Leader autonomy support in the workplace: A meta-analytic review

Leader autonomy support (LAS) refers to a cluster of supervisory behaviors that are theorized to facilitate self-determined motivation in employees, potentially enabling well-being and performance. We report the results of a meta-analysis of perceived LAS in work settings, drawing from a database of 754 correlations across 72 studies (83 unique samples, N?=?32,870). Results showed LAS correlated strongly and positively with autonomous work motivation, and was unrelated to controlled work motivation. Correlations became increasingly positive with the more internalized forms of work motivation described by self-determination theory. LAS was positively associated with basic needs, well-being, and positive work behaviors, and was negatively associated with distress. Correlations were not moderated by the source of LAS, country of the sample, publication status, or the operationalization of autonomy support. In addition, a meta-analytic path analysis supported motivational processes that underlie LAS and its consequences in workplaces. Overall, our findings lend support for autonomy support as a leadership approach that is consistent with self-determination and optimal functioning in work settings.     

Physiological arousal,exposure to a relatively lengthy aggressive film,and aggressive behavior

Male college students viewed either a 15-minute aggressive television program excerpt or a neutral one. Half of the students in each group were then angered or treated in a neutral fashion by a confederate. Each subject was allowed to retaliate by delivering electric shocks to the confederate as an evaluation of a problem solution he supposedly had completed. Heart rate was measured (a) before exposure to the television program, (b) after exposure to the program, (c) immediately before delivering the shock, and (d) immediately after shock delivery. Angered men who had seen the aggressive film were most aggressive toward the confederate and exhibited the lowest average pulse rates both before and after shock delivery. The findings are discussed in terms of their implication for arousal vs disinhibition conceptualizations of aggressive behaviors following exposure to television violence.     

Task instructions and strategy transfer in the directed forgetting performance of mentally retarded adolescents

The influence of task explanation on strategy transfer was studied in educable mentally retarded adolescents (13 to 15 years old). A directed forgetting task was used in which the person was required to recall short sequences of picture names. In some sequences there was a cue to forget the first few pictures (irrelevant information) and to remember only the subsequent pictures (relevant information). During the first session the amount of explanation given the directed forgetting task was varied, and during the second, some of the subjects were trained to rehearse in a simple sequential memory task. Transfer of training was then examined on a retest of the directed forgetting task. The majority of subjects trained to rehearse and given a minimal explanation of the directed forgetting task maintained the strategy on trials which were identical to those used during rehearsal training, but failed to generalize the strategy on other trials. The results indicate that providing a full explanation of the task requirements does not assure strategy generalization, but providing only a minimal explanation makes strategy generalization unlikely.