DOES CONTEXT AFFECT STAFFING DECISIONS? THE CASE OF GENERAL MANAGERS

A resource dependency framework (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) is applied to general manager (GM) selection decisions. Hypotheses are developed predicting associations between organizational contextual features (environmental instability, strategy, organizational performance, size) and background characteristics of GMs selected to head business units (organizational familiarity, functional experience, age). Data were collected on 40 recent GM selection decisions. Findings indicate that organizational contextual features influence the type of GM selected. Key results are that industry instability, organizational strategy, and organizational size were associated with GMs'organizational familiarity (i.e., tenure levels), and that organizational strategy was associated with the age of selected GMs. This study provides support for the application of a contingency perspective to human resource management.     

The Evolution of Trait-and-Factor Career Counseling: A Person × Environment Fit Approach

This article illustrates how the trait-and-factor model of career counseling has evolved into a person × environment fit approach. Criticisms of the original model are presented and then rebutted by clarifying misconceptions and noting advances in theory and practice. Specifically, theoretical advances include the addition of dynamic assumptions underlying the model and the development of mature theories of career choice and adjustment. Counseling advances include use of more comprehensive diagnostic schemes, explication of the counseling process, and a more sophisticated understanding of counselor and client interactions. Finally, the role of differential diagnosis, problem-solving interventions, and psychometric information within this approach are clarified.     

Testing the Validity and Reliability of the Perceived Employability Scale (PES) Among a Culturally Diverse Population

This article reports the results of a study designed to test the validity and reliability of a newly developed career self-efficacy test called the Perceived Employability Scale (PES). A large group (N = 2,600) of low-income women with diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds living in Hawaii participated in this investigation. Recommendations for researchers and practitioners who are employment counselors are discussed.     

Writing about patients III: Comparisons of attitudes and practices of analysts residing outside and within the USA

When analysts write about patients, they find themselves in a position of conflict. Their first loyalty is to their patients and maintaining confidentiality. However, they are also committed to advancing scientific knowledge in the psychoanalytic field. The attitudes and practices of 36 analysts residing outside the USA, who published articles using clinical material from their patients, are reported. Their attitudes and practices are compared with those of 30 author-analysts residing within the USA, who had been previously interviewed. Among the 66 analysts, geographic region was not a basis for distinguishing differences in attitudes or practices. Slightly more than twice as many analysts use only disguised material as regularly ask permission of their patients to write about them. The decision to use only disguise is somewhat more frequent for analysts who reside outside the USA than for those living within it. Analysts around the world are increasingly concerned about the accessibility of published material. More analysts have come to believe that it is necessary to ask permission before publishing material. Some analysts also believe that the request itself, and the patients reading written material about themselves, focus issues that are central to patients' characters and confl icts that can then be explored analytically.     

THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COMPANY PRODUCTIVITY: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Within the strategic human resource management (SHRM) perspective, psychology‐based practices, especially empowerment, extensive training, and teamwork, are seen as vital to sustained competitive advantage. Other approaches, such as those of integrated manufacturing and lean production, place greater emphasis on operational initiatives such as total quality management, just‐in‐time, advanced manufacturing technology, and supply‐chain partnering as determinants of organizational performance. We investigated the relative merits of these practices through a study of the productivity of 308 companies over 22 years, during which time they implemented some or all of these 7 practices. Consistent with SHRM theory we found performance benefits from empowerment and extensive training, with the adoption of teamwork serving to enhance both. In contrast, none of the operational practices were directly related to productivity nor did they interact with other practices in ways fully consistent with the notions of integrated manufacturing or lean production.     

Personality Consistency and Perceived Problem-Solving Behavior and Attitudes: An Extension of Holland's Typology

Holland's construct of consistency was used to predict self-perceived behavior and attitudes typically associated with “successful” problem solving. The results tend to support Holland's premise that the higher the degree of personality consistency, the more students perceive their problem-solving behavior and attitudes as successful.     

A Program for Training Teachers as Counselors of Parents of Children with Disabilities

The author presents a four-session, in-service training program in which a counselor serves as facilitator. The focus of the program is training teachers to work more effectively with parents of children with disabilities through the integration of counseling theory and special education practice.