CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE REVIEW AND DEVELOPMENT INTERVIEWS: REPLICATION AND EXTENSION1

Eight performance review interview characteristics were related to 7 interview outcomes. Several of these individual variables had been examined in previous research. Two hundred seventy nursing personnel described their last review interview. Five of the interview characteristics were related to most of the outcomes, replicating earlier research as well as adding new findings. Implications for improving the conduct of appraisal interviews in organizations are offered.     

EFFECTS OF AMOUNT, FORMAT, AND LOCATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON QUESTIONNAIRE RETURN RATE AND RESPONSE BIAS OF SENSITIVE AND NONSENSITIVE ITEMS

Three characteristics of demographic questionnaire items were manipulated on a job satisfaction survey administered to 888 faculty members in order to assess effects on survey return rate and response bias. Demographic factors analyzed were Amount (number of demographic items), Format (questionnaires with all categorical answers versus those with a combination of categorical and continuous answers), and Location (demographic items placed before versus being placed after attitudinal items). Analysis of the 461 questionnaires which were returned revealed significant results for the Format rnanipulation, in that responses indicating higher satisfaction were obtained when the survey instrument contained questions which required both categorical and continuous answers rather than only questions requiring categorical responses. Also, this format-induced response bias occurred more frequently among sensitive than nonsensitive job satisfaction items. Implications of the results for questionnaire design are discussed.     

Educational Rehabilitation for Substance Abusers

The article describes a program that provides educational rehabilitation in a therapeutic setting using Adult Basic Education/General Education Development (ABE/GED) classes. Data presented indicate that, on average, students who complete 6 months of training in this program raise their academic achievement level by 7 grade levels in math and by 5 grade levels in English.     

VOLUNTEERING FOR JOB ENRICHMENT: A TEST OF EXPECTANCY THEORY PREDICTIONS

In order to test predictions derived from an expectancy theory model developed by Lawler, measures of higher-order need satisfaction, locus of control, and intrinsic motivation were obtained from 252 female assembly line workers. Also, each employee was asked whether or not she wished to volunteer for a job enrichment project. Enriched jobs were described as having greater autonomy, variety, task identity, and feedback than typical assembly line jobs. Both locus of control and intrinsic motivation were found to serve as effective moderators of the relationship between higher-order need satisfaction and volunteering for job enrichment, in that significantly higher negative relationships were obtained for persons high in locus of control and intrinsic motivation than for persons low in these measures. These results are seen as supportive of applicable portions of Lawler's model. Also, implications of the results for placement of individuals in enriched jobs are discussed.     

Work Classification in Ancient Times

The divisions of labor and the classifications of work in ancient times are described, and an early four-part classification is compared with that of the present Dictionary of Occupational Titles.     

EMPIRICAL REALISM AND OTHER MINDS

In apparent vogue, perhaps as a reaction against excesses on the part of certain Wittgensteinians, is the idea that the existence and nature of other people's mental lives are things known to us on broadly empirical grounds. A particularly unabashed version of this idea is to be found in Hilary Putnam's "Other Minds"¹. Therein Putnam defines empirical realism as the "position that the existence of the external world is supported by experience in much the way that any scientific theory is supported by observational data,"² His concern in this article is to defend, after entering some criticism of detail, Paul Ziff's attempt to show that the same general sort of position is the proper one to adopt with regard to the traditional problem of other minds. I wish to argue here that the empirical realist's solution to the problem of other minds offered by Ziff and defended by Putnam is wrong.     

The Handicapped: Special Needs and Strategies for Counseling

This article examines the psychosocial needs of disabled persons and the counseling approaches for dealing with their special needs. The authors discuss problems of self-concept, body image, frustration and anger, and dependency and motivation. Strategies are drawn from a broad spectrum of counseling theories, with examples from neo-Freudian, Gestalt, rational-emotive, and behavioral frameworks, with a stress on counselor versatility and involvement with clients' individual responses to disability.