international affairs – Positive Mental Health

Leiko Ishizuka Japan

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:59:30 +0000

Leiko Ishizuka, a Franco-Japanese from New York, sees hope for Japan

Born of a French mother and Japanese father but raised in New York, Nathalie Leiko Ishizuka is of three cultures. Today, due to the Japanese crisis, she desires to return to Japan and be with the Japanese people. She, her husband, and her two young children (4 and 7) are hoping to make that possible as of September 2012.

(Update: Leiko Ishizuka spent four profound and life changing years in Tokyo after March 11th where she worked with profound Japanese artists and a variety of individuals involved in societal change. To experience a peek of her work with Japanese artists, please see the utube videos on the home page www.beyondourbest.com. As of August 2016, she resides in Singapore and wishes to continue and expand her work with Japan as well as learn and work with individuals from China and India, two countries of which she knows little.)

Seishin Joshi Gakuin: A traditional Japan

At age 16, Leiko enrolled as the first high school student from the United States to attend the all-Japanese traditional girl school, Seishin Joshi Gakuin. There in the most traditional of Japanese schools, Leiko was initiated to the Japanese language, Japanese mythology, and Japanese brush painting during a four month exchange.

Mitsubishi Communications: A Peek at Office Life

A following short summer internship at Mitsubishi Communications, gave her a peek into Japanese office life. Like the Belgian author Amelie Nothomb in Stupeur and Tremblements Leiko Ishizuka served tea in the morning, arrived early, and spent much of her day asking how she might be of use.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution : Original Research

At age 22, Leiko Ishizuka wrote a 240 page Summa Cum Laude thesis at Amherst College on Article 9 of the 1946 Japanese Constitution. She received the Doshisha Asian Studies Award and written praise from Colonel Charles Kades, one of the Constitution’s founding fathers. Ishizuka was fortunate to benefit from Kades’ guidance as well as input from Professor Ray Moore, Professor Donald Robinson, Jim Sutherland, and Terusuke Terada.

Keio University: A Struggle with Language

Leiko attended Keio for a six month exchange to better speak the language.

Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy: Psychology and International Affairs

While at the Fletcher School, Ishizuka wrote “Lessons from Preventive Health to Preventive Diplomacy,” winning an Eisaku Sato Memorial Essay Award. Ishizuka was invited to the U.N. University in Tokyo. During this time she also applied a hypothesis about how the affect fear influences economics and went to Berkeley for a year to work with Oliver Williamson (Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2009) to explore a paper she had presented at the Academy of Management.

Returning to Japan to be with the Japanese

Today at age 41, Leiko Ishizuka wishes to return to Japan in a sign of solidarity with the Japanese people. She hopes to work with writers, thinkers, artists, deciders and those who hold the Japanese traditions and spirit dear.

While Leiko’s own father’s mentor, Dr. Taro Takemi, a long time President of the Japanese Medical Association, had once told her father, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, “Not to return to Japan,” because the future was the West, Leiko Ishizuka believes this is no longer true. She and Dr. Paul Briot, a Belgian essayist, see great hope in Japan.

They will share their optimism with their Japanese friends in an article they wish to publish in a Japanese newspaper in the next few months.

Lifetrack press

wpx_beyondou — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:06:18 +0000

Articles, Television, Lectures, DVDs, Radio, Links for Lifetrack

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka has made numerous television appearances as a psychiatric expert on major networks such as NBC, NHK (Japan), Fuji-Television (Japan), TV Asahi (Japan), and Antenne 2 (France). Newspaper and magazine articles featuring Dr. Ishizuka and his work with Lifetrack have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, Reader’s Digest, Psychiatric News, L’Express (France), Voice (Japan), and Nikkei Business (Japan). His first book, Self-Actualization (Kodansha Tokyo, 1982), sold over 45,000 copies in Japan. The book was reprinted nine times.

