Test-taking dispositions and motivation have been proposed as moderators of employment test validity. In a simulated, multiorganization employment system, scores on the Test Attitude Survey (TAS) were found to moderate the validities of both an ability and a personality test used to predict a performance criterion. The criterion-related validity of the personality test was found to be higher for a subsample with less positive test-taking motivation than for a subsample with higher test-taking motivation. An opposite effect was found among the subgroups for the ability test. Range restriction and the predictability of individuals with high and low test-taking dispositions were examined as explanations for the findings
Atul Mitra, G. Douglas Jenkins, Jr., and Nina GuptaDepartment of Management, College of Business Administration, University of ArkansasA meta-analysis that combined 33 correlations from 17 studies found a corrected average correla-tion of .330 between absence and turnover. The type of absence measure did not moderate thecovariation between absence and turnover, but industry type and study duration did act as modera-tors. The results are discussed in the context of the approach to understandingemployee behaviors.Absenteeism and turnover are two of the most popular out-comes studied in organizational research. It is hardly surprisingthat there is considerable debate about the true relationshipbetween these outcomes. One school of thought argues thatunder certain circumstances, absenteeism and turnover reflectdifferent manifestations of the same underlying construct (w#/z-drawal) and sees merit in examining them together (e.g., Beehr& Gupta, 1978; Gupta & Jenkins, 1982; Rosse, 1988; Rosse H Wolpin & Burke, 1985). An opposing school ofthought is strongly critical of this approach (e.g., Mobley, 1977,1982; Price, 1977; Price & Mueller, 1981; Steers & Mowday,1981), arguing that each behavior is unique and should be exam-ined individually. In this article, we use a meta-analytic ap-proach to begin resolving this debate. Specifically, we explorewhat light the bulk of research evidence sheds on the ab-senteeism-turnover covariation. This exploration should alsoclarify the relative validity, or lack thereof, of the entire with-drawal construct.Researchers have proposed three relationships between ab-senteeism and turnover. The first position asserts that there is acontinuum of withdrawal behaviors progressing from ab-senteeism to turnover (Herzberg, Mausner, Peterson, & Cap-well, 1957), the second asserts that absenteeism and turnoverare alternatives to each other (Hill & Trist, 1953), and the thirdasserts that there is no relationship between the two (March S Wolpin & Burke, 1985).Opponents of the withdrawal construct assume that there isno inherent relationship between absenteeism and turnoverand offer several supporting arguments. For instance, Mobley(1982) claimed that the term withdrawal has an implicit conno-An earlier version of this article received the Best Paper Award at the1990 Southern Management Association meeting in Orlando, Florida.We thank Jack Hunter, David Roach, Bob Rodgers, Ellen Whitener,and three anonymous reviewers for helping to untangle some of themeta-analysis complexities and providing helpful comments on earlierdrafts. We particularly want to thank one anonymous reviewer forsuggesting the unemployment analyses.Atul Mitra is now at Arkansas College, Batesville, Arkansas.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to G.Douglas Jenkins, Jr., Department of Management, College of BusinessAdministration, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701.tation of escape or avoidance but that both turnover and ab-senteeism can be motivated by attractions of alternatives ratherthan avoidance. Thus, the term is clearly not descriptive of allturnover and absenteeism behaviors. This position is bolsteredby the results of an early landmark review (Porter & Steers,1973): Of 22 cases in which antecedents of turnover and ab-senteeism were studied concurrently, only six significant rela-tionships occurred in the same direction for both absenteeismand turnover. With very few conditions under which with-drawal behaviors are manifested, the utility of the withdrawalconstruct is limited (Mobley, 1982), and the antecedent pro-cesses of absenteeism and turnover rather than those of thestructural relationships between these behaviors are empha-sized.Proponents of the withdrawal construct summon several ar-guments to support the underlying commonalities between ab-senteeism and turnover. Rosse and Hulin (1985) noted thatthere is sufficient evidence to conclude that job attitudes under-lie a spectrum of withdrawal or adaptive behaviors. Likewise,Rosse and Miller (1984) reasoned that both of these behaviorshelp reduce dissatisfaction with the work role. Gupta and Jen-kins (1991) contended that examining absenteeism and turn-over individually suffers from criterion contamination and cri-terion deficiency in that both absenteeism and turnover en-compass voluntary and involuntary behaviors, and in that thetwo behaviors might serve as alternatives, depending on organi-zational and other constraints. Furthermore, the information-processing literature indicates that people react more stronglyto negative than to positive information (e.g., Webster, 1982)such that a single negative outcome may overshadow a multi-tude of positive outcomes (Leon, 1981). That is, noxious organi-zational stimuli may in fact have a greater impact on an em-ployee's decision to withdraw than do attractions outside theorganization. In short, this position advocates the study of mul-tiple behaviors in conjunction rather than each behavior in iso-lation.At least three reviews of the literature examined the relation-ship between absenteeism and turnover (Gupta & Jenkins,1980; Lyons, 1972; Muchinsky, 1977). All three concluded thatempirically, absenteeism and turnover are positively related,particularly at the individual level of analysis. Methodologicalproblems in the way research evidence was cumulated in thesereviews, however, reduce confidence in their conclusions
Cross-sectional research investigating seniority, tenure, and age as they relate to job performance has demonstrated an initial positive linear increase followed by a plateau. Investigations into the stability of performance have demonstrated that individuals change their rank order over time. Taken together, these findings suggest that the curvilinear relationship displayed in the seniority, tenure, and age research is actually made up of many different intraindividual change patterns. Performance data for two samples of professional baseball players were used to investigate these individual change patterns for systematic and meaningful differences. The results demonstrated the importance of studying performance over time at the individual leval and that focusing on either mean performance or change in rank order can mask systematic individual patterns of change
The impact of promotion decisions on equity, commitment, and behavioral outcomes was examined in a field setting. Workers in a service comapny who submitted their candidacy for promotion to either department or division heads were compared with their noncandidate counterparts (total N=191). Subjects completed surveys after promotion decisions were made. In addition, measures of the subjects' lateness and absence before and after the promotion were available. Data analyzed by level of position (departement vs. division) and promotion decision (promoted, not promoted, and control) indicated that promotions resulting from self-initiated condidacies might actually produce undiserable outcomes. Failure to get a promotion as associated with feelings of inequity, a decrease in commitment, and an increase in absenteeism, positive promotion decisions increased commitment. Theoretical and organizational implications are discussed
The Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ), measuring work values, was administered to 23 monozygotic and 20 dizygotic reared-apart twin pairs to test the hypothesis that genetic factors are associated with work values. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. In the univariate analysis, intraclass correlations were computed to estimate the proportion of variability in work values associated with genetic factors for each of the 20 MIQ scales and for the 6 higher order work value scales. The multivariate analysis used maximum likelihood estimation to separate the genetic and environmental factors for the correlated higher order scales. Results from both analyses indicated that, on average, 40% of the variance in measured work values was related to genetic factors.
The effects of two alternative modeling strategies-using multiple scenarios and combining negative and positive model displays-on outcomes of a behavior modeling training program were explored. Trainees (N = 72) participated in a program on assertive communication structured to allow for a controlled experimental design that crossed scenario variability (one vs. multiple scenarios) with model display variability (positive model displays vs. positive and negative model displays). Outcomes assessed included trainee reactions, learning, and retention and behavioral measures of reproduction and generalization. The effects of multiple scenarios were negligible, but the positive and negative combination of model displays had a significant positive effect on trainee generalization and a significant negative effect on reproduction. Implications for future modeling research and practice are discussed.