Beyond attribution theory: Cognitive processes in performance appraisal.

Construes performance appraisal as the outcome of a dual-process system of evaluation and decision making whereby attention, categorization, recall, and information integration are carried out through either an automatic or a controlled process. In the automatic process, an employee's behavior is categorized without conscious monitoring unless the decisions involved are problematic; a consciously monitored categorization process would then occur. Subsequent recall of the employee is viewed to be biased by the attributes of prototypes (abstract images) representing categories to which the employee has been assigned. Dispositional and contextual factors influence the availability of categories during both assignment and recall. Although automatic and controlled processes can create accurate employee evaluations, categorization interacting with task type tends to affect subsequent employee information with halo, lenient/stringent, racial, sexual, ethnic, and personality biases. Behavior taxonomies, individual differences in cognitive structure, validation of behavior-sampling techniques, and laboratory studies of appraisal processes are presented as potential topics for research. (93 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The work-family interface and job performance: Moderating effects of conscientiousness and perceived organizational support.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesized that two aspects of the work-family interface--family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE)--are related to job performance. The authors also hypothesized that two variables moderate those relationships--individual differences in conscientiousness and aspects of the work environment in terms of perceived organizational support (POS). Data collected from a matched set of 136 private sector workers and their respective supervisors revealed that high FWC was more strongly related to lower job performance: (1) among high- than low-conscientiousness workers and (2) among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. However, FWE was unrelated to job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support and police performance: The moderating influence of socioemotional needs.

Police patrol officers were surveyed to investigate how the strength of socioemotional needs affects the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and work performance. The association of POS with driving-under-the-influence arrests and speeding citations generally increased with strength of the needs for esteem, affiliation, emotional support, and social approval. Patrol officers with strong socioemotional needs, but not those with weak needs, showed a positive relationship between POS and performance. The findings are consistent with social exchange views that maintain (a) work effort is encouraged by the receipt of socioemotional resources, (b) POS fulfills a variety of socioemotional needs, and (c) the value of POS and the obligation to reciprocate with high performance increase with the strength of socioemotional needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task performance, helping, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal ratings.

Despite the fact that several studies have investigated the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and performance appraisal ratings, the vast majority of these studies have been cross-sectional, correlational investigations conducted in organizational settings that do not allow researchers to establish the causal nature of this relationship. To address this lack of knowledge regarding causality, the authors conducted 2 studies designed to investigate the effects of task performance, helping behavior, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal evaluations. Findings demonstrated that each of these forms of behavior has significant effects on performance evaluation decisions and suggest that additional attention should be directed at both voice and organizational loyalty as important forms of citizenship behavior aimed at the organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reciprocation of perceived organizational support.

Four hundred thirteen postal employees were surveyed to investigate reciprocation's role in the relationships of perceived organizational support (POS) with employees' affective organizational commitment and job performance. The authors found that (a) POS was positively related to employees' felt obligation to care about the organization's welfare and to help the organization reach its objectives; (b) felt obligation mediated the associations of POS with affective commitment, organizational spontaneity, and in-role performance; and (c) the relationship between POS and felt obligation increased with employees' acceptance of the reciprocity norm as applied to work organizations. Positive mood also mediated the relationships of POS with affective commitment and organizational spontaneity. The pattern of findings is consistent with organizational support theory's assumption that POS strengthens affective commitment and performance by a reciprocation process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual reactions to high involvement work processes: Investigating the role of empowerment and perceived organizational support.

This study sought to understand how high involvement work processes (HIWP) are processed at the employee level. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the authors tested and supported a model in which psychological empowerment mediated the effects of HIWP on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, and job stress. Furthermore, perceived organizational support (POS) was hypothesized to moderate the relationships between empowerment and these outcomes. With exception for the empowerment-job satisfaction association, support was found for our predictions. Future directions for research and the practical implications of our findings for both employees and organizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective commitment to the organization: The contribution of perceived organizational support.

