en las asignaturas de marketing como un estímulo para el auto

aprendizaje (Echazarreta et al., 2009), siendo una metodología útil y muy actual para

desarrollar las habilidades y conocimientos del alumno en el campo de la economía, la

gestión comercial y el marketing (Izquierdo et al., 2007; Pasin y Giroux, 2011; Tanner et

al., 2012; Liébana-Cabanillas, et al., 2012). En nuestro caso, los resultados destacan

como el uso de Markops es preferido por los alumnos tanto en la diversión que les

supone su implementación durante el curso, el esfuerzo que les requiere y finalmente

los mayores conocimientos adquiridos con su uso, frente a los medios tradicionales

que se emplean en clase.


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Los resultados refuerzan la necesidad de actualizar la metodología utilizada,

incorporando las TIC en los sistemas educativos al objeto de fomentar el aprendizaje

del alumno, con una actitud más activa que con los métodos tradicionales, mejorando

el seguimiento de las clases, e incrementando sus habilidades sociales. Así mismo,

refuerza los resultados obtenidos por Batista-Canino et al.(2011) en relación con la

importancia del trabajo en equipo vía TIC.

Si bien es cierto que el uso de los simuladores ya está contrastado en la literatura

científica, consideramos que en el futuro, debería analizarse el efecto sostenido en el

tiempo del uso de los simuladores, realizando un estudio longitudinal para evaluar

tanto las ventajas que se han puesto de manifiesto en este estudio como su influencia

en la calificación académica. Además, proponemos la comparación de los resultados

académicos de los alumnos que han empleado esta herramienta frente a aquellos que

no lo emplearan, detectando puntos fuertes y oportunidades para el futuro.También,

la verificación del efecto comparativo de diferentes simuladores sobre los alumnos/as

para observar los efectos en el tiempo de una mayor exposición a simulaciones de esta

naturaleza. Finalmente, la valoración del efecto del profesorado en toda la secuencia

de aprendizaje, detectando elementos que determinen la actitud del mismo hacia este

tipo de herramientas.

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ECHAZARRETA, C., PRADOS, F., POCH, J. y SOLER, J. (2009). La competencia “El trabajo colaborativo”: una oportunidad para incorporar las TIC en la didáctica universitaria. Descripción de la experiencia con la plataforma ACME (UdG). Uocpapers, revista sobre la sociedad del conocimiento, 8. In <http://www.uoc.edu/uocpapers/8/dt/esp/echazarreta_prados_poch_soler.pdf>, consultado em 23.09.2012.

FERRO-SOTO, C., MARTÍNEZ- SENRA, A.I. y OTERO- NEIRA, M.C. (2009). Ventajas del Uso de las TICs en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje desde la óptica de los docentes universitarios españoles. Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa, 29, 1-11.

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LIÉBANA-CABANILLAS, F.J., MARTÍNEZ-FIESTAS, M. y REJÓN-GUARDIA, F. (2012). The simulator as a university business school support tool: implementation of Simbrand in University Teaching. In D. G. Barres, Z. C. Carrión e R. López-Cozar Delgado. Technologies for Inclusive Education: Beyond Traditional Integration Approaches (pp.285-304).USA: IGI Global.

LIN, Y-L., y TU, Y-Z. (2012). The values of college students in business simulation game: A means-end chain approach.Computers & Education, 58(4), 1160–1170.

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NIELSEN, T. M., SUNDSTROM, E. y HALFHILL, T. (2005). Group dynamics and effectiveness: Five years of applied research. In S. A. Wheelan (Ed.), Handbook of Group Research and Practice (pp. 285-311). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

PASIN, F. y GIROUX H. (2011). The impact of a simulation game on operations management education. Computers & Education, 57, 1240–1254.

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SANCHEZ, J., ARIAS, M.I., CAÑADAS, P., GARCIA, I. y LOPEZ, L (2007). Simulación de gestión de marketing con Markstrat (SIGEMAR). Proyecto de Innovación Docente nº 3180. Vicerrectorado de Planificación, Calidad y Evaluación Docente. Universidad de Granada: Granada.

SANCHEZ, R. A. y HUEROS, A. D. (2010). Motivational factors that influence the acceptance of moodle using TAM. Computers in Human Behavior, 26 (6), 1632-1640.

SANTOS, B., BUENO, Y. DE PABLO, I. y BORRAJO, F. (2010). Innovación en docencia virtual: los simuladores de gestión empresarial. Relada, 4 (2), 150-158.

SCHRIESHEIM, C.A. y SCHRIESHEIM, J. (1974). Divergence of practitioner opinion and empirical evidence: the case of business simulation games. In Academy of Management Proceedings. 34th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (pp.29-39). Seattle: Academy of Management.

http://www.uoc.edu/uocpapers/8/dt/esp/echazarreta_prados_poch_soler.pdf


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STEVENS, M. Y CAMPION, M. (1994).The knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for teamwork: Implications for human resource management. A Special Issue of the Journal of Management, 20 (2), 503-530.

