Showing papers in "Human Relations in 1978"

The Effects of Employee Ownership on Organizational Identification, Employee Job Attitudes, and Organizational Performance: A Tentative Framework and Empirical Findings

Abstract: Noting a paucity of research on the subject, this article attempts to explore the effects of employee ownership, concentrating on possible relationships between ownership and such variables as organizational identification, employee job attitudes, and organizational performance, and on identifying variables which may moderate these relationships. After development of a conceptual framework, empirical data obtained from study of a trucking company recently purchased by most of its employees are presented and discussed. These data support the plausibility of many of the hypothesized relationships, but do not permit strong causal inferences. Although the author tentatively concludes that employee ownership appears to have improved employee attitudes and organizational performance in this case, he stresses that much further research, in a variety of settings, specifically designed to permit causal testing of the propositions suggested here, is badly needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.

The Intentional Distortion of Information in Organizational Communication: A Laboratory and Field Investigation

Abstract: This report summarizes the results of several laboratory andfield studies in-vestigating antecedents to and consequences of the intentional distortion of information by senders in organizational communication networks. Lab-oratory studies were used to examine the impact of two interpersonal vari-ables (trust in the receiver, perceived influence of the receiver over the sender) and directionality of information flow (upward, lateral, and down-ward) on senders' propensities to block or suppress information. Field studies were used to establish the external validity of the laboratory investi-gations and to relate information distortion by senders to job satisfaction and performance. Results of these studies demonstrate that (1) a bias exists towards screening certain types of information from upward transmission; (2) low trust in the receiver of a message results in significantly more sup-pression by senders of information, especially information which reflects unfavorably on the senders; and (3) a measure o...

The Relative Effects of Share Ownership vs. Control on Job Attitudes in an Employee-Owned Company

Abstract: Studies on the effects of employee share ownership or employee participation in decisions (or control) have tended to focus on one or the other of the two variables or have assumed that they covary. Using data from an employee-owned company, this study attempts to empirically separate and assess the relative effects of each of these on a set of dependent variables (job attitudes) which they are both thought to affect. Results indicated that employee share ownership and participation each had significant and independent effects on some job attitudes. However, little evidence of interaction effects between the two variables, which had been predicted, was found. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed, and possible directions for future research are suggested.

The Influence of Job Longevity on Employee Reactions to Task Characteristics

Abstract: The present study investigated the moderating influence of job longevity and growth-need strength on the relationships between overall job satisfaction and the five task dimensions of skill variety, identity, significance, autonomy, and feedback. Basically, it was found that the strength of the task dimension-job satisfaction relationships are significantly affected by job longevity regardless of age and growth-need strength. More specifically, three separate stages of job longevity are deduced, i.e., a learning, a responsive, and an unresponsive stage. Only during the responsive stage were the satisfaction reactions of employees significantly correlated with all of the task characteristics. Furthermore, satisfaction was related most significantly to the outcomes of performance and turnover during the responsive stage. Individual differences, as measured by growth-need strength, were also investigated within the job longevity framework. Survey data from 3,085 public sector employees belonging to four diff...

A Reappraisal of Sociotechnical Systems Theory

Abstract: The major purpose of this article is to reassess the adequacy of the major principles of sociotechnical systems theory by means of a detailed reexamination of the case studies from which they are partly derived. It is shown, as a result, that the notion of a single, homogeneous sociotechnical school is a misleading oversimplification, since two streams of sociotechnical theory can in fact be identified. It is suggested that the autonomy granted to autonomous work groups is limited, and subordinate to particular economic objectives. Further, it is argued that the concept of joint optimization has little connection with the reality of sociotechnical practice and that it should be replaced with the notion of intensification of labor. The role of pay incentives is also shown to have been seriously underestimated in the causation of economic and psychological changes. And finally, the idea of organizational choice is also shown to be inadequate on the grounds that the case studies have demonstrated the superio...

Job Satisfaction and the Neglected Variable of Job Seniority

Abstract: This paper deals with the relationship between job satisfaction and length of employment in a particular job. The hypothesis that the change in job satisfaction with job seniority resembles a "U"-shaped curve is confirmed. It is suggested that intrinsic satisfaction is a major contributor to changes in the overall satisfaction of employees over time.

