bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Examination of Individual Differences as Moderators of Upward Influence Activity in Strategic Decisions
Authors: Schilit Warren Keith
Published: March 2006

This study examines the upward influence capabilities of middle level managers (MLMs) in a variety of strategic decisions. It was found that: (1) MLMs tended to be successful in their upward influence interactions but exerted influence primarily in less risky strategic decisions, (2) MLMs who had been working for their superior for a long period of time were extremely influential in strategic decisions, and (3) MLMs who were high in their needs for achievement or power or who had an internal locus of control were more influential in strategic decisions than were MLMs who were low in their needs for achievement or power or who had an external locus of control.
Personality and Role Variables as Predictors of Tension Discharge Rate in Three Samples
Authors: Dailey Robert C. , Ickinger William , Coote Elizabeth
Published: March 2006

The study of Type A behavior (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974) is developing a research tradition in related streams of literature in organizational behavior. The predictive characteristics and diversity of these studies are encouraging since they signal improved understanding of the organizational, personal, and economic effects of coping with work-generated tension and stress. The research presented here is consistent with these scholarly developments. The research attempts to illuminate the relationships between: (1) Type A behavior (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974), (2) role conflict and ambiguity (Rizzo House, & Lirtzman, 1970), (3) Locus of control (Rotter, 1966), (4) symptoms of adaptation to stress, and (S) tension discharge rate (Rose, Jenkins, & Hurst, 1978). The relationships between these constructs are studied in three samples: (1) registered nurses, (2) executive MBA students, and (3) female middle level managers in the telecommunications industry. Excellent comparative results were obtained across the occupational groups. Type A behavior and symptoms of adaptation to stress were strong predictors of tension discharge rate. Role variables played a less significant predictive role. These results are discussed relative to current research on adaptation to job stress.
Task Role Ambiguity, Satisfaction, and the Moderating Effect of Task Instruction Source
Authors: Siegall Marc , Cummings L. L.
Published: March 2006

The literature regarding the relationship between role ambiguity and satisfaction has produced mixed results. Evidence suggests that factors such as the source of role expectations may affect this relationship. In order to examine one source of expectations (the supervisor), an experiment was conducted in which ambiguity (presence/absence of task clarity instructions) and instruction source (supervisor, nonsupervisor) were manipulated within the same objective task environment. Thirty-two men and 65 women participated in a full factorial design. An instruction source, satisfaction with supervisor interaction (F(1,92) = 3.5, p < .07) was found, supporting the general proposition that the source of task role expectations would affect the relationships between role ambiguity and satisfaction.
Exploring the Dimensionality of Managers' Performance Feedback to Subordinates
Authors: Larson James R. , Glynn Mary Ann , Fleenor C. Patrick , Scontrino M. Peter
Published: March 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dimensional structure of managers' performance feedback to subordinates. Three hundred and sixty pairs of managers and subordinates from over 50 organizations located in three countries participated in the study. Both members of each pair completed an instrument assessing the timeliness, specificity, frequency, and sensitivity of the manager's positive and negative performance feedback. The relationship among these dimensions was examined using both confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. The results offer little evidence that these dimensions actually exist as distinct features of managers' performance feedback behavior. Instead, they appear to covary so strongly as to be empirically indiscriminable. This covariation is most extreme within the positive and negative feedback domains. It is substantially less, though still present, across domains. These results suggest that it may be more appropriate to examine the overall quality of managers' performance feedback than to focus on each dimension separately.
High Stress Professions: Satisfaction, Stress, and Well-Being of Spouses of Professionals
Authors: Pavett Cynthia M.
Published: March 2006

Traditional stress literature contains limited information about the impact of job stress on one's family. This study examines the relationship between stress, satisfaction, and physical and psychological well-being in a group of people married to an individual in a high-stress occupation. Stress and satisfaction were operationally defined to assess the impact of the high-stress occupation on one's spouse. Results supported the hypothesized negative relationship between the multiple sources of stress and satisfaction with the source. Source specific stress was also related to psychological and physical indications of stress. The hypothesis, that Type A personality and the use of social support coping mechanisms would moderate the stress-outcome relationships, was not supported. These results suggest that professional requirements or demands can serve as sources of stress and negative affect for one's spouse.
Normative and Utilitarian Particularism: The Impact of Social Structure on Service Commitments
Authors: Goldberg Albert I. , Jacobsen Chanoch
Published: March 2006

