Category-Based and Feature-Based Cognitive Processes in Job Impressions.

Widely accepted cognitive models of job attitudes suggest that a person's job attitude results from the linear combination of attitudes toward individual job features (feature-based processing). This is a relatively difficult cognitive process. We suggest that people act to economize scarce cognitive resources by using knowledge about job categories to generate job impressions when presented with category-consistent job features. People use feature-based processing when presented with job features that are inconsistent with a job category. Our results suggest that impressions do depend on the descriptive consistency of job features with a job category. The implications of the model for job perceptions in the workplace are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]