PERCEIVED JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB SATISFACTION: AN EXAMINATION OF RECIPROCAL CAUSATION

The following four assumptions were tested (a) satisfaction with job/task events and perceptions of job challenge, autonomy, and importance are direct, reciprocal causes of each other; (b) job perceptions are also caused directly by situation attributes, although perceptual distortions resulting for individual dispositions must also be considered; (c) job satisfaction is also cognitively consistent with (i.e., caused by) individual dispositions, although these individual dispositions are generally different from those associated with job perceptions; and (d) individuals reply on job perceptions, and not situational attributes, for information in formulating job satisfaction attitudes. The assumptions are tested on a sample of nonsupervisory subjects ( n = 642) from divergent work environments (e.g., production-lines and a computer software department). A nonrecursive, structural equation analysis, combined with tests of logical consistency, supported the assumptions above. The results were employed to recommend changes in current perspectives regarding perceptual/affective dichotomies and unidirectional causal models and moderator models that link job perceptions to job satisfaction.     

EFFECTS OF HANDICAP AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS ON SELECTION EVALUATIONS

An experiment was conducted using 211 upper division and graduate business administration students who evaluated hypothetical job applicants. The applicant was either an amputee, an epileptic, or "normal." The job either involved public contact or it did not; and, it either involved supervisory responsibilities or it did not. Generally, handicapped applicants were evaluated no differently than normal applicants. Epileptic applicants, however, were expected to establish better relationships with clients and customers as well as with other employees than were normal applicants. Further, amputees were offered a smaller salary than normals. Implications for future research and unfair discrimination are discussed.     

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF JOB APPLICANTS AND SUCCESS IN SCREENING INTERVIEWS

Although there is substantial evidence that personality constructs are valid predictors of job performance, there is less systematic evidence of how personality characteristics relate to success in the interviewing process. Measures of the Big Five personality markers were obtained from a sample of graduating college seniors (n = 83) who were engaged in a job search. At a later time these students reported the strategies used in the job search and success in generating follow-up interviews and job offers. Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness were positively related to the use of social sources (e.g., talking to others) to prepare for interviews. Conscientiousness was positively related to the use of non-social preparation. Use of social sources for preparation for initial interviews was positively related to the likelihood of receiving follow-up interviews and job offers. The results suggest that personality is related to interviewee's success in part through actions taken well before the interviewing process begins and in part through the interviewers' inferences of the applicants' personality during the interview.     

COMPARING RECRUITER, STUDENT, AND FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF IMPORTANT APPLICANT AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS

This study investigated the extent to which corporate recruiters, students and faculty share an understanding of important job applicant characteristics and desirable job factors. Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences between the three groups. The implications of these findings for recruitment, selection, and career counseling are discussed.     

THE VALIDITY OF THE JOB CHARACTERISTICS MODEL: A REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

The validity of Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model was assessed by conducting a comprehensive review of nearly 200 relevant studies on the model as well as by applying meta-analytic procedures to a large portion of the data. The evidence indicated that the available correlational results are reasonably valid in light of the issues examined. Results tended to support the multidimensionality of job characteristics, but there was less agreement on the exact number of dimensions. The corrected correlational results of the meta-analysis indicated that job characteristics related both to psychological and behavioral outcomes. Concerning psychological states, the results tended to support their mediating (e.g., intervening) role between job characteristics and personal outcomes. The pattern of correlations between the job characteristics and psychological states was less supportive of the model. Meta-analytic results demonstrated that most of the cross-study variance was due to statistical artifacts. True variance across studies was found for the job characteristics-performance relationship, however, and subsequent analyses suggested that growth-need strength moderates this relationship. Implications for potential revisions of the model and for practice are discussed.     

中小学教师职业枯竭状况及其与社会支持的关系

该研究提出了中国教师职业枯竭表现的新维度——知识枯竭,检验了四维度枯竭模型在中国的有效性。并采用问卷调查法,对全国679名中小学教师的职业枯竭状况进行了分析,考察了各种人口统计学变量之间的差异,并探讨了职业枯竭各个维度与社会支持之间的关系。结果发现,男教师、教龄在11~20年的教师枯竭程度较高。从社会支持对于教师枯竭的缓解作用来讲,来源于学生和学校领导的支持,以及情感型支持更为有效。     

INDIVIDUAL AND INTERPERSONAL MODERATORS OF EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO JOB CHARACTERISTICS: A REEXAMINATION

This research examines the moderating effects of individual growth need strength (GNS) and interpersonal (supervisory and co-worker) satisfactions on the relationship of job enrichment characteristics to intrinsic job satisfaction and job involvement. Data were collected from a sample of 89 managerial and professional personnel of a large manufacturing firm in the Midwest. The results tend to support previous research findings regarding the moderating effects of individual GNS but not interpersonal satisfaction factors. In fact, significant interactions between job enrichment characteristics and interpersonal factors are obtained but they are opposite those reported in previous research. Implications of the findings for job design are discussed.     

