Harrington, Kelly, Yeomans, Michael, Brooks, Alison Wood, Abi-Esber, Nicole 
ORCID: 0009-0004-4672-7835, Boland, F Katelynn, Zambrotta, Nicholas Demetrio, Schlund, Rachel, Sommers, Roseanna, Bohns, Vanessa and Nordgren, Loran F.
(2025)
Embracing structure: opportunities and challenges of implementing structure in organizations.
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2025 (1).
ISSN 0065-0668
Abstract
Structure —explicit and predetermined rules, specificity, and order imposed to guide behavior—has long been recognized as a means of elevating outcomes for individuals, groups, and organizations beyond default processes. Yet, structured tools are often underutilized in practice, raising critical questions: why are they resisted, and how can organizations encourage greater adoption? Addressing these challenges requires increasing awareness of their benefits and targeting psychological barriers to their use. The papers in this symposium tackle these issues in three ways. First, they highlight the limitations of default processes, demonstrating that humans underperform in detecting their partner’s conversational topic preferences compared to machine learning algorithms. Second, they illustrate the benefits of structure, showing how structured tools enhance conversational safety, promote equal speaking time in groups, and empower individuals to make voluntary choices during consent procedures. Third, they explore psychological barriers, such as concerns about enjoyment, that undermine the adoption of structured approaches. Collectively, this symposium showcases structure as a powerful tool for improving outcomes for individuals, groups, and organizations, while emphasizing the importance of thoughtful design and implementation that accounts for individuals’ psychological needs and motivations. Topic preference detection: A novel approach to understand perspective taking in conversation Author: Michael Yeomans; Imperial College London Author: Alison Wood Brooks; Harvard Business School Unlocking the power of equal airtime: Nudging conversational safety in group conversations Author: F Katelynn Boland; Author: Nicholas Demetrio Zambrotta; UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business Author: Nicole Abi-Esber; London School of Economics and Political Science Structuring Requests to Empower Voluntary Consent Author: Rachel Schlund; Cornell University Author: Roseanna Sommers; Author: Vanessa Bohns; Cornell University Overcoming Resistance to Structured Collaboration: The Role of Hedonic Perceptions Author: Kelly Harrington; Northwestern University Author: Loran F. Nordgren;
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | © Academy of Management Proceedings |
| Divisions: | Management |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Dec 2025 15:54 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Dec 2025 17:06 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130436 |
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