Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

A Meta-Analysis Of The Effects Of Organizational Behavior Modification On Task Performance, 1975-95, Alexander D. Stajkovic, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Results of a primary meta-analysis indicated a significant main effect of the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) approach on task performance (d. = .51; a 17 percent increase) and a significant treatment-by-study interaction. To account for within-group heterogeneity of effect sizes, we conducted a two-level theory-driven moderator analysis by partitioning the sample of studies first into manufacturing and service groups and then into seven classes of reinforcement interventions. Results indicated a stronger average effect of O.B. Mod. in manufacturing organizations, moderation by the type of contingent interventions, and "pairwise" differences among average effect sizes in both organizational types. The practical …

Divergent Effects Of Job Control On Coping With Work Stressors: The Key Role Of Self-Efficacy, John Schaubroeck, Deryl E. Merritt

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study identifies job self-efficacy as a moderating variable that may determine whether job control contributes positively or negative to coping with work stressors. Data from two samples (health professionals and an occupationally diverse group) demonstrated similar interactions between demands, control, and self-efficacy predicting blood pressure. These results may reconcile the previous inconsistent and largely method-bound support for Karasek's job demands-control model and suggest that efforts to improve job self-efficacy may be as important to reducing the cardiovascular consequences of job stress as efforts to enhance control.

Relationship-Based Approach To Leadership: Development Of Leader-Member Exchange (Lmx) Theory Of Leadership Over 25 Years: Applying A Multi-Level Multi-Domain Perspective, George B. Graen, Mary Uhl-Bien

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Research into Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory has been gaining momentum in recent years, with a multitude of studies investigating many aspects of LMX in organizations. Theoretical development in this area also has undergone many refinements, and the current theory is far different from the early Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) work. This article uses a levels perspective to trace the development of LMX through four evolutionary stages of theorizing and investigation up to the present. The article also uses a domains perspective to develop a new taxonomy of approaches to leadership, and LMX is discussed within this taxonomy as a relationship-based …

Job Complexity, "Type A" Behavior, And Cardiovascular Disorder: A Prospective Study, John Schaubroeck, Daniel C. Ganster, Barbara Ellen Kemmerer

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Interview-based measures of "type A" behavior and psychological and task-person indexes of job complexity were obtained from 251 police and fire department employees with sound cardiovascular health. Fol- low-up data on cardiovascular disorder were collected seven years later from participants who had remained with their organizations. The type A behavior pattern predicted cardiovascular disorder over time, and the relationships between the two complexity indexes and cardio- vascular morbidity were positive among individuals with high type A behavior ratings but negative among those with low ratings. We discuss the implications of these findings for worker health and job design.

Managing Russian Factory Workers: The Impact Of U.S.-Based Behavioral And Participative Techniques, Dianne H.B. Welsh, Fred Luthans, Steven M. Sommer

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The new internationalization of the field of management has produced growing concern as to whether theories and techniques largely developed in the United States apply to other cultures. A within-subjects experimental design was used to analyze the impacts that three popular and successful techniques used in U.S. studies had on the performance of workers in the largest textile factory in the Russian republic of the former Soviet Union. Two techniques, providing extrinsic rewards and behavioral management, had significant,

Examining The Link Between Leader-Member Exchange And Subordinate Performance: The Role Of Task Analyzability And Variety As Moderators, Kenneth J. Dunegan, Dennis Duchon, Mary Uhl-Bien

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Results from a field study with 152 members of a large urban hospital indicate that the relationship between the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) and subordinate performance is moderated by perceptions of task analyzability and variety: LMX and performance are found to be significantly related when task challenge is either very high or very low. Under these task conditions, data indicate that there is a positive link between LMX and performance such that a higher quality leader-member exchange correlates with higher levels of performance. On the other hand, analyses also reveal that when tasks are perceived to be moderately challenging, …

Self-Management And Team-Making In Cross-Functional Work Teams: Discovering The Keys To Becoming An Integrated Team, Mary Uhl-Bien, George B. Graen

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Project teams are rapidly becoming the primary mechanisms for innovation and change in modern organizations. As such, they are designed to capitalize on leadership and integrated cross-functional teamwork and to negate subordination and individual gamesmanship. Unfortunately, research on cross-functional project teams is scarce and largely atheoretical. The increasing use of these project teams by modern organizations, however, calls for theory development in this area. In the present paper, self-management and team-making models are applied to cross-functional project designs to develop a theoretical framework for the investigation of teamwork effectiveness for integrated cross-functional project teams. Future issues for theory development and …