STRATX SIMULATIONS (2012). <http://www.stratxsimulations.com> TANNER, J,R., STEWART, G., TOTARO, M.W. y HARGRAVE, M. (2012). Business simulation

games: Effective Teaching Tools or Window Dressing? American Journal of Business Education, 5 (2), 115-128.

FRANCISCO LIÉBANA-CABANILLAS is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing and Market Research Department at the University of Granada (Spain) since 2000 and holds a Ph.D. in Business Sciences from this university. He has a degree in Business and Administration Science and a Masters in Marketing and Consumer behavior, from the same university. His main research areas are the effectiveness of the mobile and online banking, Internet consumer behaviour and e-banking acceptance. He has published various papers, a book (Pearson) and chapters in multidisciplinary books. He has presented his research at several European Marketing Academies and Associations. Currently he is carrying out different research projects on Internet social networks, mobile payment, social commerce, Internet and effectiveness, multi-objective optimization and new technologies acceptance.

MYRIAM MARTÍNEZ-FIESTAS is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing and Market Research Department at the University of Granada (Spain) and holds a Ph.D. Business Sciences from this university. She has a degree in Business and Administration Science, a degree in Law, a Master in Marketing and Consumer behavior, from the same university, and an Executive Masters in Law and Business, from Garrigues Studies Centre and Harvard Law School. Her main area of research and interest is green consumer behavior, effectiveness of the green advertising, neuromarketing and psychophysiology, the results of which are reflected in various papers, conferences and interdisciplinary workshops. She is currently working on different research projects on emotion ads effectiveness and green consumer behavior.

Submitted: November 2012. Accepted: March 2013.

http://www.stratxsimulations.com/


O impacto da liderança no bem-estar dos colaboradores – o papel dos líderes

e dos gestores na construção de modelos que promovam o bem-estar psicológico no trabalho

The impact of leadership on employee well-being – the role of leaders and managers

in the construction of models that promote psychological well-being in the workplace

Fernando Messias[1] • Júlio Mendes[2] • Ileana Monteiro[3]

[1] Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve•

[2] Faculdade de Economia, Universidade

do Algarve • [3] Escola Superior de Gestão, Hotelaria e Turismo, Universidade do Algarve [email protected] •[email protected] • [email protected]

Abstract

If leadership is the process of group influence on the achievement of objectives (Fleishman et al, 1991; Bass, 1990), employee well-being can be considered as one of the goals to be attained by the group through the action of its leader (Rost, 1991). Well-being is a complex, multidimensional construct, which targets the individual as a whole, considering it in its multiple physical, social and psychological dimensions (Biswas-Diener, 2008; Lyubomirsky et al, 2005; Diener, 2000). It is often discussed in the literature in the light of two major perspectives (hedonic and eudaemonic) and studied as a factor, element or variable that influences staff performance and organisational effectiveness (Danna and Griffin, 1999; Wright and Cropanzano, 2004; Harter et al, 2003). Having established the relationship between well-being and organisational effectiveness, it is necessary to understand how leaders influence the well-being of their employees. Keywords: Leadership, well-being, psychological well-being, psychological well-being at work, job satisfaction.

Resumo

Se a liderança é o processo de influência de grupo na realização de objectivos (Fleishmanet al, 1991; Bass, 1990) o bem-estar dos colaboradores pode ser encarado como um dos fins a alcançar pelo grupo através da ação do líder (Rost, 1991). O bem-estar é um constructo multidimensional complexo que visa o indivíduo como um todo, concebendo-o nas suas múltiplas dimensões física, social e psicológica (Biswas-Diener, 2008; Lyubomirskyet al, 2005; Diener, 2000). É frequentemente discutido na literatura face a duas grandes perspetivas (hedónica e eudaimónica) e estudado como fator, elemento ou variável que influencia o desempenho dos colaboradores e os resultados organizacionais (Danna e Griffin, 1999; Wright e Cropanzano, 2004; Harteret al, 2003). Estabelecida a relação entre bem-estar e os resultados organizacionais, é





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necessário compreender como os líderes influenciam o bem-estar dos seus colaboradores. Palavras-chave: Liderança, bem-estar, bem-estar psicológico, bem-estar psicológico no trabalho, satisfação no trabalho.

1. Introdução

O trabalho alterou significativamente nas últimas décadas. Já não existe uma

relação estável de trabalho para toda a vida. A adaptação à mudança é uma constante.

Os ritmos de mudança cada vez mais acelerados exigem imediatismos de resposta

cada vez mais curtos com problemas ao nível do equilíbrio casa / trabalho. Para

Cooper & Robertson (2001), estas mudanças trouxeram consigo novos desafios ao

desenvolvimento e manutenção do bem-estar nas organizações e no local de trabalho.

Compreender o papel da liderança e do bem-estar são hoje realidades incontornáveis

em qualquer organização humana. Lideres e seguidores são duas faces da mesma

moeda. Ambos participam de um processo produtivo onde os papéis se equivalem. O

líder influencia o bem-estar do seguidor pela forma como constrói o seu papel no

processo de liderança.

