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.

A laboratory study was conducted to examine the role of two components of participatory work evaluation procedures on fairness attitudes and work performance.  “Opportunity for influential opinion expression” and “knowledge of evaluation criteria” were manipulated in a business simulation exercise.  Thirty-eight male and 49 female undergraduates worked under a task evaluation procedure that either did or did not allow them to express their opinions to the evaluator.  In addition, subjects either were or were not provided with specific information about the criteria to be used in making the performance evaluation, and they received either a favorable or an unfavorable outcome.  Questionnaire responses indicated that influential opinion expression enhanced perceptions of procedural and distributive fairness independently of the outcome of the evaluation.  Both knowledge of evaluation criteria and perceptions of evaluation fairness correlated with subsequent task performance.  The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to understanding the influence of procedural justice on attitudes and task behavior in organizational settings.

The present paper identifies and discusses contemporary problems in the self-regulation, expectancy-value, and goal-setting conceptualizations of task-specific motivation.  Three issues are examined in detail: (1) the construct validity of performance measures as a criterion of motivation on cognitive tasks; (2) the influence of objective task characteristics on both the measurement of motivation and the motivation process itself; and (3) the measurement, meaning, and function of the perceived effort-performance relation and probabilistic measures of performance expectations.  Within each issue, theoretical advances in information processing and decision making are integrated with previous empirical findings pertaining to performance motivation.  Examination of these issues suggests that further emphasis be placed on form analyses of three cognitive mechanisms and on validating a conceptual framework concerning the influence of situational and individual-difference factors on specific cognitive components.  A heuristic model, extending previous conceptualizations on the basis of new knowledge in the cognitive domain, is presented as a guide for further integrative research on task-specific motivation.

A field study was conducted to investigate differences between hourly assembly operators who stayed and hourly assembly operators who voluntarily quit their jobs. A total of 80 stayers and 121 leavers were identified from personnel records and were classified into one of three job tenure groups, 2-5 months, 6-12 months, and more than 12 months. Job performance, attendance measures, and biographical variables were used to predict turnover for each job tenure group. Results indicated poorer performance by leavers with 6-12 months tenure compared with stayers. No differences in performance or attendance were obtained between stayers and leavers with between 2-5 months and those with more than 12-months job tenure. Leavers after 6 and before 12 months demonstrated more absenteeism compared with stayers. Implications for the role of absenteeism and constraints on the performance-retention relation are discussed.

This study examined the role of personal standards, self-efficacy expectations, and social comparison in depression.  Nondepressed and dysphoric subjects estimated their own interpersonal standards and efficacy, as well as the standards and efficacy of their peers.  Contrary to common theory, dysphoric subjects set lower – not higher – goals than did nondepressed subjects.  As expected, nondepressed subjects made more favorable social comparisons than did dysphoric subjects.  Nondepressed subjects made more positive judgments for themselves than for their peers, whereas dysphoric subjects made similar judgments for self and other.  Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the role of goals and social comparison processes in depression.  In particular, it is suggested that, in response to a gap between standards and performance expectations, one might raise expectations, lower standards, or maintain both standards and expectations.  The latter two are likely to be associated with depression.  Not only are evaluations made in absolute terms, but they are also made by social comparison, especially when evaluation concerns one’s goals.  This study suggests that dysphoric people no longer judge that they are superior to their peers, which might hinder them in mobilizing their efforts.

In a variety of settings, procedures that permit predecision input by those affected by the decision in question have been found to have positive effects on fairness judgments, independent of the favorability of the decision. Two major models of the psychology of procedural justice make contrary predictions about whether repeated negative outcomes attenuate such input effects. If such attenuation occurs, it would lessen the applicability of procedural justice findings to some real-world settings, such as organizations, where procedures often provide repeated negative outcomes. The present laboratory investigation examined the procedural and distributive fairness justments produced by high- and low-input performance evaluation procedures under conditions of repeated negative outcomes. Thirty-five three-person groups of male undergraduates participated in a three-round competition. Groups either were or were not allowed to specify the relative weights to be given to two criteria used in evaluating their performance. All groups received negative outcomes on each of the three rounds. A second experimental factor varied whether or not the group learned after losing the second round that it could not possibly win the third and final round of the competition. Measures of procedural and distributive fairness showed that the high-input procedure led to judgments of greater procedural and distributive fairness across all three rounds. The input-based enhancement of fairness occurred regardless of whether reward was possible. The implications of these findings for theories of procedural justice and for applications of procedural justice to organizational settings are discussed.