International Journal of Manpower - Volume 23 Issue 8 (2002) - Special Issue: Work values and organizational behaviour: towards the new millennium

International Journal of Manpower

ISSN 0143-7720 Volume 23 Number 8 2002

Work values and organizational behaviour: towards the new millennium Guest Editors Shmuel Stashevsky, Meni Koslowsky and Abraham Sagie Paper format International Journal of Manpower includes eight issues in traditional paper format. The contents of this issue are detailed below.

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Access to International Journal of Manpower online_ Editorial advisory board ___________________________ Abstracts and keywords ___________________________ Introduction _______________________________________ Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models?

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Jeffrey Kantor and Jacob Weisberg _________________________________

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Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? Margaret Patrickson _____________________________________________

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Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer and Gabriela Riedl _______________________

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Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system Nava Maslovaty ________________________________________________

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A model for managing trust Nico Martins ___________________________________________________

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Book review_______________________________________ 770 About the authors _________________________________ 773 Index to volume 23, 2002 __________________________ 775

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CONTENTS

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Professor David J. Bartholomew The London School of Economics Professor Derek Bosworth Manchester School of Management, UMIST, UK Professor Martin Carnoy School of Education, Stanford University, USA Professor Peter Dawkins Melbourne Institute for Applied Economic and Social Research, Melbourne University, Australia

Professor Lord Richard Layard Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, UK Professor John Mangan University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Professor Stephen L. Mangum Ohio State University, Ohio, USA

Professor John Fyfe W.S. Atkins plc, Epsom, UK

Professor Barrie Pettman International Management Centres, UK, and Founding Editor of International Journal of Manpower

Professor Morley Gunderson University of Toronto, Canada

Professor Abraham (Rami) Sagie Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Professor Thomas J. Hyclak Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA

Professor David Sapsford Management School, Lancaster University, UK

Professor Susan E. Jackson Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

Professor P.J. Sloane University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland Professor Klaus F. Zimmerman Department of Economics, University of Bonn, Germany

Professor Harish C. Jain McMaster University, Canada Professor Geraint Johnes Management School, Lancaster University, UK

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International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, Abstracts and keywords. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720

Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models? Jeffrey Kantor and Jacob Weisberg Keywords Attitudes, Behaviour, Ethics, Managers, Influence, Roles Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior in organizations may have substantial ramifications on a firm’s operation. This study investigates whether or not managers are perceived by employees to exhibit ethical attitudes and ethical behavior and thereby being their role models. A sample of 111 employees within the finance department of a major municipality who are exposed to unethical behavior responded to a structured questionnaire concerning ethical and unethical episodes. There were three major findings: first, consistently perceived ethical behavior is lower than perceived ethical attitudes of the employee, his peers and of his managers; second, selfenhancing bias exists; and third, managers do not exhibit an ethical role model in the organization. Implications for human resource management and policies are discussed. Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? Margaret Patrickson Keywords Australia, Older employees, Telecommuting Advances in technology have significantly expanded the capacity of individuals to undertake their work role outside the confines of their employers’ premises, and changes in industrial relations policies and practices in Australia have facilitated organisational willingness to explore such possibilities. A significant portion of all offsite working is undertaken by employees at home, and this group increasingly consists of teleworkers who undertake data processing activities in a home office communicating the results to their employer via modem or phone. This paper considers whether such changes, especially the recent growth in teleworking, can generate potential work opportunities for those who have traditionally been marginalised in the workforce. In particular the paper explores whether teleworking might open employment opportunities to older workers. It concludes that though older workers might offer as potentially viable

candidates for this type of work activity, they are unlikely to be successful in gaining employment given present employer attitudes and practices. Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer and Gabriela Riedl Keywords Career development, Performance, Job satisfaction, Commitment, Career planning The discussion on career plateaus is marked by a diversity of operationalizations. This paper focuses on the independence of three dimensions of career plateaus and the impact they have on outcome measures in three areas: performance, work satisfaction and commitment. Data from 165 university staff and 77 school teachers confirmed the independence of the concepts of career plateaus. Contrary to the general assumption that an extended period working at the same position has detrimental effects, outcome variables were not connected to position immobility. Results for most of the outcome measures showed the work-content dimension to account for significantly more variance than the subjective structural dimension. Advances in work content can even moderate negative effects emanating from low expectations of hierarchical promotion. Specifically, the negative effects were most pronounced where the two subjective dimensions of career plateau coincided. These have implications for individual and organizational career management processes. Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system Nava Maslovaty Keywords Students, Teachers, Organizational learning This study relates to a setting which approaches organizational learning. The professional ideal student trait system and the personal value system, as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers, are presented as constructs of the belief system. Conclusions are drawn from a comparative analysis of seven samples. Although the

constructs of the personal value system and the ideal high school student trait system were similar, their content priorities were different, focusing professionally on academic traits and personally on interpersonal values. The structure of the ideal high school student multivariate system confirmed Schwartz’s bipolar continue value model: conservation versus openness to change and selftranscendence versus self-enhancement. Two techniques for organizational learning are presented for promoting, theorizing, and evaluating teachers’ perceptions of the ideal student trait system. A model for managing trust Nico Martins Keywords Trust, Management styles, Management attitudes, Interpersonal communications The study, representing 6,528 employees, investigates the relationship of the ‘‘big five’’

personality dimensions and managerial practices to the dimension of trust relationships between managers and employees, and also the relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. Results indicate that managerial practices have an influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees. A weaker relationship with the dimension of trust was obtained for the ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions. Although there appears to be a weaker relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and the dimension of trust, the relatively good fit of the model indicates that an overall implication of the model is that both managerial practices and the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects of the manager might influence his/her subordinates indirectly. The results indicate that although managers perceived it to be a good instrument to use, future research is needed to expand other anecdotes of trust.

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Introduction About the Guest Editors Shmuel Stashevsky (PhD, Bar-Ilan University) is the Director of the International MBA Program in the Graduate School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is active in both academic and business worlds. He has professional experience in hi-tech entrepreneurship, management of business units, consulting and training, project management, systems analysis, and software development. His research interests are: quality management, participatory programs, organizational behavior, Internet usage and e-commerce, and business games. E-mail: [email protected] Meni Koslowsky (PhD, Columbia University) is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has written more than 100 papers in the areas of industrial and organizational psychology. His interests today are organizational behavior, personnel selection, and research methodology. E-mail: [email protected] Abraham Sagie, PhD, is the Director of the School of Business Administration in Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and the co-author of Participation and Empowerment in Organizations: Modeling, Effectiveness, and Applications (Sage). Currently he is the co-editor of the book Misbehavior and Dysfunctional Attitudes in Organizations (Palgrave/Macmillan). His research interests include participative decision making, work and organizational values, and cross-cultural aspects of leadership, motivation, and behavior in organizations. He served as a Scientific Chair and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV). He also works as an organizational consultant to various Israeli firms. E-mail: [email protected]

New personnel perspectives in the work environment The twenty-first century has been accompanied by an increasing pace of change in the work environment. The rapidly changing nature of work, together with technological advances demand changes in management, and call for new personnel perspectives. Schultz and Schultz (2001) identified changes relating to the kinds of jobs available and the ways in which they are performed: . Virtual workplace – today, many organizations have employees who work off-site, telecommuting from a home office, phoning from a car or airplane, or teleconferencing from a hotel room. . Virtual employees – these are employees who work as contingent workers, freelancers, independent contractors, or part time seasonal labor. . Worker involvement (or: worker empowerment, worker participation) – workers who upgrade their personal skills, get more organizational power, are involved in the policy of their organizations, and participate in work decision making. . Changing technology and skills – today radical advances in technology are being implemented; the work environment has become automated with sophisticated equipment taking over functions once performed by humans. Workers must be technologically proficient in new systems and procedures, especially with regards to computers, communications, Internet, and/or industrial robots. There are fewer job opportunities for computer-illiterate or poorly educated people.

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Diversity issues – today the work force comprises diverse demographic characteristics as well as many cultures and backgrounds. Managers are expected to know how to cope with problems stemming from such compositions of their staff.

The Schultz and Schultz (2001) list does not address all the transformations observed in the workplace. For example, delayering and horizontal management structures are being widely adopted (Powell, 2002). Flatter organizations offer a new set of management options; more teamwork, less bureaucracy, better communications, opportunities for professional development and greater job satisfaction. Yet, the effectiveness of such a change is critically dependent on the supporting attitudes and perceptions of the workers. All these changes and many others call for a dramatic makeover in the organization. In order to change the workplace the cooperation of employees is needed. Resistance to change is a major barrier in applying new methods in organizations. Some employees resist because they believe that the company is trying to make them work harder or that they might lose their job as a result of the performance improvements. Therefore, a change in the beliefs and attitudes of the staff is needed in order to overcome the resistance to change. For example, Wicks (2002) examined how telework can be used to provide benefits to organizations and their members. His findings highlight the importance of forming positive attitudes toward telework. These results apply as well to other sorts of advanced technologies of production and control in the workplace. These new trends emphasize the importance of management in creating changes in organizations. ‘‘Managers have often relied on new technology or structural changes to provide fast, comprehensive improvements in their organizations. In the emerging paradigm, improved technologies and structures may be required, but managers do not stop here. Instead, they introduce improvements throughout the organization. Furthermore, all of these changes are integrated, mutually supportive, and strategically directed toward providing value to customers. Such comprehensive improvement requires leaders to put in place the right set of role responsibilities and define what people should accomplish. In brief, people will not shift from old practices until their roles are redefined’’ (Bounds et al., 1994, p. 132). The five studies chosen for this special issue[1] deal with the new environment that confronts management in the beginning of the new millennium. Two major elements are emphasized in these works: the importance of management as a drive to change and the changes in employees’ beliefs, attitudes and perceptions. The authors highlight the importance of ethical standards and trust as means to advance changes in the organization. The study by Kantor and Weisberg assesses ethical attitudes and ethical behavior using the Newstrom and Ruch (1975) ethical scale. In the study, three organizational actors were addressed: the employee, co-workers, and the managers, and three important findings are presented. First, perceived ethical

Introduction

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behavior is lower than the perceived ethical attitudes for each organizational actor. The rationale of this finding is that one would not behave more ethically than the specific level of standards to which one will set for himself. Second, self-enhancing bias exists: the employee believes that his or her behavior is more ethical than the behavior of her/his peers. The third finding is, probably, the most interesting one: managers do not exhibit for their subordinates an ethical role model in the organization. The difference between the ethical attitudes and behavior of the managers was considerably higher than the difference of either the employee or the employee’s peers. Therefore, one of the objectives of management should be to improve its own actual ethical behavior as well as the image of this behavior. This might increase employees’ ethical behavior and improve their motivation, involvement, and commitment. Ultimately, this may improve organizational outcomes including job performance and customer satisfaction. Margaret Patrickson explores in her study the new employment opportunities that are open for older workers. The massive technological advances in computers, communications, and Internet have significantly expanded the capacity of individuals to undertake their work role at home. Teleworkers can perform data processing activities in a home office and transmit the results to their employer via modem and Internet connection. This study considers whether such changes, especially the recent growth in teleworking, can generate new work opportunities for older workers. Patrickson concludes that while teleworking offers hope to those seeking part time work opportunities in the home environment, at the present time its likelihood for ensuring greater work prospects is largely illusionary for individuals without established connections with potential employers. The author concludes that as many of the older individuals are keen to take up part time opportunities, are able to learn, and suited to the work, all that is really required is a willingness on the part of an employer to offer them an opportunity. Nachbagauer and Riedl studied the effects of concepts of career plateaus on some organizational outcomes at the individual level: job performance, work satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Career plateau is traditionally defined as the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low. The authors extended this definition to include career movement within an organization both hierarchically and along a task oriented dimension or work-content dimension (changing tasks and responsibilities). Contrary to the general assumption that an extended period working at the same position has detrimental effects, outcome variables were not connected to position immobility. Results for most of the outcome measures showed the work-content dimension to account for significantly more variance than the subjective structural dimension. Advances in work content can even moderate negative effects emanating from low expectations of hierarchical promotion. Specifically, the negative effects were most pronounced where the two subjective dimensions of career plateau coincided. Nowadays advancement

possibilities decrease due to decentralization and lack of hierarchical promotions. These results indicate that career plateau does not need to have pernicious effects on organizations. We have to be aware of their causes, types and effects in order to take proactive actions. Organizational learning in the educational workplace is the topic of Maslovaty’s study. The author examines the changes in teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system, and, consequently, changes in educational goals. In the last decade educational goals have changed from merely straightforward transmission approach to more constructive ways of formatting knowledge and developing understanding. Based on seven different samples, the study presents a multivariate definition of the ideal student’s trait system that is based on Schwartz’s (1992) two bipolar dimensions of the value system: conservation versus openness to change, and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement. The paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the structures of the two systems, of personal values and of ideal student traits and concludes in calling for narrowing the gap between them. A model for managing trust is suggested and empirically tested by Martins. Trust is defined as the process in which a trustor relies on a trustee (a person or group of people) to act according to specific expectations that are important to the trustor without taking advantage of the trustor’s vulnerability. The author cites Shaw (1997) who wrote: ‘‘With trust, life becomes much simpler. With trust, we can devote our attention to a much broader range of activities than would be possible in an environment of suspicion.’’ The study investigates the relationship of the manager-employee trust relationships to the manager’s ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions and managerial practices. Results indicate that while managerial practices have a significant influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees, a weaker relationship was obtained for the ‘‘big five’’. Nevertheless, the relatively good fit of the overall model indicates that both variables indirectly contribute to the trust relationships. In summary, the special issue by dissecting some of the new issues in management helps us better understand the changing workplace. Written from theoretical and practical perspectives, we can appreciate that the changes have evolved both from the desk of the academic and the experience of managers who tried and succeeded in introducing new ways for deal with the job and the worker. The future success of manager and worker requires that the former be at the vanguard of the new environment and that the worker be aware of the demands and the possibilities that the workplace now offers. Shmuel Stashevsky, Meni Koslowsky and Abraham Sagie Note 1. The papers in this special issue are based on presentations made at the seventh bi-annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV) that took place in Jerusalem, Israel, 2000. The main theme of this conference was ‘‘Work values and organizational behavior towards the new millennium’’.

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References Bounds, G., Yorks, L., Adams, L. and Ranney, G. (1994), Beyond Total Quality Management Toward the Emerging Paradigm, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Newstrom, J.W. and Ruch, W.A. (1975), ‘‘The ethics of management and the management of ethics’’, MSU Business Topics, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 29-37. Powell, L. (2002), ‘‘Shedding a tier: flattening organizational structures and employee empowerment’’, The International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 54-9. Schultz, D. and Schultz, S.E. (2001), Psychology and Work Today, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Schwartz, S.H. (1992), ‘‘Universals in the content and structure of values: theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries’’, in Zanna, M. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 25, Academic Press, New York, NY, pp. 1-65. Shaw, R.B. (1997), Trust in the Balance, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Wicks, D. (2002), ‘‘Successfully increasing technological control through minimizing workplace resistance: understanding the willingness to telework’’, Management Decision, Vol. 40 No. 7, pp. 672-81.

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Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models? Jeffrey Kantor

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University of Windsor and Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, and

Jacob Weisberg Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Keywords Attitudes, Behaviour, Ethics, Managers, Influence, Roles Abstract Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior in organizations may have substantial ramifications on a firm’s operation. This study investigates whether or not managers are perceived by employees to exhibit ethical attitudes and ethical behavior and thereby being their role models. A sample of 111 employees within the finance department of a major municipality who are exposed to unethical behavior responded to a structured questionnaire concerning ethical and unethical episodes. There were three major findings: first, consistently perceived ethical behavior is lower than perceived ethical attitudes of the employee, his peers and of his managers; second, self-enhancing bias exists; and third, managers do not exhibit an ethical role model in the organization. Implications for human resource management and policies are discussed.

