Review of Assessment of Career Decision Making

The Assessment of Career Decision Making (ACDM) was designed to measure decision-making styles and progress in coping with three developmental tasks of young people: adjusting to school, choosing a career, and choosing a major. It is the result of 20 years of research begun by Vincent A. Harren and carried on by his successors after his death in 1980 (Buck & Daniels, 1985). During this time, the ACDM has been revised six times. It is now a shorter instrument, with fewer subscales than previously. In its present form (Form F), the ACDM contains 94 items, all of which are answered “true” or “false.” It is most appropriate for use with high school or college students engaged in career planning.     

PREDICTING JOB PERFORMANCE OF LOW INCOME WORKERS: THE WORK OPINION QUESTIONNAIRE

This study outlines the development of the Work Opinion Questionnaire (WOQ), a measure of job-related attitudes. The 35-item attitude measure was validated on 670 C.E.T.A. workers in a large midwestem city. The WOQ was effective in predicting job performance in entry level positions. Potential applications and limitations of the WOQ are discussed.     

SENIORITY: A REVIEW OF ITS LEGAL AND SCIENTIFIC STANDING

Though an important and widespread industrial relations concept, seniority has been a neglected subject of study by behavioral scientists. The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of the topic by reviewing seniority's legal status in the management of human resources. Further, while there is little research on seniority per se, conjecture and empirical study on the concept's salient behavioral dimensions, viz., tenure and reward, were reviewed. Suggestions were offered for the methodological and theoretical aspects of future research on seniority.     

THE MODERATING EFFECT OF SITUATIONAL CONTROL OF PERFORMANCE VARIANCE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND PERFORMANCE1

The present study investigated the existence of a moderating effect for situational control of performance variance on the relationship between individual differences and performance. An experimental simulation was conducted and validity coefficients were calculated. Results supported the presence of the predicted moderating effect. The implications of these data for validation research and testing programs are discussed.     

VOCATIONAL INTERESTS, PERSONALITY AND EFFECTIVE POLICE PERFORMANCE

Scores on vocational interest inventories are commonly thought to be unrelated to job performance. A close examination of the literature suggests, however, that vocational scales other than those describing the occupational group in question may often predict job performance. A case in point is reported here, using Holland's Self Directed Search and two groups of policemen. Scores on the Artistic and Conventional scales consistently predict effective performance as a patrolman in this Realistic and Social occupation.     

LINKING EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE CLIMATE TO CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Although a common theme in the service quality literature is that organizations must create and maintain a climate for service in order for employees to effectively deliver service, few studies exist that evaluate climate for service components against a criterion of customer satisfaction. The effectiveness of different aspects of a climate for service is evaluated by determining the relationships between service climate components and facets of customer satisfaction, as rated by 538 employees and 7,944 customers across 57 branches of a large bank. All service climate components were significantly related to at least one facet of customer satisfaction (e.g., teller service). Seeking and sharing information about customers' needs and expectations, training in delivering quality service, and rewarding and recognizing excellent service were the practices that were most highly related to satisfaction with service quality.     

Assessing Individual Family Members' Constructions of Family Problems

Much contemporary family therapy theory and practice takes into account clients' cognitive constructions of their family problems. Recent calls for therapists to elicit and work with clients' causal explanations and narratives parallel accumulating evidence in the social-clinical literature about the predictive importance of attributions in family relationships. In this article, we introduce the Constructions of Problems Scale (CPS), provide preliminary evidence of its reliability and validity, and suggest ways in which it can be used clinically to reveal new areas for questioning and to generate new ideas. The CPS is a brief questionnaire that can be used to create a profile of each individual family member's private constructions. To complete the CPS, each family member writes a free-form narrative of the presenting problem and then rates his or her perceptions of the contributing causes. The CPS profiles can be used to compare the perspectives of different family members and to assess cognitive constructions at different points in treatment. We discuss its potential for these and other clinical uses.