Organizational behavior and human performance最新文献

The predictive efficacy of various forms of the expectancy theory model is compared with respect to a behavioral criterion of task choice. The models tested take the form of (a) a multiplicative combination of the expectancy theory model's components (instrumentality × valence), (b) an additive combination of the components (instrumentality + valence), and (c) each component (instrumentality, valence) used individually to predict the criterion. The present investigation seeks to rectify various methodological problems inherent in past comparative studies. Specifically, two studies, each employing a different experimental method, are used to compare the predictive ability of the model forms. Results suggest that the multiplicative model is the most useful predictor of the behavioral criterion.

Expectation of cooperative future interaction with the other negotiator (ECFI) was crossed with accountability to constituents. Accountability produced contentious behavior and it reduced joint benefit when ECFI was absent, but it increased joint benefit when ECFI was present. The results can be construed as supporting a dual-concern model, suggesting that behavior is a function of both a concern for personal goals and a concern for the relationship with the other party.

This paper examines career transitions within organizations. An integrative model was developed and evaluated which views career transitions as a stress-coping process influenced by work and nonwork factors. Data supported the model in that individuals experiencing a large number of personal life transitions were more likely to adopt a symptom-management coping strategy (as contrasted with a situation-focused strategy) for dealing with job stress during the transition. However, neither the mangitude of the career transition nor intervening role variables in the model contributed to explanation of the career transition process. Major career transitions were associated with major transitions in personal life and data suggested that a career transition could act as a “trigger” event for personal life instability. Implications of both supportive and disconfirming findings are discussed. Future directions are suggested for research on careers and for career management in organizations.

This paper reports results from a series of studies designed to directly test a categorization-based model of leadership perceptions in three areas: specifying the internal structure of leadership categories, investigating the accessibility and importance of various individual behaviors in making leadership judgments, and explaining leadership perception in terms of categorization. In Study 1, data provided by 263 subjects were used to calculate three measures of category representativeness: family resemblance scores, cue validity scores, and prototypicality ratings. Results showed that leader family resemblance, cue validity, and prototypicality were all strongly correlated. In Study 2, accessibility was investigated by administering to 64 subjects a specially constructed questionnaire containing leader behaviors which varied in prototypicality and then measuring the reaction time to rate the behavior as prototypical of a leader. Results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between prototypicality and reaction time to behavioral items, suggesting that more prototypical items were more easily accessed. Study 3 manipulated prototypicality of leadership behaviors for an experimental group where leadership had been primed extensively and for a group of subjects who had been given no primes. The results showed the prototypicality manipulation strongly affected leadership ratings, behavioral expectations, and causal ascriptions to the target person, but the priming factor had no significant effects on dependent variables. Suggestions for future research and practical implications are also discussed.

This study investigated the relationship between Type A behavior and the research productivity of university faculty. The research also examined the roles played by various Type A subfactors (job involvement, competitiveness, and impatience) and by three hypothesized intervening variables (self-efficacy, performance goals, and working on multiple projects) in the Type A—productivity relationship. Results showed a direct relationship between Type A behavior and both quantity and quality indices of faculty research productivity. Findings also supported self-efficacy, goals, and working on multiple projects as variables intervening between the display of Type A behavior and performance. Job involvement was found to be the only Type A subfactor related to productivity.

This research examined the influence of perceived competence in moderating the relationship between role clarity and the job performance of employees. Data from 340 lower level managers were used to test two competing hypotheses. Results indicate that perceived competence moderates the relationship between role clarity and the job performance of employees. The job performance of employees is a joint function of their perceived competence and the role clarity they experience. Consistent with a situational-constraints perspective on work performance, the job performance of more competent employees is more strongly affected by the role ambiguity they face than is that of their less competent counterparts. The alternative, ability/adaptability, hypothesis did not receive support. Implications of the findings for future research and for remedial action by organizations are discussed.

Utilization of career strategies by 414 employees of a large municipality is investigated using the Career Strategies Inventory. The results of the study indicate greater use of career strategies by managers (versus nonmanagers) and nonplateaued (versus plateaued) employees. Additionally, the following career strategies were related to the rate of salary progression: (1) other enhancement, (2) creating opportunities, (3) extended involvement, and (4) opinion conformity. For managers only, networking and self-nomination were also associated with salary progression. There were few differences between the reported use of the career strategies by males-and females. However, males were more likely to use the strategy of “extended work involvement” and females were more likely to report use of “seeking guidance.”

The predictive utility of three mathematical models of psychological inequity was competitively tested with survey data obtained from a sample of employed graduate students. Index values of inequity, which were generated from the three models, were examined for curvilinear association with affective outcomes. In terms of satisfying the criterion of displaying an invertedU association (such that overcompensation and undercompensation were associated with greater negative affect relative to equitable compensation), a power-function weighting scheme was identified as a modestly successful algebraic representation of psychological inequity. The study represents the first attempt at explicitly examining mathematical models of individual psychological inequity.