Dr. Ishizuka has presented models of individual and organizational health with diverse organizations including AT&T and IBM as well as many Japanese, American, and European elite CEOs. He is the founder of Japan International Students Association, the recipient of the coveted Japanese Health Culture Award in 2007 by the Minister of Japanese Health at the Japanese Imperial Palace.

Interview or Article

If you would like to contact Dr. Yukio Ishizuka for an interview for Lifetrack Positive Mental Health call 914.967.6210 (New York, USA time).

Please Download Ottawa Journal Article (3MG) for more information on LifeTrack Therapy (succinct for therapy, academics or the press).

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Political Science and Psychology

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:53:19 +0000

Political Science

In this domain, the models of individual, organizational, and national health can be interesting, however, perhaps the most interesting question is not how the state is like a person, but how does a model of human nature affect a model of the state.

If we apply the assumption of fear as we have done to economics to the political domain, there are interesting implications on movements towards political integration and dis-integration and of national identity as well as of trading blocks. Institutional checks and balances provided by international organizations such as the UN, WTO, that could serve to relieve fear are worthy of study.

More on Psychology and Organizational and National Behavior:

Additional Reading on Models of Health and Psychology:

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Constitutional Cover? Collective Security: U.N. Obligations vs. Japanese Constitutional Restraints,” Amherst College, Bachelors Thesis, summa cum laude, 1992. Copy requested for U.N. Library. (240 pages) Comments by Colonel Kades, Founder of Japanese 1946 Constitution.

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “The United Nations as a Crisis Manager: Lessons from Preventive Mental Health to Preventive Diplomacy,” U.N. University, Eisaku Sato Memorial Foundation Award for Essay, 1996. Longer Report Submitted to Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Is GATT a ‘Good’ Psychiatrist?: Building a Multilateral Framework,” Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Masters Thesis, December 1995. Comments by Arthur Dunkel, former Head of GATT (now WTO).

Editors and Journals

If an editor is interested in a chapter for book format, or journal form, please notify the author. If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields please contact Nathalie Ishizuka through the Positive Mental Health Foundation Contact Form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

A Need for Models based on Healthy Human Beings

Organizational and International behavior should be based on assumptions about healthy human beings. Read section a Science of Health (life way), Criteria for Health Models (science of happiness), Happiness Defined? Quantified? (cycle of life), Happier? (fear of the unknown), Why Positive Mental Health Works (objective subjective), and Insights (life purpose).

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Individual Health, Organizational Health, National Health
Applications about healthy human beings to economics, international affairs, nations, organizational behavior. A new organizational behavior concept or simply a new field of international behavior based on healthy human beings?

The Psychology of Individuals and International Affairs

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:39:32 +0000

International Affairs

An understanding of healthy individuals and a psychology of health is needed to understand how individuals influence organizations, nations and international affairs.

List of Literature and Presentations on Psychology and International Affairs:

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Constitutional Cover? Collective Security: U.N. Obligations vs. Japanese Constitutional Restraints,” Amherst College, Bachelors Thesis, summa cum laude, 1992. Copy requested for U.N. Library. Comments on the thesis by the Founder of the 1946 Japanese Constitution, Colonel Charles Kades.

Trade War: Interview of Dr. Yukio Ishizuka as an Expert on Television (NBC program): April 12,1987

Japan in the World: Interview of Dr. Yukio Ishizuka as an Expert (NHK TV): 1987

The Japanese: Interview of Dr. Yukio Ishizuka as Expert on the Japanese by Ms. Ockrent on French Prime Time News (Antenne 2)

Greene, Donna. “U.S. and Japan: A Marriage Born of Need,” The New York Times, Sunday March 29,1992. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

“Japan: The Price of Success,” Reader’s Digest, December 1986. Quotes Dr. Yukio Ishizuka.

