Research on goal-based processing has shown that the goal or "mindset" with which a perceiver enters an interaction can significantly affect the manner in which information about a target is processed. Leaders and others in organizations might be particularly prone to these types of effects because they need to find ways to minimize the amount of information with which they must deal. Also, years of research on leadership style has demonstrated that different leadership styles differentially affect subordinates. This indicates that a critical link has gone unexamined: The effect of leadership style on the leader him/herself, and particularly on the way in which s/he processes information about subordinates. Leadership style, in its more specific form, can be viewed as a goal similar to many of those studied in the research on goal-based processing. It was proposed that leaders with a high-performance goal and those with a satisfied-worker goal would approach their subordinates differently and would process identical subordinate performance and behavior information in different ways. Subjects played the role of leaders in this experiment. Subjects were instructed to approach the task and the worker with a particular leader goal, either high-performance or satisfied-worker. Leaders had a (fictional) worker with whom they worked throughout the task. The leader gave the worker instructions, and the leader received responses and comments from the worker for each trial. Workers either performed well or poorly, and expressed either satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the task. Thus, a 2 x 2 x 2 between-subjects design was used. Following the task, subjects filled out several questionnaires. Dependent measures included amount and type of instructions given to the worker, incentives chosen for the worker, information seeking, attributions of worker performance, recall of various worker-relevant measures, worker performance ratings, and worker satisfaction ratings. Results indicated that leader goal had a significant effect on several of the measures, such as attributions, performance ratings, and amount of instruction given. In some cases, leader goal interacted with performance level and/or satisfaction level. The effects of leader goal should be further examined in order to more fully describe the leadership process.

Recent meta-analyses have suggested that the validity of interviews is much higher than previously reported. However, three issues are unresolved: individual differences in interviewer validity, incremental validity, and fairness of interviews. These issues were examined using ratings on 12 interview dimensions, SAT scores, and high school rank in a sample of freshmen admitted over a two-year period to a highly selective university (N = 860). Overall the interview was not a significant predictor of freshman GPA, and it provided no incremental validity over SAT and rank. The interview was valid for non-science/engineering majors (r =.12), but differential prediction among majors was not indicated. No individual interviewer (experienced or inexperienced) had a significant observed or incremental validity. The interview was valid for the first sample year (r =.12) but not the second. Implications for the use of interviews in personnel selection and college admissions are discussed.

A meta-analytic investigation was conducted to conceptually and quantitatively examine the effects of five individual (language ability), work (role ambiguity), organizational (organizational support), non-work (family support), and host-country factors (culture distance) on expatriate adjustment. This study integrates empirical data and estimates population parameters for the relationships of the aforementioned predictors and expatriate adjustment. Consistent with predictions from prior research and theory, the results showed positive relations of language ability, organizational support, and family support and negative relations of role ambiguity and culture distance with expatriate adjustment. The significant moderators of self-report versus external and work versus non-work criteria, predictor measurement, culture distance, and average length of stay underscore the importance of measurement issues and sample characteristics in expatriate adjustment research and provide evidence for the multidimensionality of expatriate adjustment. The theoretical, practical, and research implications of the results of this meta-analysis contribute to an increased understanding of expatriate adjustment.

The literature on managerial effectiveness has concentrated on cataloguing the administrative and interpersonal skills necessary for good management, yet has paid little attention to technical skill as a necessary skill at the lower levels of management. To date there is no empirical evidence directly linking technical skill to managerial effectiveness. This study thus tested three hypotheses: (a) technical skill provides incremental value over administrative and interpersonal skill in managerial effectiveness; (b) technical skill is related to social power and influence tactics; and (c) group autonomy significantly moderates the relationship between technical skill and expert power. One hundred seven first-level supervisors from local petrochemical and engineering companies completed an on-line survey, where they answered questions about their professional background and managerial skills; their respective subordinates and supervisors provided information about their technical skill, managerial effectiveness, power, and influence tactics habits. The hypotheses were partially supported; technical skill provided incremental value, and was related to power and influence tactics only when measured judgmentally. Possible explanations and future directions are discussed.