Perceptions Of An Innovative Climate: Examining The Role Of Divisional Affiliation, Work Group Interaction, And Leader/Subordinate Exchange, Kenneth Dunegan, Pamela S. Tierney, Dennis Duchon

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Results from a cross-sectional field study with 198 members of an international chemical company suggest that divisional affiliation, work group interactions (WGX), and the quality of exchange between leader and subordinate (LMX) significantly predict employee perceptions of climate factors believed to foster innovative activities. Tests also indicate that LMX remains a significant predictor of five of the six climate variables measured, even after controlling for divisional affiliation and the quality of work group exchanges (WGX). Further, analyses reveal that the interaction between WGX and LMX accounts for significant and unique variance on all six of the climate factors studied in …

Leadership-Making Applies Equally Well To Sponsors, Competence Networks, And Teammates, George Graen, Mary Uhl-Bien

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Teams are rapidly becoming the management technique of choice in American industry (Fortune, 1990). Spurred on by the pervasive and often dramatic success of Japanese management in America at places like NUMMI in Freemont, California, Honda, in Marysville, Ohio, NISSAN in Smyrna, Tennessee, MAZAK, in Florence, Kentucky, DENSO in Battle Creek, Michigan, and J.V.C. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, team organizations are being implemented in large (General Electric and General Motors) and small American companies. Our study of Japanese transplants in the U.S. (Graen & Wakabayashi, 1990) suggests that several hybrid versions of Japanese team organizations work most effectively with American employees. …

The Transformation Of Professionals Into Self-Managing And Partially Self-Designing Contributors: Toward A Theory Of Leadership-Making, George B. Graen, Mary Uhl-Bien

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Self-managing teams are rapidly approaching the popularity of Quality Circles in both the popular and organizational literature. However, before this promising notion becomes the next panacea for the ills of our declining international competitiveness, we must investigate the fundamental question of how superior managed professionals become transformed into self-managers. This paper presents a model of a leadership-making process which purports to produce the transformation of superior manager professionals into self-managing and partially self-designing units. The focus of this paper is on the upper end of the self- managing category of Hackman’s (1986) authority matrix. A life cycle model of leadership-making …

Company Paternalism And The Hidden-Investment Process: Identification Of The “Right Type” For Line Managers In Leading Japanese Organizations, Mary Uhl-Bien, Pamela S. Tierney, George B. Graen, Mitsuru Wakabayashi

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study investigates belief in company paternalism as an indicator of the “right type” for line managers in leading Japanese corporations. In five companies, 1,075 line managers were surveyed about their belief in company paternalism, their experience with both the formal and informal career-development systems within their company, their working relationships with their immediate superior (LMX), and their overall job satisfaction. Results indicated that belief in company paternalism contributed as hypothesized to formal career investments, informal career investments (including both self-investment and supervisor investment), LMX, and overall job satisfaction. These relationships held true both before and after experiences with the …

The Generalizability Of The Hidden Investment Hypothesis In Leading Japanese Corporations, Mitsuru Wakabayashi, George Graen, Mary Uhl-Bien

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The present study tests the generalizability of the hidden investment hypothesis (Wakabayashi, Graen, Graen, & Graen, 1988) for Japanese management systems. The hidden investment hypothesis was derived from a 13-year longitudinal study of the career progress of a cohort of 85 college graduates who joined a single Japanese company in the same year, and states that the higher the quality of the vertical exchange relationship between a manager and supervisor, the greater the career progress of that manager. To test for the generalizability of the hidden investment hypothesis, 1,075 line managers at four different hierarchical levels were sampled from five …

Framing The Problem And Making Decisions: The Facts Are Not Enough, Dennis Duchon, Kenneth Dunegan, Sidney L. Barton

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

One hundred ten engineers, scientists, and managers in a high-technology international engineering firm took part in an experiment that assessed the effect of framing on an R&D financial allocation decision. Subtle changes in frame of reference are found to have a powerful effect on decisions and perception of risk. R&D management implications are discussed.

Interdependence: An Alternative Conceptualization, Bart Victor, Richard S. Blackburn

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Conceptualizations of interdependence offered by Thompson (1967) and McCann and Ferry (1979) fail to satisfy basic requirements for empirical or practical investigations of complex organizations. An alternative conceptualization based on interdependence theory (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978; Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) is presented here and used to explain the causes of interunit conflict and the effective- ness of coordination strategy. Hypotheses are presented, and future research is proposed.