Introduction Performance appraisals over the years have increasingly become a prime focus in the psychology and organizational behavior fields. However, few companies use appraisals of their managers as perceived by the subordinates (Bernardin, 1986). The latter are sometimes in a better position to assess certain managerial aspects than other sources of assessment. When a group of employees evaluate their managers’ performance, attitudes, behavior, etc. it will likely shed more light on the matter than had the appraisal been done by a single rater. One of the more recent areas which is gaining importance in the literature is business ethics. In this area, employees’ perceptions of their managers’ and peers’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior is a valid tool of appraisal which deserves more attention in our research efforts. The development and expression of managers’ (Izraeli, 1988) and employees’ ethical attitudes and behavior are areas of profound concern to the business community as evidenced by the large number of studies published in both academic journals and popular business publications. Research in the business ethics arena is difficult because of the problem of determining, measuring, and/ or predicting actual behavior in real life. Moreover, research in the area of ethics is difficult in many situations as some of the results may affect attitudes and behavior which themselves affect ethical matters. Finally, it is often difficult to observe and measure day-to-day employees’ attitudes and behavior, The authors would like to thank Ms Lilach Cohen and Ms Neta Ravid-Golan for their research assistance, and Ms Cindy Sinvani for her editorial assistance.

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which could, if left unattended, snowball into major ethical crises in organizations. Hunter (1996) argues that there are real and substantial costs to unethical behavior including: deterioration of relationships; mistrust; negative impact on employee productivity; stifling of employee creativity; information flows throughout the company become ineffective; employee loyalty declines and absenteeism and labor turnover increases. Firms cope with employees’ diversities and inappropriate behavior by creating and introducing into the firm a code of ethics which includes attitudes and behavior towards the external environment e.g. customers and within the firm e.g. co-workers and managers. This is virtually a self-regulation process which is defined in the literature as a situation whereby the existence of formal rules (codes of conduct) affect attitudes and behavior. The influence of the existence of a code of ethics on the behavior and attitudes of individuals has been discussed in previous studies (Hemphill, 1992). People tend to think and behave differently because there are different codes in place. It can be expected that attitudes and behavior will closely resemble these codes of ethics. Sometimes, the firm signals a particular ethical attitude and behavior, whilst the peers and managers signal something different or act as role models transmitting different ethical norms. Codes of ethics may facilitate selfregulation by helping the organization come to terms with its social responsibilities and serve as a sign of good intentions (L’Etang, 1992). Formal codes of ethics exist to define professional values (Anderson et al., 1993; Trevino, 1986), to set standards (Murphy and Laczniak, 1981), to inform members of the profession what the standards are (Dean, 1992), to help ensure autonomy through self-regulation, and to help define the organization’s obligations to society. Ethical dilemmas are more prevalent in situations when power is unequally distributed and controlled by relatively few. The public sector and in particular organizations with a high degree of bureaucracy are characterized by a relative abundance of power in the hands of individuals. This provides opportunities particularly for civil servants working in local governments to use power in a relatively unethical way. Individuals in the private sector, however, would likely tend to think and behave more ethically. Udas et al. (1996) who studied public sector MIS professionals found that ethical obligations are stronger for management and employers than for coworkers. However, a key question remained unanswered: Are managers perceived as exhibiting positive ethical attitudes and ethical behavior? Are managers perceived by their subordinates as role models in regard to ethical attitudes and ethical behavior? The primary aim of this study is to answer this question. Literature review Many theories have been applied to different aspects of business ethics e.g. Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior; Jones’ (1991) theory of moral

intensity; the theory of moral development (Marnburg, 2001); and the theory of Ethical attitudes cognitive development (Abdolmohammadi and Sultan, 2002). vs ethical Social scientists generally recognize that a gap may exist between what a behavior participant recommends or thinks ought to be done or intends to do, and what the participant actually does in any given ethical decision situation. Although this gap is recognized, researchers continue to predict future behavior from 689 participants’ current intent or normative opinion. The research presented in Weber and Gillespie (1998) represents a new and valuable contribution to this arena. There has been descriptive work in the area such as the models by Ferrell and Gresham (1985), Ferrell et al. (1989), Hunt and Vitell (1986). There has also been empirical work to test these models (Mayo and Marks, 1990; Reidenbach and Robin, 1990; Singhapakdi and Vitell, 1990, 1991; Vitell and Hunt, 1990). Ferrell and Weaver (1978) in a descriptive study of 280 marketing managers attempted to understand the relationship between the actual behavior of individuals as opposed to the actual behavior of their peers. A 17-item questionnaire developed by Newstrom and Ruch (1975) was used. The study also dealt with the relationship between beliefs of individuals as opposed to perceived beliefs of their peers and superiors. It was found that, overall, both behavior and attitudes of respondents were perceived (by these respondents) to be of a higher standard than those of their peers. The results regarding the managers was however inconclusive. It was unclear as to whether or not the respondents believed that their attitudes were more ethical than those of their managers. In our study we are primarily interested in employees’ perceptions of their managers and peers as compared to themselves, in particular as regards to attitudes and behavior. This is an elaboration of the Ferrell and Weaver (1978) study which has been used in other studies to investigate cross-cultural differences. In Jackson and Calafell-Artola (1997) data were collected for managers from France and Germany, using the results to analyze cultural differences. Also, in Izraeli (1988) the survey was used to investigate attitudes/ beliefs and behavior from the perspective of managers. Jones and Kavanagh (1996), using an experimental design, examined both peer and managerial influences. They argued that the ethical behavior of employees is ‘‘pulled down’’ as a result of unethical behavior by managers and co-workers. To the extent that managers’ and peers’ behavior is improved, so is the behavior of the employees. Organizations, especially in the public sector, where rules may be (and frequently are) set by authorities, should focus on ensuring that stringent regulations/codes of conduct are put into place. These would likely make the behavior of managers (who are more likely to suffer from infractions) more ethical and therefore positively influence the ethical behavior of employees. With strict codes of conduct, managers (and possibly even co-workers) could be role models for the behavior and attitudes of employees.

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Study objectives This study complements a previous one (Izraeli, 1988) conducted on Israeli managers which focused on their perceptions of their subordinates and peers. However, an important advantage of our study over Izraeli’s, is that the latter used a sample of managers from different organizations, whereas in our study the sample is drawn from a single organization. Thus, the organizational culture is imposed on all workers with no possible bias of organizational differences. Our study focuses on the question as to whether managers are perceived to be role models. In order to do this we examined the employees’ perceptions of their bosses’ attitudes and behavior relating to ethical issues. Thereafter, their perceived attitudes and behavior and those of their co-workers were measured. Hypotheses A set of relationships between attitudes and behavior are hypothesized and tested. The variations shown in Table I permit the reader to observe the hypothesis being tested. A set of three hypotheses are proposed based upon the argument that people would not normally behave in a way which is more ethical than how they believe they should act. One of the key questions on attitudes and behavior concerns the ‘‘degree’’ or ‘‘level’’ of standards an employee determines for himself/herself, for his peers and for his managers. A certain level of standards to which the particular person would like to reach is set and it would seem to be obvious that one would not behave more ethically than this set ‘‘level’’. In the following hypotheses we will show that an employee will have attitudes/standards that are ‘‘stricter’’ than his behavior. A similar rationale will apply to his perception concerning his peers and managers. H1. Employees perceive that their ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their ethical behavior (Z1 > Z4Þ: H2. Employees perceive their peers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their peers’ ethical behavior (Z2 > Z5). H3. Employees perceive their managers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their managers’ ethical behavior (Z3 > Z6). One of the well-known biases in the social psychology literature is ‘‘selfenhancement bias’’ which is considered by Pfeffer and Veiga (1999). They suggest that most of the people see themselves in a self-enhancing fashion, thus regarding themselves as more intelligent, skilled, ethical, honest, etc. than

Table I. Variations reflected in hypotheses

Beliefs/attitudes Behavior

Employees

Peers

Managers

Z1 Z4

Z2 Z5

Z3 Z6

others. Moreover, they suggest that about 90 percent of managers and workers Ethical attitudes evaluate their performance as superior to that of their peers. As such, it will vs ethical not be a surprise that workers will assess their behavior as superior to their behavior peers and managers. Furthermore, Suls et al. (2002) found in their study of comparisons of persons’ attributes that the participants rated themselves higher than their friends, peers and managers. 691 It is most appropriate that self-enhancement be based on the social comparison theory (Mumford, 1983), which suggests that when individuals are uncertain of their opinions and abilities they will compare them to those of others in similar positions. The same framework can be applied to the assessment of ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. Jones and Kavanagh (1996) investigated the effect of the behavior of peers and managers on the behavior of individuals. To strengthen the arguments put forward in Jones and Kavanagh (1996) we expand the testing to include a consideration of perceived attitudes. We look at the effect of the perceived attitudes of peers and managers on the attitudes of individuals. We test these matters in H4 and H5 in relation to behavior and in H6 and H7 in relation to attitudes. H4. Employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their peers (Z4 > Z5). H5. Employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their managers (Z4 > Z6). H6. Employees perceive that their attitudes are more ethical than those of their peers (Z1 > Z2). H7. Employees perceive that their attitudes are more ethical than those of their managers (Z1 > Z3). To sum up the above hypotheses, we suggest that behavior will always be ‘‘lower’’ than attitudes and that due to the self-enhancement bias workers overestimate their ethical attitudes and ethical behavior as ‘‘more’’ than those of their peers and managers. Methodology A sample of 111 employees from the finance department of one of the biggest municipalities in Israel were interviewed, using structured self-administered questionnaires. These employees provide services to the public and deal with financial matters. They are exposed to all kinds of possible ethical scenarios. Because the respondents were chosen from one particular unit in the municipality, all respondents experience comparable types of working conditions, similar levels of stress, equivalent exposures to public demands, etc. The research topic was very important to the organization’s management, and therefore the interviews were conducted during working hours with permission of the management. All employees who were requested to

International Journal of Manpower 23,8 692

participate in the study completed the questionnaire, which means that we effectively had a 100 percent response rate. While the respondent completed the questionnaire, a research assistant was available to answer questions. The questionnaire included six identical sets of questions. The first three sets of questions (group A) dealt with attitudes and the second three sets of questions (group B) dealt with behavior. The first set within each group dealt with the employee, the second set within each group dealt with co-workers, and the third set within each group dealt with the employees’ managers. Respondents answered questions from group A prior to answering questions from group B. In order to reduce the chance of ‘‘social desirability’’ bias (McKendell et al., 2002) respondents were assured confidentiality by the researchers, meaning no personal information was passed to the management and questionnaires were the exclusive property of the researchers. Questionnaire A 17-item (for detailed items see Table II) questionnaire for studying ethical attitudes was developed by Newstrom and Ruch (1975) and used by Ferrell and Weaver (1978). We used this validated scale, consisting of 102 questions, for our research to study employees’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior of themselves, peers and managers. In addition demographic questions were included to obtain some background information on the respondents. We preferred this questionnaire over others e.g. the ethical climate scale (Menzel, 1995) since the latter is too general and less comprehensive (including only nine items). Respondents were asked to respond on a five-point Likert scale. The scale for each negatively phrased ‘‘attitude’’ question ranged from 1 ¼ very ethical, meaning that the respondent justified this negative/unethical phrase and that his/her belief is very unethical, to 5 ¼ very unethical, meaning that the respondent does not justify this negative/unethical item and thus he/she is very ethical. The scale for each positively phrased ‘‘behavior’’ question ranged from 1 ¼ very unethical, meaning that the respondent justified this positive/ethical phrase and his/her belief is very ethical, to 5 ¼ very ethical, meaning that the respondent justified this positive/ethical item and thus he/she is very unethical. For the data analysis process the direction of the scale was reversed, ensuring that both ‘‘attitudes’’ and ‘‘behavior’’ were in the same direction. For both attitudes and behavior, the higher the score the more ethical the attitudes or the behavior. Translation/re-translation technique Two research assistants translated the questionnaire used in this study to Hebrew. The translated version was then translated by two other research assistants from Hebrew back to English and compared to the original English version. Minor inadequacies were adjusted in the Hebrew language version.

a

Notes: Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05

Average

Z1 ¼ 4.26

3.96 4.46 4.54 3.58 4.49 3.88 4.16 4.64 4.59 4.66 4.55 4.10 4.27 4.24 4.41 4.04 3.92

Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks, early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

14 7 5 17 6 16 11 2 3 1 4 12 9 10 8 13 15

Attitude Mean Rank

Items

No.

Z4 ¼ 4.04

3.51 4.03 4.21 3.71 4.29 3.60 4.02 4.22 4.18 4.23 4.28 4.01 4.26 4.14 4.12 4.11 3.76

17 11 6 15 2 16 12 5 7 4 1 13 3 8 9 10 14

Behavior Mean Rank

0.22*

0.44* 0.42* 0.34* –0.13 0.21 0.28* 0.14 0.42* 0.41* 0.43* 0.27* 0.09 0.01 0.10 0.30* –0.07 0.17

0.24* 0.13 0.10 0.32* –0.01 0.23* 0.13 0.22* 0.19* 0.23* 0.15 0.15 –0.02 0.10 0.20* 0.25* 0.19* 0.13

Mean diff. t-test

Correlation

Ethical attitudes vs ethical behavior 693

Table II. Workers’ perception of their own attitudes and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test

International Journal of Manpower 23,8 694

Sample characteristics Although confidentiality was assured to the respondents they were reluctant to respond to demographic variables. Even the answers on their length of service with current employer and their education level had many missing cases thus we could not include them in the analysis. Length of service with current employer showed that 16.2 percent had worked up to two years for the firm and that 39.6 percent had worked for more than ten years for the firm. The majority (44.2 percent) had worked between three to nine years for the firm. In terms of the level of education, 83.9 percent of the respondents completed secondary school and 16.1 percent of them had university degrees. This indicates that the employees on the whole had similar levels of education. Results In Tables II-IV the following observations and results are presented: mean scores of perceived attitudes and perceived behavior for each of the 17 items and overall scores; ranks of perceived attitudes and perceived behavior for each of the 17 items; Pearson correlation coefficients for each of the 17 items and an overall score between perceived attitudes and perceived behavior; and t-test analysis examining the mean differences for each of the 17 items and the overall score between perceived attitudes and perceived behavior. Although we used the average scores of the 17 items, we report, for the readers’ benefit, the mean values, rank order, correlations and significance of t-test results for each one of the items. Rank order of items Before going into further analysis we wanted to see what are the ethical items that are perceived by the respondents as representing ‘‘higher’’ ethical scores, showing ‘‘more’’ ethical attitudes and ethical behavior, versus those that represent ‘‘lower’’ scores, which we will refer to as showing unethical attitudes and unethical behavior. Tables II-IV show the rank order for ethical attitudes and ethical behavior for each one of the 17 items for employees, managers and co-workers. In order to summarize the large number of items we will show the ethical attitudes items as well as the ethical behavior items that were found to show an important item among employees, peers and managers. The items that gained high scores are positive ethical attitudes and/or ethical behaviors which means that they are the items considered as not behaving unethically. The items: ‘‘falsifying time/quality/quantity reports’’; ‘‘padding an expense account more than 10 percent’’; and ‘‘passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker’’ were found as very important and positive ethical attitudes and ethical behavior among employees, peers and managers. Among the managers we found items related to bribery are prevalent too. A high (positive) ethical attitude and in accordance high behavior was found for ‘‘accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment’’; ‘‘giving gifts/

Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05

Average

Z2 ¼ 3.88

3.62 3.92 4.07 3.40 4.17 3.50 3.79 4.14 3.90 4.26 4.13 3.63 3.98 3.92 4.13 3.72 3.61

Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks, early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

14 9 6 17 2 16 11 3 10 1 4 13 7 8 5 12 15

Attitude Mean Rank

Items

No.

