Expectancy models have related individual work values and the availability of desired rewards in different occupations to occupational preferences, while self‐efficacy models have stressed personal perceptions of individual capacities to perform in different occupations to occupational preferences. This study demonstrates support for both models, and indicates that these models have separate and independent relationships to occupational preference. Further analysis supports the contention that the perceptions of self‐efficacy may be an important factor in explaining sex differences in occupational preferences.

The anticipated labor shortages of the 1990's will intensify organizational needs to retain their existing employees. Women represent an increasingly important segment of the labor force and their turnover rates are thought to exceed men's. Earlier studies of turnover and its psychological antecedent, the behavioral intention to leave, suggest that work-related factors may contribute to women's relatively higher turnover rates. The current paper reports the results of a study of the intentions of male and female executives, managers and professionals to leave their organizations. The results support the pattern of findings in earlier studies that gender differences disappear when job satisfaction is controlled in the analysis. Further analysis highlights the importance of two components ofjob satisfaction -meaningful work and opportunities for promotion. The authors conclude that organizations might improve their retention rates of female managers through job enrichment and by enhancing their advancement opportunities.

Organizations are faced with the challenge of developing effective reward systems for a diverse workforce within a society, as well as across different cultures for global operations. Equity theory is a major process motivational model concerned with such reward systems, and equity sensitivity provides important modifications to this model. The present research examines the relation of equity sensitivity to culturally related values. Positive relationships with equity sensitivity are found for collectivism, femininity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance for a diverse sample within the USA and for collectivism and femininity for a sample from Taiwan.

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Until the development of the Equity Preference Questionnaire in 2000, the only measure of equity sensitivity available was the Equity Sensitivity Instrument. However, only one out of nine empirical studies conducted since 2000 has used this questionnaire, perhaps given the concerns about its applicability to earlier equity sensitivity research findings. This paper empirically examined both measures in relation to work outcome preferences based on the previous study by Miles, Hatfield, and Huseman in 1994 and finds that the two questionnaires produce comparable results.