Thomas W. H. Ng

The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance.

Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age-performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age-performance relationship in the future.

Toward a Further Understanding of the Relationships Between Perceptions of Support and Work Attitudes A Meta-Analysis

This study (a) compared the effect of perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived coworker support (PCS) on work attitudes; (b) examined the moderating role of gender, tenure, and job type in the support—attitude relationship; and (c) tested a theoretical model hypothesizing relationships among PCS, PSS, perceived organizational support, and work attitudes. In a meta-analysis, PSS was found to be more strongly related to job satisfaction (.52 vs. .37), affective commitment (.48 vs. .28), and turnover intention (—.36 vs. —.19) than was PCS. Further, job type (customer-contact vs. non-customer-contact jobs) was found to be a significant moderator. Finally, the proposed model received empirical support. Different forms of support were closely related to work attitudes and to each other. Implications for research on social support are discussed.

Careers: Mobility, Embeddedness, and Success

This article proposes refinements of the constructs of career mobility and career embeddedness and reviews the array of factors that have been found to energize (discourage) employees to change jobs, organizations, and/or occupations. The article also reviews the literature on career success and identifies which types of mobility (and embeddedness) are most likely to lead to objective career success (e.g., promotions) and subjective career success (e.g., career satisfaction). In the final section, the article revisits the utility of viewing careers as “boundaryless” and suggests alternative frameworks for future research on these topics.

Organizational Tenure and Job Performance

This study provides a meta-analysis on the relationships between organizational tenure and three broad classes of job behaviors: core-task behaviors, citizenship behaviors, and counterproductive behaviors. Across 350 empirical studies with a cumulative sample size of 249,841, the authors found that longer tenured employees generally have greater in-role performance and citizenship performance. It is interesting that organizational tenure was also positively related to some counterproductive behaviors (e.g., aggressive behavior and nonsickness absence). Most of these relationships remain statistically significant even after controlling for the effects of chronological age. The authors also observed that the tenure—performance relationship was stronger for younger workers, for women, for non-Caucasians, and for college-educated workers. Finally, the authors found evidence of a curvilinear relationship between organizational tenure and job performance. Although the relationship of organizational tenure with job performance is positive in general, the strength of the association decreases as organizational tenure increases.

Psychological contract breaches, organizational commitment, and innovation-related behaviors: a latent growth modeling approach.

This study examined the relationships among psychological contract breaches, organizational commitment, and innovation-related behaviors (generating, spreading, implementing innovative ideas at work) over a 6-month period. Results indicate that the effects of psychological contract breaches on employees are not static. Specifically, perceptions of psychological contract breaches strengthened over time and were associated with decreased levels of affective commitment over time. Further, increased perceptions of psychological contract breaches were associated with decreases in innovation-related behaviors. We also found evidence that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between psychological contract breaches and innovation-related behaviors. These results highlight the importance of examining the nomological network of psychological contract breaches from a change perspective.

Does the Job Satisfaction—Job Performance Relationship Vary Across Cultures?:

The purpose of this study is to examine whether culture moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Multiple theoretical frameworks regarding culture are used as the theoretical guide. Based on meta-analytical moderator tests, the authors find some support for their hypotheses that the effect size for the job satisfaction—job performance relationship is likely to be stronger in individualistic (vs. collectivistic) cultures, in low-power-distance (vs. high-power-distance) cultures, in low-uncertainty-avoidance (vs. high-uncertainty-avoidance) cultures, and in masculine (vs. feminine) cultures. They also observe stronger evidence of these effects for task performance than for contextual performance. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.

Curing congenital construction industry disorders through relationally integrated supply chains

Abstract Despite several strident calls for industry-wide reforms, construction industries remain ‘disabled’ by apparently congenital defects and inherent weaknesses. A barrage of remedial reforms and revisions of procurement regulations, practices, and contracting styles have been recently targeting enhanced value, superior performance, overall satisfaction and harmony. Many of these initiatives focus on integration of construction supply chains through significant upheavals in contractual arrangements, operational styles and contractor selection approaches, often using relational contracting approaches such as partnering, alliancing and even deeper collaborative/relation-building bonding initiatives. This paper is based on a synergistic integration of relevant results from a series of related research studies, as reinforced by knowledge distilled from other studies and experiences, and as reported in the recent literature. A relationally reinforced supply chain integration model is developed in this paper, to supplement the basic transactional contractual links and to release the latent energies that are needed to elevate construction industries in many countries.

The pathological spectrum of desmoplastic infantile gangliogliomas.

A rare supratentorial neuroepithelial tumour in a 10‐month‐old girl is described. It was characterized by its voluminous size, a predominant leptomeningeal growth pattern with intense desmoplasia and divergent differentiation along astrocytic, neuronal and Schwann cell lines. The differential diagnoses are discussed with special reference to the recently described clinicopathological entity of desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma.

Targeting optimum value in public sector projects through “best value”‐focused contractor selection

Procuring best value should be one of the key objectives in public sector construction projects. Best value depends upon sound “selection” strategies which ensure that the outlined project procurement objectives, including client/user demands are met. Examples of “best value” procurement are presented to demonstrate their usefulness and acceptance in principle. Further conceptualizations of various aspects of best value and the “dominance vectors” influencing the ultimate value definitions are developed, in accordance with basic public sector procurement principles. Presents a structured best value based contractor selection framework to optimize realizable value in public sector construction projects.

A comparison of self-ratings and non-self-report measures of employee creativity

Both self-ratings and non-self-report measures of employee creativity (supervisor ratings, peer ratings, and objective measures of creativity) have been used frequently in the literature, but there have been no attempts to compare research results using different types of creativity measures. In the present meta-analysis, we examined the relationships of a wide array of personal characteristics and contextual factors with both types of creativity measures. The results suggest that, in a majority of cases, effect sizes are larger when self-ratings of employee creativity are used. The article concludes with a discussion of the circumstances when inflation of observed correlations is most likely to occur, some steps for reducing inflated observed correlations, and other issues germane to empirical creativity research.