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Showing papers in "Journal of Applied Psychology in 1976"






Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the moderating effects of growth need strength and level of satisfaction with the work context on employee responses to enriched work were tested, and it was shown that employees who have strong growth need and also are satisfied with work context respond more positively to enriched jobs than do those who have weak needs for growth and/or who are dissatisfied with the job context.
Abstract: : The research tests the moderating effects of (1) employee growth need strength and (2) level of satisfaction with the work context on employee responses to enriched work. Data were collected from 201 employees who work on 25 jobs in a bank. Results show that employees who have strong growth needs and also are satisfied with the work context (i.e., with their pay, job security, co-workers and supervisors) respond more positively to enriched jobs than do employees who have weak needs for growth and/or who are dissatisfied with the work context. Implications for the practice of work redesign are discussed.

284 citations





Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the extent to which sex role stereotypes influence the evaluation of leadership behavior and found that female managers received more positive scores than male managers on the consideration style.
Abstract: This study investigated the extent to which sex role stereotypes influence the evaluation of leadership behavior. Male and female business students were administered one of two versions of a questionnaire containing four stories, each depicting a leadership style based on one of the following leadership dimensions: initiating structure, consideration, production emphasis, and tolerance for freedom. Managers' names were altered in the two versions to indicate males or females. Answers to eight evaluative questions for each of the leadership styles confirmed the hypothesis that sex has an effect on evaluations of managerial behavior, although the effect varied for different leadership styles. Female managers received more positive scores than male managers on the consideration style. Initiating structure behavior was valued more highly when engaged in by male managers. Manager sex had no significant influence on evaluations of the production emphasis and tolerance for freedom styles. Sex of subject effects also were noted on all but the consideration style. While the low representation of women in managerial ranks has been gaining increasing attention, few studies have focused on the managerial effectiveness of women. Almost all of what is known about managerial effectiveness is based on research using males as subjects. At the same time, evidence suggests that women are not perceived as having the potential to manage. This is particularly true among male managers who would be in a position to promote women to managerial positions. For example, in a Bowman, Worthy, and Greyser (1965) study that sought managerial opinions about women executives, 51% of the male respondents agreed that women are "temperamentally unfit for management." Gilmer (1961) found that over 65% of the male managers in his study felt that women would be inferior to men in supervisory positions.

240 citations


Journal Article•DOI•

219 citations


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, a quasi-experimental design was employed to investigate the effect of evaluative and none-valuative feedback and goal setting on performance and satisfaction in a large telephone company.
Abstract: A quasi-experimental design (W=113) was employed to investigate the effect of evaluative and nonevaluative feedback and goal setting on performance and satisfaction in a large telephone company. Three experimental groups received either extrinsic feedback, intrinsic feedback, or extrinsic and intrinsic feedback in addition to goal setting, while a fourth group received only goal-setting instructions. The results show that it is possible for goal setting alone to enhance performance without a formal-knowledge-of-results program, and thus yield external validity for Locke's theory of goal setting. However, when evaluative and nonevaluative feedback was added to a goal-setting program, performance was generally enhanced beyond that found in the goal-settingonly group.

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, a two-phase research project investigated the effects of job enrichment and goal setting on worker productivity and satisfaction in a well-controlled, simulated job environment and found that people with unenriched jobs worked under the enrichment conditions and people originally without goals were assigned goals.
Abstract: : A two phase research project investigated the effects of job enrichment and goal setting on worker productivity and satisfaction in a well-controlled, simulated job environment. In the first phase, two conditions of goal setting (assigned goals versus no goals) and two conditions of job enrichment (enriched versus unenriched) were established, producing four experimental conditions. In the second phase (after 2 days work) people with unenriched jobs worked under the enrichment conditions and people originally without goals were assigned goals. Results are discussed in terms of the current theoretical approaches for understanding employee motivation on the job.


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: Relationships among stress, coping behaviors, and performance were examined for 93 owner-manager s of small businesses damaged by hurricane floods and revealed an inverted-U relationship with perceived stress, while emotional coping behaviors displayed a positive linear relationship.
Abstract: Relationships among stress, coping behaviors, and performance were examined for 93 owner-manager s of small businesses damaged by hurricane floods. It was hypothesized that (a) perceived stress and performance display an inverted-U relationship, and (b) emotional coping mechanisms increase under higher stress. Subjects were interviewed regarding their handling of critical incidents under stress and completed the Subjective Stress Scale. Type of recovery effort following the flood was recorded, organizational performance was rated on a 5-point scale, and final loss data were acquired. Perceived stress and organization performance displayed a curvilinear, nearly inverted-U relationship. Actual financial loss (or stress level) did not account for performance differences. Problem-solving coping behaviors revealed an inverted-U relationship with perceived stress, while emotional coping behaviors displayed a positive linear relationship. Implications for improving performance under stress are discussed. Previous studies of psychological stress indicate that there is an optimum amount of stress in terms of its effects on performance. Stress that is higher or lower than this amount results in steadily decreasing performance. Performance under stress, then, follows an inverted-U-shaped function. This type of relationship between stress and performance, called the Yerkes-Dodson law, has been demonstrated in a number of laboratory studies under different types of experimental conditions. However there appears to be no research demonstrating a similar relationship between stress and performance in a field organizational setting. Several explanations have been advanced for this inverted-U-shaped relationship with emphasis placed on the amount of motivation generated by the stressing agent. For example, Vroom (1964), in reviewing a number of studies that demonstrate this type of relationship between stress and performance, pro


Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: A perceptual-information-processing model of driver decision making was used as a framework to select and devise predictions of accident involvement that significantly related to accident involvement for 75 commercial drivers.
Abstract: A perceptual-information-processing model of driver decision making was used as a framework to select and devise predictions of accident involvement. The predictors of field dependence, selective attention, and complex reaction time significantly related to accident involvement for 75 commercial drivers. Initial, simple, and choice reaction time did not relate to accident rate. The visual measures of field dependence and the auditory measure of selective attention were related in the predicted direction with the field-independent drivers making fewer errors in selective perception. This finding lends support to the importance of the further development of an information-processing model of the driving task. Since evidence is accumulating that stable individual differences in information processing relate to accident involvement, consideration should be given to devising techniques to develop these skills. /Author/