THE PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT OF WORK STRESS: A CRITIQUEFRIED, YITZHAK; ROWLAND, KENDRITH M.; FERRIS, GERALD R.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00528.xpmid: N/A
There has been considerable growth in the number of studies focused on the relationship between stress at work and a variety of physiological symptoms, especially cardiovascular irregularities, abnormal levels of biochemicals in the blood and urine, and gastrointestinal disorders. Many of these studies, however, have used inadequate procedures for measuring such symptoms. Consequently, the results and conclusions of these studies are often invalid or, at best, questionable. The purpose of this paper is to critique the prevailing procedures used in the measurement of physiological symptoms in work stress research and to suggest needed improvements.
EFFECTS OF ASSESSORSHIP ON MANAGERs' PROFICIENCY IN ACQUIRING, EVALUATING, AND COMMUNICATING INFORMATION ABOUT PEOPLELORENZO, ROBERT V.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00529.xpmid: N/A
This study investigated the developmental effects of assessorship, i.e., serving as a trained member of an assessment center staff, on managers' proficiency in three categories of behavior: acquiring, evaluating, and communicating information about people. Eighty managers selected to serve as assessors in a management assessment center were assigned to one of two experimental groups. Immediately prior to assessor training, one group participated in three exercises designed to measure proficiency in the criterion behaviors. The other group participated in these exercises after they had accumulated at least 3 months of full‐time experience as assessors. The results indicate that the experienced assessors were more proficient in interviewing another individual to obtain relevant information about job candidates, verbally presenting and defending information about others' managerial qualifications, and communicating this information in concise written reports. Also, the experienced assessors' ratings of videotaped ratees' managerial ability possessed somewhat superior psychometric properties.
INTRODUCING NEW METHODS FOR CONDUCTING TRAINING EVALUATION AND FOR LINKING TRAINING EVALUATION TO PROGRAM REDESIGNFORD, J. KEVIN; WROTEN, STEVEN P.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00531.xpmid: N/A
While training has been conceptualized as a continually evolving process, the existing literature fails to provide adequate strategies for linking training evaluation to training needs reassessment and program redesign. This article presents two studies which describe methodologies developed for a police recruit training program to address these deficiencies in the literature. In Study 1, Lawshe's (1975) Content Validity Ratio (CVR) approach was used to establish the job relatedness of the content of the training program. Results supported the job relatedness of the training program as the average CVR value was 27 (p < 05; N= 105). In study 2, a new methodology, the Matching Technique, was used to directly compare current training emphasis with training needs. Results demonstrated a close match of emphasis and training needs for the training program. One content area of relative training deficiency was further examined to illustrate the power of the Matching Technique for identifying areas requiring training redesign.
SELF‐APPRAISAL BASED UPON SUPERVISORY FEEDBACKSTEEL, ROBERT P.; OVALLE, NESTOR K.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00532.xpmid: N/A
Self‐appraisals of job performance have historically proven to be weakly related to appraisals conducted by supervisory personnel. Two studies sought to facilitate rater agreement by invoking supervisory performance feedback as a frame of reference for subordinate raters. In the first study, a sample of 401 branch managers from a large lending institution performed a conventional self‐appraisal and an appraisal containing instructions referencing supervisory feedback (Feedback Based Self‐Appraisal). Feedback Based Self‐Appraisals exhibited significantly smaller leniency error, greater total rating variance, and more agreement with superior ratings than conventional self‐appraisals. FBSAs produced small improvements over conventional self‐appraisals in predicting objective criteria of managerial job performance. Study 2 examined FBSA‐supervisory appraisal agreement for two samples of military organization personnel. The relative degree of feedback available in a work environment was found to moderate FBSA‐superior agreement.
PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SUBORDINATE RATINGS OF MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCEMOUNT, MICHAEL K.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00533.xpmid: N/A
The purpose of the present study was to compare the psychometric properties of subordinate ratings of managerial performance to those of supervisor and self ratings. Subordinate ratings (n = 365), self‐ratings (n = 80) and supervisor ratings (n= 80) were obtained on eight performance dimensions for middle level managers in a multinational corporation. Multitrait‐multimethod analysis of variance indicated significant effects for convergent validity, halo error, and discriminant validity. Comparisons between rating sources indicated that subordinate ratings are more similar to supervisor ratings than to self ratings in terms of convergent validity and leniency effect. A comparison of the present results to other studies indicated less convergent validity, more discriminant validity, and less halo error than found by others.
REACTION OF EMPLOYEES TO PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL INTERVIEWS AS A FUNCTION OF THEIR PARTICIPATION IN RATING SCALE DEVELOPMENTSILVERMAN, STANLEY B.; WEXLEY, KENNETH N.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00534.xpmid: N/A
A substantial amount of research has been conducted on the performance appraisal feedback interview. The purpose of the present field study was to see whether employee involvement in the development of rating scales used in the feedback interview affected ratees' perceptions of the interview. Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) were developed for five job families in a midwestem hospital. A participation group consisted of employees from each of the job families who were involved in all phases of BARS construction. A nonparticipation group involved an equal number of employees from each of the job families who were not involved in the BARS development. The results showed that participation in BARS construction led to favorable perceptions regarding the performance appraisal interview process as well as positive outcomes.
EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT SYMBOLIC CODING STIMULI IN BEHAVIOR MODELING TRAININGDECKER, PHILLIP J.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00535.xpmid: N/A
Three types of learning points (behavioral, summary label, and rule‐oriented) and a no‐learning point control condition were compared in terms of their effects on two dependent variables (reproduction and generalization) in a behavior modeling training laboratory experiment (N= 80). Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that individuals who had been randomly assigned to the rule‐oriented and behavioral learning point conditions were able to generalize and reproduce the key behaviors better than a no learning point control condition. Those in the rule‐oriented condition were able to generalize the modeled behaviors to novel conditions more so than individuals assigned the behavioral learning point condition. Those who had received the behavioral learning points were able to imitate the modeled performance better than individuals in the rule‐oriented condition. Those who received the summary label learning points were not able to a reproduce, but could generalize the modeled behaviors to a different setting. There was no difference found between the summary label and rule‐oriented conditions on the generalization dependent variable.
EFFECTS OF JOB ATTRIBUTES AND RECRUITING PRACTICES ON APPLICANT DECISIONS: A COMPARISON1POWELL, GARY N.
doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1984.tb00536.xpmid: N/A
Previous research on the factors which affect applicant decisions concerning jobs has focused on the effects of either job attributes or recruiting practices. The present study examined the simultaneous impact of job attributes and recruiting practices on the likelihood of job acceptance by actual job applicants. Path analysis revealed that job attributes but not recruiting practices influenced the likelihood of job acceptance by graduating college students (N= 200). Given that college students might be expected to be the job applicants most swayed by recruiting practices because of their lack of work experience, the results suggest that the emphasis placed on recruiting practices as determinants of applicant decisions may be overstated in the literature.