Dov Eden

Validation of a New General Self-Efficacy Scale

Researchers have suggested that general self-efficacy (GSE) can substantially contribute to organizational theory, research, and practice. Unfortunately, the limited construct validity work conducted on commonly used GSE measures has highlighted such potential problems as low content validity and multidimensionality. The authors developed a new GSE (NGSE) scale and compared its psychometric properties and validity to that of the Sherer et al. General Self-Efficacy Scale (SGSE). Studies in two countries found that the NGSE scale has higher construct validity than the SGSE scale. Although shorter than the SGSE scale, the NGSE scale demonstrated high reliability, predicted specific self-efficacy (SSE) for a variety of tasks in various contexts, and moderated the influence of previous performance on subsequent SSE formation. Implications, limitations, and directions for future organizational research are discussed.

Self-efficacy training to speed reemployment: Helping people to help themselves.

The impact of training designed to boost general self-efficacy (GSE) on job-search activity and on reemployment was assessed among 66 persons unemployed for up to 18 weeks. Randomly assigned experimental participants attended 8 behavioral-modeling workshop sessions over 2 1/2 weeks. The manipulation check showed that training boosted GSE as intended. The workshop also increased job-search activity, confirming the hypothesis that raising GSE motivates intensification of effort. The treatment increased reemployment among participants low in initial GSE but not among those with high GSE. The greater plasticity of individuals low in GSE suggests that the practical utility of training is moderated by initiaI GSE. The authors conclude that individuals of low GSE should be given priority access to scarce behavioral-modeling training resources

Relief From Job Stressors and Burnout: Reserve Service as a Respite

To reveal the ameliorative impact of being away from job stressors on burnout, we compared 81 men who were called for active reserve service with 81 matched controls in the same company who were not called during the same period. Each reservist and his control completed questionnaires shortly before the reservist left work for a stint of service and immediately on his return. Analysis of variance detected a significant decline in job stress and burnout among those who served and no change among the control participants. Among those who served, quality of reserve service and degree of psychological detachment from work interacted in moderating the respite effects; the greater the detachment, the stronger the effect positive reserve service experience had in relieving reservists from stress and burnout. Reserve service is discussed as a special case of stress-relieving get-away from work that may be experienced as an ameliorative respite akin to vacation.

Effects of a respite from work on burnout : Vacation relief and fade-out

In a quasi-experiment designed to examine the relief from job stress and burnout afforded by a vacation respite, 76 clerks completed measures of job stress and burnout twice before a vacation, once during vacation, and twice after vacation. There was a decline in burnout during the vacation and a return to prevacation levels by the time of the second postvacation measure. Comparing the two prevacation measures indicated no anticipation effects. However, the return to work showed gradual fade-out, as burnout returned part way toward its prevacation level by 3 days after the vacation and all the way by 3 weeks after the vacation. Women and those satisfied with their vacations experienced greater relief; however, both subsamples also experienced the quickest fade-out. The respite effect and its complete fade-out were detected among all subgroups analyzed. Burnout, relief, interpersonal stress crossover, and burnout climate at work are discussed.

Leadership and expectations: Pygmalion effects and other self-fulfilling prophecies in organizations

Abstract The Pygmalion effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising manager expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts subordinate performance. Managers who are led to expect more of their subordinates lead them to greater achievement. Programmatic research findings from field experiments are reviewed, and our present knowledge about the Pygmalion effect in the management of industrial, sales, and military organizations is summarized. A model is presented in which leadership is hypothesized to be the key mediator through which manager expectations influence subordinate self-efficacy, performance expectations, motivation, effort, and performance. The behaviors that comprise the Pygmalion Leadership Style are described. Besides creating the one-on-one Pygmalion effect, additional ways for managers to assert their leadership by creating productive organizationwide SFP are suggested. An agenda for research on SFP applications is proposed.