Three studies examined the interrelationships among work experiences, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment (AC), and employee turnover. Using a diverse sample of 367 employees drawn from a variety of organizations, Study 1 found that POS mediated positive associations of organizational rewards, procedural justice, and supervisor support with AC. Study 2 examined changes of POS and AC in retail employees over a 2-year span (N?=?333) and a 3-year span (N?=?226). POS was positively related to temporal changes in AC, suggesting that POS leads to AC. Study 3 found a negative relationship between POS and subsequent voluntary employee turnover that was mediated by AC in retail employees (N?=?1,124) and in poultry- and feed-processing workers (N?=?262). These results suggest that favorable work conditions operate via POS to increase AC, which, in turn, decreases employee withdrawal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When supervisors feel supported: Relationships with subordinates' perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance.

The authors surveyed full-time retail employees and their supervisors to investigate relationships of supervisors' perceived organizational support (POS) with subordinates' perceptions of support from their supervisors (perceived supervisor support [PSS]), POS, and in-role and extra-role performance. The authors found that supervisors' POS was positively related to their subordinates' perceptions of supervisor support. Subordinates' PSS, in turn, was positively associated with their POS, in-role performance, and extra-role performance. Beyond these bivariate relationships, subordinates' perceptions of support from the supervisor mediated positive relationships of the supervisors' POS with the subordinates' POS and performance. These findings suggest that supervisors who feel supported by the organization reciprocate with more supportive treatment for subordinates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A performance correlate of personal control beliefs in an organizational context.

Compared scores of 175 employees of a government agency on Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale to scores on an index of personal effectiveness composed of 5 factors indicative of success within a governmental occupational context: number of promotions, salary increases, and awards received; current salary; and grade differential. Employees with a greater belief in external control reported significantly lower personal effectiveness than those with a lesser belief in external control. When organizational rewards were perceived by agency members as skill-determined, the relationship between environmental control beliefs and personal effectiveness increased, while the relationship was nearly zero when agency rewards were seen as chance-related. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category-based and feature-based processes in performance appraisal: Integrating visual and computerized sources of performance data.

Recent developments in computerized performance monitoring (CPM) raise issues about how supervisors use monitored information. On the basis of theories of person perception that distinguish between category-based and feature-based information-processing strategies, the authors examined how raters integrate performance information from 2 sources: visual and computerized. Ss received positive or negative computerized data and viewed positive or negative episodes of a secretary's performance. Visual data were most influential in determining raters' processing strategies, suggesting that raters used category-based strategies when viewing positive performance and increased their use of feature-based strategies when viewing negative performance, regardless of the evaluative implications of the computerized data. Implications for performance appraisal and CPM systems are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of Canadian researchers on organizational psychology.

Suggests that organizational psychology was defined in terms of 9 subject areas: selection, performance appraisal, training, motivation, leadership, decision making, communication, organizational design, and employee attachment to the organization. The research of various Canadians is discussed with regard to its contributions to these areas. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human resource configurations: Investigating fit with the organizational context.

The present study investigated how key organizational contextual factors relate to bundles of human resource (HR) practices. In a two-phase study of a sample of 661 organizations representing a full range of industries and organizational size, the authors found that organizations use 1 of 5 HR bundles: cost minimizers, contingent motivators, competitive motivators, resource makers, and commitment maximizers. In addition, the authors showed that the organizations that use a given type of HR bundle may be distinguished by the organizational values they pursue and their organizational structure, thus suggesting that HR choices are related to the context within which organizations operate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of degree of expertise and objective task complexity on perceived task complexity and performance.

Research on expertise has shown that nonexperts may sometimes outperform experts. Some researchers have suggested that superior performance by experts depends on the match between the experts' cognition and the demands of the task. The authors explored this issue using a quasi-experiment set in an organization. They examined how 3 sets of similar tasks that differ in their type of complexity can lead to differences in task perceptions and performance among experts, intermediates, and novices. The results suggest that experts and novices pay attention to different aspects of a task and that this affects both their perceptions of task complexity (i.e., task analyzability and variability) and their performance on the task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing the effort-reward imbalance model among Finnish managers: The role of perceived organizational support.

