Student Undergraduate Research Activity Title V Grant

by Linda Ridley

Introduction

Symbolic Thought vs. Symptomatic Thought

A symbol is an entity that implies something more than its apparent or direct meaning. In short, symbols are myths. Thinking symbolically, then, causes individuals to mythologize and think superstitiously, which leads to confusion.

Traditionally, symbolic thinking has been accepted as a norm of the neurological processes of the human brain. Research from global consultant Edgar Ridley reveals that symbolic thinking is a learned process, resulting from a ‘neurological misadventure’ (Ridley, 2001). This symbolic thinking encourages metaphors insufficient for accomplishing change in today’s global environment, especially considering the shifting demographics. There is a need to replace symbolic thinking with a new mindset, the Symptomatic Thought Process®. A behavioral concept authored by Ridley, the Symptomatic Thought Process®, encourages actors to think symptomatically by dismissing superstition and myth.

The past several decades have displayed a focus on diversity in the workplace throughout the corporate environment. Questions remain: has the effort been at all impactful, or, due to its symbolic nature, has it only been a distraction? Which behaviors could have been better emphasized to achieve full participation and opportunity by all actors in a firm?

Considerable research has revealed that attempts at diversity are clumsy at best and spurious at worst. The challenge for firms has been to develop a “business case” for why those contributing groups represented by women and people of color should be promoted to levels of leadership within the corporate environment. The unfortunate result, after decades of trial and error, is the enactment of policies designed to tighten the grip of white males on business. These policies create artificial glass ceilings beyond which only a few from the affected groups can reach, and then only with a tenuous hold. Cutting-edge research on symbols and symptoms tells us that the refusal to examine in totality the history of discrimination and racism allows us to perpetuate a myth of white supremacy that prohibits real growth (Ridley, 2008). That myth is enhanced through impotent diversity programs replicated throughout corporate America:

Race remains one of the most hotly controversial and highly complex issues in our society. In American society, race is politically and socially defined. Race has been used to reinforce already powerful groups, while weakening those groups with less power. (Bell Smith and Nkomo, 2003)

With this research project, we examine symbolic behavior in different arenas of business and across the globe. The intention is to examine instances and events when a symptomatic approach would have improved circumstances, all by a change in behavior and decision-making. Perhaps our findings can illuminate the way for a change in behavior in different areas.

The following discussion is provided by two students who served as research participants during the Spring 2018 project: Nora Cordero reviews challenges faced by companies inside the United States as they attempt to make decisions void of symbolic thinking. Leyla Saavedra addresses the impact of symbolic thought in the international arena.

Domestic Issues

Symbolic thinking is the root cause for why racism, gender and age discrimination exists in many of our nation’s industries. This section reviews how symbolic thinking as a pathway to racial, gender, and age discrimination manifested in various major American and global corporations.

CHRYSLER CORP. – According to Edgar J. Ridley, certain stereotypes of people exist because of the symbolic thinking towards their human physical attributes (Ridley, 2008). For example, for some industries, a person’s age makes an individual irrelevant or unqualified to service their clientele:

The Michigan Court approved Gilbert Foree, a former employee of Chrysler, to sue for age discrimination. Automotive news reported that Chrysler laid off Foree in 1989 and refused to rehire him as a human resources facilitator in 1992 when their new plant in Detroit, MI opened and Foree alleged this decision was based on his age. A three-judge panel agreed that Foree had sufficient evidence to prove age was a determining factor why Chrysler decided not to rehire him. The court deemed that with his experience interpreting Chrysler-UAW collective bargaining agreements, Foree was qualified for the position. However, the three people hired as the human resources facilitators lacked the experience required for the position and the court noted two of the three did not have the 5 years mandatory experience in personnel-related positions. The judges also noted that Foree’s computer skills were either comparable, if not superior to the credentials of the people hired. (Freedman, 1995).

Indeed, the Chrysler Corporation and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1989 settled an age discrimination suit filed by the commission in 1981 on behalf of 231 former salaried Chrysler employees for $8.1 million (Levin, 1989). Many court cases or lawsuit settlements based on discrimination have cost companies either hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in payouts (Levin, 1989).

