Palgrave Studies in Otherness and Communication

Mai-Dalton R.R., Barnes F.B.

The approach to organization development (OD) that is described in this article is offered as an alternative to a more traditional scientific methodology that has been viewed critically by Beer and Walton and by Burke. According to these researchers, OD projects should place emphasis on long-term involvements with organizations and include contextual variables and system dynamics in the research design. Intuitive skills should be used to sense and observe ongoing changes in the organization that influences the OD work. Flexibility of planned interventions must be a vital part of this process. The article describes the ongoing work of an OD consultant in a rapidly growing service organization ( N ~ 130) during the past 3 years. Bullock and Batten's theoretical framework was used to conduct OD interventions. The article follows the client-consultant relationship from entry to the first diagnosis, first interventions, evaluations of these interventions, and the continuation of this cycle to the current status of the work. Issues addressed in the article include (a) client and consultant goal compatibility, (b) power issues in top management, (c) the need to recognize constraints on the client from its constituents, (d) the readiness of these constituents to accept a new work philosophy, and (e) the need to sense the organization's culture carefully in order to synchronize intraorganizational events, external events, and specific OD interventions.

Kavanagh M.J.

Farh J., Cannella A.A., Bedeian A.G.

Using a quasi-experimental design, the effects of purpose (evaluative vs. developmental) on both peer-rating quality and user acceptance were examined. Subjects were 65 undergraduates divided into 11 project groups. Six groups conducted peer ratings for evaluative (i.e., grading) purposes, whereas the remaining 5 did so for the purpose of providing developmental feedback. Peer ratings conducted for evaluative purposes tended to contain greater halo and to be more lenient, less differentiating, less reliable, and less valid than those performed for developmental purposes. User acceptance as measured by recommendation for future use was more favorable under the developmental than the evaluative conditions. These results suggest that the quality of peer ratings and user acceptance are highly susceptible to the influence of rating contexts and that peer ratings are more useful for developmental than for evaluative purposes. Implications of these results for future peer-appraisal practices and research are discussed.

Smith G.L., DeWine S.

This research was concerned with the consequences of organizational members requesting social support from superiors. Specifically, the effects of biological sex and sex role orientation on the superior's perception of the subordinate's communicative competence, when the subordinate requested support, was examined. Participating in the study were 137 midlevel managers/ administrators. Videotaped vignettes were developed based on subjects'responses to open-ended questions about typical problems they faced at work. Subjects were asked to assume the role of supervisor as they watched both male and female employees request help with a work-related problem and then evaluated the communicative competence of individuals in the vignettes. Monge, Bachman, Dillard, and Eisenberg's competence instrument was used. Subjects also completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Ratings of the subordinate's communicative competence were examined in relation to the target's sex and to rater's sex and sex role. The female subordinate, when requesting support from the superior, was perceived as more competent than the male subordinate by both male and female subjects regardless of subjects' psychological gender. Implications of the results are discussed.

Castaneda M., Nahavandi A.

Data from 503 subordinates and the corresponding bosses of a group of 94 first-level managers were used to test the hypotheses that different managerial behaviors are related to subordinate satisfaction and bosses' rating of performance. The results indicate that a manager's consideration and structuring behavior are related to subordinate satisfaction, whereas structuring was the only behavior related to higher performance ratings from bosses.

Rosse J.G., Boss R.W., Johnson A.E., Crown D.F.

Recent studies have suggested that self-esteem may be an important variable in employee burnout, although questions remain as to how it affects burnout. Using separate, large samples of police officers (N = 1,163) and hospital workers (N = 494), self-esteem was investigated as an antecedent, moderator, or consequence of employee burnout. Self-esteem was clearly related to burnout, probably as both cause and consequence. However, we did not find that self-esteem acts as a "buffer" to protect individuals from becoming burned out or from experiencing health disorders once they have become burned out. These results indicate that self-esteem may be an important factor in predicting who will be more likely to develop burnout, and they also suggest the importance of rebuilding self-esteem as part of the rehabilitation of burned-out employees.

Green S.G.

A longitudinal design was used to examine socialization of professional newcomers (n = 134) at entry into professional doctoral training and at the end of 1 year of training. Anticipatory and encounter experiences are related to commitment and research productivity within the program and for a 5-year period following. As hypothesized, a supportive adviser relationship was strongly and positively related to socialization outcomes and moderate socialization processes. Contrary to hypotheses, however, more supportive adviser relationships appear to offset other socialization processes or to be associated with negative outcomes from socialization.