Compreender como os líderes influenciam o bem-estar dos seus colaboradores é

hoje uma das preocupações fundamentais das organizações. Neste artigo

abordaremos o papel do líder, a relação líder-liderado, chefia-colaborador, e a

importância desta relação para o desempenho e resultados organizacionais.

Focar o papel do líder na promoção do bem-estar dos colaboradores é

fundamental nas organizações modernas. Ambos são a face da mesma moeda.

Influenciam-se mutuamente e é para o sucesso desta relação que procuramos

contribuir neste artigo. Iniciaremos por uma breve caracterização geral dos conceitos

de liderança e de bem-estar, focar-nos-emos de seguida no bem-estar psicológico –

distinguindo-o da satisfação no trabalho e integrando-o neste último – com o objetivo

de compreender como os líderes orientam o seu papel face à necessidade de

responsabilizar o colaborador (atribuindo-lhe tarefas e transmitindo-lhe objetivos) e à

inevitabilidade de monitorização do processo de liderança.

Fernando Messias • Júlio Mendes• Ileana Monteiro

61|

Com base na revisão de literatura na temática da liderança e do bem-estar

pretendemos extrair um conjunto de conclusões que desafiem as chefias - líderes e

gestores - a repensar os seus papéis e a contribuir para a construção do bem-estar

psicológico (BEP) dos colaboradores.

2. Perspetivas e conceitos gerais sobre liderança

A liderança apresenta inúmeros significados, tantos quantos as pessoas que a

tentaram definir. Definir liderança é como definir amor, democracia, paz ou liberdade.

Embora cada um de nós intuitivamente saiba o que os outros querem dizer com estas

palavras, elas não significam o mesmo para todas as pessoas (Stogdill, 1974).

Estão identificados cerca de 65 diferentes sistemas de classificação desenvolvidos

para definir as dimensões de liderança (Fleishman et al, 1991). Um desses sistemas foi

o proposto por Bass (Bass, 1990: 11-20). Para este autor, a liderança deveria ser

perspetivada como um processo de grupo. Nesta perspetiva, o líder é o centro da

mudança no seio do grupo e incorpora a vontade do grupo. Um outro grupo de

definições encara a liderança do ponto de vista da personalidade, sugerindo que a

liderança é uma combinação de traços ou caraterísticas especiais que os indivíduos

possuem e que lhes permitem induzir os outros a realizar determinadas tarefas. Outras

abordagens focam a atenção na liderança como um ato ou comportamento - os líderes

fazem as coisas para provocar uma mudança no grupo – sendo aqui esta definida em

termos da relação de poder que existe entre líderes e seguidores. De acordo com esta

perspetiva, os líderes detêm o poder e usam-no para provocar a mudança nos outros.

Outros consideram a liderança como um processo de transformação que move

seguidores a realizar mais do que aquilo que é esperado deles. Outros ainda encaram a

liderança de uma perspetiva das competências. Nesta é enfatizada as capacidades

(conhecimentos e competências) que tornam possível o processo de liderança.

Independentemente das múltiplas formas em que a liderança pode ser

conceptualizada, algumas caraterísticas apresentam-se como transversais a toda a

investigação sobre o tema:


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a) a liderança é um processo;

b) a liderança envolve influenciar;

c) a liderança ocorre em contexto de grupo; e

d) a liderança envolve a realização de objetivos.

Assim liderança pode ser vista como um processo pelo qual um indivíduo

influencia um grupo de indivíduos para alcançar um objetivo comum. Definir liderança

como um processo significa que ela não é um traço ou uma caraterística que reside no

líder, mas um evento (de transformação, de transação) que ocorre entre o líder e os

seus seguidores. Processo implica que um líder afete e seja afetado pelos seguidores. A

liderança não é linear, unidirecional, mas sim um evento interativo.

Assim definida a liderança está ao alcance de todos. Ela não está restrita apenas

ao líder designado ou reconhecido pelo grupo. A liderança envolve influência: ela está

preocupada com a forma como o líder afeta os seguidores. Influência é a condição

base da liderança. Liderança acontece em grupos e nos grupos. Os grupos são o

contexto em que a liderança ocorre. A liderança envolve influenciar um grupo de

indivíduos que tem um propósito comum. Pode ocorrer num grupo de trabalho

pequeno, num grupo, numa comunidade ou num grupo maior, englobando toda uma

organização.

Liderança inclui atenção aos objetivos. Isto significa que a liderança refere-se à

direção de um grupo de indivíduos para realizar tarefas, metas ou cumprir objectivos.

A liderança ocorre e tem os seus efeitos no contexto em que os indivíduos se movem

em direção a um objetivo. Os líderes precisam de seguidores e os seguidores precisam

de líderes (Burns., 1978; Hollander, 1992; Jago, 1982).

Para Burns (1978) discutir liderança é por vezes uma atividade encarada como elitista

dado o poder implícito e importância, muitas vezes, atribuída aos dirigentes na relação

líder-seguidor.

