Early retirement incentives are being offered by large corporations for strategic purposes (e.g., reorganizing and downsizing). As a consequence, researchers have compared the retirement decisions of retirees (i.e., acceptors) and non-retirees (i.e., non-acceptors) to determine why employees accept the offers. The main purposes of this study were to examine the individual differences between men and women who accepted the early retirement incentive offer as well as test two conceptual models that differentially predict male and female employees' decision satisfaction. 1788 corporate headquarter employees of a large business enterprise completed a survey designed to determine why they accepted the incentive and how satisfied they were with their decisions. Most analyses were conducted on an age-matched subset (n = 658) of the total. The analyses revealed that the men had longer tenure, higher positions, and made significantly more money than women, both had equivalent performance level ratings and job satisfaction, but women had higher company satisfaction. Both men and women mentioned the incentive payment amount and company dissatisfaction among their top three reasons for accepting the offer. Men also mentioned work-related issues (e.g., more advancement) whereas women mentioned being home with the children as having an impact on their decisions. Preparedness to make a decision at the deadline was the major predictor of decision satisfaction for both men and women. Men's decision satisfaction was also affected by their goal attainment and the importance and generosity of the incentive payment. Women's decision satisfaction was affected by the portion of income they needed after retirement. The impact of various factors occurring during the decision making process on decision satisfaction was also studied. It was found that the greater amount of pressure a person felt to leave the organization, the more often an individual changed his/her mind, and the later he/she submitted the acceptance form, the lower was one's decision satisfaction. Individual differences between on-time and early retirees, as well as the relationship between planning, preparedness and mental health after retirement also investigated / acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this study was to explain how work-family conflict is related to organizational citizenship behavior. The main hypotheses centered on the proposition that when employees face a work-family conflict they perceive as stressful they make changes at work to diminish stress by withholding discretionary organizational citizenship behaviors. The following hypotheses were tested: (a) Work overload and family responsibilities are positively related to work-family conflict, (b) Agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism moderate the aforementioned relationship, (c) Work-family conflict is positively related to stress in a relationship moderated by neuroticism, and (d) Stress mediates the negative relationship between work-family conflict and organizational citizenship behavior. Finally, job satisfaction was proposed as a control variable when examining relationships between stress and organizational citizenship behavior, because the relationship between stress and organizational citizenship behavior is presumably independent of job satisfaction. Through a field study involving 228 participants in two organizations in Colombia that specialize in providing employees primary necessities such as health, housing, and education, partial support was found for some of the study's hypotheses. The hypotheses concerned with work overload, family responsibilities, and work-family conflict, as well as the hypothesis related to work-family conflict and stress received empirical support / acase@tulane.edu

This study investigated path-goal leadership theory tenets relating how individual difference factors of locus of control (LOC) and perceived task ability and situational knowledge of task expectancy affected leadership style preferences. Major hypotheses involved LOC and perceived task ability's effects on choice of leader style preference with no knowledge of task expectancy, high E $\to$ P expectancy (i.e., expectancy of effort leading to successful performance, but no P $\to$ O knowledge), and high P $\to$ O expectancy (i.e., expectancy that successful performance results in desired outcomes, but no E $\to$ P knowledge). It was predicted that without any task expectancy knowledge, internals with high ability would prefer participative leaders while those with low ability would prefer directive leaders. Powerful other LOC subjects were predicted to prefer directive leaders regardless of task ability. Chance LOC subjects were hypothesized to prefer participative styles with high ability and directive styles with low ability. With high E $\to$ P expectancies, all LOC types were predicted to prefer participative leaders regardless of ability. With high P $\to$ O expectancies, all LOC and ability types were expected to prefer directive leaders. Subjects were 120 undergraduates, 40 each who were internal, powerful other or chance oriented on the LOC scale. A 0-12 leader preference profile (LPP) scale measured style preference. Subjects believed they had either high or low task ability. Subjects indicated initial style preference for a subsequent task on the LPP. Subjects then read the high E $\to$ P task description and indicated style preference on another LPP. The same procedure was followed for the high P $\to$ O task. A significant Ss/LOC x perceived ability x leader style x knowledge of task expectancy interaction indicated P-LOC subjects did not, as hypothesized, prefer participative leaders in the E $\to$ P situation but preferred directive leaders across all ability and knowledge of task expectancy conditions. C-LOC and I-LOC persons exhibited the predicted preferences. These subjects preferred participative leaders when ability was high and/or some control over performance was perceived (i.e., the E $\to$ P situation). When ability was low and/or there was no perceived control over performance (i.e., the P $\to$ O situation), then these subjects preferred directive leaders. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Recent research on organizational work teams has proposed collective efficacy as a key determinant of work team effectiveness and has emphasized the need for examining how collective efficacy can be fostered within teams (Lindsley, Thomas, & Brass, 1995). It is theorized that a team leader, through the expression of a motivational leadership style, can foster collective efficacy within a team which, in turn, will lead to effective team performance. The present study investigated team leadership style as an antecedent of collective efficacy. Furthermore, the relationships between collective efficacy, task cohesion, and team outcomes such as profit, team satisfaction, and team viability were examined. Fifty teams, (each consisting of a leader and three team members) from a large federal organization performed a manufacturing simulation task. In order to investigate the impact of team leadership style on collective efficacy, one-half of the team leaders were trained to set high performance goals and expectations, provide positive feedback, and express confidence while they led their teams. The present research proposed that the three leadership behaviors would be positively related to collective efficacy. Furthermore, it was proposed that collective efficacy would be positively related to task cohesion, team satisfaction, and team viability. Collective efficacy was hypothesized to partially mediate the relationships between leadership style and task cohesion, and between leadership style and team performance outcomes (team satisfaction and viability). In addition, task cohesion was purported to mediate the collective efficacy-profit relationship. Results indicated that, as predicted, trained leaders exhibited more of the three leadership behaviors as compared with untrained leaders and that the three leadership behaviors were positively related to collective efficacy. In addition, collective efficacy was positively related to task cohesion, profit, team satisfaction, and team viability. Collective efficacy did prove to partially mediate the relationship between team member ratings of leadership style and the following team outcomes: profit, team satisfaction, and team viability. However, the hypothesized mediating role of task cohesion in the collective efficacy-profit relationship was not supported. Findings are discussed in terms of the implications for practice and future research / acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this study was to contribute to our limited understanding of the cognitive processes that precede ethical decision-making and the antecedents of those processes. An explanation of ethical decision-making was built around integrative complexity (the cognitive differentiation and integration of concepts). Antecedents of integrative complexity were considered from an interactionist perspective where individuals (characterized in terms of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and social dominance orientation, or SDO) interact with their environments (defined in terms of accountability). I hypothesized that accountability to a corrupt authority figure would constrain integrative complexity, making unethical decision-making (i.e., skimping on worker safety training) more likely. I further hypothesized that conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extreme levels of SDO would exacerbate the negative relationship between accountability and integrative complexity, in most cases making unethical decision-making even more likely. The results did not support these latter hypotheses. Nevertheless, the results were supportive of the hypothesis that those who were accountable to a corrupt authority figure would engage in more unethical decision-making than those not accountable. These findings, as well as suggestions for future research and current study limitations, are discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Two competing higher-order models of psychological climate perceptions have been presented in the applied psychology literature: the general psychological climate model (PCg model; James & James, 1989) and the multiple stakeholder model (Burke, Borucki, & Hurley, 1992). Attempts to compare these competing hierarchical models of psychological climate have been limited by reliance on archival data and have been restricted to retail settings. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relative fits of one first-order and two higher-order factor models of psychological climate in a primary data set collected from public school teachers. Climate survey responses from 310 elementary and secondary teachers were analyzed using maximum-likelihood confirmatory factory analysis. Based on fit indices and factor loading results, the present study found support for the hierarchical nature of teachers' psychological climate perceptions. Of particular importance, the present study found strongest support for a hierarchical model of psychological climate in which teachers cognitively appraise the extent to which their work environment impacts the well-being of both teachers and students. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the assessment and interpretation of psychological climate were discussed / acase@tulane.edu

