Knowledge that Transforms

This study was designed to detect differences in student reactions to classroom instruction between faculty actively engaged in related outside consulting and those faculty not actively engaged in related outside consulting. Data was obtained from Florida State University's Student Instructional Rating System. Analysis indicated a number of significant differences. Interpretation of the results suggests that engagement in related outside consulting and teaching effectiveness are positively related to each other.

In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have exhibited an interest in the possible relationships between the variables of task performance, organizational rewards, and worker satisfaction. The most recent theoretical proposition holds that any empirical relationship between the variables is directly dependent upon performance-reward contingencies. The research reported was designed to empirically investigate the causal inferences concerning the relationship between contingent rewards and performance, contingent rewards and satisfaction, and performance and satisfaction within an organizational setting where rewards (pay) are strongly contingent upon performance. The results of the data analysis support the proposition that performance-contingent rewards have direct causal impact on performance. However, due to the low predictive correlations, no generalized causal priority could be empirically verified between contingent rewards and satisfaction or between performance and satisfaction.

This study investigated the factors relevant to management motivation of today's college students. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire administered to 78 juniors and seniors in a large College of Business in the nation's Southeast. Among other findings, this study seemed to indicate that management and marketing majors offer strong management potential while accounting, banking, general business, health administration and business education majors appear to be a poor source of managerial talent.

The purpose of this research was to test one facet of the set of propositions known as "the decision to participate." [6] The investigation was undertaken to discover background characteristics of individuals who had the greatest prospect for achieving success from an environment in which organizational inducements were minimal. As hypothesized it was found that individuals who remained with the firm being studied present a biographical data profile suggesting low contribution potential.

In Laboratory groups the influence of three leadership styles and three types of performance evaluation on interpersonal attraction and attitudes towards the group were examined. Using multivariate analysis of variance, results supported the prediction that success led to more positive attitudes compared to failure. Success and failure were equally satisfying or dissatisfying under different leadership styles, while leaders compared to group members were differentially affected by group success-failure on measures of attraction.

Most prior research on the measurement and prediction of job satisfaction has utilized statistical tools that require the analysis to be cross-sectional. The results of these studies are based on interpersonal comparisons. However, it is well known that interpersonal utility comparisons cannot be rigorously interpreted. Thus, this study attempts to predict the level of job satisfaction for a new breed of professionals - the data processing professional - using discriminant analysis. Based upon past studies and the expectancy-value framework, various models were developed and tested to obtain a model with the maximum predictive ability. The implications of the results derived with the discriminant analysis are discussed.

Two books separated by 36 years between publication dates, and both titled "The New Management," are examined in this paper. The authors present the conventional wisdom of management in 1938 and compare it with the "New Management" of 1974. The question the authors seek to answer is the title of this paper, "Is There Anything `New' in Management?" By comparing the two periods, the authors conclude: (1) that the problems facing management have remained essentially the same; (2) that there have been a refinement of techniques and further extensions of knowledge in the field of management; but (3) that there is really very little that can be called "new."

A study was conducted to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in the probability of successful managerial achievement in the petro-chemical manufacturing industry between only-born, early-born and later-born managers. Respondents included 440 male managers. Of the subjects, 181 were classified as first-line managers, 156 as middle managers, and 103 were in top management. Only-born top managers were found to be significantly over-represented when compared to other ordinal positions. Only-born first-line managers were under-represented. Only-born middle managers at all levels of management were found to be as statistically expected. No predicted birth-order effects were found in any family ordinal position other than only-borns. The findings suggested that the only born has a proportionally better chance of reaching top management in the petro-chemical manufacturing industry than any other birth order. The results also seem to indicate that while many similarities appear to exist in only a first born, significant differences also seem to be present.