GMAC/ALLY FINANCIAL – Another form of discriminatory practice affecting the auto industry due to symbolic thinking is racism. A report written by the National Fair Housing Alliance states that Yale Law Professor Ian Ayres was the first researcher to prove by using a quantitative methodology that the auto lending industry has a long history of discrimination due to unfair dealer markups on auto loans. Nonwhite car purchasers, particularly black males, were systematically asked to pay more than twice the markup given to white male car purchasers. In 2003, Professor Mark Cohen conducted Professor Ayers’s study on a broader scale to 1.5 million of General Motors Acceptance Corporation loans cases, concluding that black customers, although equally qualified with white customers, were three times as likely to be charged an interest rate markup on their loans financed by General Motors Acceptance Corporation (National Fair Housing Alliance, 2018). In the late 1990s, the National Consumer Law Center co-counseled class action lawsuits against all of the major auto finance companies for discretionary markups using a methodology based on race. Loans were obtained from driver’s license data from states that recorded drivers’ races; for example, in Wisconsin, whereas black Ford buyers paid an average $1,041 markup, white buyers paid $156 (Rossman, 2015). As a settlement, all the major auto finance companies paid millions of dollars, and they agreed that they would not mark up rates for five years.

It is striking to chronicle the monetary disbursement of companies that do not recognize the damage of symbolic thought. In 2013, for example, Ally Financial, formerly General Motors’ subsidiary GMAC, reached a $98 million settlement with Federal authorities for discriminatory lending practices since April 2011 against car loan borrowers who were Hispanic, African-American, and Asian/Pacific Islanders (Isidore, 2013).

TOYOTA – Toyota's financing arm paid as much as $21.9 million in 2016 to black and Asian borrowers who paid more for auto loans than white borrowers, settling allegations of discrimination by federal regulators (Koren, 2016).

HONDA – In 2005 under the settlements, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co’s Bank One unit, Bank of America Corp., U.S. Bancorp and American Honda Finance Corp., are required to offer about $35.5 billion in no-markup loans to minorities. Also, as part of the settlement, the banks agreed to each make monetary contributions to “nonprofit groups for the purpose of consumer education” (Hawkins, 2005).

Corporate America is being held accountable to shape up its employment practices, and the voices of many are being heard loud and clear in the court arena. Other giant companies that have agreed to payouts in lawsuit settlements are Walmart, Abercrombie & Fitch, Coca-Cola Co., Texaco Inc., and Chipotle, to name a few.

WALMART – According to a sex discrimination lawsuit filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Indianapolis, Walmart stores were ordered to pay $11.7 million in back wages and compensatory damages, its share of employer taxes, and up to $250,000 in administration fees because their London, KY Distribution Center regularly hired male entry-level applicants for warehouse positions and excluded female applicants who were equally or better qualified (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2010).

In another lawsuit for same-sex benefits, Walmart agreed to pay $7.5 million to cover claims of some employees who weren't able to obtain coverage for their same-sex spouses from 2011 to 2013 (Rossman, 2016).

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH – Abercrombie & Fitch, one of the nation’s trendiest retailers, settled its class action race and sex discrimination lawsuits for $40 million to several thousand minorities and females, plus $7 million in legal fees. The company agreed to alter its well-known collegiate, all-American-largely-white image by adding more blacks, Hispanics and Asians to its marketing materials (Greenhouse, 2004).

COCA-COLA – In one of the largest racial discrimination settlements in U.S. history, Coca-Cola Co. agreed to pay $156 million to settle allegations that it routinely discriminated against black employees in pay, promotions and performance evaluations; in addition, the settlement also mandated that the company make sweeping changes, costing an additional $36 million (Winter, 2000).

TEXACO – Texaco settled the largest ever racial discrimination suit in 1996, agreeing to pay $115 million to approximately 1,400 class members; $26.1 million in raises over the next five years to minority workers; and $35 million to fund a Task Force to implement changes in the company’s human resources programs; during litigation, Texaco lost more than $1 billion dollars of its capitalization (CNN Money, 1996).

