Empowerment, span of control, and safety performance in work teams after workforce reduction.

Relationships of empowerment and span of control with 2 safety measures (unsafe behaviors and accidents) were investigated among 24 workgroups comprising 531 employees of a large chemical company in 3 U.S. states. The company recently implemented a reengineering process. Data were from an anonymous survey (unsafe behaviors), company records (accidents, span of control), and trained expert raters (empowerment). Span of control (positively) and level of empowerment (negatively) correlated with both measures of poor safety performance, but only empowerment predicted unique variance in safety criteria. Together, these structural measures predicted one third of the variance in safety measures. Structural variables such as span of control and team empowerment have been largely overlooked in past safety research but can be important.

Moderating effects of perceived control and need for clarity on the relationship between role stressors and employee affective reactions.

The authors examined the salience of perceived control and need for clarity as "buffers" of the adverse consequences of role stressors by using hierarchical regressions on role ambiguity and role conflict, with job satisfaction and psychological strain as the criterion variables. In a sample of U.S. and New Zealand employees, perceived control was directly associated with higher satisfaction and reduced strain but displayed no moderating effect on stressor-outcome relationships. Need for clarity, on the other hand, was a significant moderator of the relationship of role ambiguity and conflict to both satisfaction and strain; that finding suggests that researchers could give more attention to dispositional variables in examining the correlates of role stressors.

Organizations' environment and retirement: the relationship between women's retirement, environmental munificence, dynamism, and local unemployment rate.

OBJECTIVES: Low munificence and high dynamism of an industry's environment and high local area unemployment rates were assumed to indicate uncertainty and influence retirement. It was predicted that, while controlling for personal variables, rates of retirement would vary across industries, that munificence would have a negative relationship with retirement, and that dynamism and unemployment rate would have positive relationships with retirement. METHODS: The study relies on four waves (from 1986 to 1992) of data from the National Longitudinal Survey's Mature Women Cohort, and logistic regression was used to examine the extent of the proposed relationships. RESULTS: Retirement rate varied across industries and had a positive relationship with munificent environments, but retirement was not related to dynamism or unemployment rates. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that environmental factors may influence retirement timing. Additional theoretical and empirical work is suggested to help sort out direct environmental effects and possible moderating third variables.

Are there gender differences in predicting retirement decisions?

Although there has been speculation about gender differences in retirement decisions, research directly on the issue has been sparse, and results have been inconsistent. This study, which examined hypotheses based on traditional gender roles, is one of the few to examine the interactions between retirement predictors and gender. In a random sample of older employees and retirees from a large midwestern manufacturing organization, retirement decisions differed between men and women primarily when dependents lived in the household, when the health of one's spouse was a consideration, and when one's spouse was retired. These differences appeared to be partially dependent on the operational definition of retirement.

The meaning of occupational stress items to survey respondents.

This study tested the effect of using the word stress in the measurement of self-reported occupational stressors and strains. Employees from two organizations responded to a questionnaire that included specific occupational stressors, strains, and 16 items in which the word stress was used. Survey respondents tended to interpret the word stress to refer both to employees' strains or reactions to the work environment and to job stressors or elements of the environment itself. Implications of these findings for occupational stress research are discussed.

Doctoral student selection in one professional psychology program.

The determinants of the selection decision for applicants (N = 239) to one clinical Doctor of Psychology program during a 3-year period were examined, and relationships among selection variables measured at the time of application and program performance variables measured 2 years later for those matriculated were determined. Results and discussion also illuminate the determinants of ratings made of applicants based on reading written application materials and determinants of ratings made of applicants based on personal interviews. Recommendations for selection procedures in similar practitioner-oriented clinical psychology doctoral programs and for future research are offered.

Job stress and employee behaviors.

The relationship between four job stresses (role ambiguity, role overload, underutilization of skills, and resource inadequacy) and two employee withdrawal behaviors (absenteeism and turnover) was investigated. The joint prediction of employee withdrawal from measures of job stress and selected backgroundd variables was also investigated. Data were obtained regarding 651 employees in five organizations through personal interviews and company records. Analysis indicated that job stress is related to employee withdrawal behaviors, that prediction of subsequent behaviors is stronger than prediction of prior behaviors, and that the predictive power of job stress and background variables taken together is as strong as, or stronger than, the predictive power of background variables alone. Confidence in the strength of the findings is enhanced by the use of multiple data sources and multiple data points.