With a diverse sample (N = 231 paired responses) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan, the authors tested for the main effects of perceived organizational politics and psychological capital on turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and supervisor-rated job performance. They also examined the moderating influence of psychological capital in the politics–outcomes relationships. Results provided good support for the proposed hypotheses. While perceived organizational politics was associated with all outcomes, psychological capital had a significant relationship with job satisfaction and supervisor-rated performance only. As hypothesized, the negative relationship of perceived organizational politics with job satisfaction and supervisor-rated performance was weaker when psychological capital was high. However, the result for turnover intentions was counter to expectations where the politics–turnover intention relationship was stronger when psychological capital was high.

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Work strain has been argued to be a significant cause of absenteeism in the popular and academic press. However, definitive evidence for associations between absenteeism and strain is currently lacking. A theory focused meta-analysis of 275 effects from 153 studies revealed positive but small associations between absenteeism and work strain, psychological illness, and physical illness. Structural equation modeling results suggested that the strain-absence connection may be mediated by psychological and physical symptoms. Little support was received for the purported volitional distinction between absence frequency and time lost absence measures on the basis of illness. Among the moderators examined, common measurement, midterm and stable sources of variance, and publication year received support.

A new performance appraisal system, developed for promotions in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police non-commissioned officer ranks, fairly differentiated among candidates. Members (N = 6,571) illustrated their performance on core competencies with behavioral examples. Supervisors and then review boards used a BARS procedure to reliably rate performance. Both candidates and supervisors supported the system. The performance appraisal scores predicted career advancement in the organization.The advantages and disadvantages of using performance assessment in making employment decisions are well documented (e.g., Murphy & Cleveland, 1995). The limitations of performance assessment, such as inflated ratings, lack of consistency, and the politics of assessment (Tziner, Latham, Price, & Haccoun, 1996), often lead to their abandonment. Managers responsible for delivering performance reviews who are uncomfortable with the performance rating system may give uniformly high ratings that do not discriminate between ratees. Poor ratings detract from organizational uses and increase employee mistrust in the performance appraisal system (Tziner & Murphy, 1999). Employees on the receiving end of the appraisal often express dissatisfaction with both the decisions made as a result of performance assessment and the process of performance assessment (Milliman, Nason, Zhu, & De Cieri, 2002), which may have longitudinal effects on overall job satisfaction (Blau, 1999) and commitmentWe thank all the members and staff of the RCMP who participated in this project and contributed to its success. We also thank the external reviewers and the editor for their comments and suggestions.Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Victor M. Catano,

This research examined the relationships between perceived psychological contract breach, felt violation, and burnout in a sample (n = 361) of employees from various organizations in Pakistan. The moderating role of contract types in these relationships was also tested. Findings supported a positive association between perceived psychological contract breach and felt violation and both were positively related to burnout. Transactional and relational contracts moderated the felt violation-burnout relationship. Scores on relational contract type tended to be higher than for transactional contract type showing some contextual influence.

This study addressed some of the research gaps in the area of organizational politics by examining politics as a group-level construct, directly testing for the cross-level effects of various predictors, and providing insight into the nature of conflict processes involved in the development of politics. Data from 69 academic departments in six prominent Canadian universities provided support for the precursory role of conflict processes. Both intradepartmental task and relationship conflict were associated with political climate perceptions. Using the climate etiology literature, several multi-level antecedents (individual, departmental, disciplinary) of department-level politics were examined, but only individual-level role conflict emerged as a predictor. The non-significant effects of macro-level paradigm development and department rank heterogeneity are discussed in light of substantive and methodological factors.

The generalizability of personality-outcome relationships in military settings, argued to be a strong situation in the present research, was examined using metaanalysis. Effects based on the Self Description Inventory (SDI) gathered from 20 independent military samples (k = 117, total N = 34,217) were analyzed. Overall, findings concerning conscientiousness and neuroticism provide evidence for the validity of personality in military samples. However, a few constrained associations (e.g., openness-training performance) were obtained, providing some support for the exploration of the military context as a moderator of certain associations. The results are useful to militaries seeking to incorporate personality in selection decisions.It is well known that personality is related to important job outcomes such as performance and training. Barrick, Mount, and Judge (2001) consolidated findings from 15 meta-analytic studies to demonstrate the validity of the five factors of personality. However, the effects are generally small, prompting researchers to question the generalizability of personality findings and to suggest the exploration of moderators. One such moderator is the situation in which personality-outcome relationships are examined Schneider, 1996). Indeed Tett, Jackson, andRothstein (1991) demonstrated that certain situational characteristics (e.g., occupational group) attenuated the validity of personality.Among the many situational moderators Tett et al. (1991) examined in their meta-analysis, the type of sample (military versus civilian) emerged as a potential Correspondence should be addressed to

The primary purpose of this study was to explore the potential of religiosity in predicting employee psychological contracts. In addition, the moderating influence of work status on this variable's relationship with contract outcomes was examined. To minimize the influence of common method bias, a survey was administered to a sample of student employees (N = 172) on two separate occasions. Results provide evidence for the moderating role of work status on the association between religiosity and transactional contract orientation and some support for the theorized distinction between contract orientations of part‐time and full‐time employees. Findings are discussed in light of features unique to this sample and the measures used, providing directions for future research in this area.