A number of writers have considered the individual in the context of the social movement, but placing emphasis on the primary importance of the structural effects on his behaviour. Rosen (1967) has amply outlined the relationship between changes in the
"social and moral framework" of the wider society which cause
"periods extensively characterised by anxiety-periods in which the consciousness of many people, and even more so their sub-consciousness, is haunted in varying degree by fear and worry, by loneliness and apathy, and by frustration, resentment and aggression" (p.771).
He sees these external changes as solely responsible for certain disturbing internal responses which lead the individuals involved into the erection of relief giving social structures such as sociali movements, particularly religious and milienial movements.
Cohn (1957) provides a similar historical analysis focussing mainly on France and Germany in the mediaeval and reformation periods; Worsley (1957) writes in similar vein about the "cargo cults" and related milienial phenomena in Melanesia. Talmon (1962) reviews a number of studies on social movements including Cohn (1957)» Y/orsley (l957» 196l) and Hobsbawm (1959)> hut focusses almost
exclusively on the wider implications of movements, particularly the relationship between religious and political change. Eofstadter (1969) also speaks of the relationship between the religious and political spheres in discussing the paranoid style in American politics.
"The apocalypticism of the paranoid style runs dangerously near to hopeless pessimism but usually stops short of it. Apocalyptic warnings arouse passion and militancy, and strike at susceptibility to similar themes in Christianity. Properly expressed, such warnings serve somewhat the same function as a description of the horrible consequences of sin in a revivalist sermon: they portray that which impends but which may still be avoided" (p.110). c
V/hilst emphasising the personal characteristics of this style, Hofstadter concludes with a similar view to that of Rosen,
".... the fact that movements employing the paranoid style are not constant but come in successive, episodic waves suggests that the paranoid disposition is mobilised into action chiefly by social conflicts that involve ultimate schemes of values and that bring fundamental
"fears and hatreds, rather than negotiable interests, into political action" (p.117).
Lofland and Stark (1969) also recognise the importance of structural
i
variables in the conversion process, but suggest that an equally, if not more, potent set of variables are what they describe as
"situational contingencies". These are factors which "arise from confrontation and interaction between the potential convert and the .... members. Many persons who qualified on the basis of predisposing factors enter inter-personal relations with members, but because the proper situational conditions were not met, they did not become converts" (p.l62).
Thus in terms of environmental pressures, existential as well as historical pressures can be seen to be important in defining the individual act of joining.
Whilst the main focus of this thesis will concentrate on the more personal characteristics of organisation development consult ants, and hence on their internal motives and characteristics, the above work demonstrates the importance of seeing this in a wider perspective. Generally speaking, movements of social change can be seen as expressions of religious' significance within the wider society and are often forerunners of political change. Indeed, Back (1975) has already applied this type of analysis to the encounter group movement whilst Krausz (1975) has extended his
ideas to include organisation development and quotes Harvey’s (1974) amusing article in which he considers organisation development as a religious movement. That the wider changes, pressures and
conflicts in society provide a background, rationale and legitimacy for the existence of any particular movement at any particular time does not seem in doubt. Indeed Schon (197^) uses the images of
insurgency and invasion to describe the kinds of intervention . processes involved in this essentially missionary'approach to change. He recognises the
"shared common roots in religion" (p.58)
and outlines seven kinds of change roles commonly found in
different types of organisation. Y/hilst he does not explore the personal characteristics of those who adopt such roles he does state that
"All of these roles put the individual at risk. He must engage an essentially alien culture and leave himself vulnerable to punishment for disrupting
established power. All of these roles make enormous demands on the person. They subject him to stresses he is able to meet only through a missionary stance"
(p.58).
This aspect of cultural pressures and approaches to change is a well developed and researched area, but as McCormick (1969) points out, it is the motivation of those who participate in such movements which is the most neglected. In the next section I shall discuss not only some approaches and studies of the characteristics of those who join social movements, but also include discussion from approache and studies from other related fields. Thus, although the major argument in this chapter has been to relate organisation development to social movements, it is accepted tha/fc other theoretical areas may have contributions to make to the study of a group involved in social change.
ii) Personal characteristics of those who join social movements and findings from related fields___________________________ The studies of personal characteristics will be divided into a number of areas to reduce the size and complexity of the field.
Early research' (see ii)a) concentrated on the taxonomy of radical and conservative temperaments but this gave way later to other empirically derived concepts centring . on Adorno Vs (1950).t concept of '’authoritarianism". The following discussion will contain sections on both of these perspectives to give both background and to assess the contribution to the area of those involved in social movements. Following this is a discussion of some of the descriptive studies which have been carried out on the joiners of social movements and student radicals who, whilst having real differences as a population, can be seen to be attempting as groups to introduce social change following a particular set of normative goals which are common and shared within the group. It is not my intention to argue that student .radicals can be seen as part of a wider social movement, but similarities of purpose suggest that there is enough commonality to seach this area, for ideas on the characteristics of those who’ join. A further approach to the study of the characteristics of those who join has been through a study of their psychodynamics and this will be included as a separate section. Finally, a section v/ill be included concerning research undertaken on change agents and organisation development consultants. Whilst not specifically in the area of social movements, findings
in this area are sufficiently relevant and the groups studied so closely related to the original broad definition of social movement to be included here as a separate section.
ii)a . Early studies of radicalism and conservatism
Some of the early work in the area was done in the 1920*s and was concerned with investigating the possibility of a generalised personality pattern which could be seen specifically in liberal economic attitudes. Allport (1929) in a survey of students found evidence of such generalisable patterns. Moore (1925) divided
two student populations into what he termed "radical" and "conservative" temperaments. However, although both of these studies have provided the theoretical basis for the study of radical personality types, some of the evidence is contradictory. Moore's study failed to be replicated by Washburn, et al, (l927)» and Reed (1927) found that only of a group of over two hundred and fifty trade unionists and students were consistent in their attitudes across a whole range of issues. Be did find, however, that extreme radicals were more consistent than conservatives. These conflicting findings have never been resolved and whether radicalism is a trait or syndrome is still an open question in this field.
ii)b. Studies of authoritarianism
Another group of studies, some undertaken in the 1920’s, have related the problem to what has been termed authoritarianism and radicalism, (Adorno, et al, 1950). Adorno, et al, related political and economic conservatism to neurotic authoritarianism as measured by the F-scale. This has since been widely criticised by those such as Shils (1954) who suggests a blindness of the author to authoritarianism of both the right and left and Rokeach (1956, i960) who suggested that there was something wrong with the F-scale itself insofar as it could only measure right-wing authoritarianism. He developed subsequently a dogmatism scale which he claimed was politically neutral. In actual fact, as Bay (1967) points out, Rokeach1s real contribution was to show that the F-scale did not, whilst the dogmatism scale did, correlate with vehemence, be that of the right or the left. Leavitt, et al, (1955) has made slightly different criticisms and tested the positively worded F-scale by re-phrasing half the items negatively. They conclude
"that authoritarian people, as measured by the scale agree more with authoritative statements, and that therefore a portion of the discriminatory power of the
F-scale derives from its form rather than its content" (p.221).