Impact of employee participation in the development of pay incentive plans: A field experiment.

Ss were part-time workers who clean buildings in the evenings. 3 autonomous work groups with 10, 9, and 8 Ss developed their own pay incentive plans to reward good attendance on the job (Condition A). These plans were then imposed by the company on other work groups with 13 and 26 Ss (Condition B). Of 2 control groups, 1 (N = 17) talked with Es about job attendance problems but received no additional experimental treatment, and the other (N = 34) received no treatment. A significant increase in attendance followed only Condition A. Possible reasons cited: (a) participation caused Ss to be more committed to the plan, (b) Ss who participated in the development of their plan were more knowledgeable about it, and (c) participation increased Ss' trust of the good intentions of management with respect to the plan. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Procedural justice explanations and employee reactions to economic hardship: A field experiment.

In a randomized field experiment involving 173 salaried employees, treatment Ss received an explanation for an ongoing pay freeze. This explained the fairness of the decision process leading to the freeze and the fairness of the implementation of the freeze. The explanation mitigated the effect of the resultant economic hardship on employee attitudes, turnover intentions, and perceptions of procedural justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of flexible working hours on employee satisfaction and performance: A field experiment.

64 federal workers were randomly assigned to flexible or fixed working hours, and after 6 mo they completed the Index of Job Satisfaction. In addition, their supervisors rated their 6-mo performance on a 9-point scale. Results indicate that flexitime caused a significant increase in worker satisfaction but had negligible effects on performance, whether assessed by output or ratings. Research should aim at uncovering the reasons for the positive effect of flexitime. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudinal and motivational antecedents of participation in voluntary employee development activities.

This study investigated factors influencing ongoing participation in employee development activities. A multiple-indicator structural equation model building on the theory of planned behavior and prior employee development literature was tested with a survey across 4 organizations on 2 occasions. The model uses reactions to past participation and past supportiveness of the social and organizational environment as indirect antecedents of participation, filtered through their impact on attitudes and behavioral intentions toward future participation. Learning goal orientation also influenced attitudes toward participation. Whereas personal control over participation and higher levels of voluntariness were negatively related to participation, intentions to participate and availability of opportunities arose as strong predictors of higher participation rates. Many significant hypothesized paths were found, and 85% of the variance in participation was explained by the model variables. Increasing employee awareness of opportunities and managing positive attitudes toward those opportunities are recommended as key factors for increasing participation rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of employee reports on changes in pay.

To test the validity of perceived change measures, questionnaires were administered to 246 employees before and after automation. Actual and perceived change in pay was the one aspect of change studied. "Data are presented on the degree of accuracy of employee reports, on the nature of the deviations between reports and actuality, and on the relationship of the deviations to potential explanatory variables." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Team development: A true field experiment at three levels of rigor.

Assigned 18 logistics units in the Israel Defense Forces to either experimental (team development [TD]) or control conditions to determine the effect of TD on team organization and functioning. The 9 experimental units underwent a 3-day TD workshop. 30 subordinates in each unit completed questionnaires describing their unit before and after TD. Although subjective after-only reports of the command personnel who had participated in the workshops were positive, more rigorous before–after comparisons among both command personnel and subordinates demonstrated that TD failed to improve organizational functioning. It is suggested that instead of using a dichotomous approach to evaluation (either the intervention worked or it did not), a battery of ordered evaluation criteria should be used to show how far an intervention went. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing organizational stress: A field experiment.

79 public agency employees (mean age 39 yrs) were randomly assigned to stress-management training or control conditions. The training program consisted of 16 hrs of group exposure over 8 wks. Using procedures based on those developed by D. H. Meichenbaum (1975), treatment Ss were taught to recognize and alter their cognitive interpretations to stressful events at work. Ss were also taught progressive relaxation techniques to supplement this process. Dependent variables were epinephrine and norepinephrine excretion at work, anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), depression, irritation, and somatic complaints, all measured at 3 times (pretest, posttest, and 4 mo after treatment). Treatment Ss exhibited significantly lower epinephrine and depression levels than did controls at posttest, and 4-mo follow-up levels did not regress to pretest levels. However, treatment effects were not replicated in a subsequent intervention on the original control group. The general adoption of such stress management programs is not recommended. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The shortened workweek: A field experiment.

