Industrial Organizational PRPJET

Question 1

Job Analysis

Answer 1

1. Job Analysis: Job analysis is a systematic procedure for “identifying how a job is performed, the conditions under which it is performed, and the personal requirements it takes to perform the job” (Aamodt, 2013, p. 599). A job analysis serves several functions in organizations including obtaining the information needed to write a job description, develop or identify appropriate job performance and selection measures, determine training needs, and make decisions about job design and redesign. Methods of obtaining information include observing employees while they perform the job; interviewing employees and supervisors about the job; having employees, supervisors, and others familiar with the job complete surveys and questionnaires; and using electronic performance monitoring.

A job analysis may be work-oriented or worker-oriented: A work-oriented job analysis focuses on the tasks that must be accomplished to achieve desired job outcomes. Task analysis is a work-oriented approach that involves having employees and supervisors develop a comprehensive list of job tasks, having subject matter experts rate the identified tasks in terms of frequency and importance, and then including tasks with high ratings in the job description. A worker-oriented job analysis focuses on the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) that are required to accomplish job tasks. The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a worker-oriented job analysis questionnaire that addresses six categories of work activity: information input, mental processes, work output, relationships with other people, job context, and other characteristics.

Question 2

Competency Modeling

Answer 2

Competency Modeling: Competency modeling is similar to job analysis but is somewhat different in focus. While job analysis focuses on the tasks and/or worker characteristics required to perform a specific job successfully, competency modeling is always worker-oriented and focuses on the core competencies (attributes) that are required to successfully perform all jobs or a subset of jobs within an organization and that are linked to the organization’s values, goals, and strategies. “Exhibiting the highest level of professional integrity at all times” and “staying current with the latest technological advances” are examples of core competencies” (Muchinsky, 2012, p. 78). Competency modeling, like job analysis, serves several functions in organizations, including identifying appropriate job selection and performance measures, determining the content of training programs, and identifying future job requirements.

Question 3

Job Evaluation

Answer 3

Job Evaluation: Job analysis is ordinarily the first step in job evaluation, but a job evaluation is conducted specifically to facilitate decisions related to compensation. It’s often used to establish comparable worth, which is the principle that workers performing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities or that are of comparable value to the employer should be paid the same. Comparable worth has been applied primarily to the gender gap in wages.

The point system is a commonly used method of job evaluation. It involves determining the monetary value of a job by assigning points to the job’s “compensable factors” (e.g., effort, skill, responsibility, working conditions), summing the points to derive a total score, and using the total score to determine the appropriate compensation for the job.

Question 4

Performance Assessment

Answer 4

Performance Assessment – Criterion Measures: Measures of job performance are also referred to as criterion measures. They serve several functions in organizations, including providing employees with feedback about their performance and evaluating employee performance to obtain the information needed to make decisions about raises, promotions, etc.

Question 5

Types of Performance Appraisal Measures

Answer 5

Types of Performance Appraisal Measures: Performance appraisal measures are categorized as objective or subjective: Objective measures usually provide quantitative information and include direct measures of productivity and number of errors, accidents, and absences. Objective measures can provide important information, but they’re not available for certain jobs, they don’t always provide complete information about employee performance, and they can be affected by situational factors such as inadequate resources or support. Subjective measures take the form of performance ratings and are the most commonly used performance measures in organizations. Advantages of subjective measures are that they can provide information on aspects of performance that cannot be assessed with an objective measure, they allow raters to take situational factors that affect performance into account, and they can provide information that’s useful for giving employees feedback about their performance. A major disadvantage is that they can be affected by rater biases and errors.

Question 6

Subjective Rating Scales

Answer 6

2. Subjective Rating Scales: There are two types of subjective rating scales – relative and absolute. Relative rating scales require the rater to evaluate an employee by comparing the employee to other employees, while absolute rating scales require the rater to evaluate an employee without considering the performance of other employees. Relative rating scales include the paired comparison technique and the forced distribution method:
   (a) When using the paired comparison technique, the rater compares each employee to all other employees in pairs on each dimension of job performance (e.g., work quality, job knowledge, communication) by indicating which employee is best. An advantage of this technique is that it alleviates central tendency, leniency, and strictness rater biases; a disadvantage is that it can be very time-consuming to use when there are many employees to rate.
   (b) The forced distribution method requires the rater to assign a certain percent of employees to prespecified performance categories for each dimension of job performance. For example, it might require that 10% of employees be assigned to the poor performance category, 20% to the below average performance category, 40% to the average performance category, 20% to the above average performance category, and 10% to the excellent performance category. The forced distribution method alleviates central tendency, leniency, and strictness rater biases, but it provides inaccurate information when the performance of employees does not match the prespecified categories (e.g., when all employees are performing at the average or above average level).

Absolute rating scales include the critical incident technique, graphic rating scales, and behaviorally anchored rating scales:

(a) The critical incident technique (CIT) is a method of both job analysis and performance assessment. It involves identifying employee behaviors that are associated with exceptionally poor and exceptionally good performance by observing employees while they work or by interviewing people familiar with the job. The list of “critical incidents” is then used to evaluate performance by checking those that apply to each employee. An advantage of CIT is that it provides useful information for employee feedback because it focuses on observable behaviors. Disadvantages are that it can be time-consuming to develop, it focuses on extreme (rather than typical) behaviors, and it’s job-specific, which means that new critical incidents must be identified for different jobs.
(b) When using a graphic rating scale, the rater rates an employee’s performance on several performance dimensions on a Likert-type rating scale – e.g., from 1 (poor performance) to 5 (excellent performance). An advantage of graphic rating scales is that they’re easy to construct; a disadvantages is that they’re vulnerable to rater biases.
(c) Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) are a type of graphic rating scale in which each point on a scale is “anchored” with a description of a specific behavior. A distinguishing characteristic of BARS is their development, which involves having job incumbents, supervisors, and other subject matter experts identify essential dimensions of job performance and specific behaviors for each dimension that are associated with good, average, and poor performance. Advantages of BARS are that the behavioral anchors help reduce rater biases and provide information that’s useful for employee feedback. Disadvantages are that they’re time-consuming to develop and job-specific.

Question 7

Ultimate versus Actual Performance Measures

Answer 7

3. Ultimate versus Actual Performance Measures: Descriptions of job performance measures often distinguish between ultimate and actual criteria. The ultimate criterion is an ideal measure that assesses all of the important contributors to job performance, while the actual criterion is what a job performance measure actually measures. Criterion deficiency and criterion contamination are two reasons for the gap between ultimate and actual criteria: Criterion deficiency refers to aspects of performance that are not assessed by the criterion. For instance, a job knowledge test for clinical psychologists would be deficient if it includes questions on psychopathology and clinical psychology but not ethics. Criterion contamination occurs when the criterion measure is affected by factors unrelated to job performance – for example, when a supervisor’s ratings of employees on the criterion are affected by an employee’s gender or race or by the supervisor’s knowledge of how well the employee did on the predictors that were used to hire him or her.

Question 8

Performance Assessment – Rater Biases

Answer 8

Performance Assessment – Rater Biases: Distribution errors, the halo error, the contrast error, and the similarity bias are rater biases that can affect the accuracy of subjective performance ratings.

(a) Distribution errors occur when raters consistently use only one part of the rating scale when rating all employees: The central tendency bias occurs when the rater consistently gives all employees average ratings regardless of their actual performance. The leniency and strictness biases occur when the rater consistently gives all employees high ratings or low ratings, respectively, regardless of their actual performance.
(b) The halo error is also known as the halo effect and halo bias. It occurs when a rater’s rating of an employee on one dimension of job performance affects how the rater rates the employee on all other dimensions, even when they’re unrelated to that dimension. The halo error can be positive or negative: A supervisor’s ratings are affected by a positive halo error when the supervisor highly values cooperation and rates employees who are very cooperative high on all dimensions of job performance and is affected by a negative halo error when the supervisor rates employees who are uncooperative low on all dimensions of performance.
(c) The contrast error occurs when a rater’s ratings of an employee are affected by the performance of a previously evaluated employee. For example, a supervisor’s ratings are affected by the contrast error when the supervisor gives an average employee below average ratings because she rated an excellent employee immediately before rating the average employee.
(d) The similarity bias occurs when raters give higher ratings to ratees they perceive to be similar to themselves.

Methods for reducing rater biases include using relative rating scales, anchoring points on an absolute rating scale with descriptions of specific job behaviors, and providing raters with adequate training. Using relative (rather than absolute) rating scales is most useful for eliminating distribution errors (central tendency, leniency, and strictness biases) since relative scales require raters to give some employees higher or lower ratings than they give to other employees. Anchoring points on an absolute rating scale with descriptions of specific job behaviors helps reduce distribution errors and other biases by clarifying the meaning of each point on the scale. And providing adequate rater training is the best way to reduce rater biases as well as other factors that decrease rater accuracy on relative and absolute rating scales. Note that the research has found that focusing only on rater biases during training can actually reduce overall accuracy and that a better approach is to provide frame-of-reference (FOR) training (Guion, 1998). It includes ensuring that trainees understand the multidimensional nature of job performance and the organization’s definition of successful and unsuccessful performance and giving trainees opportunities to practice assigning ratings and receive feedback about their rating accuracy.

