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.