Particularistic considerations among professionals have been ascribed to social structural exigencies. A comparison of conventionally employed professionals with practitioners belonging to a communal framework (kibbutz) reveals two distinct forms of particularism: a generally approved Normative Particularism that caters to the legitimate demands of the professional's immediate social environment, and a less accepted Utilitarian Particularism that reflects a concern for clients who can provide greater concrete rewards. Regression analysis shows both forms of particularism to be generated out of direct interactions between practitioner and client, irrespective of social structure. Such dyadic ties may encourage practitioners to meet legitimate normative expectations, but they also provide opportunities for satisfying egoistic motives. In either case, particularistic service commitments are inherent to professional practice, and demonstrate the continuing significance of this work practice in contemporary society.
The Role of Task Complexity as a Moderator of the Stress and Coping Process
Authors: Puffer Sheila M. , Brakefield James T.
Published: March 2006

This study examined the relevance of task complexity as a moderator of the stress and coping process for a sample of 173 museum store managers. Four categories of coping responses were developed: active cognitive, active behavioral, cognitive avoidant, and behavioral avoidant. Results showed that task complexity moderated the relationship that coping had with some individual and environmental antecedents as well as work outcomes. Relationships were generally stronger for simple than complex tasks.
Change of Values during Socialization for a Profession: An Application of the Marginal Man Theory
Authors: Enoch Yael
Published: March 2006

Social work is a marginal profession, ranking between a white-collar occupation and a fullfledged profession. When the training school toward such a profession is part of a well-established academic organization and students at the school come from a lower socio-economic background than those who choose other academic fields, the marginality is accentuated. The marginal-man theory may therefore offer an explanation of the attitude changes undergone by social work students during socializing at a university-based professional school. It was found that in each stage of their professional socialization, the (marginal) socializees adopted the values of the dominant group. Thus, while at the university, the social work students adopted the attitudes prevalent in the academic subculture (represented by social science students). Upon graduation, the young social workers changed their attitudes and adopted attitudes similar to those held by other members of their professional subculture, i.e., veteran social workers and supervisors. Each of these attitude changes were interpreted as attempts to cope with the marginal situation.
The Role of Metaphors in Organization Transformation
Authors: Sackmann Sonja
Published: March 2006

Transformation is inevitable for the survival of some organizations. It is argued that metaphors may be a helpful tool for a successful transformation if carefully chosen. Two kinds of methaphors are discussed which describe different transformation processes and outcomes. Illustrations are given for both kinds of metaphors, and the argument is substantiated with examples from a case study about an organization transformation. The use of multiple and adaptive metaphors allowed a wide range for action in that particular case.
Contact and Prejudice Between Germans and Turks: A Correlational Study
Authors: Wagner Ulrich , Hewstone Miles , Machleit Uwe
Published: March 2006

The reported study investigated the relationship between prejudice and intergroup contact for German and Turkish pupils (age 15 years) in the Federal Republic of Germany. A distinction was drawn between “opportunities for” and “real uses of” contact, operationalized using path analysis, and hypotheses were tested concerning the way contact in the neighborhood, at school, and in leisure time is related to prejudice. As predicted, leisure time contact was significantly correlated with reduced prejudice, but only for the German sample (N = 60); for the Turkish sample (N = 50), prejudice was unrelated to any of the measures of contact. The results are discussed in terms of the wider social background to contact between national and migrant labor populations in Western Europe.
The Idealization of Technology: Power Relations in an Engineering Department
Authors: Feldman Steven P.
Published: March 2006

The management of technological development involves a dilemma; the manager must strive to understand the diverse specializations required to develop new technology, but he must focus on integrating these specializations. The former requires knowledge, the latter power. It is my contention, however, that in technologically-oriented work groups, there is a tendency for the importance of technology to be exaggerated while power issues are ignored. This process is referred to as the idealization of technology. The result is an inattention to organizational goals and cooperative processes. In this essay, the interpretive concept of culture and the psychoanalytic theory of idealization is used to investigate this problem. The framework is applied to an engineering department whose primary work is the development of advanced technological products. The process of idealization distorts organizational reality in such a way that continual distortions are needed, is a cultural mechanism that is used to mediate the conflict between the exercise of power and the fear of power, integrates the individual into the organizational culture while simultaneously undermining cooperative relations, and encourages conformity while undermining power relations.
Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment in Relation to Work Performance and Turnover Intentions
Authors: Shore Lynn McFarlane , Martin Harry J.
Published: March 2006

