The present study investigated the relationship between standard setting and judgments of self-efficacy in the domain of interpersonal functioning for depressed and nondepressed subjects.  Consistent with a self-control model of depression, a large discrepancy between personal standards and judgments of personal efficacy for performance was postulated to be related to depression.  Students who scored above 13 on two administrations of the Beck Depression Inventory composed the depressed group.  Thirty-nine depressed and 39 nondepressed students rated their minimal standards for adequate interpersonal performance, its importance to them, and their judgments of self-efficacy for the same tasks.  Depressed subjects showed a larger discrepancy between strength of interpersonal standards and strength of self-efficacy than did the normal subjects.  Depressed subjects expressed a lower strength of self-efficacy than did nondepressed subjects, but they did not differ on their interpersonal standards.  Importance and the strength for standards correlated positively for both depressed and normal subjects.  The present findings are consistent with recent extensions of Lewinsohn’s model of depression, which suggest that disruptions in self-evaluation are related to lowered judgments of self-efficacy for depressed subjects.

Participation in organizational decisions is thought to have a number of positive effects on performance and worker attitudes, but it is not clear which elements of participation are responsible for these positive effects. The effects of two elements of participation, upward information input by the worker and the provision of downward knowledge by a supervisor, were examined in a laboratory setting.  Thirty-eight male and 49 female undergraduates worked on a task under a performance evaluation procedure that either did or did not allow them to offer information about their performance to an evaluator.  A supervisor either did or did not offer information about criteria for evaluation of performance.  The subject received either a positive or negative outcome from the evaluation procedure.  Upward information flow and downward information flow interacted in their effect on task performance, with highest performance occurring under high upward and high downward information exchange.  Performance on a subsequent task increased following downward information on the first task.  Upward information flow produced higher ratings of procedural fairness, satisfaction with outcomes, and satisfaction with the supervisor.  The results are discussed in terms of their implications for participatory effects and their implications for the design of organizational performance appraisal procedures.

A field study was conducted to examine attitudinal and behavioral variables associated with reemployment following job termination.  Thirty-five employees were surveyed within two days following termination.  Of those surveyed, 23 were contacted one month later regarding employment status.  Analyses revealed that reemployed persons were significantly more confident of job search skills and had engaged in a greater number of search behaviors than had individuals who had remained unemployed. No significant differences between the reemployed and still unemployed groups were obtained in affective responses to termination or nonwork-related variables.  The findings suggest that reemployment success is related to individual differences in expectations of successful job search.  Implications for future research on job loss and reemployment are discussed.

The present investigation examined the effects of different types of participation (choice) and role models in goal setting on goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance.  It was hypothesized that choice in setting a goal and a strategy to achieve the goal would positively benefit goal acceptance, performance, and goal satisfaction.  In addition, it was predicted that a role model would differentially influence an individual’s goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance.  One hundred twenty male college students working on a class scheduling task were exposed to either a high- or low-performing role model and given various amounts of choice in the goal-setting process.  The results of two-way analyses of variance demonstrated that goal acceptance, goal satisfaction, and performance were highest for individuals given choice over their goal and their strategy to achieve the goal.  In addition, the results demonstrated that an individual exposed to a high-performing role model outperformed and had higher goal acceptance and satisfaction than an individual exposed to a low-performing model.  The results are discussed as a means for clarifying the effects of different types of choice in the goal-setting process and the importance of role-provided information in influencing an individual’s performance.

A method for investigating measurement equivalence across subpopulations is developed and applied to an instrument frequently used to assess job satisfaction (the Job Descriptive Index; JDI).  The method is based on Jöreskog’s simultaneous factor analysis in several populations.  Several adaptations are necessary to overcome problems with violations of assumptions that occur with rating scale data.  Two studies were conducted to evaluate the measurement equivalence of the JDI across different subpopulations.  Investigation of five relatively homogeneous subpopulations within one industry revealed invariant measurement properties for the JDI.  In the second study, measurement equivalence of the JDI was examined across health care, retailing, and military samples.  Generally small violations of measurement equivalence were found.  The results in both studies indicate that mean differences in JDI scores (i.e., differences in job satisfaction across groups) are due to group differences rather than lack of measurement equivalence.