Research on group creativity has focused on the ability of group members to improve their divergent thinking by interacting with others who have different perspectives. I argue that this research has ignored the issue of how groups converge around highly creative ideas. I suggest that the processes that facilitate divergent thinking can also reduce the ability of the group to build on and integrate information in creative ways. Moreover, differing perspectives disrupt the cognitive, affective, and social processes necessary for the group to select creative ideas. Thus, in organizational groups charged with developing creative outputs, diversity of perspective can actually reduce the group's overall level of creativity. In contrast, when group members share a common framework for thinking about the task (i.e., have a shared representation), they can generate creative ideas by building on and integrating the ideas of multiple members and recognize and select the most creative of these ideas. I develop a theory of group creativity based on the challenges for groups in making intuitive, creative judgments. I argue that shared representations of the group task - rather than diversity of perspectives - are the basis for group creativity, because they help groups to converge around highly creative ideas. I test these ideas with a multi-method approach. The first exploratory study in the asset management industry reveals the importance of shared representations to group creativity. The second field study tests the role of shared representations in individual cognitive, affective, and social processes. The third study is an experiment that demonstrates these affects and their impact on creativity at the group level. The final study presents quantitative evidence of these effects in the asset management industry

This thesis explores women's experiences of social activities that are located in a church in an urban community with the aim of uncovering their social interactions. The three church-based activities are a group that meets to study the Bible, a playgroup and an older people's group. Through an embodied engagement with the material and sensory nature of the spaces, afforded by the rich and 'textualised' ethnography, I reveal that the everyday church based activities provided care, well-being and belonging for most of the women. Social interactions with others at similar life-stages or around mutual experiences led to generation of social capital. I argue that ordinary spaces within communities are hubs or third places that strengthen social capital for women who are caring for small children, or experiencing ageing. These spaces are produced by women, and afford informal care within women's everyday lives at different stages. Community activities and spaces have the potential to generate social support, well-being and belonging that are intangible and under-acknowledged by policy. These material and spatial resources are frequently hidden from general view yet are an intrinsic part of communities. Through the analysis of my empirical findings, I bring together the theoretical concepts of social support, well-being and belonging and situate them within the notion of space within communities. The research is located within a context of changing UK government policy. This study contributes to an emerging concern with civil society to recognise the hidden aspects of informal community participation that generate social capital, social support, well-being and belonging. The metaphor of weaving, predominantly a woman's occupation worldwide, is used as an organising framework throughout the thesis. I weave a reflexive approach through the thesis and locate myself as both participant and researcher, Situating my stories within

This thesis explores the conceptualisation and measurement of good relations, and the social and psychological consequences of improving good relations in communities. Good relations is at the forefront ofUK social policy, being at the centre of the Equality and 36 Human Rights Commission's (EHRC) mandate since its inception in 2010. Before this, good relations had been a strong presence in social policy for more than a decade. However, compared to other measures of social harmony, good relations is extremely under-researched. The studies presented in this thesis use a range of research methods to develop our understanding of good relations . First, it explores the conceptualisation of good relations, provid{ng an overview of measures of social harmony conceptually close to good relations. Second, it provides an overview of social psychological theories that can provide insight into possible barriers to good relations as well as the potential outcomes, positive and negative, of improving good relations. Finally, the thesis explores good relations as an evaluative tool. The research revealed a reliable measure of good relations which was robust across a number of different study designs and samples both in the lab and in the field. The research revealed good relations to be positively related to measures of neighbourliness, volunteering, and lower social isolation, although distinct in its capacity to capture the relational aspect of social harmony. The research contributes uniquely to both social policy and social psychology by highlighting the role of social identification within a multidisciplinary measure of good relations, and the importance of equality when promoting good relations. The findings of the presented here have importance for both social psychological theory and social policy. Policy implications include EHRC's duty to consider the level of equality and deprivation in a target community, and consider what the consequences may be of fostering good relations in that community before initiating an agenda of good relations.

This thesis is an ethnographic study tracing the facts, the meanings, and their translations that make apparent the interconnections between an educational institution, a professional world, and a particular type of social network. The educational institution is the Merchant Marine Academy of Greece; the professional world is that of the Greek seafarers working on board Greek-owned merchant ships; the social network is what I call a Greek maritime 'nepotistic' network. The problem this research pinpoints is the need to identify, describe, analyse, and interpret the role that Greek maritime education plays in reproducing the Greek shipping community beyond the transfer of technical skills required by the profession. My thesis can thus be schematized as the ethnography of an educational institution, the Merchant Marine Academy, coupled with an ethnographic account of the link that unites it with two culture-sharing groups, Greek seafarers and shipping-related entrepreneurs. That link is identified as the 'Greek nautical ethos', or naftosini, meaning 'the human quality of being a good (Greek) seafarer'. My overarching research question can thus be stated as follows: How does Greek maritime education reproduce the Greek nautical ethos (: naftosini)? The internal arrangements of the Greek maritime (nepotistic) networks are often discreet; nonetheless, they are real, and they have very practical consequences. Within these networks, people choose to associate with others who are similar to themselves in some salient respect, thus creating a culturally embedded network. Moreover, the informing influence of ethos results in the organisational upholding and moral sustainability of such networks. Amongst the notable findings of this research is that education and training at the Merchant Marine Academy is interwoven with and constantly informed by a dominant ethos that, in its tum, is constantly interacting with the individual habituses of its members. Another interesting fInding is that students who, thanks to their upbringing, already share the core values of nafiosini are better suited for being transformed into seafarers who are well integrated into the profession and willing to stay in it for the entirety of their career. As a final conclusion of this research, I argue that the Greek nautical ethos assures both the cultural homogenisation and the cohesion of Greek communities of practice related to shipping, while at the same time ensuring the effective screening of candidates to membership in these communities as well as the entire network.

