Economics Insights @ CBS

This special issue features articles from the 9th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University during 22–23 June 2009. The conference featured 42 half hour talks by practitioners and researchers, as well as keynote addresses by Professor Anton Kleywegt of Georgia Tech and by Dr Matthew Schrag, the Director of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering at Delta Airlines. The conference was organized by Martin Lariviere and Baris Ata.

This goal of this chapter is to build a bridge between psychophysiology and organizational behavior in an effort to extend organizational theories and enhance the precision of organizational research. The first section describes psychophysiological systems and theories that can inform organizational scholars' understanding of the biological bases of behavior in organizations. The second section discusses the advantages and challenges associated with incorporating psychophysiological measures into organizational research.

Belief in one's ability to exert control over the environment and to produce desired results is essential for an individual's well being. It has been repeatedly argued that the perception of control is not only desirable, but it is likely a psychological and biological necessity. In this article, we review the literature supporting this claim and present evidence for a biological basis for the need for control and for choice—that is, the means by which we exercise control over the environment.