Question 9

Types of Selection Techniques

Answer 9

Types of Selection Techniques: Selection techniques are often referred to as predictors. Commonly used predictors in organizations include interviews, general mental ability tests, personality tests, integrity tests, work samples, assessment centers, and biographical information.

Question 10

Interviews

Answer 10

Interviews: Interviews can be unstructured or structured. When conducting an unstructured interview, interviewers can ask whatever questions they want to ask and do not necessarily ask all applicants the same questions. When conducting a structured interview, all interviewees are asked the same questions that may be derived from the results of a job analysis and scored using a standardized scoring key. Behavioral and situational interviews are types of structured interviews: Behavioral interviews are based on the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior and consist of questions that ask interviewees how they responded to specific job-related situations in the past. Situational interviews are future-oriented and consist of questions that ask interviewees how they would respond to hypothetical situations. Not surprisingly, structured interviews have been found to be better than unstructured interviews for predicting job performance, with some studies finding that behavioral interviews are more valid than situational interviews (e.g., Taylor & Small, 2002).

Question 11

General Mental Ability Tests

Answer 11

General Mental Ability Tests: General mental ability tests are also known as cognitive ability tests and are among the most frequently used selection techniques. They have been found to be the most valid predictors of job performance across a variety of jobs, performance criteria, and organizations and good predictors of training success and level of occupational attainment (Hunter & Schmidt, 2004; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). A disadvantage of these tests is that they are associated with a greater risk than other valid predictors of job performance for adverse impact for members of some racial/ethnic minority groups.

Question 12

Personality Tests

Answer 12

Personality Tests: Many personality tests used to facilitate selection decisions in organizations assess the Big Five personality traits – i.e., conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. Of these traits, conscientiousness has been found to be the best predictor of job performance across different jobs and different performance criteria (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

Question 13

Integrity Tests

Answer 13

Integrity Tests: Integrity tests are used to predict whether an applicant is likely to engage in counterproductive behaviors. There are two basic types of integrity tests: Overt integrity tests ask directly about attitudes toward and previous history of dishonesty and theft, while personality-based integrity tests assess aspects of personality that have been linked to dishonesty, disciplinary problems, sabotage, and other counterproductive behaviors. Integrity tests do not seem to have an adverse impact for racial/ethnic minorities, and they have been found to be good predictors of counterproductive behavior and, to a somewhat lesser degree, job performance (Heneman, Judge, & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2014).

Question 14

Work Samples:

Answer 14

Work Samples: Work samples require job applicants to perform tasks they would actually perform on-the-job. They have been found to have even higher validity coefficients than general mental ability tests do but, unlike general mental ability tests, they’re job specific (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). While traditional work samples are useful for experienced applicants, trainability work sample tests incorporate periods of training and evaluation and are useful for determining if inexperienced applicants are likely to benefit from training. A work sample is often included as part of a realistic job preview (RJP), which involves informing job applicants about the positive and negative aspects of the job in order to reduce the risk for turnover after they’re hired by ensuring they have realistic job expectations.

Question 15

Assessment Centers

Answer 15

Assessment Centers: Assessment centers are most often used to evaluate candidates for managerial-level jobs and involve having multiple raters rate candidates on several performance dimensions using multiple methods. Methods include personality and ability tests, structured interviews, and simulations (work samples). The in-basket exercise and leaderless group discussion are two of these simulations: The in-basket exercise is used to assess decision-making skills and requires participants to respond to memos, phone messages, and other communications that are similar to those they would encounter on-the-job. The leaderless group discussion is used to evaluate the leadership potential of participants and requires a small group of participants to work together without an assigned leader to solve a job-related problem.

Question 16

Biographical Information

Answer 16

Biographical Information: Biographical information is obtained by most organizations as part of the selection process and, when it’s obtained from empirically derived biographical information blanks (BIBs), is referred to as biodata. The questions included in BIBs not only ask about an applicant’s education and work history but also about other issues that predict job performance (e.g., family history, health history, interests, social relationships). Questions are presented in a multiple-choice format or other format that can be easily scored, and an applicant’s scores are used to predict productivity and other job outcomes. A disadvantage of BIBs is that, while questions have been found to be job-related, some may lack face validity. As a result, applicants may consider these questions to be irrelevant to job performance and refuse to answer them

Question 17

Combining Selection Techniques

Answer 17

Combining Selection Techniques: No single predictor is likely to be adequate for making accurate hiring decisions, and organizations ordinarily use multiple predictors. The methods for combining information obtained from multiple predictors are divided into two types – compensatory and noncompensatory: Compensatory methods are appropriate when a high score on one or more predictors can compensate for a low score on another predictor. Included in this category are clinical prediction and multiple regression: Clinical prediction relies on the subjective judgment of decision makers, who use their familiarity with job requirements to determine if an applicant’s predictor scores qualify the applicant for the job. The major disadvantage of this method is that it’s susceptible to biases and errors, and the studies have confirmed that statistical methods for combining scores are more accurate than clinical prediction for predicting job performance. Multiple regression is a statistical method for combining scores. When using this method, each predictor is weighted on the basis of its correlations with the other predictors and with the criterion and the weighted predictor scores are combined to obtain an estimated criterion score.

Noncompensatory methods are used when a low score on one predictor cannot be compensated for by a high score on another predictor. Included in this category are multiple cutoff and multiple hurdles. When using multiple cutoff, all of the predictors are administered to all applicants, and applicants must obtain a score that’s above the cutoff score on each predictor to be considered for the job. Multiple hurdles is similar to multiple cutoff except that predictors are administered in a prespecified order and the applicant must obtain a score above the cutoff on each predictor in order for the next predictor to be administered. Multiple hurdles is preferable to multiple cutoff when it would be too costly to administer all of the predictors to all applicants. Multiple cutoff and multiple hurdles can be combined with multiple regression by using multiple regression to predict the criterion scores of applicants who score above the cutoff score on all of the predictors.

Question 18

Reliability and Validity

Answer 18

Reliability and Validity: Reliability and validity are two standards that are used to judge the adequacy of a predictor. Reliability refers to the degree to which a predictor is free from the effects of measurement (random) error and, as a result, provides consistent scores. The various methods for evaluating reliability assess the consistency of scores over time, across different forms or items, or across different scorers, and most produce a reliability coefficient, which is a type of correlation coefficient. The reliability coefficient ranges from 0 to 1.0 and, the closer the coefficient is to 1.0, the less the effect of measurement error and the greater the consistency of scores.

Knowing that a predictor is reliable only indicates that, whatever the predictor measures, it does so consistently. To determine if the predictor actually measures what it was designed to measure, its validity must be assessed. There are three main types of validity and each type is evaluated using different methods. For many predictors used to make selection and other employment decisions, more than one type of validity is evaluated.

(a) Content validity refers to the extent to which a predictor adequately samples the knowledge or skills it’s intended to measure. Basing a predictor’s content on the results of a job analysis and having subject matter experts review the content help ensure that it has an acceptable level of content validity. Job knowledge tests and work samples should have adequate content validity.
(b) Construct validity refers to the extent to which a predictor measures the construct (hypothetical trait) it was designed to measure. A predictor’s construct validity is assessed in several ways including correlating scores on the predictor with scores on valid measures of the same, similar, and different constructs. Intelligence tests and personality tests should have adequate construct validity.
(c) Criterion-related validity refers to the degree to which scores on the predictor correlate with scores on the criterion. It’s evaluated by correlating predictor and criterion scores obtained by individuals in a tryout sample to obtain a criterion-related validity coefficient. This coefficient ranges from -1.0 to +1.0 and, the closer it is to 0, the lower the predictor’s criterion-related validity. When an organization’s goal is to use applicants’ scores on a predictor to estimate or predict their scores on the criterion to facilitate hiring decisions, it would be important to assess the predictor’s criterion-related validity.

Additional information about reliability and validity is provided in the Test Construction questions and content summaries.

Question 19

Incremental Validity

Answer 19

Incremental Validity: Incremental validity refers to the increase in decision-making accuracy that occurs by adding a new selection technique (predictor) to the existing selection procedure. A predictor is most likely to increase decision-making accuracy when its criterion-related validity coefficient is large. However, even when a predictor’s validity coefficient is low to moderate, it can have incremental validity when the selection ratio is low and the base rate is moderate:

(a) The selection ratio is the percent of job applicants the company plans to hire and is calculated by dividing the number of applicants that will be hired by the total number of applicants. For example, a selection ratio of .10 is low and means that one of 10 applicants will be hired, while a selection ratio of .90 is high and means that nine of 10 applicants will be hired. A low selection ratio is best because it means the company has more applicants to choose from.
(b) The base rate is the percent of employees who were hired using the current selection procedure and are considered successful. A moderate base rate (around .50) is associated with the greatest increase in decision-making accuracy because, when the base rate is high, adding a new predictor probably won’t have much effect since the current procedure is adequate. And when the base rate is low, this suggests that something other than the selection procedure (e.g., inadequate training) is the problem because it’s not likely that use of the current procedure results in choosing the least suitable applicants.

