Job-person dynamics: An extension of longitudinal research.

Relationships between personality change and characteristics of jobs held during a 7.44-yr period were examined in 176 engineers, scientists, and managers employed by a petroleum products firm. Data on job characteristics were collected using the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS). The Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS) was utilized to collect longitudinal personality data. Results of partial correlational analyses indicated that changes on 9 of the 10 standard GZTS scales occurring during the period between test administrations are related to one or more of the JDS job characteristics. Implications for a dynamic model of job–person relationships are discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informational influence as a determinant of perceived task characteristics and job satisfaction.

Task characteristics and informational cues about the task were manipulated in a laboratory investigation of the impact of objective task design and informational influence in determining employees' perceptions of task characteristics and job satisfaction. Although a manipulation check involving 33 control Ss confirmed differences between the 2 experimental tasks (enriched and unenriched), results of the experiment with 42 graduate business students showed the major determinant of perceptions of task characteristics (Job Diagnostic Survey—JDS—and the Job Characteristic Inventory) and job satisfaction (JDS) to be informational influence in the form of cues about the task as either enriched or unenriched. Findings suggest that (a) job characteristics may be socially constructed as well as objective realities and that (b) perceptual measures of task dimensions may be susceptible to bias from informational cues. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measurement of job characteristics: Comparison of the original and the revised Job Diagnostic Survey.

This study contrasted the original version of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS; Hackman & Oldham, 1975) with the revised version recently proposed by Idaszak and Drasgow (1987). A total of 224 dairy workers completed both versions of the JDS. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that the revised JDS job characteristics items conformed more closely to the hypothesized five-factor structure than did the original JDS items. However, results of {lisrel} analyses indicated that the revised items did not improve the usefulness of the JDS in predicting several outcomes (e.g., satisfaction, internal motivation, and productivity). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of the measurement equivalence of the revised Job Diagnostic Survey: Past problems and current solutions.

Studied the measurement equivalence of the revised Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) across samples from 5 worker populations: workers at a printing plant, engineers, nurses and nurses' aides, dairy employees, and part-time workers. Data were analyzed according to J?reskog's model for simultaneous factor analysis in several populations ({sifasp}), revealing the 5 factors contained in Hackman and Oldham's theory of job characteristics. A 6th factor appeared that apparently resulted from the 2 different formats used. When data from each group were analyzed separately by principal axes factor analysis, 3-, 4-, and 5-factor solutions appeared. A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted. Matrices representing the a priori JDS factor loadings and a hypothetical, lengthened JDS with twice the number of items/factor were used with 3 sample sizes (Ns?=?75, 150, and 900). Results suggest that for scales like the JDS, sample sizes larger than those typically recommended are needed to consistently recover the true underlying structure. Simulation results indicate that the {sifasp} solution is preferable to the principal axes solution and that the JDS provides measurement equivalence across worker populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of job experience and ability on job knowledge, work sample performance, and supervisory ratings of job performance.

Based on data from 4 independent studies reported by R. Vineberg and E. N. Taylor (1972) with a total sample size of 1,474, path analysis was used to examine the causal impact of job experience on job knowledge, performance capability as measured by job sample tests, and supervisory ratings of job performance. Findings support the conclusion that (1) when mean job experience is 2–3 yrs, there is substantial variance in job experience and (2) when the jobs are of an intermediate complexity level, job experience has a substantial direct impact on job knowledge and a smaller direct impact on performance capabilities as assessed by job sample measures. Job experience also has a substantial indirect effect on work sample performance through its effect on job knowledge, which, in turn, was found to be the strongest determinant of work sample performance. The pattern and magnitude of causal effects of general mental ability were similar to those of job experience. The effect of job knowledge on supervisory ratings was several times stronger than the effect of job sample performance, confirming the findings of J. E. Hunter (1983). When job experience was held constant, the direct impact of ability on the acquisition of job knowledge increased substantially, and this, in turn, increased the indirect effect of ability on job sample performance. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations among criteria of police performance.

Job performance measures consisting of 35 objective indices and ratings on 8 behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) were available for 795 nonminority (mean age, 29.8 yrs) and 147 minority (mean age, 28.2 yrs) police officers. Eight of the 35 objective measures, plus age and job tenure, were used as predictors of the sum of the 8 BARS. Identical predictor sets validly forecast supervisory ratings in both minority and nonminority groups whether or not age and tenure were included. Unit weights were inferior to regression weights in both groups. It is concluded that supervisory ratings are linearly predictable from objective performance indices for both minority and nonminority subordinates, a finding that comports with civil rights legislation and recent US Supreme Court decisions. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of some aspects of the Steers and Rhodes model of employee attendance.

Examined the relationships between production employee absenteeism and personal characteristics, job situation, and job satisfaction. Also investigated was R. M. Steers and S. R. Rhodes's (see record 1979-09970-001) model of employee attendance, which suggests that these variables are major influences on absenteeism. Results indicate some statistically significant and some nonsignificant relationships between absence from work and this set of variables. Job satisfaction was not a major influence on variation in absenteeism. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)