Seth Kaplan

The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: a meta-analytic review and integration.

Using psychometric meta-analysis, the authors present a quantitative and qualitative review (k = 205, total pairwise N = 62,527) of the literature relating trait and state positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) to job-related attitudes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and dimensions of job burnout. Results indicated substantial correlations, ranging in absolute value from -.17 (PA and turnover intentions; NA and personal accomplishment) to.54 (NA and emotional exhaustion). Correlational results largely were consistent across hypothesized and exploratory moderator conditions. Meta-analytic multiple regression results generally supported the unique contribution of each affect to each attitude variable of interest. Implications and suggestions for future research on emotion-related aspects of job attitudes are discussed.

On the role of positive and negative affectivity in job performance: a meta-analytic investigation.

Although interest regarding the role of dispositional affect in job behaviors has surged in recent years, the true magnitude of affectivitys influence remains unknown. To address this issue, the authors conducted a qualitative and quantitative review of the relationships between positive and negative affectivity (PA and NA, respectively) and various performance dimensions. A series of meta-analyses based on 57 primary studies indicated that PA and NA predicted task performance in the hypothesized directions and that the relationships were strongest for subjectively rated versus objectively rated performance. In addition, PA was related to organizational citizenship behaviors but not withdrawal behaviors, and NA was related to organizational citizenship behaviors, withdrawal behaviors, counterproductive work behaviors, and occupational injury. Mediational analyses revealed that affect operated through different mechanisms in influencing the various performance dimensions. Regression analyses documented that PA and NA uniquely predicted task performance but that extraversion and neuroticism did not, when the four were considered simultaneously. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

If you feel bad, it's unfair: a quantitative synthesis of affect and organizational justice perceptions.

Whereas research interest in both individual affect/temperament and organizational justice has grown substantially in recent years, affects role in the perception of organizational justice has received scant attention. Here, the authors integrate these literatures and test bivariate relationships between state affect (e.g., moods), trait affect (e.g., affectivity), and organizational justice variables using meta-analytically aggregated effect sizes. Results indicated that state and trait positive and negative affect exhibit statistically significant relationships with perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice in the predicted directions, with mean population-level correlations ranging in absolute magnitude from M(rho) = .09 to M(rho) = .43. Correlations involving state affect generally were larger but not significantly different from those involving trait affect. Finally, the authors propose ideas for investigations at the primary-study level.

The benefits of flexible team interaction during crises.

Organizations increasingly rely on teams to respond to crises. While research on team effectiveness during nonroutine events is growing, naturalistic studies examining team behaviors during crises are relatively scarce. Furthermore, the relevant literature offers competing theoretical rationales concerning effective team response to crises. In this article, the authors investigate whether high- versus average-performing teams can be distinguished on the basis of the number and complexity of their interaction patterns. Using behavioral observation methodology, the authors coded the discrete verbal and nonverbal behaviors of 14 nuclear power plant control room crews as they responded to a simulated crisis. Pattern detection software revealed systematic differences among crews in their patterns of interaction. Mean comparisons and discriminant function analysis indicated that higher performing crews exhibited fewer, shorter, and less complex interaction patterns. These results illustrate the limitations of standardized response patterns and highlight the importance of team adaptability. Implications for future research and for team training are included.

Just Feelings? The Role of Affect in the Formation of Organizational Fairness Judgments

In contrast to traditional conceptualizations of organizational justice as representing isolated judgments stemming from a “cold” rational calculus, justice judgments are instead part of a “hot” and affectively laden appraisal process, emerging over time through the interplay of work and nonwork experiences as well as through emotions and moods. The authors articulate how emotional reactions shape fairness judgments and how incidental emotional experiences and ambient moods influence the occurrence and appraisal of justice events in the workplace.

A note on the relationship between affect(ivity) and differing conceptualizations of job satisfaction: Some unexpected meta-analytic findings

This study investigated whether the relationships between positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) and job satisfaction (JS) differ as a function of the satisfaction measure being primarily affective or cognitive in nature. Subject matter experts classified JS measures as being primarily affective or cognitive. A series of meta-analyses involving between 17 and 63 primary studies revealed that PA, but not NA, correlated more strongly with affective JS measures. Analyses comparing specific measures suggest that the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire is most cognitive in nature and that the Faces scale is most affective. The results indicate that affect predicts, but is not synonymous with, affective assessments of satisfaction. Discussion focuses on the discrepant mechanisms through which PA and NA may impact satisfaction.