The differential associations that job satisfaction and organizational commitment have with job performance and turnover intentions were studied in a sample of bank tellers and hospital professionals. Results showed that organizational commitment was more strongly related than job satisfaction with turnover intentions for the tellers, but not for the professionals. Job satisfaction was related more strongly than organizational commitment with supervisory ratings of performance for both samples. The findings suggest that specific job attitudes are more closely associated with task-related out-comes such as performance ratings, whereas global organizational attitudes are more closely associated with organization-related outcomes like turnover intentions.
Adaptors and Innovators in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Cognitive Styles of Managerial Functions and Subfunctions
Authors: Foxall Gordon R. , Payne Adrian F.
Published: March 2006

The hypothesis was tested that broadly-defined managerial functions can be sub-divided on the basis of their members' internal and external task orientations, and that the resulting subfunctions are, respectively, predominantly “adaptive” or “innovative” in terms derived from Kirton's adaption-innovation theory. Data from samples of British (N = 115) and Australian (N = 123) mid-career managers undertaking MBA programs who completed the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) and provided employment histories displayed the expected patterns of task orientation and cognitive style. Implications for adaption-innovation theory and the management of organizational change are briefly discussed.
Interpersonal Conflict at Work: An Analysis of Behavioral Responses
Authors: Volkema Roger J. , Bergmann Thomas J.
Published: March 2006

Interest and research in interpersonal conflict has led to the development of a number of instruments for measuring conflict style. These instruments lack the more demonstrative responses that sometimes occur during interpersonal conflict, and each determines conflict style through abstract measures. Two hundred and sixty-three participants were asked to describe one conflict that they were involved in at work. Given a list of 21 conflict responses, participants were asked to (1) rank-order the responses in the order in which they actually responded to the conflict, (2) identify the responses they were currently using, (3) identify those responses they had not used but might, and (4) identify those responses they would never use. The results indicate some well-defined clusters of responses, including an emotive category.
Group Cohesiveness and Productivity: A Closer Look
Authors: Mudrack Peter E.
Published: March 2006

Although many organization researchers regard group cohesiveness as a key variable in their theorizing, the presumed importance of the cohesiveness construct has not always been accompanied by a corresponding emphasis on theoretical and empirical advances. This paper focuses primarily on the difficulties associated with the measurement of group cohesiveness, particularly as they pertain to the contentious relationship between group cohesiveness and productivity. Little is known for certain about this relationship in spite of four decades of investigation. One possible explanation for the inconclusive findings which characterize this literature is that no two studies reviewed here operationalized cohesiveness in exactly the same way. An emphasis on consistent and uniform measurement, and on the use of multiple measures of cohesiveness, should greatly improve the quality of future research.
Patterns of Change in Marital Partners
Authors: Kotler Tamara
Published: March 2006

Using coded interview data from a sample of 60 mostly married couples, residual values were obtained from a series of regression analyses which assessed a life span “continuity model” linking the quality of marital partners' significant relationships from childhood with their current socio-emotional functioning. The residual values were used to select six couples which differed in the amount of change reported and therefore in their degree of misfit with the model. A qualitative analysis of their interviews revealed processes which can be understood within the framework of Bowlby's attachment theory. This analysis suggests that mutual security provision by partners serves a stabilizing function for them and promotes some trust. However, those relationships which also foster positive change in partners are able to achieve a sustained intimacy which in turn requires adequate levels of autonomy and separation from the parental family. Early experience is thus represented in later outcomes. The advantage of combining qualitative with quantitative anlyses is discussed.
Active and Passive Conceptions of the Television Audience: Effects of a Change in Viewing Routine
Authors: Hearn Greg
Published: March 2006

Are human beings best viewed as active or passive in relationship to their environment? Television audience research in recent decades exemplifies this longstanding issue. Polarization on the question may be due to a tendency to compartmentalize qualitative and quantitative data. In this study, a prototypicalfield experiment involving 156 adult residents in a large Australian city generated both types of data to clarify the nature of television audience activity. Viewing frequencies for a group restricted to their least preferred channel decreased significantly when compared to two other comparison groups suggesting that attraction to content does in fact play an important role in influencing viewing behavior. Qualitative comments elicited during the experience of being restricted suggested important differences in respondents' affinity with the medium. Viewers can possibly be distinguished on the basis of whether they orient to content or medium and whether they experience a sense of freedom and control or a lack thereof. The value of field experimentation as a way to generate both convergent quantitative and divergent qualitative data is emphasized.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Sociotechnical Interventions: Antidote or Fad?
Authors: Beekun Rafik I.
Published: March 2006