Z5 ¼ 3.77

3.30 3.66 3.79 3.40 3.89 3.46 3.77 3.83 3.83 4.00 3.98 3.68 3.97 3.96 4.05 3.85 3.59

17 13 10 16 6 15 11 8 9 2 3 12 4 5 1 7 14

Behavior Mean Rank

0.11

0.31* 0.27 0.29 0.10 0.28 0.04 0.03 0.31* 0.07 0.26 0.15 –0.05 0.01 –0.04 0.07 –0.13 0.02

0.30* 0.06 0.10 0.23* 0.18 0.15 0.20* 0.15 0.11 0.11 –0.01 0.12 0.06 0.00 0.17 –0.01 0.10 0.10

Mean diff. t-test

Correlation

Ethical attitudes vs ethical behavior 695

Table III. Workers’ perception of co-workers’ attitude and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test

Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p < 0:05

Average

Using company services for personal use Padding an expense account up to 10% Giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking longer than necessary to do a job Divulging confidential information Doing personal business on company time Concealing one’s errors Passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker Claiming credit for someone else’s work Falsifying time/quality/quantity reports Padding an expense account more than 10% Calling in sick to take a day off Authorizing a subordinate to violate company rules Pilfering company materials and supplies Accepting gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment Taking extra personal time (lunch hour, breaks and early departure) Not reporting others’ violations of company policies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Table IV. Workers’ perception of managers’ attitude and behavior: meansa, correlation and t-test

Items

Z3 ¼ 4.16

4.04 4.19 4.33 3.73 4.42 3.96 4.04 4.21 3.96 4.27 4.25 4.13 4.30 4.32 4.40 4.05 4.17

14 9 3 17 1 15 13 8 16 6 7 11 5 4 2 12 10

Attitude Mean Rank

Z6 ¼ 3.80

3.31 3.80 3.89 3.60 3.89 3.47 3.78 3.85 3.71 4.09 3.89 3.77 3.93 3.97 4.13 3.93 3.84

17 11 7 15 8 16 12 9 14 2 6 13 4 3 1 5 10

Behavior Mean Rank

0.28*

0.26* 0.10 0.20* 0.25* 0.22* 0.23* 0.16 0.26* 0.35* 0.37* 0.32* 0.38* 0.18 0.06 0.16 0.18 –0.07

Correlation

696

No.

0.39*

0.72* 0.43* 0.47* 0.18 0.57* 0.51* 0.28 0.39* 0.26 0.24 0.41* 0.34* 0.36* 0.35* 0.27 0.11 0.37*

Mean diff. t-test

International Journal of Manpower 23,8

favors in exchange for preferential treatment’’. This suggests that managers Ethical attitudes are evaluated as not being susceptible to bribes. vs ethical The least ethical attitudes and behavior – those items that are the lowest on behavior the ethical scale, included: ‘‘taking longer than necessary to do a job’’ and ‘‘doing personal business on company time’’. They were typical to employees, peers and managers in both ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. Among 697 employees’ and their peers’ ethical attitudes we found that ‘‘not reporting others’ violations of company policy’’ was considered as the ‘‘lowest’’ ethical attitude, whereas among their behavior we found that ‘‘using company services for personal use’’ is the least ethical behavior. Among managers we found that ethical attitudes and ethical behavior relating to the ‘‘taking longer than necessary to do a job’’ and ‘‘doing personal business on company time’’ were considered by the employees to be their managers’ weakest ethical attitudes and behavior. Hypotheses testing At this stage of the analysis instead of dealing with each single item we calculated the mean scores of the 17 items. Reliability tests of the items using the Cronbach alpha measure showed high reliability scores for the 17 statements within each of the six areas: workers’ self-perception of his/her attitudes (0.92); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her co-workers’ attitudes (0.94); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her managers’ attitudes (0.93); worker’s perceptions concerning his/her own behavior (0.93); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her co-workers’ behavior (0.92); workers’ perceptions concerning his/her managers’ behavior (0.94). Descriptive statistics and correlation Table V lists the Pearson correlation coefficient for each combination of overall mean scores. The correlation between employees, their peers and their managers was found to be statistically significant for ethical attitudes. Similarly the correlation between employees, their peers and their managers perceived behavior was found to be statistically significant. Table VI shows the overall average mean score (for all 17 items) of the employees’ perceived ethical attitudes and behavior, that of his/her peers and that of his/her managers (Z1 to Z6). Regarding the comparison among mean scores, the respondents set for themselves the highest ethical standard/ attitudes (4.26) compared to their peers (3.88) and managers (4.16). Similarly, the respondents perceived their behavior to be more ethical (4.04) compared to their peers (3.77) and managers (3.80). It should be emphasized that ethical behavior is likely to be lower than ethical attitudes since respondents’ behavior cannot exceed their own ethical standards. Table VI also summarizes the t-test results of the seven hypotheses, measuring whether and the extent to which differences between employees, co-workers and managers are significant in regard to their ethical attitudes and ethical behavior. H1 to H3 test whether, in all cases, perceived attitudes towards ethics are higher than perceived behavior. In practice it evaluates whether ethical

Table V. Employee’s perceived own, peers’ and managers’ attitudes and behavior: means, SD, Cronbach alpha and correlations (Z1) (Z2) (Z3) (Z4) (Z5) (Z6)

4.26 3.88 4.16 4.04 3.77 3.80

Notes: a Mean values are computed on a range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) ** significant at p
0:01

own attitudes perception of co-workers’ attitudes perception of managers’ attitudes own perceived behavior perception of co-workers’ behavior perception of managers’ behavior

0.76 0.82 0.88 0.99 0.88 0.98

SD 0.92 0.94 0.93 0.93 0.92 0.94

Cronbach alpha

0.52** 0.38** 0.13 –0.05 0.01

Z1

0.43** 0.15 0.10 0.17

Z2

0.17 0.13 0.27**

Z3

698

Employee’s Employees’ Employees’ Employees’ Employees’ Employees’

Meana

0.59** 0.69**

Z4

0.65**

Z5

International Journal of Manpower 23,8

Hypothesis number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Meana (Z1) (Z2) (Z3) (Z4) (Z4) (Z1) (Z1)

4.264 3.877 4.160 4.040 4.015 4.264 4.264

Meana (Z4) (Z5) (Z6) (Z5) (Z6) (Z2) (Z3)

4.040 3.767 3.802 3.767 3.802 3.877 4.161

Difference in means

t-value

p – significance level (2-tailed)

Hypothesis confirmed*

0.224 0.110 0.388 0.273 0.213 0.387 0.103

2.201 1.029 3.666 3.667 2.985 5.337 1.207

0.030* 0.306 <0.001* <0.001* 0.004* <0.001* 0.235

Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Notes: a Minimal differences between pairs of variables occur due to some missing values; means range from 1 (not ethical) to 5 (ethical) * Significant at p
0:05

behavior does not meet ethical standards. Mean values were calculated and compared. Respondents’ perception that their own ethical behavior (Z4) is significantly lower (
¼ 4:040 ) than their own ethical attitudes/beliefs (Z1) (
¼ 4:264) is confirmed (t ¼ 2:201; p ¼ 0:030), thereby supporting H1. Respondents’ perception that their peers’ ethical behavior (Z5) (
¼ 3:767) is significantly lower than their perception of their peers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs (Z2) (
¼ 3:877) is not confirmed, thereby not supporting H2. Respondents’ perception that their managers’ ethical behavior (Z6) (
¼ 3:802) is significantly lower than their managers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs (Z3) (
¼ 4:160) is confirmed (t ¼ 3:666; p < 0:001), thereby supporting H3. Hitherto we found that ethical behavior is significantly lower than ethical attitudes, as is reflected in respondents’ perceptions concerning themselves and their managers, but not their peers. Finally, Table VI shows the results of H4 to H7. H4 is confirmed (t ¼ 3:667; p < 0:001) and shows the respondents’ perception that their ethical behavior (Z4) (
¼ 4:040) is significantly higher than their peers’ ethical behavior (Z5) (
¼ 3:767). Similarly, H5, which suggested that respondents’ perception that their ethical behavior (Z4) (
¼ 4:015) is significantly higher than their managers’ ethical behavior (Z6) (
¼ 3:802), is also confirmed (t ¼ 2:985; p ¼ 0:004). H6 is confirmed (t ¼ 5:337; p < 0:001) and shows that the respondents’ perceptions that their ethical attitudes/beliefs (Z1) (
¼ 4:264) are significantly higher than their peers’ ethical attitudes (Z2) (
¼ 3:877). Although respondents’ perceptions that their own ethical attitudes (Z1) (
¼ 4:264) are higher than those of their managers’ ethical attitudes (Z3) (
¼ 4:161), showed higher mean values, the difference between the means is not statistically significant, thus, H7 is not confirmed. Discussion and conclusions The broad topic of business ethics focused on in this paper is employees’ perceptions of their own attitudes and behavior regarding ethical issues within

Ethical attitudes vs ethical behavior 699 Table VI. Employee’s perceived own, peers’ and managers’ attitudes and behavior: t-test results

International Journal of Manpower 23,8 700

the organizational context. This study examined both the perceived ethical attitudes set by employees for themselves, their co-workers and their managers, and the perceived ethical behavior of these groups. The results of the hypotheses tested showed that five out of seven hypotheses were confirmed. First, employees perceive that their ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their ethical behavior (H1). Second, employees perceive their managers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs are higher than their managers’ ethical behavior (H3). Third, employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their peers (H4). Fourth, employees perceive that their behavior is more ethical than that of their managers (H5). Fifth, employees perceive that their attitudes are more ethical than those of their peers (H6). Two of the hypotheses were not found to be statistically significant. First, although the respondents’ perception of their peers’ ethical attitudes/beliefs showed higher mean values than their peers’ ethical behavior, the difference was not significant (H2). This is probably because they perceive their peers in a more pragmatic way that is close to reality. In addition, when evaluating peers’ behavior it concerns many individuals, representing a wide range and variance of positive and negative behaviors, whereas, when having in mind own or manager behaviors they could find themselves over-estimating their behaviors. Second, although employees’ own perceived ethical attitudes are higher than that of their managers, the difference was not significant (H7). This is probably due to the possibility of the self-bias effect in which the respondent is overestimating his level at different attitudinal and behavioral aspects. Employees will determine their own ethical standards at the top, even higher than that of their managers, but not too much higher. Obviously, they will determine their standards of a higher level compared to their peers. Based on the above results we can summarize and conclude the following: first, ethical attitudes set by the employee as ethical standards are higher than their ethical behavior, which means that employees do not reach the standards they set for themselves. Second, it was consistently found that employees set for themselves higher ethical ‘‘standards’’ than they perceive their ‘‘bosses’’’ standards are, and set their own standards much higher than their peers’. Similarly, their ethical behavior is higher than their bosses’ and peers’. Third, employees perceive their managers’ ethical attitudes to be higher than the ethical attitudes of their co-workers. Do managers exhibit ethical role models? One of the key issues managements strive to cope with is how to increase their employees’ motivation, job involvement, job commitment, loyalty, etc. The inclination is and was to provide monetary and non-monetary rewards. In addition, it is well known that employees scan their environment in order to identify social norms of behavior and the closest surroundings at the work place are the employees’ co-workers and managers. It appears that if managers

act as role models their employees are more likely to increase their motivation Ethical attitudes and commitment at work. vs ethical From a human resource management perspective, whether employees behavior perceive their managers as role models to imitate or whether employees perceive that they exhibit higher standards of behavior than their ‘‘bosses’’ is a key question. In this study we found that employees perceive the largest gap 701 between ethical attitudes and ethical behavior among the managers, thus it can be concluded that managers are not perceived as role models for the firm’s employees. These results are quite discouraging since although managers are expected to show high standards they, in reality, are perceived not to behave as role models should behave. In the context of this study we would like to suggest that the ‘‘image’’ of managers plays an important role for employees. We compared the respondent’s perceptions concerning his manager’s behavior and not with the actual behavior. From a pure managerial perspective, sometimes, it is also important to know how managers are perceived by their subordinates and not only how they actually behave. Should employees imitate their managers’ behavior? Assuming their managers represent high ethical standards and behavior the answer would be positive. However, this study shows that managers are perceived to have lower ethical standards and to behave in regard to ethical issues in a way which is less ethical than how employees perceive they would think or act. Therefore, one of the management’s objectives should be to improve the image of the managers’ ethical behavior. In terms of organizational policy, the main issue is what can the firm do to improve the ethical atmosphere in the organization? Is low ethical behavior built into organizations? These questions lead us to suggest further research in organizational culture, and identification of ethical behavior among different groups in the firm. We would also like to recommend a study of the relationship between both employees’ ethical attitudes and behavior in conjunction with the firm/business aspect, e.g. performance, firm success, and withdrawal behavior (absenteeism, lateness, and turnover). Moreover, there is a need to elaborate and concentrate on the mutual evaluation of employees’ perception of their managers and the managers’ perception of their subordinates. We are aware of our study’s limitations. First, it would have been preferable if we could have included demographic variables. Second, having several samples, each from a different firm would have provided a wider perspective. Third, being able to gather data from ‘‘private’’ as well as ‘‘public’’ firms at about the same time, working in the same environment, would have further enriched the data and given greater weight to the results. References Abdolmohammadi, M. and Sultan, J. (2002), ‘‘Ethical reasoning and the use of insider information in stock trading’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 165-3.

International Journal of Manpower 23,8 702

Ajzen, I. (1991), ‘‘The theory of planned behavior’’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 50 No. 2, pp. 179-212. Anderson, R.E., Johnson, D., Gotterbarn, D. and Perrolle, J. (1993), ‘‘Using the new ACM code of ethics in decision making’’, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 98-107. Bernardin, H.J. (1986), ‘‘Subordinate appraisal: a valuable source of information about managers’’, Human Resource Management, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 421-39. Dean, P.J. (1992), ‘‘Making codes of ethics real’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 285-90. Ferrell, O.C. and Gresham, L.G. (1985), ‘‘A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in marketing’’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, pp. 87-96. Ferrell, O.C. and Weaver, K.M. (1978), ‘‘Ethical beliefs of marketing managers’’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 69-73. Ferrell, O.C., Gresham, L.G. and Fraedrich, J. (1989), ‘‘A synthesis of ethical decision models for marketing’’, Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 55-64. Hemphill, T.A. (1992), ‘‘Self-regulating industry behavior: antitrust limitations and trade association codes of conduct’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 11 No. 12, pp. 915-20. Hunt, S.D. and Vitell, S. (1986), ‘‘A general theory of marketing ethics’’, Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 8, pp. 5-16. Hunter, J. (1996), ‘‘Good ethics means good business’’, Canadian Business Review, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 14-17. Izraeli, D. (1988), ‘‘Ethical beliefs and behaviors among managers: a cross-cultural comparison’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 7, pp. 263-71. Jackson, T. and Calafell-Artola, M. (1997), ‘‘Ethical beliefs and management behavior: a crosscultural comparison’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 16 No. 11, pp. 1163-73. Jones, G.E. and Kavanagh, M.J. (1996), ‘‘An experimental examination of the effects of individual and situational factors on unethical behavioral intentions in the workplace’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 15, pp. 511-23. Jones, T. (1991), ‘‘Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: an issue-contingent culture’’, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 366-85. L’Etang, J. (1992), ‘‘A Kantian approach to codes of ethics’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 734-44. McKendell, M., DeMarr, B. and Jones-Rikkers, C. (2002), ‘‘Ethical compliance programs and corporate illegality: testing the assumptions of the corporate sentencing guidelines’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 367-83. Marnburg, E. (2001), ‘‘The questionable use of moral development theory in studies of business ethics: discussion and empirical findings’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 275-83. Mayo, M.A. and Marks, L.J. (1990), ‘‘An empirical investigation of a general theory of marketing ethics’’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 18, pp. 163-71. Menzel, D.C. (1995), ‘‘The ethical environment of local government managers’’, American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 246-60. Mumford, M.D. (1983), ‘‘Social comparison theory and the evaluation of peer evaluations: a review and some applied implications’’, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 867-81. Murphy, P.E. and Lazniak, G.R. (1981), ‘‘Marketing ethics: a review with implications for managers, educators and researchers’’, Review of Marketing, Vol. 22, pp. 251-66. Newstrom, J.W. and Ruch, W.A. (1975), ‘‘The ethics of management and the management of ethics’’, MSU Business Topics, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 29-37.

