Betty Velthouse

Bio: Betty Velthouse is an academic researcher from University of Michigan. The author has contributed to research in topics: Radio-frequency identification & Consumer privacy. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 6 publications receiving 3338 citations.

Cognitive Elements of Empowerment: An “Interpretive” Model of Intrinsic Task Motivation

Abstract: This article presents a cognitive model of empowerment. Here, empowerment is defined as increased intrinsic task motivation, and our subsequent model identifies four cognitions (task assessments) as the basis for worker empowerment: sense of impact, competence, meaningfulness, and choice. Adopting an interpretive perspective, we have used the model also to describe cognitive processes through which workers reach these conclusions. Central to the processes we describe are workers' interpretive styles and global beliefs. Both preliminary evidence for the model and general implications for research are discussed.

Ethics in Practice: What Are Managers Really Doing?

Abstract: This study asked managers with different educational backgrounds and experience from a variety of industries of a variety of sizes representing both genders and various predominant managerial functions at different levels to “describe the skills they think are necessary to perform their jobs effectively”. In particular, they were asked to rank 178 behavioral skills presented under 22 different categories that described different aspects of management. Data were then examined first to determine the importance of ethics or integrity overall in the group of managerial activities and then to explore how specific ethical activities of managers differ across various managerial and organizational characteristics. Findings indicate that ethics is still considered one of the least important skills necessary in managers’ daily work. However, once specific ethical activities are analyzed separately, significant differences are found across characteristics of managers, as well as those of the organizations at which they work.

RFID Technology Is Revolutionary: Who Should Be Involved in this Game of Tag?

Abstract: Executive Overview Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology represents an exciting innovation that has a great potential upside and some significant downsides as well. With its ability to track signals and store data, RFID is helping manufacturers to revolutionize supply chain management, retailers to reduce long lines in stores, and hospitals to track patients and patient files. But consumer privacy advocates are increasingly concerned by what they see as the encroachment of “big brother.” This concern, we believe, has the potential to slow or even derail future RFID applications. In order to avoid this outcome, we suggest that RFID technology has the dual responsibility to both effect efficiency and to protect privacy. In this paper we review the current trends in RFID technology, look at how manufacturers and governments are addressing consumer privacy concerns, and end with a recommendation that an alliance be created that includes manufacturers, retailers, government representatives (both as ...

Rfid enabled supply-chain: harvesting the opportunities

Abstract: Implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology stands to save WalMart $750 million dollars per year. The retail giant has mandated that its top 100 suppliers begin using RFID by 2005. It is believed that other retailers will follow Wal-Mart’s lead. RFID holds the promise for a more efficient supply-chain, however, the industry struggles to comply with the cost and logistics to implement this new technology. This paper present the state of RFID technology and its use in supply-chain management. It outlines benefits to industry and consumers of this new technology and explores issues related to consumer privacy, IT infrastructure, and security that need consideration.

Self‐determination theory and work motivation

Abstract: Cognitive evaluation theory, which explains the effects of extrinsic motivators on intrinsic motivation, received some initial attention in the organizational literature. However, the simple dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation made the theory difficult to apply to work settings. Differentiating extrinsic motivation into types that differ in their degree of autonomy led to self-determination theory, which has received widespread attention in the education, health care, and sport domains. This article describes self-determination theory as a theory of work motivation and shows its relevance to theories of organizational behavior. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover

Abstract: Using an empirical taxonomy identifying two types of human resource systems, “control” and “commitment,” this study tested the strategic human resource proposition that specific combinations of policies and practices are useful in predicting differences in performance and turnover across steel “minimills.” The mills with commitment systems had higher productivity, lower scrap rates, and lower employee turnover than those with control systems. In addition, human resource system moderated the relationship between turnover and manufacturing performance.

The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work

Abstract: Building on Kahn’ s (1990) ethnographic work, a e eld study in a U.S. Midwestern insurance company explored the determinants and mediating effects of three psychological conditions ‐ meaningfulness, safety and availability ‐ on employees’ engagement in their work. Results from the revised theoretical framework revealed that all three psychological conditions exhibited signie cant positive relations with engagement. Meaningfulness displayed the strongest relation. Job enrichment and work role e t were positively linked to psychological meaningfulness. Rewarding co-worker and supportive supervisor relations were positively associated with psychological safety, whereas adherence to co-worker norms and self-consciousness were negatively associated. Psychological availability was positively related to resources available and negatively related to participation in outside activities. Finally, the relations of job enrichment and work role e t with engagement were both fully mediated by the psychological condition of meaningfulness. The association between adherence to co-worker norms and engagement was partially mediated by psychological safety. Theoretical and practical implications related to psychological engagement at work are discussed. To explore the challenge to the human soul in organizations is to build a bridge between the world of the personal, subjective, and even unconscious elements of individual experience and the world of organizations that demand rationality, efficiency, and personal sacrifice . . . we must be willing to shift our viewpoint back and forth between what organizations want of people and what constitutes human complexity: the contradictory nature of human needs, desires, and experience. (Briskin, 1998, p. xii.) This quote from Briskin (1998), an organizational consultant, reflects the challenges that managers and researchers of organizations face as they seek to understand and

Two Decades of Research and Development in Transformational Leadership

Abstract: The interests of the organization and its members need to be aligned. Such is a task for the transformational leader. In contrast to the transactional leader who practises contingent reinforcement of followers, the transformational leader inspires, intellectually stimulates, and is individually considerate of them. Transformational leadership may be directive or participative. Requiring higher moral development, transformational leadership is recognized universally as a concept. Furthermore, contrary to earlier expectations, women leaders tend to be more transformational than their male counterparts. Although a six-factor model of transformational/ transactional leadership best fits a diversity of samples according to confirmatory factor analyses, whether fewer factors are necessary remains an open question. Another important research question that has only been partially answered is why transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership in a wide variety of business, military, industrial, hospital, and educational circumstances.

Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Creativity: The Influence of Psychological Empowerment, Intrinsic Motivation, and Creative Process Engagement

Abstract: Synthesizing theories of leadership, empowerment, and creativity, this research built and tested a theoretical model linking empowering leadership with creativity via several intervening variables. Using survey data from professional employees and their supervisors in a large information technology company in China, we found that, as anticipated, empowering leadership positively affected psychological empowerment, which in turn influenced both intrinsic motivation and creative process engagement. These latter two variables then had a positive influence on creativity. Empowerment role identity moderated the link between empowering leadership and psychological empowerment, whereas leader encouragement of creativity moderated the connection between psychological empowerment and creative process engagement.