US-Japan Conflict: A Feature One Hour Television Interview by Helen Larson (Local Cable TV)

Japan, Interview by Ms. Nora for French TV: September 1991

West Meets East Television NJ Cable TV: September 1991

Ishizuka, Yukio. “The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship”AT&T Global Business Symposium, with Mr. Clyde Prestowitz and others, Bedminster, NJ, December 12,1991 (1.5 hours)

Ishizuka, Yukio. “Japan’s Place in the World,” Zaikai-Koron, a Japanese business monthly, 1976. Among those interviewed by Dr. Ishizuka were Mr. David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr. George Ball, former Secretary of State, Mr. Joseph Fravin, CEO of Singer & C., Professor Henry de Bettignies, Director of the Asian Center of INSEAD, and Professor Hugh T. Patrick of Yale University.

Ishizuka, Yukio. “The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” Fletcher Schools of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, M.A. April 16, 1993 (2.5 hours)

Ishizuka, Yukio. “The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S. – Japan Relationship”Manhattanville College, New York, April 9, 1992 (1.5 hours)

The US-Japan Relationship: Debate with Professor Warren Keegan (Rye Business Beat –Local Cable TV program): July 1994

Shiroyama, S., “Fear of Closeness as the Key Concept to Understanding the U.S-Japan Relationship and Marital Problems of the Japanese,” Shukkan-Gendai, 1990.

Takeda, K., “A Scholar of Two Countries” Chishiki (Knowledge), November 1985. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Lecture : “Culture Shock” Conference of Cross Cultural Center, Wainwright House, Rye, New York, April 25,1985 (2 hours)

For more on a Psychology of Individuals, Organizations, Nations and International Behavior See:

Editors and Journals
If an editor is interested in a chapter for book format, or journal form, please notify the author. If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields please let Nathalie Ishizuka know through the Positive Mental Health Foundation Contact Form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Psychology and War

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:32:30 +0000

War, Crisis, and Health

Ishizuka, Yukio. “In Search of Excellence and Well-Being” Presentation of Lifetrack to 30 faculty and counseling staff at West Point, 1985 (2 hours)

For More on a Psychology of Health and Organizational, National or International Behavior See:

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Psychology and Economic Integration

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:26:41 +0000

Economic Integration

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Is GATT a ‘Good’ Psychiatrist?: Building a Multilateral Framework,” Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Masters Thesis, December 1995. Comments by Arthur Dunkel, former Head of GATT (now WTO).

Editors and Journals

If an editor is interested in a chapter for book format, or journal form, please notify the author. If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields contact Nathalie Ishizuka through the Positive Mental Health Foundation contact form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

For More on a Psychology of Health and Organizational, National or International Behavior See:

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Psychology and International Behavior

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:19:51 +0000

Crisis Management and Diplomacy

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “The United Nations as a Crisis Manager: Lessons from Preventive Mental Health to Preventive Diplomacy,” U.N. University, Eisaku Sato Memorial Foundation Award for Essay, 1996. Longer Report Submitted to Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Editors and Journals

If an editor is interested in a chapter for book format, or journal form, please notify the author. If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields please contact Nathalie Ishizuka through the Positive Mental Health Foundation Contact form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

For more on a Psychology of Health and Organizational, National or International Behavior See:

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Japan and Psychology

wpx_beyondou — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:07:59 +0000

Models Applied to Individual, Organization, Nation, and International

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka has applied the model on individual human personality to the Japanese, Japanese Organizations, Japan as a Nation State and Japan’s role in International Affairs.

He has appeared as an expert on television, radio, the press and has also given numerous lectures.

His book, Self-Actualization, Publisher Kodansha (Tokyo, 1982), sold over 45,000 copies in Japan. The book was reprinted nine times.

Selected Readings, Lectures, Presentations, and TV Appearences by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japan Expert

Ishizuka, Y., Self-Actualization, (Book in Japanese) Kodansha: Tokyo, 1982.

Ishizuka, Y., “Japan’s Place in the World,” Zaikai-Koron, a Japanese business monthly, 1976. Among those interviewed by Dr. Ishizuka were Mr. David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr. George Ball, former Secretary of State, Mr. Joseph Fravin, CEO of Singer & C., Professor Henry de Bettignies, Director of the Asian Center of INSEAD, and Professor Hugh T. Patrick of Yale University.

