Commitment to nonwork roles and job performance: Enrichment and conflict perspectives

An extensive commitment to nonwork roles was negatively associated with the job performance of 182 women legal secretaries. In addition to its direct negative effect on job performance, nonwork role commitment had both a negative indirect effect (through emotional energy expended on nonwork roles) and a positive indirect effect (through resources acquired from nonwork roles) on job performance. Consistent with a family-to-work conflict perspective, the negative effect was stronger than the positive effect. We suggest that the level and type of job occupied by the respondents in the study may have been responsible for the dominance of the negative effect and encourage researchers to examine the contextual influences that might explain the conditions under which commitment to life outside of work dampens or promotes performance in the work domain.     

“The ball don't lie”: How inequity aversion can undermine performance

Previous research has found that people are often averse to inequity, even when it works to their own advantage. The present research extends previous demonstrations of inequity aversion by examining how it plays out in a real-world context in which self-interest motivations and competitive pressures are substantial. National Basketball Association games were examined and instances of obviously incorrect foul calls were identified. Players were found to make a substantially lower percentage of the foul shots they were awarded as a result of incorrect calls, indicating that they were troubled by the inequity. This drop-off in performance was only observed when the shooter's team was ahead, highlighting the trade-off between the two conflicting motives of self-interest (the desire to win) and inequity aversion.     

The effects of music on time perception and performance of a driving game

Cassidy, G.G. & MacDonald, R.A.R. (2010). The effects of music on time perception and performance of a driving game. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 455–464. There is an established and growing body of evidence highlighting that music can influence behavior across a range of diverse domains ( Miell, MacDonald, & Hargreaves 2005 ). One area of interest is the monitoring of “internal timing mechanisms”, with features such as tempo, liking, perceived affective nature and everyday listening contexts implicated as important ( North & Hargreaves, 2008 ). The current study addresses these issues by comparing the effects of self‐selected and experimenter‐selected music (fast and slow) on actual and perceived performance of a driving game activity. Seventy participants completed three laps of a driving game in seven sound conditions: (1) silence; (2) car sounds; (3) car sounds with self‐selected music, and car sounds with experimenter‐selected music; (4) high‐arousal (70 bpm); (5) high‐arousal (130 bpm); (6) low‐arousal (70 bpm); and (7) low‐arousal (130 bpm) music. Six performance measures (time, accuracy, speed, and retrospective perception of these), and four experience measures (perceived distraction, liking, appropriateness and enjoyment) were taken. Exposure to self‐selected music resulted in overestimation of elapsed time and inaccuracy, while benefiting accuracy and experience. In contrast, exposure to experimenter‐selected music resulted in poorest performance and experience. Increasing the tempo of experimenter‐selected music resulted in faster performance and increased inaccuracy for high‐arousal music, but did not impact experience. It is suggested that personal meaning and subjective associations connected to self‐selected music promoted increased engagement with the activity, overriding detrimental effects attributed to unfamiliar, less liked and less appropriate experimenter‐selected music.     

Specific Features of After-School Program Quality: Associations with Children’s Functioning in Middle Childhood

This longitudinal study examined associations between three after-school program quality features (positive staff–child relations, available activities, programming flexibility) and child developmental outcomes (reading and math grades, work habits, and social skills with peers) in Grade 2 and then Grade 3. Participants (n = 120 in Grade 2, n = 91 in Grade 3) attended after-school programs more than 4 days per week, on average. Controlling for child and family background factors and children’s prior functioning on the developmental outcomes, positive staff–child relations in the programs were positively associated with children’s reading grades in both Grades 2 and 3, and math grades in Grade 2. Positive staff–child relations also were positively associated with social skills in Grade 2, for boys only. The availability of a diverse array of age-appropriate activities at the programs was positively associated with children’s math grades and classroom work habits in Grade 3. Programming flexibility (child choice of activities) was not associated with child outcomes.     

A review of the worst performance rule: Evidence, theory, and alternative hypotheses

This paper reviews evidence, theory, and alternative hypotheses for the worst performance rule (WPR), which states that on multitrial cognitive tasks, worst performance trials predict general intelligence (g) better than best performance trials. A review of the relevant evidence indicates that the WPR has been found for a variety of participants, tasks, and measures. A review of relevant theories reveals that the WPR appears to be related to cognitive factors (e.g., lapses in working memory) as well as biological factors (e.g., individual differences in neural oscillations). A review of alternative hypotheses shows that the WPR cannot be attributed to statistical or data artifacts such as outliers, unreliable measurement, or variance compression. The preponderance of evidence supports the hypothesis that the WPR holds for cognitive tasks high in g saturation but not for cognitive tasks low in g saturation. The paper ends with a call for research on the causes of the WPR and for research on the correlates of best performance.     

Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence

Successful negotiation of everyday life would seem to require people to possess insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills. However, people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence. This lack of awareness arises because poor performers are doubly cursed: Their lack of skill deprives them not only of the ability to produce correct responses, but also of the expertise necessary to surmise that they are not producing them. People base their perceptions of performance, in part, on their preconceived notions about their skills. Because these notions often do not correlate with objective performance, they can lead people to make judgments about their performance that have little to do with actual accomplishment.     

The relationship between the three components of commitment and employee performance in China

This study examined the relationship between the three components of organizational commitment and performance, defined as in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), using a sample of 253 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the People’s Republic of China. Results showed that affective commitment (AC) related positively to in-role performance and OCB, while continuance commitment (CC) was not associated with in-role performance but negatively correlated with OCB. In addition, normative commitment (NC) moderated the relationship between AC and in-role performance as well as OCB. The linear relationship between AC and in-role performance/OCB was stronger for those with lower NC. Limitations of the study, directions for future research, and implications of the findings are discussed.     

基于时间分割的手写输入系统的用户绩效模型

为定量估计与提高基于时间分割的手写输入系统用户绩效 ,推导了用户绩效的静态与动态模型。实验一检验与修正了这两个模型 ,并获得整合模型。实验二证明该整合模型能对不同训练水平用户的绩效有较高的解释率。应用该整合模型发现 :当识别正确率RA、输入字数N为定值时 ,修改时间T、单字手写时间WT、分割时间ST、识别时间R这四个因素对任务完成时间D的影响大小次序为WT =ST =R >T ;当这四个因素为定值时 ,RA每提高 1% ,D至少节省 10 0 0ms。     

领导-成员交换理论的研究及发展趋势

领导 -成员交换理论 (leader memberexchange,LMX)是近年来一个重要的领导理论。本文对LMX的理论发展过程作了较为全面的回顾 ,总结了LMX在组织层面中的研究现状 ,包括LMX与组织绩效、组织公平、组织支持和员工满意感之间的相互关系 ,并进一步探讨了LMX在组织研究中的发展新趋势。     

反馈干预对绩效的影响研究

反馈干预是由外部动因提供的关于个体任务操作或过去行为的信息活动,它有反馈对象、反馈效价和反馈提供方式三个维度。研究结果表明反馈效价、反馈提供方式对绩效的影响具有主效应,且两者的之间交互作用对绩效也存在主效应。积极反馈效价、信息型提供方式有助于提高个体的绩效水平。