In spite of an official record of success, much uncertainty surrounds the mean effect of sociotechnical interventions on organizational effectiveness. A new technique, a meta-analysis, is used to estimate both this mean effect and its variation across 17 sociotechnical studies. Several contingency variables which may have moderated this mean effect are also examined. Results indicate that interventions that (1) involved the formation of autonomous instead of semi- or non-autonomous workgroups, (2) included an increase in monetary incentives, and (3) occurred in a non-U.S. country rather than in the U.S. led to greater increases in productivity. Conversely, sociotechnical interventions that also included a change in technology resulted in a smaller improvement in productivity and a smaller drop in escape behavior than interventions without a technological change. More importantly, a curvilinear relationship was uncovered between the duration of an intervention and productivity. This curvilinear relationship rejects the hypothesis that the positive outcomes of sociotechnical interventions are temporary and indicative of a “Hawthorne Effect.”
Understanding Organizational Transformation Using a Dissipative Structure Model
Authors: Leifer Richard
Published: March 2006

Organizational transformation, qualitative and fundamental changes in an organization, occurs as a result of an organization's adaptive mechanisms being overwhelmed by internally or externally induced contingencies. Current approaches to change derived from equilibrium models are not adequate to describe the transformation phenomena. An emerging paradigm, dissipative structure, provides an alternative perspective on transformation by proposing that non-equilibrium conditions provide the opportunity for a new organizational order, resulting in an increased ability to manage complexity. Conditions, processes, and functioning of organizations from this perspective are discussed.
Predictors for Career Achievement in the Corporate Hierarchy
Authors: Gattiker Urs E. , Larwood Laurie
Published: March 2006

This study investigates the interrelationships between objective and perceived career achievement and career choices, success criteria, family variables, and demographics, as well as examining vocational congruence between career and the individual. The congruence model is tested by using both objective and subjective measures. A sample composed of more than 200 managers from a variety of organizations revealed that demographic and family variables relate to individual perceptions of career achievement as well as to objective indicators of career achievement within a corporate hierarchy. While the applicability of the general congruence model in career research seems limited based on this study's result, the functional congruence model is supported with the data obtained. Implications of these results for research on careers and career counselors are discussed.
Creating a Family in the Workplace
Authors: Baum Howell S.
Published: March 2006

Modern service work in bureaucratic organizations requires possibilities for acting aggressively in intimate relationships without anxiety. This article describes a local planning agency where staff created a “family” to solve these problems. Staff members originally created family activities to structure intimacy under intense working conditions. Simultaneously, they negotiated room for these activities in the bureaucracy. Consciously and unconsciously, they designed the family so as to transform organizational authority into family relationships, as well as to exclude Oedipal and sibling conflicts that are normally part of families. The departmental family eventually foundered on a changing reality: increasing individual and racial competition over promotions, as well as the departure of the family “father.” The case offers lessons for modern, bureaucratic service work.
Lay Theories of Psychotherapy II: The Efficacy of Different Therapies and Prognosis for Different Problems
Authors: Furnham Adrian , Wardley Zoe
Published: March 2006

This study concerns the structure and correlates of lay people's perceptions of the efficacy of different types of “psychological” therapies and-the prognosis of various psychological problems. Two hundred lay people completed two questionnaires, the first examining their perceptions of the efficacy of 22 different types of psychological treatment. The second questionnaire required them to rate the perceived prognosis for 36 different and relative common psychological problems derived from (with definition) the DSM III. Both questionnaires had a relative simple and interpretable factor structure not dissimilar to that emerging from related studies. Although sex, age, and education of the subjects was related to their beliefs about both efficacy and prognosis, the best predictor was their experience of, and knowledge about psychology. These results are discussed in terms of the literature on lay theories of psychotherapy and treatment. Limitations of the study are also discussed.
The Journal Relations of Human Relations
Authors: Everett James E.
Published: March 2006

This paper uses a method of citation analysis to examine the flow of knowledge between Human Relations and its most closely neighboring journals. Loglinear analysis of the citations for the period 1986-1990 is used to model the asymmetric citation matrix as a product of “importance” and “receptivity” vectors and a symmetric “similarity” matrix. The similarities are investigated by cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling is used to produce a map of the journals. The results provide objective evidence about the sources and destinations of developments in the academic fields with which Human Relations is concerned. Potential applications of the method to the study of other human and organizational interrelationships are also discussed.
The Effectiveness of Self-Managing Teams: A Quasi-Experiment
Authors: Cohen Susan G. , Ledford Gerald E.
Published: March 2006