Examined the effects of the 4-day, 40-hr workweek by comparing 2 experimental groups (n?=?97, n?=?111) and a comparison group (n?=?94) of operating employees in a medium-sized manufacturing company. Comparisons were made on dimensions of self-actualization, autonomy, personal worth, social affiliation, job security, pay and overall job satisfaction, anxiety-stress, absenteeism, and performance over a 13- and a 25-mo period. Analysis of 13-mo data indicated that Ss in the 4-day, 40-hr groups were (a) more satisfied with autonomy, personal worth, job security, and pay; (b) experienced less anxiety-stress; and (c) performed better with regard to productivity than did the comparison group. However, these improvements were not found with the 25-mo data. It is suggested that uncontrolled variables may account for the differences in the short- and long-term effects of the shortened workweek. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring the financial impact of employee attitudes.

Presents a new approach for attaching behavioral costs to attitudes, based on data from 169 bank tellers (average age, 30 yrs). Attitudes were measured through an employee survey; behavioral measures were constructed based on company records. Behavioral costs per employee were assigned through cost-accounting techniques. Attitudes were correlated with future behavior, the behavioral changes associated with attitudinal shifts were estimated, and new behavioral costs per employee were computed. Results show expected direct-cost savings of $17,664 in absenteeism, turnover, and performance from a .5 standard deviation increase in job satisfaction; savings associated with enhanced job involvement and motivation are also reported. A critical analysis of the approach used is presented, as is a discussion of its usefulness to organizations. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Equity and workplace status: A field experiment.

In a field experiment, 198 employees in the underwriting department of a large insurance company were randomly reassigned on a temporary basis to the offices of either higher, lower, or equal-status coworkers while their own offices were being refurbished. The present study tested the hypothesis, derived from equity theory, that the status value of the temporary offices would create increases, decreases, or no change in organizational outcome levels. The resulting pattern of performance supported equity theory. Specifically, relative to those workers reassigned to equal-status offices, those reassigned to higher status offices raised their performance (a response to overpayment inequity) and those reassigned to lower status offices lowered their performance (a response to underpayment inequity). As hypothesized, the size of these performance changes was directly related to the magnitude of the status inconsistencies encountered. The value of these findings in extending equity theory to the realm of nonmonetary outcomes is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Participation in the performance appraisal process and employee reactions: A meta-analytic review of field investigations.

The relationship between participation in the performance appraisal process and various employee reactions was explored through the meta-analysis of 27 studies containing 32 individual samples. The overall relationship (ρ) between participation and employee reactions, corrected for unreliability, was .61. Various conceptualizations and operationalizations of participation and employee reactions also were discussed and analyzed. Overall, appraisal participation was most strongly related to satisfaction, and value-expressive participation (i.e., participation for the sake of having one's "voice" heard) had a stronger relationship with most of the reaction criteria than did instrumental participation (i.e., participation for the purpose of influencing the end result). The results are discussed within the framework of organizational justice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education and cognitive development: A natural experiment.

Using an arbitrary cutoff date, school districts regulate which children will begin school. This "natural experiment" was used to examine effects of age- and schooling-related influences on memory and 3 levels of phonological segmentation in children who just made vs. missed the cutoff. Group comparisons over time permitted assessment of schooling influences and Age × Experience interactions. Short-term memory was enhanced by Grade 1 schooling, with no evidence of an Age × Schooling interaction. For phonological segmentation, both schooling- and age-related influences appeared, with unique patterns for each level of segmentation. The cutoff method proved sensitive to important changes in cognitive skills during this age period. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Population and political participation: A social impact analysis of voter responsibility.

As predicted by B. Latané's (1981) theory of social impact, the authors found that participation in local politics, including attendance at both open and representative town meetings and voting in town elections, declined with increasing size of town. Participation in national and especially state elections, however, increased with size of town. The results are consistent with the view that political participation is motivated by feelings of civic responsibility, which are made salient by exposure to media, but which can be diffused if shared too widely. In addition, as predicted by social impact theory, these increases and declines in participation were well described by power functions with exponents less than 1, reflecting the marginal impact of changes in number. The results suggest that declines in the proportion of Americans who vote may result in part simply from increasing population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consequences of reinforcement schedules and incentive magnitudes for employee performance: Problems encountered in an industrial setting.