CHIPOTLE – In 2016, a federal jury in Cincinnati determined that Chipotle Mexican Grill wrongfully terminated three former general managers on the basis of their gender, and that it violated the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The jury awarded the three female plaintiffs roughly $600,000 in damages (Hussein, 2016). A U.S. District Court jury in Washington, D.C., awarded $550,000 to Doris Garcia Hernandez, a former employee of the burrito chain, after determining that she was fired by her manager for being pregnant (Cooper, 2016).

PALLET COMPANIES – The EEOC reached its first settlement in an anti-gay bias case against Pallet Companies for $202,200, as a result of the firing of a lesbian employee who had complained to management that her supervisor was harassing her based on her sexual orientation (Johnson, 2016).

OHIO UNIVERSITY – Robert Lipset filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Ohio University in 2001 for denying him tenure based on age discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ordered the university to offer a tenured associate professor position to Robert Lipset and to give him $266,000 in back pay (Lederman, 2006). Some myths and stereotypes associated with old age are: memory loss, antiquated thinking, inability to change, absenteeism, inefficiency, poor productivity, the characteristic of being boring, weakness, helplessness, poor health, and the inability to learn new things. This mythologizing is a direct impact of symbolic thought. Symbolic thinking can lead a person to base decisions on distorted perceptions of what is true, rather than evidence-based facts. Symbolic thinking is acquired through socialization, because people attach meaning and behavior to age, gender, lifestyle and racial groups, (e.g., in some cultures people attribute wisdom to a person with a full head of white hair). Ohio University was penalized for age discrimination because of symbolic thinking by deeming that Lipset was too old, which made him unworthy of tenure. If the University had used symptomatic thinking, administrators would have considered only the evidence-based facts of Lipset’s academic achievements and work history with the university to gauge whether he was qualified to receive tenure. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded that Lipset qualified for a tenured position based on the following facts:

Lipset spent 20 years as an engineer in the automobile industry. He received positive annual evaluations and won a series of awards, for both teaching and research, in his first six years at the Ohio University. Lipset had won the department's research award the year before he applied for tenure, been published in “some of the most highly respected journals in engineering,” and received grants. He had received the largest merit raise in the department just before the tenure ruling, and the raises were distributed based on the same basic criteria used in the tenure process. The commission concluded that "substantially younger professors in the IMSE Department have been awarded promotion and tenure despite having markedly lower performance ratings than Dr. Lipset” (Lederman, 2006).

Is there a solution to discriminatory practices in corporate America? As we can see from these multiple examples from business and academia, symptomatic thinking can provide global business leaders with an effective methodology for making successful business decisions void of any discrimination based on race, gender, age and lifestyle.

International Issues

The Symbolic Thinking of a Country

Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela is today involved in what is essentially a post-war humanitarian crisis, minus the war. Historically, Venezuela was well known for its production and export of oil, which has been the country’s main profit resource. Today, the country is best known for its former president, Hugo Chávez Frías. Chávez died in 2013, but it feels like he is still alive. Unsurprisingly, Venezuelans’ beliefs and political ideologies still reflect the concept of socialism, which is attributable to Chávez. Former president Chávez has become the country’s most potent political symbol controlling the behavior of much of its people.

As we learned in this research process, a symbol can dictate and control people’s thoughts and behaviors. This could be used in a right manner or a wrong manner. Edgar Ridley states, “Mental illness is a product of symbolic-behavior” (Ridley, 2008). However, symbolic thinkers are so comfortable with their thoughts that they rarely realize that they’re being controlled. That is the case for Venezuelans. The people’s political symbol, Chávez, has been controlling their thoughts, but they can’t see it. Venezuelans have been controlled in such a way that they’ve lost their ability to make choices for themselves, and so, Chávez’s socialism remains the operative political philosophy by default. This is not the first time that this phenomenon has occurred. Such communist regimes as China, Cuba, and others have historically employed symbols to manipulate the thinking of their peoples. The oppressive government convinces them that they are patriotic when, in reality, they are forced to obey. Losing their ability to think for themselves, individuals who once had the power to choose to speak out, or protest, or demand better-living conditions, now face murder or forced surrender.

