The role of fair treatment and rewards in perceptions of organizational support and leader-member exchange

This study examined a model of the antecedents and consequences of perceived organizational support (POS) and leader-member exchange (LMX). It was predicted that organizational justice (procedural and distributive justice) and organizational practices that provide recognition to the employee (feelings of inclusion and recognition from upper management) would influence POS. For LMX, it was predicted that leader reward (distributive justice and contingent rewards) and punishment behavior would be important antecedents. Results based on a sample of 211 employee-supervisor dyads indicated that organizational justice, inclusion, and recognition were related to POS and contingent rewards were related to LMX. In terms of consequences, POS was related to employee commitment and organizational citizenship behavior, whereas LMX predicted performance ratings.     

The time course of spoken word learning and recognition: studies with artificial lexicons

The time course of spoken word recognition depends largely on the frequencies of a word and its competitors, or neighbors (similar-sounding words). However, variability in natural lexicons makes systematic analysis of frequency and neighbor similarity difficult. Artificial lexicons were used to achieve precise control over word frequency and phonological similarity. Eye tracking provided time course measures of lexical activation and competition (during spoken instructions to perform visually guided tasks) both during and after word learning, as a function of word frequency, neighbor type, and neighbor frequency. Apparent shifts from holistic to incremental competitor effects were observed in adults and neural network simulations, suggesting such shifts reflect general properties of learning rather than changes in the nature of lexical representations.     

Implications of Racial Diversity in the Supervisor-Subordinate Relationship

This study addresses the impact of race on the supervisor-subordinate relationship. The purpose is to examine this relationship with minority subordinates reporting to both majority and minority group members. Using the subordinates needs framework identified by Baird and Kram (1983), 5 areas were addressed: supervisory support, developmental opportunities, procedural justice, acceptance or assimilation, and discrimination. The results indicated that African American subordinates with White supervisors experience less supervisory support, developmental opportunities, procedural justice, assimilation, and more discrimination than African American subordinates with African American supervisors.     

The Effects of Competition on the Decision Quality of Diverse and Nondiverse Groups

Research has validated that intragroup cooperation, rather than competition, produces more positive group interaction and interpersonal acceptance which leads to better performance. The unique values of culturally diverse group members, however, may influence group processes and performance if these group members respond differently to situational cues. Research on the interaction between cultural diversity and competitive team situations would benefit organizations that employ an increasingly diverse work force. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the effects of cultural diversity on group performance and group processes by comparing culturally diverse and culturally nondiverse groups under conditions of intergroup competition and noncompetition. This experiment was conducted using 500 upper-level undergraduate students enrolled in a principles of management course at a large university in the southwestern United States. The results of this experiment indicate that the competitive nondiverse groups performed better than did the noncompetitive diverse groups in terms of quality of performance. Results also suggest that both the culturally diverse and culturally nondiverse groups outperformed their best individual members' scores when they were matched with competitive situations that enhanced their innate group processing styles. Organizations can increase their effectiveness by appreciating that diverse and nondiverse groups respond differently under conditions of competition and noncompetition.     

Personal Characteristics,Job Performance,and Absenteeism of Public School Teachers1

Personal characteristics and job performance were examined as potential predictors of absenteeism for a professional occupational group. Data on 152 public school teachers demonstrated that sex and independence contributed unique variance to the prediction of absenteeism. Furthermore, the interaction terms of sex with independence, with the ability to control anxiety, and with performance rating significantly added to the variance explained in absenteeism. Implications of the present results are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.     

Relational frameworks for recall in young and older adults

Recent research indicates the presence of an age-related visual processing deficit, for which the elderly may attempt to compensate through the use of relational information. This hypothesis was tested, using the category superiority effect as a model system. In studies of young adults, the category superiority effect has been shown to be confined to relatively abstract stimulus materials, such as verbal items, and to be absent for pictures. However, it was predicted that a category superiority effect would be present in elderly adults both for verbal and for pictorial stimuli, since the elderly would be expected to utilize category information to compensate for imagerie deficits. This prediction was confirmed, consistent with the hypothesis advanced above. It was further suggested that the establishment of a prior framework for recall, based on relational information, would reduce this effect significantly. This prediction was also confirmed. This research was supported by Grant AGI 1605, National Institute on Aging, and by a grant from the School of Natural Sciences, California State University, Fresno.     

Caregiver religiosity and well-being in dealing with Alzheimer's dementia

To examine the relationship among religious participation, stress, and well-being, 84 caregivers of Alzheimer's patients and 81 control subjects completed the Religiosity Scale, Life-3, and Medical Outcomes Study well-being measures. Caregivers only completed the Relative's Stress Scale. No differences were found between groups in religious practices, although caregivers indicated higher levels of clergy-visiting than the others and control subjects indicated a greater met need for contact with the church or synagogue. In contrast, control subjects show higher levels of well-being, social functioning, and mental health than caregivers. In care-givers, significant relationships were found among several religiosity variables, stress, and well-being.     

An examination of automatic vs. controlled information processing in the employment interview: The case of minority applicants

Sex Roles - Based on the automatic vs. controlled attention argument, this paper tested the contention that the amount of job-relevant information given to decision makers prior to the employment...     

The dynamics of insight: Mathematical discovery as a phase transition

In recent work in cognitive science, it has been proposed that cognition is a self-organizing, dynamical system. However, capturing the real-time dynamics of cognition has been a formidable challenge. Furthermore, it has been unclear whether dynamics could effectively address the emergence of abstract concepts (e.g., language, mathematics). Here, we provide evidence that a quintessentially cognitive phenomenon—the spontaneous discovery of a mathematical relation—emerges through self-organization. Participants solved a series of gear-system problems while we tracked their eye movements. They initially solved the problems by manually simulating the forces of the gears but then spontaneously discovered a mathematical solution. We show that the discovery of the mathematical relation was predicted by changes in entropy and changes in power-law behavior, two hallmarks of phase transitions. Thus, the present study demonstrates the emergence of higher order cognitive phenomena through the nonlinear dynamics of self-organization.