Pay incentives reflecting 3 schedules of reinforcement were compared in terms of their effects on the productivity of 38 marginal workers. In a quasi-experimental design, the following treatments were randomly assigned to work crews: (a) continuous reinforcement-individuals received a $2 bonus for each bag of trees they planted, (b) variable ratio-individuals received a $4 bonus contingent upon planting a bag of trees and correctly guessing the outcome of 1 coin toss, and (c) variable ratio-individuals received an $8 bonus contingent upon planting a bag of trees and correctly guessing 2 coin toss outcomes. A 4th, geographically isolated, crew served as a control. Productivity was highest in the continuous reinforcement condition. Problems in applying reinforcement schedules in industry are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Third-party intervention: A field experiment comparing three different models.

A field experiment was conducted at a community mediation center to test the impact on behavior in mediation of three models of third-party intervention. Third parties and disputants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) straight mediation; (b) mediation/arbitration (same), or med/arb(same); or (c) mediation/arbitration (different), or med/arb(diff). These models differ in what happens if agreement between the disputants is not reached. In straight mediation, the hearing simply ends; in med/arb(same), the third party arbitrates; in med/arb(diff), a fourth party not present at the mediation hearing arbitrates. Results indicated that disputants in med/arb(same) engaged in more problem solving and were less hostile and competitive than were disputants in straight mediation, with med/arb(diff) intermediate on these dimensions. Third parties in med/arb(diff) were less involved throughout the session than were third parties in the other two conditions. Results are discussed in terms of motivational influences induced by the three conditions that have impact on tactics used by disputants and third parties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee perceptions of invasion of privacy: A field simulation experiment.

Examined the effect of 4 independent variables—type of information disclosed (personality or performance), permission granted or not granted by the employee for the disclosure, unfavorable or favorable consequences of the disclosure, and internal vs external recipients of the information—on perceived invasion of privacy. 2,047 employees in 5 corporations rated 1 of 16 hypothetical situations describing an employee who had applied for a new job that was a promotion. Ss perceived a greater invasion of privacy with personality than with performance information, with no permission for disclosure than with permission, with unfavorable consequences, and with external disclosure than with internal disclosure. Eta-squared values showed that permission was the most important main effect, followed by location of disclosure, consequences, and type of information. (13 ref)) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of rating format on goal-setting dimensions: A field experiment.

Atotal of 10 managers and their 62 subordinates participated in a field experiment that examined the effects of performance appraisal feedback deriving from two rating formats—behavioral observation scales (BOS) and graphic rating scales—on three goal-setting dimensions. Multivariate analyses of variance and a priori t tests revealed, as hypothesized, that the BOS format yielded significantly higher levels of goal clarity, goal acceptance, and goal commitment, the three goal-setting dimensions. Results are discussed in terms of systemic characteristics, that is, a "built-in" focus on specific behaviors, rather than a translation of generic performance dimensions into specific work behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: A field experiment in Rwanda.

Can the media reduce intergroup prejudice and conflict? Despite the high stakes of this question, understanding of the mass media's role in shaping prejudiced beliefs, norms, and behavior is limited. A yearlong field experiment in Rwanda tested the impact of a radio soap opera featuring messages about reducing intergroup prejudice, violence, and trauma in 2 fictional Rwandan communities. Compared with a control group who listened to a health radio soap opera, listeners' perceptions of social norms and their behaviors changed with respect to intermarriage, open dissent, trust, empathy, cooperation, and trauma healing. However, the radio program did little to change listeners' personal beliefs. Group discussion and emotion were implicated in the process of media influence. Taken together, the results point to an integrated model of behavioral prejudice and conflict reduction that prioritizes the communication of social norms over changes in personal beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modification of driving behavior in a large transport organization: A field experiment.

To change the driving behavior of mail-van drivers so as to encourage energy saving, a program was developed and implemented in the Netherlands Postal and Telecommunications Services (PTT). Based on empirical analysis, 3 approaches were used to influence driving behavior: providing information, providing task assignment and control, and providing feedback on gasoline consumption. The effectiveness of the program was tested in a field experiment. Attitudes, social norms, and reported behavior changed, and energy savings of more than 7% were achieved, compared with a control group. From an economic point of view, further implementation in the PTT organization could be attractive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)