The Journal of applied psychology
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This experimental study investigated the mechanisms by which learner control influences learning in an e-learning environment. The authors hypothesized that learner control would enhance learning indirectly through its effect on trainee reactions and learner engagement (in particular, off-task attention), such that learners who were more satisfied with the training and devoted more cognitive resources toward the instructional content versus off-task thoughts would possess greater posttraining knowledge. The study also examined the role of individual differences (training motivation and goal orientation) in the prediction of these 2 mediating variables. ⋯ The individual difference variables had a differential impact on the mediating variables. In particular, performance orientation was linked to off-task attention, whereas mastery orientation was found to indirectly influence satisfaction via its direct effect on training motivation. Implications for the design and further study of e-learning are discussed.
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In this study, the authors contribute insight into the temporal nature of work attitudes, examining how job satisfaction changes across the 1st year of employment for a sample of organizational newcomers. The authors examined factors related to job change (i.e., voluntary turnover, prior job satisfaction) and newcomer experiences (i.e., fulfillment of commitments, extent of socialization) that may strengthen or weaken the job satisfaction pattern. ⋯ However, examination of moderating factors revealed that individuals who reported less satisfaction with their prior job and those having more positive experiences on the new job, such as greater fulfilled commitments and a higher degree of socialization, were most likely to experience this pattern. Findings from this study offer important implications for theory and research on changes in newcomer attitudes over time as well as practical insight on key factors that shape the pattern of job attitudes as individuals enter and experience a new workplace.
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Using meta-analytic path analysis, the authors tested several structural models linking agreeableness and conscientiousness to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results showed that the 2 personality traits had both direct effects and indirect effects-through job satisfaction-on overall OCB. ⋯ Finally, the path analyses predicting OCB-I and OCB-O offered further support for the general hypothesis that these 2 constructs are distinct. That is, the results of these analyses revealed that agreeableness had both direct and indirect effects on OCB-I but only indirect effects on OCB-O, and that for conscientiousness the pattern of direct and indirect effects was exactly opposite (direct and indirect effects on OCB-O but only indirect effects on OCB-I).
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In this article, the authors develop the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators hypothesis. The authors argue that many theories on work behavior assume humans to be either self-interested or to be social in nature with strong other-orientation but that this assumption is empirically invalid and may lead to overly narrow models of work behavior. ⋯ Three studies involving 4 samples of employees from a variety of organizations support these propositions. Implications are discussed for theory on work behavior and interventions geared toward job enrichment and team-based working.
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Meta Analysis
Understanding why they don't see eye to eye: an examination of leader-member exchange (LMX) agreement.
Although it is an explicitly dyadic approach to leadership, some leader-member exchange (LMX) research has been characterized by relatively low levels of agreement between leader and member judgments of the relationship. Using a combination of meta-analytic methods and primary data collection, the authors sought to explore several theoretically and methodologically meaningful factors that might account for lower levels of agreement. ⋯ Empirical results from 98 matched dyads revealed that the extent of LMX agreement increases as the length of relationship tenure and intensity of dyadic interaction increases. Implications for LMX theory and future empirical research are discussed.