Stephen Strasser

A longitudinal analysis of the antecedents of organizational commitment.

From longitudinal data from 129 nursing department employees, organizational commitment was found to be antecedent to job satisfaction rather than an outcome of it. Furthermore, several other variables were found to be causally related to satisfaction but not commitment. Implications of unsubstantiated assumptions regarding causes of commitment are discussed.

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.

The patient satisfaction process: moving toward a comprehensive model.

For a number of reasons, the topic of patient satisfaction has recently gained much attention by academicians and practitioners alike. First, there has been a proliferation of total quality management (TQM) programs in which patients are targeted as a critical consumer group (Berwick 1989). Second is the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations’ (JCAHO’s) requirement that all hospitals have a formal complaint management system (Section MA.1.4.11). A third reason is management’s recognition that satisfied patients are more likely to continue using medical care services (Ware et al. 1975; Thomas and

Personal Control as a Mediator Between Perceptions of Supervisory Behaviors and Employee Reactions

The article assesses the construct of personal control in an organizational setting using a base model of personal control in organizations. The difference between control possessed and control des...

Modeling the Relationship Between Pay Level and Pay Satisfaction

The relationship between pay level and pay satisfaction was modeled in a field study with 456 employees of nursing departments in a large hospital. After controlling for person, job, and pay system characteristics, pay satisfaction variance was better explained by treating pay level as a power function rather than a linear function. This result was expected given the low wage rate relative to the market, the lack of a formal rewards system, and the high level of tenure in the workforce. Implications of this finding for theory, research, and practice were discussed.

Toward Proper Specification of the Effects of Leader Punitive Behavior: A Research Note

Two samples totaling 457 nursing department employees from four metropolitan hospitals were employed to test the impact of leader punitive behavior on employee satisfaction. With the correlated effect of leader reward behavior statistically controlled for, there remained neither the direct positive effect of leader punitive behavior nor the moderating impact of role ambiguity, which have been suggested by previous research. Also discussed are the importance of considering spuriousness in leader punitive behavior research, some possible explanationsfor the positive relationship between the two dimensions of leader behavior, and some suggested conditions under which punishment may be satisfying to an employee.