A prevailing concern of leadership development is the extent to which performance-oriented training increases the ability of an individual to define and implement a process to accomplish stated objectives. The systems approach provides an analytic strategy for task decomposition into sequentially, temporally ordered activities without necessarily…

Excerpts from college students' ratings of their English instructor are presented along with some remarks about the usefulness of such ratings. Students' replies were concerned with the instructor's (1) knowledge of and interest in his subject matter, (2) effectiveness with explanation, (3) annoying mannerisms and eccentricities, (4) bias, (5)…

Examines the effect of three different modes of task orientation on observational attainment in practical chemistry. Results include the overall performance on the chemistry observation test and an analysis of the influence of the complexity of observational tasks on observational attainment. (Author/GS)

The differential activation of self-evaluative reactions to performance attainments on tasks varying on their relevance for subjects' sense of personal adequacy was investigated. All subjects (N=97) spoke extemporaneously on prescribed topics and received the same random sequence of performance scores. The same task was designated as assessing…

An initial model of the evaluation process in the leadership context is presented in order to consider information processing explanations of behavior in general and attributional analyses in particular. The model is designed to aid those individuals acting in supervisory capacities who must evaluate the performance of subordinates in an…

The connection between self-esteem, sex, and attributional style was examined in two studies. Results indicated that for positive events, high self-esteem subjects make more internal attributions than low self-esteem subjects, and for negative events, high self-esteem subjects make fewer internal attributions than low self-esteem subjects. The…

The effects of assigned status were investigated in same-sex competition with male (N=40) and female (N=80) college subjects. Those randomly assigned to high status improved in reaction time performance, while subjects randomly assigned to low status suffered a decrement. Contrary to expectations, in mixed-sex competition (fear of success arousal…

In organizational settings, research has shown the relationship of task characteristics to attitudes and motivation. This study examines the external validity of the task characteristic-outcome relationship in an educational setting. Subjects were 206 undergraduate psychology students. They were given an inventory of seven task characteristics…

Major sex differences in occupational and educational attainment are summarized and a rationale and supporting evidence presented for reducing such sex differences by strengthening across-sex task interaction and reward interdependence in school classrooms, thus strengthening across-sex peer influence. An experimental design is suggested, though…

Management by Objectives (MBO) has been found to be a useful means of conducting performance appraisals for professional employees. It is also an effective process for individual and organizational goal-setting and planning. Compensation systems may also be related to the MBO process. This paper addresses the concepts underlying MBO and its…

A battery of criterion referenced Job Task Performance Tests (JTPT) was developed because paper and pencil tests of job knowledge and electronic theory had very poor criterion-related or empirical validity with respect to the ability of electronic maintenance men to perform their job. Although the original JTPT required the use of actual…

Four papers were presented at a conference dealing with the objectives and problems of operational context training (OCT) sponsored by HumRRO in June 1958. The first paper (by William McCleland) outlines the objectives of the conference and its general goals. The second paper (by Arthur J. Hoehn) describes the use of operational context training…

The major purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between selected personality characteristics and attitudes of male extension agents in Wisconsin, and their level of job performance. The relationships between selected background factors and the level of agent's job performance were also studied. Subjects were 79 male county agents…

This study investigated decision behavior exhibited by elementary school aged children in a laboratory decision task. An effort was made to separate 247 children into "auditory" and "visual" subjects on the basis of their performance on two immediate memory sub-tests from the revised (1968) ITPA. Since the correlation for the Visual test did not…

Logical inference tasks were presented to 112 police officers. Two logical forms were employed, converse and contrapositive. Three levels of activation were identified by a Q-Sort and incorporated into the design. A third factor was also considered, four styles of negative. Results of 24 items were analyzed by means of sign tests. Converse tasks…