The Taylor-Russell tables are used to obtain an estimate of a predictor’s incremental validity for various combinations of criterion-related validity coefficients, base rates, and selection ratios. For example, when a predictor’s criterion-related validity coefficient is .30 (a fairly low coefficient), the base rate is .50 (50% of current employees are successful), and the selection ratio is .10 (one of every 10 applicants will be hired), the Taylor-Russell tables indicate that the addition of the new predictor will result in 71% of hired employees being successful. This means that there will be a 21% increase in successful employees when the new predictor is added to the current selection procedure (71% - 50% = 21%).

Question 20

Adverse Impact

Answer 20

Adverse Impact: Adverse impact is also referred to as disparate impact and is “a type of unfair discrimination in which the result of using a particular personnel selection method has a negative effect on protected group members compared with majority group members” (Muchinsky, 2012, p. 138). Adverse impact is addressed in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, which was adopted in 1978 by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) and other government agencies responsible for enforcing equal employment opportunity laws. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) and Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures Interpretation and Clarification (1979) describe test unfairness and differential validity as situations that can cause adverse impact:

(a) Test unfairness occurs when members of one group consistently obtain lower scores on a selection test or other employment procedure but the score difference is not reflected in differences in scores on a measure of job performance. Test unfairness is occurring when men and women receive similar ratings on a measure of job performance but, for some reason, women consistently obtain lower scores on the selection test and, as a result, are hired less frequently than men are when the test is used to make hiring decisions.
(b) Differential validity occurs when a selection test or other employment procedure has significantly different validity coefficients for members of different groups. A selection test has differential validity, for instance, when its criterion-related validity coefficient is .70 for men but .20 for women.

The Uniform Guidelines describes the 80% rule (also known as the four-fifths rule) as a method for determining if a selection test is having an adverse impact. When using the 80% rule, adverse impact is occurring when the hiring rate for a legally protected group is less than 80% of the hiring rate for the majority group. As an example, if the hiring rate for White applicants is 70%, the minimum hiring rate for African-American applicants is 56% (.70 times .80 = .56).

When the court determines that a selection test or other employment procedure is having an adverse impact, the employer has several options: The employer can use another procedure that doesn’t have an adverse impact, can modify the procedure so it no longer has an adverse impact, or can demonstrate that use of the procedure is a business necessity or a bona fide occupational qualification: An employment procedure is a business necessity when it’s job-related and necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the business. For example, a company may discriminate against people with certain physical disabilities if, because of the nature of the job, their disabilities are likely to cause safety risks for employees or customers. An employment requirement is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) when it’s necessary to maintain normal business operations. Religion is a BFOQ when a religious high school requires its faculty to be members of its denomination. BFOQ may apply to gender, age, religion, and national origin but not race.

Question 21

Utility Analysis:

Answer 21

Utility Analysis: Utility analysis is a method for evaluating “the economic return on investment of human resource interventions such as staffing and training” (Landy & Conte, 2016, p. 282). A commonly cited formula for assessing the utility of selection tests is the Brogden-Cronbach-Gleser formula (Brogden, 1949; Cronbach & Gleser, 1965), which estimates utility in dollars based on several factors, including the number of individuals hired, the test’s validity coefficient, the standard deviation of job performance in dollars, and the cost of testing.

Question 22

The development of a training program

Answer 22

The development of a training program begins with a needs analysis, which is also known as needs assessment and is conducted to identify training needs. It ordinarily includes four analyses: (a) an organizational analysis to identify organizational goals and determine if employee performance problems are due to a lack of training or to inadequate selection procedures or other factors; (b) a task (job) analysis to identify the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required to perform the job successfully; (c) a person analysis to identify which employees have deficiencies that require training; and (d) a demographic analysis to identify the training needs of specific groups of workers such as older versus younger workers. The results of the needs analysis are used to identify training goals and the best methods for achieving those goals.

Question 23

Training Methods:

Answer 23

1. Training Methods: The various methods of training are categorized as on-the-job or off-the-job. On-the-job methods involve having inexperienced employees observe and learn about the job from a supervisor or experienced employee. On-the-job methods include apprenticeships, internships, coaching, mentoring, job rotation, and cross-training. Job rotation involves having the trainee rotate through a pre-determined set of jobs within the organization and is often used to train managers. Cross-training involves teaching employees how to perform the essential tasks performed by other employees and is usually used to train members of a team or other work unit who are performing similar or related jobs. Two advantages of on-the-job training are that it’s usually less costly than off-the-job training and it alleviates problems related to transfer of training. Major disadvantages are the potential for errors, safety problems, and a slowdown or disruption of productivity.

Off-the-job methods take place at a site away from the actual worksite. Included in this category are classroom lectures, technology-based training, behavior modeling, and simulation training. Behavior modeling is based on Bandura’s (1986) social learning theory and involves having trainees observe a model perform the desired behaviors. Trainees are then given feedback and reinforcement while they practice the modeled behaviors. Simulation training takes place in an environment that’s similar to the actual work environment and is useful when on-the-job training would be too costly or dangerous. Vestibule training is a type of simulation training that allows trainees to acquire skills using the actual machinery or equipment they’ll use on-the-job. Advantages of off-the-job training are that it provides greater control over the training environment, allows a large number of employees to be trained at the same time, and permits the use of multiple training methods. Disadvantages are that, in some situations, it may cost more than on-the-job training and it may not provide adequate transfer of training.

Question 24

Mentoring and Coaching

Answer 24

Mentoring and Coaching: The terms “mentoring” and “coaching” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they actually have distinct meanings. Mentoring is a relationship between a mentor (more experienced person) and a mentee (less experienced person) in which the mentor provides support and guidance to the mentee to assist with the mentee’s professional development. Mentoring incorporates two functions (Ragins & Kram, 2007): (a) Career functions depend on the mentor’s status and influence in the organization and are behaviors that prepare mentees for career advancement within their organizations. These behaviors include acting as a trainer or tutor, sponsoring the advancement of mentees, and increasing the exposure and visibility of mentees. (b) Psychosocial functions depend on the interpersonal bond between the mentor and mentee and include role-modeling, offering advice, providing support, and engaging in other behaviors that promote the mentee’s personal and professional growth and feelings of self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Coaching is “a process used to encourage employees to accept responsibility for their own performance, to enable them to achieve and sustain superior performance, and to treat them as partners in working toward organizational goals and effectiveness” (Werner & DeSimone, 2012, p. 327). It consists of two activities: (a) Coaching analysis involves identifying the conditions that contribute to the employee’s satisfactory and unsatisfactory performance, and (b) coaching discussions are direct communications between the coach and employee that are aimed at helping the employee achieve and maintain optimal performance. In contrast to mentoring, coaching is more formal and task (versus relationship) oriented, has a shorter duration, is more performance (versus career) focused, and typically addresses the needs of the employee and the organization rather than the needs of the employee only (Passmore, 2007). Executive coaching is a type of coaching that focuses on an executive’s leadership skills and ability to achieve short- and long-term organizational goals. Other types include performance coaching, which focuses on helping employees at all levels identify and acquire the competencies needed to fulfill job requirements, and team coaching, which focuses on improving the ability of a team to achieve its goals.

Question 25

Factors that Affect Learning

Answer 25

Factors that Affect Learning: Research has identified several factors that affect the degree to which trainees acquire and retain new information and skills (Landy & Conte, 2016; Werner & DeSimone, 2012):

(a) Distributed versus Massed Practice: For most tasks, distributed (spaced) practice is more effective than massed practice: Distributed practice involves providing opportunities for learning and practice in multiple sessions with periods of rest between sessions, while massed practice involves providing opportunities for learning practice in one session.
(b) Whole-Task versus Part-Task Training: Whole-task training involves teaching an entire task at once, while part-task training involves dividing the task into subtasks and teaching each subtask separately. The best approach depends on the type of task: Whole-task training is more effective when the task is highly organized and subtasks are highly interrelated.
(c) Overlearning: Overlearning refers to learning or practicing beyond the point of mastery and results in automaticity, which occurs when information is recalled or a behavior is performed with little conscious effort or awareness. Automaticity is especially important for tasks that are performed relatively infrequently and when correct performance is essential because errors can have serious negative consequences. (Be careful not to confuse overlearning and overtraining. Overtraining refers to the physical and psychological symptoms that can occur when athletic training is excessive. Symptoms include decreased performance, fatigue, persistent muscle and joint soreness, gastrointestinal problems, apathy, depression, and anxiety. )

Question 26

Factors that Affect Transfer of Training

Answer 26

Factors that Affect Transfer of Training: The following practices have been found to maximize transfer of training (Landy & Conte, 2016; Werner & DeSimone, 2012):

(a) Identical Elements: According to the principle of identical elements, the more similar the training and work situations are, the greater the transfer of training. Identical elements is also referred to as physical and psychological fidelity: Physical fidelity refers to how similar the physical training and physical work conditions are, while psychological fidelity refers to the degree to which training helps trainees acquire the KSAOs needed to perform the job.
(b) Stimulus Variability: Transfer of training is maximized when a variety of stimuli are used during training. This includes using multiple examples of a concept and providing opportunities to practice a behavior in a variety of conditions.
(c) Support: Transfer of training is affected by the amount of support trainees receive for using newly acquired skills and knowledge on-the-job. An organization provides support by maintaining a transfer of training climate that emphasizes the importance of training and offers sufficient peer and supervisor support and opportunities to use new skills and knowledge.