Ishizuka, Y., “Breakdown of a Japanese Businessman: a Trap for Business Elites,” Voice Magazine, January 1984.

Ishizuka, Y., “The Pitfall for Business Elites,” Nikkei Business, the leading Japanese Business Magazine, September 1986.

Ishizuka, Y. and ed. Ishizuka N., “Special Report, How to Help Executives under Stress,” Nikkei Business, September 1992.

Berger, M., “A Japanese Psychiatrist’s Answer to Executive Stress,” International Management, McGraw-Hill, March 1987. An interview with Dr. Yukio Ishizuka introducing Life-Track.

“First Encounters,” Business Tokyo, January 1992. Dr. Ishizuka quoted as expert for American businessmen in Japan.

Greene, Donna. “U.S. and Japan: A Marriage Born of Need,” The New York Times, Sunday March 29,1992. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

“International Front, Japanese Middle Management under Stress,” The New York Times, Sunday March 29,1992. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

“Japanese Executives Under Stress,” Yomiuri Shinbun, January 12,1986.

“Japan: The Price of Success,” Reader’s Digest, December 1986. Quotes Dr. Yukio Ishizuka.

Kishi, N., “A Man Who Dares: A Psychiatrist who Quantifies the Human Mind,” Bushu Weekly, November 4,1993. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Shiroyama, S., Getting Stronger, Overcoming Setbacks. Nippon Keizai Shimbun: Tokyo, 1983. Shiroyama is one of the most prominent authors in Japan. Quotes Dr. Ishizuka extensively.

Shiroyama, S., “Intellectual Toughness,” Shukan Gendai, October, 1990. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka for a Japanese weekly.

Shiroyama, S., The Conditions for Survival. Kodansha: Tokyo, 1991. The book consists of in-depth interviews with eleven individuals from diverse fields. Dr. Ishizuka was interviewed along with the economist Milton Friedman, Andrew Night, editor-in-chief of The Economist, and golfer Jack Nicolas.

Shiroyama, S., “Fear of Closeness as the Key Concept to Understanding the U.S-Japan Relationship and Marital Problems of the Japanese,” Shukkan-Gendai, 1990.

“Stress is Your Friend,” Asahi Shinbun International, August 27,1992. A feature interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Takeda, K., “A Scholar of Two Countries” Chishiki (Knowledge), November 1985. Interview with Dr. Ishizuka.

Yogata, M., “Personal Setback and Growth,” Marubeni, December 1985. A personal account documenting the depression and recovery of one of Dr. Ishizuka’s former patients while on assignment in New York. The article celebrates Yogata’s promotion to Director of leading Japanese corporation.

Ishizuka, N., “Constitutional Cover? Collective Security: U.N. Obligations vs. Japanese Constitutional Restraints,” Amherst College, Bachelors Thesis, summa cum laude, 1992. Copy requested for U.N. Library.

Selected Lectures on the Japanese and Japan

“Culture Shock” Conference of Cross Cultural Center, Wainwright House, Rye, New York, April 25,1985 (2 hours)

“The Breakdown of Elite Japanese Executives Abroad” Lecture for Keizai Doyu-kai meeting of 200 Japanese CEOs, 1986 (1.5 hours)

“Individual and Organizational Excellence and Well-Being” Lecture for Keizai Doyu-kai Nagoya Chapter meeting of 200 CEOs and senior executives, 1987 (1.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for Corporations and Nations” The Institute for Global Business Strategy, Distinguished Lecture Series, Pace University, New York, November 12,1991 (3 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” AT&T Global Business Symposium, with Mr. Clyde Prestowitz and others, Bedminster, NJ, December 12,1991 (1.5 hours)

“The U.S.-Japan Relationship from a Psychological Perspective” A panel on the U.S. – Japan Relationship, with Prof. Paul R. Krugman and others, Tufts University, Medford, MA (45 minutes)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” AT&T Global Business Symposium, Phoenix, Arizona, March 26, 1992 (2.5 hours)