The present study is aimed at examining the combined effects of effort-reward imbalance (ERI), overcommitment (OVC), and perceived organizational support (POS) on turnover intentions and work engagement, among Finnish managers (n = 1,301). Consequently, the study contributes to the research literature by examining how the ERI-outcomes relationship was dependent simultaneously on OVC and POS. The results showed that ERI × OVC × POS interaction was significant only for turnover intentions. The ERI-turnover intentions relationship was strongest under conditions of high OVC and low POS. In addition, the relationship between ERI and decreased work engagement, especially dedication, was strengthened among overcommitted managers, compared to their less committed counterparts. Altogether, the results indicate that interventions aimed at reducing turnover intentions and increasing work engagement by increasing ERI should consider OVC and POS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of perceived mental illness on interpersonal relations.

This study was carried out to measure the influence of general attitudes toward mental illness on 2 aspects of interpersonal interaction: an S's performance on a motor task requiring cooperative effort and the perception of another after having interacted with him on the task. Ss were undergraduates who were induced to believe their coworker was either "normal" or had been mentally ill. The results indicate that perceiving the coworker as mentally ill is associated with better task performance, possibly because of the greater threat posed by a successful peer in comparison to that posed by a person believed to be maladjusted and inadequate. It was also found that when a coworker is viewed as mentally ill, Ss prefer to work alone rather than with him and blame him for inadequacies in the joint performance even though objective measures do not justify these responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Doppler illusion: The influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch.

Four studies illustrate a new auditory illusion associated with the Doppler effect and demonstrate a new influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch. Experiment 1 confirmed the existence of a popular belief that the pitch of a moving sound source rises as the source approaches. Because there is no corresponding rise in frequency, the authors refer to the perceived pitch rise as the Doppler illusion. Experiment 2 confirmed that the effect occurs perceptually, so the belief in a "naive principle" of physics has a perceptual basis. Experiment 3 confirmed the effect does not occur under matched static conditions. Experiment 4 showed that the influence of dynamic intensity change on perceived pitch occurs outside the realm of Doppler stimuli. The findings support a dynamic dimensional interaction of pitch and loudness, with marked differences in the perception of pitch and loudness under static and dynamic conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal evaluative priming: Emotional sounds influence the processing of emotion words.

Cross-modal priming occurs when a prime presented in one sensory modality influences responses to a target in a different sensory modality. Currently, demonstrations of cross-modal evaluative priming have been sparse and limited. In the present study, we seek to partially rectify this state of affairs by examining cross-modal evaluative priming from auditory primes to visual targets. Significant cross-modal priming effects were found, but only for negative primes. Results are discussed in terms of the negativity bias, and several suggestions are provided for using cross-modal evaluative priming to address theoretically important questions about emotion and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work stressors, role-based performance, and the moderating influence of organizational support.

As a test of the 2-dimensional model of work stressors, the present study proposed differential relationships between challenge stressors and hindrance stressors and role-based performance, which were expected to be moderated by organizational support. In a sample of 215 employees across 61 offices of a state agency, the authors obtained a positive relationship between challenge stressors and role-based performance and a negative relationship between hindrance stressors and role-based performance. In addition, organizational support moderated the relationship between challenge stressors and role-based performance but did not moderate the relationship between hindrance stressors and role-based performance. This suggests that organizations would benefit from increasing challenges in the workplace as long as they are supportive of employees and removing hindrances. Further implications for organizational theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nature of self-referent encoding: The contributions of elaborative and organizational processes.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 55(6) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2008-10705-001). The word case should have been deleted from the first sentence of the left-hand column of page 9. The sentence should read, "Here, self-reference produced recall almost identical to that found for the definition task."] A number of investigators have demonstrated that relating information to the self (self-referent encoding) produces better recall than structural or semantic encoding of the same material. The mechanisms responsible for this self-referent recall advantage, however, still are not well understood. Some have proposed an elaborative processing explanation (e.g., Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977), whereas others have argued for an organizational processing interpretation (e.g., Klein & Kihlstrom, 1986). We present a paradigm for clarifying the respective contributions of these two processes to the recall of material encoded self-referentially. Our findings suggest that both elaborative and organizational processes are involved, but which process plays the larger role in recall depends on the material being judged. We discuss the implications of a dual-processing explanation of self-referent encoding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)