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This paper reports the findings of a study comparing the methods used to select university graduates in British, Dutch and French organizations. In keeping with several recently published studies of managerial selection practices, a number of highly significant differences were observed in terms of the use of various selection methods across the three countries. The paper concludes with a call for follow-up studies of an in-depth, qualitative nature, in order to uncover the reasons for the existence of these cross-national variations in patterns of usage., During the past decade, there has been considerable interest shown in the recruitment and selection practices of employers both within the United Kingdom (e.g. Bartram, Lindley, Marshall & Foster, 1995; [...]

Although a large body of literature exists about the use of formal selection techniques (FST) in the selection of research and development (R&D) projects most of it has focused on the instrumental use of the techniques and much scepticism exists about their value. Very little attention has been paid to the political or supportive use of the techniques, though project selection is often a political process. This study uses a two by two analytical framework combining these two forms of use. An empirical analysis of 149 individuals in 149 different companies describing 258 R&D selection decisions uses discriminant analysis to identify the determinants of the four different kinds of use at three levels of analysis: the individual, the project, and the organization. Considerable consistency is shown across levels and the importance of the supportive/political use of FST is emphasized. Index Terms - R&D project selection, selection processes, management decision-making, use of decision-making models, political processes, political behavior, RD&E, RD&E organizations, RD&E management.

Reports the results of an empirical study of psychological stress and strain among teachers. A number of strain variables were sampled: various aspects of job satisfaction and felt pressure; self-esteem assessed against the perceived qualities of other teachers; and clinically validated measures of depression, anxiety, somaticism, and obsessionality. (Author/CT)

This paper describes the demands, supports-constraints framework originally articulated by Payne (1979) for predicting psychological distress, and reports the results of an empirical study involving 2452 white-collar, public sector employees in Australia. The study uses hierarchical regression to test for the interaction effects of the demands and constraints variables, having applied suitable controls for instance by including trait anxiety and removing curvilinear effects. The results reveal little evidence of an interactive effect but moderately strong main effects and modest support for the value of controlling for curvilinear effects. Trait anxiety is shown to have a strong effect on psychological distress and considerably reduces the size of the relationship between demands, supports-constraints and psychological distress when statistically controlled for. However, it still accounts for 18.7% of the variance when entered last in the regression and it is recommended that its effects be explored in all studies of stress that rely on self-report data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two measures of perceived health, the general health questionnaire and the Nottingham health profile were completed by middle and working class men who had been unemployed for between 18 and 24 months, or had been unemployed longer than six months before regaining employment. Clear differences were found between the perceived health status of the unemployed men and those who had become re-employed. Virtually no association was found between social class and scores on the health measures, supporting earlier findings that unemployment leads to equally poor perceived health in middle class and working class males. High correlations were obtained between the 12-item general health questionnaire, the anxiety and the depression scales, with all three measures correlating quite highly with the emotional reactions, sleep and social isolation sections of the Nottingham health profile. However, the Nottingham health profile provided a broader assessment of perceived health, giving additional information on pain and physical mobility problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two manufacturing companies which were sharply contrasted in terms of their overall structure were examined for differences in organizational climate, and for differences in the structure and cohesiveness of groups of line managers at top, middle,, and lower levels of the hierarchies. Contrary to expectations, a high degree of standard procedures and documentation was associated with a more innovative and challenging climate than was found with a low degree of standard procedures and documentation. The structural differences among the groups strongly reflected the structural differences between the two organizations seen as wholes, but groups in 10th organizations were equally cohesive. The study has pioneered some of the problems of measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the Hemphill Group Dimensions Description Questionnaire. According to J.K. Hemphill, the Hemphill Group Dimensions Description Questionnaire is part of an attempt to arrange all social collectivities on a meaningful set of orthogonal dimensions. The particular social collectivities to which the questionnaire was applied by Hemphill were classifiable by interest attributes: scholastic, religious, recreational, work interests, and by institutional attributes: voluntary organizations, educational organizations, employing organizations. Some of the dimensions used by Hemphill, notably autonomy, control and flexibility are of intrinsic interest to students of organization theory. It would appear that the Hemphill group dimensions are most appropriate for the study of formal organizational units and sub-units which are smallish in size. They are less appropriate for very large collectivities or for dyadic friendships. It has not been an aim of the this study to include all social collectivities within the research. Rather it has concentrated on work organizations.

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The article presents the author's comments on the research paper of authors Paul E. Spector, Dieter Zapf, Peter Ychen and Michael Frese on the effect of negative affectivity (NA) on job stress. The author argues that the argument for not partialling out for NA revolves around whether NA is construed to be a bias or to have a substantive effect. Organizational scientists argued for partialling out NA because they believed high NA people perceived more stress and, because they are high on NA, report higher strain. This is certainly what the author considers when there is a mediating effect, but he doesn't see this as bias when the measures are self-report. The effects of NA here are only bias if the measure is assumed to represent the objective level of stress and the research paper can't claim that it represented objective environment. Nor would they necessarily recommend partialling out for NA if the measures of stress were objective. The author thinks that the paper writers would agree here because they say themselves, as they said that from hence from this perspective measures of job stressors and other work conditions are all biased because they are affected by many personal.