Examined the conversational structure of questions and answers in a performance appraisal interview between a manager and an employee. Results demonstrated that both the manager and employee used question-and-answer pairs to demonstrate their understanding of the expectancy to ask and answer questions and to provide sequential implicativeness and…

This study is based on Locke's (1968) hypothesis that individuals will spontaneously set performance goals when feedback is related to a standard of performance. The study tests Locke's proposal in an actual work setting by comparing the performance rate of keystroke operators who received feedback and a standard with that of a control group who…

Goal-setting has been accepted as an effective motivational tool. Whether goals should be participatively set or assigned was examined by holding goal difficulty constant in an investigation based on previous results which suggested that participants in goal-setting set more difficult goals than those for whom goals are assigned. Results suggest…

Data from questionnaires administered to 163 company middle managers and from their personnel files revealed that the 87 managers from a division using the management-by-objectives appraisal system are more satisfied with this system and its feedback than are the 76 respondents from a division using a subjective appraisal system. (MLF)

Investigated the causal direction between interpersonal trust and assessed value of an MBO program in a large mass-transit organization. Three measures of trust were collected. Results indicated that trust in superiors and trust in top management affect the assessed value of MBO and suggests that an interaction effect occurred. (Author)

A study reviewed the progress of the 1978 Management by Objectives (MBO) and other management effectiveness programs initiated in Texas state agencies, 10 years after implementation. Questionnaires were distributed to a 25% random sample of executives, middle managers, and first level supervisors across the 11 largest state agencies. Over 1,700…

Argues that systematic positive feedback techniques such as those currently used in industry can and should be adapted as a management technique in schools--between administrators and teachers and between teachers and students as well. (TE)

Eight performance review interview characteristics were related to seven interview outcomes. Two hundred seventy nursing personnel described their last review interview. Five of the interview characteristics were related to most of the outcomes. Implications are drawn for conducting performance appraisal interviews. (Author/SJL)

Procedures and instruments used for evaluating either or both school superintendents and boards of education were solicited from Educational Research Service's subscribing school systems, state associations of school boards, and state associations of school administrators. Sixty-eight school systems sent their formal procedures for evaluating the…

The employee-employer relationship has changed. Previously, employees believed that their employers would recognize their loyalty and good work with steady compensation increases and job security. Since the mid-1980s, however, a steady stream of events has eroded this relationship: globalization, unfriendly takeovers, downsizing, and the efforts…

This study examined the relationship among accountability, efficacy, and organizational effectiveness by integrating findings from 17 research and development reports on Management by Objectives (MBO), an intervention that incorporates elements and processes of both accountability (goal-setting, measuring and monitoring, feedback) and efficacy…

Administrators from 32 public two-year community colleges were surveyed to reveal the extent to which Management by Objectives (MBO) programs affected organizational conditions; 200 questionnaires (71%) were returned. Approximately 65% of the administrators indicated that the MBO system did not change the amount of formal contact between superior…

A review of the research literature on goal-setting in organizational settings reveals that goal-setting on an individual job results in better task performance. However, the processes behind their effectiveness is unclear. For example, how are various job attributes of task goals related to performance, and how do various individual differences…

An exploratory study examined how administrators (department heads/chairs) perceive faculty members, as well as themselves, in the performance appraisal interview. Subjects, 450 faculty members and 200 administrators at a midwestern university, answered an Appraisal Interview Questionnaire in which they rated administrator performance, content and…

This report is a multi-disciplinary evaluation of policy-related research (which met relatively high standards of scientific validity) dealing with features of work affecting both the productivity and job satisfaction of employees. Its purpose is to determine whether and how worker job satisfaction and productivity together may be enhanced by…