Organizational behavior and human performance最新文献

Though the job characteristics model proposed by Hackman and his associates has provided the impetus for a large number of correlational studies, few of any studies have involved the systematic manipulation of one or more of the five core dimensions (job properties) while noting the performance outcomes. In this study, the autonomy dimension was experimentally varied (four levels) in a laboratory setting. Four groups of undergraduate students performed a job comprised of three tasks under varying degrees of autonomy while measures of performance, “perceptions” of task properties, and other self-reports were obtained. It was found, contrary to our hypothesis, that variations in autonomy produced a negative effect on quantity of performance and no effect on quality of performance, though subjects in the more autonomous conditions reported a higher level of autonomy. Reservations regarding the strategy of drawing causal inferences from correlational analyses are discussed.

This study empirically examines an alternative conceptual approach to the nature of importance perceptions. Current interpretations of importance evaluations—demand, need, and value-based approaches—have been primarily connotative and continue to remain bereft of convincing logical or empirical support. Borrowing from social — psychological theories of cognitive structure, the study tests the usefulness of a conceptualization of importance perceptions which presents the construct as a function of cognitive centrality, dependence, criticalness, and temporary salience of factors and outcomes in the individual cognitive space. The model is examined over a wide range of factors with findings indicating that significant proportions of variance in importance rating/rankings may be thus explained. Implications for management theory and practices are discussed.

J. J. J. Christensen-Szalanski and L. R. Beach (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1982, 29, 270–278) presented experimental subjects with a representative sample of cases each having two characteristics: either D or $\text{D}$ and either H or $\text{H}$. Subjects estimated P(H|D) relatively accurately. The authors interpreted this result as indicating that under such conditions subjects use Bayes' theorem properly; specifically, they do take account of the base rate. We disagree with this interpretation and claim instead that the way the information was presented enabled subjects to make a direct estimate of the relative frequency appropriate for P(H|D), the percentage of H in the set of D. Under these circumstances, the question of whether or not people correctly utilize all the component's of Bayes' theorem is completely irrelevant.

Three experiments were performed to study an aspect of a hypothesis-generation model. This model assumes a candidate hypothesis may be retrieved or activated in memory in response to only part of the available data. This candidate hypothesis may then be checked for consistency against the remaining data. The latter process is called “consistency checking.” Experiment 1 was performed to provide evidence that consistency checking occurs during hypothesis generation. Subjects were able to recognize hypotheses which were retrieved during a hypotheses-generation problem but not emitted as hypothesis responses, suggesting that consistency checking was responsible for the rejected hypotheses. Experiment 2 indicated that the amount of time needed to process an additional datum is a consistency-checking task was less than an estimate of the time needed to process an additional datum in hypothesis retrieval. The results suggest that consistency checking is a high-speed verification process rather than a slower search process. Experiment 3 was performed to provide evidence that consistency checking is a self-terminating process. Subjects' latencies depended upon the position of a disconfirming datum within a data set, supporting this conjecture. The results generally confirmed the existence of a high-speed verification process in hypothesis generation and also suggest that the generation of hypotheses in response to multiple data occurs as a result of dual processes.

This paper develops the concept of task interdependence and integrates it in the Hackman and Oldham (1976) theory of job design. Two dimensions of initiated task interdependence and received task interdependence are developed as multidimensional concepts, each being made up of the elements of scope, resources, and criticality. A distinction is made between the two psychological states of experienced responsibility for one's own work and personal outcomes, and experienced responsibility for others' (dependents') work and personal outcomes for whom one initiates task interdependence. Autonomy is hypothesized to be related only to experienced responsibility for one's own work outcomes while initiated task interdependence is related to experienced responsibility for others' work outcomes. Initiated interdependence is also hypothesized to be positively related to the affective positive work and personal outcomes, while received task interdependence is negatively related to these variables. New subscales for the measurements of these constructs are developed and reliability and validity coefficients are reported. The substantive results give support to the motivating potential of initiated task interdependence. However, the results do not support the hypotheses associated with received task interdependence. While autonomy was found to be much more strongly related to all the critical psychological states than the Hackman—Oldham theory would predict, job feedback yielded negative results. These findings are discussed by identifying potential areas of future research and extending the concept of interdependence to the wider organizational context.

In response to comments by Yates and Goldstein (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 31, 26), the developmental history of the Beach, Townes, and Campbell work on birth-planning decisions is recounted. It is argued that in the course of developing a decision aid that people could and would use, deviations from formal decision theoretic considerations were necessary and that the final result is not unreasonable.

Latent trait theory is a relatively new development in measurement theory; emphasis in its application has been placed mainly on the measurement of ability, but potential areas of application extend well beyond into measurement of job and organizational characteristics, measurement of bias and adverse impact in equal employment compliance, attitude measurement, and the measurement of performance. The theories and models grouped under latent trait theory are therefore presented, in simple, nonmathematical form, for consideration by industrial and organizational psychologists. The rationale stems from problems encountered in classical psychometric theory with its practical dependence on distributions of attributes in samples and its theoretical dependence on parallel forms, problems alleviated by the use of latent trait analyses. This article presents some basic concepts and some available computer programs. Some controversies and unresolved problems are examined from a practical perspective.

Two experiments found that the beneficial effect of feedback on performace was anegative function of goal progress. In Study 1, 87 female college students were given the goal to solve 70 arithmetic problems on a trial lasting 10 min. After 5-min work on the trial, the subjects received feedback on the number attempted. To the extentthat their goal progress was low, the subjects felt less satisfied with their previous progress, had a low expectancy of reaching the goal, became more involved in the task, and workedfaster than they had previously. In addition, it was suggested that the goal and feedback induced a larger amount of effort from the subjects who were low in progres than from the subjects who were high in progress. Study 2, using 103 male undergraduates as subjects, replicated the previous findings, and also found that feedback improved performance only through its influence on the subjects' intention to work faster. Implications for previous goal/feedback related findings are discussed.

The decision-aiding procedure developed by Beach and his colleagues for birth planning is reviewed. It is shown that the models underlying the Beach procedure have some unusual and problematic formal consequences. Contrary to the claims of Beach et al., the procedure cannot rely on a simple interpretation of standard utility theory for its justification. It is noted that, despite its formal difficulties, the Beach procedure has a unique feature for alerting the decision maker to potentially significant outcomes which could be adapted profitably in other decision-aiding settings besides birth planning. Suggestions for how to address the theoretical shortcomings of the Beach technique are offered.

A relationship between a value function v (compatible with the theory of ordered value differences) and a utility function u (compatible with the expected utility theory) is explored. According to a behavioral interpretation, v encodes the strength of preference while u encodes the strength of preference and risk attitude. The results of two experiments (one conducted in a real-world setting and another in a laboratory) involving 24 cases and the data reported in the literature involving 10 cases support the constant relavie risk attitude hypothesis. The implied unique transformation between v and u is tested as a descriptive model and as a predictive model. The descriptive model is then used for inference concerning several behavioral hypotheses.