Rather than evaluate managers on the basis of activities traditionally prescribed for success, an observation study was conducted to determine empirically which activities successful managers actually perform. Trained participant observers recorded the behaviors of 52 managers in three diverse organizations-a state department of revenue, a medium-sized manufacturing plant, and a campus police department-over a two-week period. In analyzing the data collected, the authors measured success by using a promotion index of level over tenure and by considering the top managers of each organization to be successful. Regression analysis found that two activities were significantly related to managerial success: interaction with outsiders and socializing/politicking. Further comparative analysis of managers ranked in the top and bottom thirds indicated that successful managers exhibited more behaviors related to conflict management, and comparisons of top-level managers with those in the middle and first levels indicated that successful managers exhibited more behaviors related to decision making and planninglcoordinating. The study found that some of the activities of the successful managers apparently depended upon the type of organization in which they worked.
This study investigated whether the leader's locus of control moderated the relationship between perceived leader influence behaviors and certain subordinate outcome variables. The results showed that locus of control did significantly moderate the effect of supervisor influence on productivity and subordinate satisfaction with supervision. The difference in satisfaction with supervision was more extreme at high levels of subordinate perceived supervisor influence on productivity. Implications for supervisor training are discussed. ATTRIBUTION theory in general, and locus of control in particular, has emerged in recent years as an important theoretical foundation and unit of analysis in the study and research of organizational behavior. Although very popular in behavioral science research as a whole, only relatively few of the well over 600 studies on locus of control are related to attitudinal, motivational, and behavioral variables in organizarional settings (Spector, 1982).
The complaint in Abdallah et al. v. CocaCola (1999), for example, stated, "Coca-Cola Company utilizes employee evaluations …that treat African-American salaried employees less favorably than similarly situated employees outside the protected group." Reports submitted for class certification in the case included the calculation of adverse-impact statistics and expert testimony regarding the process of evaluating employees. Thus, under a class-based lawsuit enlisting a "disparate impact" theory of discrimination, nonparametric statistics, a standard deviation analysis, and/or an 80% rule analysis are typically presented, followed by (or coincidental with) testimony by the plaintiffs' expert who evaluates the process of performance appraisal used in the organization and con-
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