Self-esteem and self-estimates of academic performance.

Used 3 measures of self-esteem to test the hypothesis that 36 undergraduates with low self-esteem would predict getting lower grades on an examination than 36 high-self-esteem Ss. The hypothesis was confirmed (p     

Some tests of molar models of instrumental performance.

In Experiment 1 a reciprocal equilibrium schedule suppressed the running, drinking, and switching of 3 rats whose baselines were recovered. In Experiment 2 the 2 rats whose baselines were recovered deviated from their baseline distributions of responding on four equilibrium schedules that permitted unscheduled responding. In Experiment 3 four rats that had to lever press on four variable-requirement schedules to gain unconstrained access to water performed more lever pressing in some conditions than calculations of the maximum amount they could have drunk per bout suggested was necessary. In Experiment 4 the responding of 3 rats was found to decrease systematically on a schedule with a fixed running to drinking ratio, as the size of the terms was increased. These findings challenge two assumptions of many molar models of instrumental performance: that the paired baseline distribution of responding is a behavioral ideal that subjects attempt to approach when performing on schedules and that performance on a schedule depends on the ratio of instrumental to contingent responding that it requires, and not on the way that ratio is made up. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem, self-consciousness, and task performance: Replications, extensions, and possible explanations.

Previous research has suggested that the task performance of low self-esteem individuals (low SEs) is impaired under conditions designed to increase self-focused attention. Task-focusing, rather than self-focusing, manipulations have actually bolstered the achievement of low SEs. The results of the present 2 experiments with 207 undergraduates demonstrated that the performance of low SEs on a concept formation task was affected by a variety of attentional manipulations. As before, task-focusing instructions enhanced and self-focusing stimuli impaired their performance on a concept formation task (Study 1). Similar results were obtained for Ss who scored high (but not for those who scored low) on an individual difference measure of self-consciousness. Study 2 also demonstrated that when the task-focusing manipulation worked, it neutralized the adverse effects of the self-focusing stimulus on the low SEs' performance. Supplementary data suggested that the manipulations generally had their intended effects on attentional focus and that attentional focus influenced performance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Store manager performance and satisfaction: Effects on store employee performance and satisfaction, store customer satisfaction, and store customer spending growth.

Based on emotional contagion theory and the value–profit chain literatures, the present study posits a number of hypotheses that show how managers in the small store, small number of employees retail context may affect store employees, customers, and potentially store performance. With data from 306 store managers, 1,615 store customer-contact employees, and 57,656 customers of a single retail chain, the authors examined relationships among store manager job satisfaction and job performance, store customer-contact employee job satisfaction and job performance, customer satisfaction with the retailer, and a customer-spending-based store performance metric (customer spending growth over a 2-year period). Via path analysis, several hypothesized direct and interaction relations among these constructs are supported. The results suggest implications for academic researchers and retail managers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some determinants of job satisfaction: A study of the generality of Herzberg's theory.

This paper criticized the Herzberg theory that certain work-situation variables ("satisfiers") produce positive, but not negative, job attitudes, while other variables ("dissatisfiers") produce negative, but not positive, job attitudes. Several deficiencies in the methodology of the Herzberg study were discussed. There were: the narrow rang of jobs investigated, the use of only 1 measure of job attitudes, the absence of any validity and reliability data, and the absence of any measure of overall job satisfaction. It was concluded that generalizing the Herzberg results beyond the situation in which they were obtained is not warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role perceptions, satisfaction, and performance: A partial reconciliation.

Role theory hypothesizes that role conflict and role ambiguity are negatively related to job satisfaction and performance. Results of recent research indicate, however, that role conflict and role ambiguity are not always negatively related to job satisfaction and performance: Sometimes no relationships are found. The present study used a rationale suggested by previous research and role theory to reconcile the inconsistent results of previous research. Data were obtained from 331 questionnaires completed by employees of a large manufacturing firm. The rationale for reconciliation was based upon the organization level of the employee. Role ambiguity was hypothesized to have a greater negative relationship than role conflict with job satisfaction and performance for employees at higher levels in an organization. Conversely, role conflict was hypothesized to have a greater negative relationship than role ambiguity with job satisfaction and performance for employees at lower levels in an organization. Results support the hypothesized relationships with job satisfaction but not with performance. The lack of support for the performance hypotheses is discussed in terms of an ability-adaptability phenomenon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some implications of the new cognitive theory for projective tests.