Blau's Theory Of Structural Differentiation Revisited: A Theory Of Structural Change Or Scale?, John B. Cullen, Kenneth S. Anderson, Douglas D. Blaker

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The major objective of this study was to determine if Blau's (1970) theory of structural differentiation better captures differences in scale between organizations or structural changes within organizations. Data gathered on 134 Ph.D.-granting universities over nine years permitted us to compare results of within-organizations tests of Blau's theory those from both cross-sectional and longitudinal between-organization tests. The findings suggest that the theory's power lies in explaining structural differences between organizations rather than in explaining structural change.

Board Composition And The Commission Of Illegal Acts: An Investigation Of Fortune 500 Companies, Idalene F. Kesner, Bart Victor, Bruce T. Lamont

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Corporate boardroom processes and board composition have long been topics of interest and debate for both organizational researchers and practitioners. In recent years, however, criticism of corporate boards has increased dramatically, as evidences by the comments of former International Telephone & Telegraph chairman, Harold Geneen. According to Geneen, "the boards of directors of U.S. industry include numerous first-rate people doing what amounts to a second-rate job" (1984: 258). In defense of his position, he brought up many points, but board composition is the most central to his argument. Essentially, Geneen and other critics have argued that the designs of corporate …

Refining The Displacement Of Culture And The Use Of Scenes And Themes In Organizational Studies, Nancy C. Morey, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The move to displace the concept of culture traditionally used in anthropology to organizational research is discussed. Issues surrounding the culture concept and the juxtaposition of culture and organization are given special attention. Current thinking about the nature of the process of displacement is refined. Examples from an ongoing study of a city transit organization are used to demonstrate the use of cultural scenes and themes in organizational research.

Research Notes Organizational Commitment: A Comparison Of American, Japanese, And Korean Employees, Fred Luthans, Harriette S. Mccaul, Nancy G. Dodd

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Considerable attention is currently being given to exploring differences between Japanese and American workers that might explain the widening gap between the productivity growth rates of the two countries. Some researchers have suggested that this difference in productivity growth is, at least in part, due to Japanese workers' having a higher level of commitment to their orgnaizations than American works (Cole, 1979; Hatvany & Pucik, 1981; Marsh & Mannari, 1977; Whitehall & Takezawa, 1968). Turnover rates are commonly cited to support the popular notion that Japanese employees, whose turnover rate is about half that of their American counterparts, are more …

An Emic Perspective And Ethnoscience Methods For Organizational Research, Nancy C. Morey, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This paper is in answer to the call for new, innovative perspectives and methodologies for organizational research. Although the approach here falls within the subjective/idiographic/qualitative/insider set of methodologies rather than the objective/nomothetic/quantitative/outsider set, there is the potential to bridge the gap between the two sets. Coming largely from anthropology, the emic perspective is explained; the specific steps for ethnoscience analyses are summarized; and examples and implications are given.

Administration Size And Organization Size: An Examination Of The Lag Structure, John B. Cullen, Douglas D. Baker

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Recent longitudinal studies of the relationship between organization and administrative staff size (Freeman & Hannan, 1975) often to replicate the findings of earlier cross-sectional research (Blau herr, 1971). As a result, many researchers (Kimberly, 1976b) have argued that further longitudinal research is necessary.

Social Desirability Response Effects: Three Alternative Models, Daniel C. Ganster, Harry W. Hennessey, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Three models are developed for the effects of social desirability (SD) on organizational behavior research results. SD can act as (a) an unmeasured variable that produces spurious correlations between study variables, (b) a suppressor variable that hides relationships, or (c) a moderator variable that conditions the relationship between two other variable.

The Transfer Of Japanese Manufacturing Management Approaches To U. S. Industry, Richard J. Schonberger

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Just-in-time (JIT) provisioning of manufacturing inventories is a notable feature of Japanese manufacturing management. Kawasaki Motors, USA, has committed itself to JIT objectives, which result in moving toward lotless repetitive manufacturing, a streamlined mode of operation characterized by minimal inventories and "shop paper," plus flexible market response. Kawasaki USA has forged a hybrid process of effecting change, featuring Japanese JIT objectives but without Japanese-style consensus mechanisms for making decisions and effecting changes

An Idiographic Approach To Organizational Behavior Research: The Use Of Single Case Experimental Designs And Direct Measures, Fred Luthans, Tim R.V. Davis

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The underlying assumptions of the dominant nomothetic (group-centered, standardized, and controlled environmental contexts, and quantitative methodologies) and idiographic (individual-centered, naturalistic environmental contexts, and qualitative methodologies) research perspectives are examined. An interactive theoretic (i.e., real people interacting in real organizations) for organizational behavior is suggested-a theoretic assumption that lends itself to an idiographic approach. Intensive single- case experimental designs and direct observational measures are proposed as a potentially powerful methodology for idiographic research of organizational behavior.

