CONFLICT MANAGEMENT, EFFICACY, AND PERFORMANCE IN ORGANIZATIONAL TEAMS

The study empirically links conflict management literature with research on efficacy and organizational teams. Sixty-one self-managing teams with 489 employees were recruited from the production department of a leading electronic manufacturer. Structural equation analysis supports the model that a cooperative instead of competitive approach to conflict leads to conflict efficacy that in turn results in effective performance as measured by managers. Findings suggest how organizational teams can be prepared to make use of their autonomy to deal with problems and conflicts so that they are productive.     

Human psychobiology in Scandinavia: I. Psychophysiology—theory, method and empirical research

The present paper reviews Scandinavian contributions to the field of psychophysiology in a fifteen year perspective (1968–1983). Psychophysiology is defined as that domain within psychobiology where the investigator uses a physiological measure to indirectly assess a psychological construct, e.g. heart-rate to index anxiety. Only research that fit this definition is reviewed. Thus, research belonging to physiological psychology and behavior pharmacology is excluded. The paper is divided into several areas covering studies related to attention and the orienting response (OR); classical autonomic conditioning and biofeed-back learning; clinical psychology and behavior medicine; emotion and motivation, and methodological contributions. The review of studies related to attention and OR is focussed on the work by Näätänen and by Öhman who both have made distinguished contributions to this area of research. The so-called "prepared-learning" project is described as an example of Scandinavian conditioning studies. Other examples include Bohlin's research on attention and habituation, and the work by Schalling and by Fredrikson in clinical psychology and psychopathology. Norwegian research on muscle tension and respiratory activity done by Svebak is also reviewed. A total of 114 papers written by about 95 different researchers are reviewed. Thus, psychophysiology may be regarded as a firmly rooted research tradition in Scandinavia, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It is concluded that Scandinavian psychophysiology research is at the front line internationally concerning problem areas and methodology.     

Resistance to Consultation: A Synthesis for Counselor-Consultants

The authors list and describe a number of types of consultee resistance that commonly occur during consultation and discuss methods and techniques for dealing with each. The article concludes with suggestions for empirical research to determine the effectiveness of various strategies for dealing with consultee resistance.     

Hemispheric asymmetry effects in children studied by dichotic listening and visual half-field testing

Dichotic listening (DL) and visual half-field (VHF) testing were used to study hemisphere asymmetry in a developmental perspective. Five-, 8-, and 11-year-old children were presented lists of fused words using a DL technique in Experiment 1, and 8- and 11-year-old children were presented pictures of common objects using a VHF technique in Experiment 2. In both experiments, measures of identification, free recall, and recognition of the words/pictures were employed. The results revealed effects of ear input (right-ear advantage) and half-field presentation (right visual half-field advantage) for all age groups, although the magnitude of this lateralization effect differed between the three memory measures. The results are discussed in relation to developmental aspects of language laterality, and in relation to the clinical utility of non-invasive lateralization techniques.     

Cultural perspectives on romantic love

Culture-related dimensions contribute to a more complete understanding of romantic love. In particular, we suggest that the dimensions of individualism and collectivism, at both societal and psychological levels, offer insights into the nature of romantic love and its perceived importance for marriage. Changes In values pertaining to romantic love and its role In choosing a spouse are evident In several traditionally collectivistic societies and among persons from these societies emigrating to countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United States. Given these trends, we discuss the need to study individualism and collectivism at the psychological level and present findings from our own program of research.     

A COMPARISON OF TWO ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT SCALES1

This study examines the scale characteristics of two widely utilized measures of organizational commitment. Using data collected from a sample of 1,105 professional accountants, the findings indicated that while both instruments exhibited a high degree of internal reliability, the Porter et al. (1974) instrument exhibited significantly greater predictive validity with respect to intended turnover than did the Hrebiniak and Alutto (1972) instrument. However, for a limited sample of data, no difference was found between the predictive ability of the two measures with respect to actual turnover. In addition, the relationship between a set of ten common predictor variables and organizational commitment was found to be substantially greater when commitment was measured using the Porter et al. instrument.     

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS: LEGALITY AND VALIDITY1

Educational achievements (e.g., high school diploma, college degree) are frequently used as selection requirements for a wide variety of jobs. Despite this, the legality and validity of this “selection test” has been a neglected subject of study by personnel psychologists. In this article, two important issues concerning educational requirements are discussed. First, court cases are reviewed to gain insight into judicial opinions. Next, validity studies of educational requirements are summarized. The article concludes with suggestions for the proper use and defense of educational requirements.     

BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES FOR PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL PURPOSES

Behavioral items ( N = 78) critical to the job success of logging supervisors were developed from 1204 critical incidents, the frequency with which a supervisor ( N = 300) engaged in each behavior was rated on a 5-point Likert type scale by two sets of observers. A factor analysis reduced the items to 38 and 33, respectively, for the two sets of observers which in turn constituted 10 and 11 factors or criteria for performance evaluation purposes. Multiple regression equations based on composite scores were used to predict cost-related measures of logging crew effectiveness. The shrinkage in Rs after double cross-validation was moderately small. Moreover, the behavioral observation scales (BOS) that were developed by factor analyzing the observation ratings had moderately high reliability and accounted for more variance in the cost-related measures than did the BOS developed by traditional judgmental clustering techniques. The similarities and differences between BOS and BES procedures are discussed.