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Cross-cultural studies on the psychological aspects of decision-making in a social context are examined, focusing on how favorable reception to decisions may depend on individual participation in the decision and cultural norms. Topics include low power distance cultures such as the United States and Germany, where many expect to have a voice in decisions; high power distance cultures such as the Peole's Republic of China, Mexico, and Hong Kong, where few expect to have a voice in decisions; and implications for organizational management.

The article uses self-affirmation theory to explain survivors' reactions to unfair organizational downsizing. All participants in the present study witnessed the layoff of a colleague, and colleagues' negative emotions, especially more 'self-conscious' negative emotions, increased in the situation where the layoff was handled unfairly. Implications for the management of corporate downsizings and for self-affirmation theory are discussed.

Recent research has shown that subordinates are generally more accepting of their managers' resource allocation decisions to the extent that managers offer clear explanations (or accounts) of the reasons underlying their decisions. This study sought to delineate the conditions under which the clarity of managers' accounts is especially related to the favorability of subordinates' reactions. We hypothesized that when subordinates' need for information is high--i.e., when they are relatively uncertain about why the resources were allocated in a particular way, and when they attach greater importance to the resource allocation decisions--they will be greatly influenced by the presence or absence of clear managerial accounts. These hypotheses were tested in the context of a field study exploring survivors' reactions to the layoffs of co-workers. Survivors indicated how clearly the reasons for the layoff had been explained to them by management; they also reported how much their organizational commitment, work effort, and turnover intention had changed, relative to the prelayoff period. In general, the positive relationship between the clarity of managers' explanations and the favorability of survivors' reactions was especially pronounced under conditions of high uncertainty and high importance. The theoretical and practical implications of these results, and the limitations of the study, are discussed.

The hypothesis was tested that low self-esteem people are more "self-conscious," which impairs their task performance. High and low self-esteem subjects performed a concept formation task under conditions designed to focus the subject's attention on himself or on the task. Results paralleled findings on test anxiety. (SJL)

The extent to which people stress upon their individual concerns versus the concerns of their ingroup is referred to as Individual-collective primacy. The interactive effects of individual-collective primacy, ingroup performance, and outgroup performance on ingroup favoritism is investigated.