Os líderes não estão acima dos seguidores ou são melhores que estes. Líderes e

seguidores devem ser entendidos em relação uns aos outros (Hollander, 1992) e

coletivamente (Burns, 1978). Eles estão na relação de liderança em conjunto – são as

duas faces da mesma moeda (Rost, 1991).


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Dentro das diferentes conceções e perspetivas de liderança, esta pode ainda ser

entendida à luz do interaccionismo simbólico que pretende compreender a relação

líder-liderado, chefia-colaborador: o líder, concetualizando o seu papel pode fazê-lo de

duas distintas formas: ao ser-lhe dada uma posição de chefia na organização ele pode

construir o seu papel, identificando-se com os membros da hierarquia e relacionando-

se com os liderados com base numa relação assimétrica de poder; ou pode construir o

seu papel tomando como referente os liderados, procurando sentir e pensar como eles

pensam, colocando-se no lugar dos liderados, fazendo prova de maior complexidade

cognitiva e de maior criatividade e inovação (Sousa, 1999; Monteiro 2008).

O papel de líder é considerado um papel social emergente e iterativamente

reconhecido à medida que as pessoas vão trabalhando em conjunto (Griffin, 2002).

A interação que se estabelece assenta em processos de comunicação e em relações de

poder que forma e é formada pelas identidades individual ou pessoal/social ou

coletiva. Assim, emerge uma diversidade de identidades, em que cada um reconhece e

é reconhecido na sua diferença. O papel de líder constitui uma dessas diferenças,

sendo construído e reconhecido por todos os atores da interação. O líder é um

produto do grupo e participa ele próprio na criação do mesmo grupo.

3. Perspetivas e conceitos gerais sobre bem-estar

Na atual discussão sobre bem-estar, duas grandes perspetivas teóricas podem ser

distinguidas (Keyes & Waterman, 1993, Waterman, 1993; Ryan & Deci, 2001). Na

primeira delas denominada de “hedónica” ou de “bem-estar emocional” o bem-estar é

visto como um estado efetivamente agradável (um estado de prazer em contraposição

a um estado de dor, perspectiva que se aproxima à de Diener, 1984). Na segunda

tradição denominada de “eudaimónica” ou de “bem-estar psicológico” perspetiva-se

que o bem-estar não pode, nem deve ser, reduzido ao prazer ou ao facto de se viver

de acordo com um eu interior. Aqui o foco é viver uma vida com significado,

preenchida, procurando a auto-realização como um todo.

Alguns autores têm proposto algumas componentes adicionais de bem-estar. Por

exemplo, a componente social distinta do Bem-Estar Psicológico, BEP (Keyes &

Waterman, 2003). A componente da saúde é, por vezes, incluída como uma sub–


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dimensão (Argyle & Martin, 1991) bem como, por exemplo, outras componentes -

como a financeira, a mental ou a espiritual – a partir das quais o bem-estar pode ser

alcançado (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008; Harter & Rath, 2010).

4. Bem-estar psicológico

O bem-estar é visto como uma meta ou um fim a alcançar - como no caso em que

a felicidade é utilizada como alternativa ao BEP. Do termo felicidade qualquer pessoa

possui uma ideia relativamente consensual sobre o que poderá levar alguém a ser feliz

e o que poderá ser a felicidade. Todavia pese embora a felicidade possa ser um termo

utilizado com alguma frequência no nosso dia-a-dia, não quer isso dizer que esta seja

simplesmente uma função da riqueza material de cada um de nós. Pelo contrário.

Estudos sugerem que o aumento da riqueza material de cada um não apresenta uma

relação direta com o aumento da felicidade. A felicidade tem sido citada na literatura

sobre BEP mas parece que não tem despertado o interesse da maioria dos

investigadores em Psicologia Organizacional (Biswas-Diener, R, 2008). Estes têm-se

focalizado principalmente em constructos mais específicos como a satisfação no

trabalho. A satisfação no trabalho relaciona-se com a felicidade e o BEP. Mas não se

pode confundir com estes.

A distinção entre o BEP e satisfação no trabalho é importante pois permite realçar

a natureza única do BEP no trabalho. Esta distinção é tanto mais importante e faz tanto

mais sentido se percebermos que os impactos na organização são distintos. Por

exemplo, a satisfação no trabalho estuda a reação emocional do indivíduo ao seu

trabalho atual e o BEP é fator moderador entre satisfação e desempenho no trabalho

(Luthans & Youssef, 2007). Boniwell & Henry (2007) identificaram duas perspectivas do

BEP: a primeira associa o bem-estar a emoções e “estados de espírito” positivos

experienciados ou vivenciados pelo indivíduo e a factores de carácter mais geral, como

a qualidade de vida. Nesta perspectiva, o bem-estar é identificado por nos sentirmos

bem connosco próprios.