Question 27

Training Evaluation:

Answer 27

Training Evaluation: Scriven (1967) coined the terms “formative” and “summative” to describe the two main functions of program evaluation: A formative evaluation is conducted to foster the development and improvement of a program, while a summative evaluation is conducted to determine whether the results of a program met the program’s goals. Several experts note that formative and summative evaluations each incorporate several evaluation subtypes (e.g., Troachim, 2020): Formative evaluation includes (a) a needs assessment to determine the needs of the proposed participants and the methods for meeting those needs, (b) an evaluability assessment to determine if an evaluation of the program’s effectiveness is possible and practical, and (c) a process evaluation to evaluate how the program was implemented and determine if it was implemented as planned. Summative evaluation includes (a) an outcome evaluation to determine whether the program achieved its stated goals for participants, (b) an impact evaluation to identify the intended and unintended effects of the program on the organization, and (c) an economic evaluation to determine the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefits of the program.

The Dessinger-Moseley full-scope evaluation model (Dessinger & Moseley, 2010) expands Scriven’s dichotomy by distinguishing between four types of evaluation: (a) Formative evaluation is conducted during the development of a training program to determine what changes are needed for the program to achieve its goals. It may include having experts review the content of each component of the program to determine if it adequately addresses program goals and administering measures of attitudes and learning to a sample of trainees after each component is delivered. (b) Summative evaluation is conducted soon after the entire training program has been delivered to determine its immediate effects. It involves administering measures that assess trainees’ reactions to training and the effectiveness of training for meeting its goals. (c) Confirmative evaluation is conducted at a later time to evaluate the long-term effects of training and involves administering measures similar to those administered as part of the summative evaluation. (d) Meta-evaluation is an ongoing process that’s conducted during and after the formative, summative, and confirmative evaluations for the purpose of assessing their reliability and validity.

Finally, Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model (1998) distinguishes between four levels of training program evaluation that are arranged in order from least to most informative: (a) Reaction criteria assess the trainees’ impressions of the training. (b) Learning criteria assess how well trainees acquired the information and skills presented during training. (c) Behavior criteria evaluate the degree to which trainees’ job performance improved as a result of training. (d) Results criteria assess the effects of training on return-on-investment (ROI), customer satisfaction, and other organizational outcomes. Results criteria are considered to be most useful, but they’re difficult to assess because it’s often not possible to determine whether changes in outcomes are due to training or other factors.

Question 28

Career choice and development

Answer 28

Career choice and development have become increasingly important in organizations due to several factors such as increasing globalization and competition, changes in workforce demographics, rapid changes in technology, and a shift in the typical career path from a traditional linear path to a multidirectional path (Rothmann & Cooper, 2013; Werner & DeSimone, 2012). The major theories of career choice and development are summarized below. Note that several theories share basic concepts: Some form of self-identity is a component of the theories of Super, Holland, and Krumboltz; and person-environment congruence is central to Holland’s and Dawis and Lofquist’s theories.

Question 29

Super’s Life-Space, Life-Span Career Theory

Answer 29

Super’s Life-Space, Life-Span Career Theory: Super’s (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996) theory distinguishes between five stages of career development: growth (birth to 14), exploration (15 to 24), establishment (25 to 44), maintenance (45 to 64), and disengagement (65+). The five stages act as a maxi-cycle over the entire lifespan and as mini-cycles of much shorter duration during the transitions between stages and within a stage when a person is dealing with an expected or unexpected career change. Each stage involves a different set of development tasks, and “career maturity” (“career adaptability” for adults) refers to a person’s ability to successfully complete the tasks of his or her stage.

Super used the term life-space to refer to the various life roles a person assumes at different times and in different contexts (e.g., child, student, worker, parent). He proposed that each person has a unique life-space due to differences in needs, interests, values, and other personal factors and in family, cultural, and other situational factors. The life-career rainbow is one of the illustrations Super created to assist with career counseling. It depicts the relationship between a person’s life stages and major life roles over his/her lifespan.

Self-concept is a central concept in Super’s theory and refers to how people perceive themselves and their situations. It develops over the lifespan and is the result of interactions between internal (personal) factors and external (situational) factors. According to Super, a person’s self-concept influences and is influenced by a person’s career development process and is the major determinant of the person’s career decisions.

Question 30

Holland’s Theory of Career Choice

Answer 30

Holland’s Theory of Career Choice: Holland (1985) distinguished between six personality and work environment types (“RIASEC”): realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. He depicted the types arranged around a hexagon, with the types closest to each other in the hexagon being most similar and those farthest from each other being most dissimilar. For example, investigative is closest (and most similar) to realistic and artistic and farthest (and most dissimilar) from enterprising.

Holland proposed that people are most productive and satisfied at work when there’s a high degree of congruence (“goodness-of-fit”) between a person’s personality and the characteristics of the work environment. For example, people who obtain the highest score on the realistic scale of Holland’s Self-Directed Search have the best job outcomes if they choose a realistic job that involves working with tools, machines, and other material things. Holland also proposed that a personality/work environment match is most predictive of job outcomes when the person’s score profile on the Self-Directed Search indicates a high degree of differentiation – that is, when the person obtains a high score on one personality type and low scores on the other five types. Finally, Holland defined vocational identity as “the clear and stable picture of one’s goals, interests, and talents” (1997, p. 5) and argued that people with well-formed (versus diffuse) vocational identities feel more confident about making career decisions.

Question 31

Dawis and Lofquist’s Theory of Work Adjustment

Answer 31

Dawis and Lofquist’s Theory of Work Adjustment: Dawis and Lofquist (1984) propose that congruence between certain characteristics of an employee and the employee’s work environment predict the person’s job tenure, which they identify as the primary indicator of work adjustment. More specifically, their theory is based on the assumption that tenure is the result of two factors – satisfaction and satisfactoriness. Satisfaction refers to the employee’s satisfaction with the job. It’s affected by the match between the employee’s needs and the reinforcers provided by the job and determines whether the employee stays on-the-job or quits. Satisfactoriness refers to the employer’s satisfaction with the employee. It’s affected by how well the employee’s skills match the skill requirements of the job and determines whether the employer retains or fires the employee.

Question 32

Tiedeman’s Career Decision-Making Model

Answer 32

Tiedeman’s Career Decision-Making Model: The career decision-making model developed by Tiedeman and his colleagues (Miller-Tiedeman & Tiedeman, 1990; Tiedeman & O’Hara, 1963) views vocational identity development as an ongoing decision-making process that’s linked to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of ego identity development. It distinguishes between two phases of career decision-making: (a) The initial anticipation phase includes the exploration, crystallization, choice, and clarification stages. During this phase, the person becomes familiar with different jobs, makes a tentative job choice, and prepares to implement that choice. (b) Next is the implementation phase, which includes the induction, reformation, and integration stages. During this phase, the person begins the chosen job, becomes proficient at it, and achieves a balance between his/her needs and the organization’s demands. According to Tiedeman et al., career decision-making is not always a single linear process; instead, stages may be repeated, skipped, or occur in a different order.

Question 33

Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory of Career Decision-Making

Answer 33

Krumboltz’s Social Learning Theory of Career Decision-Making: Krumboltz’s (1996) theory combines elements of classical behaviorism, Bandura’s social learning theory, and the cognitive behavior therapies of Ellis and Beck. It identifies four factors that contribute to career decisions: (a) genetic endowment and special abilities that may enable or limit a person’s career choices, (b) environmental conditions and events that may be beyond the person’s control, (c) instrumental and associative learning experiences, and (d) task approach skills (e.g., performance standards, problem-solving skills, work habits) that result from interactions among the other three factors. Krumboltz’s theory also proposes that interactions among these factors contribute to two types of generalization that guide a person’s career decisions and behaviors: Self-observation generalizations are beliefs that people have about their own attitudes, values, interests, and skills, while worldview generalizations are beliefs that people have about the world and are used to predict future events. According to Krumboltz, to promote their career development, individuals must have opportunities to “be exposed to the widest array of learning experiences” (Mitchell & Krumboltz, 1990, p. 168).