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Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? Margaret Patrickson University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia Keywords Australia, Older employees, Telecommuting Abstract Advances in technology have significantly expanded the capacity of individuals to undertake their work role outside the confines of their employers’ premises, and changes in industrial relations policies and practices in Australia have facilitated organisational willingness to explore such possibilities. A significant portion of all off-site working is undertaken by employees at home, and this group increasingly consists of teleworkers who undertake data processing activities in a home office communicating the results to their employer via modem or phone. This paper considers whether such changes, especially the recent growth in teleworking, can generate potential work opportunities for those who have traditionally been marginalised in the workforce. In particular the paper explores whether teleworking might open employment opportunities to older workers. It concludes that though older workers might offer as potentially viable candidates for this type of work activity they are unlikely to be successful in gaining employment given present employer attitudes and practices.

Introduction This article examines the contribution of teleworking to the expanding numbers of individuals in Australia working from home. It suggests one major staff management consequence of employees or contractors working away from employer premises is that their performance is more likely to be evaluated in terms of their output. The virtual workplace encourages the separation of work from worker, and thus may have potential to expand opportunities for previously marginalised workers such as older employees. The article considers the extent to which these opportunities may become attractive to both older individuals and potential employers.

International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, pp. 704-715. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720 DOI 10.1108/01437720210453902

Working at home and teleworking Home-based workers may be either full time or part time, pursue managerial, clerical, computational or technical type activities, may or may not be paid as contract workers and may undertake this role frequently or infrequently. In fact clearly and comparably defining who is a home-based worker has proven difficult due to the rapidly changing scenario of who works at home, for how many hours, over what length of time, and whether or not their status is permanent, temporary or episodic. Though the majority of those who work at home are self-employed or else work in a family business, the most recent information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2000) reports a growing proportion of home workers are employees. They add to the numbers of repair technicians or similar roving staff who perform a significant part of their work role away from the employer’s premises.

Working from home has historically an unattractive connotation (Heck et al., Teleworking and 1995), exemplified by negative publicity given to outworking in the garment older workers trade, where numbers of vulnerable individuals, chiefly women, were working long hours in poor conditions and receiving low wages. However, towards the end of the twentieth century, this gradually began to change (Dunn, 1999; Ulfelder, 1999; Morgan, 1999). Heck et al. (1995) in the USA found the average 705 home-based worker to be a long-standing member of the community with the highest representation from small towns and rural communities. Their typical home worker was male, older and with an above average education. Most recent Australian statistics (ABS, 2000) indicate over 20 percent of the Australian workforce worked at least some hours at home each week and the numbers of permanent home workers had grown to approximately 11 percent of the workforce; and 35 percent of home workers worked in excess of 35 hours each week. Only about 37 percent are employees, the remainder are largely working in their own business or as contractors. Over 76 percent of home workers are over 35 years; 12 percent are over 55 years; 64 percent use information technology – 40 percent use the Internet, and 20 percent work on advanced clerical tasks. These statistics contrast significantly with stereotypical beliefs that continue to portray the home worker as typically female, working part time, and largely driven by the need to supervise young children. This recent survey indicates conclusively that this stereotype is only a small part of the story. It suggests that though a large number are selfemployed in small business and a growing proportion are employees who put in additional hours for their employer once their time at work each day is over, large numbers are working in either full time or part time permanent contractor roles. Unfortunately the ABS report gives little information on the types of organisations that employ staff working from home. However, in a recent survey of human resource managers in Western Australia, Standen (1997) reported almost 28 percent employed individuals who were working at least part of their time at home. He hastens to qualify this by stating that this practice was restricted to only a small minority of staff, was largely informal in operation and mostly temporary. Though 41 percent of human resource managers in his survey reported a generally favourable view of home-based work, only 34 percent anticipated the practice would be formalised in the immediate future and the majority of these were doing so under the terms of their industrial award. He concluded that this hesitation was more likely the result of reluctance to embrace too radical a departure from existing arrangements rather than the lack of appropriate new policies and practices with respect to occupational health, safety and insurance or to reduced ability to monitor staff performance. Nonetheless, anecdotal and other evidence suggests the practice of working at least some part of each week at home is growing (ABS, 2000; Avery, 2000). Teleworking from a home location, where individuals undertake tasks formerly performed at the employers’ premises and communicate the results of their

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efforts via phone line or modem to their employer, is the major cause of this growth. Korte and Wynne’s (1996) survey of European managers reported 1.2 percent of the European workforce were employed as teleworkers with rates rising each year. US research confirms similar increases in home-based working can also be accounted for by rises in teleworking type activities (Dannhauser, 1999). His data estimated the proportion of teleworkers to be around 9 percent of all home-based workers and rising, citing Merril Lynch and AT&T as prime examples with over half the managerial staff of AT&T being so employed. In the USA projected growth in teleworking has led to an increasing recognition of the need to develop workable policies for managing this style of work (Deeprose, 1999; Dewindt, 1999; Grensing-Pophal, 1999; Leighton and Syrett, 1989; McClelland, 1999; Mathias, 1999; Thomas, 1999). Two issues have been repeatedly stressed by each of these writers. They include the need to train both workers and supervisors in remote supervision practices prior to taking up the home work option, and the need to set and agree clear goals to measure output and how progress will be assessed and communicated. Implications for management of teleworking staff Whatever the actual incidence of teleworking, and despite some incomparability in definition, the belief that it will increase its proportion of the home-based workforce remains strong. Should these predictions be upheld, changes in staff selection, ongoing supervision, and performance management systems become inevitable. Routine surveillance is no longer possible once the worker moves to a home environment. Trust becomes essential and practical suggestions of how workers and managers can both better manage their separation form the basis of several recent publications (e.g. Kurland and Bailey, 1999; Cascio, 1999; Armstrong, 1999; Baruch and Yuen, 2000). Kurland and Bailey (1999) report benefits to the worker as the elimination of commute time, the rise in perceived autonomy and control, the invisibility that reduced the need for special clothing, and the absence of office politics. On the other hand, the isolation of working at home produces problems in that the transition between home and work becomes blurred and the worker is more prone to interruption from the family members. Cascio emphasises that teleworking generates a changed role for supervisory staff, who should now need to define, facilitate and encourage teleworker performance, whereas Armstrong (1999) examines the likely impacts of teleworking on individuals. Her research attempts to deconstruct the virtual workplace, by pointing out that working at home not only has the capacity to open up global communication opportunities, it can also flatten identity, reducing the importance of the social self. She comments that telework can be conceptualised as either liberating or enslaving, depending on how it is experienced by different people. A recent conceptual model by Lamond et al. (2000) that examines the influence of telework on well being indicates the effects may be even more complex and far from unitary depending on the nature of the work and its contextual embedding.

Yet, to this author, the largely unexplored and key feature of any home- Teleworking and based work but especially teleworking is its capacity to render the worker older workers invisible. The work is visible; the worker is invisible. Being out of sight, the worker’s appearance, other personal details and their participation in informal work activities, become less relevant and any divergence from the dominant organisational culture much less apparent. Baruch and Yuen (2000, p. 523) 707 recognise this possibility when they state that teleworking potentially offers employment ‘‘opportunities for employees who might otherwise be excluded from the workforce’’. Looking different has always been a problem for members of minorities since their appearance cannot be ignored. Their gender, their age and their colour are immediately visible and help to label them as outsiders, and unfortunately often generate poor expectations about their performance. The invisibility of working away from the premises has the potential to assist older workers, women with young children, disabled workers, and those whose verbal language is slow and hard to understand to separate judgments about their work from judgments about themselves. With its reduced possibilities for social interaction, the virtual workplace offers the possibility to be more egalitarian, and diverse than the traditional workplace, being easily able to accommodate those who might otherwise find themselves in a more hostile environment. Invisibility provides both isolation and separation. While the effects of isolation on an individual are likely to be mixed, depending on the degree to which social contact is valued (Lamond et al., 2000), separation offers the potential that judgments about an employee’s work can be uncoupled from judgments about their personality or their behaviour. Quality work can be supplied to an employer without that employer or their staff having any knowledge of the worker as an individual. Under these circumstances worker output is more likely to be assessed entirely on its merit and aspects of the person attract little or no attention. Any individual offering reliable high quality work would present as an attractive option for an employer. In a recent European survey of 119 teleworkers across several countries, Huws et al. (1990) found 73 percent of teleworkers in their sample were female, and 78 percent had at least one child living at home. Similar statistics were reported by Chomiak (1999). Neither research team reported statistics for other minority groups. Yet the opportunity for teleworking also has potential for individuals with poor verbal English, disabled workers and older workers. Each of these groups is likely to have special needs and consequently experience some difficulty in securing work in a tight employment market. This article focuses on the particular issues facing older workers and what changes might need to be addressed for teleworking to present them with potential employment opportunities. It is possible that teleworking could loom as a particularly attractive option for older individuals, no longer employed on a full time basis, to top up their earnings, and provide an alternative activity to retirement activities. European research in the early 1990s suggested that the image of the high tech home office in which the worker spends the equivalent of an eight hour day was not

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the norm. The majority of European teleworkers at that time were part time and transient, factors that could be attractive to those seeking a top-up income. Baruch and Yuen’s (2000) research comparing attitudes to teleworking from potential teleworkers in Britain and Hong Kong confirmed a preference for part time involvement in those without previous teleworking experience. Gray et al. (1993) found that by far the majority of teleworking was practised informally and for the individual involved only for part of their work time. More than 90 percent of their sample only worked part time, and were described as secondary wage earners. The 2000 ABS data indicate that in Australia this picture is changing. For example, 64 percent of those who worked at home used information technology in their work, and 40 percent used the Internet. At least 60 percent of males and 30 percent of females were undertaking work of a professional or advanced clerical nature. Such options, if more widespread, could potentially provide employment opportunity for older individuals. Korte and Wynne (1996) found that the majority of teleworking staff first undergo a period of supervised work on the employer’s premises. Few are recruited directly into working at home without supervision. Yet there is no reason why competent individuals with a verifiable track record of working without supervision on data handling tasks of comparable difficulty and requiring similar skills cannot be successfully recruited into this role. Teleworking activities can be either routine or complex problem-based in content. Depending on their skills and former full time employment level, older workers may conceivably be able to retrain for either type of work. Implications for older staff If older workers are to be seriously considered as potential teleworkers some prerequisites on the part of both workers and employers would be necessary. For workers these include domestic Internet access, high levels of computer skill, and being comfortable working in isolation. Baruch and Yuen (2000) reported potential teleworkers in the UK also endorsed appropriate spatial arrangements. Employers would need a supportive attitude toward homebased working, a willingness to adopt output-based supervision practices, a willingness to take remote workers on trust and perhaps a more philanthropic attitude towards older employees, seeing them more as producers of quality work and less as older people. Dooley’s (1996) survey of teleworkers in the UK, Ireland and Europe found teleworking was more likely to be successful when the worker had strong skills in self-management, the organisation had supportive systems in place, and both understood and approved the communication structure. Given their lengthier previous work experience and consequent more extended socialisation into spending regular hours in workbased activities, it is possible that many older individuals may be willing to continue the practice in their home environment. Until recently this group has been under pressure to consider taking early retirement and many have done so reluctantly, forced to exit the workforce as

their jobs became redundant and alternative work opportunities largely Teleworking and disappeared. But this situation is unlikely to continue. Those now approaching older workers their late working lives may find themselves part of a labour shortage in the twenty-first century and pressured to extend their workforce participation. Recent reductions in the trends for jobless people (ABS, 2000) indicate potential for better opportunities in the future, for those who wish to continue working, 709 either in their present position, as part time contractors. Many older individuals may be attracted to teleworking by the opportunity to supplement retirement income, others by health limitations, others by the opportunity to perpetuate their contribution to the economic fabric of society. Key psychological determinants (Yeatts et al., 1999) will be the nature of their skill portfolio, their interest and enthusiasm for teleworking, and their preference for working alone. The implications are discussed in more detail below. Computing skills will be essential, including accurate data entry and advanced skills in data processing. Creative problem solving skills will be needed in more advanced level tasks. Yet even those currently with only limited data processing skills would soon find they are relatively easy to learn. No tertiary education is required. Furthermore software development has progressed to such an extent that even the more advanced tasks can be learned within relatively short time spans. There are few intellectual limitations facing those who wish to learn routine data processing. In a recent empirical study, Birdi and Zapf (1997) reported that though many older workers recorded a more negative emotional reaction to errors, they also seemed more able to address these problems and are more likely to attempt to rectify these via the manual rather than relying on coworkers. Such self-reliance is likely to stand them in good stead if working alone in a home-based environment. Many of the existing negative employer attitudes to hiring older workers are focused on factors that would not apply if they were undertaking computerbased tasks in the remote working situation. Current prejudice is based on beliefs that older workers are slow to learn, resistant to change, more expensive and more prone to absenteeism (Steinberg et al., 1998). This paper will argue that the first two are not supported by the available evidence and the latter two are simply irrelevant when the worker is paid on the basis of output. The over 55-year-old group has demonstrated its desire to become familiar with computing skills and recorded the greatest increase of any age group in Australia during a recent decade (from 5 percent of regular computer users in 1988 to 10 percent in 1999). Rather than be daunted by this expanding technology, they have shown willingness to learn and explore new alternatives. As an example, Taylor (2000) describes the efforts of an older Melbourne man, Ray Lewis, who, without any previous Internet experience, created an Internet portal for other seniors that has received 1,400 hits in its first month without the assistance of any publicity. Research by Weckerle and Shultz (1999) found strong interest expressed by older people in the USA in working part time. Furthermore, many individuals in their study were working in jobs requiring different skills than their former full time employment. Similar results by