This study used a quasi-experimental design to assess the effectiveness of self-managing teams in a telecommunications company. These teams performed customer service, technical support, administrative support, and managerial functions in a variety of locations. The balance of evidence indicates that self-managing teams were more effective than comparable traditionally-managed groups that performed the same type of work. The study illustrates the value of a collaborative research project in which researchers and clients jointly define the research questions, study design, and methods.
The Gender We Think, The Gender We Do in Our Everyday Organizational Lives
Authors: Gherardi Silvia
Published: March 2006

We “do gender” while we are at work, while we produce an organizational culture and its rules governing what is fair in the relationship between the sexes. The inner ambiguity of gender construction is expressed in the dilemma: how can we do gender without second-sexing the female? The management of cross-gendered situations (dual presence) is based on a two-stage ritual involving the ceremonial work of paying homage to the symbolic order of gender (a deep trans-psychic structure) and the remedial work of repairing the inequality inherent in gender difference. Studying the ambiguity of gender symbols enables us to use indirect speech and discoursively to change gender relationships in organizations.
Gender Differences in Clerical Workers' Disputes over Tasks, Interpersonal Treatment, and Emotion
Authors: Gwartney-Gibbs Patricia A. , Lach Denise H.
Published: March 2006

Although more than a quarter of American women work in clerical and administrative support jobs, little is known about the day-to-day experience of clerical work. We explore workplace dispute resolution among women and men clerical workers, focusing on how they define and resolve “personality conflicts.” “Personality conflict” is a label women clerical workers tend to use more than men to describe disputes over how tasks should be accomplished, interpersonal treatment, and emotional issues. In-depth interview data from two contrasting firms indicate that institutional dispute processing forums (a union-negotiated grievance procedure in “Firm A” and an open-door policy in “Firm B”) are ill-equipped to handle personality conflicts, causing women to laterally transfer, which in turn reduces their human capital. We suggest that workplace dispute resolution is an intra-organizational process which may create, maintain, or nullify employment inequality.
A Social Experiment in Publishing: Ms. Magazine, 1972-1989
Authors: Farrell Amy Erdman
Published: March 2006

This article explores the attempt by the editors of Ms. magazine, a feminist, mass-circulation, commercial periodical, to create a nonhierarchical, collective-type organization within the context of the mass-media publishing world. Drawing from interviews with the former editors and writers of Ms., published “Personal Reports,” and the editorial files collected at the Sophia Smith Archives, this article focuses on the tensions that emerged in constructing an egalitarian organization. The study finds that the primary transformations occurred within the editorial side of the magazine, though splits between women's movement-identified editors and women's magazine-identified editors made these changes more difficult than they had originally imagined. Few attempts were made to alter the business side of the magazine, which worked primarily as a pipeline to move staff into the world of mainstream (and male) publishing.
Empirical Studies of Projection: A Critical Review
Authors: Lewis J. Rees , Bates B. C. , Lawrence S.
Published: March 2006

Empirical work to date on the Freudian concept of projection is assessed. Previous reviews are considered and recent work integrated as well as material from several disciplines. This is an area with a substantial but convoluted research literature from which elements are distilled which seem essential for progress in the clarification of Projection, particularly with reference to its defensive qualities and its targeting. Of the many forms of projection that have been included in previous literature, two, Classical and Attributive (Holmes, 1868), are isolated as relevant to this paper. A “checklist” of pertinent factors for future designs is drawn up which integrates the strongest strands from work done under the rubric Social Psychology. It is concluded that despite the tenacity of the projection concept, work so far has provided a series of methodological caveats and much suggestive, but little conclusive data.
The Interpersonal Circumplex: A Theory and Method for Applied Psychology
Authors: Orford Jim
Published: March 2006

The major properties of the interpersonal circumplex model, and measurement procedures that accompany it, are described. It is suggested that the model and procedures can handle social interaction at a variety of levels from micro to macro, and are ideally suited to studying the interface between interpersonal behavior and social structure. Areas of present and potential application are described including psychotherapy and family processes, conflict and conciliation, consultation and advocacy, autonomy and leadership. Some methodological and substantive problems and issues pertaining to the model and measurement procedures are discussed and some possible extensions to the model proposed. These include the need to further incorporate socio-emotional variables into the model; the possibility of using the model to describe social settings; and the need to modify the classic theory of interpersonal complementarity.
Power, Interaction, Position, and the Generation of Cultural Agreement in Organizations
Authors: Stevenson William B. , Bartunek Jean M.
Published: March 2006