Question 34

Driver and Brousseau’s Career Concept Model

Answer 34

Driver and Brousseau’s Career Concept Model: The model developed by Driver, Brousseau, and their colleagues (Brousseau, 1984; Driver, 1979; Larsson, Brousseau, Kling, & Sweet, 2014) distinguishes between four career concepts that differ in terms of key motives, direction of career movement, and frequency of career change: (a) People with a linear career concept are motivated primarily by a desire for power and achievement and view careers as involving upward movement with infrequent career changes. (b) People with an expert career concept are motivated by a desire to have job security and develop expertise and view careers as involving a lifelong commitment, with the mastery of skills being more important than upward advancement. (c) People with a spiral career concept are motivated by a need for personal growth and opportunities to be creative and view careers as involving lateral movements across similar occupations that occur every five to 10 years. (d) People with a transitory career concept are motivated by a desire for variety and independence and view careers as involving lateral movements across different occupations that occur every two to four years. According to Driver and Brousseau, situations favorable to traditional linear and expert concepts are being replaced with situations more consistent with spiral and transitory concepts. They recommend that organizations adopt a pluralistic approach that “provides opportunities for diverse career experiences … [and allows organizations] to meet changing business conditions more effectively” (Brousseau, Driver, Eneroth, & Larsson, 1996, p. 56).

Question 35

Taylor’s Scientific Management:

Answer 35

Taylor’s Scientific Management: Taylor’s (1911) scientific management proposes that, to maximize organizational efficiency and productivity, managers must: (a) use scientific methods (e.g., time-and-motion studies) to identify the best way to do a job; (b) make sure that workers are scientifically selected and trained by determining the skill requirements for each job and selecting and training workers so their skills match those requirements; (c) have an equal division of labor, with managers responsible for planning and organizing work and workers responsible for implementing the manager’s plans; and (d) cooperate with (rather than coerce) workers to ensure that all work is done in ways consistent with scientific principles. Taylor also believed that workers are motivated primarily by a desire for economic gain and advocated linking financial incentives to productivity by, for example, using a differential piece-rate system that gives efficient workers higher wages.

Question 36

Weber’s Bureaucracy

Answer 36

Weber’s Bureaucracy: Weber (1947) described a bureaucracy as an impersonal and rational way to ensure that an organization’s operations are orderly and efficient. As described by Weber, the essential elements of a bureaucratic organization include a division of labor, a well-defined hierarchy of authority, formal rules and procedures, employment decisions based on competence and merit, written records of decisions and actions, and separation of ownership and management.

Question 37

Mayo’s Human Relations Approach

Answer 37

Mayo’s Human Relations Approach: The results of Mayo’s (1933) research at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in the 1920s and 1930s contributed to the development of the human relations approach to management. His research began as an application of scientific management and involved altering illumination level and other physical work conditions to identify what conditions maximize job productivity. However, Mayo found that productivity usually increased, regardless of what changes were made. The results of subsequent interviews and observations of workers indicated that increased productivity was due to the attention workers received as research participants, and Mayo referred to this as the Hawthorne effect. He also found that productivity was affected by informal work group norms and that workers were sanctioned by coworkers for violating those norms. For example, workers used “binging” (punching a coworker on the upper arm) to let coworkers know when their productivity levels were too high. Based on these results, Mayo concluded that social factors were more important than physical work conditions for work motivation and productivity.

Question 38

McGregor’s Theory X/Theory Y

Answer 38

McGregor’s Theory X/Theory Y: McGregor’s (1960) Theory X/Theory Y focuses on the interactions between supervisors and subordinates and proposes that a supervisor’s beliefs about subordinates have a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. In other words, a supervisor’s beliefs determine how the supervisor acts toward subordinates which, in turn, determines how subordinates behave. As described by McGregor, Theory X supervisors believe that subordinates are inherently lazy, dislike responsibility, resist change, and are concerned only about themselves and that supervisors must be directive and controlling to ensure that workers meet organizational goals. In contrast, Theory Y supervisors believe that subordinates enjoy work, are self-directed and internally motivated, and seek responsibility and that a supervisor’s role is to provide subordinates with conditions that allow them to fulfill their own goals by achieving organizational goals. ­­­­McGregor was influenced by the human relations approach and the work of Maslow and believed that Theory Y produces the best outcomes for employees and organizations.

Question 39

Katz and Kahn’s Open-System Theory

Answer 39

Katz and Kahn’s Open-System Theory: According to Katz and Kahn (1978), organizations are open systems that have the characteristics of other open systems – for example, they undergo cycles of events, act in ways to maintain homeostasis, avoid negative entropy (decay and destruction of the system) by acquiring new resources, and function according to the principles of equifinality and multifinality: According to the principle of equifinality, a system can achieve the same goal or outcome in multiple ways; according to the principle of multifinality, a system can achieve dissimilar goals or outcomes from the same initial conditions. Their theory also proposes that organizations, like other open systems, are characterized by input-throughput-output cycles: Organizations take in materials, information, and other resources (inputs); transform those resources to products, services, and information (throughputs); and then send out the products, services, and information (outputs). The consequences of the outputs (e.g., profits, customer feedback) are then brought back into the process as inputs.

Question 40

Lewins Models of Planned Change

Answer 40

“Organizational change is a process, a goal, or both … [and organizational development] is a toolbox of various methods for affecting that change” (Landy & Conte, 2016, p. 548). Models of planned change and methods of organizational development (OD) are described below:

1. Models of Planned Change: Lewin’s (1951) three-step model is an early model of planned change that continues to be influential. It distinguishes between the following stages: Unfreezing involves identifying and reducing forces that are maintaining an undesirable status quo and identifying and increasing forces that disrupt the status quo. Changing involves implementing the desired changes to move the organization to a new state of equilibrium. Refreezing involves integrating the desired change into organizational values and traditions to stabilize the new state of equilibrium and prevent regression to the prior undesirable state.

Cummings and Worley’s (2015) general model of planned change incorporates concepts from the three-step model and other models and distinguishes between four phases of change:

(a) During the entering and contracting phase, the organization identifies its primary problems and the relevant members of the organization for addressing those problems and selects an OD practitioner. The OD practitioner establishes a collaborative relationship with members of the organization, gathers initial information to gain understanding of the organization’s problems, and works with organization members to reach an agreement on expectations about desired outcomes and develop a contract that specifies how the OD practitioner and members will work together.
(b) The diagnosing phase consists of collecting and analyzing diagnostic information at the organization, group, and individual levels and providing feedback to the organization about its problems.
(c) The planning and implementing phase includes addressing the organization’s readiness to change, creating a vision of the organization’s future, designing OD interventions and formulating an action plan for implementing them, managing the transition, and sustaining momentum by, for example, providing necessary resources and support and ensuring that employees acquire relevant competencies.
(d) The evaluating and institutionalizing phase consists of evaluating the implementation and results of the OD interventions; deciding whether changes should be continued, modified, or suspended; and institutionalizing changes through feedback and corrective actions, reward allocation, and training.

Question 41

Survey Feedback

Answer 41

Survey Feedback: Survey feedback is often overseen by an OD consultant and consists of three phases: collect data, provide feedback, and develop an action plan. Data collection involves having employees at all levels of the organization complete surveys that are used to obtain information on their attitudes, opinions, and perceptions related to work conditions, supervision, company policies, and other important issues. The obtained information is summarized and shared with employees to help them understand the organization’s current strengths and weaknesses and identify problems that need to be addressed. Employees then offer recommendations to management for resolving these problems, and management develops an action plan, often with the help of the OD consultant.

Question 42

Process Consultation

Answer 42

Process Consultation: As its name suggests, process consultation (Schein, 1969) focuses on communication, decision-making, problem-solving, interpersonal relationships, and other organizational processes that are contributing to performance problems. The process consultant does not provide answers or solutions to problems but, instead, helps the organization become self-reliant by learning to diagnose and resolve its own problems.

Question 43

Self-Managed Work Teams

Answer 43

Self-Managed Work Teams: Self-managed work teams (SMWTs) are groups of employees who have total responsibility for and control over their own work, including budgeting, task assignments, methods for completing tasks, work schedules, employee selection and training, and performance appraisal. SMWTs do not have a supervisor, and the leadership role may change over time, depending on which team member has the expertise needed for the specific situation.

