TEAM-BASED EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT PROGRAMS: EFFECTS OF DESIGN AND ADMINISTRATION

In recent years, many organizations have attempted to pursue continuous improvement through team-based employee involvement programs (EIPs). As a result, increased practical emphasis has been placed on how to design and administer EIPs, though empirical work has been slow to emerge. In the present research, a pilot study of 68 EIP administrators was used to identify those design and administrative variables thought to be associated with EIP effectiveness. Data were then collected from 72 EIP teams in two organizations and associated with participant and supervisory assessments of EIP effectiveness. Results suggest that the significant predictors of team effectiveness were the degree of openness of a team's information access structure, the degree of heterogeneity in the job functions performed by team members, and the team's size. Implications for EIP research and practice are discussed.     

Beliefs of Professional Counselors and Clergy About Depressive Religious Ideation

Depressed clients sometimes express the belief that God wants them to suffer and even, through suicide, to die. To assess counselor and clergy beliefs about depressive religious ideation a questionnaire was developed and distributed. Respondents agreed that such ideation is a misinterpretation of Judeo-Christian principles, and respondents also tended to believe in the benefit, right, and ability to challenge such ideation. Expectation of client resistance to having such ideation challenged was more varied. Differences among the five issues appeared to be related to only some of the predictor variables. Limitations of the study and implications for further research are discussed.     

Successful Resolutions to the Career-Versus-Family Conflict

One hundred and twenty husbands and wives (60 couples) were individually assessed on how conflicted (or resolved) they were about the career-versus-family conflict in their lives. Their written resolutions were also content-analyzed to extract specific themes and conflict-resolution strategies. Data on participants' self-esteem, conflict-related anxiety, life satisfaction, and demographic variables were also collected. Results of t tests, chi-squares, Pearson correlations, and a stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that high self-esteem and life satisfaction best predicted being resolved about the conflict. The only theme that discriminated between the most and least resolved spouses was “my family comes first” (held by the most resolved). Wives were more rationally resolved about the conflict than their husbands.     

RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF VERBAL, ARTICULATIVE, AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION TO EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS IN THE JOB INTERVIEW SETTING

Recruiter ratings of 338 on-campus interviews were used in a discriminant analysis procedure to determine the relative importance of the verbal, articulative, and nonverbal dimensions of communication during the job interview. Correlation of seven variables with the discriminant function indicated that appropriateness of content, fluency of speech, and composure were of greatest importance in contributing to a favorable employment decision. These findings were contrary to the recent literature which has emphasized the importance of nonverbal behavior. Implications for job-interview skills training are discussed, and suggestions for a comprehensive workshop model are presented.     

THE DISCLOSURE-LIKING RELATIONSHIP

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of a perceiver's own disclosure on attraction for self-disclosing others. In Experiment 1, female undergraduates selected two topics and disclosed information on them to a confederate partner. This disclosure occurred either before or after the confederate disclosed information on three different topics that were either high or low in intimacy. Based on self-perception theory, it was predicted and found that intimacy of the subject's self-disclosure would be positively correlated with attraction for the confederate when the subject disclosed before her partner but not when she disclosed after her partner. A second prediction that subjects would be attracted toward a highly intimate partner only if they had previously disclosed was not confirmed. Instead, attraction for the confederate was greater when she had disclosed before the subject and when she had disclosed intimately. Experiment 2 varied the intimacy of the response of a partner to the subject's initial self-disclosure and whether this response dealt with the same topics or different topics. It was found that attraction was greater for an intimate than a nonintimate partner when topics for disclosure were the same. When disclosure topics were different, there was no significant difference in attraction for the intimate and nonintimate partner. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the disclosure-liking hypothesis.