“Facing Structural Challenges: The U.S. and Japan.” AT&T Global Business Symposium, Phoenix, Arizona, March 26, 1992 (2.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S. – Japan Relationship” Manhattanville College, New York, April 9, 1992 (1.5 hours)

“The Japanese Mind: Its Implications for the U.S.-Japan Relationship” Fletcher Schools of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, M.A. April 16, 1993 (2.5 hours)

“How To Overcome Stress at the Top” The Japanese Chemical Manufacturers Club (50 C.E.O.’s of the Japanese chemical manufacturing companies) September 23, 1997 (1 hour)

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lecture for psychiatric residents at Keio Medical School, Tokyo Japan, April 2005

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lecture for psychiatric residents at Hokkaido University Medical School, Hokkaido, Japan, April 2005

“Breakthrough Intimacy – Treating Personality” Lectures for medical students at Keio Medical School, Tokyo Japan, April 2005

“Excellence and Wellbeing – How to Achieve and Grow Both” Annual Meeting of IFMSA-Japan (International Federation of Medical Student Association-Japan)

“Happiness and Success – How To Achieve and Grow Both” Nippon Club of New York, 2007

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka’s Television Appearances as Expert on Japan

Stress and Mental Health Issues: Series of Appearances (Fuji TV Morning, New York)

US-Japan Conflict: A Feature One Hour Interview by Helen Larson (Local Cable TV)

Trade War: Interviewed as an Expert (NBC program): April 12,1987

Japan in the World: Interviewed as an Expert (NHK TV): 1987

West Meets East (NJ Cable TV): September 1991

Interview by Ms. Nora for French TV on Japan (French TV): September 1991

Japanese Divorce: Increasing Divorce among Middle Aged Couples (Fuki-Television: Japanese National Network, New York – Japan): 1993

Japanese Fathers: Japanese Fatherhood in Crisis (Fuki-Television: Japanese National Network, New York – Japan): 1993

The US-Japan Relationship: Debate with Professor Warren Keegan (Rye Business Beat – Local Cable TV program): July 1994

French Prime Time News: Interview on the Japanese by Ms. Ockrent (Antenne 2)

Dozens of Radio Interviews

For More on a Psychology of Health and Applications to Organizations, Nations and International Behavior See:

A Need for Models Based on Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Negotiation and Psychology

wpx_beyondou — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:36:45 +0000

Negotiation

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Lifetrack Assumptions about Conflict Resolution and Third Party Intervention: A Case Study of Kissinger in the Middle East,” Published as Working Paper, Harvard Law Program on Negotiation, July 1995.

Ishizuka, Nathalie, “Negotiation Workshops Between Hostile Parties: Should one include a presentation on individual optimal adjustment in international negotiation workshops?” submitted to Harvard Law Program on Negotiation, September 1997.

Editors and Journals

If an editor is interested in a chapter for book format, or journal form, please notify the author. If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields please contact Nathalie Ishizuka through the Positive Mental Health Contact form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to Organizational and International Behavior:

Economics and Psychology : Oliver Williamson Assumption about Human Actors

wpx_beyondou — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:26:48 +0000

Applying an Assumption about Healthy Human Beings to Economics?

What are the basic assumptions about human beings in economics? Are these assumptions based on healthy human beings? If not, can they be fine-tuned?

Nathalie Ishizuka applies the assumption about human fear and how it affects optimal decision making to the 2009 Nobel laureate Olivier Williamson’s, Transaction Cost Economics.

Economics is Based on Simple Assumptions about Human Beings
Economic models are based on simple assumptions about human beings.

Whereas traditional economic man is considered as omniscient and able to take into account the consequences of all alternatives, transaction cost economics (TCE) incorporates an understanding about human beings or human costs that include Herbert Simon’s (Nobel Prize, 1978) cognitive assumption of “bounded rationality” (from the little we do know, we make the best decision), and Oliver Williamson’s (Nobel Prize, 2009) behavioral assumption of “opportunism” (suggesting that transactions and organizations benefit from safeguards and the aligning of incentives).