Question 44

Technostructural Interventions:

Answer 44

Technostructural Interventions: Technostructural interventions focus on changing an organization’s technology or structure in order to improve work methods, work content, and employee relationships and to reduce costs. These interventions include business process reengineering, job enrichment, and alternative work schedules. Business process reengineering (BPR) involves increasing organizational efficiency by radically redesigning the organization’s financial, communication, and other core processes (Hammer & Champy, 1993). Job enrichment was originally described by Herzberg (1966) and involves designing a job so it provides opportunities for responsibility, challenge, and advancement and other motivator (job content) factors that increase worker satisfaction and motivation. Alternative work schedules include the compressed workweek and flextime:

(a) The compressed workweek reduces the number of work days by increasing the number of hours worked each day – for example, 10 hours a day for four days. Research has found that the compressed workweek has a strong positive effect on job satisfaction and a positive but weaker effect on job productivity, but its effects on absenteeism are unclear (Baltes et al., 1999; Bird, 2010).
(b) Flextime requires all employees to work a standard number of hours and work during a core time (e.g., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) each day but gives them flexibility in starting and ending times. Studies have found that flextime increases job satisfaction and job productivity and reduces tardiness and absenteeism, with the strongest effect being on absenteeism (Baltes et al., 1999).

Question 45

Total Quality Management

Answer 45

Total Quality Management: Total quality management (TQM) emphasizes “continuous improvement … [through] continuous and incremental changes to all processes” (Nahavandi & Malekzadeh, 1999, p. 497). Other characteristics of TQM include top management commitment to quality, employee involvement, the use of teams, a focus on customer satisfaction, and data-driven decision-making. Specific techniques used to implement TQM include quality circles, benchmarking, and six sigma (Daft, Kendrick, & Vershinina, 2010):

(a) Quality circles (QCs) are small groups of employees who volunteer to meet regularly to identify problems related to quality, productivity, and other issues and discuss methods for resolving them. The employees then provide management with recommendations for alleviating the identified problems.
(b) Benchmarking is an organizational tool that involves “a continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against major competitors or industry leaders” (Daft, Kendrick, & Vershinina, 2010, p. 751). Its purpose is to identify ways for improving organizational processes, productivity, and the quality of products and services.
(c) Six sigma is an “approach to quality management … [that provides] training for employees and managers in statistical analysis, project management, and problem-solving methods to reduce the defect rate of products” (Landy & Conte, 2016, p. 545).

Question 46

Appreciative Inquiry

Answer 46

Appreciative Inquiry: Appreciative inquiry combines elements of social constructionism and positive psychology and “involves identifying the unique and best aspects of the organization, followed by generating ideas about how to build on them” (Truxillo, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2016, p. 547). The process of appreciative inquiry is referred to as the “4D cycle” and consists of four phases (Ludema, Cooperrider, & Barrett, 2006): discovery (appreciate “what is”), dream (envision “what could be”), design (determine “what should be”), and delivery/destiny (sustain “what will be”).

Question 47

Approaches to Leadership

Answer 47

Approaches to Leadership: Organizational psychologists and others interested in leadership have investigated characteristics that are associated with leader effectiveness.

1. Leader Intelligence and Personality: Several traits have been found to correlate with leader effectiveness, but the correlation coefficients are usually low to moderate: Judge, Colbert, and Ilies’s (2004) meta-analysis of the research produced a corrected correlation coefficient of .27 between leader intelligence and leader effectiveness. The results also indicated that intelligence is a better predictor of effectiveness when the leader’s stress level is low and the leader has a directive (rather than participative) leadership style. Judge, Bono, Ilies, and Gerehardt’s (2002) meta-analysis found that, of the Big Five personality traits, extraversion and conscientiousness have the largest correlation coefficients with leader effectiveness (.31 and .28, respectively).
2. Leader Behavior: Research conducted at Ohio State University in the 1950s (Fleishman & Harris, 1962) found that leader behaviors represent two independent dimensions: Leaders high in initiating structure are task-oriented and focus on achieving performance goals, while leaders high in consideration are person-oriented and focus on fostering the trust and respect of subordinates. Because the two dimensions are independent, leaders can exhibit high levels of both dimensions, low levels of both dimensions, or a high level of one dimension and low level of the other dimension. Studies investigating the effects of initiating structure and consideration have produced inconsistent results. However, the results of one meta-analysis (Judge, Piccolo, & Ilies, 2004) found that a high level of consideration was more strongly associated with subordinate satisfaction and motivation, while a high level of initiating structure was more strongly associated with leader, group, and organization performance.
3. Leader Gender: The studies suggest that, overall, men and women do not differ in terms of leader effectiveness. However, there’s some evidence (Eagly, Karau, & Makhijani, 1995) that female leaders are perceived to be more effective in traditionally “feminine” settings (e.g., social service agencies) while male leaders are perceived to be more effective in traditionally “masculine” settings (e.g., the military). With regard to style, men and women do not differ significantly in terms of task- and person-orientation. However, female leaders are more likely to adopt a participative (democratic) or transformational leadership style, while male leaders are more likely to adopt a directive (autocratic) style (Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & van Engen, 2003; Eagly & Johnson, 1990).
4. Leader Power: French and Raven (1958) identified five bases of social power that leaders use to influence subordinates: Leaders have (a) reward power when they have control over financial and nonfinancial rewards; (b) coercive power when they have control over punishments; (c) legitimate power because of their formal positions, roles, and titles; (d) expert power because of their knowledge and expertise; and (e) referent power when they’re respected and admired by subordinates. According to Yukl (2002), the different bases of power are likely to produce different outcomes: Coercive power is most likely to elicit resistance from subordinates, reward and legitimate power are most likely to elicit compliance, and expert and referent power are most likely to elicit commitment.

Question 48

Theories of Leadership

Answer 48

Theories of Leadership: Theories that address factors that contribute to effective leadership include the following:

1. Fiedler’s Contingency Model: Fiedler’s (1978) contingency model is based on the assumption that the most effective leadership style depends on the favorableness of the situation.
   (a) With regard to style, Fiedler believed that leaders are primarily task-oriented or person-oriented. He determined a leader’s orientation using the Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) scale, which requires a leader to rate his or her least preferred coworker on a set of bipolar adjectives (e.g., friendly/unfriendly, open/guarded). Low LPC leaders are task-oriented and describe their least preferred coworker in negative terms because they focus on the coworker’s task performance. High LPC leaders are person-oriented and describe their least preferred coworker in positive terms because they can separate the coworker’s interpersonal characteristics from his/her task performance.
   (b) Favorableness of the situation refers to the degree of influence a leader has over subordinates. It’s affected by three factors – leader member relations (good or poor), task structure (structured or unstructured), and position power (strong or weak). These three factors combine to produce a very favorable, moderately favorable, or unfavorable situation.

According to Fiedler, low LPC leaders are most effective in very unfavorable and very favorable situations, while high LPC leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations. In contrast to most other leadership theories, Fiedler believed that a leader’s style is stable and, to be effective, a leader must change the situation to fit his or her style.

2. Situational Leadership Theory: Hersey and Blanchard’s (1988) situational leadership theory proposes that the optimal leadership style depends on a subordinate’s job maturity, which is determined by the subordinate’s willingness (motivation) and ability to perform the job. It distinguishes between four leadership styles that combine different levels of task- and relationship-orientation: (a) A telling leader has a high-task, low-relationship style and is best for subordinates who are low in both willingness and ability. (b) A selling leader has a high-task, high-relationship style and is best for subordinates who are high in willingness and low in ability. (c) A participating leader has a low-task, high-relationship style and is best for subordinates who are low in willingness and high in ability. (d) A delegating leader has a low-task, low-relationship style and is best for subordinates who are high in both willingness and ability. This theory assumes that employees ordinarily change in terms of willingness and ability over time in a way that requires leaders to become less directive and more participative.
3. Path-Goal Theory: House’s (1971) path-goal theory is based on the assumption that effective leaders act as facilitators who help subordinates achieve their own goals. To do so, a leader must adopt one of four leadership styles (directive, achievement-oriented, supportive, or participative), with the best style depending on certain characteristics of the subordinate and the subordinate’s task. For example, the directive style is most effective when subordinates are dogmatic or authoritarian and the task is ambiguous and complex, while the supportive style is best when subordinates have a high need for affiliation and low job satisfaction and the task is mundane and unchallenging.
4. Vroom-Yetton-Jago Contingency Model: The Vroom-Yetton-Jago (Vroom & Jago, 1988; Vroom & Yetton, 1973) contingency model views leadership as a decision-making process. The original version of the model provided a decision tree to help leaders determine the optimal leadership strategy for a given set of conditions, while the current version provides decision matrices for different situations. Use of a matrix requires the leader to consider several factors, including his/her own level of expertise, the employees’ level of expertise, and the importance of employees’ commitment to the chosen course of action. Based on the leader’s rating of each factor as high or low in importance, the matrix indicates which strategy the leader should adopt. There are five strategies that range from highly autocratic (make the decision alone) to highly democratic (let group members make the decision).
5. Leader-Member Exchange Theory: Dansereau, Graen, and Haga’s (1975) leader-member exchange (LMX) theory is based on the assumption that leader effectiveness and subordinate outcomes are determined by the quality of the interactions between the leader and the subordinate, and proposes that subordinates are treated as in-group or out-group members based on whether or not the leader perceives them as being competent, trustworthy, and willing to assume responsibility. In-group members receive more attention and support from the leader, participate in decision-making, and are given interesting and challenging tasks, while out-group members have a more formal relationship with the leader and are given direct orders and less interesting, routine tasks. Compared to out-group members, in-group members have higher levels of job satisfaction, job performance, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship (Gerstner & Day, 1997).
6. Transformational Leadership Theory: Transformational leadership involves an “interplay between leaders and followers in which each raises the other to higher levels of ethics, morality, and motivation” (Landy & Conte, 2016, p. 462). Transformational leadership has four characteristics (Bass, 1997; Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999): (a) Idealized influence refers to the leader’s charisma and ability to act as a positive role model. (b) Inspirational motivation is the leader’s ability to create and communicate a vision for the future by, for example, using framing (describing goals in ways that make them meaningful). (c) Intellectual stimulation is the leader’s ability to stimulate creativity and critical thinking. (d) Individualized consideration refers to the leader’s ability to foster each employee’s growth by providing personal attention, support, and encouragement. Transformational leadership is distinguished from transactional leadership. In contrast to transformational leaders, transactional leaders focus on routine activities, motivate employees with contingent rewards, and interact with employees only when a problem needs to be resolved.