Cultural agreement in organizations can be considered from integration, differentiation, or fragmentation perspectives (Martin, 1992). Underlying these perspectives are differing assumptions about the effects of power, interaction, and position on cultural viewpoints in organizations. This study examines these assumptions by content analyzing the stories organizational members tell about their organization. Differences in formal power, informal influence, and organizational position all led to differences in stories that signified different cultural viewpoints. At the group level, informal interaction between groups did not lead to cultural agreement. However, groups that occupied similar positions or roles created through interaction in the network of influence did share similar cultural viewpoints. The results suggest that the effects predicted from the integration, differentiation, and fragmentation perspectives are likely to be jointly present in organizations. They also suggest that an understanding of formal and informal position in organizations can enhance appreciation of the subtleties of cultural understanding.
The Construction of Clients' Experience of Psychotherapy Through Narrative, Practical Action and the Multiple Streams of Consciousness
Authors: Baillie Aubrey , Corrie Sarah
Published: March 2006

In response to the demise of positivist rationality, different theoretical traditions have proposed alternative formulations of the way in which human beings construct their realities: discourse (social constructionism), self-interventions (critical realism), and the potentials of human consciousness (the humanist tradition). The notion of a “practical order” is introduced to conceptualize the practical context in which self-intervention takes place. Qualitative accounts of client experience of psychotherapy (Dinnage, 1988) provide examples of all three modes of reality construction. It is argued that a multimode perspective is consequently needed to provide an integrative framework that identifies in a systematic manner the different facets of client experience. The three modes correspond to three different sorts of questions that need to be addressed when researching client experience of psychotherapy. The multimode perspective advocated in this paper is used to highlight neglected research topics in this domain.
Information Acquisition in Promotion Decisions
Authors: Rudin Joel P. , Boudreau John W.
Published: March 2006

When organizations publicly post notices of promotional opportunities, they often must justify the rejection of unsuccessful applicants, and may therefore decide to rate all applicants. When the process is less public, however, selectors are not required to assign ratings to inferior candidates. We hypothesized that selectors would gather less information on inferior candidates when they were not required to rate them than when they were so required. Results of a study of 157 managers using an information display board methodology confirmed our hypothesis. Contrary to previous research in consumer behavior, individual proxies for “product familiarity,” such as number of years of previous work experience, were not related to information-gathering behavior.
PC or Not PC: Sexual Harassment and the Question of Ambivalence
Authors: Hollway Wendy , Jefferson Tony
Published: March 2006

The contemporary politics of sexual harassment on university campuses in the U.K. and the U.S. is considered in the light of “political correctness” debates. Threats to natural justice are discussed in relation to the different assumptions concerning men's and women's subjectivity in a representative university sexual harassment policy document. An alternative analysis in terms of multiple, non-unitary gendered subjectivities, taking into account unconscious intersubjective dynamics, is illustrated through a case example. The political implications of this analysis are discussed.
Reactions to Perceived Sex Discrimination
Authors: Gutek Barbara A. , Cohen Aaron Groff , Tsui Anne
Published: March 2006

Building on research on collective relative deprivation, we used independent samples of psychologists and managers to assess the relationship of perceived discrimination to an individual's reactions to the job and to the organization. While workers perceived relatively little sex discrimination, women perceived more discrimination against women than did men, and both sexes perceived more discrimination against women than discrimination against men. For women, perceptions of discrimination against women were associated with lower feelings of power and prestige on the job, more work conflict, more hours spent on paid work activities, and a lessened willingness to make the same career choice. Among men, perceptions of discrimination were related to few outcome measures. Implications for organizations are discussed.
Measuring the Helpgiving Practices of Human Services Program Practitioners
Authors: Dunst Carl J. , Tivette Carol M. , Hamby Deborah W.
Published: March 2006

The psychometric properties and utility of the Helpgiving Practices Scale are described. The scale includes 25 items which measure different kinds of helpgiving practices that have previously been found associated with positive recipient outcomes, including psychosocial functioning and self-efficacy appraisals. Item analysis, internal consistency reliability, factor analysis, criterion-related validity, and known-groups validity found the scale to have excellent psychometric properties. The scale was especially useful for differentiating the helpgiving practices of professionals from different kinds of programs and agencies that varied on a continuum from professionally-centered to family-centered. Implications for research and practice are described.
Economics and Social Anthropology—Reconciling Differences
Authors: Buckley Peter J. , Chapman Malcolm
Published: March 2006

