MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING ABOUT EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINE: A POLICY-CAPTURING APPROACH

This study examined how personnel managers ( n = 19) and line managers ( n = 28) make disciplinary decisions. Using a policy-capturing approach, subjects were asked to respond to disciplinary incidents that varied in terms of three factors likely to affect managerial attributions about the cause of the disciplinary problem (managerial provocation, personal problems, or tenure). The incidents also varied in terms of factors made relevant by the economic, institutional/legal, and hierarchical contexts. Of the six variables manipulated, the factor relating to the institutional/legal context had the largest impact on the decisions made by the personnel managers, and the factor relating to the hierarchical context had the largest impact on the decisions made by the line managers. While provocation was relatively important for both line and personnel managers, personal problems, tenure, and the economic implications of the decision had more modest impacts on managerial decisions. The results also suggest that there is substantial variation across managers in terms of the decision rules employed when responding to disciplinary cases.     

BROADENING THE DEFINITION OF DECISION MAKING:

Decision theory and research have focused almost exclusively on choice—the selection of the best option from a choice set containing two or more options. Largely overlooked is the question of how those particular options got there in the first place—why them and not others? This article describes a theory, called image theory, about how prechoice screening of options governs the contents of the set from which a choice is made and summarizes empirical tests of the theory. The research results suggest that screening plays afar more important role in decision making than is generally appreciated and that our view of decision making must be broadened accordingly.     

REFEREES' DECISION MAKING ABOUT TRANSGRESSIONS: THE INFLUENCE OF PLAYER GENDER AT THE HIGHEST NATIONAL LEVEL

Prior research has found that referees are harsher toward sporting offenses in regional-level matches between women than in regional-level matches between men. We tested whether this bias also occurs at a higher, national level of competition, despite the greater pressures for objectivity and fairness at this level. Referees' decisions were examined in 15 national-level handball matches between women and 15 national-level handball matches between men after transgressions that varied in severity. The results suggest that referees made harsher decisions in female than in male matches. Although more research is needed, this study supported the hypothesis that referees may use the gender of players as a powerful judgmental heuristic for deciding how to respond to aggression.     

DECISION MAKING ABOUT ADVANCE DIRECTIVES BY MARRIED WOMEN

One goal of this exploratory study was to describe the experiences of 41 wives engaged in a congregationally based educational program promoting the discussion of advance directives (ADs). Other goals were to explore whether marital commitment was an antecedent for engaging in AD discussions, as well as whether it was positively associated with wives' increased trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences. Eighty percent of the wives discussed ADs with their husbands, and 44% revised/signed an AD. Slightly over half of the couples discussed ADs for 1 hour or less.There was marginal support for the hypothesis that there would be a positive association between wives' discussing ADs with their husbands and marital commitment. There was strong support for the hypothesis that wives' level of commitment would be positively associated with their trust that their husbands would carry out their AD preferences.     

THE 12-HOUR WORK DAY: DIFFERING EMPLOYEE REACTIONS

This field study examined the reactions of non-exempt employees (N=671) to utilizing a "compressed word schedule" (i.e., 12-hour shifts) for staffing a continuous process plant which operated 24-hours per day/seven days per week. The 12-hour shifts were fixed with shifts changing at noon and at midnight. Based upon previous research, it was hypothesized that employees who had actually worked the 12-hour schedule would be more positive towards it than would employees who had never worked it. This was found to be the case. For example, those who had worked the 12-hour schedule saw the compressed schedule as being less fatiguing, saving on commuting cost and time, providing a more regular sleep pattern, and providing more usable time off. A second hypothesis concerned only those working the 12-hour shift. It was hypothesized that those employees working the 12 PM to 12 AM shift would be "less out of phase" with physiological and social rhythms and, thus, react more positively to the 12-hour shift than employees working the 12 AM to 12 PM shift. This hypothesis was strongly supported.     

THE IMPACT OF FLEXIBLE BENEFITS ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION: A FIELD STUDY

This study examines the attitudes of 110 employees of a financial service organization before and after the introduction of a flexible benefit plan. A large, statistically significant increase in benefit satisfaction was observed following implementation, as was a smaller significant increase in overall satisfaction. Employee understanding of the benefit package also increased significantly. No significant relationships were found between demographic characteristics and responses to the flexible plan. Potential confounds due to the complexity of the intervention are discussed. Future research is called for to examine the processes through which flexible benefits impact worker reactions and to examine the impact of flexible benefits on behavioral responses such as attraction and retention.     

PATTERNS OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR RELATED TO EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCES AND TURNOVER: SOME POST HOC REFLECTIONS

This study investigates some relationships between the leader behavior of industrial supervisors and the behavior of their group members. It represents an extension of earlier studies carried out at the International Harvester Company, while the authors were with the Ohio State University Leadership Studies.     

COMPARISONS OF MANAGERIAL AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION WITH A PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM

Questionnaires were administered to managers and employees in a large multinational corporation to assess satisfaction with various aspects of a performance appraisal system. Comparisons of managers' and employees' satisfaction were made by conducting factor analyses for each sample. The results indicate moderate similarity between the two groups. However, two significant differences were revealed by the analysis. First, there is evidence that employees perceive certain aspects of the appraisal system in a global way, whereas managers differentiate among various components and see them as distinct entities. Second, the relative importance of the factors differs between the two groups. The largest portion of variance accounted for in the employee sample pertained to general satisfaction with the system whereas for managers it pertained to the types of ratings made on the appraisal form. The results are discussed in terms of the different perspectives managers and employees have in the appraisal process.     

