David F. Caldwell

The Commitment and Job Tenure of New Employees: Some Evidence of Postdecisional Justification

The constructive comments of W. Gary Wagner, Barry M. Staw, and anonymous ASO reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The effects of postdecisional justifications on the job satisfaction and commitment of new employees were investigated. One hundred and eight M.B.A.s were questioned about their job choice immediately after making the decision and then again six months later. Turnover data were collected after 24 months. Results showed that individuals who had made the original decision volitionally, that is, from among a number of offers and free from external constraints, and who had perceived the choice to be irrevocable were more satisfied and committed six months later than others. The perceived irrevocability of the choice and behavioral commitment were also negatively related to turnover after two years. Interaction effects between the sufficiency of the original justification and job alternatives was associated with diminished job satisfaction and commitmentfor insufficiently justified respondents. Overall, the results of this investigation are interpreted as consistent with the view that attitudes and commitment may be created retrospectively through processes of rationalization and justification.

Beyond Task and Maintenance Defining External Functions in Groups

Using interview and log data from 38 new product team managers and 15 team members, we identify a set of activities that group members use to manage their dependence on external groups. Team members carry out scout, ambassador, sentry, and guard activities along with immigrant, captive, and emigrant roles to manage external transactions. It is hypothesized that high team performance is associated with a fit between the level of boundary activity and the degree of resource dependence.

Responses to Failure: The Effects of Choice and Responsibility on Impression Management

The study demonstrates that, when confronted with failure, subjects may attempt to justify their position by manipulating information that is to be presented to others. Evidence also was found that...

The Determinants of Team-Based Innovation in Organizations The Role of Social Influence

This study investigates the role of work group norms in promoting innovation in high-technology organizations. Through structured discussions, samples of senior executives identified organizational patterns and norms associated with successful innovation. Based on the results, a survey was developed and administered to a set of managers. Results show four norms associated with increased group innovation: support for risk taking, tolerance of mistakes, teamwork, and speed of action. An instrument to assess these norms is developed.

Improving the Performance of New Product Teams

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Personality, Social Activities, Job-Search Behavior and Interview Success: Distinguishing Between PANAS Trait Positive Affect and NEO Extraversion

Past research has found that trait positive affect as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and extraversion as measured by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) are highly correlated. We examined the relation between these two measures within the context of three social behaviors. Approximately 4 months before graduation, college seniors entering the job market completed the PANAS and the NEO-FFI and reported on their social activities during college. Three months later, these students were contacted again and described their job search strategies and success at obtaining follow-up job interviews. Trait positive affect scores and extraversion scores were highly correlated and both predicted behavior in each of the three areas investigated. Regression analyses indicated that trait positive affect predicted behavior in all three areas after the effects of extraversion were removed. However, extraversion did not add significantly to predicting behavior in any of the three areas after the effects of trait positive affect were removed. The findings have implications for the conceptual relation between extraversion and trait positive affect.

The Effects of Monetary Incentives and Labeling on the Foot-in-the-Door Effect: Evidence for a Self-Perception Process

We tested the self-perception explanation of the foot-in-the-door effect by manipulating self-perceived helpfulness and assessing self-concept. Participants given

Personality and Social Influence Strategies in the Workplace

1 to sign a homelessness petition were less likely to see themselves as altruistic than participants not given the monetary incentive. The paid participants also complied less often with a request to work on a canned food drive 2 days later than unpaid participants. In contrast, participants told they were helpful individuals were more likely to see themselves as altruistic and were more likely to volunteer for the food drive than unlabeled participants. Mediation analyses provide evidence that changes in self-concept underlie a successful foot-in-the-door manipulation and support the self-perception explanation for the foot-in-the-door effect.

The Promise and Problems of Organizational Culture CEO Personality, Culture, and Firm Performance

Two studies were conducted to examine the relation between personality and the use of social influence strategies in the workplace. In Study 1, MBA students reported how often they used various influence tactics with their peers at work. They also completed measures of the Big Five personality dimensions, desire for control, and self-monitoring. Canonical correlation analyses found several significant relations between the reported use of influence strategies and personality. High scores on extra-version, self-monitoring, and desire for control predicted more and more varied use of influence strategies. In Study 2, coworkers of the Study 1 participants indicated the extent to which they believed the student used each of the influence strategies and how effective they believed that person was at influencing them. The use of rational persuasion and efforts to involve the other person were related to perceived effectiveness, whereas relying on others to influence a coworker was seen as ineffective.

The Impact of Information on Job Choices and Turnover

Studies of organizational culture are almost always based on two assumptions: (a) Senior leaders are the prime determinant of the culture, and (b) culture is related to consequential organizational outcomes. Although intuitively reasonable and often accepted as fact, the empirical evidence for these is surprisingly thin, and the results are quite mixed. Almost no research has jointly investigated these assumptions and how they are linked. The purpose of this article is to empirically link CEO personality to culture and organizational culture to objective measures of firm performance. Using data from respondents in 32 high-technology companies, we show that CEO personality affects a firm’s culture and that culture is subsequently related to a broad set of organizational outcomes including a firm’s financial performance (revenue growth, Tobin’s Q), reputation, analysts’ stock recommendations, and employee attitudes. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on organizational culture.