This blind adherence to the Chávez regime created a domino effect in Venezuela. First, the political system went into crisis during Chávez’s presidency. Then, the currency-control pushed the country into an economic downfall, and created an economic monster, the black market. Additional consequences included economic inflation, widespread unemployment, poverty, crime, and starvation. All those factors placed additional burdens on the Venezuelan healthcare system, which was not just dysfunctional, but rather non-existent. After the fall of the dominos, immigration has become the most suitable option for many.

The control of symbolic thinking is obvious from the perspective of foreign observers, who easily perceive Venezuela’s political crisis, economic fall, and social disintegration. Incredibly, due to symbolic thinking, many Venezuelans have been unable to comprehend that they are living and suffering the consequences of the system’s collapse. Consequently, they blindly follow a deceased leader. Believing and supporting a system that has only brought hunger, insecurity, a precarious health care system and other deficiencies on the basic needs of people is a high price to pay for remaining loyal to a symbol.

It is important to dissect all these factors for a better understanding of the destructive symbolic thinking taking place in Venezuela.

Chávez as a Political Symbol

The face of the deceased former president, Hugo Chávez, is an integral part of Venezuelans’ lives. People can see his face on a daily basis on t-shirts, murals, street paintings, advertisements, etc. A common image of Chávez is one where people can see only his eyes, which trigger a singular emotion in citizens: it reminds people of the day before Chávez’s flight to Cuba to have cancer surgery. On that penultimate day of his life, Chávez begged his people to vote for Nicolás Maduro, the current president of Venezuela. With tears in his eyes, Chávez promised that socialism was the answer for a better country. Hence, every Venezuelan should vote in favor of what he described as twenty-first century socialism.

Venezuela is a majority-Catholic country. For Catholics, the belief in the afterlife is a reality. This is a result of symbolic behavior: “Religion is the most unifying and dividing force in civilization” (Ridley, 2008). Clearly, religious belief has unified the Venezuelan people in the idea that Chávez is looking down on them from heaven. Chávez’s image is a symbol of a promise that everyone must keep, no matter what. Although questions pertaining to the afterlife are open to debate, it is clear that this symbolic thinking has detrimental effects. The enforced loyalty to Chávez keeps the people unquestioningly following a political party that promises them a better future, but in truth offers only misery, sadness, and widespread death.

One point is clear: Chávez was an expert manipulator. He was able to make people love him as an adoptive family member and father. The bond between a father and his child is powerful. Most Venezuelans regard themselves as Chávez’s children, which makes them further trust in his political philosophy. As obedient as children, the people do not question the government. Their blind loyalty is more powerful now that their adoptive father has passed away. Commonly, the deceased are remembered as good and righteous, a phenomenon that has only enhanced Chávez’s legacy with the people. This memory of a great Venezuelan past under Chávez, a past that essentially never existed, is controlling Venezuelans’ futures and lives.

Currency Control and The Black Market

During the 1990s, the currency exchange in Venezuela was not restricted by the government. Therefore, business, public, governmental and personal entities could buy as many dollars as they could afford. However, in 2003, former president Chávez decided to implement economic measures that he claimed would help the country. Under these measures, he created the currency-exchange entities. In the beginning, one of the entities was only intended to import food and medicine, with the promise of a preferential currency-exchange price that would keep affordable prices for the commonwealth. The money used for that measure was taken from the only oil company that depends on the whole country for profit, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). During the Chávez’s era, this measure hurt pharmaceutical companies that later decided to join in the government process. More recently, as a result of Venezuela’s recession under the rule of Nicolás Maduro, the government’s debts with international pharmaceuticals has made medicine importation into the country impossible. Basic over-the-counter medicines such as ibuprofen, aspirin, or birth control pills are impossible to find.

In the meantime, the black market randomly establishes the currency-exchange price per day. According to Elnacional.com, Venezuela’s Central Bank fixed the currency-exchange at 25.000 bolivars for each dollar. However, because the government has decided not to sell dollars to any entity in the country, either for business or personal use, the only way to buy the American currency is on the black market. According to the above online news, the black-market was selling each dollar for 228.000 bolivars as of February 2018. By April 2018, the black-market dollar had increased to is 650.000 bolivars. This unequal currency-exchange has jeopardized the entire healthcare system in Venezuela. Unquestionably, if an entity has no means to buy American currency, it is not able to import medicine into the country. The irony is that the government has also been unable to import medicines. The drug shortage in Venezuela affects not only private pharmaceutical companies, but also governmental entities. Ironically, without medicine importation into the country, people who go to public hospitals for medical attention must sit in a waiting room where they will likely contemplate an image of Chávez, who had promised prosperity for Venezuela under socialism. In the midst of economic inflation and medicine shortages, that propagandistic image of prosperity is revealed to be without value.

