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On the basis of a review of research testing Korman's self-consistency theory, chronic self-esteem and situational self-esteem appear to be important determinants of performance, choice, and satisfaction. Further, the findings of some studies support Korman's predictions that high self-esteem persons will perform more effectively and show higher correlations between task liking and success, between reward expectancy and performance, between need fulfillment and satisfaction, and between self-implementation and occupational choice. However, one cannot conclude on the basis of this research that ‘man is self-consistent and not self-enhancing,’ since self-enhancement theory is a viable alternative explanation for most of the findings. A major source of ambiguity is that researchers have not tested the crucial self-consistency prediction that low self-esteem persons would seek consistency even at the cost of a dissatisfying occupation, failure, and other negative consequences. Several methodological and conceptual improvements are suggested for future applications of self-consistency theory to work motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Role ambiguity and role conflict were hypothesized to be negatively related to employee satisfaction and performance. Previous research, however, had revealed that these two types of role perceptions were not always negatively related to satisfaction and performance. Furthermore, when the predicted negative relationships were found, the magnitudes of the relationships varied widely. In this study employee ability was hypothesized to reduce the negative relationships between role perceptions and satisfaction and performance. In addition, the effect of ability was hypothesized to be moderated by organization level. The results generally failed to support the hypothesized relationships. There were, however, two significant interactions that partially supported one hypothesis. Employees with high ability were less affected by role ambiguity than employees with low ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a mailed-questionnaire study of 156 staff registered nurses, perceived role clarity was related negatively to voluntary turnover, propensity to leave, and job tension, and positively to work satisfaction. The correlations of role clarity with voluntary turnover, propensity to leave, and work satisfaction were nonsignificant for nurses classified as low on a need-for-clarity index; the correlations were significantly higher for nurses with a high need for clarity. The correlations between role clarity and job tension were significant for both subgroups. The concepts of role clarity, the rigidity of role specifications, and the conditions of role specificity, as opposed to the processes of role specification, were discussed with regard to organizational theory and organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]