Michael Riketta

The Causal Relation Between Job Attitudes and Performance: A Meta-Analysis of Panel Studies

Do job attitudes cause performance, or is it the other way around? To answer this perennial question, the author conducted meta-analytic regression analyses on 16 studies that had repeatedly measured performance and job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction or organizational commitment). The effect of job attitudes on subsequent performance, with baseline performance controlled, was weak but statistically significant (beta = .06). The effect was slightly stronger for commitment than for satisfaction and depended negatively on time lag. Effects of performance on subsequent job attitudes were elusive (beta = .00 across all studies), which suggests that job attitudes are more likely to influence performance than vice versa.

Multiple Identities and Work Motivation: The Role of Perceived Compatibility between Nested Organizational Units

This study examines the role of perceived compatibility between nested organizational units in identification and work motivation. A survey was conducted in German pharmaceutical stores that had joined a large cooperative network several months before the investigation. Employees judged how compatible the network was with their individual stores on four dimensions (ensuring future, preserving tradition, preserving distinctiveness, and maintaining autonomy). Further, employees indicated their identifications with store and network and their intentions to exert effort on behalf of these units (store motivation and network motivation, respectively). As predicted, perceived compatibility correlated positively with both network identification and network motivation. It also moderated the correlations between store identification and network identification as well as between store motivation and network motivation. Several underlying mechanisms are discussed (e.g. evaluation of store and network, social projection). Overall, perceived compatibility between organizational units appears to be a crucial but under-researched factor affecting identification and motivation at work.

'They Cooperate With Us, So They Are Like Me': Perceived Intergroup Relationship Moderates Projection from Self to Outgroups

Whereas projection of self-attributes to ingroups is ubiquitous, projection of self-attributes to outgroups (outgroup projection) is an elusive phenomenon. Two experiments examined the moderating effect of perceived intergroup relationship on outgroup projection and explored underlying mechanisms. Perceived cooperation versus competition between ingroup and outgroup was manipulated using fictitious (Experiment 1) or natural groups (Experiment 2). In both experiments, participants judged the outgroup as more similar to the self in the cooperation condition than in the competition condition. This effect was independent of recategorization, perceived intergroup similarity, and ingroup-to-outgroup projection. These studies demonstrate the very existence of outgroup projection and extend previous work on moderators of projection from self to groups.

Does Social Desirability Inflate the Correlation between Self-Esteem and Anxiety?

Although several authors concluded that self-esteem is negatively related to anxiety, it is an open question what role social desirability plays in this relation. In a sample of 61 German students, the correlation between self-esteem and anxiety was significantly reduced from – .59 to – .51 when social desirability was partialed out. Thus, social desirability does seem to inflate the correlation between self-esteem and anxiety when both constructs are measured with self-reports. Yet, this effect of social desirability appears so small that it is probably negligible for most research purposes.