Adding an Assumption about Healthy Human Beings to Economics
The assumption by Simon and Williamson are useful to understanding economic costs. However, human beings do not only think (cognitive assumption of TCE economics) and act (behavioral assumption of TCE economics), but also feel. The question then becomes what emotion influences the make or buy decision?

Adding Affect: Fear
Based on her understanding of healthy human beings from Dr. Yukio Ishizuka‘s model of human personality, Nathalie Ishizuka adds a healthy assumption about human affect (fear) to the make or buy decision. According to Nathalie Ishizuka, the human affect fear implies we are not only “limited cognitively,” but even when we do know the best decision–due to fear–we may not always chose it.

Fear and other Economic Theories
Nathalie Ishizuka hopes that the assumption fear will be included in transaction cost economics (in Ishizuka’s viewpoint one of the most formidable paradigms in economics and organization). She also follows with interest the work of Agency Theory by Michael Jensen. While important work on fear in small decisions (gambling) in economics is notable, Ishizuka is not talking about risk aversion, but about how fear can lead us not to act optimally even when we know what is best for us. It is this type of fear that can place the economic system at risk. In the future Nathalie Ishizuka wishes to work on how fear varies, and identifying the factors that are responsible for this variation.

The ‘Psychological’ Make or Buy Decision,
Ishizuka, Nathalie, “The Psychological Make or Buy Decision: Psychology and Transaction Cost Economics,” paper presented at the Academy of Management, Boston, August 1997.

ABSTRACT
Transaction cost economics is integrated with cognitive and affective aspects of ownership and contract. Integrating these distinct streams of literature leads to a more comprehensive view of the “make or buy” decision, describing not only how individuals behave, but also how they think and feel within alternative exchange relationships.

EXCERPT

TRANSACTION COSTS ANALYTICAL ASSUMPTIONS
Transaction costs or the “costs of running the economic system” (Arrow, 1969: 48) are ultimately about human costs. Once one recognizes that firms are “legal fictions” that serve as a nexus of “contracting relationships among individuals,” (Jensen & Meckling, 1976: 311) then one must admit that transaction costs or agency costs are neither experienced by the market nor the firm in the abstract, but by individuals. The “friction in physical systems“ (Williamson, 1985: 19) that economists have baptized transaction costs are the equivalent of friction or stress created in the interaction of human beings with each other, with their environment and within themselves. In this sense, agency costs and transaction costs are very much the same. In a like manner, agency costs can be thought of as the equivalent of friction in “any situation involving cooperative effort by two or more people,” (Jensen and Meckling, 1976: 309) and can exist in the form of conflicts with oneself (Thaler and Shefrin, 1981).

Coase’s insights on individuals are consistent with this point. Coase tells us that the choice of markets versus firms to organize transactions is the result of, “man as he is, acting within the constraints imposed by real institutions” (Coase, 1984: 231). Williamson also concurs attributing transaction costs to “behavioral assumptions” of “bounded rationality” and “opportunism.” Although Williamson lumps these assumptions of “bounded rationality” and “opportunism” together as “behavioral assumptions,” or assumptions about how individuals act, bounded rationality is really a cognitive assumption or theory about the limits of the thought process. Opportunism, on the other hand, is a behavioral assumption about the way individuals behave.

Bounded Rationally: The Cognitive Assumption of Transaction Cost Analysis
The idea of bounded rationality comes from Simon, who argued that human beings are “intendedly rational, but only limitedly so” (Simon, 1976: xxviii). Whereas traditional economic man is considered as omniscient and able to take into account the consequences, probabilities and utilities of all alternatives, Simon argued that individuals are “limited in knowledge, foresight, skill and time” (Simon, 1957: 199). The cognitive abilities of individuals are “bounded” in that they can only take in and make sense of a limited amount of information. In terms of transaction cost analysis, cognitive limits have important implications for planning, adopting and monitoring exchange relationships. To the extent that internalization can serve to reduce uncertainty and complexity (Williamson, 1975), one can successfully reduce transaction costs and economize on bounded rationality (Chiles and McMackin, 1996) .

