COMMUNICATION SATISFACTION,JOB SATISFACTION,AND JOB PERFORMANCE

This field study of 327 hospital nurses investigated the relationship between perceived satisfaction with organizational communication and job satisfaction and job performance. The researcher developed a research model incorporating nine dimensions of communication satisfaction and hypothesized their varying relationships with job satisfaction and job performance. Correlation, multiple regression, and canonical correlation analyses revealed significant positive relationships between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction, and communication satisfaction and job performance. The communication satisfaction-job satisfaction link was stronger. The same facets of communication—supervisor communication, communication climate, and personal feedback—were found to be most strongly related to both job satisfaction and performance. Although the importance of the superior-subordinate communication relationship was confirmed, top management communication also was substantially related to job satisfaction and, to a lesser degree, job performance. Rank-order correlation results of this study were compared to several other studies and some congruent patterns were found.     

GENERAL MENTAL ABILITY,NARROWER COGNITIVE ABILITIES,AND JOB PERFORMANCE: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE NESTED-FACTORS MODEL OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES

The nested-factors model is a well-established structural model of cognitive abilities in cognitive ability research but has not yet been used to investigate the role of cognitive abilities in job performance. Core assumptions of the nested-factors model are that a broad general mental ability (GMA) exists besides narrower abilities and that this GMA differs from the narrower cognitive abilities in breadth but not in subordination. The authors of this article propose that a recently emerging statistical technique—relative importance analysis—corresponds to the assumptions of the nested-factors model. To empirically study the implications of using the nested-factors model, the authors applied relative importance analysis to a meta-analytic matrix linking measures of 7 narrower cognitive abilities from an established ability taxonomy (Thurstone's primary mental abilities), GMA, and job performance. Results revealed that GMA accounted for 10.9% to 28.6% of the total variance explained in job performance and that GMA was not consistently the most important predictor. The discussion focuses on potential theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the nested-factors model for personnel psychology.     

The predictive validity of cognitive complexity measures on social perspective-taking and counseling communication

We compared the predictive validity of two cognitive complexity measures on two communication-relevant abilities: social perspective-taking and person-centered counseling. Forty-six undergraduates completed versions of Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire and Bieri et al.'s repertory grid task to measure cognitive complexity. Measures of social perspective-taking ability and person-centered counseling messages were also obtained from the subjects. Whereas Crockett's complexity measure was significantly and consistently related to the communication-related measures, Bieri's complexity measure was only marginally related to these same measures.     

Specific versus general skills and abilities: A job level examination of relationships with wage

The extensive literature purporting an upgrading in occupational skill requirements paired with the perception of a skill shortage in the workforce calls for the need to develop workplace skills and abilities. However, decisions about which skills to develop would be aided by information about which skills/abilities are valued most highly and lead to higher wage jobs. The job evaluation literature and labour‐market wage theory present competing hypotheses about skill—wage relationships. The ACT Inc.'s Work Keys® system, the prototype Occupational Information Network, and the fourth edition Dictionary of Occupational Titles job analytic databases were paired with concurrent wage data. These data made it possible to conduct a job‐level evaluation of whether specific skills/abilities could be identified that were most strongly linked to wage or whether broad skill/ability factors accounted for a majority of wage variance. Results indicated that a majority of the wage variance explainable by skills/abilities could be attributed to a general cognitive factor.     

童年贫困与晚年认知老化：加速还是延缓?

童年贫困与晚年认知老化的关系尚存争议。有的研究表明, 童年贫困会加速个体的认知老化, 但是也有研究发现童年贫困会延缓个体的认知老化, 这与社会流动性起到的调节作用有关。对于童年贫困个体, 低稳定或者社会经济地位的向下流动(即长期贫困)会使逆境产生的消极影响不断累积, 从而加速个体的认知老化; 而心理韧性高的童年贫困个体, 可能会促使社会经济地位向上流动, 这会增加个体的认知储备, 并提升特定认知能力, 进而延缓认知老化。今后该领域的研究应该探讨童年主观贫困与认知老化之间的关系以及童年贫困对不同认知能力老化的影响, 也应关注童年贫困与晚年认知老化关系研究中的幸存者偏差效应。     

COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY MEASURES AND THE RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE COMPLEXITY TO COMMUNICATION

This review assesses the adequacy of several commonly employed cognitive complexity measures on the basis of five criteria: high test-retest reliability with adults, association with chronological age across childhood and adolescence, independence from intelligence and verbal abilities, association with other indices of developed social cognition, and association with measures of developed communicative functioning. Extant research indicates that only one complexity measure—Crockett's Role Category Questionnaire—is satisfactory on all these criteria, whereas Bieri's widely used measure is deficient on most. However, research to date concerning the relationship of cognitive complexity (as assessed by Crockett's measure) to communication has failed to illuminate the specific role played by complexity as opposed to other social-cognitive factors with which it is associated.     

Personality Factors and Adult Attachment Affecting Job Mobility

Past research has revealed that individuals' job mobility is affected by factors such as job satisfaction, specific career enhancing attributes and job availability. This study examined personality factors predicting voluntary internal and external job mobility. Three types of voluntary job mobility measures were studied: dissatisfaction changes, job improvement changes and job rotations within companies. These mobility measures were related to the Big Five personality factors, sensation seeking and adult attachment. Results showed that demographic variables and sensation seeking contributed to the variance in external job changes. Internal job rotations were not related to any of the demographic and personality variables.     

Career stages: A partial test of Levinson's model of life/career stages

This study purports to test a theory of life and career stages developed by Daniel Levinson and his associates. The theory suggests four distinct stages between ages 20 and 45 each with their own developmental tasks and related behaviors and attitudes. Subjects (759 managerial, professional, and technical employees) were selected randomly from levels and departments of a major public sector employer in the midwest United States. The measure of career stage asked respondents to indicate whether they had passed through, were still in, or had not yet reached each stage as operationalized by a short vignette. Attitudinal and behavioral measures were abstracted from previously developed instruments. Only moderate support for the theory was found with little or no evidence to support the age-linked notion of these stages. Stages were found to be discriminable in terms of certain attitudes (upward mobility, career and overall job satisfaction, and job commitment) as predicted. Suggestions are given for improvements in measurement, research design, and theory refinement.     

Construct validity and age sensitivity of prospective memory

We administered four prospective memory tasks to 330 adults between 18 and 89 years of age to investigate the relationship among the measures of performance in the four tasks, as well as the relationship of the prospective memory measures to age, other cognitive abilities, and noncognitive factors. The four prospective memory variables were found to exhibit both convergent and discriminant validity, indicating that prospective memory ability appears to represent a distinct dimension of individual differences. The prospective memory construct was significantly related to other cognitive abilities, such as executive functioning, fluid intelligence, episodic memory, and perceptual speed, but it was only weakly related to self-ratings of (primarily retrospective) memory and to personality traits. Although a substantial proportion of the age-related variance on the prospective memory construct was shared with other cognitive abilities, we also found some evidence of unique, statistically independent, age-related influences on prospective memory.     

Cognitive Concepts of the Self and Romantic Relationships

The present study applied 2 complementary cognitive concepts of the self (i.e., self-complexity [SC] and self-concept differentiation [SCD]) to the area of romantic relationships and developed corresponding measures of cognitive concepts of romantic relationships (relationship complexity [RC] and relationship-concept differentiation [RCD], respectively). Then the associations between the cognitive concept measures and the degrees to which the participant's negative affect had been increased due to the recall of negative events in the romantic relationship were examined. Eighty-nine college students who were currently involved in a romantic relationship participated in the study. Results showed that the relationship-concept measures were related to, but not identical with, the self-concept measures. A greater affective reaction to the recall of a negative event in the romantic relationship was associated with a higher score in SC and a lower score in RC, whereas this affective reaction was neither significantly related to SCD nor to RCD. The findings imply that the relationship concept measures developed in the present study contribute significantly to the understanding of affective reactivity in romantic relationships.     