Assumptions of Cross-Level Measurement and Structural Invariance in the Analysis of Multilevel Data: Problems and Solutions

This article demonstrates assumptions of invariance that researchers often implicitly make when analyzing multilevel data. The first set of assumptions is measurementbased and corresponds to the fact that researchers often conduct single-level exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and reliability analyses, with multilevel data. The second assumption, that of structural invariance, is engineered into the common multilevel random coefficient model, in that such analyses impose structural invariance across multiple levels of analysis when lower-level relationships represent both between- and within-groups effects. The nature of these assumptions, and ways to address their tenability, are explored from a conceptual standpoint. Then an empirical example of these assumptions and ways to address them is provided.

Team Adaptiveness in Dynamic Contexts Contextualizing the Roles of Interaction Patterns and In-Process Planning

Previous research asserts that teams working in routine situations pass through performance episodes characterized by action and transition phases, while other evidence suggests that certain team behaviors significantly influence team effectiveness during nonroutine situations. We integrate these two areas of research—one focusing on the temporal nature of team episodic performance and the other on interaction patterns and planning in teams—to more fully understand how teams working in dynamic settings successfully transition across routine and nonroutine situations. Using behavioral data collected from airline flight crews working in a flight simulator, we find that different interaction pattern characteristics are related to team performance in routine and nonroutine situations, and that teams engage in more contingency, in-process planning behavior during routine versus nonroutine situations. Moreover, we find that the relationship between this in-process planning and subsequent team adaptiveness is curvilinear (inverted U-shaped). That is, team contingency or in-process planning activity may initially increase team adaptiveness, but too much planning has adverse effects on subsequent performance.

The impact of telework on emotional experience: When, and for whom, does telework improve daily affective well-being?

Teleworking has become increasingly popular in organizations around the world. Despite this trend towards working outside of the traditional office setting, research has not yet examined how people feel (i.e., their affective experiences) on days when working at home versus in the office. Using a sample of 102 employees from a large US government agency, we employed a within-person design to test hypotheses about the relationship between teleworking and affective well-being. We also examined four individual differences (openness to experience, rumination, sensation seeking, and social connectedness outside of work) as cross-level moderators. Results show that employees experience more job-related positive affective well-being (PAWB) and less job-related negative affective well-being (NAWB) on days when they were teleworking compared to days they were working in the office. Findings show that several of the individual differences moderated the relationships. Discussion focuses on the need to consider the affective consequences of telework and the characteristics that determine who will benefit more or less from working at home.

Cardiac Resuscitation Events: One Eyewitness Is Not Enough.

Objective: To determine the accuracy of paper cardiopulmonary resuscitation records. Design: Case series. Setting: Twenty-six-bed video-monitored pediatric cardiac ICU. Patients: All patients who had a resuscitation event with available video and electronically stored vital sign and waveform data from May 2012 to February 2013. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: There were 41 cardiopulmonary resuscitation events during the study period. Fifteen had complete and valid data from the paper cardiopulmonary resuscitation forms, the retrieved monitor data, and the continuous bedside video monitoring. These 15 events occurred in 12 individual patients, and there was 100% agreement of data in the documentation of interventions in place (ventilation, arterial catheter, pulse oximetry, and vascular access) and in the presence of a witness at the onset of the arrest. All events were witnessed. Of the 15 events, video and monitor review revealed that 14 used waveform and numeric capnometry to confirm endotracheal tube/tracheostomy placement, but this section was only completed on the paper cardiopulmonary resuscitation record in three of the 14 cases. All records showed no discrepancies in the time of return of spontaneous circulation. The video and monitor review revealed delay in initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (mode, 2 min; two cases ≥ 7 min) and shockable rhythms (ventricular arrhythmia) in two cases. A sign of pulseless state was discovered in seven cases classified on the paper record as “always with a pulse.” Those include sudden loss of consciousness, flat arterial line tracing, and abrupt drop in the partial pressure of exhaled carbon dioxide tracing (< 10 mm Hg). Conclusions: Eyewitness accounts of cardiopulmonary resuscitation are often inaccurate and incomplete. Review of information from video and electronically stored vital sign and waveform data provides more accurate information than review of paper-based cardiopulmonary resuscitation records and may provide the insight necessary to improving cardiopulmonary resuscitation.