KNOWLEDGE WORKER TEAM EFFECTIVENESS: THE ROLE OF AUTONOMY, INTERDEPENDENCE, TEAM DEVELOPMENT, AND CONTEXTUAL SUPPORT VARIABLES

This study investigated how autonomy, interdependence, and team development, along with process and contextual support variables, were related to the effectiveness of teams of "knowledge workers." The sample included 231 knowledge workers from 27 work teams. Team members completed surveys measuring the design, process, and contextual factors. Effectiveness measures included multiple key stakeholder evaluations of team performance and self-report measures of attitudinal outcomes. The results suggest that interactions among design, process, and contextual support factors have important implications for team effectiveness. In particular, the positive relationship between team autonomy and team job motivation was reduced as teams worked under more interdependent conditions. This interaction effect also varied across the types of autonomy (e.g., planning-related, product-related, and people-related) the team was given. Results also demonstrated that the relationship between job motivation and team process behaviors (helping, sharing, and innovating) was more positive in teams who were developmental mature. Process behaviors were positively related to effectiveness, but those relationships became more positive in the presence of certain contextual factors (high-quality goals and efficient information transmission), and less positive in the presence of others (feedback and time pressure). Future research needs and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Reflections on Parenting: A Multigenerational Perspective

This paper presents some of the underlying patterns of parenting that have emerged from six years of ethnographic field research into the role of the family in children's acquisition and use of reading and writing skills. The research has provided some insights into the many complex and interrelated ways that children's literate activities are mediated and affected by multigenerational family patterns and by their personal experience of everyday life both within and outside the family. Two central themes are discussed: the spirit of change, which breaks the patterns of the past and brings new interpretations into the present, and the spirit of conservation, which maintains the continuation of family patterns from one generation to the next. Also described are the important parental attitudes of social flexibility and resiliency that are frequently evident in these processes of conservation and change of multigenerational patterns. One specific family story provides the background for the theoretical issues that are explored.     

THE PEN-BASED COMPUTER AS AN ALTERNATIVE PLATFORM FOR TEST ADMINISTRATION

Pen-based computers are similar to paper and pencil (P&P) tests in the method of responding, and thus, may more closely match paper and pencil administration in construct equivalence than keyboard-entry computers. A study was conducted comparing P&P, pen-based note-book computer, and keyboard-entry PC versions of two test batteries. Participants completed tests administered using different administration modes on separate days; construct equivalence was evaluated by comparing Day 1-Day 2 correlations across conditions. Although construct equivalence was found for the power tests, differences emerged for the speeded tests. For the pen-based computer, solid evidence of equivalence to P&P appeared for all but one of the speeded tests, whereas the keyboard PC showed borderline equivalence for only one of the three speeded tests. These findings suggested that the pen-entry computer may be more capable than the keyboard-entry computer in maintaining construct equivalence to P&P tests.     

青海高原9岁与11岁多民族儿童记忆的比较研究

本文对青海高原的9个地区6个民族的了20名9岁与11岁被试的记忆发展,进行了比较研究。结果表明,撒拉族、回族、汉族儿童的记忆成绩之间无明显差异,但他们与蒙族、土族、藏族儿童的记忆成绩之间有明显差异。蒙族、土族与藏族儿童的记忆成绩之间也有明显差异。不同的历史文化联系,不同的地理环境、经济条件和不同的教育条件及语言因素是形成这种差异的原因,其中不同的教育条件是最直接、最重要的原因。结果还表明,各族儿童记忆的发展也具有一些共同的特点。