Parent-infant resemblance for general and specific cognitive abilities in the Colorado adoption project

Previous publications emanating from the Colorado Adoption Project have reported significant relationships between parental general cognitive ability (g) and infant Bayley MDI scores. The present study compared infant Bayley factor scores representing separable dimensions of infant cognition with parental general and specific cognitive abilities for 182 adoptive families and 164 nonadoptive families. Parent/offspring correlations between 12-month Bayley factors and parental cognitive abilities suggest only minimal relationships for both parental g and specific abilities. At 24 months, more parent/offspring resemblance was present; moreover, Bayley factors that were related to parental cognition tended to be related to parental g, not to specific abilities. The finding of significant parent/offspring relationships at 24 months between biological parents and their adopted-away infants, as well as between nonadoptive parents and their infants, suggests some genetic continuity from infancy to adulthood.     

LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF ABILITY-JOB COMPLEXITY FIT AND JOB CHANGE

The study examines job mobility as a function of congruence between individuals' abilities and their job's complexity. The gravitational hypothesis (McCormick, DeNisi, & Staw, 1979; McCormick, Jeanneret, & Mecham, 1972), a keystone of this objective, posits that individuals will sort into jobs that are commensurate with their ability level. This study used various analytical techniques to examine the relationship between ability, person-job fit, and occupational mobility. First, the gravitational hypothesis was tested. Second, the direction of mismatch between ability and job complexity was hypothesized to predict direction of change in job complexity over time. Two national, longitudinal databases, the National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972 (NLS-72) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience-Youth Cohort (NLSY), were used to test these relationships. Results were supportive in both the NLS-72 and the NLSY. Additional analyses examined the difference between measures of objective job complexity and subjective job complexity (Gerhart, 1988) for the gravitational process and the difference in employer- and employee-initiated job changes. These results have implications for employers, vocational counselors and job applicants. Suggestions for improving the ability-job complexity match are provided.     

Complex span tasks, simple span tasks, and cognitive abilities: A reanalysis of key studies

There is great interest in the relationships between memory span tasks and cognitive abilities. However, the causes underlying their correlation remain unknown. In the present article, five key data sets were reanalyzed according to two criteria: They must consider complex span tasks (so-called working memory [WM] tasks) and simple span tasks (so-called short-term memory [STM] tasks), and they must comprise cognitive ability measures. The obtained results offer several points of interest. First, memory span tasks should be conceived from a hierarchical perspective: They comprise both general and specific components. Second, the general component explains about four times the variance explained by the specific components. Third, STM and WM measures are closely related. Fourth, STM and WM measures share the same common variance with cognitive abilities. Finally, the strong relationship usually found between memory span tasks and cognitive abilities could be tentatively interpreted by the component shared by STM and WM--namely, the capacity for temporarily preserving a reliable memory representation of any given information.     

INTERACTIVE VIDEO ASSESSMENT OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS

In this research we developed and validated an interactive video assessment of conflict resolution skills. A model of conflict management was used to develop the conflict scenarios and part of the scoring key. Computer assessments of conflict resolution skills and two cognitive abilities were administered to 347 supervisors and job performance ratings were collected from their managers. The conflict skills assessment was found to be significantly related to supervisory ratings of on-the-job performance in managing conflict but to be unrelated to the measures of cognitive ability. In addition, the conflict skills assessment had no adverse impact for women. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.     

A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TRUST,DISCLOSURE, AND INTERPERSONAL SOLIDARITY

This study conceptualized perceived trustworthiness of the individual, self-disclosure to the individual, perceived trustworthiness of people in general, and disclosive tendencies to other people in general to be indicants of a broader construct of trust. Self-disclosure and perceived trustworthiness of the individual were found to be related constructs assessing differential aspects of the trust construct. Likewise, self-disclosure and perceived trustworthiness of the individual were found to be criterial attributes of interpersonal solidarity. These communication-related phenomena indicated the solidarity of interpersonal relationships. In the progress of the research, a 20-item measure of perceived interpersonal solidarity was developed as a criterion for assessing the impact of communication-related variables on interpersonal relationships. Other exploratory research issues were investigated.     