Pygmalion versus self-expectancy: Effects of instructor- and self-expectancy on trainee performance

Abstract The Pygmalion effect was recently demonstrated experimentally for the first time with adult military trainees by Eden and Shani (1979, 1982). The present field experiment was conducted in order to replicate the conventional Pygmalion effect and to test the effects on learning performance of directly inducing high self-expectancy among trainees themselves. Trainees included 60 men in the first half-year of military duty enrolled in a 7-week clerical course divided into 5 training groups, each instructed by an instructor—commander. To produce the Pygmalion effect, a random quarter of each instructors trainees were described to the instructor as having high success potential (SP). Another random quarter were told directly by a psychologist in a brief personal interview that they had high SP, in order to induce high self-expectancy directly. The remaining trainees served as controls. Learning performance as measured by both weekly instructor ratings and weekly written examinations was significantly higher in both high expectancy groups than in controls, confirming the Pygmalion hypothesis and our hypothesis that inducing high self-expectations similarly enhances trainee performance. Several instructors were unexpectedly relieved midway through the course. The hypothesized performance differentials continued unabated even though we abstained from refreshing the expectancy induction among the relief instructors. This “second-generation” effect underscores the durability of expectancy effects. Equity played a mediating role; the trainees in the high expectancy conditions reporting dissonant feelings of overreward, probably impelling them to increase their inputs to improve their performance.

Organizational membership vs self-employment: Another blow to the American dream☆

Abstract The contention that membership in work organizations has ill effects upon individual well-being was tested by comparing national survey data for 1,902 members and 183 self-employed workers. Formerly established demographic differences between self-employed and wage-and-salary workers were replicated. While major differences were not revealed in work values, measures of characteristics of the work setting showed that the self-employed enjoy more enriching job requirements, opportunities for self-fulfilment and skill-utilization, autonomy, physical working conditions, authority over other persons, resources with which to do the job, and several other generally highly prized features of their job settings. Members reported more friendly relations with co-workers, greater job security, and more convenient hours. All in all the self-employed appeared to have more favorable job settings: nonetheless they showed only a slight edge over members in job satisfaction and role strain, and no edge at all in mental health. Multiple classification analysis supported the interpretation of these findings as evidence that organizational membership has a positive net effect upon psychological outcomes. The evidence presented is consistent with the conclusion that self-employment, despite its numerous other advantages, does not provide workers with the greater psychological benefits promised by the American dream.

Acute and chronic job stress, strain, and vacation relief

Abstract Two acutely stressful job events were compared to routine work and to a holiday vacation at home among 29 workers measured four times. The critical job events (CJEs) were the shutdown of a computer and its reopening two weeks later. The CJEs were perceived as more stressful, and aroused greater psychological and physiological strain, than the follow-up period of routine work which served to benchmark chronic job stress. The vacation respite that punctuated the two CJEs was perceived as less stressful than work, but strain was as high during vacation as during work. The unabated strain during the vacation was explained in terms of spillover and vacation stress. The discussion emphasizes the strengthening of causal inference achieved by including occasions of work and nonwork in longitudinal research on the effects of naturally occurring CJEs.

The inverted-U relationship between stress and performance: A field study

Abstract To investigate the shape of the relationship between stress resulting from excessive demand and performance, 306 officer cadets in the Israel Defence Forces completed stress questionnaires during their training. Stress was consistently negatively related to various measures of performance. The prediction derived from the inverted-U hypothesis, that those whose ability exceeded demand and those who felt that demands taxed their ability would perform worse than those whose ability matched their demands, was not supported. Until all the requisite conditions for testing the inverted-U hypothesis are met, the authors propose relegating it to the laboratory.

Implanting pygmalion leadership style through workshop training: Seven field experiments

Abstract Manager training in Pygmalion Leadership Style (PLS) was evaluated in seven field experiments. PLS is manager behavior that conveys high performance expectations to subordinates, creates a supportive climate, and attributes subordinate successes to stable, internal causes. The training workshop was developed across the seven experiments from a one-day familiarization experience to a three-day program that included learning Pygmalion concepts, skill-practice exercises, planning implementation, and follow-up sessions. In all seven experiments, questionnaires measured leader and follower perceptions; in three, performance data were also analyzed. There was little evidence that the workshops influenced leaders or followers. Meta-analysis of 61 effects in the seven experiments yielded a small mean effect size r = .13, p . The contrast between this small effect and the medium-to-large effect produced by previous Pygmalion experiments is discussed in terms of the efficacy-effectiveness distinction. Ideas for improving attempts to get managers to be Pygmalions are discussed.