This study examined the existence of organizational climate for productivity and its relationship to productivity criteria. 150 subjects in a large financial institution were asked to complete the Litwin and Stringer (1968) Organizational Climate Survey, the Smith, Kendall, and Hulin (1969) Job Descriptive Index, and Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974) Organizational Commitment Survey, and the herein developed Organizational Productivity Survey. Data collected from organizational archives included measures of turnover, salary, tenure, education, age, race, gender, and job performance. Organizational Climate for Productivity showed unique prediction to factor scores created on the productivity criterion from commitment, job satisfaction, and omnibus organizational climate. Age, tenure, and education were shown to account for a small amount of variance climate for productivity. Subsystems were formed on some aspects of climate for productivity / acase@tulane.edu

Using data collected from 34,866 retail service employees from 567 stores within a large national retail organization for whom 1985 climate survey data were available and 34,365 retail service employees from 567 stores for whom 1986 survey data were available, this study compared three primary climate perspectives: The social constructionist perspective, the multiple stakeholder perspective, and the general psychological climate perspective. The comparison of the seven first-order factor multiple stakeholder model and general psychological climate model indicated that the multiple stakeholder model provided a slightly better fit to the 1986 retail data set. The exploratorily derived nine first-order factor multiple stakeholder model again provided the most adequate explanation of the 1986 retail data set compared to the social constructionist or general psychological climate models. The implications of a multiple stakeholder perspective for extending conceptualizations of psychological climate are discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Role-playing performance appraisal simulations were used to test the effects of rater training on rating accuracy, psychometric rating errors, and accuracy-error relationships under different rating use conditions. Introductory psychology students ($N$ = 135) rated videotaped vignettes for simulated productivity improvement or legal defensibility performance appraisal (rating use) programs after receiving rater accuracy or rater error training (RAT or RET; Pulakos, 1984). RET reduced correlational halo, rating use information significantly improved accuracy, and rater training and rating use effects varied among dimensions. Inconsistent and contradictory results were found between correlational (differential) accuracy measured against mean expert ratings, desirable rating characteristics (Saal, Downey & Lahey, 1980), and traditional correlational halo. No manipulation effects were found for overall performance or rating accuracy confidence ratings, but rating use information appeared to redefine specific dimensions. Neither consistent rater training generalizations for different rating uses nor consistent error-accuracy inferences were supported. A motivational rather than cognitive processing explanation for rating accuracy and error effects appears to be supported by the results / acase@tulane.edu

The main purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of strategies used by married career women with young children for preventing or coping with role conflict. The two preventative measures examined were premarital planning of career and parental role combinations and type of dual-career marriage. The coping behaviors explored were structural role redefinition, personal role redefinition, and reactive role behaviors. The relationships among role conflict, coping strategies, coping effectiveness, psychological well-being, and physical strain were investigated, and the relationships of several personal and situational resources with each of those variables were explored The subjects were 143 professional women who were married and living with their husbands and who had at least one child under the age of 12. They completed a 148-item questionnaire that included measures of the type of dual-career marriage, extent of premarital planning for role combinations, role conflict intensity, use of coping strategies, coping effectiveness, physical strain, psychological well-being, self-esteem, career orientation, family orientation, social support, spouse support, job time-demands, and marital conflict The type of dual-career marriage was not found to have a significant relationship with any of the major variables. The results indicated that the extent of premarital planning for the combination of parental and career roles was inversely related to role conflict level and positively related to coping effectiveness, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and spouse support. Although the women used reactive role behaviors most often, they found this type of coping behavior least effective. Moreover, extensive use of such coping was positively related to symptoms of physical strain and negatively related to job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Personal and situational resources that were associated with most of the major variables were self-esteem, spouse support, social support, and marital conflict. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed, and suggestions for future research were presented / acase@tulane.edu