Cyril P. Morgan

Perceptions of job characteristics and affective work outcomes for women and men.

One hundred twenty-three men and women participated in a study designed to assess their attitudes about job dimensions and affective work outcomes. This study found that very few differences existed between womens and mens perceptions of job dimensions and work outcomes. It was also shown that little difference existed between mens and womens perceptions of positive relationships between job dimension and affected work outcomes. The authors concluded that differences that exist in work attitudes are artifacts of hierarchical position and sex-role stereotyping and will disappear when women are allowed to move into jobs that are characterized by the presence of high levels of intrinsic job dimensions.

The preponderance of arguments in the risky shift phenomenon

A risky shift experiment is conducted consisting of 12 four-person groups to study the enhanced-salience-of-values mechanism of Browns (1965) widely held values theory and Vinokurs (1971) persuasive argumentation hypothesis. Tape recorded group discussions and written briefs were coded to measure percent risky expression of content of four risky and four cautious choice dilemma problems. Results showed significant relationships between percent risky expression and degree of shift by groups and by problems. The results are interpreted as support for the enhanced-salience-of-values mechanism of the widely held values theory and the persuasive argumentation hypothesis.

Organizational Climate as a Predictor of Organizational Practices

The present study investigated the relationship between organizational climate and certain organizational practices. Organizational climate and organizational practices were measured using a perceptual measurement-organizational attribute approach. The Litwin and Stringer Improved Climate Questionnaire was used to measure perceptions of organizational climate dimensions and scales from House and Rizzos Organizational Practices Questionnaire were used to measure perceptions of certain organizational practices of 84 salaried employees in a large industrial organization. The results showed dimensions of organizational climate to be predictive of the six organizational practices studied, adaptability, planning adequacy, work-flow coordination, conflict and inconsistency, decision delay, and information distortion and suppression. The results showed certain climate dimensions to be predictive of each of the organizational practices studied. The dimension of reward was an important predictor in each of the regression models and, therefore, may be the most important climate dimension for the six organizational practices.

Validity and Factor Structure of House and Rizzo's Effectiveness Scales

The article discusses a study which examined the validation efforts on scales measuring dimensions of the organizational effectiveness of work units. The results showed three dimensions exhibiting a significant linear relationship to the overall work unit effectiveness. There was support for the relationship of six variables to effectiveness. For the prediction of overall work unit effectiveness only adaptability, decision delay, and information distortion and suppression contributed significantly.

Research Notes. Information Relevant to the Task in the Risky Shift Phenomenon

This article examines the influence of key arguments in interpreting the information-relevant-to-the-task hypothesis. It argues that the discovery of a particularly persuasive argument favoring an ...