THE EFFECT OF VERBAL SELF-GUIDANCE TRAINING ON COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND TEAM PERFORMANCE

Although organizations frequently use teams, few studies have systematically examined training methods designed to improve collective efficacy and team performance. As such, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of verbal self-guidance (VSG) training, adapted from Meichenbaum (1975,1977), on collective efficacy and team performance. Using a quasi-experimental design, undergraduate students ( n = 184) were assigned to 42 teams. These 42 teams were assigned to 2 training conditions (verbal self-guidance/comparison). Results revealed that verbal self-guidance had a main effect on collective efficacy and performance. Collective efficacy was found to mediate the VSG training-performance relationship; it also correlated significantly with both team performance and the use of verbal guidance skills.     

Rule‐Following and Externalism*

John McDowell has suggested recently that there is a route from his favoured solution to Kripke's Wittgenstein's “sceptical paradox” about rule‐following to a particular form of cognitive externalism. In this paper, 1 argue that this is not the case: even granting McDowell his solution to the rule‐following paradox, his preferred version of cognitive externalism does not follow.     

Beauvoir‐in‐America: Understanding,Concrete Experience,and Beauvoir's Appropriation of Heidegger in America Day by Day

This paper reads Simone de Beauvoir's travel journal America Day by Day for its philosophical content. I argue that this work provides a unique approach to feminist, embodied philosophy, one that has been overlooked by the categorization of her writing into philosophical works and feminist ones. Such an approach, I contend, is enacted here through her use of Heidegger's concept of the everyday to inform her own treatment of understanding and experience.     

Young Children's Creative Solutions To Realistic and Fanciful Story Problems

This study examined the creative problem solving of young children as evidenced in their responses to realistic and fanciful stories posing similar problems (i.e., key character trapped and in need of rescue). One-hundred young children listened to two stories; one about a puppy trapped in a hole (realistic) and one about a prince caught in a tower (fanciful). The children were asked to complete the stories by thinking of ways to get the puppy or the prince out. The children's responses were scored for fluency (number), elaboration (detail), flexibility (conceptual shifts), originality (novelty), effectiveness, and realism. Overall, the results suggest that the children's performance improved with age and experience, although their solutions tended to remain ineffective and unoriginal. As predicted, the children strongly preferred the puppy to the prince story, although preference did not generally affect their creative performance. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.     

LOWERING FLOORS AND RAISING CEILINGS: A LONGITUDINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AN EARNINGS-AT-RISK PLAN ON PAY SATISFACTION

The attitudes of 101 bank employees were measured before and after the implementation of an earnings-at-risk (EAR) incentive pay plan which reduced base pay and increased employee risk and uncertainty with respect to total pay. Pay outcome satisfaction and pay process satisfaction both declined significantly over time, but the decrease in pay outcome satisfaction was the greater of the two. An examination of pay satisfaction antecedents at both points in time revealed relatively stable across-time relationships and provided information about some of the reasons for the changes. Perceived reward-to-effort ratio, which declined significantly over time, influenced both dimensions of pay satisfaction at both points in time. Perceived understanding of the pay system, which also declined over time, had a somewhat greater influence on pay process satisfaction than on pay outcome satisfaction, particularly at Time 2. In contrast to actual pay levels, changes in incentive and base pay amounts added more explained variance to the pay outcome satisfaction regression model. The study points out the potential for negative employee reactions to EAR incentive plans, and indicates that managers must ensure that employees understand these systems and feel that EAR plans will reward them equitably for their efforts.     

An Analysis of Counselor Verbal Interventions in Group Counseling

This study of verbal interventions of counselors during group counseling with predelinquent urban youth revealed that of the 12 counseling skills rated, 3 accounted for 2/3 of the verbal interventions used by the counselors.     

A COMPARISON OF CRITERIA FOR TEST VALIDATION: A META-ANALYTIC INVESTIGATION

Meta-analyses of validity coefficients from tests of clerical abilities for five criteria—supervisor ratings, supervisor rankings, work samples, production quantity, and production quality—were conducted, and the resulting expected true validities were compared. Ratings, rankings, work samples, and production quantity all resulted in high test validities. Validities resulting from ratings and quantity-of-production criteria were highly similar across tests. Validities resulting from rankings and work samples were on the average higher than those from ratings and quantity of production. The fifth criterion, quality of production, had low predictability and did not generalize across situations.