A Management Science Approach To Contingency Models Of Organizational Structure, Sang M. Lee, Fred Luthans, David L. Olson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates the applicability of a quantitative modeling approach, specifically goal programming, in operationalizing the relationship between environmental variables and specific organizational structural variables for optimal goal attainment. A goal programming model is developed to analyze and determine the optimal relationships for goal attainment.

The contingency approach has emerged in recent years as the dominant theoretical framework for viewing organizational structure and design. Although open systems analysis (Katz & Kahn, 1966) emphasized the input of the external environment into organization structuring, the contingency approach attempts to establish functional relationships between environmental variables and organizational variables. Over the past decade …

A Survey Of Employee Perceptions Of Information Privacy In Organizations, Richard W. Woodman, Daniel C. Ganster, Jerome Adams, Michael K. Mccuddy, Paul D. Tolchinsky, Howard Fromkin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In this study of employees in five multinational corporations, assessment was made of (a) employees' beliefs regarding the types of personal information stored their companies, (b) the accuracy of those perceptions, (c) reactions to various internal and external uses of this personal information, and (d) evaluations of the companies' information handling policies and practices.

Goal Setting And Performance Evaluation: An Attributional Analysis, Dennis L. Dossett, Carl I. Greenberg

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The present study considered the effect of goal setting on supervisors' evaluations of employees' performance and the causes attributed to that performance. Results indicated that attributional distortions were greater in the assigned than in the participative or self-set goal conditions. Supervisors rated the high participatively-set goal worker significantly higher in performance, ability, effort, and goal commitment than they rated the low participatively-set goal worker.

A Social Learning Approach To Organizational Behavior, Tim R.V. Davis, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

After first reviewing the existing theoretical frameworks for human behavior, we present a social learning theory approach that incorporates the interactive nature of all the variables of organizational behavior - the behavior itself, the environment, and the person (internal cognitions). We differentiate social learning theory from operant theory, highlighting the processes of modeling, cognitions, and self-control. We suggest self- management techniques as a way to apply the social learning framework in order to enhance managerial effectiveness.

The Impact Of The Computer On The Choice Activity Of Decision Makers: A Replication With Actual Used Of Computerized Mis, Robert Koester, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A previous study on the impact of computer generated information on the choice activity of student subjects found that those with computer experience were less influenced by computer generated information than they were by information presented in a more traditional mimeograph format. Subjects who had little, if any, computer experience were more influenced in their choice activity by computer generated information than by the identical information presented in the more traditional mimeograph format (Luthans & Koester, 1976). The results of that study seemed to have definite implications for users of computerized information systems, suggesting that computer generated …

The Reality Or Illusion Of A General Contingency Theory Of Management: A Response To The Longenecker And Pringle Critique, Fred Luthans, Todd I. Stewart

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In April 1977, we introduced the concept of a General Contingency Theory (GCT) of Management and proposed for its development a conceptual framework to integrate and synthesize diverse process, behavioral, and management science concepts and techniques (3). In their critique of GCT, Longenecker and Pringle (2) have argued that the concept of a contingency-based general theory of management is illusory, too ill-defined and nebulous to serve as a truly viable general theory. Our response is offered to clarify some of the points they raise and stimulate a continuing dialogue over the GCT construct which will hopefully contribute to the development …

Incorporating Time-Lag Effects Into The Expectancy Model Of Motivation: A Reformulation Of The Model, Bronston T. Mayes

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Of cognitive theories of motivation, the most intensively researched in recent years is the Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (VIE) theory. A recent review of VIE research (9) shows the valence model to be reasonably predictive of occupational preference, job satisfaction, and valence of performance. The behavioral choice model has not fared so well; although it moderately predicts self-ratings of job effort, its efficiency in predicting criteria measured by other then self-ratings is questionable. When the behavioral choice model is used in research, the following findings are typical:

1. Intrinsic outcomes (feelings of accomplishment, etc.) are better predictors of satisfaction and performance than are …