RELATIONSHIP OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIORS: THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF JOB SATISFACTION

This study used path analysis to test a model that posits that relevant personality traits will have both direct relationships with counterproductive work behaviors (CPBs) and indirect relationships to CPBs through the mediating effects of job satisfaction. Based on a sample ( n = 141) of customer service employees, results generally supported the hypothesized model for both boss- and self-rated CPBs. Agreeableness had a direct relationship with interpersonal counterproductive work behaviors (CPB-I); Conscientiousness had a direct relationship with organizational counterproductive work behaviors (CPB-O); and, job satisfaction had a direct relationship to both CPB-I and CPB-O. In addition, job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between Agreeableness and both CPB-O and CPB-I. Overall, results show that personality traits differentially predict CPBs and that employees' attitudes about their jobs explain, in part, these personality–behavior associations.     

BEALER ON THE AUTONOMY OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Abstract: In a series of influential articles, George Bealer argues for the autonomy of philosophical knowledge on the basis that philosophically known truths must be necessary truths. The main point of his argument is that the truths investigated by the sciences are contingent truths to be discovered a posteriori by observation, while the truths of philosophy are necessary truths to be discovered a priori by intuition. The project of assimilating philosophy to the sciences is supposed to be rendered illegitimate by the more or less sharp distinction in these characteristic methods and its modal basis. In this article Bealer's particular way of drawing the distinction between philosophy and science is challenged in a novel manner, and thereby philosophical naturalism is further defended.     

Assertion and its Constitutive Norms

Alston, Searle, and Williamson advocate the restrictive model of assertion , according to which certain constitutive assertoric norms restrict which propositions one may assert. Sellars and Brandom advocate the dialectical model of assertion , which treats assertion as constituted by its role in the game of giving and asking for reasons. Sellars and Brandom develop a restrictive version of the dialectical model. I explore a non-restrictive version of the dialectical model. On such a view, constitutive assertoric norms constrain how one must react if an interlocutor challenges one's assertion, but they do not constrain what one should assert in the first place. I argue that the non-restrictive dialectical perspective can accommodate various linguistic phenomena commonly taken to support the restrictive model. ¹     

ON THE VALIDITY OF SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).     

AGE AND VOLUNTARY TURNOVER: A QUANTITATIVE REVIEW

The bivariate relationship between chronological age and voluntary turnover was examined. Using a database that spans the years 1959-1993 and contains 46 samples with a total of 42,625 individuals, meta-analyses were performed. In contrast to previous reviews (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986; Rhodes, 1983), the relationship between age and turnover was small and near zero ( p = -.08). Job tenure did not appear to moderate the relationship to any substantial extent. We conclude that age is not meaningfully related to an individual's decision to leave an organization.     

Creative Self‐Efficacy and Innovative Behavior in a Service Setting: Optimism as a Moderator

Creativity research on the personality approach has focused on the relationship between individual attributes and innovative behavior. However, few studies have empirically examined the effects of positive psychological traits on innovative behavior in an organizational setting. This study examines the relationships among creative self‐efficacy, optimism, and innovative behavior as well as the moderating effect of optimism. Longitudinal data across two periods were collected from 120 spa employees of a diet and beauty salon company in Taiwan. After controlling for the effects of job tenure and the Big Five personality traits, this study found that employees with a high level of creative self‐efficacy demonstrate a high level of innovative behavior at work, and optimism does not have a direct effect on employees' innovative behavior, but it does play a moderating role. When employees' creative self‐efficacy is high, those with greater optimism exhibit greater innovative behavior at work. Toward the end, this paper offers suggestions for future research and discusses the practical implications of this study.     

Changes in common-factor loadings as tests are altered homogeneously in length

Formulas are derived by which, given the factor loadings and the internal reliability of a test of unit length, the following estimates can be made: (1) the common-factor loadings for a similar (homogeneous) test of lengthn; (2) the number of times (n) that a test needs to be lengthened homogeneously to achieve a factor loading of a desired magnitude; and (3) the correlation between two tests, either or both of which have been altered in length, as a function of (a) the new factor loadings in the altered tests or (b) the original loadings in the unit-length tests. The appropriate use of the derived formulas depends upon the fulfillment of four assumptions enumerated.This article is based on a paper read by the authors at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association in Eugene, Oregon, June 25, 1949.     

Health Beliefs,Religious Values,and the Counseling Process: A Comparison of Counselors and Other Mental Health Professionals

A. E. Bergin (1985) studied the religious values and beliefs of mental health professionals and the relationship of those values to the counseling process. This study replicated Bergin's research with a sample of professional counselors. Differences were found in each of 10 beliefs areas and 10 values areas between the total sample in both studies. Within-group differences revealed greater similarities between professional counselors and social workers and marriage and family therapists and greater differences between counselors and either psychologists or psychiatrists. Implications for counseling and counselor training are discussed.