Strategic Management Policy Commons^™

360-Degree Feedback With Systematic Coaching: Empirical Analysis Suggests A Winning Combination, Fred Luthans, Suzanne J. Peterson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Wanted: High-performance work practices to gain a competitive advantage. An increasingly common answer to this desperate call is 360-degree programs; unfortunately, they have, at best, mixed reviews when empirically assessed. This study found that a way to improve the effectiveness of 360s may be to combine them with coaching focused on enhanced self-awareness and behavioral management. In a small manufacturer, this feedback-coaching resulted in improved manager and employee satisfaction, commitment, intentions to turnover, and at least indirectly, this firm’s performance. This feedback-coaching may be a winning combination to help in the competitive battles in today’s global economy.

The Need For And Meaning Of Positive Organizational Behavior, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This essay draws from the emerging positive psychology movement and the author’s recent articles on the need for and meaning of a positive approach to organizational behavior. Specifically, the argument is made that at this time, the OB field needs a proactive, positive approach emphasizing strengths, rather than continuing in the downward spiral of negativity trying to fix weaknesses. However, to avoid the surface positivity represented by the non-sustainable best-sellers, the case is made for positive organizational behavior (POB) to take advantage of the OB field’s strength of being theory and research driven. Additional criteria for this version of POB …

Impact Of Transformational Leadership On Follower Development And Performance: A Field Experiment, Taly Dvir, Dov Eden, Bruce Avolio, Boas Shamir

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In a longitudinal, randomized field experiment, we tested the impact of transformational leadership, enhanced hy training, on follower development and performance. Experimental group leaders received transformational leadership training, and control group leaders, eclectic leadership training. The sample included 54 military leaders, their 90 direct followers, and 724 indirect followers. Results indicated the leaders in the experimental group had a more positive impact on direct followers' development and on indirect followers' performance than did the leaders in the control group.

Differential Effects Of Incentive Motivators On Work Performance, Alexander D. Stajkovic, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In this field experiment, we first compared the performance effects of money systematically administered through the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) model and routine pay for performance and then compared the effects of O.B. Mod.- administered money, social recognition, and performance feedback. The money intervention based on the O.B. Mod. outperformed routine pay for performance (performance increase = 37% vs. 11%) and also had stronger effects on performance than social recognition (24%) and performance feedback (20%).

Environmental And Psychological Challenges Facing Entrepreneurial Development In Transitional Economies, Fred Luthans, Alexander D. Stajkovic, Elina Stajkovic

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In the former planned economies, a major result of the economic reform programs has been the resurgence of private entrepreneurship. As these countries have struggled to make the transition to a market-based economy over the past decade, the environment has played an important structural role in entrepreneurial development. However, from a psychological perspective, the environmental structural context affects human action through cognitive processes such as self-regulation. Thus, we first identify and analyze the effect of the political, economic, legal, and cultural environment on the development of entrepreneurship in transitional economies, mainly using the former Soviet Union and particularly the Republic …

Environmental Ethical Decision Making In The U.S. Metal-Finishing Industry, Brenda L. Flannery, Douglas R. May

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We investigated the individual and contextual influences shaping the environmental ethical decision intentions of a sample of managers in the U.S. metal-finishing industry in this study. Ajzen's (1991) theory of planned behavior and Jones's (1991) moral intensity construct grounded our theoretical framework. Findings revealed that the magnitude of consequences, a dimension of moral intensity, moderated the relation- ships between each of five antecedents-attitudes, subjective norms, and three perceived behavioral control factors (self-efficacy, financial cost, and ethical climate)- and managers' environmental ethical decision intentions. We then developed implications for theory and practice in environmental ethical decision making.

The Impact Of Culture On Feedback-Seeking Behavior: An Integrated Model And Propositions, Mary Frances Sully De Luque, Steven M. Sommer

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In recent research scholars have addressed the issue of an individual's behavior in feedback-seeking activity and, except in scant studies, have virtually ignored the role of culture in this area. In this article we explore four cultural syndromes, based on past research, to form a cross-cultural model of feedback-seeking behavior. We advance propositions for the study of culture as a moderator to feedback-seeking behavior.

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.

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 …

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,

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

Some Boundary Considerations In The Application Of Motivation Models, Bronston T. Mayes

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

From the actor's perspective, a behavioral environment can be typified by two continuous dimensions, knowledge of potential outcomes and knowledge of causal relationships among environmental elements. These dimensions determine the situational ambiguity perceived by the actor. Expectancy, equity, operant conditioning, and attitude theories of motivation are considered in such ambiguous environments. Propositions are set forth which allow the researcher to select the most predictive motivation model

Toward A Definition Of Organizational Politics, Bronston T. Mayes, Robert W. Allen

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Viewing organizations as political entities is not a recent phenomenon. March (7) suggested that organizations are political coalitions in which decisions are made and goals are set by bargaining processes. Other writers stressed the utility of taking a political perspective when studying organizations (1, 6, 9, 22). Anyone associated with almost any form of organization eventually becomes aware of activities that are described by employees as "political", but what is termed political by one observer may not be viewed as political by another. To understand the nature of political processes in organizations, some agreement as to what constitutes political behavior …