Purpose – Although prior research has found that employee participation is key to successfully implementing quality management initiatives (Baird et al., 2011; de Menezes, 2012; Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2005), little research in operations management exists that investigates which management actions and behaviors lead to employee commitment to such initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the operations management literature by investigating which influence tactics are the most effective in soliciting employee commitment to continuous improvement tasks. The paper also examines how influence tactics affect the supervisor-subordinate relationship and the manager’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was used to measure supervisor-subordinate relationship quality, usage of influence behaviors and participants’ task commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Findings – The results indicate that five of the 11 influence tactics identified in the prior literature, i.e., collaboration, consultation, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion, are significant and strong predictors of employee commitment to continuous improvement initiatives. Further, analyses show that these influence tactics are significant drivers of the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, which was found to partially mediate the relationship between influence tactics and the supervisor’s effectiveness in implementing continuous improvement projects. Research limitations/implications – Since the extant CI and Total Quality Management literature has looked at the plant or program level rather than the worker-level as in the research, the findings offer one explanation as to why earlier studies investigating the relationship between quality management programs and increased organizational performance reported mixed results. Practical implications – Increasing managers’ awareness and usage of influence tactics may increase the success rate of continuous improvement projects as well the quality of the relationship with the manager’s subordinates. Originality/value – While the extant literature has argued that management support and employee commitment are key components of a continuous improvement project implementation, little has been written about the specific management actions and behaviors that lead to success.
Outcomes in skill-controlled activities are contingent on people's attributes and behavior. Outcomes of chance activities are inherently noncontingent. In this study, we explored age differences in the recognition of this distinction between skill and chance. Kindergarteners, fourth graders, eighth graders, and college students took part in one game of chance and one game of skill. After each game, subjects predicted the winnings of other players who differed in certain attributes (e.g., intelligence) and behavior (e.g., effort) that would influence only skill outcomes. Two developmental trends emerged: (a) On both chance and skill tasks, older subjects expected the variations in attributes and behavior to have less impact on task outcomes than did younger subjects; and (b) older subjects were more adept at making predictions that reflected the contingency of skill and the noncontingency of chance. Kindergarteners showed no ability to make the skillchance distinction. Fourth graders were aware of the distinction at a gross qualitative level, but their predictions showed that they were unaware of some of the most important logical implications of that distinction. Eighth graders and college students were aware of the skill-chance distinction and most of its logical implications; yet their predictions revealed a lingering belief that chance outcomes could be influenced slightly by variations in people's attributes and behavior. This last finding is interpreted in light of Rosch's (Rosch & Mervis, 1975) model of category formation. To make accurate judgments about what we can and cannot control, we must accurately judge the contingency of outcomes. If an outcome (e.g., rain, a roll of the dice) is not contingent on people's behavior, then we will be unable to control it. (For more details on determinants of control, see Weisz & Stipek, 1982.) There is mounting evidence that such noncontingency is very difficult for young children to detect. Piaget (1930) reported that children younger than 6 or 7 years show "primitive psychological causality," that is, "the belief that any desire whatsoever can influence objects, the belief in the obedience of external things" (p. 303). The young child, as described by Piaget, has the illusion that diverse physical events in the We are grateful to Ralph Wenger, Barbara Lawler, and the personnel and pupils of the Chapel Hill/ Carrboro public schools for their participation in this study. We also thank Sh'aron Gerber, Lynn Kahle, Fred Rothbaum, Sharon Hollandsworth, and Gregory Ray for their very helpful comments on an earlier draft. Requests for reprints should be sent to
The authors investigated the effectiveness of two types of promised incentives in producing responses to a mail survey: a personal cash payment versus an identical (one dollar) contribution to a charity of the respondent's choice. The charity incentive resulted in an increased response rate (41% response with charity incentive, 26% with equal cash incentive, 23% with no incentive). In effect, charitable contributions reduced nonresponse bias, reduced the cost per respondent, and also provided a benefit to charitable organizations.
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