This article brings together three current themes in organizational behavior: (1) a renewed interest in assessing person-situation interactional constructs, (2) the quantitative assessment of organizational culture, and (3) the application of “Q-sort,” or template-matching, approaches to assessing person-situation interactions. Using longitudinal data from accountants and M.B.A. students and cross-sectional data from employees of government agencies and public accounting firms, we developed and validated an instrument for assessing person-organization fit, the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP). Results suggest that the dimensionality of individual preferences for organizational cultures and the existence of these cultures are interpretable. Further, person-organization fit predicts job satisfaction and organizational commitment a year after fit was measured and actual turnover after two years. This evidence attests to the importance of understanding the fit between individuals' preferences and organiza...

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People and organizational culture: a profile comparison approach to assessing person-organization fit

Although much has been learned from cross-sectional research on marriage, an understanding of how marriages develop, succeed, and fail is best achieved with longitudinal data. In view of growing interest in longitudinal research on marriage, the authors reviewed and evaluated the literature on how the quality and stability of marriages change over time. First, prevailing theoretical perspectives are examined for their ability to explain change in marital quality and stability. Second, the methods and findings of 115 longitudinal studies--representing over 45,000 marriages--are summarized and evaluated, yielding specific suggestions for improving this research, Finally, a model is outlined that integrates the strengths of previous theories of marriage, accounts for established findings, and indicates new directions for research on how marriages change.

The longitudinal course of marital quality and stability: A review of theory, methods, and research.

For a variety of sociopolitical, economic, scientific, and clinical reasons, considerable interest in the study of father-child relationships has emerged in the last decade. In the last few years, the focus has narrowed to concern about the effects of increased paternal involvement. Interest in, and concern about, the latter seems to be especially prominent among social service providers and clinicians. For this reason, and also because the voluminous literature on paternal influences has been scrutinized quite extensively, we will focus in this chapter on evidence concerning the effects of increased involvement. Much less will be said, mostly in summary fashion, about paternal influences more generally, although readers will be referred to recent reviews for further discussions of the literature.

The Role of the Father in Child Development

The course, antecedents, and implications for social development of effortful control were examined in this comprehensive longitudinal study. Behavioral multitask batteries and parental ratings assessed effortful control at 22 and 33 months (N = 106). Effortful control functions encompassed delaying, slowing down motor activity, suppressing/initiating activity to signal, effortful attention, and lowering voice. Between 22 and 33 months, effortful control improved considerably, its coherence increased, it was stable, and it was higher for girls. Behavioral and parent-rated measures converged. Children's focused attention at 9 months, mothers' responsiveness at 22 months, and mothers' self-reported socialization level all predicted children's greater effortful control. Effortful control had implications for concurrent social development. Greater effortful control at 22 months was linked to more regulated anger, and at 33 months, to more regulated anger and joy and to stronger restraint.

Effortful control in early childhood: continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development

Marital problems have been related to numerous indexes of maladjustment in children. Although several parameters of this association have been identified, the process by which exposure to interparental conflict gives rise to adjustment problems in children is largely unexplored. Research on the link between marital conflict and child maladjustment therefore is critically evaluated, and a framework is presented that organizes existing studies and suggests directions for future research on processes that may account for the association. According to the framework, the impact of marital conflict is mediated by children's understanding of the conflict, which is shaped by contextual, cognitive, and developmental factors. The implications of the framework for children's adjustment are discussed. Marital discord has been associated with a number of indexes of maladjustment in children, including aggression, conduct disorders, and anxiety (Emery, 1982, 1988). Research on the effect of divorce on children similarly indicates that the conflict associated with divorce, rather than the breakup of the family, is primarily responsible for many of the problems seen

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Marital conflict and children's adjustment: a cognitive-contextual framework.

BLOCK, JEANNE H.; BLOCK, JACK; and MomISON, ANDREA. Parental Agreement-Disagreement on Child-rearing Orientations and Gender-related Personality Correlates in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 965-974. An objective index of degree of parental agreement was generated by comparing the independent responses of 83 parental dyads to a set of Q-sort items reflecting child-rearing values and orientations. This index was found to significantly predict subsequent continuation or termination of the marriage and to relate to independently described characteristics of the family home environment. Further, the index of parental agreement was significantly related to the quality of psychological functioning in boys and in girls over a 4-year age range, from age 3 to age 7. Reliable differences were found in the patterning among relationships for boys and girls wherein parental agreement was more implicative for the psychological functioning of boys than for girls and was related positively to the development of ego control in boys but was related negatively to the development of ego control in the sample of girls.

Andrea Morrison

Papers

Parental Agreement-Disagreement on Child Rearing Orientations and Gender-Related Personality Correlates in Children.