Executive Overview The recent business trends of globalization and increasing ethnic and gender diversity are turning managers' attention to the management of cultural differences. The management literature has suggested that organizations should value diversity to enhance organizational effectiveness. However, the specific link between managing diversity and organizational competitiveness is rarely made explicit and no article has reviewed actual research data supporting such a link. This article reviews arguments and research data on how managing diversity can create a competitive advantage. We address cost, attraction of human resources, marketing success, creativity and innovation, problem-solving quality, and organizational flexibility as six dimensions of business performance directly impacted by the management of cultural diversity. We then offer suggestions for improving organizational capability to manage this diversity.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4165021.pdf

Managing cultural diversity: implications for organizational competitiveness

Despite the widespread use of self-report measures of both job-related stressors and strains, relatively few carefully developed scales for which validity data exist are available. In this article, we discuss 3 job stressor scales (Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, and Quantitative Workload Inventory) and 1 job strain scale (Physical Symptoms Inventory). Using meta-analysis, we combined the results of 18 studies to provide estimates of relations between our scales and other variables. Data showed moderate convergent validity for the 3 job stressor scales, suggesting some objectively to these self-reports. Norms for each scale are provided.

Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, Quantitative Workload Inventory, and Physical Symptoms Inventory

The validity of Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model was assessed by conducting a comprehensive review of nearly 200 relevant studies on the model as well as by applying meta-analytic procedures to a large portion of the data. The evidence indicated that the available correlational results are reasonably valid in light of the issues examined. Results tended to support the multidimensionality of job characteristics, but there was less agreement on the exact number of dimensions. The corrected correlational results of the meta-analysis indicated that job characteristics related both to psychological and behavioral outcomes. Concerning psychological states, the results tended to support their mediating (e.g., intervening) role between job characteristics and personal outcomes. The pattern of correlations between the job characteristics and psychological states was less supportive of the model. Meta-analytic results demonstrated that most of the cross-study variance was due to statistical artifacts. True variance across studies was found for the job characteristics-performance relationship, however, and subsequent analyses suggested that growth-need strength moderates this relationship. Implications for potential revisions of the model and for practice are discussed.

The validity of the job characteristics model: a review and meta‐analysis

: The following points are developed. First, mediation relations are generally thought of in causal terms. Influences of an antecedent are transmitted to a consequence through an intervening mediator. Second, mediation relations may assume a number of functional forms, including nonadditive, nonlinear, and nonrecursive forms. Special attention is given to nonadditive forms, or moderated mediation, where it is shown that while mediation and moderation are distinguishable processes, a particular variable may be both a mediator and a moderator within a single set of functional relations. Third, current procedures for testing mediation relations in industrial and organizational psychology need to be updated because these procedures often involve a dubious interplay between exploratory (correlational) statistical tests and causal inference. It is suggested that no middle ground exists between exploratory and confirmatory (causal) analysis, and that attempts to explain how mediation processes occur require well-specified causal models. Given such models, confirmatory analytic techniques furnish the more informative tests of mediation. (Author)

/pdf/mediators-moderators-and-tests-for-mediation-4gscoivdpu.pdf

Mediators, Moderators, and Tests for Mediation.

A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents and Consequences of Leader-Member Exchange Integrating the Past With an Eye Toward the Future

This study examined the relationships between situational constraints, leader-member exchange, goal commitment, and performance in a retail organization. Both situational constraints and leader-mem...

A Field Study of the Influence of Situational Constraints Leader-Member Exchange, and Goal Commitment on Performance

In a field experiment, goal setting and feedback involving both behavior and outcome simultaneously was found to be superior to that involving either behavior or outcome alone on sales performance,...

Effect of Behavior Plus Outcome Goal Setting and Feedback on Employee Satisfaction and Performance

The effects of a flexitime program in a county welfare agency are assessed. The analysis of covariance on the employees’ attendance and performance revealed that (1) the flexitime program appears t...

Effects of Flexitime on Employee Attendance and Performance: A Field Experiment

This article presents information on a study which suggests a possible reconciliation of the conflicting findings on the relationship between extrinsic feedback and employee responses by incorporat...

The Nature of the Task as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Extrinsic Feedback and Employee Responses1

This study tested the interaction effects of task stimulation and extroversion on worker satisfaction and performance. In addition, the role of extroversion and neuroticism dimensions of personalit...

Jay S. Kim

Papers

A Field Study of the Influence of Situational Constraints Leader-Member Exchange, and Goal Commitment on Performance

Effect of Behavior Plus Outcome Goal Setting and Feedback on Employee Satisfaction and Performance

Effects of Flexitime on Employee Attendance and Performance: A Field Experiment

The Nature of the Task as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Extrinsic Feedback and Employee Responses1

Relationships of Personality to Perceptual and Behavioral Responses in Stimulating and Nonstimulating Tasks