Search

The Big Five personality traits and self-efficacy independently relate to a multitude of outcomes across domains of functioning. Yet, only a small number of studies examined these variables together as part of the same conceptual model, and findings are mixed. We revisit their joint relationships, and test three conceptual models of influence on academic performance of college students over a semester. Because of the key role college graduates will play in society, many have a stake in better understanding their performance. The trait model specifies that the Big Five traits influence performance directly and indirectly through partial mediation of self-efficacy. In the independent model, the Big Five traits influence self-efficacy and performance independently, without mediation of self-efficacy. In the intrapersonal model, the effects of the Big Five traits on performance are fully mediated by self-efficacy. We collected data in five samples, three Universities, and two countries, N = 875, and conducted a meta-analytic path-analysis. Self-efficacy positively related to academic performance across the models, conscientiousness and emotional stability were predictive of self-efficacy and performance in some analyses, and the significance of the other three traits was fleeting.

Although support for the positive effect of group efficacy on group performance is copious, our understanding of how group efficacy forms is scant. Much remains unanswered about how the four efficacy antecedents, defined by social cognitive theory as enacted mastery, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and affect, concurrently influence group efficacy. Complementing the homology assumption of social cognitive theory, the authors propose and test a differential moderation model of group trust, in which group trust interacts synergistically or compensatorily with the four antecedents of group efficacy depending on the information content they provide. The results, based on 100 work groups in a manufacturing plant in China, showed that past group performance and group social persuasion were positively related to group efficacy, but that group vicarious learning and group positive affect were not. A significant interaction with group trust was found for group vicarious learning and for group positive affect. Finally, group efficacy was positively related to subsequent group performance, even after controlling for the four efficacy antecedents and group trust. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Practitioner points Group efficacy is a significant predictor of group performance., Building trust in work groups is a credible and critical managerial action for group efficacy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-regulation theories explain how psychological processes translate into action. We conceptualize the role of the trait core confidence higher-order construct in self-regulation processes and hypothesize its positive relationships with performance, satisfaction with life, and job satisfaction. On the basis of meta-analytic data (studies = 141, k = 226, N = 82,692), one student sample from the United States (n = 339), another student sample from Republic of Korea (n = 181), and field data from an auto group (20 car dealerships in 16 cities, n = 142 car sales associates), complementary analyses were conducted to examine convergent and predictive validities of the trait core confidence higher-order construct. Meta-analyses of the relationships among its four trait manifest variables (hope, general-efficacy, optimism, resilience) revealed that they are highly correlated. Confirmatory factor analyses in three studies indicated convergent validity. Predictive validity of the trait core confidence higher-order construct was supported in two studies.

The authors examined relationships among collective efficacy, group potency, and group performance. Meta-analytic results (based on 6,128 groups, 31,019 individuals, 118 correlations adjusted for dependence, and 96 studies) reveal that collective efficacy was significantly related to group performance (.35). In the proposed nested 2-level model, collective efficacy assessment (aggregation and group discussion) was tested as the 1st-level moderator. It showed significantly different average correlations with group performance (.32 vs. .45), but the group discussion assessment was homogeneous, whereas the aggregation assessment was heterogeneous. Consequently, there was no 2nd-level moderation for the group discussion, and heterogeneity in the aggregation group was accounted for by the 2nd-level moderator, task interdependence (high, moderate, and low levels were significant; the higher the level, the stronger the relationship). The 2nd and 3rd meta-analyses indicated that group potency was related to group performance (.29) and to collective efficacy (.65). When tested in a structural equation modeling analysis based on meta-analytic findings, collective efficacy fully mediated the relationship between group potency and group performance. The authors suggest future research and convert their findings to a probability of success index to help facilitate practice.

In this study, we provide the conceptual background, meta-analyze available behavioral management studies (N= 72) in organizational settings, and examine whether combined reinforcement effects on task performance are additive (sum of individual effects), redundant (combined effects are less than the additive effects), or synergistic (combined effects are greater than the sum of the individual effects). We found a significant overall average effect size of (d.) = .47 (16% improvement in performance; 63% probability of success), and a significant within-group heterogeneity of effect sizes. To account for this variation, we conducted a theory-driven moderator analysis, which indicated that money, feedback, and social recognition each had a significant impact on task performance. However, when these 3 reinforcers were used in combination, they produced the strongest (synergistic) effect on task performance. Based on our findings, we offer directions for future research, and suggestions for effective application of behavioral management at work.

In this field experiment, we first compared the performance effects of money systematically administered through the organizational behavior modification (O.B. Mod.) model and routine pay for perfo...

This study examines Bandura's (1986, 1997a) propositions that self-efficacy provides information from which causal attributions are made and that causal attributions, in turn, influence formation of subsequent self-efficacy expectations. We developed a conceptual rationale for and empirically tested 2 sets of hypotheses pertaining to direct and reciprocal links between self-efficacy and causal attributions. Effects of causal attributions and subsequently formed self-efficacy on subsequent task performance were also investigated. Results support the existence of direct and reciprocal links between self-efficacy and causal attributions. We found interactive effects between self-efficacy and performance feedback on causal attributions, and a mediating effect of causal attributions on the formation of subsequent self-efficacy beliefs. Causal attributions and subsequent self-efficacy also significantly predicted subsequent performance.

In the former planned economies, a major result of the economic reform programs has been the resurgence of private entrepreneurship. As these countries have struggled to make the transition to a market-based economy over the past decade, the environment has played an important structural role in entrepreneurial development. However, from a psychological perspective, the environmental structural context affects human action through cognitive processes such as self-regulation. Thus, we first identify and analyze the effect of the political, economic, legal, and cultural environment on the development of entrepreneurship in transitional economies, mainly using the former Soviet Union and particularly the Republic of Kazakhstan as an example. We then examine the role that social cognitive variables such as self-efficacy may play in the relationship between this external environment and entrepreneurial development.

Hedges and Olkin’s meta-analytic procedures for fitting parametric fixed effect categorical models to effect sizes have been widely used in research in experimental, social, and educational psychology. However, to date, this meta-analytic approach has been largely absent from the management literature in general and organizational behavior literature in particular. This article summarizes Hedges and Olkin’s meta-analytic method by (a) outlining the specific step-by-step analytical procedures, (b) using a simplified notational system, and (c) providing methodological and conceptual rationale for each analysis. The use of this approach can add considerable methodological power and provide a relevant meta-analytic alternative to the study of organizational behavior and management.

This article presents a social cognitive model that identifies, defines and relates key comprehensive factors that impact on business ethical standards and conduct across cultures. In particular, national cultures serve as the social foundation for generating and shaping in a triadically interacting manner institutional, organizational, and personal factors. The model predicts that these three antecedent factors combine to influence the perceptions of business ethical standards uniquely in each culture. The model also predicts that the consequences of the resulting ethical or unethical behaviors feed back to modify the subsequent ethical standards and conduct. Examples and implications of this social cognitive model are provided throughout.

The author develops core confidence as a higher order construct and suggests that a core confidence-higher order construct--not addressed by extant work motivation theories--is helpful in better understanding employee motivation in today's rapidly changing organizations. Drawing from psychology (social, clinical, and developmental) and social anthropology, the author develops propositions regarding the relationships between core confidence and performance, attitudes, and subjective well-being. The core confidence-higher order construct is proposed to be manifested by hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience. The author reasons that these four variables share a common confidence core (a higher order construct) and may be considered as its manifestations. Suggestions for future research and implications of the work are discussed.