Para compreendermos melhor a distinção entre ambas as perspetivas, fixemo-nos

entre experiências de bem-estar (perspectiva eudaimónica) e sentimentos ou

“estados” de bem-estar (perspetiva hedónica). A primeira é alcançada


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individualmente, como um todo, de acordo com trajetos de vida individuais e

subjetivos, geralmente, num processo pessoal de busca constante de metas positivas a

alcançar. A segunda perspetiva (específica e circunstancial) é encontrada em

momentos e circunstâncias de bem-estar (tão abrangentes que podem ir desde o

estado de doença, dor física, emocional ou psicológica aos estados de êxtase

experienciados pelo indivíduo). À caraterística holística da primeira perspetiva, opõe-

se a segunda preponderantemente circunstancial e mensurável.

Recentemente na área da Psicologia Positiva foi evidenciado que os fins a

prosseguir e as emoções positivas são os ingredientes chave para o BEP (Seligman et

al, 2005). A mensagem subjacente é que o desenvolvimento do BEP está dependente

de dois factores chave. O primeiro é o benéfico impacto que as experiências

emocionais positivas têm no crescimento do BEP. Estas experiências são tão

importantes que constituem uma espiral de recursos físicos, intelectuais e sociais

conducentes ao bem-estar emocional tendo inclusive sido proposta uma nova teoria

específica para as emoções positivas (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002: 172).

Um segundo fator chave é um fim em si mesmo, ou seja, um propósito que

fornece direção e sentido às ações das pessoas reforçando o impacto que as emoções

positivas podem ter no BEP. Num estudo realizado em pessoas que se encontravam a

recuperar do trauma do ataque terrorista de 11 de setembro de 2001 nos Estados

Unidos da América, Fredrickson et al (2003) observaram os efeitos benéficos que as

emoções positivas podem ter nas pessoas sugerindo que encontrar um propósito

positivo é a mais poderosa ferramenta para cultivar emoções positivas em tempos de

crise (Fredrickson et al, 2003: 374).

Estes fatores permitem sugerir que um conceito de bem-estar mais completo deve

incluir tanto o prazer como o fim em si mesmo (um propósito).

Esta perspetiva do bem-estar psicológico encaixa muito bem no domínio

organizacional pois que nas organizações os indivíduos têm constantemente tarefas,

metas e objetivos a realizar. E é no como fazer tais tarefas, no meio para alcançar tais

metas e objetivos organizacionais, que a inclusão desta perspetiva do BEP faz sentido.

Experienciar emoções positivas e sentir que estas valem a pena.


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Isto implica que o BEP no trabalho seja um produto de sentimentos positivos que, por

sua vez, são consequência do fazer algo que é encarado pelo colaborador, como

positivo, vantajoso e merecedor de investimento pessoal.

5. Bem-estar psicológico no trabalho

Qualquer iniciativa por parte da organização para conseguir melhores resultados

através da força de trabalho poderá ser enquadrado em duas grandes áreas: recursos

humanos e gestão. Esta última deixa nas mãos dos gestores e dos líderes (e aqui

convém abrir um parênteses para introduzir a diferença na literatura entre uns e

outros). Para Bennis & Nanus (1985) “(…) os gestores são pessoas que fazem as coisas

bem e os líderes são pessoas que fazem as coisas certas”, p. 221; ou melhor, “líderes e

seguidores trabalham em conjunto para criar mudança, os gestores e os subordinados

unem forças para vender bens e serviços”, Rost, 1991: 149-152) os resultados da

organização.

Podemos dizer que a diferença entre gestores e líderes leva por um lado a

acentuar o papel dos gestores em construir um ambiente de entusiasmo e motivação

na força de trabalho, e a destacar o papel dos líderes em assegurar que o

comportamento do colaborador está alinhado com os objectivos organizacionais. Este

segundo ponto reforça a ideia de que as organizações necessitam de desenvolver

comportamentos positivos que permitam produzir reações positivas dos

colaboradores (força de trabalho) e com esta maior eficiência nos processos de

trabalho e maior eficácia nos resultados organizacionais.

Esta ideia coloca em destaque a importância do comportamento dos gestores e

dos líderes em promover e sustentar níveis elevados de BEP. As chefias assumem um

papel fundamental neste processo pois são elas que se encontram maioritariamente

em contacto com os colaboradores e poderão monitorizar melhor (pelo menos com

maior proximidade e / ou influência) o resultado da sua força de trabalho.

Pelo que respeita ao BEP a questão central dessa relação (Chefia / Colaborador /

Colaborador / Chefia) traduz o sucesso (ou insucesso) do processo de liderança e de

gestão. O colaborador que se sentir suficientemente predisposto a atingir

positivamente os objetivos propostos pela organização dá um enorme salto em frente


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na construção do seu BEP e auto-confiança, cabendo ao líder ou ao gestor certificar-se

que os objetivos são possíveis de atingir facilmente, pois que doutro modo, o

colaborador precisará de apoio do líder ou do gestor.

Um terceiro caminho possível para a organização construir BEP nos seus

colaboradores relaciona-se com o processo de tomada de decisão. Perante situações

em que os colaboradores têm de tomar decisões ou comprometer-se com exigentes

objetivos organizacionais, a alternativa que permitir aumentar o BEP dos

colaboradores reflecte a melhor escolha para os interesses da organização.

