Michael C. Rush

The effects of organizational citizenship behavior on performance judgments : A field study and a laboratory experiment

The process linking organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) with performance judgments was investigated in a field and a laboratory study. In the field study, managers rated the task performance and OCB of 148 subordinates. In the laboratory research, 136 students viewed and rated videotaped segments of teaching performance that demonstrated either high or low task performance and high or low OCB. In both studies, liking and perceived affective commitment mediated the relationship between OCB and overall evaluation. Liking also mediated the relationship between OCB and reward recommendations. Further, the field study indicated that the causal motive attributed by the manager for the employees OCB mediated the relationship between OCB and overall evaluation.

Ratings of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Does the Source Make a Difference?

This study compared multiple ratings of the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of managers obtained from three different sources: self, superiors, and subordinates. The results examining convergence across sources demonstrated that there were stronger correlations between ratings made by others (subordinates and superiors) than between ratings made by self and others. The results also indicated that there were mean level differences in ratings across sources. Specifically, ratings made by self and superiors were higher than were ratings made by subordinates. The results examining convergence within sources suggested that the reliability of OCB ratings based on a single rater were quite low; however, reliability increased considerably when aggregating raters. Future research and implications are discussed.

The relationships among family domain variables and work-family conflict for men and women

Abstract The present study examined the relationships among family domain variables and three sources of work-family conflict for 156 working men and women. In general, the family variables were able to explain some of the variance in work-family conflict for both men and women, and evidence of specific correlates was fairly similar. Time-based conflict was best predicted by the frequency of family intrusions and total role involvement for men, and by family conflict for women. Strain-based conflict was best explained by level of family conflict for men and women. Also, for women, the frequency of family intrusions was positively related to reported levels of strain-based conflict. The family variable significantly related to behavior-based conflict for men and women was the level of family conflict reported. Implications of the findings for future research on work-family conflict were presented.

Leader prototypes and prototype-contingent consensus in leader behavior descriptions ☆

A categorization model of leader perception suggests that people process and retrieve social information in terms of preexisting cognitive schemata. As a result, memory-based descriptions of leader behavior are thought to be systematically biased by individual prototypes of leadership. While direct evidence of schematic retrieval is difficult to show unequivocally, a corollary hypothesis derived from the model suggests that a collection of behavioral descriptions of different leaders should be very similar due to the common intrusion of leader prototypes. The results of the present study, in fact, revealed a significant tendency for individuals (N = 60) with similar prototypes of leadership to describe the leader behavior of their supervisors in a similar fashion, even though none of the subjects interacted with the same supervisor. Moreover, consensual agreement in leader behavior descriptions was evident only when the subjects shared a common prototype (good or poor) which was consistent with the evaluative label (good leader/poor leader) ascribed to the supervisors. These results appear to be in full accord with the effects of cognitive categorization processes.

Locus of the Age-Stroop Interference Relationship

ABSTRACT Age differences in the Stroop were investigated via an internal analysis of the task. Participants were 81 community-living individuals representing two distinct age categories: young adults (M age = 19.70, SD = 1.36) and older adults (M age = 73.39, SD = 5.45). Consistent with previous research, older adults were slower in responding to all Stroop cards and demonstrated a more dramatic Stroop interference effect than young adults, regardless of sex. Regarding the age-Stroop effect, analysis supported the interference, response-competition hypothesis. Subsequent analyses indicated response dominance was related to Stroop interference for the young adults only. Thus, results suggest the Stroop interference effect reflects a different cognitive effect for older adults.

The effects of gender and leave of absence on attributions for high performance, perceived organizational commitment, and allocation of organizational rewards

The present study examined the effects of gender and type of leave of absence on attributions for high performance, perceptions of organizational commitment, and allocation of organizational rewards. Results of the study, utilizing a predominately white student sample with a mean age of 29 years, indicated that there were no negative effects in terms of perceived organizational commitment or allocation of organizational rewards associated with a leave of absence (medical or parental) of short duration (three months) when taken by a high performing male or female. Causal attributions for performance and perceived level of organizational commitment were, however, related to recommendations of reward allocations. Implications of findings and future research are presented.

An Exploration of Women's Expectations of Effective Male and Female Leadership.

