Twenty-fourth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

Humans self-organize by assimilating input from senses and drives, evaluating them emotionally and cognitively, and then acting. Social interaction produces institutions that are objectifications of human characteristics. Objectified actions create institutional norms. Cognitive interaction creates an intersubjective reality consisting of perceptions and rationalizations. This objectification creates a set of “facts” and rationalizations that support the institution. Finally, emotional interaction creates the emotional, intangible, substrate of an institution. The emotional substrate of “facts” and rationalizations is expectation and surprise. Rigorous and sustained scientific research aims to reveal the objective reality of a situation by testing expectations in search of surprises. Intersubjective rationalizations maintain expectations. Cognitively, the country is divided into two epistemic regimes (Fox News etc.–Mainstream media). A capitalist economy is based on a confidence-fear polarity. Confidence leads to a flow of capital, labor, and entrepreneurial activity into an area. Fear leads to a withdrawal of these. Confidence is high in green investments, but this could evaporate in a bust and boom cycle. Political institutions are based on either fear-confidence (authoritarian) or anger-contentment (democratic). Anger is predominant on the coasts while contentment is in the Midwest and South. However, contentment overall with the current state is high because around 70 percent hold that climate change will not impact them individually. The fear-based political systems are divided with some (Russia and Saudi Arabia) still committed to fossil fuels and some (China) not as much. Climate change mitigation is inherently dependent upon a host of intangibles that make the process volatile and unpredictable.