Harry W. Hennessey

Social Desirability Response Effects: Three Alternative Models

Three models are developed for the effects of social desirability (SD) on organizational behavior research results. SD can act as (a) an unmeasured variable that produces spurious correlations betw...

What Do Successful Managers Really Do? An Observation Study of Managerial Activities

Rather than evaluate managers on the basis of activities traditionally prescribed for success, an observation study was conducted to determine empirically which activities successful managers actually perform. Trained participant observers recorded the behaviors of 52 managers in three diverse organizations-a state department of revenue, a medium-sized manufacturing plant, and a campus police department-over a two-week period. In analyzing the data collected, the authors measured success by using a promotion index of level over tenure and by considering the top managers of each organization to be successful. Regression analysis found that two activities were significantly related to managerial success: interaction with outsiders and socializing/politicking. Further comparative analysis of managers ranked in the top and bottom thirds indicated that successful managers exhibited more behaviors related to conflict management, and comparisons of top-level managers with those in the middle and first levels indicated that successful managers exhibited more behaviors related to decision making and planninglcoordinating. The study found that some of the activities of the successful managers apparently depended upon the type of organization in which they worked.

Role Conflict and Ambiguity Scales: An Evaluation of Psychometric Properties and the Role of Social Desirability Response Bias:

A comprehensive evaluation is made of the widely used role conflict and ambiguity scales (RCA) developed by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970). Data on the factor structures, means and standard deviations, internal consistency reliability, and discriminant validity were analyzed and compared to other studies on RCA scales. There are generally consistent positive results across the studies on the psychometric properties of RCA scales. However, this latest study reveals the possibility of social desirability bias in the role ambiguity responses.