EMPLOYEE SILENCE ON CRITICAL WORK ISSUES: THE CROSS LEVEL EFFECTS OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE CLIMATE

This study examined the cross-level effects of procedural justice climate on employee silence—that is, the intentional withholding of critical work-related information by employees from their workgroup members. In a survey-based study of 606 nurses nested within 30 workgroups, we found that procedural justice climate moderated the effects of individual-level antecedents of employee silence. Specifically, when procedural justice climate was higher, the effects of antecedents that inhibit employee silence (e.g., workgroup identification, professional commitment) were stronger. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

先秦兵家决策心理思想研究

先秦兵家具有丰富的决策心理思想,主要观点如下：1“知彼知己,百战不殆”──全面信息管理心理思想。2“校之以计,而索其情”──全方位收集分析信息;这段时期兵家提出的收集信息方法和手段可以概括为以下几点：（1）分析推断;（2）观察法;（3）用间法;（4）侦察法。3“多算胜,少算不胜”的决策心理思想：先秦兵家的决策心理思想是以“全胜而非战”为目标,以全面的信息管理为前提,并且包含有三条原则：“善之善者”的优选原则;“践墨随敌”的调控原则;“奇正相生”的变化原则。     

决策者的认知特征对决策过程及企业战略选择的影响

在不确定环境下,企业的最高决策者的个人特性和行为对于企业的战略决策起着关键的作用。本研究探讨决策者的认知特征对于战略决策的过程以及最终形成的战略决策的影响。研究采用情境实验法,根据某企业的实际情形编写了一个商业案例,案例提供了决策者所需要的信息,并制造出高不确定的情境。148名来自大学管理学院的学生被要求对于该案例进行分析并填写有关量表。对数据进行结构方程模型的分析后得到如下结果：决策者的认知复杂性和认知需要与他们对企业内外环境的周密分析具有显著的正向关系,而且通过后者影响到对于环境中蕴含的机会的判断,并最终影响是否进入某项业务的决策。     

群体决策过程中的信息取样偏差

一般认为,决策群体的优势是能综合各个成员拥有的不完整信息,形成对所有决策备择方案的无偏差的认识,从而作出最佳选择。但“群体讨论中的有偏差信息取样模型’认为,群体在决策中往往表现出倾向于讨论两种信息：(1)各成员讨论前都拥有的信息;(2)支持成员在讨论前所偏好的信息。该实验通过模拟人员选拔决策形式的实验室实验,对这一模型的假设进行验证。研究结果表明,大多数群体选择了一开始受到大多数成员支持的候选人,而非实际的最佳人选;群体讨论非但未纠正,反而加强了成员对候选人原有的歪曲印象。     

A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF CHANGES IN GOAL SETTING ON EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION1

Two hundred and forty-five working level scientists and engineers participated in a longitudinal study in which their managers had been trained in a Management by Objectives program. Subjects completed two questionnaries, the latter being completed 21 months after the first designed to assess perceptions of their managers' goal setting behavior along four dimensions derived using factor analytic procedures (Goal Clarity and Planning, Subordinate Freedom, Feedback and Evaluation, Participation in Goal Setting) and their reported intrinsic, extrinsic and total satisfaction. Dynamic correlations (Vroom, 1966) were computed between changes in the goal setting factors and changes in the satisfaction variables and significant positive relationships were observed. In addition, results indicated that job task (research vs. development) demonstrated a moderating influence on the goal setting-satisfaction relationships. An unexpected finding was that there was a significant decrease in perceived managerial behavior on the Goal Clarity and Planning factor over the 21 months. However, a significant increase occurred on the Feedback and Evaluation factor. Since no control group was available for comparison, little can be said about whether these changes were a result of the MBO program. Significant differences between the development and the research subjects were also observed on two of the goal setting factors.     

团体决策支持系统和团体讨论对团体决策的影响

通过模拟实验的方法,探讨了团体决策支持系统（GDSS）和团体讨论对团体决策的影响。以大学生为被试,运用小组决策任务,对小组决策过程进行了研究。实验记录了在有无GDSS的支持和有无团体讨论两个变量所决定的4种实验条件下,小组决策取得结果的正确性和组内的一致性。用ANOVA方法分析了4种条件下的实验结果,发现GDSS能提高团体决策的正确性,而团体讨论将有助于成员做出一个正确的、一致的决策     

个人和团体任务情境中不同心理卷入强度对个体决策行为的影响

使用被试间实验设计,分别研究了个体和团体两种不同的任务情境中,心理卷入强度高低对决策效果的影响。结果表明：（1）无论个体还是团体任务情境,不同的心理卷入度的决策者,决策结果差异显著;高心理卷入情境下,决策者的决策更为客观和公平。（2）团体任务高心理卷入情境下,学生对自己小组的评价和对其他小组的评价差异不显著。（3）团体任务情境中成员的决策结果比个体任务情境的更为客观。