University women (N=188) of varying ages (19–53) and work experience described their behavioral expectations of an effective male and female leader for levels of Consideration, Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis. In line with a sex role congruency view, it was hypothesized that an effective female leader would be expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration behaviors, while an effective male leader would be expected to exhibit more Initiating Structure, Role Assumption, and Production Emphasis behaviors. The results provided only partial support for the sex role congruency hypothesis since an effective female leader was expected to exhibit higher levels of Consideration as well as higher levels of Initiating Structure. No sex differences were detected for Role Assumption or Production Emphasis behaviors. Further, while many similarities were noted among the women in their views of effective leadership, there were also systematic age-related differences among the women in their expectations, particularly with regard to their views of effective female leadership.

The effects of sex and marital/parental status on performance evaluations and attributions

One hundred sixty female and 160 male undergraduates provided performance evaluations and attributions for a poor-performing stimulus employee depicted as male or female, and as either single or married with three preschool-aged children. No significant differences were detected for ratings given by male and female evaluators. The results did however, reveal a significant interaction of employee sex by marital/parental status conveying that of the four employee groups, married mothers were evaluated the most favorably, while single females were the least favorably evaluated. The differential performance evaluations were interpreted by attributional responses indicating that raters perceived external, uncontrollable factors as causes of the married mothers poor performance, while internal, controllable factors were seen as primary reasons for the poor performance of the other employees, particularly the single females. Implications of the findings were presented.

A comparative study of age-related variation in women's views of a career in management

Abstract The present study compares the views of university women of varying age (18–21, 22–34, over 34) concerning a managerial career. Overall, while many similarities were observed among the women in their perceptions regarding a managerial career, the women differed in their expressed interest in and attitudes toward such a career. Specifically, women over 34 expressed less interest and less favorable attitudes toward a management career than younger women. In addition, the women differed in their perceptions of the barriers to a managerial career, as well as types of assistance needed for pursuing such a career. Women over 34 were more concerned about their own suitability and were more interested in assistance gained from separate womens classes. The 22- to 34-year-old women were more concerned about possible resistance from subordinates, while younger women voiced more concerns about family/social issues as inhibiting factors and expressed the strongest desire for day-care services, counseling, promotion information, internships, and decision-making training. Findings are discussed in terms of sociocultural changes and life stage differences.

Achievement Motivation and the Dynamics of Task Difficulty Choices

Undergraduate students performed a vigilance task in a study of the dynamic theory of achievement motivation. Positively motivated subjects (n = 66) and negatively motivated subjects (n = 60) did not differ in initial task difficulty choices. Both groups shifted to more difficult tasks over time, but this linear trend interacted with achievement motive group, with positively motivated subjects shifting faster. Quadratic and cubic trends in task difficulty choices were also observed. Periodic interruptions attenuated achievement group differences in average task difficulty choices. Subject gender affected average task difficulty choices, but gender did not interact with theoretically important variables in this study. Achievement motivation has long been associated with task difficulty preferences. In an early formulation of achievement motivation theory, Atkinson (1957) proposed that positively motivated subjects (i.e., subjects with motive to achieve success stronger than motive to avoid failure) would prefer tasks of moderate difficulty, whereas negatively motivated subjects (i.e., subjects with motive to achieve success weaker than motive to avoid failure) would prefer either very easy or very difficult tasks. The empirical support for this prediction, however, is weak (cf. Atkinson & Litwin, 1960; Cooper, 1983; Hamilton, 1974). Recently, Kuhl and Blankenship (1979a) presented data that show a more complex pattern of task difficulty preferences in that both positively and negatively motivated subjects preferred successively more difficult tasks over time; that is, there is evidence of a systematic shift toward more difficult tasks by both motive groups. A theoretical explanation of shifting task difficulty choices has been provided in dynamic achievement motivation theory (Atkinson & Birch, 1970,1974). Dynamic achievement theory postulates an interaction of personality (i.e., motive to achieve success and motive to avoid failure) and dynamic motivational forces that affects task difficulty choices in an ongoing stream of behavior. Specifically, goal-directed tendencies are thought to possess inertial properties that are similar to mass in Newtonian physics; that is, the tendencies change in importance