This study investigated the process by which employee perceptions of the organizational environment are related to job involvement, effort, and performance. The researchers developed an operational definition of psychological climate that was based on how employees perceive aspects of the organizational environment and interpret them in relation to their own well-being. Perceived psychological climate was then related to job involvement, effort, and performance in a path-analytic framework. Results showed that perceptions of a motivating and involving psychological climate were related to job involvement, which in turn was related to effort. Effort was also related to work performance. Results revealed that a modest but statistically significant effect of job involvement on performance became nonsignificant when effort was inserted into the model, indicating the mediating effect of effort on the relationship. The results cross-validated well across 2 samples of outside salespeople, indicating that relationships are generalizable across these different sales contexts.Unleashing the power of human potential in the workplace through creation of an involving and motivating organizational environment has been acclaimed as a key source of competitive advantage for business organizations (e.g., Lawler, 1992;Pfeffer, 1994). A prominent stream of literature has argued that when employees perceive the potential for satisfying their psychological needs in the workplace, they engage themselves more completely and invest greater time and effort in the organization's work (Kahn, 1990;Pfeffer, 1994). It has been argued that such processes lead to greater organizational productivity and competitiveness. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that favorable employee perceptions of organizational environments lead to superior performance, empirical research has not shown how (or whether) psychological climate and job involvement translate into higher performance. We investigated whether employee effort constitutes the mediating link relating psychological climate and job involvement to work performance.Our purpose was to investigate the process by which psychological climate is related to employee involvement, effort, and performance. We evaluated the premise that favorable employee perceptions of the organizational environment are positively related to job involvement, effort, and performance. When employees perceive the organizational environment positively (i.e., as consistent with their own values and self-interests), they are likely to identify their personal goals with those of the organization and to invest greater effort pursuing them. We investigated specific perceptions of the organizational environment that constitute important aspects of psychological climate, as well as the process by which these are related to performance. Studying dimensions of psychological climate may reveal important aspects of the relationship between the employee and the organization that are related to greater involvement, effort, and performan...

This research reports an investigation of the use of standardized regression (beta) coefficients in meta-analyses that use correlation coefficients as the effect-size metric. The investigation consisted of analyzing more than 1,700 corresponding beta coefficients and correlation coefficients harvested from published studies. Results indicate that, under certain conditions, using knowledge of corresponding beta coefficients to input missing correlations (effect sizes) generally produces relatively accurate and precise population effect-size estimates. Potential benefits from applying this knowledge include smaller sampling errors because of increased numbers of effect sizes and smaller non-sampling errors because of the inclusion of a broader array of research designs.

The author develops a theoretical framework relating job involvement to its antecedents, correlates, and consequences and reports meta-analyses of 51 pairwise relationships involving job involvement. Results of the meta-analyses support research suggesting that job involvement is influenced by personality and situational variables. Job involvement was strongly related to job and work attitudes but not to role perceptions, behavioral work outcomes, negative "side effects," or demographic variables. Moderator analyses indicated little difference in the strength of relationships based on involvement measure. The author found modest but systematic differences in the strength of relationships between studies of employees of public versus private organizations. He compares and contrasts the results of this study with meta-analytic findings regarding organizational commitment, discusses important theoretical considerations in the research stream, and offers suggestions for future research.

A three-phase quantitative investigation of relationships involving salesperson job satisfaction was undertaken. First, the strength, valence, and consistency of pairwise relationships were assessed by means of a meta-analysis. Second, methodological characteristics coded as moderator variables were used to account for variability in study effects. Finally, weighted mean correlations resulting from the analysis of pairwise relationships were used to evaluate a causal model of antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction. In general, relationships involving job satisfaction were robust across study contexts. Systematic moderating effects of type of sales-force and operationalization of job satisfaction were found. Several summary conclusions about antecedents and consequences of salesperson job satisfaction are drawn from the analyses.

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Working in the group of Professor H. W. Spiess, he applied solid-state NMR methods, in particular, the combination of very-fast MAS with 1 H double-quantum (DQ) spectroscopy, to the investigation of structural and dynamic questions in supramolecular systems. He is currently a Marie Curie Fellow in the group of Professor L. Emsley at the Ecole Normale Supe ´rieure, Lyon, France. Hans Wolfgang Spiess received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Frankfurt, Germany, with H. Hartmann in 1968. After a two year's postdoctoral stay at Florida State University with R. K. Sheline, he returned to Germany and joined the staff of the Max-Planck-Institute, Department of Molecular Physics at Heidelberg, under the direction of K. H. Hausser. In 1975, he changed to the Chemistry Department of the University at Mainz, where he became a Professor in 1978. After professorships at the Universities of Mu ¨nster (1981−82) and Bayreuth (1983−84), he was appointed as a director at the newly founded Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz. His main research interests are development of solid-state NMR and pulsed ESR techniques for the study of structure and dynamics of synthetic polymers and supramolecular systems.

Results of a controlled experiment on the role of brand awareness in the consumer choice process showed that brand awareness was a dominant choice heuristic among awareness-group subjects. Subjects with no brand awareness tended to sample more brands and selected the high-quality brand on the final choice significantly more often than those with brand awareness. Thus, when quality differences exist among competing brands, consumers may "pay a price" for employing simple choice heuristics such as brand awareness in the interest of economizing time and effort. However, building brand awareness is a viable strategy for advertising aimed at increasing brand-choice probabilities.

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