DOES CONTEXT AFFECT STAFFING DECISIONS? THE CASE OF GENERAL MANAGERS

A resource dependency framework (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) is applied to general manager (GM) selection decisions. Hypotheses are developed predicting associations between organizational contextual features (environmental instability, strategy, organizational performance, size) and background characteristics of GMs selected to head business units (organizational familiarity, functional experience, age). Data were collected on 40 recent GM selection decisions. Findings indicate that organizational contextual features influence the type of GM selected. Key results are that industry instability, organizational strategy, and organizational size were associated with GMs'organizational familiarity (i.e., tenure levels), and that organizational strategy was associated with the age of selected GMs. This study provides support for the application of a contingency perspective to human resource management.     

DOES USE OF TANGIBLE REWARDS WITH INDIVIDUAL CHILDREN AFFECT PEER OBSERVERS?1

The common assumption that employing tangible rewards with individual children will have adverse effects upon peer observers was studied in the preschool setting. Multiple-subject, multiple-baseline procedures were applied to two classes of children, aged 3.5 to 6 yr. In each group, three consecutive children with low base rates of in-seat behavior received a verbal contingency and food rewards for sitting, while peers (with either low or high rates of in-seat behavior) received neither food nor teacher attention for sitting. Peer reactions measured were in-seat behavior, aggression, nonaggressive disruptive behavior, and complaints. The procedures neither decreased the in-seat behavior of peer observers, nor increased their aggressive or disruptive behavior. On the contrary, peers with low base rates of sitting initially displayed an abrupt, but temporary, increase in sitting. Moreover, although no compensatory attention was delivered, all children exhibited improved sitting by the end of the study. Complaints, which consisted mainly of requests for rewards, decreased in frequency with successive program phases, and within each phase. It is suggested that the class improvement in sitting behavior and the absence of negative effects on observers may be partially due to the high frequency of attention the teacher maintained for other desired behavior and the lack of attention to children's complaints.     

CAN THE MEDIA AFFECT US? SOCIAL COMPARISON, SELF-DISCREPANCY, AND THE THIN IDEAL

The current study explored body image self-discrepancy as moderator and social comparison as mediator in the effects on women from thin-ideal images in the media. Female undergraduates ( N = 112) with high and low body image self-discrepancy were exposed to advertisements either with thin women (thin ideal) or without thin women (neutral-advertisement control). Exposure to thin-ideal advertisements increased body dissatisfaction, negative mood, and levels of depression and lowered self-esteem. In addition, social comparison processes mediated the relationship between exposure to thin-ideal advertisements and negative self-directed effects. Notably, self-discrepancy moderated this mediation. Women with high levels of body image self-discrepancy were more likely to engage in social comparison from exposure to thin-ideal advertisements, as well as more likely to have those comparison processes induce self-directed negative consequences. This research provides support for an individual difference variable (body image self-discrepancy) that moderates the mediating effect of social comparison from exposure to thin-ideal media.     

SEARCHING FOR HOUSING AS A BATTERED WOMAN: DOES DISCRIMINATION AFFECT REPORTED AVAILABILITY OF A RENTAL UNIT?

Individual battered women have reported experiencing housing discrimination, but the extent of this problem has not been examined. This research used two experiments and a survey to determine if landlord discrimination could keep women from accessing rental units. In Study 1, a confederate asked 181 landlords about the availability of a rental unit in one of three living conditions (shelter, friends, no mention of current living conditions) and across two scenarios (does or does not have a child). Rental units were almost 10 times more likely to be available in the control condition compared to the shelter condition, χ²(1,  N  = 181) = 8.624,  p  = .003, and these results were not affected by whether or not the caller had a child, χ²(1,  N  = 181) = 0.214,  p  = .644. In Study 2, the confederate was employed and left a message on 92 landlords' answering machines in the same three living conditions. The hypothesized comparison between the shelter and the other two conditions combined was significant, χ²(1,  N  = 92) = 4.602,  p  = .032. Finally, in a telephone survey of 31 landlords, a substantial minority (23%) said they would not rent to a hypothetical battered woman. The results of our studies suggest that discrimination against battered women by landlords is a real problem that is likely contributing to the difficulties that women experience in finding safe and affordable long-term housing.