Opportunism: The Behavioral Assumption of Transaction Cost Analysis
Opportunism is the behavioral attribute that underlies transaction cost analysis. According to Williamson, opportunism is not just self-interested behavior, but “self-interest seeking with guile“ (Williamson, 1985: 47). Opportunism includes not only “subtle forms of deceit,” such as “incomplete or distorted disclosure of information, especially to calculated efforts to mislead, distort, disguise, obfuscate, or otherwise confuse,” but also overt “lying, stealing, and cheating” (Williamson, 1985: 47). This assumption about human beings is important because it suggests that transactions and organizations would benefit from safeguards and the aligning of incentives(Williamson, 1985: 48). Ghoshal and Moran (1996) have argued that this behavioral assumption of opportunism is an overly pessimistic view of human nature. They seem to have interpreted Williamson’s statement to mean that organizations exist solely because of their ability to attenuate opportunism through hierarchical control. This is not Williamson’s central point. Williamson is not assuming that all individuals act opportunistically, rather that without evidence to the contrary, the assumption of opportunism is reasonable. Naturally, “rules” or hierarchical organization can at times serve to limit opportunism, however, if humans have the capacity to be opportunistic then opportunism will continue to exist both in the market and within the firm. Williamson’s point then is not to remedy market failure with “benign forms of organization,” but rather to stress the importance of a comparative approach (Williamson, 1993a: 102). Ultimately, the existence and extent of opportunistic behavior by individuals and the degree to which it impacts internalization (Hill, 1990) is an empirical issue.

Affect: The Missing Assumption in Transaction Cost Analysis
Adherents to the transaction cost view accept the assumptions of bounded rationality and opportunism as descriptions of the way human beings think and act in make or buy decisions. These simple assumptions distinguish transaction cost economics from classical economics, which does not recognize the “psychological make-up” of individuals. Classical economics limits itself to the constraints that are external to the individual and to the organization, such as technology and the interests of individuals who depart from one’s own (Simon, 1957: 199). By embracing more realistic cognitive and behavioral assumptions about individuals, transaction cost economics provides strategic management with a perspective that connects the individual actor with its larger institutional structure.

What remains surprising, however, is that transaction cost economics has yet to make explicit affective assumptions about human actors that may influence the make or buy decision. Just as Simon and Williamson made assumptions about the cognitive and behavioral attributes of humans, a similar assumption should be made explicit regarding the affective capacities of individuals. While Williamson’s view on this issue has yet to be determined, Simon, himself, suggests that any mature social science “will have to come to accommodate both intellect and affect” (1957: 200).

End Note by Ishizuka:
“As they say in academia, all errors are mine. I do believe Oliver Williamson, given his openness and interdisciplinary scope will one day incorporate fear into TCE and that this will have fundamental implications on understanding the current financial crisis and lessening the impact of future ones. His framework is important because it is an integrated paradigm in economic organization. For fear to be included in such a paradigm, however, it is my turn to work, to get Dr. Yukio Ishizuka’s theory and understanding of fear known and accepted. In the future, I would like to work on how fear varies, and identify the factors that are responsible for this variation.”

— Nathalie Ishizuka

The paper was accepted for presentation at the Academy of Management, Boston, August 1997. To ask that the full article or parts be included in a journal or book, please contact the author through the Lifetrack Contact Form on this site.

If you have a syllabus with assumptions about healthy human beings applied to organizations, economics, negotiation, political science or other fields please contact Nathalie Ishizuka through the Positive Mental Health Foundation contact form. She is interested in collecting these for future use and sharing.

For More on Healthy Individuals and applications to Organizations, Nations, and International Behavior See:

Crisis Management & Diplomacy

Economic Integration

War, Crisis & Health

International Affairs

Econometric Modeling

Political Science

A Need for Models of Healthy Human Beings

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form. Link to us to promote health and happiness.