Stages of Organization and Development

Abstract: This paper describes our belief that organization development (OD), to be effective, should link with the progressively mature reasoning processes which characterize managers working within increasingly higher stages in the evolution of an organization. The paper uses the models of Torbert (1973) and Kohlberg (1969) to examine the scope of influence of popular OD approaches and concludes that OD theories have probably appealed principally to individuals and organizations functioning at relatively high levels of development. It also points up the need for theories which guide developmental energies at lower levels of orientation and which provide additional understanding of the transitional events individuals and organizations have to experience in order to pass from one stage of development to the next.

Who Does What: Role Stereotypy, Children's Work, and Continuity Between Generations in the Household Division of Labor

Abstract: Inclusion of children in the present interview study of 99 families required adaptation of the Blood and Wolfe measures of division of labor. The revised measure of stereotypy reveals a more complex picture than reported previously. There are distinct differences unrelated to objective conditions between families in their attitudes toward children's chores. It is suggested that the best single predictor of a family's division of labor may be the previous generation, but there is also less variation between families now than in the past. Most families continue to be quite traditional in their pattern, with strong emphasis on division of labor by sex for both parents and children.

Methodological Problems Confronting Cross-Cultural Criminological Research Using Official Data

Abstract: The major aim of this paper is to present and discuss some of the methodological problems involved in utilizing cross-cultural criminal statistics and to examine the reliability of international homicide rates. The major problem criminologists face in comparative research is the problem of comparability. This problem could be examined in light of the discrepancy which might exist between the operational and nominal definitions of various types of crime. The major sources of international crime statistics are Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) and WHO (World Health Organization). Analysis of the comparability of these sources with regard to homicide revealed zero-order correlation of r = .95 for 33 countries. A longitudinal analysis correlating homicide data from the two sources revealed mixed results. The correlation between the two sources varied for different countries between .04 and .90. Analysis of homicide rates extractedfrom WHO revealed a high level of stability and reliability....

Collaboration in Small Groups: Theory and Technique for the Study of Small-Group Processes:

Abstract: The authors consider the necessary conditions for group members and their consultants to study group processes together. They consider how the collaborative working relationship is achieved in other social fields, in the psychoanalytic "therapeutic alliance, " in the seminars of Balint (1954) for general practitioners and in the educational-political work of Freire (1970). They discuss the phenomena of noncollaborative small study groups (Bion, 1961) and how these might be understood in depth-psychological and social-political terms: as the consequence of errors of abandonment and intrusion, and as continuations of average social oppression. They illustrate both the success and failure of neophyte consultants in securing collaboration in these terms, and, finally, summarize what they consider to be essential: How consultants pass tests of the meaning and strength of their collabora-tive intentions.

An Approach to Kuranko Divination

Abstract: An account and analysis of divinatory practices among the Kuranko of northeast Sierra Leone is presented, using the usual methods of ethno-graphical research, and also extrapolating from and discussing the author's own experiences of consulting diviners. Apart from examining the status of beliefs associated with Kuranko divinatory practices, this paper investigates some aspects of the method of participant observation in the human sciences. A praxeological interpretation of Kuranko divination and sacrifice is given, emphasizing the psychological and existential transformations which follow from and are enabled by the ritual procedures.

Love American Style: A Test of Role Structure Theory on Changes in Attitudes Toward Love

Abstract: A series of four investigations was completed to validate a new love scale and assess the relationship between stage of life and romantic and conjugal love attitudes. Collegeand highschool-educated samples were compared overfour stages of life. The data support a proposed functional linkage between role structure and love attitudes. Specifically, during stages where role expectations were simple and loosely defined, romantic attitudes were high, while complex stages were associated with low romantic and high conjugal love preferences.

Multivariate Analyses of Factors Affecting Work Role Centrality of Occupational Categories

Abstract: This paper presents a theory concerning work-role centrality and its relationship with a number of variables related to the individual's background, orientation, role strains, job rewards, and career characteristics. It is examined empiricallyfor seven occupational categories in Israel. Occupations are found to vary in their work-role centrality and in the variables hypothesized to relate to it, and the general validity of our model is supported by the results. Stepwise multiple regressions of the independent variables upon work-role centrality explained between 30 and 70% of the variance within the occupational categories. Job reward variables, especially intrinsic rewards, have strongest explanatory weight, but in each occupational category a somewhat different configuration of independent variables emerges.