This paper is the outcome of collaborative work between an economist and a social anthropologist. It explores the differences of outlook and approach between these two subjects, both in general, and in the specific context of a research project, “The Management of Cooperative Strategies,” which tests economistic hypotheses using methods largely derived from social anthropology. There remain major dissonanaces between the two subjects, but an attempt is made here to find fruitful common ground.
Corporate Cultural Fit and Performance in Mergers and Acquisitions
Authors: Weber Yaakov
Published: March 2006

While cultural fit has been acknowledged to be a potentially important factor in mergers and acquisitions, the concept has been ill-defined. Hence, its relationships to other human aspects in mergers have not been rigorously examined. Further, the relationships between cultural differences and other human factors to the effectiveness of the integration process and financial performance have not been subject to rigorous research that use relatively large samples of mergers and acquisitions. The present study assesses the role of corporate cultural fit, autonomy removal, and commitment of managers to the merger in predicting effective integration between merger partners in different industry sectors. The relationships between, and role of, these variables are found to be complex; they vary across industries and have different relationships with different measures of performance.
The Work Environment in the Twelve EU-Countries: Differences and Similarities
Authors: Smulders Peter G. W. , Kompier Michiel A. J. , Paoli Pascal
Published: March 2006

A survey on the work environment in Europe was carried out by the European Union in 1991. The sample of the study was 12,500 workers (about 1000 per country) and was representative for the workforce distribution in the EU according to occupation, gender, age, economic sectors, and company size. With the help of cluster-analysis, it was concluded that a four-cluster solution was the best to describe the situation in Europe with respect to the work environment. The four clusters were: the “Northern” cluster (Denmark, West Germany, former East Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain), the “Middle” cluster (Belgium and Luxembourg), the “Southern” cluster (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Ireland), and the “isolated Southern” cluster (Greece). The overall quality of working life in the Southern countries and Ireland-in comparison to the other European countries-was below average. In the Northern and Middle European EU-countries the quality of the work environment was above average. In the discussion, it is argued that an economic as well as a cultural model may be helpful in explaining the results.
Police Unions and the Police Role
Authors: Magenau John M. , Hunt Raymond G.
Published: March 2006

We studied the relationship of police unions to several dimensions of the police role while controlling for characteristics of the department, its external environment, duty assignments, and the demographic characteristics of police officers. We also examined the relationship between these variables and the role outcomes. Questionnaire data were collected from 830 randomly selected rank-and-file police officers from 15 urban police departments. Our findings support our hypothesis that unionization is related to greater emphasis on the law enforcement component of the police role. There also are significant relationships between organizational tenure, duty assignment, geographic location, and variation in the way police roles are performed. Our findings also include significant relationships between various characteristics of the department's environment, characteristics of the department itself, duty assignments, demographic characteristics of police officers and the satisfaction of police officers with their jobs, community relations, and departmental personnel practices.
Third-Party Sensemaking in Interpersonal Conflicts at Work: A Theoretical Framework
Authors: Volkema Roger J. , Farquhar Katherine , Bergmann Thomas J.
Published: March 2006

Theoretical and empirical models of interpersonal conflict focus primarily on engagement and avoidance behaviors between the conflict parties. Recent studies of workplace conflicts, however, suggest that encounters with third parties (e.g., co-workers, friends, family) are common responses to perceived incompatibility of interests. This paper introduces a model for understanding conflict-induced sensemaking behaviors, grounded in the conflict and social cognition literatures. Three components of sensemaking are proposed-emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. These elements are influenced by the focus of the party initiating sensemaking, as we illustrate through case-history scenarios.
New Technology and the Emerging Organizational Paradigm
Authors: Kolodny Harvey , Liu Michel , Stynne Bengt , Denis Hellne
Published: March 2006

This paper describes an empirical assessment of several hypotheses associated with organization design in the context of new and flexible technologies. Three distinct technologies were examined in four different geographical locations in Sweden, France, and Canada. The hypotheses illustrate how workplaces are being organized within the context of flexible, new technology, and the movement toward an emerging new paradigm of work. Flexible, new technologies and this paradigm are entering organizations at the same time. The former are changing the ground on which assumptions underlying the emerging paradigm of organization have been built. Several of the hypotheses examined have been revised as a consequence. The data from twelve companies are plotted on a matrix of organization design principles against organization design implementation to illustrate changing organization design patterns as well as geographic differences between the companies.
The Psychological Impact of Assessment in a Development Center
Authors: Francis-Smythe Jan , Smith Philip M.
Published: March 2006