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Doeringer (1990) indicated older workers were twice as likely to be working part time as other age groups, and their work often involved previously unfamiliar tasks. Physical and mental changes that accompany ageing, are rarely of the level to interfere with routine information processing, analysis and retrieval. Given appropriate training, older workers can maintain high levels of performance well into their 50s, 60s and beyond. Studies reported from the USA (1957) found no differences in output per hour for office type employment between older and younger staff. These studies and a myriad subsequent research publications into older workers have recommended some form of flexible job or work design, whereby individuals can work at their own pace, to their own rhythm, and to the extent they feel comfortable. Capability, not age, is the determining factor for an appropriate workload. Warr’s (1993) summary of older workers and job skills indicates there is plenty of evidence to uphold the argument that older workers can perform the necessary tasks to the same standard as their younger colleagues. It is possible that they may be a fraction slower in their performance but the only result of this is that they may receive less income per hour. Competent older individuals have the potential to become ideal teleworkers, though they may need to complete specialised training. The likely absence of young children in their home means their capacity for sustained attention to the task is high. They can choose to work the number of hours desired, and at their own pace. They have substantive experience in the workplace. The majority have been socialised into an established work pattern. They have experienced periods of working without supervision. Their performance patterns are known. Many are already part of the new knowledge-based work community and will have experienced continued learning and re-skilling. A number may prefer to work less than a full week. Buchanan and Bearfield (1997) found strong desires for non-traditional working arrangements among older workers, especially from older professionals, and research by Yeatts et al. (1999) has indicated older workers’ adaptation would be easier if their previous work experience had included multi-skilling and the utilisation of a broad knowledge base. Given their proven adaptability in other areas, their greater life experience and mostly broad knowledge base, one might anticipate they would prove at least as effective as younger individuals if not more so. Hazan (1994) is one of an increasing number of writers who are beginning to suggest that it is largely the social construction of ageing that ascribes increasing incompetence to older individuals. He laments the situation where by far the majority of research findings on the capacity of older persons is interpreted by much younger individuals without the personal perspective of having experienced an older existence. In his more positive view of ageing, Kalish (1982) claims a new positive growth model of ageing has replaced earlier decremental models and suggests the latter years can be a time of sustained personal growth. Being older can be associated with a number of advantages. These include facing fewer demands from a growing family, no longer responding as negatively to criticism from others, working

through many of one’s fears, being better able to prioritise and making better Teleworking and use of discretionary time. These are all factors noted by researchers as helping older workers individuals to adjust better to the isolated nature of teleworking. Yet if older workers are to be successful in tapping into this expanding skill market, more is needed than their capacity and enthusiasm. Employers must be willing to provide work opportunities, and training. However, Coleman’s (1998) 711 study would suggest there is little evidence that employers are willing to take on older workers in this role. Though the number of teleworkers keep expanding, this does not seem to be associated with additional recruitment of specialist new teleworking staff, but rather higher numbers of existing staff opting to work in this mode, often for short periods. Huws et al. (1990) reported most staff chosen for teleworking in their survey had already established themselves with their employer as computer programmers. Similar information is reported from the USA (Deming, 1994). Most teleworkers appear to be selected from the existing workforce, and many are self-selected. The ranks of teleworking staff thus contain a high proportion of individuals who would have been recruited according to established procedures for on-site staff despite Segal’s (1998) plea for the development of specialist clear and specific selection criteria for teleworkers. Case study research that indicates large numbers of teleworkers and thus sounds encouraging to potential aspirants, rarely gives breakdown information on the nature of their working arrangements. For example, in the USA Apgar (1998) reports 14,000 teleworkers employed by AT&T in 1999, and 12,500 (or 17 percent of staff) at IBM. Yet no information is given, as to whether these teleworkers are working in a full time, part time or episodic capacity, nor whether they are engaged in routine data processing or in more advanced problem solving, nor whether they are working at home or in remote data processing centres. In a recent telephone survey of a small number of human resource managers in the Adelaide IT industry, undertaken by the author, none had considered hiring older staff. In fact older staff were rarely recruited for any role unless they had a long record of sustained individual achievement. Respondents reported their present practice is to recruit younger people for all types of routine work, partly because the tasks requiring little experience can be undertaken by younger staff who are less expensive, and partly in the belief younger staff are more interested in data processing as a stepping stone to other options in the industry. Preparation for teleworking Clearly present evidence would suggest that anyone desirous of working as a teleworker at home, should first establish an employment relationship with a prospective employer, consolidate his/herself as a reliable accurate and dependable worker and only then move toward working in a remote capacity. Such a scenario may not sit well with the prospect of older individuals seeking to be hired and trained as remote data processing employees. Unless they had

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previously reached minimal competency or were willing to undertake training in their own time and at their own expense, there seems little real likelihood of paid training being offered. However, complete retraining may not be necessary as individuals now entering retirement, unlike many who took early retirement in the 1980s and early 1990s, are likely already to be skilled in data handling and require only marginal skill updating. The majority of clerical and technical jobs now require at least minimum computing skills and the majority of today’s early retirees should be adept in routine data processing. A greater deterrent to lack of training may be that routine data processing work is likely to be poorly paid. Nor, according to Lamond et al. (2000) is it likely that such work will add to well being. But for individuals seeking to augment their income and to undertake some form of economic contribution, whose alternative may be no income or no employment, the chance for either is a significant advance on their present situation. The very vulnerability of older people might add to their attractiveness to an employer as long as they can deliver quality reliable output. Such success as older workers have experienced in gaining work is predominantly in the area of short term contract style work fulfilling a temporary vacancy (Encel and Studencki, 1996). These opportunities help showcase their potential for other future assignments. This is exactly the type of opportunity that short term contract employment as a teleworker may offer. What is needed to promote the cause of older people is well publicised examples of competent individuals undertaking assignments for satisfied employers. To date, in spite of many attempts, largely government sponsored, to promote older individuals as worthwhile employees, there is little evidence that Australian employers are offering them this type of opportunity. A recent issues paper (Bishop, 1999) by the Minister for Aged Care in Australia laments this failure and urges more employers to consider more flexible work arrangements for older employees. Her department sponsors seminars, conferences and distributes literature designed to promote the potential for older staff but their effectiveness is difficult to assess in a climate of overall labour surplus. Rather it seems as though the cause of older workers will not advance significantly until employers are facing labour shortages and experience difficulty with finding suitable staff. Staff shortages have always been chronic in the more challenging problem-based aspects of data analysis, but the opposite seems true for routine data processing as evidenced by high turnover in call centres which employ large numbers of routine workers. Though anecdotal reports indicate turnover may be lower for older staff, this is yet to be empirically validated and may not correspond to the experience of those undertaking similar tasks in the home. Future directions While teleworking might appear to offer older workers employment opportunities its low take up rate by this group indicates more effort to promote older workers in this role may be needed. Research needs to be

conducted on the experience of both older workers and employers to discover Teleworking and the benefits and challenges on both sides of the relationship. Anecdotal older workers evidence needs to be supplemented by more rigorous data to pinpoint the work histories and the personal circumstances of those attracted to teleworking and likely to continue their involvement, as well as the positive and negative outcomes for their employers. If present expansion rates for teleworkers are 713 maintained, the information will assist with making the practice both more cost effective and more attractive to all parties in the relationship. Conclusion While teleworking offers promise to those seeking part time work opportunities in the home environment, at the present time its promise is largely illusionary for individuals without established connections with potential employers. Nonetheless, there is a rich canvas of potential workers available for those organisations that are prepared to offer training and potential contract employment. Older individuals are one minority group keen to take up any part time opportunities, they are able to learn, and many are suited to the work. All that is required is willingness on the part of an employer to seek their contribution. References Apgar, M. IV (1998), ‘‘The alternative workplace: changing where and how people work’’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76 No. 3, May-June, pp. 121-30. Armstrong, N.J.deF. (1999), ‘‘Flexible work in the virtual workplace: discourses and implications of teleworking’’, in Felstead, A. and Jewson, N., Global Trends in Flexible Labour, Macmillan Press, Basingstoke, pp. 43-61. Avery, G. (2000), ‘‘Working at home’’, paper to the National Convention of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Sydney, May. ABS (2000), Persons Employed at Home, Publication 6275.0 AGPS, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra. Baruch, Y. and Yuen, K.J.Y. (2000), ‘‘Inclination to opt for teleworking’’, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 521-39. Birdi, K.S. and Zapf, D. (1997), ‘‘Age differences in reactions to errors in computer based work’’, Behaviour and Information Technology, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 309-19. Bishop, B. Hon. (1999), Employment for Mature Age Workers: Issues Paper, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Buchanan, J. and Bearfield, S. (1997), Reforming Working Time: Alternatives to Unemployment, Casualisation and Excessive Hours, Brotherhood of Saint Laurence, Melbourne. Cascio, W. (1999), ‘‘Virtual workplaces: implications for organizational behavior in trends in organisational behaviour’’, in Cooper, C.L. and Rousseau, D.M. (Eds), The Virtual Organization, Vol. 6, John Wiley, Chicester, pp. 1-14. Chomiak, A. (1999), ‘‘Work/life balance and job flexibility’’, Dissertations Abstract International, Section B The Sciences and Engineering, Vol. 59 No. 8B, p. 4516. Coleman, D. (1998), ‘‘Baby boom to baby bust: flexible work options for older workers’’, Benefits Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 18-28.

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Dannhauser, C.L. (1999), ‘‘Who’s in the Home Office?’’, American Demographics, Vol. 21 No. 6, pp. 50-6. Deeprose, D. (1999), ‘‘When implementing telecommuting leave nothing to chance’’, HR Focus, Vol. 76 No. 10, pp. 13-15. Deming, W.G. (1994), ‘‘Working at home: data from the CPS’’, Labor Monthly Review, Vol. 117 No. 2, pp. 14-20. Dewindt, J.G. (1999), ‘‘How to cultivate non-traditional workers’’, HR Focus, Special Report on Recruitment and Selection, p. S10. Doeringer, P. (1990), Bridges to Retirement: Older Workers in a Changing Labor Market, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Dooley, B. (1996), ‘‘At work away from work’’, Psychologist, Vol. 9 No. 4, April, pp. 155-8. Dunn, K. (1999), ‘‘Telecommuting: a tool of the millennium business’’, Workforce, Vol. 78 Nos. 11 and 22. Encel, S. and Studencki, H. (1996), Job Search Experience of Older Workers, NSW Consultative Committee on Ageing, Sydney. Gray, M., Hodson, N. and Gordon, G. (1993), Teleworking Explained, Wiley, Chichester and New York, NY. Grensing-Pophal, L. (1999), ‘‘Training supervisors to manage teleworkers’’, HR Magazine, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 67-72. Hazan, H. (1994), Old Age Constructions and Deconstructions, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Heck, R., Rowe, B. and Owen, A. (1995), ‘‘What we know and what we do not know about the ‘home’ and the ‘work:’ and the implications of both’’, in Heck, R., Owen, A. and Rowe, B. (Eds), Home-Based Employment and Family Life, Auburn House, Westport, CT, pp. 193-228. Huws, U., Korte, W. and Robinson, S. (1990), Telework: Towards the Elusive Office, Wiley, Chichester and New York, NY. Kalish, R.A. (1982), Late Adulthood: Perspectives on Human Development, 2nd ed., Brooks Cole Publishing, Monterey, CA. Korte, W. and Wynne, R. (1996), Telework: Penetration, Potential and Practice in Europe, IOS Press, Amsterdam. Kurland, N.B. and Bailey, D.E. (1999), ‘‘Telework: the advantages and challenges of working here, there, anywhere, anytime’’, Organisational Dynamics, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 53-68. Lamond, D., Standen, P. and Daniels, K. (2000), ‘‘The psychological impact of teleworking: a theoretical and research framework’’, paper presented at the Academy of Management, Toronto. Leighton, P. and Syrett, M. (1989), New Work Patterns: Putting Policy into Practice, Pitman, London. McClelland, S. (1999), ‘‘Telework: new form for a working life’’, Telecommunications, Vol. 33 No. 12, International Edition, December, pp. 80-1. Mathias, C.J. (1999), ‘‘Virtual ¼ real: the distributed workforce opportunity’’, Business Communications Review, October, pp. 3-6. Morgan, C. (1999), ‘‘Telecommuting accelerates’’, Computerworld, Vol. 33 No. 44, p. 74. Pierce, J. (2000), ‘‘Perceived responsibility for training of contractors’’, unpublished thesis, University of South Australia, Adelaide. Segal, J.A. (1998), ‘‘Home sweet office’’, HR Magazine, Vol. 43 No. 5, pp. 119-29.

Standen, P. (1997), ‘‘Home, work and management in the information age’’, Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 1-14. Steinberg, M., Walley, L., Tyman, R. and Donald, K. (1998), ‘‘Too old to work?’’, in Patrickson, M. and Hartmann, L., Managing an Ageing Workforce, Business and Professional Publishing, Melbourne. Taylor, R. (2000), ‘‘Pathfinder for senior surfers’’, The Age, IT Trends Supplement, 29 August, p. 5. Thomas, G.E. (1999), ‘‘Leaders supervision and performance appraisal: a proposed research agenda’’, Human Resources Development Quarterly, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 91-4. Ulfelder, S. (1999), ‘‘Extend your reach’’, Computerworld, Vol. 33 No. 44, pp. 70-4. Warr, P. (1993), ‘‘In what circumstances does job performance vary with age?’’, European Work and Organisational Psychologist, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 237-49. Weckerle, J.R. and Shultz, K.S. (1999), ‘‘Influences in the bridge employment decision among older USA workers’’, Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, Vol. 72 No. 3, pp. 317-29. WHO (1993), Aging and Working Capacity, World Health Organisation, Geneva. Yeatts, D.E., Folts, W. and Knapp, J. (1999), ‘‘Older worker’s adaptation to a changing workplace: employment issues for the 21st century’’, Educational Gerontology, Vol. 25, pp. 331-47. Further reading Department of Labor (1957), ‘‘Comparative job performance by age: large plants in the men’s footwear and household furniture industries’’, Department of Labor Bulletin 1223, Department of Labor, Washington, DC. DeVoe, D. (1999), ‘‘Expanding the pool of IT workers’’, Information Technology, Vol. 20 No. 20, pp. 111-12. Fairweather, N.B. (1999), ‘‘Surveillance in employment: the case of teleworking’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 39-49. George, L.K. and Bearon, L.B. (1980), Quality of Life in Older Persons: Meaning and Measurement, Human Sciences Press, New York, NY. Gordon, G.E. (1999), ‘‘Telecommuting: well matched to the financial services industry’’, The Secured Lender, Vol. 55 No. 6, pp. 38-46. Hochschild, A.R. (1997), The Time Bind: When Work becomes Home and Home becomes Work, Henry Holt, New York, NY. Lather, P. (1991), Getting Smart: Feminist Research and Pedagogy with/In the Post Modern, Routledge, New York, NY. Maddaloni, J. (1999), ‘‘Meeting the test for independent contractors’’, HR Focus, Supplementary Special Report on Compensation, pp. S9-S10.

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Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment Andreas G.M. Nachbagauer and Gabriela Riedl Department of Personnel Management, University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna, Austria Keywords Career development, Performance, Job satisfaction, Commitment, Career planning Abstract The discussion on career plateaus is marked by a diversity of operationalizations. This paper focuses on the independence of three dimensions of career plateaus and the impact they have on outcome measures in three areas: performance, work satisfaction and commitment. Data from 165 university staff and 77 school teachers confirmed the independence of the concepts of career plateaus. Contrary to the general assumption that an extended period working at the same position has detrimental effects, outcome variables were not connected to position immobility. Results for most of the outcome measures showed the work-content dimension to account for significantly more variance than the subjective structural dimension. Advances in work content can even moderate negative effects emanating from low expectations of hierarchical promotion. Specifically, the negative effects were most pronounced where the two subjective dimensions of career plateau coincided. These have implications for individual and organizational career management processes.