Teleconferencing and Leadership Emergence

Abstract: An attempt was made to assess the role of medium of communication on leadership differentiation in discussion groups. Groups of undergraduates met on five different occasions to solve human relations problems, either in face-to-face discussion situations or over video conferencing networks. In face-to-face conditions development of leadership took almost a classic form, with sociometric measures systematically related to behavioral indexes; in the video (teleconference) conditions, role differentiation tendencies were sharply curtailed, and the relationship of sociometric indexes with indexes of verbal output were greatly diminished. Speculations about how mediated communication may affect differentiation processes are offered.

Organizational Effects of Managerial Turnover in Kibbutz Production Branches

Abstract: The phenomenon of institutionalized general turnover and internal rotation of managerial personnel and its effects upon the conduct of the organizations involved is examined with data from production branches of Israeli kibbutzim. Arguments for and against the effectiveness of such a norm are presented. Four specific hypotheses are formulated. About 60 productive organizations were involved: 33 farm branches and 27 industrial plants. Data were collected by way of questionnaires to all workers at each organization and by way of documents and interviews with informants. The major findings are the following: The potential for managerial positions is larger than needed for a given time; in the branches studied the median time in office was about 2-3 years. Organizations that practice rotation are not less (and maybe more) effective than those that do not practice rotation. This is because their workers are more involved, knowledgable, and creative than those in the latter. Length of time in office sometimes a...

Examination of Alternative Models of Job Satisfaction

Abstract: Researchers examining efficacy of alternative measures of job facet satisfaction have generally assumed overall job satisfaction to be an additive function of weighted facet scores. This paper considers the linear compensatory model implied by such an assumption as well as two nonlinear alternatives. It is found that conjunctive and disjunctive models predict overall job satisfaction about as well as does the linear compensatory model. Further, simulated general satisfaction scores are used to examine the extent to which aggregation of data across individuals using differing combinatory models may lead to systematic bias in favor of a particular model. The results suggest that while use of the linear compensatory model may be justifiable on the basis of mathematical simplicity, conclusions drawn by researchers using that model should be tempered by the recognition that alternative models with sharply differing theoretical bases and practical implications may have equivalent descriptive ability.

Buying Your Job: Factors Affecting the Success or Failure of Employee Acquisition Attempts

Abstract: Until recently, North American producers' cooperatives (employee-owned firms) have received scant attention relative to their more numerous European counterparts. While the existing literature on this subject has covered historical description as well as the critical issues of the emergence, political basis, operation, and success of producers' cooperatives, there is considerable disagreement on the circumstances under which some form of worker ownership emerges and little information available on the factors which make worker ownership possible. This paper identifies a number of variables important to the successful acquisition by workers of their own firm and delineates the functions of each variable as a contributor to success. The paper is based on a study of six firms in which the complex process of transferring the ownership of an enterprise to its employees has been attempted.

Operational research and organizational development

Abstract: A large research program concerned with the contribution of operational research (OR) to the design of organizations led indirectly to an OR project concerned with constructing a man-computer interactive simulation model for a department in local government. The simulation model was to map the decision-making activities of the department and their influence on critical features of the environment which were of interest. The most difficult part of this project was the application of new methodologies for eliciting the values, norms, objectives, goals, and views of the environment in order that the model of decision-making could be constructed. The key concepts underlying the method were drawn from the psychology of personal constructs and the sociology of defining situations. The data analysis resulting from an application of these concepts led to the organization wishing to become involved in an organization development (OD) exercise. How this request evolved, the conceptual basis of the OR, and some of t...