A coerência entre os comportamentos que a organização reclama dos seus

colaboradores e os comportamentos que promovam bem-estar geram um ciclo de

aumento de BEP melhorando o sucesso da organização.

Podemos dizer que o desafio organizacional está para os colaboradores, como os

resultados organizacionais estão para os líderes e gestores. Aliás uma das teorias da

motivação mais citadas na literatura evidenciam precisamente esta ideia (goal-setting

theory; Locke & Latham, 1990). Quanto mais difícil se apresenta o desafio e quanto

mais difícil de atingir os resultados pretendidos, melhor o sentimento e satisfação de

os alcançar. Claro que se os desafios e os resultados são impossíveis de atingir e se o

controlo que se tem sobre eles for muito pouco ou pouco claros os objetivos, os danos

psicológicos podem ser iminentes (Locke & Latham, 1990).

6. A criação de modelos explicativos do impacto do líder nos

colaboradores

O BEP é importante para os colaboradores/subordinados, mas pode ser ainda mais

importante para as organizações. Para além do que ficou dito, há pelo menos uma

principal razão para isso: o BEP é dinâmico e sempre que este aumenta, tende a

aumentar o sucesso da organização.

O BEP está correlacionado com o desempenho e sucesso da organização (Wright &

Cropanzano, 2004).


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Uma vez estabelecida a relação entre o BEP e os resultados organizacionais, é

necessário compreender como os líderes influenciam o bem-estar dos seus

colaboradores – individualmente e em grupo.

A ideia base será compreender como os líderes (em especial, as chefias) orientam

o seu papel entre a necessidade de responsabilizar o colaborador, atribuindo-lhe

tarefas e transmitindo-lhe objetivos e a monitorização do processo de liderança,

traduzido no apoio e na presença que deve demonstrar ao grupo. Isto significa ir para

além das competências de liderança, dos comportamentos, para entrar na

complexidade das interações entre o indivíduo, o grupo e as variáveis situacionais. Por

exemplo, dois líderes de duas equipas podem perfeitamente transmitir a mesma ideia

ao grupo de formas completamente diferentes, dependendo do seu estilo de

liderança. Essa mesma ideia pode ser considerada por um grupo como um desafio

interessante a atingir, ao passo que pela outra equipa poderá ter sido encarado como

um desafio difícil (até impossível) e stressante, pese embora ambas as equipas se

encontrassem dotadas dos mesmos instrumentos, competências e recursos que lhes

permitissem responder ao desafio proposto por igual.

Por outro lado, a revisão da literatura realizada quanto ao impacto dos

comportamentos dos líderes nos subordinados, evidenciou a reciprocidade nos

comportamentos do líder face às respostas dos subordinados, destacando a relação

líder / subordinado, tendo em conta que o bem-estar do subordinado pode influenciar

o comportamento do líder. Para o grupo de investigação que reviu a literatura neste

domínio, a complexidade de relações no processo de liderança adensa-se quanto mais

rico e complexo for o cenário individual (dispositivo) e situacional onde os actores se

movem com vista ao óptimo do BEP e da eficiência individual, do grupo e da

organização (Van Dierendonck et al, 2004)

Uma outra linha de investigação analisa o impacto de estilos de liderança

abusivos, ineficientes, autoritários ou tirânicos projectados nos subordinados. Por

exemplo, Ashford (1994) foi um dos investigadores que discutiu esta linha de trabalho

em relação ao conceito de “petty tyranny”, seguido pelos trabalhos de Tepper et al

(2001). Nesta linha de investigação estes últimos autores descobriram que os efeitos

do estilo abusivo eram moderados pela personalidade dos subordinados. Mais tarde

Tepper (2007) reviu a literatura com ênfase nos antecedentes e consequências do


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estilo abusivo (ou melhor, nas palavras do autor, pela supervisão abusiva) chegando a

propor um modelo guia de uma linha de investigação facilitadora do registo dos

progressos científicos em torno do estilo abusivo (para o autor, supervisão abusiva).

Na revisão da literatura em liderança ineficaz alguns contribuíram para a discussão e

enfatizaram que a insensibilidade pela perspectiva dos outros talvez possa ser vista

como o principal factor no insucesso da liderança (Hogan et al., 1994; Hogan & Hogan,

2001)

Numa outra linha de investigação, foi sugerida a ideia de que as caraterísticas que

comummente levam a uma liderança eficiente e de sucesso, podem ser as mesmas

que podem conduzir à ineficiência e ao insucesso. Tais caraterísticas sob determinadas

circunstâncias ou se exageradas resultam em comportamentos que podem levar ao

insucesso (Flett & Hewitt, 2006; Burke et al, 2006b).

Estas características incluem arrogância, excessivo cuidado/precaução no trabalho

que acarreta consigo o excesso de confiança, de responsabilização e de orientação

para o resultado.