Introduction Though the issue of career plateaus and their detrimental effects on performance and satisfaction is more than 20 years old (Ference et al., 1977), it remains a very relevant topic. Moreover, due to organizational and environmental changes, an increasing number of employees are affected by the problem of career immobility (Trembley and Roger, 1993; Chay et al., 1995). In addition, organizational performance may very well be related to this issue. Both theory and practice show the increasing significance of human resources as a key factor of international competitiveness (Sparrow and Hiltrop, 1994; Sparrow and Cooper, 1998; Brewster and Harris, 1999). In the common pyramid-shaped organization virtually everyone’s career at one time or another reaches a point where further hierarchical advancement is unlikely. As organizations tend to reduce their staff in lean times, through techniques such as business re-engineering, downsizing and spin-off activities, further advancement within the organization becomes more unlikely, and employees have to face the fact that they have to stay in the same position longer than expected without any reduction in performance level. Beyond the problems faced by workers in large organizations, employees in small-toInternational Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, pp. 716-733. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720 DOI 10.1108/01437720210453920

This article is based on data collected for an original research project conceived and conducted by Wolfgang Elsˇik and the first author. See Eckardstein et al., 1997; Elsˇik and Nachbagauer, 1997.

medium business units, whose economic impact is still high in European countries (OECD, 1999), also confront a difficult situation. In these firms, vertical career movement is limited and position immobility is a normal event. On the other hand, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances among firms together with the plea for a flexible workforce limit the time in one organization, even more so in one position. The commonly accepted perspective that vocational education and training precedes career advancement is no longer true. Today, careers become a ‘‘patchwork’’ of jobs and continuing upward opportunities are restricted. This set of circumstances is, in most cases, neither planned nor expected by the individual. He or she can only react to these outside pressures. In addition to the reduction of vertical advancement possibilities and the fast changes of staff, the striking image of diversity along gender, race, and ethnic dimensions, as well as the rising numbers of dual career couples (Arthur, 1992) has also contributed to making formalized career systems obsolete. Here the human resource management has to navigate between the scylla that career stagnation does not end in performance stagnation and the charybdis of disappointing the career expectations by unplanned changes. Both in the literature and in practice on career plateaus and career systems we can observe a trend towards focusing on those with high performance potential. But this view excludes the great mass of employees who produce by far the most output and whose productivity and good performance, though common, is neglected. Problems with the latter group, sometimes labelled with discriminating labels like workhorse or deadwood (Ference et al., 1977), are merely defined as threats, not as challenges (Leibowitz et al., 1990). A key issue with the increase in flexibility of organizations and its effect on working conditions is maintaining employee commitment. Commitment of employees is expected to be enhanced by target-oriented designing of organizational cultures and individualized incentive systems such as career systems. Much of the established career theory, especially the theory on career plateaus, was developed before recent changes in the organization on work and the workforce became well established. It is assumed that the current low interest in career plateaus in the literature is connected with the reduction of the employees’ average tenure in a position. This makes objective career plateaus less likely. Such a narrowing of the view on hierarchical promotion neglects the work-content dimension and the possibility of a subjective plateau. Therefore it is useful again to discuss career plateaus against this changed background, in particular since previous reports on its relationship with performance, satisfaction and commitment are inconsistent and typologies of career plateaus lack empirical testing. What does ‘‘career’’ mean? In the literature, career lines and careers are either distinguished as independent concepts (Mayerhofer, 1993) or used as synonyms (Mentzel, 1997).

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Gerpott (1988, p. 90) defines ‘‘career lines as given, standardized sequences of positions that are specified by organizations in a formalized way for particular groups of employees and which are related to persons, but independent of the individual . . . Such normative frameworks for sequences of positions are preferably found in large organizations and bureaucracies.’’ Career lines limit the organizational scope for individual careers. Gerpott (1988) differentiates here between a position-oriented and a behaviour-oriented understanding of career. He views a position-oriented career as any succession of positions held by a person, in objective terms, in the course of their working life within organizational structures up to the present. This definition covers career movements within and between organizations, but not the times spent outside the employment system, such as unemployment, training, further training and CET, nor does it include sabbaticals. The behaviour-oriented career concept, which is understood as changes of attitudes and behaviour associated with work experiences and activities in the time continuum of a person’s life, is integrated into the concept of career development commonly used in the career-related literature in so far as it attempts to explain behavioural differences between employees by means of sequences of positions (careers) as experienced by individuals. Motives for movement arise, in general, when positions become vacant or new ones are created. According to Schein (1971) career movements within an organization can be vertical, radial or circumferential. Vertical movement can be either upward or downward. The success can be measured by the attainment of particular hierarchical levels. Personal development may come about also by a horizontal crossing of functional borders, viz. by changing the content of the work and by acquiring qualifications. Schein describes the assumption of influence and power as the third possibility of a successful career, when someone approaches a power centre. This may but need not be connected with a hierarchical advancement (Schein, 1971, 1994). We will follow Schein’s definition of career as movement within an organization, comprising both hierarchical and task-oriented movements. In traditional career research, the effects of career interruptions as well as (hierarchical or work-related) downward movements on future career opportunities are seldom the subject of research. Repeatedly, the literature argues for employees viewing their own career primarily as a continual upward movement process. This hierarchically oriented career concept is also the basis of most definitions of career plateaus. Concepts of career plateaus Investigators in the field based their work on the classical definition of career plateau by Ference et al., 1977 (see Carnazza et al., 1981; Chao, 1990; Clark, 1992; Elsass and Ralston, 1989; Evans and Gilbert, 1984; Freimuth, 1991; Kelly, 1985; Leibowitz et al., 1990; Near, 1985; Savery, 1990; Slocum et al., 1985; Stout et al., 1988). They define a career plateau ‘‘as the point in a career where the likelihood of additional hierarchical promotion is very low’’ (Ference et al., 1977, p. 602).

Doubts about the validity of asking employees and supervisors about the chance of further advancement (Orpen, 1986; Slocum et al., 1985; Stout et al., 1988) have led to the definition of career plateaus ‘‘as the point at which future career mobility, including both upward and lateral moves, is in reasonable doubt because the length of time in the present position has been unduly prolonged’’ (Veiga, 1981, p. 566). This operational definition stresses long position tenure compared with the average workforce. Lateral moves are excluded from the notion of career plateaus – therefore we would rather talk of career immobility, while plateau suggests the picture of the impossibility of an upward move (Eckardstein et al., 1997; Gerpott, 1987; Orpen, 1983). Some researchers (Chao, 1990; Nicholson, 1993; Trembley and Roger, 1993) have compared these two measurements of career plateau. Chay et al. (1995) found that subjective measurement, the self-assessment of promotion chances, explained more of the variance in work attitudes and behaviours than did the objective measurement of job tenure or position immobility (Eckardstein et al., 1997). Furthermore, the correlation between these two measurements was not significant; in studies reporting a significant finding, (Nicholson, 1993; Trembley and Roger, 1993) weak correlations were observed. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that the objective measurement of career plateaus is more than an operationalization of Ference et al.’s notion of career plateaus and has to be treated as an independent dimension. This is further underpinned by reports of differing antecedents and consequences of both dimensions. There are two further suggestions worth considering here both of which support the independence of the concepts. Chao (1990) argues that the way the individual perceives, assesses and reacts to his present work depends more on the subjective evaluation of career development than on the tenure alone. On the other hand, feelings of being at a dead end may stem from a number of influencing factors such as supervisor signals, personal commitment, general advancement opportunities and practices, qualification and micro-politics and, of course, long tenure. The objective aspect of career plateaus is determined by past decisions whereas the subjective dimension is driven by further expectations at work. Both the subjective and the objective dimensions of the concept of career plateau take as their starting point the immobility stemming from the common structure of organizations, the pyramid. Here a career plateau is unavoidable, given the scarcity of positions in higher layers (Ference et al., 1977; Bardwick, 1983, 1986). Hence we will refer to these two dimensions as structural career plateaus. But career itself, according to Schein’s (1971) concept, is not necessarily connected with hierarchical positions. Increasingly task and responsibility have become critical variables for developmental opportunities beyond rank and title. We will call the absence of new, challenging and varied tasks without

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possibilities of improvement or learning ‘‘task stagnation’’ or ‘‘work-content plateau’’ (Bardwick, 1983, 1986). A structural plateau may result in a workcontent-specific plateau, yet, it is not a necessary consequence. Task stagnation is, in principle, avoidable and reversible. The content-specific dimension has rarely been used in empirical studies, with the exception of Orpen (1983), who focused on tenure and changes in authority and responsibility. Most of the studies – especially in the early days of research – have held the opinion that employees will inevitably react to a career plateau with bad performance and loss of motivation and commitment (Carnazza et al., 1981; Evans and Gilbert, 1984; Hall, 1985; Near, 1983, 1984, 1985; Orpen, 1983, 1986; Savery, 1990; Slocum et al., 1985; Stout et al., 1988). Again, we can sum up the results of previous findings: plateaued performers are older, less content with their supervisors, report a scarcity in advancement opportunities, have a higher absenteeism rate and feel more ill. Regarding the more interesting effects on performance, work satisfaction, motivation and importance of advancement, the studies reported are few and produced inconsistent results. Proposed model The basis of our research is the definition of career as movement within an organization comprising both hierarchical and task-oriented movements. Thus career plateau is the lack of such a movement. Our hypothesis is that some of the contradictory outcomes can be explained by the usage of different concepts and operationalizations of career plateaus. Thus, our study compares the three definitions of career plateaus – structural subjective career plateau (Ference et al.), structural objective career plateau (Veiga, 1981) and the workcontent dimension – with regard to the salient categories in previous studies and outcomes including performance, satisfaction, and commitment. In our empirical study we tested the independence of the objective and both subjective career plateau concepts. In a second step we compared the effects of each concept of career plateau on performance, satisfaction and commitment, controlling for interaction effects. The research design is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Theoretical framework

Method Subjects The study was conducted at the Vienna University of Business Administration and Economics (‘‘Wirtschaftsuniversitaet’’ – WU) and at three secondary colleges for business administration (‘‘Handelsakademie’’ – HAK). The paperand-pencil questionnaire yielded a final sample of 165 faculty and 77 teachers, representing a response rate of 69 percent and 28 percent, respectively. The average age in the WU-sample was 39 years, 20 percent were female. A total of 50 percent of the respondents had been with the university for seven years or less, with a further 25 percent for more than 15 years. The average tenure at the university was 10.3 years. The sample represents 45 percent of tenured personnel and 50 percent of non-tenured personnel. The tenured part consisted of full professors (27.9 percent – with an internal hierarchy comprising two stages), associate professors (5.5 percent – assistant professors with habilitation[1]), assistant professors (6.7 percent – post-docs with tenure but without habilitation) and (language) teachers at the university (4.9 percent). The non-tenured part represents doctoral students (32.3 percent) and post-docs (18.3 percent). A total of 4.9 percent were working on a contractual basis not classified. In contrast to the university 63 percent of the teachers in school were female. The average age was 36 years with an average of ten years at school. About 45 percent of the teachers were appointed to permanent staff[2], also 37 percent worked on a tenured contractual basis, while 18 percent had a non-tenured contract. Finally, 91 percent were academics, and 9 percent non-academics. Measures Scales were developed after a comprehensive literature review of the area. All scales were tested with factor analysis and alpha coefficients and resulted in satisfactory discriminant validity and reliability. All items of scales are a fivepoint Likert-type (see Table I). Beside demographic variables, the questionnaire comprised scales on satisfaction with task, individual development and the organization as a whole (following Neuberger and Allerbeck, 1978, with minor adaptations), affective and continuance commitment (adapted and translated from Meyer and Allen, 1984). Performance measures included weekly working hours, self-assessment of current performance (quality, quantity, and organizational utility) and recent changes in performance level. The structural subjective dimension of career plateau used a self-report to assess the likelihood of further advancement, the structural objective dimension of career plateau was computed as tenure above average of the respective group in terms of layer, and task stagnation was measured by a scale on work content and routine. All three variables were dichotomized. Further items dealt with a possible enlargement of the scope of discretion and responsibility, and the presence of niches or pet projects which the job might offer.

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Table I. Outcome variables characteristics

Scale

Items

Mean

SD

Min

Max

Val n

-coef.

Performance current

3

3.99 3.81

0.61 0.59

2.67 2.33

5.00 5.00

165 77

0.76

Performance change

3

3.54 3.36

0.65 0.65

1.67 1.00

5.00 5.00

165 77

0.80

Working hours

1

48.40 34.03

15.75 16.43

3.00 4.00

95.00 60.00

164 76

–

Satisfaction task

9

3.91 3.82

0.66 0.58

1.33 1.89

5.00 4.78

165 75

0.86

Satisfaction development

6

3.61 3.68

0.81 0.83

1.00 1.50

5.00 4.83

162 66

0.87

Satisfaction WU/HAK

10

3.15 3.42

0.62 0.70

1.20 1.00

5.00 5.00

165 75

0.82

Affective commitment

4

3.33 3.56

0.94 0.83

1.00 1.00

5.00 5.00

165 77

0.80

Continuance commitment

5

2.51 2.45

1.01 1.18

1.00 1.00

5.00 5.00

165 77

0.81

Note: First line: WU; second line: HAK

Results Demographic variables Results for the university group showed no significant correlations between all three types of plateaued performers on the one hand and tenure and age on the other hand. This contrasts with results for formal employment status: while some 30 percent of the assistant professors (doctoral students and post-docs) without tenure report themselves as having plateaued in one way or another, 91 percent of the assistant professors (post-docs) with tenure but without habilitation are non-plateaued performers. In contrast, 67 percent of the associate professors (lecturers) with tenure and habilitation report themselves on some kind of plateau (
2 18 ¼ 31:77; p < 0:05). Top full professors (with tenure) are excluded from this analysis, because – by definition – they cannot be promoted as they are already on the top of the pyramid. In every case either of the structural dimensions is less important than task stagnation. In contrast to faculty, within the group of the college teachers both age (mult. R2 ¼ 0:125; p < 0:05) and tenure (mult. R2 ¼ 0:189; p < 0:05) have a strong impact on the subjective structural dimension of career plateau. Of the teachers without tenure 77 percent report no plateau, while some 72 percent of the teachers with tenure report themselves as having plateaued (
2 6 ¼ 16:45; p < 0:05). These findings are underscored by the fact that teachers without tenure are about eight years younger than their fellow teachers with tenure. Position immobility had no effect.

Types of career plateaus Results on the self-assessment question concerning the likelihood of further promotion showed a clear distinction between structurally plateaued (0 and 10 percent) and non-plateaued performers (20 percent and above), especially in the case of faculty. The expected independence of the subjective structural and the work-content dimension, as proposed by Bardwick, was tested. No significant correlations between the subjective structural and the work-content dimension could be found in either sample (WU:
2 1 ¼ 3:794; HAK:
2 1 ¼ 1:853, p > 0:05). The same applies to the objective structural measure and the workcontent plateau (WU:
2 1 ¼ 2:524; HAK:
2 1 ¼ 2:419, p > 0:05). Whereas a significant but weak correlation between the subjective and objective structural appeared at the WU (
2 1 ¼ 5:724, p < 0:05), the HAK-sample revealed no correlation (
2 1 ¼ 1:938, p > 0:05). Frequencies for the 2
2
2 subgroups are given in Table II.

