L. Alan Witt

Climate for creative productivity as a predictor of research usefulness and organizational effectiveness in an r&d organization

Abstract: The present study empirically examined the argument that a referent climate for creative productivity would be more useful than an omnibus measure of climate for assessing the creative norms in a specific work context. A 39‐item Climate for Creative Productivity Index (CCPI) was developed to test Amabiles theory of situational factors having an impact on creativity in an organization. Questionnaire and archival data from employees of a military organization were analyzed. Results suggested that climate for creative productivity was related to criteria of effectiveness (convergent validity). In addition, the CCPI accounted for variance in our measures not captured by job satisfaction (discriminant validity).

Exchange Ideology as a Moderator of the Relationships Between Importance of Participation in Decision Making and Job Attitudes

The present study examined the relationships between reported importance of participation in decision making and three job attitudes of relevance to Yugoslav self-management, namely job satisfaction, perceptions of organizational support, and perceptions of organizational goal norms. Data collected from 134 of 200 randomly sampled workers in a Yugoslav tooling plant yielded weak correlations but also indicated a moderating effect of exchange ideology. These results have implications not only for Yugoslav self-management but also for exchange theory and the study of job attitudes.

Income Sufficiency as a Predictor of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment: Dispositional Differences

The study examined the moderating effect of exchange ideology (a dispositional orientation that refers to the relationship between what individuals receive from an organization and what they will give the organization in return) on the relationship between perceptions of the sufficiency of monthly income and two job attitude (organizational commitment and job satisfaction).

Delay of Gratification and Locus of Control as Predictors of Organizational Satisfaction and Commitment: Sex Differences

The relationships of two personality measures-locus of control and delay of gratification-with organizational satisfaction and commitment were investigated. Results indicated that orientation to delay reinforcement was positively related to commitment and satisfaction. Confirming previous findings, internality in locus of control was also positively related to the organizational constructs. However, results of analyses of sex differences and interactions between locus of control and delay of gratification in predicting satisfaction and commitment suggest that the relationships of locus of control with the organizational constructs are less simple than previously thought.

Moderating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between equity and extra-role behaviors

Abstract In line with Porter and Steerss (1973) argument that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between equity perceptions and turnover behaviors, Organ et al.s (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ, 1988; Smith, Organ, & Near, 1983) work on the relationship between job satisfaction and extra-role behaviors, and Scholl, Cooper, and McKennas (1987) finding of a relationship between equity perceptions and extra-role behaviors, the present study tested the hypothesis that job satisfaction would moderate the relationship between equity perceptions and extra-role behaviors. Results of a survey administered to 102 midwestern, rural school teachers indicated that equity is a predictor of extra-role behaviors only among individuals who are more satisfied with their jobs. Implications for equity and social responsibility theory are discussed.

Sex Differences Among Bank Employees in the Relationships of Commitment with Psychological Climate and Job Satisfaction

Abstract Chusmirs (1982) model of sex differences in organizational commitment was examined. Bank employees (N = 106) responded to two measures of organizational commitment (Hrebiniak & Alutto, 1972; Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974) and to the Job Description Index (Smith, Kendall, & Hulin, 1969) and the Organizational Climate Questionnaire (James & Jones, 1974), which provided data representing the three components of Chusmirs model—person variables, job satisfaction, and moderated perceptions of the work environment (psychological climate). Although sex moderated the relationship between organizational commitment and the components of Chusmirs model, that relationship also varied with the instrument used to measure commitment, suggesting that different processes may underlie the commitment of men and women to the organizations they work for.

Alienation among research scientists

Abstract Institutional researchers face many organizational barriers to creativity, and many feel alienated from the organization. The present study examined (a) the relationship between psychological climate and feelings of alienation and (b) the extent to which individual disposition toward delaying gratification moderates the relationship between climate and alienation. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis on data collected from 76 workers at a United States Department of Defense research and development laboratory indicated that, although climate may have been important in the development of alienation among individuals with a long-delay orientation, it was virtually irrelevant to those with a short-delay orientation.

BREADWINNING STATUS AS A MODERATOR OF THE EQUITY-JOB SATISFACTION RELATIONSHIP

Data collected from 44 married female schoolteachers and 26 married female workers in a military organization indicated that perceptions of equity were stronger predictors of feelings of job satisfaction among those who were the family breadwinners than among those whose husbands worked (i.e., the nonbreadwinners).

Person-situation effects on self-presentation on the telephone at work

Abstract Despite calls for aspects of the self to be examined while the individual is engaged in a natural social situation or in response to a task, self-presentation effects have been found predominantly in laboratory settings. The present study of 69 American workers, in contrast, investigated factors related to reported self-presentation in a frequently occurring natural social situation, namely, answering the telephone at work. Results indicated that workers higher in positive affect, lower in negative affect, and perceiving less role ambiguity presented a more formal telephone response. There was some evidence of an interaction between positive affect and role ambiguity in predicting category of response.