Fandt P.M.

The study examines a relationship that links accountability and interdependent behavior to enhanced team consequences. The high-accountability teams relied on more interdependent behaviors, experienced greater satisfaction with their team, and expressed higher success than low-accountability teams. Implications for practicing managers and for strengthening training programs are discussed.

Hanlon S.C., Taylor R.R.

This article reports the results of a study of a self-designed gainsharing plan adopted by a Fortune Service 500 firm in the priority package delivery industry. The study focused on changes in work group communication behaviors following installation of a gainsharing plan. The significant results indicate that during the early stages (first 6 months) of a successful gainsharing program, the occurrence of positive, job-related communication and idea communication increased among gainsharing participants. This is the first reported gainshanng study to use control groups and pre- and posttests in a quasi-experimental field study. A major conclusion of the study is that a fruitful approach to gainsharing research is to focus on the intervening effects of gainsharing as the process operates to produce economic outcomes for employers and employees.

Berg T.R.

The purpose of this study was to determine what predicts employee intent to stay at commercial television stations. Above-the-line employees of five commercial television stations completed a survey questionnaire, which focused on employee turnover in three departments: news, production, and sales. Data analysis indicated that a category of system outcomes predicted perception of equity; that a category of interpersonal outcomes, in conjunction with opportunity and perception of equity, predicted job satisfaction; and that job satisfaction, in conjunction with perception of equity and education, predicted intent to stay.

Kavanagh M.J.

Watts R.J., Carter R.T.

In this study a multilevel conceptual framework is developed for the study of racism in organization as seen by African-Americans. Three levels are defined: institutional racism, racial climate, and personal discrimination. Perceptions of racism on each of these levels are related to racial identity, using the Racial Identity Attitudes Scale, to determine if racial identity is associated with perceptions of racism. The results, based on a sample of Blacks in a state bureaucracy, indicated that racial identity was the best predictor of perceptions of racial climate and personal discrimination. For example: Blacks who reported Pre-Encounter racial identity attitudes (i.e., those who were White-identified and Black-rejective) saw less racism in the workplace, whereas those who endorsed Internalization attitudes (i.e., those who were Black-identified but not anti-White) saw more. In addition, two factors were identified in racial climate: (a) Experience and Intensity of Racism and (b) Management Power and Policy. These themes were consistent with the literature, and they were found throughout the data. Implications for organizational consultation and change are considered, especially the implications of African-American intragroup diversity.

Tjosvold D., Andrews I.R., Struthers J.T.

The dynamics and consequences of power may depend upon whether high- and low-power people believe they have largely cooperative or competitive goals. Managers and their employees from 47 groups within a large company rated each other's power and the extent to which they had developed cooperation, competition, and independence. Cooperation and power were both related to perceived effectiveness of manager and employee. The positive correlations between cooperation and power contradict the common, implicit assumption that power occurs in competition. Results suggest that experimental findings generalize to ongoing relationships in organizations and indicate that cooperative goals are critical for constructive power management.

Sparks P.M.

What should a consultant have managers do between intervention sessions to help further the process of change? This case study suggests that the concept of organizational tasking can provide one answer to this question. Two kinds of organizational task assignments, drawn from the literature on family therapy, are discussed: prescription task assignments and formula task assignments. Their use in helping to resolve a troubled situation in a transit property is described. Time series data are presented that offer evidence on the possible effectiveness of the use of organizational tasking.

Magee R.R., Beach L.R., Mitchell T.R.

Leaders frequently attempt to implement changes when they enter an ongoing organization. Subordinates react to these attempts, either by facilitating implementation or by resisting it. This research examined both implementation tactics and resistance tactics. The first of two studies found that the implementation tactics used by Army leaders are highly similar to those that have been reported previously for civilian leaders, except that training is used as an implementation tactic in the Army but not in civilian organizations. Army subordinates' tactics are similar to, but more limited than, those previously described for civilian subordinates. The second study found that Army leaders' ratings of the various implementation tactics differed as a function of leadership experience and the presence or absence of subordinate resistance to the proposed change. Army subordinates' ratings of tactics for dealing with proposed changes differed as a function of the subordinates' acceptance of or resistance to the proposed change.