RESPONSE - Insead

Findings: Developing Social Consciousness and SRB in Managers (Objective 4) Controlling for “Placebo”
effects: comparing meditation vs. hatha yoga training
Given this surprising result, the comparison of the two types of training intervention on the basis of
their impact on antecedents to SRB (motives, emotions, values, etc.) looses most of its meaning.
This would only matter in the case that we expected would be easily verified, that the two
interventions had a similarly positive impact on socially responsible behaviour, at least as measured
by the variations in the responses to the four adopted scenarios. Since that is not the case, a formal
comparison on the basis of the impacts that the two training approaches produce on the managers’
psychological traits seems a bit void of practical relevance.
The indication coming from the data analyzed is that (a) further probing of the actual impact of
executive education on the development of socially responsible behaviour is necessary and urgent,
and (b) different approaches to the problem of developing social consciousness in practicing
managers need to be explored and comparatively assessed in their behavioural and psychological
implications. Please, see sections 10.3 and 11.3 for further elaborations and recommendations drawn
from this set of results.
9.5 Controlling for “Placebo” effects: comparing meditation vs. hatha yoga training
The last step in the analysis protocol of the data aims to control the robustness of the results
described in section 9.3 to the so­called “placebo” effect. This is an important issue in the conduct of
experimental designs in social science, since the participants to the interventions are conscious of the
fact that they are being observed and that there are expectations about certain type of effects to occur
as a consequence of the intervention (a training program, in our case). The way this is normally done
in natural science is to provide the “sugar pill” together with the “real” pill and test whether the latter
has an effect over and above that produced by the “sugar pill”.
In the “oil company” experiment, we attempted for the first time to execute an experimental design of
this kind. Our initial assumption is that a “Hatha Yoga” training program could represent an adequate
“placebo” to the meditation­based coaching, since it has a similar name to the mediation technique
used (Sahaja Yoga) and is likely to be perceived similarly to the “real” intervention. At the same time,
though, the expectation was that the Hatha Yoga training, since it is based only on postures and
relaxation exercises rather than deeper introspection and meditation practices, would not produce
deeper changes in emotional traits, personal values and decision­making patterns that we intend to
study.
The evidence emerging from the data is a little different 25 . Most of the effects described in Section 9.3
are still valid and maintain statistical significance even with a much smaller sample (11 managers
participating in the meditation program vs. 10 managers in the hatha yoga program) 26 and in terms of
difference vis­à­vis the pre­post variation of the hatha­yoga training. This is the case, for example, for
the results related to the impact on emotional traits, such as lower sadness (92% confidence level),
higher happiness (99.4%), stronger inspiration (98%) and courage (93%). Interestingly, an empathy
test also results in a stronger impact of the meditation training compared on the hatha yoga training.
In terms of (cognitive) decision­making processes, the data shows that managers who went through
the meditation program report a significantly larger improvement (99.5%) in the extent to which they
“make decisions easily”, compared to the same pre­post variation in the hatha yoga group. Also, the
reliance on “ethics vs. economic profit” (91%), as well as on “protecting the environment vs.
productivity” (85%) increases to a larger extent in the yoga meditation group.
In terms of shifts in personal values, the importance of “mature love” as a guiding principle increases
in a significant way (90%) in the meditation group, compared to the same variation in the hatha yoga
group.
25 It is worth noting that the Hatha Yoga training intervention does pass the test of having a positive
impact on SRB. The pre­post variation for the Hatha Yoga group is negative with respect to “Do no
harm” behaviour (especially strong in the process one, related to the outsourcing decision), and
positive on the “do good” decision scenarios (although not as strong as the meditation training group).
26 We again replicated the analysis with non­parametric tests (Mann­Whitney) that is here required
due to small sample size. The confidence levels reported are those related to non­parametric tests.
RESPONSE: understanding and responding to societal demands on corporate responsibility
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