This paper extends previous work on the psychological impact on candidates of selection and assessment processes, presenting results from a study of 32 participants in an assessment center (AC) program of a major U.K financial services organization. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are used to investigate: (a) the impact of the assessment outcome on cognitive and affective reactions to the assessment process and candidates' post-assessment psychological states, job-related attitudes, and intentions, and (b) the role of factors such as quality of feedback from the assessor, managerial support, and career line position on the impact process. Results show that the assessment outcome decision does have an effect on post-assessment psychological states and work-related attitudes but this effect works through a person's perception of the impact the assessment process will have on their career. This perception of impact is well predicted by the candidate's perceived quality of feedback and current career position. Good feedback helps careers more than poor feedback and the nearer the person's current role is to the position for which they are being assessed the more likely they are to benefit from the process.
Task Interdependence as a Moderator of the Relation Between Group Control and Performance
Authors: Liden Robert C. , Wayne Sandy J. , Bradway Lisa K.
Published: March 2006

Data were collected from the managers of 77 groups in a large service organization and a large manufacturing organization. The results revealed that the relation between group control over decision making and group performance became more positive with increased levels of task interdependence. The main implication of the findings is that increasing group control over decisions may result in high performance only for groups that are highly task interdependent. The performance of groups that are low in task interdependence may suffer when provided with group-level control of decisions.
Psychoanalytic Challenges: A Contribution to the New Sexual Agenda
Authors: Frosh Stephen
Published: March 2006

Behind its conservative facade and the rigidity of much of its clinical practice, psychoanalysis retains a disruptive attitude toward conventional discourses on gender and sexuality. This attitude derives from psychoanalysis' capacity to “ook awry” at experience and consequently to undermine notions of fixed identity, including sexual identity. In contemporary work, much of the debate on psychoanalysis' disruptive consciousness, particularly among feminists, has centered on the contribution of Lacanian thinking and in particular on the question of whether Lacan offers a more rigorous alternative to object relational accounts of gender identity and sexual difference. In this paper, the debate on psychoanalysis' contribution to the "new sexual agenda" is introduced and furthered by exploration of the notion of identification as used first in some non-Lacanian work by Jessica Benjamin, and then in a classic seminar of Lacan's. It is suggested that both Benjamin and Lacan offer insights into the “provisional” nature of adoption of specific sexual identities and that a continuing critical contribution from psychoanalysis can be found in this work.
Market-based health care reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: lessons after ten years of change
Authors: Nemec Juraj , Kolisnichenko Natalya
Published: March 2006

After 1989, all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries implemented large-scale health care reforms. The changes differ among CEE countries, depending very much on the specific conditions present at the start of and during the processes. However, there are some common issues—most notably, the introduction of several market-based instruments, including introducing health insurance financing systems to replace general taxation-based models, privatization and the introduction of private payments and co-payments. Much was expected as the outcome of the changes. However, recent evidence indicates that many expectations from the ‘marketization’ of health care were not fulfilled. Such failures confirm that the transformation processes in CEE countries cannot be based just on the simple transfer of western good practice. The success of the implementation of new approaches has been a function of the effective combination of western and local expertise and the respecting of the specific local environment. One must be able to predict (as much as possible) the impact of new mechanisms in specific transitional conditions. The inability to do this has come at great cost to the citizens of the region.
Cooperative service delivery: the dynamics of public sector-private sector-civil society collaboration
Authors: Rosenbaum Allan
Published: March 2006

Cooperative service delivery—the utilization by the public sector of civil society and/or the private sector for the delivery of public goods and services—is a growing phenomenon. In this article, the author examines three important aspects of these emerging relationships. These include the reason for this growing phenomenon; the forms which these relationships take; and the structural arrangements necessary to ensure the effectiveness of such efforts. It is noted that while philosophical and managerial beliefs are frequently cited reasons for such developments, political factors are equally important. The various approaches which government takes in the delivering of public goods and services are reviewed and it is seen that all of them lend themselves to cooperative initiatives. A number of necessary preconditions for effective cooperative service delivery are specified.
Comparative observations on tensions between professional policy advice and political control in the Low Countries
Authors: Brans Marleen , Pelgrims Christophe , Hoet Dieter
Published: March 2006

In politico-administrative relations, there is an always-existing tension between professional policy advice and political control. In this article, we would like to focus on this tension from a comparative perspective. The Netherlands and Belgium have broadly similar state institutions; they vary considerably as to the way in which professional policy advice is combined with political control. The Dutch case is traditionally characterized by a strong involvement of the civil service in the production of policy advice, whereas the Belgian civil service is traditionally marginalized in the policy formulation process. In this article, we shall argue that despite increased pressures towards convergence between both countries the actual balancing of professional policy advice and political control remains path dependent.