Question 49

organizational decision-making

Answer 49

Organizational decisions are often classified as programmed or nonprogrammed: Programmed decisions are repetitive and routine decisions that are governed by rules, policies, and procedures and are often made by lower-level personnel. Included in this category are decisions related to hiring, ordering, and billing. In contrast, nonprogrammed decisions are non-repetitive and complex, require unique or creative solutions, and rely on the decision-maker’s judgment and problem-solving skills. These decisions are usually made by upper-level personnel and include decisions related to developing new products or services and responding to legal issues.

Researchers interested in organizational decision-making have proposed several decision-making models and identified factors that affect group decisions.

1. Decision-Making Models: Models of organizational decision-making include the rational, bounded rationality, and organizational process models:
   (a) The rational model (e.g., Harrison, 1975) is also known as the classical model and the rational-economic model. It assumes that decision-makers choose the optimal alternative after identifying and evaluating all possible alternatives in an objective, deliberate, and orderly way.
   (b) The bounded rationality model (Simon, 1957) recognizes that rational decision-making is limited by organizational and individual factors such as time restrictions, limited access to information, and the cognitive abilities of the decision maker. It proposes that, as a result of these factors, people often “satisfice” (rather than “optimize”) when making decisions by considering alternatives only until a minimally acceptable alternative is found.
   (c) According to the organizational process model (Cyert & March, 1963), organizational decisions are often made by many individuals or groups, are constrained by the organization’s routines and standard operating procedures, and often follow and depend on “small incremental choices made in response to short-term conditions” (Nahavandi, Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2015, p. 248).
2. Group Decision-Making: There’s some evidence that group decisions are often better than decisions made by an average (but not necessarily the most competent) individual (e.g., Hill, 1982). However, there’s also data indicating that the effectiveness of group and individual decisions depends on the nature of the task and the situation. For example, groups tend to outperform individuals in terms of decision-making when the task is complex and group members have complementary skills, while individuals outperform groups when the task is poorly structured and requires a high degree of creativity (e.g., Gigone & Haste, 1997; Wanous & Youtz, 1986). The research has also found that group decisions can be undermined by groupthink and group polarization:
   (a) As defined by Janis, groupthink occurs when people “are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group … [and their] strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action” (1982, p. 9). In addition to a high level of cohesiveness, the risk for groupthink is increased when the group has a strong directive leader, is isolated from outside opinions, and must make an important decision quickly. Janis also described the symptoms of groupthink and methods for avoiding it: Symptoms include illusions of invulnerability and superior morality, use of collective rationalization, excessive stereotyping, self-censorship, and the presence of self-appointed “mindguards” who shield group members from contradictory information. Group leaders can reduce the risk for groupthink by remaining neutral in the beginning of a discussion, encouraging members to express their opinions, appointing a member to play devil’s advocate, and bringing in outside opinions.
   (b) Group polarization is the tendency of groups to make more extreme (more risky or more cautious) decisions than individual group members would make alone. Research suggests that group polarization occurs after group discussions have provided opportunities for social comparison and exposure to persuasive arguments (Bordens & Horowitz, 2012). (The tendency of groups to make more risky decisions is also referred to as the risky shift.)

Question 50

The major theories of work motivation include the following:

Answer 50

The major theories of work motivation include the following:

1. Need Hierarchy Theory: Maslow’s (1970) need hierarchy theory is based on the assumption that people have five basic needs that emerge in a hierarchical order from most basic to most complex. In order, the needs are physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. This theory also assumes that the lowest unfulfilled need in the hierarchy is the strongest motivator (is “prepotent”) and that, once a need is satisfied, it ceases to motivate behavior and the next need in the hierarchy becomes the primary source of motivation. An exception is self-actualization, which is never completely satisfied.
2. Two-Factor Theory: Herzberg’s (1966) two-factor theory addresses both motivation and satisfaction and predicts that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are independent states that are affected by different factors: Hygiene factors (e.g., pay, benefits, and working conditions) are also known as job context factors and fulfill lower-order needs. When hygiene factors are not adequate, a worker is dissatisfied, but the availability of adequate hygiene factors does not contribute to satisfaction or motivation. In contrast, motivator factors (e.g., opportunities for responsibility, challenge, and advancement) are also known as job content factors and fulfill higher-order needs. When motivator factors are adequate, a worker is both satisfied and motivated, but the absence of motivator factors does not cause dissatisfaction. Herzberg developed job enrichment as a method of designing jobs so they provide motivator factors. Job enrichment can be applied to different types of jobs, but its effects depend on certain worker characteristics. For example, it tends to have the most positive outcomes for younger and well-educated workers and workers who have a high need for achievement. Note that job enlargement is also a type of job redesign but just involves adding new tasks to the job. Although job enlargement may help alleviate boredom, it’s not likely to have a significant effect on satisfaction and motivation.
3. Job Characteristics Model: The job characteristics model (Hackman & Oldham, 1980) proposes that jobs vary with regard to five core job characteristics – skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback – and that these characteristics affect three critical psychological states of workers: When a job provides adequate skill variety, task identity, and task significance, workers experience their jobs as meaningful; when the job provides opportunities to act autonomously, workers feel responsible for the outcomes of their work; and when the job provides regular performance feedback, workers have knowledge of the results of their efforts. The three psychological states, in turn, have positive effects on workers’ job motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Hackman and Oldham also contend that job outcomes are moderated by growth-need strength: Workers with high growth-need strength (those who seek to fulfill higher-order needs) are more likely than those with low growth-need strength to be positively affected by a job that provides the five core characteristics.
4. Equity Theory: Equity theory (Adams, 1965) attributes a worker’s level of motivation to social comparisons and proposes that workers compare their own inputs (what they contribute to work) and outcomes (the pay and other reinforcers they receive from work) to the inputs and outcomes of workers doing the same or a similar job. When the input/outcome ratios are similar, workers experience a state of equity (fairness) and are motivated to maintain their current performance levels. However, when the ratios differ, workers experience a state of inequity and are motivated to act in ways that will establish equity. There are two types of inequity: Overpayment inequity occurs when a worker perceives his/her input-outcome ratio to be less than that of others (less work for more pay), and it motivates the worker to increase his/her work quality or quantity. Underpayment inequity occurs when a worker perceives his/her input-outcome ratio to be greater than that of others (more work for less pay), and it motivates the worker to decrease his/her work quality and/or quantity or attempt to obtain better outcomes. Not surprisingly, underpayment inequity has a stronger impact than overpayment on worker motivation and performance.
5. Expectancy Theory: Expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) is also known as VIE theory and describes job motivation as the result of three factors: (a) the worker’s belief that effort will lead to successful performance (expectancy); (b) the worker’s belief that successful performance will result in certain outcomes (instrumentality); and (c) the value of those outcomes for the worker (valence). According to this theory, a worker’s motivation will be high only when all three factors are positive.
6. Goal-Setting Theory: Goal-setting theory (Latham & Locke, 2007; Locke & Latham, 2002) is based on the assumption that the most important contributor to a worker’s motivation to achieve goals is the worker’s acceptance of and commitment to those goals. Studies have found that goal acceptance and commitment are maximized when goals are specific and moderately difficult and when workers are provided with immediate feedback about their accomplishment of goals. Other research on goal-setting theory has found the following: (a) Participation in goal-setting is not necessary for goal commitment except in certain circumstances. For example, participation increases commitment when the worker has a high need for achievement or is not likely to accept assigned goals. (b) When workers participate in setting their own goals, the goals tend to be more difficult than the goals the supervisor would have set alone (Erez & Arad, 1986). (c) Group goals result in better performance than individual goals do when the accomplishment of a task requires a high degree of worker interdependence and, in this situation, group goals alone are likely to be as effective as group goals plus individual goals (Mitchell, Thompson, & George-Falvy, 2000).