EFFECT OF TEMPORARY CONTRACTS ON PERCEIVED WORK CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB STRAIN: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This longitudinal study investigates differences in perceived work characteristics and job strain as a function of employment status. The study examines the effects of a change from involuntary temporary to permanent status ( N = 75) compared to staying permanent ( N = 257), as well as comparing temporary contract and permanent contract employees at Time 1 and a second-wave comparison that included new temporary contract employees ( N = 92) and new permanent contract employees ( N = 34). Results suggest that temporary employment status is associated with negative and positive consequences. On the negative side, temporary status reduced perceptions of job security and participative decision making, which had deleterious effects on job strain. On the other hand, temporary employees had fewer strain-inducing role demands (in particular, lower role overload). The net effect was that temporary employees had lower job strain, which analyses suggested was due to indirect effects of the lower role demands.     

A FIELD STUDY OF JOB APPLICANT INTERVIEW PERCEPTIONS, ALTERNATIVE OPPORTUNITIES, AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS

A field study was conducted to examine several factors related to young job applicants, their reactions to job interviews, and their intentions to accept a job if offered. Immediately following their interviews, 422 applicants voluntarily responded to questionnaires concerning the interview, parents' and friends' pressure for them to take the job, alternative job opportunities, and behavioral intentions to accept the job. Applicants who responded more favorably to their interviewers felt somewhat more positive about taking a job in the recruiting organization. Perceived alternative job opportunities moderated the relationship between reactions to the job and acceptance intentions. Multivariate effects were found for applicant sex, applicant race, and interviewer sex on reactions to the interviewer and the interview. Further research on the role of parental and peer pressure on job acceptance among young workers is suggested, as is the moderating role of alternative opportunities. The implications of race and sex differences in interview reactions are also discussed.     

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE EFFECTS OF APPEARANCE, GENDER, AND JOB TYPE ON PERFORMANCE-BASED DECISIONS

The present study attempted to replicate and extend Heilman and Stopeck's (1985a) Lack of Fit Model. Using the Lack of Fit Model's proposal that attractiveness enhances perceived gender characteristics, we examined the effects of attractiveness and performance evaluations of persons in jobs rated as masculine, feminine, and neutral. Results were not consistent with the Model and did not replicate the results of the earlier study. Instead, attractiveness emerged as an asset regardless of job type or gender of employee. Attractive men and women were given higher overall ratings in all three jobs. In addition, attractive ratings were related to masculinity–femininity ratings. These findings are discussed in light of demographic and attitudinal changes in the workplace.     

MOOD AND WELL-BEING IN CONSECUTIVE MENSTRUAL CYCLES Methodological and Theoretical Implications

The level of consistency of cyclical change in well-being between consecutive menstrual cycles has important methodological, clinical, and theoretical implications. In this study, 109 women completed daily diaries of mood and physical well-being for two consecutive menstrual cycles. Scores in equivalent cycle phases were highly correlated, but the degree and direction of change from the pre-post menstrual phase were less consistent between cycles. Physical experiences proved more consistent across cycles than did emotional ones. Only 5.4% (nonsteroidal contraceptive users) and 7.8% (oral contraceptive users) of Cycle 2 emotional score variance could be accounted for by Cycle 1 scores compared to 15% and 22%, respectively, for physical scores. The data indicate that premenstrual experiences vary between menstrual cycles, and suggest that they cannot be adequately explained on the basis of simple biological determinism. Methodological and theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

UNDERSTANDING SELF-OTHER AGREEMENT: A LOOK AT RATER AND RATEE CHARACTERISTICS, CONTEXT, AND OUTCOMES

This study investigated (a) the relative importance of a number of biographic (e.g., age, race, gender) and contextual (e.g., span of control, functional area) variables and their interactions on self-other agreement and (b) the relationship between self-other agreement and outcome variables such as performance and compensation. Usable data were collected from 3,217 managers and their multi-source raters in 527 organizations. Multivariate regression procedures (as opposed to categorization procedures) were used to determine the sources of rating disagreement. Results indicated that a significant portion of variance in self-other ratings was accounted for by the set of background/context variables. Self-other agreement was also related to performance, compensation, and organizational level, though rating patterns differed.     

Women with Childhood ADHD: Comparisons by Diagnostic Group and Gender

This study compared adult women with childhood ADHD to adult women without childhood ADHD and to adult men with childhood ADHD. The participants, all from a larger longitudinal study, included 30 women and 30 men (approximately age 23 to 24) with childhood ADHD, and 27 women without ADHD. Women with childhood ADHD were matched to comparison women on age, ethnicity, and parental education, and to men with childhood ADHD on age, ethnicity, and IQ. Self- and parent-reports of internalizing, interpersonal, academic, and job impairment, as well as substance use and delinquency indicated group differences on measures of self-esteem, interpersonal and vocational functioning, as well as substance use. Follow-up planned comparison tests revealed that almost all of these differences emerged by diagnostic status, and not by gender. This study adds to research on the negative adult outcomes of ADHD and demonstrates that the outcomes of men and women with childhood ADHD are relatively similar.     

