Gary Johns

Difference score measures of organizational behavior variables: A critique☆

Abstract The use of difference scores as measures of organizational behavior variables is discussed. The basic difference score paradigm is presented, and literature is reviewed to illustrate several variations on this paradigm. These include the constructs purportedly measured by difference scores, the source of component scores, and the means by which difference scores are expressed. The basic problems of difference scores include potential unreliability, systematic correlation with their components, and spurious correlation with other variables. Threats to the meaningfulness of difference scores include questionable construct validity, expression as indexes of profile dissimilarity, and inadequate attempts to deal with the direction of differences. It is concluded that the use of difference scores whose components are provided by a single individual should be abandoned, and that the use of between-person measures must be carefully justified on both empirical and theoretical grounds. Reasons for the persistence of the incautious use of difference scores in organizational research are explored.

Job Scope and Stress: Can Job Scope Be Too High?

This study examined relationships among job scope, perceived fit between job demands and ability, and stress. Data on scope and stress were provided by 418 full-time employees. Ratings of job complexity from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Occupational Prestige Index (OP) also measured job scope. All three job scope measures had a U-shaped curvilinear relationship with emotional exhaustion. Anxiety had a negative association with incumbent-reported job scope but none with the DOT and OP measures. Perceived demands-ability fit moderated the relationship between the DOT and OP measures and stress. People with complex jobs who perceived fit experienced less exhaustion and anxiety than those perceiving misfit. In research on job design, leading thinkers have viewed high job scope as functional for organizations and their members. Hackman and Oldhams job characteristics model (1976, 1980) exemplifies this view. Although the magnitude of the motivating potential inherent in job scope

How often were you absent? A review of the use of self-reported absence data

For a number of reasons, self-reported absence data have often been used in research in lieu of records-based data. Forty-three studies that present self-reported absence data are reviewed. The purpose of the research is discussed, as is the rationale for using self-reports. The author considers the nature of self-report measures, including the time span of report, the response format, and the requirement for attributions as to cause. The psychometric properties of self-reported absence are summarized in terms of reliability, validity, and accuracy. Theoretical perspectives relevant to absence self-reports are presented. The author makes a number of recommendations for measuring, reporting, researching, and publishing self-reports of absence

Work Strain, Health, and Absenteeism: A Meta-Analysis

Work strain has been argued to be a significant cause of absenteeism in the popular and academic press. However, definitive evidence for associations between absenteeism and strain is currently lacking. A theory focused meta-analysis of 275 effects from 153 studies revealed positive but small associations between absenteeism and work strain, psychological illness, and physical illness. Structural equation modeling results suggested that the strain-absence connection may be mediated by psychological and physical symptoms. Little support was received for the purported volitional distinction between absence frequency and time lost absence measures on the basis of illness. Among the moderators examined, common measurement, midterm and stable sources of variance, and publication year received support.

Mediating and Moderating Effects in Job Design

A test of the complete Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1976, 1980) was conducted, with particular emphasis on the little-investigated mediating and moderating effects specified by the model. Three hundred lower level managers provided questionnaire data. Results indicated that the models psychological states generally mediated the relationship between job characteristics and outcomes. However; the correspondence between the job characteristics and the states was not precisely that specified by the model, all states were not needed to predict most outcomes, and common method variance was a concern. Moderator effects due to personal characteristics, context satisfaction, and petformance-reward contingencies were observed at several locations in the model, a number in an opposite direction from that predicted by the model.

Attendance dynamics at work: the antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss.

Presenteeism is attending work when ill. This study examined the antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss attributed to presenteeism. Predictors included work context, personal characteristics, and work experiences. Business school graduates employed in a variety of work positions (N = 444) completed a Web-based survey. Presenteeism was positively associated with task significance, task interdependence, ease of replacement, and work to family conflict and negatively associated with neuroticism, equity, job security, internal health locus of control, and the perceived legitimacy of absence. Absenteeism was positively related to task significance, perceived absence legitimacy, and family to work conflict and negatively related to task interdependence and work to family conflict. Those high on neuroticism, the unconscientious, the job-insecure, those who viewed absence as more legitimate, and those experiencing work-family conflict reported more productivity loss. Overall, the results reveal the value of a behavioral approach to presenteeism over and above a strict medical model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

Substantive and methodological constraints on behavior and attitudes in organizational research

Abstract It is argued that a careful consideration of possible constraints on organizational behavior and attitudes can facilitate both the production and consumption of organizational research. The nature of such constraints is explored, and examples are given of the likely operation of constraints in several research areas, including constraints on absenteeism and turnover, technological constraints, and the role of constraints in longitudinal research. Research tactics for dealing with constraints are proposed, and reasons are suggested for the lack of attention given to constraints.

Interactive effects of absence culture salience and group cohesiveness: A multi-level and cross-level analysis of work absenteeism in the Chinese context

This study examined the interactive effects of group cohesiveness and absence culture salience on absence proposed by Johns and Nicholson (1982). It was hypothesized that group cohesiveness and absence culture salience would be negatively related to work-group absence. Emphasis was placed on the interactive effects of cohesiveness and cultural salience on work-group absence rate and employee self-reported absence. In addition, the potential mediating effect of group absence norms was explored. Survey responses were collected from 800 employees in a state-owned manufacturing enterprise in the Peoples Republic of China. Aggregate measures of salience and cohesiveness each had a negative relationship with work-group absenteeism. Consistent support for the interactive effects of cohesiveness and salience was provided by group, individual, and cross-level analyses. Group absence norms mediated the effects of cohesiveness, cultural salience, and their interaction on self-reported absenteeism.

Perceptions of absence from work: People's Republic of China versus Canada.

Cross-cultural theory was marshaled to predict how views of absence from work would be similar and different in Canada and the Peoples Republic of China. Respondents (N = 1,209) from both cultures had self-serving perceptions of their own absence levels, seeing them as exemplary compared with those of their work group and occupational peers. The Chinese showed a stronger tendency to generate estimates that favored their work group. Both cultural groups underreported their own actual absence. Chinese managers and employees agreed on absence norms, whereas Canadian managers provided lower estimates than did employees. Canadians and Chinese ranked the legitimacy of reasons for absence and attendance fairly similarly, but ratings showed that Canadians were less likely to endorse domestic reasons for absence, whereas Chinese were less likely to endorse illness, stress, and depression.

The joint effects of personality and job scope on in-role performance, citizenship behaviors, and creativity

This study examined the relation between personality and three dimensions of job performance (in-role performance, creativity, and citizenship behavior) under differing levels of job scope. The basic premise was that higher job scope would facilitate performance for those who were dispositionally inclined toward a particular dimension of performance and damage the performance of those who were dispositionally disinclined. Among 383 work-unit dyads in 11 organizations, some support was found for the predicted interactions between Big Five personality traits and job scope in predicting various aspects of performance.