The study explores work motivation of autistic adults through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Twelve autistic employees (ages 28-47; 3 females) participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews about their work experience. Analysis combined inductive and deductive approaches, identifying motivational themes emerging from the…

Newcomer adjustment, the process an individual goes through within the first year at a new organization, can be a challenging transition for traditionally aged recent college graduates. Unsuccessful adjustment can have profound negative consequences for young adults, organizations, and undergraduate institutions. Gaps exist in the human resource…

Previous research has shown that Type As appraise their jobs as more demanding than do Type Bs, yet few studies have measured actual job demands. This prospective, observational study of police radio dispatchers (N=72) examined Type A behavior as a predictor of source of work demands, volume of work activity, whether work begun was finished, and…

Examined the correspondence between the roles of family and work figures, using 10 adults who had at least one year experience in their jobs. Results support the view that in working, people reenact roles and dramas from their families of origin, but these results must be regarded as tentative and promising. (ABL)

Cognitive cause maps permit a topological investigation of the complexity of organizational events and behaviors. Because cognitive cause maps are believed to be ordered according to a givens-means-ends schema, they contain information about an individual's motivation structure. In a work setting an individual engages in several different acts.…

Explored within empirical study context complexity of organizational commitment construct and respondent-generated behavioral manifestations of job attitude among plant workers (N=156). Found each commitment dimension related differently to work outcomes and that none of the dimensions was able to predict absenteeism or tardiness. (Author/CM)

Compared leisure behavior patterns after retirement with those of preretirement. Examined data within the context of the spillover and compensatory hypotheses, with retirement representing a nonwork sphere. Findings revealed a spillover effect, characterized by a high degree of passive, solitary leisure behavior both before and after retirement.…

Small business managers (N=430) were administered structured questionnaires through informal interviews to study the nature of the entrepreneur. Results indicated certain common characteristics, patterns of behavior, values and attitudes among entrepreneurs, and similarities in personality profiles. (RC)

Tested the action of the dissonance model on immigrants who were obliged to prepare for a new occupation. Four coping strategies were found combining high vs. low level of self-image and vocational involvement with positive vs. negative attitudes toward work and authority figures at work. (Author)

Experiments examined the effect of work requirements in combination with reinforcement schedules on the choice behavior of six adults with mental retardation and seven typical preschoolers. Results showed that participants' responding was largely controlled by the reinforcement received for responding to each level of work. (Author/CR)

Work attitudes of voluntarily unemployed males were investigated. Young men from four different alternative life style groups--hippies, bikers, surfers, and criminals--whose lives did not include work, and matched workers were interviewed and briefly tested. Data concerning their activities and attitudes were examined, the 88 variables showing…

Assessed the relative influence of personal, attitudinal, and behavioral variables on behavioral intentions and voluntary turnover among nonsupervisory plant workers. Results show that personal variables have little direct effect on turnover; rather, their influence on turnover is channeled through their effects on behavioral intentions. (Author)

A follow-up study of 60 nonworking persons with visual impairments who contacted a vision rehabilitation agency for vocational placement services over a five-year period found that the absence of other health or physical conditions and being unemployed one year or less were significant predictors of job-seeking behavior. (Contains references.)…

In a continuation of research on the technical labor force that was initiated in 1990 at a large northeastern university, professionalism among technical workers was examined from an emic perspective. (Emics are conceptual strategies that explain phenomena in terms meaningful to the people being studied, whereas etics explain phenomena in terms…

In a study designed to discover and describe the transmission of cultural meaning among women in middle management positions, oral histories of 10 middle management women were tape-recorded. The tapes were then transcribed and statements referring to the subjects' organizational enculturation were transferred onto approximately 500 sort cards.…