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Outcome measures Correlation data for the outcome measures are shown in Table III. The analysis for the influence of different concepts of career plateaus on the outcome measures was conducted using ANOVA including MCA, with additional analyses where necessary. Results for the WU and the HAKs regarding performance, satisfaction and commitment are summarized in Table IV. Note, that for the ANOVA in the WU-sample, top full professors (with tenure) are excluded from this analysis, because – by definition – they cannot be promoted as they are already on the top of the pyramid (n ¼ 133). We found no significant correlations between current performance and change in performance level and any kind of plateau both in schools and the university. Data showed a significant difference for faculty regarding performance in terms of working hours. Faculty on a work-content plateau reported that they worked six hours less per week than their colleagues. Both the objective structural and, in particular, the work-content dimension of career plateaus have a marked effect on (dis)satisfaction with the task, while Subjective structural plateau SSP Non-SSP Objective structural plateau Objective structural plateau OSP Non-OSP Total OSP Non-OSP Total Total % Work-content plateau

Total

WCP

3.0 7.1

4.5 11.4

7.6 18.6

0.8 1.4

9.1 2.9

9.8 4.3

17.4 22.9

NonWCP

5.3 22.9

14.4 22.9

19.7 45.7

13.6 21.4

49.2 10.0

62.9 31.4

82.6 77.1

8.3 30.0

18.9 34.3

27.3 64.3

14.4 22.9

58.3 12.9

72.7 35.7

100.0 100.0

Note: First line: WU; second line: HAK

Table II. Frequencies in each plateau group

0.43*** 0.51*** –0.24*** –0.46*** 0.26*** 0.13 0.25*** 0.20* 0.12 –0.20*

Affective commitment

Continuance commitment

Performance current

Performance change

Working hours

Notes: First line: WU; Second line: HAK *¼ p < 0:10; **¼ p < 0:05; ***p < 0:01

0.50*** 0.47***

Satisfaction WU/HAK

Table III. Correlation coefficients of outcome measures 0.67*** 0.38**

0.01 –0.22*

0.16** 0.11

0.17** –0.21*

–0.10 0.02

0.38*** 0.19

0.61*** 0.02

Satisfaction development

–0.02 –0.08

0.08 0.27**

0.13* –0.17

–0.12 –0.23*

0.49*** 0.39***

WU/HAK

0.05 0.04

0.16** 0.13

0.31*** 0.11

–0.12 –0.31**

0.04 0.02

0.05 0.03

–0.18** –0.31**

Commitment Affective Continuance

0.28** 0.36**

0.32*** 0.20* 0.26** –0.03

Performance Current Change

724

Satisfaction development

Task

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Outcome measures

Total

Objective structural P

Subjective structural P

Work-content plateau

Performance current

0.065 0.164

0.006 0.026

0.002 0.018

0.020 0.038

Performance change

0.043 0.117

0.000 0.000

0.007 0.000

0.002 0.010

Working hours

0.090 0.040

0.011 0.002

0.008 0.001

0.060* 0.001

Satisfaction task

0.302* 0.109

0.034* 0.031

0.001 0.007

0.232* 0.016

Satisfaction development

0.173* 0.044

0.002 0.006

0.036* 0.001

0.040* 0.000

Satisfaction WU/HAK

0.083 0.095

0.000 0.008

0.030* 0.017

0.012 0.004

Affective commitment

0.101 0.151

0.003 0.000

0.008 0.010

0.031* 0.064*

Continuance commitment

0.062 0.118

0.010 0.037

0.002 0.010

0.035* 0.065*

Notes: First line: WU; Second line: HAK Total: mult. R2 , plateau dimensions: eta2; *p < 0:05

the subjective structural dimension showed no effect. Contrary to the common understanding, both subjective plateau dimensions have an equally strong effect on satisfaction with the individual development. The analysis reveals a powerful interaction. Thus, considerable effects are only observable in the case of a dual subjective plateau. The same major effects on satisfaction with the individual development occur only on a dual subjective plateau. Dissatisfaction with the university rises only on a subjective structural plateau, with a minor intensification of the task-oriented dimension. In schools, objective structural plateaued performers report more dissatisfaction with their task than others, though not significant. No other correlation was significant. However, we found a strong correlation of subjective structural plateau with demographic variables. It is very likely that the observed effects of the structural plateau are mere mediators for effects of age and tenure. Thus, dissatisfaction with little likelihood of further promotion is shifted to the task itself. Non-plateaued performers achieved the highest score on the affective commitment scale. Again it is the dual subjective plateau which lets emotional devotion to the organization reach the bottom line. Figures for continuance commitment show a curve opposite to that observed with the variables above, with a stronger influence of task stagnation. In the university we have a major negative effect of the work-content component on affective commitment and a

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Table IV. Results of the ANOVAs with MCA

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positive effect on an continuance commitment. Both objective structural dimensions seemed to show no effect. Because of strong interacting effects of all three dimensions in the university we compared the effects of both subjective plateau forms on commitment separately. Here we found a major negative effect of the subjective structural component on affective commitment (eta2 ¼ 0:058; p < 0:05) and no significant effect on continuance commitment, while task stagnation improves continuance commitment (eta2 ¼ 0:029; p < 0:05) and has no emotional consequence. In general, the data for the schools show the same picture. However, for teachers, the work-content dimension is more. The effect of task stagnation on affective commitment and continuance commitment found in schools had been expected. Again, no effect can be reported on both structural dimensions. The only improvement connected with the possibility to draw on an individual niche at the job can be reported with regard to affective commitment in universities. Here, effects are even more intense in the case of task stagnation (t ¼ 3:84; p < 0:05) than subjective structural stagnation (t ¼ 2:61; p < 0:05). More satisfaction with task (t ¼ 4:06; p < 0:05) and individual development (t ¼ 2:14; p < 0:05) and higher affective commitment (t ¼ 3:51; p < 0:05), as reported by faculty affected by task stagnation, is brought about by a recent enlargement in the scope of action and responsibility. For university staff on a structural plateau, similar effects can be stated regarding satisfaction with task (t = –3.57; p<0.05) and organization (t ¼ 2:23; p < 0:05). No moderation effects can be seen at the schools. Discussion The most important result is the independence of each of the three dimensions of career plateaus. Contrary to common assumptions, past tenure of a position in a layer has no effect on either promotion expectations nor with feelings of routine and scarcity of challenges. Even more so, the objective structural plateau or position immobility has very few effects on outcome measures. These findings put into question the idea of a secret career plan where everybody knows when a promotion in a particular layer is due and, if a promotion does not happen, feelings of being left over are common (‘‘up or out’’). At an individual level, future expectations are influenced more by a realistic assessment of opportunities than by mere past experience, i.e. learning is more than a simple extrapolation of the past. These results also promote the idea of strict distinction between measurement of past performance and future-oriented support of employees. This interpretation is limited by the fact that universities in Austria and, to a minor extent also schools, are organizations with rather clear-cut and strict formal systems of promotion with respect to tenure position. While the main effects of task stagnation on commitment in general were expected, findings for the university regarding the negative effect of the work content on affective commitment and the subjective structural component on continuance commitment in the two-dimension-test are bewildering. We

believe that these findings can be explained by taking into account previous job expectations: it is plausible that the prospect of promotion is not the main reason for working at the university, but rather the prospect of a varied and interesting job. Thus, disappointed expectations may have different consequences. A low likelihood of further promotion may influence the emotional commitment to the university but does not affect the previous decision to stay. If the main expectation and reason for working at the university, the interesting job, is not met, another reason for staying within the organization is needed. Here the side-bet-theory (Becker, 1960) suggests that the search for rational reasons will improve the importance of previous investments and the scarcity of alternatives. Our findings regarding performance are in accordance with other studies. It is not clear whether there is no difference or if the self-assessment of workrelated criteria hinders reliable ratings. On the other hand the difference in working time for the work-content dimension but not the structural component is plausible. When one fulfils an interesting task – especially if one carries out research work – time is fleeting. With routine tasks, the reduction of working time is a good means of obtaining a fair equilibrium of input and output. The idea of equilibrium is underscored by the fact that there is no difference regarding the self-assessment question, as there is no reason to suppose that the social average differs between groups. While the effect of task stagnation on satisfaction with the task is not really surprising, it is interesting to see that major effects on satisfaction with individual development occur only on a dual subjective plateau with no effect of the objective dimension. Here, we assume the influence of compensating effects of the two subjective dimensions. On the one hand, interesting tasks may compensate for the scarcity of promotion opportunities, while routine work can be understood as an unavoidable period until the next promotion – which provides the prospect of a more challenging task. If none of these seem possible, further advancement is assessed to be low. As far as niches and the improvement of scope are concerned, we can see that they can, albeit to a rather small extent, have compensating effects for lacking task content and challenge. It is again interesting that these effects are more common for universities than for schools dominated by rather rigid structures. A comparison of the samples of faculty and teachers reveals the importance of task in the context of universities, while the effect of task and structure in schools is more balanced. These findings, and the unexpected effects on affective commitment and task satisfaction, support the assumption that the faculty understand their university as a field of individual development in terms of tasks, while schools give the impression of an organization where personal development finds an end after a period of introduction. Schools are typical examples of extremely flat organizations (i.e. teacher – principal) where most members reach their peak of development in the middle of the hierarchy. Most surprisingly we found that one-third of the teachers believed in further promotion in the context of an extremely flat formal hierarchy. Since it is not

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likely that each one of them will become a principal, we believe that the meaning of (structural) promotion is very obscure. Supported by the fact that the question concerning the likelihood of further promotion resulted in the clear-cut differentiation of two groups, we believe that the concept of hierarchical promotion needs reconsideration. A first hint is given by the result that three-quarters of teachers without tenure believed in their promotion, while the same amount of teachers with tenure did not. This is best explained by the supposition of a trinomial concept of hierarchy – though not formal – at the schools (no tenure – tenure – principal). Data underpin the importance of age, which has close connections to tenure and legal status for the creation of a structural career plateau. In contrast to schools such clear relationships do not exist at universities. Rather, we can distinguish between two classes of faculty with an internal differentiation: in both classes, feelings of task stagnation are decreased, as rank gets higher. Subsequent to passing the step to the next class, i.e. after the habilitation, lecturers start at the bottom again and hence report high rates of task stagnation. Conclusions As already mentioned in the beginning, advancement possibilities decrease due to decentralization and lack of hierarchical strategies. This reduction in organizational levels leads to orders being handled more frequently in projects with a limited period, and it promotes job rotation, in general. Work content and tasks are undergoing faster changes than ever before. This makes permanent learning and unlearning of work-relevant content a matter of course and does not automatically lead to a hierarchical promotion. These conditions cannot be changed under the given market conditions. Empirical results show however that these forms of flexibility are connected with a negative effect on performance, satisfaction, and commitment if the individual employees have the feeling they cannot plan or influence their career. It seems obvious that employees should monitor their own opportunities in the organization. Alas, in many cases, plateaued performers become aware of their situation when it is too late for efficient action. Employees should, if alternatives are available, consider changing the organization before qualification and motivation are heavily affected. Here, new qualifications can give them access to even more positions. Some warning signals are clearly seen at an organizational level. These include a policy of lean management, vacancies in target positions, and, at a personal level, diminishing qualification opportunities, long tenure in a position, a reduction of status symbols and of interaction with important managers, and narrowing of responsibility. Proactive action is possible only if problems can be identified. Searches for actions may include talks with supervisors and the arrangement of an individual career and development plan. Not only direct supervisors are important, but also strategic impression management, an increase of visibility and reputation, and networking. Other

actions include the redesigning of individual tasks and responsibility as well as the creation of niches and pet projects. Here we can see the importance of organizational preconditions: all these actions must be possible within an organizational context which has to emphasize flexibility rather than rigidity. In this case, even niches will not improve the individuals’ situation, as the case with schools so clearly demonstrated. Therefore, company career management has to comprise not only ‘‘the planning, realization and control of all those personnel management activities that are meant to achieve behavioural effects by systematically influencing the position sequence of an employee over time’’ (Gerpott, 1988, p. 92), but also has to take into account the organizational context. Four main points have to be stressed here: (1) do not create any unfulfilled expectations; (2) be flexible; (3) consider compensation effects between promotion and work content; and (4) distinguish between past experiences and future expectations. Most problems stem from not fulfilled expectations. Career counselling and career agreements between employees and supervisors and transparency of promotion standards, often in connection with qualification programs and assessment procedures, help to avoid disillusions on the part of the employee. Certainly this demand is easy to make, but hard to meet. Organizations are faced with increasing insecurities in an environment that is becoming more and more turbulent. For most companies, it is simply not reasonable to guarantee a career plan many years ahead. This implies a trade-off between current motivating effects brought about by career promises and later dissatisfaction because of disillusions and unmet expectations. As we have seen in schools, the lack of flexibility in terms of promotion and task variety leads to poor results in terms of satisfaction and commitment. This is even worse if the only perspective is to stay in the same job and task for the rest of one’s working life. Individualized, flexible career systems must be preferred over standardized career systems. Flexibility can be reached not only through vertical movement, but also through horizontal development like periodical job rotation, work in projects, and task variety. Similarly, the acquisition of influence and power – and thus the approach of a power centre – may be experienced as a career. Again, life-long tenure is questionable. For all these reasons it does not come as a surprise that, apart from vertical promotion systems, horizontal hierarchies are being increasingly introduced in the business reality (Domsch, 1994; Gerpott, 1987, 1994). The fundamental idea of dual ladders is to create another hierarchy which comprises special ranks, titles, tasks and rewards, but does not include management functions like responsibility for personnel or resources. Typically, positions in the dual ladder have professional or technical functions. The offer of additional promotion

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opportunities is only one goal. Dual ladders also aim at the stimulation of and reward for specialized functions, offering possibilities for more freedom at work, and diminishing fluctuation and brain drain. It is becoming even more important to increase the commitment of these internal specialists to the company as it is getting more and more difficult to recruit them from the labour market (Ridder, 1999). Motivating effects arising from one career system may be expected only if recognizable career chances can be fulfilled within a reasonable period. Wherever possible, the principle of precedence of those in the ranks should apply (Mentzel, 1997). A further point to be remembered is the consideration of compensation effects: thus, pronounced content-related flexibility makes formal stability and predictability of promotion important for employees. In contrast, it seems to have extremely detrimental effects on performance, work satisfaction and commitment if both factors are kept unforeseeable. From an organizational viewpoint, this could lead to undesired effects of actions conducted out of insecurity, such as short-term, individual utility maximizations at the expense of others or a far too rigid orientation towards formal guidelines. And last but not least our results confirm the principle of separation of performance appraisals oriented towards the past and a future-oriented support for employees. Lueger (1992) as well as others advocate that appraisal and advancement systems should, by no means, be made into one evaluation since personnel, successor and career line planning tools are based on data and experiences oriented towards past achievements. A far-sighted career policy, however, has to take into account future expectations of the employees and the organizational context. This can be achieved by means of traditional personnel management tools such as career appraisals, appraisals of potentials or proactive qualifications for different development possibilities. If well understood, career plateaus, though not avoidable in principle, need not have pernicious effects on organizations. We have to turn away from the image that problems connected with lost opportunities are unsolvable, but have to be aware of their causes, types and effects in order to take proactive actions. This means that we have to realize that the career path does not need to go only in one direction. Notes 1. A habilitation is required for applying for a post as full or associate professor, i.e. to get a tenure, and is connected to the awarding of the venia docendi. 2. Most teachers are – after years in service – appointed to the permanent staff according to public law. They are not only tenured and bear near to no risk to be moved to other schools, but also have a specialized salary and pension system. All other teachers have contracts on the basis of private law. They may be tenured or employed on a year to year basis. References Arthur, M.B. (1992), ‘‘Career theory in a dynamic context’’, in Montross, D.F. and Shinkman, C.J. (Eds), Career Development: Theory and Practice, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL, pp. 65-84.

Bardwick, J.M. (1983), ‘‘SMR forum: plateauing and productivity’’, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 67-73. Bardwick, J.M. (1986), The Plateauing Trap, Amacom, New York, NY.