Crisis in Healthcare

Reportedly, “Venezuela was the first country to eradicate malaria in much of its territory after a successful insecticide-spraying campaign led by Arnoldo Gabaldon in the 1950s” (Hotez, 2017). Unfortunately, the country has dramatically retreated in its disease control, contributing to an increase in malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis, and chagas. One of the causes is the shortage of insecticides and antiparasitic medicines, which cannot be imported due to the lack of American currency. The domino effect is clear.

Malnutrition is a big problem that is causing increased health problems. The average salary in Venezuela is insufficient to cover a family’s basic needs. Many families receive remittances for one relative living overseas. One concern is that there is no assurance that monies sent by overseas relatives are received by their families. Once the cargo arrives at Venezuelan customs, the government illegally checks everything before deciding what to allow into the country. Many times, boxes full of food are retained, and the food is stolen.

For those who live in the countryside and have no possibility of external help, the situation is unbearable. Forero states that “Hordes of people, many with children in tow, rummage through garbage.” Such people end up in hospitals with malnourished children that need immediate health care attention. Ironically, the basic need for those children is food, and the only food available is at the black-market price, a price that is impossible for poor people to afford (Forero, 2017).

The scenario is even worse for patients who need special treatment. Under Chávez’s regime, he “promoted and revamped a programme of free cancer drugs to all Venezuelans and residents” (Daryanani, 2017). Venezuela was the “envy of much of the continent.” Today, the situation is different. The currency control has made it almost impossible to obtain the necessary drugs for international pharmaceutical companies. Patients who can afford their own medicines must find them overseas. The president of a non-governmental organization in Venezuela, Francisco Valencia, reported, “There are 300,000 patients with chronic diseases who do not have proper medicines. Almost half are cancer patients -- breast cancer patients have not received any treatment since August 2016” (Burki, 2017). In 2016, the aforementioned situation was fully documented by a Human Rights Watch Report.

Summary

Symptomatic thinking automatically eliminates symbolic thinking. Although symptoms have traditionally been thought of primarily in the medical field, symptoms were originally used as cultural indicators. Very importantly, symptoms are innate to the neurological processes of the human brain, while symbols are not.

Edgar Ridley tells us that there are only two approaches to life: symbolic or symptomatic. By behaving symptomatically, we are correctly responding to the symptomatic signs of our environment –we are not mythologizing. Philosopher Susanne Langer tells us:

A sign indicates the existence – past, present or future – of a thing, event or condition. Wet streets are a sign that it has rained. A patter on the roof is a sign that it is raining. A fall of the barometer or a ring around the moon is a sign that it is going to rain. In an unirrigated place, abundant verdure is a sign that it often rains there. A smell of smoke signifies the presence of fire.

All the examples here adduced are natural signs. A natural sign is a part of a greater event, or of a complex condition, and to an experienced observer it signifies the rest of that situation of which it is a notable feature. It is a symptom of a state of affairs. (author’s emphasis) (Langer, 1942 as cited in Ridley, 2008)

Furthermore, in order to optimize efficiency when implementing diversity in the workplace, managers must have an in-depth understanding of race:

Race has played a unique role in the formation and historical development of the United States. Since the historical encounter of the hemispheres and the onset of transatlantic enslavement were the fundamental acts of race-making, since they launched a global and world-historical process of ‘making up people’ that constituted the modern world, race has become the template of both difference and inequality. The establishment and reproduction of different regimes of domination, inequality, and difference in the United States have consciously drawn upon concepts of difference, hierarchy, and marginalization based on race. The genocidal policies and practices directed towards indigenous peoples in the conquest and settlement of the ‘new world,’ and towards African peoples in the organization of racial slavery, combined to form a template, a master frame, that has perniciously shaped the treatment and experiences of other subordinated groups as well. Race is a fundamental organizing principle of social stratification. It has influenced the definition of rights and privileges, the distribution of resources, and the ideologies and practices of subordination and oppression. The concept of race as a marker of difference has permeated all forms of social relations. It is a template for the processes of marginalization that continue to shape social structures as well as collective and individual psyches. (Lomi and Winant, 2015) In short, race is a social construct, borne out of myth. Mythology originates with symbols, as Ridley tells us:

The productivity problems of America stem from symbolism and manipulation of the resulting mythology. The business community must understand this fact in order for productivity to become a reality. All metaphors used in the past must be discarded. New metaphors must be carefully examined and eventually eliminated. The business world, like other areas of human activity, has failed to see the need to eradicate myth, metaphors, and rituals. Instead, the necessity of these entities has been emphasized. As long as the business world sees the need for these symbol systems, the problem of productivity will continue to plague all aspects of American business transaction. (Ridley, 2001)

Sociology and humanities research abound with complex analyses of the damage wrought by racism. Nevertheless, the business literature concerning diversity within corporations is lacking a full-on examination of the incorrect assumptions held throughout history.

The very notion of leadership, especially in America, has been predicated upon the superiority of the white male (Bonilla-Silva, 2014). This requires an unflinching acceptance of management dogma, with little-to-no inquiry or challenge. The twentieth century in America was riddled with management errors that, in hindsight, beg the question of how such behavior was permitted to occur, and whether actors operating with a different lens might have been more successful, if only given an opportunity.

Without a concrete understanding of symbols and symptoms, firms will continue to underutilize their talent bases, as Ridley reminds us:

W. Edward Deming stated in Out of the Crisis that ‘the United States today might be the most underdeveloped country in the world. The United States misuses and abuses the skills and knowledge of an army of employed people in all ranks of industry.’ The United States has used myths to manipulate her image around the world so that there is a misleading view of her strengths and weaknesses. Clearly the United States is no longer the economic powerhouse it once was. The nation’s prevalent metaphors are no longer functional or productive. (Ridley, 2001)

We find it helpful to rely on Ridley’s instructive treatise on the proper approach to symptoms:

[There is a] misapplication and misinterpretation of root cause analysis. Unfortunately, the business world [and] academia have mythologized the interpretation of this problem-solving method. [The] common view, that symptoms are not a part of an underlying problem, destroys any opportunity of not only solving global economic crises but the problems of human behavior. One of the most glaring outcomes of the misinterpretation of root cause analysis is the fact that racism is a symptom. Racism is a symptom of the neurological misadventure of primordial man. Racism is a symptom of superstition and mythology, viz-a-viz symbolism. So when we practice racism, we are practicing symbolic behavior. The world, and America in particular, refuses to deal with the racial problem, the core problem. Symptoms are a significant part of any problem or entity they represent. Our refusal to deal with racism is our refusal to deal with symptoms, because we do not want to solve the problem of racism. [Former] U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was correct when he said that we are ‘cowards’ for not dealing with the racial problem. It takes courage to deal with the symptoms. (Ridley, 2017)

Historically, it has always been maintained that symbols and symbolic thinking were a positive force for good in society. Nevertheless, as Ridley suggests:

Living a symbolic life is living a mythological existence based on racism, dehumanization, constant tribalism, religious conflict, entities that tear down the very fabric of civilization. We cannot live out our life symbolically and have a civilized society. (Ridley, 2001).

When do we witness symbolic thought in the workplace? The easiest way to reduce symbolic thinking is to view how women and people of color have traditionally fared in the corporate environment. The student research in Part I of this essay details how expensive it can become for firms that persist in symbolic management. As for the damages of symbolic thought on a global scale, the examples are endless. The student research in Part II of this essay provides an insightful glimpse at the powerful influences that can hold sway if a population is convinced to think symbolically in unquestioning support of a charismatic leader.

This very brief exploration into the use of symbolic thought both domestically and globally provides but a small example of the damage of symbolic thinking. Future research will allow us to examine the impact of symptomatic thought as a replacement for symbolic thought.

Work Cited

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