Knowledge that Transforms

The correlational literature concerning the relationships of role conflict and ambiguity to numerous hypothesized antecedents and consequences is still somewhat unclear after a decade of research Schmidt-Hunter meta-analysis procedures were applied to the results of 43 past studies in an effort to draw valid conclusions about the magnitude and direction of these relationships in the population For some correlates, apparently inconsistent research results could be ascribed largely to statistical artifacts. For other correlates, it seems that moderator research may be needed to explain conflicting results across samples In the last 12 years, there has been a great deal of correlational research on the relationships between perceived role ambiguity and role conflict and a host of hypothesized antecedents (such as tenure, formalization, boundary spanning) and consequences (such as job satisfaction, job involvement, performance, tension, propensity to leave the job). Although nearly all studies have been crosssectional, one laboratory study did find that role conflict caused a host of dysfunctional affective and behavioral outcomes (Manning, Ismail, & Sherwood, 1981) Thus, the consequences of these two types of role stress have potentially important cost implications for organizations. Whereas the costs of turnover and substandard performance are obvious, the true cost of attitudinal variables is just beginning to be understood (Cascio, 1982; Mirvis & Lawler, 1977). Therefore, efforts to obtain a better understanding of role conflict, role ambiguity, and their correlates are certainly justified.

A longitudinal study of moderately professionalized technical workers was conducted to test a vanety of investment model (Farrell & Rusbult, 1981) predictions concerning the determinants of job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover In general, greater job satisfaction resulted from high job rewards and low job costs, whereas strong job commitment was produced by high rewards, low costs, poor alternative quality, and large investment size Whereas the impact of job rewards on satisfaction and commitment remained relatively constant, job costs seemed to exert an increasingly powerful influence over time Investment size, too, was shown to exert greater impact on job commitment with the passage of time Just prior to their leaving, the job commitment of employees who left was best predicted by a combination of rewards, costs, and alternatives Employees who stayed and those who left were shown to differ from one another with regard to changes over time in each investment model factor—those who left expenenced greater decline in rewards, increase in costs, increase in alternative quality, and decrease in investment size than did those who stayed Turnover appeared to be mediated by a decline over time in degree of job commitment

It is argued here that a category of performance called citizenship behavior is important in organizations and not easily explained by the same incentives that induce entry, conformity to contractual role prescriptions, or high production A study of 422 employees and their supervisors from 58 departments of two banks sought to elaborate on the nature and predictors of citizenship behavior Results suggest that citizenship behavior includes at least two separate dimensions Altruism, or helping specific persons, and Generalized Compliance, a more impersonal form of conscientious citizenship Job satisfaction, as a measure of chronic mood state, showed a direct predictive path to Altruism but not Generalized Compliance Rural background had direct effects on both dimensions of citizenship behavior The predictive power of other variables (e g , leader supportiveness as assessed independently by co-workers, personality measures) varied across the two dimensions of citizenship behavior

While many studies have assessed the effects of job applicants' behavior on employment outcomes, little attention has been paid to the factors that influence job applicants to accept or reject an employment offer. A study was conducted to determine the effects of interviewer behavior and job attributes on applicant employment decisions. Subjects viewed videotaped job interviews which varied by interviewer affect, interviewer knowledge of the job, and the attractiveness of job attributes. Subjects were questioned about their perceptions of interviewer behavior and their potential interest in the job based on interviewer job descriptions and job attributes. Subjects perceived interviewer behavior as an indicator of employment potential, as well as of job desirability. However, the primary determinant of job desirability was the attractiveness of job attributes.

Vroom's (1964) expectancy theory of motivation proposes that motivation is a function of expectation of a reward for a particular action times the valence, or attractiveness, of the reward. Research has failed to produce consistent support for the multiplicative expectancy-valence theory of motivation. The predictive validity of expectancy theory in the job choice context is examined. Ten randomly selected subjects were asked to rank the attractiveness of a series of possible jobs, and to indicate their probabilities of pursuing the jobs on the basis of 3 levels of expectancy for being offered the jobs. Policy capturing and narrative self-report techniques were used to analyze the ways subjects combined job expectancy-valence attributes in making their decisions. Expectancy was found to vary widely in the degree to which it influenced individual job pursuit decisions. The degree to which low expectancy discouraged job pursuit was a function of the cost of job search and the attractiveness of the job.