Gender Comparisons in the Private,Collective, and Allocentric Selves

Abstract

Researchers (e.g., M. B. Brewer & W. Gardner, 1996; H. C. Triandis, D. K. S. Chan, D. P. S. Bhawuk, S. Iwao, & J. P. B. Sinha, 1995) have suggested expansion of the standard model of individualism-collectivism to include people's close personal relationships in addition to their identification with in-groups. There has been considerable discussion of the hypothesis that women are more collective, interdependent, relational, and allocentric than men (e.g., S. E. Cross & L. Madson, 1997; Y. Kashima et al., 1995). In the present study, the authors used the Twenty Statements Test (M. H. Kuhn & T. McPartland, 1954) to examine gender differences in the self-concept by assessing the accessibility of private, collective, and allocentric self-cognitions. The U.S. women described themselves with more allocentric and more collective self-cognitions than did the U.S. men. Discussion focuses on the implications of those data for interpretation of other gender differences as well as for traditional models of individualism-collectivism.     

Body Image: Gender,Ethnic, and Age Differences

Abstract

Using figure drawings (E. Fallon & P. Rozin, 1985), 120 male and female U.S. college students–African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian–indicated their current and ideal figures, the figures that they considered most attractive to the opposite sex, and the opposite-sex figures most attractive to themselves. Dissatisfaction with body shape was greater among the women regardless of ethnicity. Both the men and the women misjudged which shapes the opposite sex would rate as most attractive: The women guessed that the men preferred shapes thinner than those that they actually reported. The African American women had the most accurate perceptions of what the men found attractive, whereas the Caucasian women had the most distorted views. The men guessed that the women preferred shapes bulkier than those that they actually indicated. These findings may be relevant to the lower incidence of eating disorders among African American women and the higher incidence of such disorders among Caucasian women.     

Invidious Comparisons: Imagining a Psychology of Race and Gender Beyond Differences

Within psychology there is a longstanding debate concerning whether large, fundamental differences between races and genders exist. Much of this research involves comparisons that are invidious (offensively discriminating) and supports a political ideology in which members of different groups are held to be fundamentally different, alien, and therefore destined to different spheres. In this paper, specific factors are identified that make research on group differences more likely to produce distorted and partial findings. In addition, studies are cited whose methodological strategies offer insight into the processes that create and maintain group differences. Such research may illuminate not only the differences between groups, but also the very meaning of group categories. The process of scholarly peer review should become sensitive to the features that make comparisons invidious, so as to incorporate them into the criteria used to evaluate research.     

Gender Comparisons of Fat Talk in the United Kingdom and the United States

This study compared different forms of body talk, including ??fat talk,?? among 231 university men and women in central England (UK; n?=?93) and the southeastern United States (US; n?=?138). A 2 (gender) by 2 (country) repeated measures ANOVA across types of body talk (negative, self-accepting, positive) and additional Chi-square analyses revealed that there were differences across gender and between the UK and US cultures. Specifically, UK and US women were more likely to report frequently hearing or perceiving pressure to engage in fat talk than men. US women and men were also more likely to report pressure to join in self-accepting body talk than UK women and men.     

Gender and Ethnic Differences in Stress Reduction, Reactivity, and Recovery

To assess whether gender and ethnic subgroups differentially self-reported stress reduction, reactivity, and recovery, 313 undergraduate African American and Caucasian students at an urban northeastern American university were randomly assigned to one of three relaxation conditions which they utilized before and after being exposed to a visual stressor. Self-report measures of state anxiety were taken before and after each activity. Females reported the most stress reduction, reactivity, and recovery. Caucasian females reported unique reactions relative to other groups at all phases. African American males reported the least amount of cognitive reactivity. Results from this study suggest that ethnicity should be evaluated with gender differences, affective reactions need to be better understood, and interventions for stress may need to be specifically tailored.     

Gender,Racial, and Ethnic Differences in Job Context and Work-Activity Preferences

This study explores the effect of social norms in a military situation at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy. During the wintertime, standing on a wharf, officers were given the offer of jumping into the ocean or not. In the experiment (n?=?75), having an antijump norm induced by a confederate, the jump rate decreased from 76% to 51%. One implication of these findings is that the salience of one norm is a deciding factor when individuals have several conflicting norms.     

Gender and Ethnic Differences in Obesity-Related Behaviors and Attitudes In a College Sample

This study looked at gender and Black/White differences for a number of variables related to attitudes toward obesity in a sample of 650 college students. The overall stereotypes of overweight persons were both negative and unrelated to subjects' own degree of obesity, although individuals reported that their personal views were less negative than those of others.
Women indicated greater concern with obesity than men in several ways, and the societal stereotype of an overweight woman was seen as more negative than that of an overweight man. Men were more concerned about a date's weight than women, and White women's weight (unlike that of other subgroups) was negatively related to their likelihood and frequency of dating. Although Blacks, particularly Black females, were heavier than Whites, they were more satisfied with their body shape. Black males were less likely than White males to have refused to date someone because of her weight, and Blacks personally considered overweight women to be more attractive, sexier, less ugly, and less sloppy than did Whites. The findings suggest that both gender and ethnicity should be considered when discussing people's attitudes towards obesity and the consequences of such attitudes.