Patterns of Gaze in Cooperative and Competitive Negotiation

Abstract: On the basis of theoretical assumptions about the information needs of cooperative and competitive negotiators, it was predicted that experimental manipulation of motivational orientation should produce different patterns of gaze and mutual gaze. The frequency and duration of gaze and mutual gaze of naive subjects in 28 dyads was monitored by video cameras. As predicted, the average length of gaze and mutual gaze was greater for cooperators, while frequency of gaze and mutual gaze were the same in both cooperation and competition. This pattern is consistent with the claim that length of gaze indexes the affective function of eye contact, while frequency is an index of the monitoring function. Analysis of frequency and duration of speech showed that the gaze patterns held even when allowance was made for the coordinating function of gaze in conversation. Females were found to engage in longer gaze and mutual gaze than males, in both cooperation and competition.

Organizational Consultants: A Comparison of Styles

Abstract: An underdeveloped aspect of Organizational Development literature is the need for understanding individual organizational consultants and their styles, which influence their interventions. It is through understanding styles that one can begin to appreciate and understand the process of application of behavioral science knowledge to the development of organizations. In this paper an attempt is made to provide insights into consulting styles through a summary of results of research on 21 leading organizational consultants, 11 in the U.S.A. and 10 in India. Three "approach-related" and three "person-related" elements of styles are elaborated upon, using data from in-depth "client-centered" interviews with the consultants. Two distinct styles of organizational consulting emerge from the data and their relation to values, approaches, and consulting experience are discussed, as are their interrelations.

The Psychological Climate and Reported Well-Being of Underground Miners: An Exploratory Study

Abstract: This study explored the dimensions of underground miners' work-environment perceptions, how these dimensions related to measures of well-being, and to what extent such factors as age, seniority, and work assignment accountedfor perceptions of the environment and one's well-being. Four hundred sixty-nine nonmanagement employees participated in this investigation. Results indicated that the dimensions of work-environment perceptions were, to a large extent, similar to dimensions found in other occupational groups. Further, perceptions of the interpersonal behaviors of supervisors and of promotion practices in the mine seemed to have greatest significance for the miners' reports of well-being. Analyses of the effects of age, seniority, and work assignment yielded few statistically meaningful associations with selfand environmental perceptions, thereby suggesting that other variables may be more salient determinants of miners' attitudes. It was also noted that perceptions of the environment as well as indices...

A Systems-Resource Approach for Evaluating Organizational Effectiveness

Abstract: Systems theorists maintain that all organizations, in order to survive, must be able to fulfill certain basic needs. In this article, these needs relate to: (1) the organization's ability to search out and respond to the properties of the external environment; (2) the organization's ability to use its resources to produce outputs and to maintain and restore the system; and (3) the organization's ability to bargain and optimize its use of resources in an environment with a number of decision-makers, each with different objectives. These criteria are used to evaluate the effectiveness of seven local government organizations.

Group Cohesion, Task Performance, and the Experimenter Expectancy Effect

Abstract: Three laboratory experiments were done to study the effects of cohesion on task fulfillment and to explore the influence of task fulfillment on the initial level of cohesion. Within four-person groups of freshmen psychology students, cohesion was manipulated successfully by a triple procedure. The level of cohesion was ascertained directly after the induction treatment and again after task fulfillment. Group and individual ability tasks were used in the first and second experiment, while individual learning tasks were used in the third experiment. The hypothesis that cohesion facilitates task performance was partly supported for both individual and group tasks. All eight comparisons of the means favoured the high-cohesion condition; only four of the differences, however, were statistically significant. Performing a group task tended to raise cohesion, whereas individual task performance lowered liking for the group. There were no indications that the findings were a function of a pretest effect of the coh...

Measures of Job Facets Satisfaction as Predictors of the Tendency to Leave or the Tendency to Stay with an Organization

Abstract: This study evaluates the relative influence various aspects of job satisfaction have on an employee's tendency to stay with or leave an organization. The significance of restrictions on the pay range and fringe benefits is considered as afactor in establishing the relative effect of extrinsic and intrinsic aspects ofjob satisfaction on mobility tendencies. The study is based on a sample of 683 college graduates employed in public and private sector businesses in Israel. Thefindings suggest that: (a) Intrinsic aspects of job satisfaction are far better predictors of turnover than extrinsic aspects; (b) overall job satisfaction has a meaning above and beyond satisfaction with various aspects of the job; (c) satisfaction with intrinsic rewards and overall job satisfaction are reasonably good predictors of both the tendency to stay with and the tendency to leave an organization; (d) the tendency to stay with and the tendency to leave an organization have common causes which are not accounted for by the level ...