A possible paradox arises from two major paradigms in the literature studying transfer: designing training to increase transfer (e.g., by including task variation) may lead to lower self-efficacy. The present study investigated this paradox by examining the relationships among design of the practice condition, self-efficacy, and transfer. 82 participants (36 men, 46 women) filled out premeasures, trained on a computer-based task, filled out a self-efficacy measure, and completed a computer-based task for the transfer test. The practice condition was found to impact transfer performance, though not in the expected direction for all transfer tests. While the practice condition did not impact self-efficacy level, the practice condition did impact self-efficacy generalization. Weak support was found for a relationship between self-efficacy and transfer performance. These results suggest relationships among practice condition, self-efficacy, and transfer. Specifically, they indicate that the design of training can influence not only transfer, but also self-efficacy generalization.

This study examines the degree to which applicants evaluating the attractiveness of a job place importance on the existence of work-life balance in organizations. A policy capturing approach was used to determine the judgment procedures of applicants rating a series of jobs described along five dimensions: salary, fringe benefits, opportunities for advancement, rewarding work, and work-life balance. A total of 139 adults and 43 undergraduate students read job profiles of 60 fictitious jobs and rated the degree to which they would be likely to accept an offer for each job. A series of independent regression equations was conducted to determine the relative importance of the five cues for each participant. The majority of participants valued work-life balance highly, and parents of young children were especially attracted by this job characteristic. The findings are discussed in terms of organizational recruitment and suggestions for further research are addressed.

Customer service is a focus of much research attention and is linked to organizational outcomes. This thesis examines customer service behaviors toward obese versus average-weight customers. Because of the negative stereotype of obesity and widespread discrimination against obese individuals in many social and organizational contexts, we hypothesized that obese customers would receive poorer service than average-weight customers. We also proposed several potential moderators of the relationship between obesity and customer service. Data supported our first two hypotheses, but overall no effects of hypothesized moderators emerged. Results are discussed in terms of stigma and customer service.

Despite differences among theories, both visionary content and an expressive delivery are consistently associated with charismatic leadership (Awamleh & Gardner, 1999; Holladay & Coombs, 1994). The current study investigated the effects of content (visionary, nonvisionary) and delivery (strong, weak, written) on ratings of charisma, performance, satisfaction, and self-efficacy. Consistent with previous research, both content and delivery affected perceptions of charisma. However, only delivery affected performance. Specifically, participants in the high delivery and written delivery conditions rated their leaders higher and performed better than participants in the low delivery condition. However, there were no differences between the high delivery and no delivery conditions, suggesting that the outcomes may have been driven by a negative effect of the low delivery condition, as opposed to a positive effect of the high delivery condition. There was no effect for content or delivery on satisfaction or self-efficacy. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

This study examines whether raters are sensitive to differences among job applicants on multiple dimensions of work experience. A policy-capturing approach was employed to investigate the relative importance of applicant age and time, amount, and type-based measures of experience. Undergraduates, MBAs, and recruiters made judgements about work experience, job knowledge, motivation, intelligence, responsibility, and likelihood of hire. The time-based measure had the strongest influence on decisions about work experience. The amount and type-based measures had the most influence on decisions about the other dependent variables. Older applicants tended to receive lower ratings on all dependent variables. There were no significant differences in decision policies among the three samples. Participants employed complex decision policies, had a relatively high degree of cognitive control, and had a fair amount of insight into their decisions. Experienced raters tended to place more importance on the time-based measure than inexperienced raters.

The present study examined the relationship between feedback and subsequent task performance in a social context. Participants performed three trials of a decision-making task interrupted by two group discussion periods. Social process variables, such as influence, expertise, and perceived competence, were found to impact the feedback-performance relationship. In addition, goal-orientation was found to moderate individuals' reactions to the feedback. Results also suggested that goal-orientation moderated the effect of social processes on performance, but the findings were not consistent. These moderating relationships are potential explanations for enhancing or attenuating effects of feedback on performance.