Projective tests are examined in the light of information theory, decision theory, and computer-stimulation techniques. It is argued that (a) more attention needs to be paid to stimulus variables and that decision theory offers an approach to stimulus definition, (b) a different interpretative tactic is implied by decision theory, and (c) the problem of criterion definition is reopened in the light of decision theory. A simple cognitive model based on computer-simulation approaches is presented in order to demonstrate how an informational analysis might cope with projective responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job satisfaction, job performance, and situational characteristics.

How are job satisfaction and performance related to the variables of the situation? S were approximately 2500 workers in 72 warehouses of 1 company. Job satisfaction was measured by questionnaire items. Factor analysis was used to relate the variables of quantity, quality, profitability, turnover, size of workforce, city size, wage rate and unionization and percentage of males. Job satisfaction was highest with the greatest productivity and profit. Small town culture had the most satisfaction and performance. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3LH65K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of performance on leadership, cohesiveness, influence, satisfaction, and subsequent performance.

200 management students role played the "Change of Work Procedure" case. Through changes in the foreman's roles, groups were assigned to a high performance, low performance, or control condition. High past performance increased leader supportiveness, interaction facilitation, goal emphasis, and work facilitation behaviors, as well as member influence, group cohesiveness, and satisfaction. Thus, theories of leadership should consider performance as a cause as well as an effect of leader behavior. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis.

Coded 9 variables in a meta-analysis of 74 empirical studies of job satisfaction–job performance. Aggregated studies had an S sample size of 12,192 and 217 satisfaction–performance correlations. Findings show that (1) the best estimate of the true population correlation between satisfaction and performance was relatively low (.17); (2) much of the variability in results obtained in previously research was due to the use of small sample sizes, while unreliable measurement of the satisfaction and performance constructs has contributed relatively little to this observed variability in correlations; and (3) the 9 variables coded (composite vs unidimensional criteria, longitudinal vs cross-sectional measurement of performance relative to satisfaction, the nature of the performance measure, self-reports vs other sources, use of specific performance measures, subjectivity or objectivity of measures, specific-facet satisfaction vs global satisfaction, well-documented vs researcher-developed measurement, and white-collar vs blue-collar) were only modestly related to the magnitude of the satisfaction–performance correlation. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem as a moderator of the relationship between scientific interests and the job satisfaction of physicists and engineers.

A study with 121 engineers and 93 physicists tested the prediction that interests in science, as measured with the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for men, would be positively related to intrinsic satisfaction for high-self-esteem physicists and engineers but would be unrelated for low-self-esteem physicists and engineers. The predictions were confirmed for the sample of physicists to the extent that high-self-esteem Ss showed a significant correlation between interests and intrinsic satisfaction, but low-self-esteem Ss showed a nonsignificant correlation. Because the difference in correlations was nonsignificant, it could not be concluded that self-esteem was a moderator in the case of the physicists. Self-esteem did moderate the relationship between interests in science and both extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction for engineers, but the correlations were in a direction opposite to those predicted. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between satisfaction, attitudes, and performance: An organizational level analysis.

Previous research has consistently shown little relationship between job satisfaction, job attitudes, and performance for individuals, but little work has investigated these relationships at the organizational level of analysis. This study investigated the relationship between employee satisfaction, other job-related attitudes (commitment, adjustment, and psychological stress), and organizational performance. Organizational performance data were collected for 298 schools; employee satisfaction and attitude data were collected from 13,808 teachers within these schools. Correlation and regression analyses supported the expected relationships between employee satisfaction/attitudes and organizational performance. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of electronic performance monitoring on personal control, task satisfaction, and task performance.

