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This study was designed to determine the effect that goals have on performance and the effect that performance has on reported levels of satisfaction in a competitively structured task. The results of this study give strong evidence to Locke's theory (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1969, 4, 566-574) that the most immediate, direct motivational determinant of task performance is the subject's goal, and to Ilgen and Hamstra's theory (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1972, 7, 359-370) that satisfaction with one's performance is a function of the difference between actual performance and performance goals, and also a function of the difference between actual performance and performance of a reference person. Satisfaction and performance were found to be strongly related only up to the point where a person exceeds his goal or his reference person's outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has been depicted, in recent years, as an important causal variable in some theoretical formulations of organizational structure and behavior. Studies conducted to investigate the relationships between technology and other organizational variables have not provided, thus far, a conclusive picture of the role of technology in a parsimonious model of organizational behavior. Much of the difficulty in studying technology can be traced to the problem of obtaining a satisfactory operational definition of technology. A related problem is that of establishing the appropriate unit of analysis within which to study technology variance. An operational definition of technology is developed and applied in this study, building from a typology of technologies proposed by J. D. Thompson. Analysis was conducted on 297 organization units (departments, devisions) from within a diverse sample of 17 business and industrial firms. The organization units were classified among three varieties of technology, specified as long-linked, mediating and intensive technology respectively (following the J. D. Thompson typology). The organization units were also described in terms of several dimensions of organizational behavior developed in earlier research. Direct and indirect relationships involving technology, 14 dimensions of organizational behavior, and organization unit effectiveness, were investigated in several analyses. The findings from these analyses support the hypothesis that the criteria of effectiveness of an organization unit vary with the nature of the technology of the unit. The nature of the intra-technology models of organizational effectiveness are generally supportive of the variation expected from the Thompson theoretical analysis. No direct technology-organizational effectiveness relationship was observed, a finding which is in keeping with the expectations of the researchers. The models of organizational effectiveness observed within each of the three technology categories are described and the implications of their differences and similarities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was designed to test the view that organization structure and process are related to organizational climate which in turn is related to organization performance and employee job satisfaction. Questionnaires were completed by the directors of 117 research and development organizations and by 291 scientists in a subsample of 21 of these organizations. Results showed that several organizational process variables (but no structural variables) were significantly related to the climate of the organization as perceived by scientists. Perceived climate in turn was shown to be significantly related to measures of organizational performance and to job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent criticisms of the two-factor theory of job satisfaction suggest that Herzberg's reliance upon the recall of critical incidents (Ewen, 1964) and dual system of categorization (Schneider and Locke, 1971) may have introduced a scaling bias in his method of experimentation which severely restricts respondents' opportunities to register negative reactions to motivators (Ms) and positive reactions to hygienes (Hs). Industrial trainees in two vocational education projects (N1 = 72, N2 = 102) responded to check lists which contained both negative and positive performance specimens (Whitlock, 1963) related to two of Herzberg's Ms and three Us. These data were used to test three of King's (1970) formulations of Herzberg's theory dealing with the relative frequency of good and bad experiences engendered by Ms and Us (Theories I through III). A set of hypotheses dealing with levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction derived from Ms and Us were also tested. The results of both studies failed to support Herzberg's two-factor theory. Rather, the results appeared to substantiate the contention of Graen (1966) and others about the greater potential for satisfaction associated with intrinsic work factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 2 × 2 factorial design, the present experiment investigated the effects of expected pay and chronic self-esteem on quantity and quality of performance. The results on the quality data indicated that high self-esteem subjects performed highly under both low and high pay conditions, whereas low self-esteem subjects performed highly only under the high pay condition. The results on the productivity data, however, indicated only the main effect of pay. These results can be explained in terms of self-consistency theory. They are also in agreement with other investigations showing that individuals would tend to confirm a high self-concept more by high quantity than by high quantity of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a five year panel study on time pressure experienced by scientists and engineers that predicted positively to several aspects of work performance. Association between higher time pressure with above average performance during the next five years; Factors influencing time pressure among members of formal organization; Approaches to the management of time pressure.

It was hypothesized that the satisfaction associated with performance is affected less by the comparison of reported performance to expected performance when high or low performance is reported than when average performance is reported. The hypothesis was supported. The results were discussed in relation to the internal and external standards described as part of a subject's frame of reference by the Traditional Model of job satisfaction (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing a lack of individual differences parameters in equity theory as presented by J. S. Adams, this thesis states that different individuals perceive the same ambiguous job elements differently (as inputs or outcomes); this, in turn, either facilitates or attenuates the predicted main effects of under- and over-reward in terms of job performance and attitudes. A 120-item moderator was empirically developed to test the thesis. It served to subgroup 91 male college students who had previously participated in 7-day equity study. Their data were reanalyzed, separately. The results generally supported the thesis and its differential predictions. The differential results, using subgrouping, were discussed and related to earlier main effect results, using the total undifferentiated group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine groups of ten subjects each performed for 200 trials on interval learning tasks in which the stimulus, response and reinforcement continua were continuous scaled variables. The nine experimental conditions were defined by the size and sign of the product-moment correlation between the stimulus and reinforcement (criterion) distributions. That is, re ranged from - .80 to +.80 in steps of .20. There was little or no evidence for matching behavior with correlational performance measures. Subjects leaning positive re relationships tended to overmatch (rs > re, with the tendency to do so increasing as the size of re decreased. Subjects who learned negative re values consistently undermatched (rs < re, apparently due to a general set to regard "relatedness" as a positive phenomenon. Analysis of subjects' conditional response arrays showed that subjects' conditional response distributions had greater dispersion than the corresponding conditional reinforcement distributions. The size of this effect increased as a function of the absolute magnitude of re and was most evident with high and low stimulus arrays. A tendency for subjects to displace the array means followed a similar pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extensive empirical research has been concerned with job performance and performance change, but virtually nothing has been done to develop a broader conceptual framework which might be useful in giving direction to further research. Toward this end, a number of diverse and previously unrelated empirical findings relevant to job performance are shown to converge on one generalization which accounts for all. The central theme of this generalization pertains to the changing nature of performance across time. The applicability of this generalization beyond the job performance setting is shown by various findings from psychological testing and animal learning research. The increased use of this inductive approach is suggested as one possible way to alleviate the widely recognized shortage of theory in industrial-differential psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance decrements and dissatisfactions at the work place have long been observed but have not been adequately explained. Activation research and selected studies of work behavior are reviewed to show that decrements in performance may be better understood in the light of recent neuro-psychological findings. This review indicates that activation theory and the research upon which it is based anticipates behavior related to variations in task design and suggests new avenues of investigation for those interested in the determinants of work behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]