This study investigated feedback sign's relationship with performance, satisfaction, and self-efficacy. It was expected that the magnitude of feedback sign's influence would differ by feedback type, personality, and with feedback repetition. The magnitude of feedback sign's influence on performance and self-efficacy was stronger for norm feedback than absolute feedback for individuals with high Conscientiousness or high Extraversion. The magnitude of feedback sign's influence became stronger over trials for self-efficacy, but its effect on satisfaction became weaker over trials for individuals with a high level of Conscientiousness. The direction of feedback sign's effect also varied. Negative feedback led to higher performance than positive feedback for individuals given norm feedback who had a high level of Conscientiousness or a low level of Extraversion, in all other cases positive feedback led to higher performance. These results indicate that feedback type, feedback sign, personality, and feedback repetition can influence reactions to feedback.

Role theory (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek & Rosenthal, 1964) provided a framework for an investigation of moderators of MSA agreement. Specifically, this study investigated moderating effects of different types of actual role conflict (person-role conflict, role sender dyad conflict, and inter-sender conflict), frequency of behavior observation, and feedback seeking behavior (feedback inquiry and feedback monitoring) on agreement between self, peer, superior and subordinate assessments within a 360 degree assessment. Data from 350 assessors of 27 managers and 124 professional employees produced 839 assessments (86% return rate). An exploratory factor analyses of results (prior to full analyses) indicated five behavioral categories of competence would best represent the data. These factors were used in Moderated Multiple Regression analyses. Results indicated weak to moderate support for moderating effects. Results replicated trends in past research regarding self-peer, self-superior, and peer-superior dyads.

Research has shown that one type of common procedural error, postcompletion error, occurs systematically under high working memory load. Studying the effects of different interventions on this reproducible and well-explained error type may help extend our understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms behind human error and interactive task behavior. Experiment 1 was an investigation of the error-reducing efficacy of a simple visual cue and a separate downstream error cost condition. While neither was found to be reliably effective, this inquiry provided valuable insight that led to a follow up study. In Experiment 2, a cue based on design guidelines and a mode indicator were implemented to explore possible reasons for why the previous interventions failed. Only the cue had a reliable effect, demonstrating the difficulty of designing a successful intervention. Finally, a computational model based in ACT-R was developed to provide theoretical demonstration of this finding.

I conducted a meta-analysis of 121 samples (N = 18,694) that examined the relation between age and job performance with job complexity as a moderator. Job complexity was operationalized as the ratings on job tasks tapping fluid task abilities, or GFTA, and crystallized task abilities, or GCTA. I found that the correlation between age and job performance decreased as jobs were rated higher on GFTA; however, there was no evidence that the correlation between age and job performance increased as jobs were rated higher on GCTA. The correlation between age and job performance increased as jobs were rated lower on both GFTA and GCTA and increased as jobs were rated lower on GFTA and higher on GCTA. The correlation between age and job performance decreased as jobs were rated higher on both GFTA and GCTA.

This study is a snapshot of employee reactions to a pending acquisition at a specific point in the acquisition process---four months after the acquisition announcement and two weeks prior to a final shareholder vote to accept the offer. Two hundred and ninety-three union and non-union employees responded to a questionnaire measuring their reactions of psychological stress, intention to leave, "merger syndrome" (a new measure developed from the literature for this study), and trust in acquirer's management. Respondents also completed measures of organizational identification, threat to continued employment, job involvement, union identification and union support of the pending acquisition (the last two were collected for union employees only). The data were submitted to hierarchical regression analyses, examining the direct effects of the dependent measures (psychological stress, intention to leave, merger syndrome, and trust in acquirer's management) on the independent variables (organizational identification, threat to continued employment, job involvement, and union identification), as well as the interactions with threat and union support. Unexpectedly, psychological stress was not significantly influenced by any of the independent variables. High levels of organizational identification were related to increased merger syndrome levels, as expected, but the increased trust in acquirer's management and reduced intention to leave were in the opposite direction of the prediction. Threat to continued employment only acted as a moderator with job involvement on the merger syndrome, with low job involved employees under threat reporting more merger syndrome. As expected, threat was related to increased intention to leave and lower trust in acquirer's management. High job involvement was associated with lower intention to leave and higher trust in acquirer's management. There were no direct effects of union identification, but it did interact with union support on merger syndrome and trust in acquirer's management. High levels of union identification and high union support for the acquisition unexpectedly lead to higher levels of merger syndrome, while high levels of union identification and high union support lead to higher trust in acquirer's management. The limited findings for organizational identification are discussed in light of social identity theory and effective merger management.