A laboratory study was conducted to assess effects of electronic performance monitoring on individuals working on computers in an officelike environment. Participants (N ?=?108) worked on a computerized data correction task under 6 experimental conditions that varied the amount of control over performance monitoring and knowledge concerning specific monitoring events. Results confirmed and extended a model proposed by D. B. Greenberger and S. Strasser (1986) to relate personal control, satisfaction, and performance. Participants with the ability to delay or prevent electronic performance monitoring indicated higher feelings of personal control and demonstrated superior task performance. Participants with exact knowledge of the occurrence of monitoring expressed lower feelings of personal control than those from whom specific knowledge of monitoring was hidden. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autonomy and workload among temporary workers: Their effects on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, and self-rated performance.

This study investigates the role of autonomy and workload in explaining responses of temporary employees (N=189) compared with permanent employees (N=371) on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, and performance. Results based on regression analyses suggest that the effects of contract type are not mediated by autonomy or by workload. Rather, this study partially supports hypotheses on the differential reactions of temporaries and permanents to autonomy or workload; autonomy was not predictive for temporaries' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and workload was not predictive for temporaries' life satisfaction, whereas they were predictive for permanents' responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem and perceived control in adolescent substance use: Comparative tests in concurrent and prospective analyses.

The relationship of positive and negative dimensions of self-esteem and perceived control to substance (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) use was tested with a sample of 1,775 adolescents, surveyed in 8th grade and followed up 1 year later. Esteem and control were highly correlated. Concurrent multiple regression analyses with simultaneous entry indicated internal control inversely related, and self-derogation positively related, to substance use; the unique contribution for control variables was 6.4 times the unique contribution for esteem variables. In prospective analyses, only internal control was significant. Self-attitudes were less relevant in general for substance use among Black adolescents compared with Hispanic and White adolescents; self-derogation was less relevant for adolescents in single-families compared with two-parent families. Previous findings on self-esteem and substance use may be partially reflecting the effect of perceived control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem, restraint, and eating behavior.

The mediating influence of self-esteem on disinhibited eating was assessed in restrained and unrestrained subjects. Self-esteem was unrelated to the eating behavior of unrestrained subjects following a preload, but did moderate the disinhibitory effects of a preload on restrained subjects. Specifically, only those restrained subjects with low self-esteem displayed disinhibited eating after a preload. Theoretical and practical implications of this finding were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis.

This study provides a meta-analysis of research on the associations between relationship conflict, task conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. Consistent with past theorizing, results revealed strong and negative correlations between relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. In contrast to what has been suggested in both academic research and introductory textbooks, however, results also revealed strong and negative (instead of the predicted positive) correlations between task conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction. As predicted, conflict had stronger negative relations with team performance in highly complex (decision making, project, mixed) than in less complex (production) tasks. Finally, task conflict was less negatively related to team performance when task conflict and relationship conflict were weakly, rather than strongly, correlated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational climate configurations: Relationships to collective attitudes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

Research on organizational climate has tended to focus on independent dimensions of climate rather than studying the total social context as configurations of multiple climate dimensions. The authors examined relationships between configurations of unit-level climate dimensions and organizational outcomes. Three profile characteristics represented climate configurations: (1) elevation, or the mean score across climate dimensions; (2) variability, or the extent to which scores across dimensions vary; and (3) shape, or the pattern of the dimensions. Across 2 studies (1,120 employees in 120 bank branches and 4,317 employees in 86 food distribution stores), results indicated that elevation was related to collective employee attitudes and service perceptions, while shape was related to customer satisfaction and financial performance. With respect to profile variability, results were mixed. The discussion focuses on future directions for taking a configural approach to organizational climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-esteem as moderator of the relationship between expectancies and job performance.

Examined the implication of A. K. Korman's 1970 consistency hypothesis for predictions of work behavior, derived from L. Porter and E. Lawler's expectancy model, and evaluated the feasibility of moderating the expectancy-performance relationship with relevant variables. 367 male and female managerial-level employees were subgrouped by self-esteem scores (Ghiselli's Self-Assurance Scale), and correlations between expectancies and job performance were computed. 16 of 22 correlations for the high-self-esteem groups were higher. However, only 5 of the differences were significant, thereby providing equivocal support for the consistency hypothesis. Results indicate that moderator variables may be relevant to predictions of performance with expectancy measures. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)