Do situational variables act as substantive causes of relationships between individual difference variables? Two large-scale tests of "common cause" models.

James, Demaree, Mulaik, and Ladd (1992) proposed that situational variables may act as substantive (“common”) causes of relationships between individual difference variables as well as statistical artifacts (i.e., measurement unreliability) associated with these variables, thus invalidating assumptions of current validity generalization/meta-analysis procedures. In this investigation, we report the results of two large-scale studies designed to test hypothesized relationships derived from two “common cause” models. Study 1 examines relationships between store-level organizational climate variables and employee satisfaction and performance variables for 33,097 sales personnel in 537 retail stores. Study 2 investigates relationships between store-level situational constraints and customer service perception and shopping variables for 31,611 customers from 564 retail stores. The results of these studies did not support the proposition that situational variables act as substantive causes of correlations among the respective employee and customer variables or the variances and reliabilities of these variables. The implications of these findings for meta-analyses in applied psychology as well as the generalizability of the findings are discussed.

[1]  B. Schneider,et al.  Employee and customer perceptions of service in banks: Replication and extension. , 1985 .

[2]  Philip M. Podsakoff,et al.  Accounting for Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Leader Fairness and Task Scope versus Satisfaction , 1990 .

[3]  Michael J. Burke,et al.  Reconceptualizing psychological climate in a retail service environment: A multiple-stakeholder perspective. , 1992 .

[4]  L. James,et al.  Integrating Work Environment Perceptions: Explorations into the Measurement of Meaning , 1989 .

[5]  Edward R. Kemery,et al.  The power of the Schmidt and Hunter Additive Model of Validity Generalization. , 1987 .

[6]  K. J. Levy.  Large-sample pair-wise comparisons involving correlations, proportions, or variances. , 1975 .

[7]  David E. Bowen,et al.  Managing customers as human resources in service organizations , 1986 .

[8]  H. G. Osburn,et al.  Moderating effects of decision-making/information-processing job dimensions on test validities. , 1983 .

[9]  L. H. Peters,et al.  Situational constraint effects on performance, affective reactions, and turnover: A field replication and extension. , 1984 .

[10]  K. Klein,et al.  Correlates of Employee Satisfaction With Stock Ownership: Who Likes an ESOP Most? , 1988 .

[11]  L. James,et al.  rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. , 1993 .

[12]  Dennis W. Organ,et al.  COGNITIVE VERSUS AFFECTIVE DETERMINANTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR , 1989 .

[13]  A. Mento,et al.  Situational Constraints Within Air Force Task Environments , 1989 .

[14]  L. H. Peters,et al.  The Joint Influence of Situational Constraints and Goal Setting on Performance and Affective Outcomes , 1982 .

[15]  Lawrence R. James,et al.  Validity generalization in the context of situational models , 1992 .

[16]  Peter Wright,et al.  State-of-mind effects on the accuracy with which utility functions predict marketplace choice. , 1980 .

[17]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  A disagreement about within-group agreement: Disentangling issues of consistency versus consensus. , 1992 .

[18]  James S. Phillips,et al.  Situational Performance Constraints and Task Characteristics: Their Relationship to Motivation and Satisfaction , 1984 .

[19]  Michelle T. Iaffaldano,et al.  Job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis. , 1985 .

[20]  Lawrence H. Peters,et al.  The behavioral and affective consequences of performance-relevant situational variables☆ , 1980 .

[21]  L. James,et al.  Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. , 1984 .

[22]  L. H. Peters,et al.  Situational Constraints and Work Outcomes: The Influences Of a Frequently Overlooked Construct , 1980 .

[23]  D. M. Olson,et al.  More Evidence on Relationships Between the Work Environment and Job Performance , 1989 .

[24]  Steven H. Brown.  Validity generalization and situational moderation in the life insurance industry. , 1981 .

[25]  Benjamin Schneider,et al.  PERSON-SITUATION SELECTION: A REVIEW OF SOME ABILITY-SITUATION INTERACTION RESEARCH , 1978 .

[26]  W. Borman,et al.  Expanding the Criterion Domain to Include Elements of Contextual Performance , 1993 .

[27]  Lawrence H. Peters,et al.  An Examination of Situational Constraints in Air Force Work Settings , 1988 .

[28]  Robert P. Steel,et al.  Impact of situational constraints on subjective and objective criteria of managerial job performance , 1986 .

[29]  M. Burke.  Validity Generalization: A Review and Critique of the Correlation Model. , 1984 .

[30]  Lawrence R. James,et al.  Personality, affect, and behavior in groups revisited: Comment on aggregation, levels of analysis, and a recent application of within and between analysis. , 1993 .

[31]  Lawrence H. Peters,et al.  Measuring work obstacles: Procedures, issues, and implications. , 1988 .

[32]  William P. Dunlap,et al.  An Interactive FORTRAN IV program for calculating aspects of power in correlational research , 1985 .

[33]  Robert H. Moorman,et al.  Relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors : do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship ? , 1991 .

[34]  L. J. Bourgeois,et al.  Strategy and Environment: A Conceptual Integration , 1980 .

[35]  B. Schneider.  Employee and Customer Perceptions of Service in Banks. , 1980 .