Personnel Practices and Employee Attitudes: A Study of Japaneseand American-Managed Firms in the United States

Abstract: There has been considerable speculation as to the applicability of Japanese employment practices in industrial settings outside of Japan. This paper reports on a 3 year study of Japanese managed companies in the United States and investigates (1) the extent to which the employment practices of these firms differ from those of matched American firms and (2) whether these differences, if any, contribute to different employee attitudes and behavior as measured by job satisfaction and worker attendance patterns. The findings suggest that Japanese firms in the United States expend more resources per employee on nonpayroll benefits and that employees of Japanese firms in the United States perceive themselves as more satisfied and productive. These perceptions are not supported by worker attendance patterns which found no significant differences between workers at Japanese and American companies.

The Effect on Organization Members of Discrepancy Between Perceived and Preferred Rewards Implicit in Work

Abstract: Several current theories predict the psychological effect of a discrepancy between the reward persons receive from their job and the reward they would like to receive. Data from 1, 750 persons in 52 industrialplants of five countries are analyzed to explore some conflicting implications of these theories. For example, researchers dispute the assertion that obtaining more than one wants can be as dissatisfying as obtaining less than one wants. The analyses reported here suggest aformula that helps to explain the conditions under which overcompensation may or may not be dissatisfying.

Accepting Help from Teachers-When the Teachers are Children

Abstract: Two studies examined adults' willingness to accept help from children. In Study I adults were less willing to accept free art lessons from competent children than from competent adults. Help-acceptance from children was not increased by suggesting to subjects that by accepting the lessons they would help the children to become better teachers of art. Study 2 replicated the latter finding, and also examined certain personality correlates of helpaccepting, including self-esteem, need for approval, and sex-typing. Women were more likely to accept help than men, and subjects scoring high on the femininity scale of Spence's Personal Attributes Questionnaire accepted help more than subjects scoring low on that scale. Self-esteem and need for approval were useful moderator variables. Often, different relationships between help-accepting and other variables were obtained for subjects scoring high on self-esteem or need for approval than for subjects scoring low on those variables. Social implications of adults' r...

Dimensions of Management System and Performance in Continuous-Process Organizations

Abstract: The relationships among management system dimensions and performance were studied in 44 continuous-process organizations located in Pennsylvania. Organic management systems, as opposed to mechanistic systems, were found to be related to both higher profitability and subjective organizational performance ratings. Specifically, a de-emphasis of both an impersonal hierarchy and the use of rules for decision-making were significantly related to higher performance for this sample. Based on prior research, the sample was then split into highand low-performance subsamples and examined with cluster analysis. Much more clearly defined clusters among the management system variables were found for the low-performance than for the high-performance subsamples. Implications for organizational theory and management and for future research are discussed.

Relations of Discretionary and Nondiscretionary Leadership to Performance and Satisfaction in a Complex Organization

Abstract: Leadership was conceptualized as consisting of a discretionary and nondiscretionary component. Discretionary leadership was that under control of the leader. Nondiscretionary leadership was that invoked by the organizational setting in which the leader operated. The setting was conceptualized in terms of twelve dimensions of the Organizational Practices Questionnaire. Leadership consisted of two reward and two sanctions dimensions. Interactive and noninteractive relationships of these leadership components with performance and satisfaction were investigated. With one exception, all relationships with the criteria were noninteractive. Results were discussed in terms of theoretical significance and their implications for management training and organizational design approaches. Suggestions for further research were included.

A Structure for Change

Abstract: The boundary of the planning process of a hospital department of diagnostic radiology that had formed around the dominant coalition in the traditional way had been maintained even though the process had become less effective as a result of changes in boundary conditions. Through an intervention program new boundaries were created to enable all staff to participate in the planning process. It was shown that for the effective and durable participation of staff in change the boundary conditions of the planning system had to be substantially different from those of the resource-conversion system. Tested over a period of more than S years, the new design appears to have many advantages and may also have wider application.