Employee Assistance Programs: A Systemic Investigation of Their Use

Braun, A.L., & Novak, D.E. (1986, November/December). A study of EAP non-utilization. EAP Digest, pp. 52–55. O'Connell, V. (1987, March/April). A strategy for overcoming supervisors' resistance. EAP Digest, pp. 63–66. Penzer, W.N. (1987, March/April). Toward sustaining quality mental health services. EAP Digest, pp. 35–40.     

THE BIASING EFFECTS OF SUBORDINATE LIKEABLENESS ON LEADERS' RESPONSES TO POOR PERFORMERS: A LABORATORY AND A FIELD STUDY

A laboratory and a field study investigated the biasing effects of subordinate likableness on leaders' attributions for subordinate poor performance and their corrective actions toward subordinates. In the laboratory study, 96 undergraduate students served as leaders and were presented with a vignette describing an incident of poor performance committed by either a liked or a disliked subordinate. Leaders made attributions for the poor performance and then rated the appropriateness of a series of corrective actions. Analyses revealed that leaders made similar attributions for the poor performance of liked and disliked subordinates, but were more inclined to punish a disliked subordinate than a liked subordinate. A second study replicated these findings with 98 leaders in an actual organization. Implications of the results for disciplinary policies are discussed.     

Comparing the social support behaviors of violent and nonviolent husbands during discussions of wife personal problems

To compare the social support behaviors of violent and nonviolent husbands, we recruited four groups of couples-violent and distressed (VD); violent/nondistressed (VND); nonviolent/distressed (NVD);and nonviolent/nondistressed (NVND). Two systems were used to code couples’discussions of wives’personal problems. Using the Social Support Interaction Coding System (Bradbury & Pasch, 1994), no violent-nonviolent group differences emerged; however, as listeners, NVND husbands were the most positive and tended to be the least negative. Using a coding system designed for this study (i.e., Social Support Behavior/Affect Rating System), we confirmed the hypothesis that violent husbands would offer less social support than would nonviolent husbands. Relative to nonviolent men, violent husbands were less positive, more belligerent/domineering, more contemptuous/disgusted, and more upset by the wife's problem. Relative to NVND husbands, violent husbands displayed more anger and tension, VND husbands were more critical of their wives’problem, and VD men were more critical of the possible solutions wives offered. We discuss differences in the two coding systems relevant to the detection of violent-nonviolent group differences. Across both systems, few group differences in wife behavior emerged, suggesting that husband behavior better differentiates violent from nonviolent couples when wives are discussing personal problems.     

INTUITIVE-THEORETICAL SCALES OF CONTENT AND CONTEXT SATISFACTION

Evidence has suggested the usefulness of viewing job satisfaction as composed of content and context aspects. Armstrong attempted to develop intuitive-theoretical scales measuring content and context satisfaction but the scales lacked discriminant validity. The present study attempted the development of content and context scales based on Schletzer's overall job satisfaction instrument. After the criteria of internal consistency and discriminant validity were applied in refining scales, it was found that the inter-correlation between content and context scales after correction for attenuation was 0.06 and 0.05 for two separate samples of professional workers. It was concluded that the data provided some support for the content-context dichotomy. Application of the new scales and the general method for developing scales in industrial and organizational psychology are considered.     

CULTURAL RELATIVITY IN ACTION: A COMPARISON OF SELF-RATINGS MADE BY CHINESE AND U.S. WORKERS

Using a sample of 982 leader-subordinate dyads drawn from nine different organizations in the Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan), self-ratings of performance were compared with supervisory ratings of subordinate performance. Results indicated that Chinese employees rated their job performance less favorably than did their supervisors (i.e., they exhibited a modesty bias). This modesty bias occurred relatively uniformly across gender, various educational levels, and age groups. These results are contrary to the typically reported U.S. finding that self-ratings of performance are more lenient than are supervisory ratings. A further comparison of the means of supervisory and self-ratings between this study and previous U.S. research revealed that the modesty bias appeared to be produced by the lower self-ratings made by Chinese workers as compared to their U.S. counterparts. The findings suggest that culture plays a critical role in shaping workers' perceptions of their own work performance. Results of this study are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and practice in international human resource management.     

Counseling and the Bystander-Equity Model of Supervisory Helping Behavior: Directions for EAP Research

The proliferation of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) has created new opportunities for persons in the counseling profession to examine specific psychological, sociological, and environmental factors associated with employee occupational mental health, stress-affected work performance, vocational adjustment, and job-related social behavior. In this article, we discuss the contribution that Bayer and Gerstein's (1988a) Bystander-Equity Model of Supervisory Helping Behavior can make to the pursuit of EAP research based on the traditions of the field of counseling. We also offer the field a structure for pursuing empirical and applied activities in EAP settings. Finally, we encourage counseling researchers and practitioners to respond to the challenge of working much more closely with EAPs, so that our profession can further establish its commitment to investigating various aspects of vocational behavior.     

ON USING RESIDUAL DIFFERENCE SCORES IN THE MEASUREMENT OF CONGRUENCE: THE CASE OF MET EXPECTATIONS RESEARCH

Despite meta-analytic support for the met expectations hypothesis, Irving and Meyer (1994, 1995) suggested that methodological problems such as the use of difference scores and retrospective measures of met expectations have resulted in an overstatement of this support. In a recent article, Hom, Griffeth, Palich, and Bracker (1998) simultaneously tested several potential psychological mediating mechanisms of realistic job preview (RJP) effects. These authors suggested that met expectations is a critical mediating mechanism, having direct effects on job satisfaction and indirect effects on organizational commitment, withdrawal cognitions, and actual turnover through job satisfaction and other mediating mechanisms such as coping efficacy and perceived employer honesty. However, they used "residual gain scores" to measure met expectations. In this article, we demonstrate that the use of residual scores for the purposes of operationalizing met expectations creates the same problemsas does the use of difference scores a technique that has been widely criticized in the literature.     

REPUBLICS AND THEIR LOVES: REREADING CITY OF GOD 191

In City of God 19.24, Augustine rejects Cicero's definition of res publica as a society founded on justice for a new definition focused on common objects of love. Robert Markus, Oliver O'Donovan, and a host of Augustinian political theologians have depicted this move as a positive gesture toward secular society. Yet this reading fails to account for why Augustine waited so long to address Cicero's definition, first discussed in Book 2, and for the radical dualism Augustine sets forth between the two cities throughout his text. I argue, in line with Rowan Williams and John Milbank, for a minority reading of Book 19 that draws upon the narrative structure of City of God. In Books 3–5, Augustine recounts the history of the earthly city according to Rome's penchant for violence and idolatry, both a function of love for temporal goods. In Book 18, Augustine traces the history of the earthly city before Rome according to the same themes, completing a narrative argument that humanity has always been divided according to differing loves. Book 19 advances the idea that such idolatry is injustice—a failure to grant God the worship he is due. With the new definition of 19.24, Augustine retains Cicero's emphasis on the importance of virtue in civic society while characteristically shifting the terms of discussion from justice to love. While such a definition means that Rome can be called a res publica, it also prompts a negative judgment upon her history according to her objects of love. Given her violence and idolatry, Rome is no better than Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and Greece—all subject to withering critique in Book 18. Thus, Augustine's new definition does not retract but extends the polemic of City of God.