L. L. Cummings

Feedback as an individual resource: Personal strategies of creating information

Abstract This paper proposes a model of individual feedback seeking behaviors (FSB). Individuals are posited to seek feedback while negotiating their organizational environments in the pursuit of valued goals. The model portrays several motivations for FSB based on the value of feedback to individuals and outlines two predominant strategies of FSB, monitoring and inquiry. The costs and benefits of each strategy are discussed. Hypotheses concerning both an individuals level of FSB and subsequent strategy choice are subsequently derived. FSB is proposed as an important component of the feedback process. The concluding discussion focuses on the contribution of this perspective to the current organization behavior feedback literature.

The impact of personal control on performance and satisfaction

Abstract Two separate longitudinal field studies were conducted to assess the relationship between personal control and job satisfaction and performance. In the first study, a sample of nursing service personnel from a variety of functional and hierarchical levels who were working in a hospital were utilized; in the second study, clerical workers in two regional offices of an insurance company were employed. After statistically controlling for locus of control, it was found that personal control significantly predicted job satisfaction and performance. Time lag analyses suggest that control may also be an outcome of these variables. The implications of these results for theories of motivation are discussed.

Cognitive Evaluation Theory: An Experimental Test of Processes and Outcomes.

Abstract Cognitive Evaluation Theory has been proposed as a viable theoretical framework for explaining the detrimental effects of performance contingent rewards on intrinsically motivated behaviors. A review of the literature suggested that this theory had not been adequately tested. A field experiment was undertaken to do this. The results did not support the theory.

Sources of environmental structuring and participant responses

Abstract This study investigated the effects of four sources of environmental structuring on employee responses. These sources are job, technology, work unit, and leader behavior. Main, joint, and interactive effects were examined. Job structure had the strongest effect. It was demonstrated that technology, job, and work unit structure were found to be substitutes for leader structure. Leader structure had little unique association with employee reactions except when the other sources of environmental structure were weak. Two alternative theoretical interpretations of the findings are offered: reactivity and “closeness.”

Cognitions of Work Unit Structure

An improved conceptual and empirical approach to identifying dimensions of work unit structure is proposed and tested. Multidimensional scaling procedures utilizing input data from 180 unit respond...