Joan R. Rentsch

The dispositional model of job attitudes revisited: Findings of a 10-year study.

Research findings showing that satisfaction scores are stable over time led B. M. Staw and J. Ross (1985) to suggest that job satisfaction is rooted in dispositional mechanisms. The current study tested this hypothesis by administering a questionnaire to 166 U.S. Department of Defense employees on 2 occasions. Measures of job satisfaction (r = .37, p <.01) and job involvement (r =.41, p <.01) evidenced significant stability over the studys 10-year interval. Multiple regression analysis showed that job characteristics explained variance in the attitudinal measures after accounting for the variance due to attitudinal stability. In addition, regression results suggested that the success of job design interventions may be conditioned by personal characteristics (e.g., attitudinal stability-instability) of the individuals in the sample. By supporting both the dispositional and situational views of job satisfaction, current findings suggest an interactionist perspective.

Construct and concurrent validation of the Andrews and Withey job satisfaction questionnaire.

Two studies evaluating the psychometric properties of Andrews and Witheys (1976) overall job satisfaction questionnaire were performed. Study 1 found that the Andrews and Withey questionnaire correlated significantly with both the Job Descriptive Index (r = .70,p < .001) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (r = .70, p < .001). Study 2 found that the Andrews and Withey satisfaction scale was significantly correlated with job performance, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.

Influence of Cumulation Strategies on the long-Range Prediction of Absenteeism

The ability of three different types of self-report variables—biographical, attitudinal, and stress—to predict 70 months of absenteeism data was evaluated. Absence scores were aggregated in two dif...

Modeling, measuring, and mediating teamwork: the use of fuzzy cognitive maps and team member schema similarity to enhance BMC/sup 3/I decision making

A research study is reported which utilizes an AWACS based distributed decision making environment to assess: a) team interaction b) a cognitive interface containing team-level cues, c) a cognitive interface with information mediation. The hypothesis suggests that when teams are afforded an interface that suggests increased communications about team member schemas and shared situation awareness (modeled by joint cognitive processes), then team performance will increase. Results show partial support for the hypothesis for the AWACS scenarios tested. The team member schema similarity (TMSS) cues were shown to be a useful component in team effectiveness. Conclusions suggest how this research can be extended and utilized for developing cognitive interfaces and collaborative computing systems that produce shared situation awareness in complex settings.

Advancing Socio-Technical Systems Design Via the Living Laboratory

The natural, living world provides the backdrop for the practice of participatory ergonomics. By addressing the salient issues of complexity, context, distributed cognition, and team situational awareness in this world, the advocation of the Living Laboratory concept is presented. Socio-technical systems design is reflected through the joint integration of various Living-Lab outcomes such as Fields of practice, tools, technologies, qualitative models, scaled worlds, and in situ evaluations. A wholistic approach is derived by looking at these outcomes as a basis to bind together the cognitive, social, technological, and organizational constraints that design must consider to be effective.

Qualitative modeling of complex systems for cognitive engineering

In this paper, the techniques of using fuzzy cognitive maps will be outlined, and demonstrated with an example. Fuzzy cognitive maps will be used as a way to model the causal process in a cognitive system. With such a model interventions to change the dynamics of the system can be developed. In the particular example, the information on a display needed to be improved to support group situation awareness within an AWACS team. A fuzzy cognitive map was developed of the chain of causality that led from the current information structure of the AWACS display to the loss of situation awareness. The map could then be examined to identify ways in which the linkages could be altered to improve situation awareness, and points at which technology could be applied. From this a set of design changes could be recommended.

What is Command and Control Coming to? Examining Socio-Cognitive Mediators That Expand the Common Ground of Teamwork

The design of command and control centers has undergone significant changes in recent years. In contrast to traditional human factors, contemporary approaches to the design of future command posts will necessarily engage various socio-cognitive activities that lead to effective and efficient teamwork. This paper provides a description of the contemporary “Living Lab” approach and the presentation of a study involving the use of socio-cognitive mediators within a simulated command post environment. The roles and outcomes of team member schema similarity and fuzzy cognitive maps (as two distinct types of mediators) are presented along with their use in a complex, situated problem domain involving AWACS command and control operators. Implications are drawn that suggest how socio-cognitive mediators may be used to expand and understand the common ground of teamwork and how this applies to the envisioned design of command and control centers.

Determining the Appropriate Correction When the Type of Range Restriction Is Unknown: Developing a Sample-Based Procedure.

Recently developed procedures correct range restricted correlations with information obtained solely from the restricted samples. However, these procedures can be used only when the type of range restriction that has occurred is known. A sample-based classification procedure was developed in an attempt to address this limitation. This new procedure was found to be relatively accurate and powerful in determining the appropriate range restriction correction.