Flint-Taylor & Robertson (2007) desenvolveram e validaram um modelo

desenhado para ajudar a compreender o impacto dos líderes no bem-estar e

desempenho dos subordinados. A ideia base é que determinadas características da

personalidade conhecidas por associadas à liderança e desempenho eficiente podem

trazer consigo alguns riscos de manuseamento (cuidados trazidos à colação pela

investigação sobre liderança ineficiente). Alguns destes riscos relacionam-se

precisamente com o impacto negativo que o líder pode ter no bem-estar, desempenho

e produtividade do grupo.

O modelo do impacto da liderança de Flint-Taylor & Robertson, bem

fundamentado na literatura, numa primeira análise, parece não conseguir alcançar a

relação fundamental que nos preocupa: a relação entre a liderança, o bem-estar

psicológico e os resultados organizacionais. Contudo o modelo tem a virtude de nos

permitir entrar no campo das hipóteses (test predictive relationships) entre a

personalidade do líder e o BEP dos colaboradores / subordinados. As relações

preditivas (predictive relations) são baseadas em combinações de traços – uma das

soluções propostas por Zaccaro (2007).


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Este modelo pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma teoria integrada da

liderança. Uma teoria deste tipo permitiria agregar as diferentes teorias da liderança

de uma forma coerente a estabelecer um conjunto de relações preditivas para

compreender melhor o impacto da liderança nas pessoas e nas organizações: certos

aspectos da liderança transformacional poderiam ser integrados na relação entre o

estilo de liderança e os resultados organizacionais (Howell & Avolio, 1993).

Contudo, a dificuldade em distinguir com segurança os estilos transformacional do

transaccional poderiam levantar problemas ao nível da validação (Judge & Piccolo,

2004).

6. Conclusão

A revisão da literatura permitiu extrair um conjunto de conclusões que desafiam os

líderes e gestores a rever os seus papéis na relação de liderança e contribuem para a

construção do BEP dos colaboradores. As conclusões extraídas da revisão da literatura

neste domínio são as seguintes:

a) A diferença entre gestores e líderes leva por um lado a acentuar o papel dos

gestores em construir um ambiente de entusiasmo e motivação na força de trabalho e

a destacar o papel dos líderes em assegurar que o comportamento do colaborador

está alinhado com os objectivos organizacionais;

b) Esta diferença reforça a ideia de que as organizações necessitam de desenvolver

comportamentos positivos que permitam produzir reações positivas dos

colaboradores (força de trabalho) e com esta maior eficiência nos processos de

trabalho e maior eficácia nos resultados organizacionais;

c) Esta ideia coloca em destaque a importância do comportamento dos gestores e dos

líderes em promover e sustentar níveis elevados de BEP;

d) As chefias assumem um papel fundamental neste processo pois são elas que se

encontram maioritariamente em contacto com os colaboradores e poderão


71|

monitorizar melhor (pelo menos com maior proximidade e / ou influência) o resultado

da sua força de trabalho;

e) O colaborador que se sentir suficientemente predisposto a atingir positivamente os

objetivos propostos pela organização dá um enorme salto em frente na construção do

seu BEP e auto-confiança, cabendo ao líder ou ao gestor certificar-se que os objetivos

são possíveis de atingir com relativa facilidade e segurança, pois que doutro modo, o

colaborador precisará de apoio do líder ou do gestor;

f) O BEP nos colaboradores pode ainda ser construído tendo em conta o processo de

tomada de decisão - perante situações em que os colaboradores têm de tomar

decisões ou comprometer-se com fortes objetivos organizacionais, a alternativa que

permitir aumentar o BEP dos colaboradores reflete a melhor escolha para os interesses

da organização;

g) A coerência entre os comportamentos que a organização reclama dos seus

colaboradores e os comportamentos que promovam bem-estar gera um ciclo de

aumento de BEP melhorando o sucesso da organização;

h) O desafio organizacional está para os colaboradores, como os resultados

organizacionais estão para os gerentes e líderes - quanto mais difícil se apresenta o

desafio e quanto mais difícil for atingir os resultados pretendidos, melhor o sentimento

e satisfação de os alcançar; claro que se os desafios e os resultados são impossíveis de

atingir e se o controlo que se tem sobre eles for muito pouco ou pouco claros os

objectivos, os danos psicológicos podem ser iminentes (Locke & Latham, 1990);

i) A complexidade de relações no processo de liderança adensa-se quanto mais rico e

complexo for o cenário individual (dispositivo) e situacional onde os actores que se

movem com vista ao óptimo do BEP e da eficiência individual, do grupo e da

organização (Van Dierendonck et al, 2004);

j) Os efeitos dos estilos de liderança abusiva podem ser moderados pela personalidade

dos colaboradores / subordinados (Ashford, 1994; Tepper et al, 2001; Tepper 2007);