Using a field study methodology, the current research investigates potential formal and interpersonal discrimination against pregnant women in hiring situations, as well as how such discrimination might be remediated. Female confederates, who were manipulated with a prosthesis to sometimes appear pregnant, applied for part-time jobs in local retail stores. Multiple sources of data were gathered from their interactions with store employees and analyzed for instances of formal discrimination (e.g., job callbacks) and interpersonal discrimination (e.g., smiling). Results indicated that although employees were giving pregnant and non-pregnant applicants job callbacks at approximately the same rates, pregnant applicants were being discriminated against through other formal channels and interpersonally. Moreover, attempts to remediate pregnancy discrimination were largely unsuccessful. Theoretical and practical considerations of these findings will be addressed. Further exploratory results are also discussed, and the theoretical and practical considerations of these findings are addressed.

During the last 20 years, a large body of research has accumulated demonstrating the positive impact of charismatic leadership on organizational effectiveness. However, with a couple of exceptions, (e.g., Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996; Dvir, Eden, Avolio & Shamir, 1999), little research has focused on the development of charismatic leaders. Moreover, researchers have noted the importance of the language that charismatic leaders use in gaining follower commitment to their vision. This study contributes to previous research by investigating the effectiveness of training individuals to be charismatic in their communication style. Given the importance of language to effective leadership, this research is timely and important. This study consists of two phases. In Phase One, the effects of training on outcomes of learning, behavior and motivation was investigated. Forty-eight business students received charisma training, presentation training, or no training. In addition to measuring trainee knowledge and motivation, all participants prepared and gave a speech and the performance of all participants was videotaped. In the second phase of this study, undergraduates (N = 102) at another university watched one of these videotapes and performed a task based on the instructions given in the speech. The findings demonstrated the efficacy of the charismatic communication training. Those who received charismatic communication training performed better on a declarative knowledge test and exhibited more charismatic communication behaviors than those who received presentation skills training or no training. There was also support for the effectiveness of the charismatic communication training on follower performance and attitudes. Compared to the other experimental conditions, participants in the charisma condition performed better, adhered to the company vision more frequently, enjoyed the task more, and had higher perceptions of effective delivery and charismatic leadership. The effects of training on follower performance and attitudes were partially mediated by both nonverbal behaviors of body gestures and vocal fluency and content strategies of stories and analogies. Future research directions and practical implications are discussed.

Manipulations of a personality test administration are examined, in light of their effects on the test-takers' perceptions of the test's fairness, their acceptance of an outcome derived from the test, socially desirable responding, and other test reactions. Test-takers were administered the same personality test either face-to-face with the experimenter, or it was given to them as a traditional paper-and-pencil measure. Also, they either were or were not given an opportunity to elaborate on their responses to the items on the test. The opportunity to elaborate improved perceptions of the test's fairness. Negative test outcomes were associated with negative test reactions. Additionally, it was found that socially desirable responding was decreased in the face-to-face administration by providing the elaboration opportunity.

The purpose of this study was to explore various ways to predict and measure extreme response style, or overuse of endpoint categories in rating scales. Data was collected from a total of 913 regular participants and 240 peer participants, who completed an online battery of self-report and peer report questionnaires respectively. In addition to verifying the stability and generality of extreme responding, extreme response style was related to two personality predictors: intolerance of ambiguity and decisiveness. Both main effects and interactive effects with speed of survey completion were uncovered. Extreme response style was measured with several simple proportional methods, which were all shown to tap a latent factor of response extremity, and a latent class method, which did not achieve significant relationships with the personality predictors.

Affect has been theoretically important to charismatic leadership for over 80 years as Weber (1920) referred to the emotion, passion, and devotion that ensue from charismatic authority, and is still evident in modern theories of charismatic and transformational leadership. When leaders express positive affect, they elicit more positive follower attributions of leadership (Lewis, 2000; Newcombe & Askanasy, 2002) and better follower performance (George, 1995; George & Bettenhausen, 1990). Yet the mechanism for these effects has largely been ignored in empirical research. The current studies examine emotional contagion as one means by which leader affect influences follower outcomes. Emotional contagion is the transfer of affect between persons that is thought to occur through unconscious and automatic mechanisms (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1992). If leaders are able to transmit positive affect to their followers, then followers' positive affect should result in more positive attributions of leadership and better performance. In two laboratory studies and one field study, I tested the effects of affect and emotional contagion on leader and follower outcomes. Study 1 examined the effect of manipulated positive and negative affect on leadership behavior, using MBA students (n = 42). Leaders in the positive affect condition exhibited better leadership behavior than leaders in the negative affect condition. Study 2 tested the subsequent impact of leader affect on follower outcomes (n = 200). The proposed model suggested that leader affect influenced follower attributions of transformational leadership and performance directly, and through follower affect. Structural equation modeling indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data well. Study 3 largely replicated the findings of Study 2, using a field study of principals and teachers ( n = 228). Hierarchical Linear Modeling demonstrated that leader (principal) positive affect related to follower (teacher) positive affect via emotional contagion. Follower positive and negative affect related to follower attributions of transformational leadership and performance, in terms of organizational citizenship behavior. Follower attributions of transformational leadership also related to follower organizational citizenship behavior. As a whole, these three studies highlight the importance of affect and emotional contagion in leadership.