Question 51

Satisfaction and Commitment

Answer 51

Satisfaction and Commitment: Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are two job attitudes that have been extensively studied.

1. Individual Contributors to Job Satisfaction: There’s evidence that level of job satisfaction is stable over time and across jobs and careers (e.g., Staw, Bell, & Clausen, 1986). This stability has been linked to (a) self-esteem, with higher levels of self-esteem being associated with higher levels of both job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kluger, 1998); (b) affective disposition, which is the tendency to respond to a variety of situations in a similarly favorable or unfavorable way (Judge & Hulin, 1993); and (c) a genetic predisposition to respond to work in a particular way. Evidence for a genetic contribution is provided by Arvey, Bouchard, Segal, and Abraham’s (1989) study of male identical twins separated soon after birth, which found that twins had similar levels of job satisfaction as adults. Based on their data, these investigators concluded that about 30% of observed variability in job satisfaction scores is attributable to genetic factors.
2. Organizational Justice and Job Satisfaction: A distinction is made between three types of organizational justice: (a) Distributive justice refers to the fairness of the distribution of resources and other outcomes. (b) Procedural justice refers to the fairness of the procedures used to determine outcomes. (c) Interactional justice refers to the fairness of the way that outcomes are communicated to workers and is divided into two subtypes (Colquitt, 2001): interpersonal (how people are treated in interactions) and informational (how information is explained). All three types are positively related to job satisfaction, with no clear consensus about which type is most highly related (e.g., Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001).
3. Outcomes of Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction has been linked to longevity and psychological and physical health, with the correlation between satisfaction and psychological health being somewhat higher than the correlation between satisfaction and physical health (Faragher, Cass, & Cooper, 2005; Palmore, 1960). It has also been linked to job performance, absenteeism, turnover, and a variety of other job outcomes, but the correlation coefficients vary somewhat from study to study and tend to be low to moderate. For example, Iaffaldano and Muchinsky’s (1985) meta-analysis of the research found the average correlation coefficient for job satisfaction and performance to be .17. However, Judge, Thoresen, Bono, and Patton (2001) argued that the methodology of the Iaffaldano and Muchinsky study was flawed, and their analysis produced a coefficient of .30. In addition, the direction of the causal relationship between job satisfaction and performance continues to be debated, and a number of researchers have pointed out that the relationship between satisfaction and performance is moderated by other variables. For example, there’s evidence that the relationship between satisfaction and performance is stronger when pay and other reinforcers are closely linked to performance, which suggests that reinforcement is a moderator variable and that performance affects satisfaction rather than vice versa (Podsakoff & Williams, 1986).
4. Organizational Commitment: There are three main types of organizational commitment (Meyer, Allen, & Smith, 1998): (a) Affective commitment is the extent of an employee’s emotional attachment to the organization, (b) continuance commitment is the extent to which an employee believes he or she must stay with the organization for financial reasons or because of a lack of alternative opportunities, and (c) normative commitment is the extent to which an employee is loyal to the organization and feels obligated to stay with it. Organizational commitment has low to moderate correlation coefficients with various job outcome measures, with coefficients being somewhat larger for satisfaction than for performance or turnover (Brown, 1996). Also, of the three types of commitment, affective commitment is most highly and consistently correlated with a variety of job outcomes (e.g., Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002).

Question 52

Stress and Burnout

Answer 52

Stress and Burnout: Stress refers to “any force that pushes a psychological or physical function beyond its range of stability, producing a strain [undesirable personal outcome] within the individual” (Levy, 2013, p. 325). Responses, sources, and consequences of stress are described below:

1. General Adaptation Syndrome: Selye (1976) proposed that people respond physically to all types of stressors with the same sequence of three stages, and he referred to this response as the general adaptation syndrome (GAS):
   (a) During the initial alarm reaction stage, the hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) which, in turn, stimulates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine and the adrenal cortex to release cortisol. These hormones cause an increase in heart and respiration rates, a rise in glucose levels, and other physical changes that provide the body with the energy it needs to respond to the stressor with a fight-or-flight reaction.
   (b) If the stressor persists, the resistance stage begins. During this stage, some physiological functions return to normal while cortisol continues to circulate at an elevated level. This helps the body maintain a high energy level and cope with the stressor.
   (c) If the stressor or its effects are not overcome or resolved, the exhaustion stage begins. In this stage, the pituitary gland and adrenal gland lose their ability to maintain elevated hormone levels, and physiological processes begin to break down.

Prolonged exposure to stress can have a number of undesirable consequences due, in part, to chronically elevated levels of cortisol and other stress hormones. These consequences include suppression of the body’s immune system which causes an increase in the body’s susceptibility to infection, an increase in blood pressure that can lead to a heart attack, and an elevated risk for other problems such as headaches, indigestion, and insomnia. There’s also evidence that a chronically elevated level of cortisol can damage cells in the hippocampus which impairs the ability to form new long-term memories.

2. Sources of Stress: Sources of work-related stress include a lack of control over work-related factors, work-family conflict, and downsizing:
   (a) Lack of control over scheduling, the pace of work, and other work-related factors has been linked to higher levels of stress, psychological and physical symptoms, and poorer job outcomes. For example, Spector’s (1986) meta-analysis of the research indicated that low perceived control at work is related to job dissatisfaction, reduced job performance, emotional distress, and health problems. The research has also linked machine-paced (versus self-paced) work to higher-than-normal levels of the stress hormone cortisol (Frankenhaeuser & Johansson, 1986).
   (b) Work-family conflict occurs when “workers experience conflict between the roles they fulfill at work and the roles they fulfill in their personal life” (Landy & Conte, 2016, p. 375). It’s a major source of stress and has been linked to a number of undesirable outcomes. For example, employees who report a high level of work-family conflict tend to be less satisfied with their jobs and their lives than those who report a low level of conflict (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). With regard to gender, Schockley et al.’s (2017) meta-analysis of research conducted in the United States, Europe, and Asia found that men and women reported similar levels of work-family conflict. Although these investigators identified some gender differences when certain moderator variables were considered, these differences were small in magnitude. For instance, for samples that included only dual-earner couples, men reported slightly greater work-to-family interference, while women reported slightly greater family-to-work interference.
   (c) Downsizing refers to the planned elimination of jobs to maximize efficiency and reduce labor costs. It’s not only a major source of stress for employees who lose their jobs but also for those who retain them. The research has found that survivors of downsizing often exhibit a survivor syndrome that’s characterized by reduced job satisfaction and organizational commitment, a sense of loss of control, somatic symptoms, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and guilt about being a survivor. It has been attributed to several factors including a sense of unfairness and reduction in trust caused by the organization’s violation of the psychological contract – i.e., the “implied exchange relationship that exists between an employee and the organization” (Muchinsky, 2012, p. 318). To reduce the negative effects of downsizing for both victims and survivors, the procedures the organization will use to determine which employees will be laid off should be fair and communicated in a clear way to employees (Aamodt, 2013).
3. Job Burnout: Job burnout is a potential consequence of chronic work-related stress. As defined by Maslach and her colleagues (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001), it has three core characteristics: exhaustion, depersonalization and cynicism, and a sense of inefficacy. An early sign of burnout is an increase in the time and effort put into work without an increase in productivity, and it is often accompanied by irritability, negativity, social withdrawal, and somatic symptoms (Sears, Rudisill, & Mason-Sears, 2006). An increased risk for burnout has been linked to a number of individual, job, and organizational factors. For example, Maslach, Schaufeli, and Leiter (2001) propose that the risk increases when there’s a mismatch between the individual and six aspects of the work environment: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values.
4. Resistance to Stress: Individual characteristics that have been linked to resistance to stress include hardiness, organization-based self-esteem, and the Type A behavior pattern:
   (a) Hardiness: Kobasa (1982) has identified hardiness as a personality trait that increases a person’s resistance to the harmful effects of stress. Hardy individuals have a sense of control over their own lives, a sense of commitment to family and work, and a tendency to view new experiences as challenges rather than threats. Studies have confirmed that hardiness not only increases resistance to stress but is also associated with better physical and mental health.
   (b) Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE): OBSE refers to “employees’ perceptions of their value as organization members” (Levy, 2013, p. 296). In addition to being associated with higher levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, it has been linked to job stress, with people with low levels of OBSE being more affected by stress and more passive in coping with it than those with high levels of OBSE (Schultz & Schultz, 2016).
   (c) Type A Behavior: In contrast to hardiness and OBSE, the Type A behavior pattern is associated with increased susceptibility to the negative effects of stress. As described by Friedman and Rosenman (1959), it’s characterized by a chronic sense of time urgency, excessive competitiveness, and hostility and has been linked to an increased risk for coronary heart disease. The research is not entirely consistent, but there’s some evidence that, of the core characteristics, hostility is most associated with an increased risk for heart disease (e.g., Krantz & McCeney, 2002; Newman et al., 2011).