Organization and Strategy Seminar（2018-04）

Topic: Awe, the Diminished Self, and Collective Engagement:Universals and Cultural Variations in the Small Self

Speaker: Yang Bai,University of California, Berkeley

Time: Tuesday, 11 September, 10:00-11:30 am

Location: Room 110, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract：

A productive company stems from employees with greater well-being, creativity and sense of inclusion. In this talk, I drew upon theories in previous organizational research and hypothesized that one of the ways to achieve greater well-being as well as an inclusive culture is through shifting the individual’s attention away from the self and rendering the self smaller. In a series of studies, I demonstrate that the experience of awe—an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that induces a need for cognitive accommodation—through diminishing ones’ self-focused attention, promotes a sense of collective engagement. Furthermore, my data also suggests that this small self effect introduced by awe would diminish the intensity of self-bothersome daily hassles and thus improve individuals’ well-being.

Introduction:

Yang Bai is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D in Social Psychology from University of California, Berkeley in 2017. Dr. Bai also received her Master of Psychology from Tsinghua University and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from Beijing Normal University. In 2016, Dr. Bai worked as a summer intern for Google People and Innovative Lab, conducting research to help Google diagnose its employees’ need and build a more inclusive culture. Dr. Bai’s research explores how social emotions are communicated and function within dyads and groups. Specifically, she is interested in how social emotions, through altering individuals’ self-perception, promote social integration, cooperative behavior, as well as mental well-being across different organizations.

Your participation is warmly welcomed!