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l) Na revisão da literatura em liderança ineficaz é revelado demonstra que a

insensibilidade pela perspectiva dos outros talvez possa ser vista como o principal

factor no insucesso da liderança (Hogan et al, 1994; Hogan & Hogan, 2001);

m) As características que levam a uma liderança eficiente e de sucesso, podem ser as

mesmas que levarão à ineficiência e ao insucesso. Tais características sob

determinadas circunstâncias ou se exageradas resultam em comportamentos que

podem levar ao insucesso (Flett & Hewitt, 2006; Burke et al, 2006b). Estas

características incluem arrogância, excessivo cuidado/precaução, perfeccionismo e o

vício no trabalho que acarreta consigo o excesso, de confiança, de responsabilização e

de orientação para o resultado;

n) O modelo do impacto da liderança de Flint-Taylor & Robertson, numa primeira

análise, parece não conseguir alcançar a relação entre a liderança, o BEP e os

resultados organizacionais. Contudo tem a virtude de permitir entrar no campo das

hipóteses (test predictive relationships) entre a personalidade do líder e o BEP dos

colaboradores / subordinados. O modelo agrega diferentes teorias de uma forma

coerente a estabelecer um conjunto de relações preditivas para compreender melhor

o impacto da liderança nas pessoas e nas organizações. Certos aspectos da liderança

transformacional poderiam ser integrados na relação entre o estilo de liderança e os

resultados organizacionais. Todavia, a dificuldade em distinguir com segurança os

estilos transformacional do transaccional levantariam problemas ao nível da validação

(Flint-Taylor & Robertson, 2007; Zaccaro; 2007; Judge & Piccolo, 2004);

r) O processo de liderança pode ainda ser entendida à luz do interaccionismo simbólico

que pretende compreender a relação líder – liderado, chefia – colaborador (Sousa,

1999; Monteiro 2008; Griffin, 2002).

Concluímos que o papel de líder é considerado um papel social emergente e

iterativamente reconhecido à medida que as pessoas vão trabalhando em conjunto. O

líder é um produto do grupo e participa ele próprio na criação do mesmo grupo. Líder

e seguidor, chefia e colaborador, estão interligados na relação de liderança. Ambos

desenvolvem os seus papéis na organização na medida em que “(…) líderes e


73|

seguidores trabalham em conjunto para criar mudança, os gestores e os subordinados

unem forças para vender bens e serviços” (Rost, 1991: 149-152). Ambos contribuem

para a organização. Daí a importância fundamental do BEP. Este é importante porque é

dinâmico e sempre que este aumenta, tende a aumentar o sucesso da organização.

Estabelecida a relação entre o BEP e os resultados organizacionais, foi necessário ir

mais além, ou seja, foi necessário compreender como os líderes influenciam o bem-

estar dos seus colaboradores. A ideia trazida foi a de compreender como os líderes

orientam o seu papel entre a necessidade de responsabilizar o colaborador,

atribuindo-lhe tarefas e transmitindo-lhe objetivos e a monitorização do processo de

liderança, traduzida no apoio e na presença que deve demonstrar ao grupo.

Referências bibliográficas

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ASHFORTH, B. (1997). Petty tyranny in organizations: A preliminary examination of antecedents and consequences. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences (14), 1173- 1182.

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FERNANDO MESSIAS é licenciado em Direito. É advogado desde 1998. Em 2005 concluiu o Curso de Especialização em Propriedade Intelectual na Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Bristol, Inglaterra. Em 2007 iniciou o Programa de Doutoramento em Turismo na Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve. Em 2008 apresentou o Projecto de Tese de Doutoramento “Liderança e Bem-Estar: o caso da hotelaria no Algarve”. Dedica-se em exclusivo à conclusão da Tese de Doutoramento e à investigação em turismo, liderança e bem-estar e ao Direito Empresarial & Fiscalidade, Direito do Turismo & Imobiliário, Direito da Propriedade Intelectual & Tecnologias de Informação. JÚLIO MENDES é doutorado em Gestão, ramo de Estratégia e Comportamento Organizacional (Universidade do Algarve). Professor Auxiliar da Faculdade de Economia/Universidade do Algarve e Membro da Coordenação do Programa de Doutoramento em Turismo. Director do Mestrado em Gestão das Organizações Turísticas. Membro do Centro de Investigação sobre Espaço e Organizações. Investigador na área da Gestão e do Turismo (Gestão Integrada da Qualidade nos Destinos, Competitividade, Marketing, Gestão das Marcas, Imagem e Experiência Turística). Orientou várias teses de Doutoramento e dissertações de Mestrado. Publicou alguns artigos em revistas científicas e em capítulos de livros. Experiência profissional em organizações públicas e privadas. ILEANA MONTEIRO é doutorada em Psicologia das Organizações. Professora Adjunta da Escola Superior de Gestão Hotelaria e Turismo da Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal. Diretora do Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos. Autora de publicações na área do Comportamento Organizacional, da Criatividade e Inovação Organizacional. Foi técnica de gestão de recursos humanos da Direcção-Geral da Administração Pública. É membro do Centro de Investigação sobre o Espaço e as Organizações-CIEO/UAlg. Membro da Direção da Apgico – Associação Portuguesa de Criatividade e Inovação. Submitted: July 2012. Accepted: January 2013.

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