Over the past 20 years, Hewitt and Flett's (1991) tripartite model of perfectionism has been the focus of numerous research studies. Academia and work are two life domains in which perfectionism is most prevalent. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research with samples of students and employees on the longitudinal effects of perfectionism on stress, burnout, and engagement, and on the effects of perfectionism on intragroup relationships in a team-work context. The aims of this thesis were therefore to investigate whether perfectionism longitudinally predicts stress, burnout, and engagement, and to investigate whether perfectionism is associated with intragroup relationships in a team-work context. To this end, I conducted six studies. In Study 1, 76 students completed measures of perfectionism, the Big Five, burnout, and engagement twice over four months. In Study 2, 69 employees completed measures of perfectionism, stress, and burnout twice over six months. In Study 3, 195 teachers completed measures of perfectionism, stress, burnout, and engagement twice over three months. In Study 4, 147 students completed a measure of perfectionism and then responded to a vignette about working with a hypothetical partner who was described as a perfectionist. In Study 5, 110 students working on team projects completed measures of perfectionism, cohesion, and engagement. And in Study 6, 149 employees, nested within teams, completed measures of perfectionism, cohesion, and stress. Across studies, socially prescribed perfectionism consistently predicted higher levels of stress and burnout longitudinally, and it was also associated with positive and negative intragroup relationships. In comparison, self- --- oriented perfectionism was associated with positive intragroup relationships, and other- oriented perfectionism was associated with positive and negative intragroup relationships. The -findings suggest that students and employees who strive for exceedingly high standards experience increasing levels of stress and burnout which may harm their future psychological adjustment.

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This PhD by Public Works is based on a context statement and eight, refereed papers published in academic journals. Six papers theoretically examine the possible influence of corporate psychopaths on organizations and society. Additionally the two empirical papers focus on the influence of corporate psychopaths on counterproductive work behaviour, conflict, well-being and organizational decay. Collectively the papers make an empirical, theoretical and methodological contribution to research into corporate psychopaths. Areas of Corporate Psychopathy Theory are developed in all eight papers. The first paper was based on an initial understanding of the possible effects of corporate psychopaths. The second paper, called 'The Dark Side of Management Decisions: Organisational Psychopaths', was published in a British journal and was the further theoretical development of the ideas presented in the first paper. The third paper is an empirical paper which makes a contribution to knowledge in terms of investigating the influence of corporate psychopaths on conflict, well-being and counterproductive work behaviour. The fourth paper: 'Extreme Managers, Extreme Workplaces: Capitalism, Organisations and Corporate Psychopaths' again makes a contribution to knowledge based on exploratory qualitative research conducted in the UK in 2013. The fifth paper is a theoretical paper published in the Journal of Business Ethics. The sixth paper: 'The Impact of Corporate Psychopaths on Corporate Reputation and Marketing' was a theoretical paper concerning how psychopaths may influence marketing, thus providing avenues for further research. The seventh paper portrays corporate psychopaths as irresponsible leaders while the eighth paper is an update of the literature on corporate psychopaths within the last ten years and which identifies areas for further research.

This thesis is a transdisciplinary investigation of the link between social connection and health outcomes. Its twofold aim is to explore the nature of this relationship and build a theoretical model for a possible causal chain between the two, and to develop and deploy a new model for engaging the very different discourses of theology and neuroscience. To this end it draws on both theological reflection and on experimental scientific data from cognitive neuroscience and psychoneuroimmunology. The opening half of the work establishes the wider epistemological and methodological frameworks within which the project is set, and also the specific framework for the particular area of study. The first of these involves a critical analysis of the tensions at the heart of the dialogue between science and religion, and of the specific difficulties faced by the emerging sub-discipline of neurotheology. It then dissects and further develops the interdisciplinary dialogical model devised by J Wentzel van Huyssteen, in order to enable it to generate and support additional transdisciplinary outputs. In the second of the two framework arenas, the concept of health itself is first explored, and then epidemiological, Biblical, and immunological accounts of the link between relational connection and health are examined in order to establish that sufficient common ground exists to warrant a neurotheological approach to investigating the question of how the two are connected. The second half of the thesis then uses the developed model as a basis for engaging theological and neuroscientific perspectives on human relationality. This takes the form of three transversal encounters, each centred around a specific aspect of this: relationality as basic, as emergent, and as realised. From the output of these three dialogical interactions, a neurotheologically framed argument is developed to support the contention that relationality is an emergent phenomenon of a complex system concerned with social monitoring and response, and thus the way in which it is realised can exert causal constraints on system components. Finally a theoretical model is derived from this argument for a pathway linking relational experience to health outcomes via alterations in allostatic maintenance mechanisms.

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