Getting Ahead: Educational and Occupational Trajectories of the ‘New’ Second-Generation in Switzerland

This paper examines the educational and occupational trajectories among second-generation immigrants of Turkish and Western-Balkan origin in Switzerland. Using a representative sample of 1107 respondents in two Swiss urban areas, the findings reveal that descendants of immigrants have reduced chances to follow a constant successful path from education to occupation, which is mainly determined by parental socioeconomic status. However, young adults of Turkish and Western Balkan origin are significantly more often upward mobile than the majority group, a pattern that is robust against a range of controls. We find parental monitoring and family cohesion to be positively related with upward mobility. Moreover, second-generation immigrants are more likely to be upwardly mobile than starting high in the education system but subsequently moving downwards—a profile that is more frequent among Swiss origin youth. Our multivariate results indicate that a lack of intense parent–child communication and perceived discrimination in school are affecting this downward process.     

Validation of personality and cognitive measures for insurance claims examiners

Claims Examiners are critical for the profitability of large insurance companies. Mistakes in hiring these people can result in improperly processed claims and/or turnover, and this yields negative financial consequences for the company. This paper describes research evaluating the validity of selection procedures for the position of claims examiner at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma. A job analysis indicated that both cognitive skills and personal abilities are necessary for successful performance as a claims examiner. The job analysis also indicated that both subjective and objective criterion measures reflect important aspects of job performance. The criterion data included nine supervisory ratings, employee nominations, average percent of performance, absences, disciplinary actions, and sick leave. In a concurrent validation strategy, we tested a sample of experienced incumbents (N=50) using four cognitive ability tests (Basic Skills Tests: BST) and two measures of personality (Hogan Personality Inventory and PROFILE). Scales from two personality inventories were combined to form the Claims Examiner Inventory (CEI). Scores from the CEI and three of the four cognitive tests correlated significantly with the average percent of performance and six of the supervisory ratings, including the average supervisory rating. In addition to the cognitive measures, the personality measure contributed significantly to the prediction of percent of performance achieved with R=.64. These results are consistent with other research findings that support the use of both personality and cognitive measures as predictors of job performance.     

A longitudinal study of career success,embeddedness, and mobility of early career professionals

The study of voluntary job mobility has traditionally focused on how the present context and individual factors either support or constrain choice of blue and white collar workers. Less attention has been devoted to the relationships among career success, embeddedness, and mobility of early career professionals. How do past career success and job mobility affect job embeddedness, subsequent career success, and future mobility within and between organizations and occupations? Each of these constructs is often studied as a dependent variable, yet the relationships among them, over time, are rarely examined. We explore the effects of past objective career actions (promotions, % salary change, and job mobility) on current job embeddedness and subjective career success, and on job, organizational, and occupational mobility one year later. Results support the positive influence of past promotions, % salary change, and current job embeddedness on subjective career success, and a negative influence for past promotions, job embeddedness, and subjective career success on mobility one year later as people began to ‘settle in’. We also observed small positive relationships of past promotions and % salary change with job embeddedness, and of past job mobility with future mobility — indicating that objective career success contributes to embeddedness, yet those that move more often tend to keep doing so. There were no differences or interaction effects based on gender or years of work experience. We found significantly stronger negative relationships of embeddedness and subjective career success with mobility between occupations than for mobility within organizations. However, the same pattern of findings was observed for job, organization, and occupational mobility.     

The Development and Validation of a Personological Measure of Work Drive

Using six studies based on 23,823 individuals in diverse settings, we developed and validated a personality measure of Work Drive—a disposition to work long hours and extend oneself for one's job. The factor structure was confirmed in four settings. Work Drive was related to job performance showing incremental validity beyond cognitive aptitude and Big Five personality traits in five validation studies. It predicted academic performance at six different grade levels, even beyond Big Five traits. Construct validity was examined via work values, job involvement, normal personality scales, satisfaction measures, and cognitive ability. Little adverse impact was found. Occupational groups differed on Work Drive. Overall validity and areas of application were discussed.