RESPONSE - Insead

Findings: Developing Social Consciousness and SRB in Managers (Objective 4) Impact of mental silence
meditation training on decision­making
between the pre­post differences among the two interventions has been run. 23 managers
participated in the meditation coaching and 21 attended only the executive education training.
3. Robustness checks to “placebo” effects. One of the most difficult issues to deal with in
experimental designs is to rule out the possibility that pre­post changes in the responses are
due to the fact that participants know that they have been measured, and that the training is
“supposed” to have certain effects. The way we do so is to compare pre­post variations in the
meditation training with those of a “hatha yoga” training program, which is perceived in a
similar way, despite the fact that it is supposed to yield little or no impact on participants’
psychological traits and behaviour. It is similar to the “sugar pill” in pharmaceutical testing
processes. The “oil” company setting allows us to compare managers that went through the
meditation training program with those who attended the hatha yoga program, using the
appropriate non­parametric tests given the small sample size (11 vs. 10).
9.3.1 Impact on SRB and cognition (motives)
The first step, therefore, is to assess the magnitude of changes before and after the introduction of
meditation­ and introspection­based coaching programs across the four settings. To this end, we ran
statistical (t) tests to understand whether the pre­post difference of each survey item is significantly
different from zero 22 . In reviewing these results, it might be worth to remind that no discussion about
CSR was allowed to take place during the entire coaching program.
The following are the key results of the analysis regarding the measures of behaviour (the decision
scenarios) and the rationale for those decisions, one aspect of cognitive factors that might potentially
explain managers’ socially responsible behaviour:
• Decision Dilemmas. All the pre­post variations for the four dilemmas tested go in the
expected direction, with reductions in the likelihood of making the decision in “do no harm”
scenario, and increased likelihood to make the decision in “do good” scenarios. In particular,
the increase in the “do good (process)” scenario related to the choice of a social volunteering
program for employees vs. productivity increases reaches statistical significance (96%
confidence level that the variation is larger than zero)
• Motives for decision dilemmas. For each decision dilemma, the survey asked respondents to
answer also the question “why” they would do as they said they would, and offers scores for
different possible motivations. The following pre­post changes were observed in the sample
of 51 managers who attended the introspection/meditation coaching:
o “because it is morally right” remained at the same level
o “because it is culturally acceptable” had a minor increase
o “because it serves my interests” had a minor decrease
o “because it meets legal requirements” had a minor decrease
o “because it enhances and protects the company economic results” decreased in a
statistically significant way (95% confidence level)
o “because it violates an unwritten contract” increased, although it did not reach statistical
significance
o “because it enhances and protects corporate reputation”, decreased, without reaching
statistical significance
o “because it shows compassion and caring” increased in a statistically significant way
(97% confidence level)
22 When statistical significance is reached, the “level of confidence” in the fact that the variation is
either higher or lower than zero (rather than being randomly generated) is indicated. Normally,
confidence levels larger than 95% are considered “strong results”, larger than 90% are considered
significant but weaker results”, larger than 80% are considered trends (to be validated by further
studies)
RESPONSE: understanding and responding to societal demands on corporate responsibility
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