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Becker, H.S. (1960), ‘‘Notes on the concept of commitment’’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 66, pp. 32-42. Brewster, C. and Harris, H. (1999), International HRM. Contemporary Issues in Europe, Routledge, London. Carnazza, J.P., Korman, A.K., Ference, T.P. and Stoner, J.A. (1981), ‘‘Plateaued and non-plateaued managers: factors in job performance’’, Journal of Management, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 7-25. Chao, G.T. (1990), ‘‘Exploration of the conceptualization and measurement of career plateau: a comparative analysis’’, Journal of Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 181-93. Chay, Y.W., Aryee, S. and Chew, I. (1995), ‘‘Career plateauing: reactions and moderators among managerial and professional employees’’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 61-78. Clark, F.A. (1992), Total Career Management. Strategies for Creating Management Careers, McGraw-Hill, London. Domsch, M.E. (1994), ‘‘Fachlaufbahn – ein Beitrag zur Flexibilisierung und Mitarbeiterorientierung der Personalentwicklung’’, in Domsch, M.E. and Siemers, S.H. (Eds), Fachlaufbahnen, Physica, Heidelberg, pp. 3-21. Eckardstein, D.v., Elsˇik, W. and Nachbagauer, A. (1997), Formen und Effekte von Karriereplateaus. Eine theoretische und empirische Analyse, Muenchen & Mering, Hampp. Eckardstein, D.v., Lueger, G., Niedl, K. and Schuster, B. (1995), Psychische Befindensbeeintraechtigungen und Gesundheit im Betrieb, Muenchen & Mering, Hampp. Elsass, P.M. and Ralston, D.A. (1989), ‘‘Individual responses to the stress of career plateauing’’, Journal of Management, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 35-47. Evans, M.G. and Gilbert, E. (1984), ‘‘Plateaued managers: their need gratifications and their effort-performance expectations’’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 99-108. Ference, T., Stoner, J.A. and Warren, E.K. (1977), ‘‘Managing the career plateau’’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 2 No. 10, pp. 602-12. Freimuth, J. (1991), ‘‘Karriereplateaus und der interne Arbeitsmarkt. ‘Weisse Flecken’ auf der Landkarte der Personalpolitik’’, Zeitschrift Fuehrung und Organisation, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 29-34. Gerpott, T.J. (1987), ‘‘Parallelhierarchie’’, Die Betriebswirtschaft, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 494-6. Gerpott, T.J. (1988), Karriereentwicklung von Industrieforschern, Berlin. Gerpott, T.J. (1994), ‘‘Fachlaufbahnen in der industriellen Forschung and Entwicklung’’, in Domsch, M.E. and Siemers, S.H. (Eds), Fachlaufbahnen, Physica, Heidelberg, pp. 23-60. Hall, D.T. (1985), ‘‘Project work as an antidote to career plateauing in a declining organization’’, Human Resource Management, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 271-92. Kelly, J.F. (1985), ‘‘Coping with the career plateau’’, Personnel Administrator, Vol. 30 No. 10, pp. 65-76. Leibowitz, Z.B., Kaye, B.L. and Farren, C. (1990), ‘‘What to do about career gridlock’’, Training and Development Journal, Vol. 44 No. 4, pp. 28-35. Mayerhofer, W. (1993), ‘‘Personalentwicklung’’, in Kasper, H. and Mayerhofer, W. (Eds), Personal, Fuehrung, Organisation, Ueberreuter, Wien, pp. 153-218.

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Mentzel, W. (1997), Unternehmenssicherung durch Personalentwicklung: Mitarbeiter motivieren, foerdern und weiterbilden, Haufe, Freiburg. Meyer, J.P. and Allen, N.J. (1984), ‘‘Testing the ‘side-bet theory’ of organizational commitment: some methodological considerations’’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 372-8. Near, J.P. (1983), ‘‘Work and nonwork correlates of the career plateau’’, in Chung, K.H. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Dallas, TX, pp. 380-4. Near, J.P. (1984), ‘‘Reactions to the career plateau’’, Business Horizons, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 75-9. Near, J.P. (1985), ‘‘A discriminant analysis of plateaued versus nonplateaued managers’’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 26, pp. 177-88. Neuberger, O. and Allerbeck, M. (1978), ‘‘Messung und Analyse von Arbeitszufriedenheit. Erfahrungen mit dem Arbeitsbeschreibungsbogen (ABB)’’, Huber, Bern. Nicholson, N. (1993), ‘‘Purgatory or place of safety? The managerial plateau and organizational agegrading’’, Human Relations, Vol. 46 No. 12, pp. 1369-89. OECD (1999), Employment Outlook, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, June. Orpen, C. (1983), ‘‘The career patterns and work attitudes of plateaued and non-plateaued managers’’, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 32-6. Orpen, C. (1986), ‘‘The relationship between perceived task attributes and job satisfaction and performance among plateaued and nonplateaued managers’’, Human Systems Management, Vol. 6, pp. 15-20. Ridder, H.-G. (1999), Personalwirtschaftslehre, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart. Savery, L.K. (1990), ‘‘Managing plateaued employees’’, Management Decision, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 46-50. Schein, E.H. (1971), ‘‘The individual, the organization, and the career: a conceptual scheme’’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 7, pp. 401-26. Schein, E.H. (1994), Karriereanker. Die verborgenen Muster in ihrer beruflichen Entwicklung, 3rd ed., Beratungssozietaet Lanzenberger, Darmstadt. Slocum, J.W., Cron, W.L., Hansen, R.W. and Rawlings, S. (1985), ‘‘Business strategy and the management of plateaued employees’’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 133-54. Sparrow, P. and Cooper, C.L. (1998), ‘‘New organizational forms: the strategic relevance of future psychological contract scenarios’’, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 356-71. Sparrow, P. and Hiltrop, J.-M. (1994), European Human Resource Management in Transition, Prentice-Hall, New York, NY. Stout, S.K., Slocum, J.W. and Cron, W.L. (1988), ‘‘Dynamics of the career plateauing process’’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 32, pp. 74-9. Trembley, M. and Roger, A. (1993), ‘‘Individual, familial and organizational determinants of career plateau’’, Group and Organization Management, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 411-35. Veiga, J.F. (1981), ‘‘Plateaued versus nonplateaued managers: career patterns, attitudes, and path potential, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 566-78.

Further reading Becker, J. and Kurtz, H.-J. (1991), ‘‘Karriere und Wertewandel. Downward-movement als Instrument der Personalpolitik’’, Zeitschrift Fuehrung und Organisation, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp. 35-41.

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Elsˇik, W. (1994), ‘‘Karriere im schlanken Unternehmen?’’, in Mueller, M. (Ed.), Lean Banking, Ueberreuter, Wien, pp. 205-34. Elsˇik, W. and Nachbagauer, A. (1997), ‘‘Dimensionen und Wirkungen von Karriereplateaus’’, Die Betriebswirtschaft, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 218-34. Lueger, G. (1992), Die Bedeutung der Wahrnehmung bei der Personalbeurteilung, Muenchen & Mering, Hampp. Schanz, G. (1993), Personalwirtschaftslehre. Lebendige Arbeit in verhaltenswissenschaftlicher Perspektive, Vahlen, Muenchen.

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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7720.htm

Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system Nava Maslovaty School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Keywords Students, Teachers, Organizational learning Abstract This study relates to a setting which approaches organizational learning. The professional ideal student trait system and the personal value system, as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers, are presented as constructs of the belief system. Conclusions are drawn from a comparative analysis of seven samples. Although the constructs of the personal value system and the ideal high school student trait system were similar, their content priorities were different, focusing professionally on academic traits and personally on interpersonal values. The structure of the ideal high school student multivariate system confirmed Schwartz’s bipolar continue value model: conservation versus openness to change and self-transcendence versus selfenhancement. Two techniques for organizational learning are presented for promoting, theorizing, and evaluating teachers’ perceptions of the ideal student trait system.

Introduction Organizational learning is a perspective frequently used to better understand non-school organizations, but it has only rarely been applied to schools (Leithwood et al., 1998). With the continuing demands for restructuring, it seems reasonable to view the school as a learning organization (Leithwood and Seashore-Louis, 1998). The last decade has witnessed a wide range of efforts to improve on typical strategies for fostering the individual and collective learning of teachers, as well as to better support, acknowledge, reward, or use teachers’ abilities (Darling-Hammond et al., 1998). Though teachers enjoy individual autonomy when school values are vague or when there is little consensus regarding what is expected of teachers is low, they cannot count on colleagues to reinforce their objectives. On the other hand, clear shared values and norms maximize the likelihood of teacher success. Values are reflected in practice (Seashore-Louis and Leithwood, 1998). Following this view, the assumption underlying this study is that the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system, as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers, is an operational definition of teachers’ educational goals (Maslovaty and Iram, 1997). The perception of the ‘‘ideal student’’ is influenced by the teachers’ personal and social belief systems (Maslovaty and Gaziel, 1997), which greatly influence the way

International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, pp. 734-753. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720 DOI 10.1108/01437720210453966

I would like to thank my colleagues, Professor Mordecai Miron and Dr Shoshanna Sitton of Tel Aviv University, and Professor Yaakov Iram and Professor Haim Gaziel of Bar-Ilan University, for their permission to use the data from the studies described in this paper. The studies were partially supported by the Josef Burg Chair in Education for Human Values, Tolerance and Peace at Bar-Ilan University and by the Teachers’ Association for the Advancement of Education and Teaching.

teachers function in the classroom (Anderson, 1996; Richardson, 1996). This paper is an analysis that compares the findings of several studies that deal with the educational goals as reflected in the trait systems of teachers and prospective teachers. The aims of this article are to first, present a multivariate and multifaceted definition of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system; second, compare the intensity, structure and constructs of the trait system of the ideal student, as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers; and third, recommend two techniques that stem from constructivistic learning theories for developing teachers’ professional growth. Belief system The definition of teachers’ beliefs with regard to pedagogical concepts has, in recent years, constituted a subject of worldwide research as part of an attempt to understand teachers’ professional development in their work environment (Bramald et al., 1995; Oppewal, 1993). Richardson (1996) views beliefs as part of a group of constructs that define and describe the structure and content of mental states believed to drive one’s actions. Teachers’ perceptions of ideal student traits Teachers’ perceptions of the ideal student trait system can be defined as the reflection of their professional beliefs in their educational goals. Aschbacher (1994) found that one of the most important competencies in teacher preparation and professional development is developing expertise in articulating learning goals for students. This is a prerequisite for designing classroom activities and specifying criteria for judging students’ and teachers’ work. Benyamini and Limor (1995) claim that the teachers’ notions of student traits represent their expectations, which, in turn, are believed to be influenced by formal pedagogical ideology and defined by educational standards. Kallestad and Olweus (1998) found that Norwegian teachers’ goal emphases are, to a considerable degree, the result of professional socialization. Matsagouras and Riding (1996, p. 105) found that English and Greek studentteachers who rated the educational aims of their childhood teachers, of their current teachers and their own intentions for teaching, had similar attitudes, far removed from the ideologies of their childhood educations. Richardson (1996, p. 105) concludes from the literature on learning to teach that three categories of experience influence the development of beliefs and knowledge about teaching: personal experience, experience with schooling and instruction, and experience with formal knowledge. Benyamini and Limor (1995) summarized the literature and note that students’ ideal traits, as perceived by teachers, fall into five modality categories: cognitive/intellectual, affective/personal, interpersonal/social, behavioral/performance and values/moral. Teachers ranked cognitive traits higher than social traits, and the least important were personal traits. Teachers’

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ranking of student traits was differentiated by the teacher’s role at the school (subject-matter teacher, homeroom teacher, or counselor). Other studies revealed variation in the perception of educational goals by teaching discipline. Almozlino (1996) reported that most teachers rank academic traits higher than social or emotional-personal, except for veteran teachers in the humanities, who ranked social and personal educational objectives higher than academic objectives. Raudenbush et al. (1993) and Lewy (1991) found differentiation by teachers in how they rank lower-order thinking goals and higher-order thinking goals. Teachers’ perceptions of educational goals, or ideal student traits, constitute the teachers’ professional trait system, which is one aspect of their belief system. Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997) found that religious teachers integrated academic and religious traits throughout the priorities scale, acknowledging the importance of these two content areas in religious educational policy and practice. Prospective religious teachers studying in colleges defined universal goals dealing with students’ personality development and good citizenship as most important. After these, they ranked religious goals and only then, educational achievement and academic goals (Rich et al., 2000). This may be explained by Richardson (1996, p. 113), who notes that one of the difficulties in pre-service teacher education is the student-teachers’ lack of practical knowledge, resulting in difficulty in connecting their beliefs to teaching practices. Changes in the goals of education In the last decade, there has been a shift in paradigms, from the transmission approach to teaching to more constructivistic ways of thinking about the formation of knowledge and the development of understanding. Constructivism is a theory of learning or meaning-making which holds that learners create their own new understandings based upon the interaction of their prior knowledge and beliefs, and the phenomena or ideas with which they come into contact. Richardson (1997, p. 3) claims that the ‘‘traditional approach to teaching – the transmission model – promotes neither the interaction between prior and new knowledge nor the conversations that are necessary for internalization and deep understanding’’. As a result, pre-service and in-service teacher trainers now focus on the development and growth of competencies for dealing with complex situations, rather than merely on conveying information (Richardson, 1997). Moreover, Hawley and Valli (1999, p. 132) conclude that in the new learning environment of today, ‘‘the character of knowledge and skills – both intellectual and social – that students must have to participate in a culturally diverse democracy and an information-based economy is changing rapidly and coming to be defined in terms of criteria we have expected only some students to meet’’. Vadeboncoeur (1997) describes three constructivistic approaches to learning. Piagetian developmental constructivism focuses on the development of cognitive and autonomous patterns within the individual. It views the meaning-making process as individualistic and the purpose of constructivist

teaching as leading toward higher levels of understanding and analytic capabilities. According to Richardson (1997, p. 5), to reach higher levels, ‘‘students must be actively engaged in reconstructing their existing understandings by restructuring their cognitive maps’’. The Vygotskian constructivist approach takes two directions: the first, socio-cultural constructivism, tends to focus on a micro level analysis of social interaction within the zone of proximal development. This conception holds that situated and cultural meanings are shared within a group, and then internalized by the individual (Richardson, 1997, p. 7). Thus the school environment affects actions taken by students, and the learning that occurs is affected by these actions and by organizational learning. The second, emancipatory constructivism, broadens the learning context to the macro level. Thus, in addition to the social milieu, the broader historical, cultural, and religious contexts are included. Because of these new required competencies, teachers and students are exposed in the learning environment to a more comprehensive, multi-content and multi-ordered structured inventory of traits. As a result of changes in educational theory and practice (Oakes and Lipton, 1999) over the past few years, the Israeli educational system has turned to more constructivistic methods of teaching and assessment (Dori et al., 1999). This change has caused teachers to engage in in-service teacher training, both inside and outside the school. Teacher training departments in universities and colleges are also undergoing transformation in their curricula. However, changes in practice are less rapid than changes in theory and policy, and do not progress at the same pace in all disciplines and grades. While the educational goals define the ideal student trait system as perceived by the teachers as professionals, the value system identifies the personal values of the teachers. Therefore, in this study I hypothesize that the content of the educational goals (facet A in the mapping sentence, Figure 1) will vary according to cognitive, affective, social and religious traits. Values, attitudes, behaviors, and teaching goals The personal value system of teachers is another subsystem of their belief system. Schwartz and Bilsky (1990) proposed that the primary content aspect of a value is the type of goal or motivational concern that it expresses. They suggest a universal typology in the form of conscious goals. Ten distinct motivational types of values, called higher-order value types, were derived from universal human values and organized on two basic bipolar continua. One continuum runs from openness to change on one pole, to conservation on the other. The second continuum runs from self-transcendence on one pole, to selfenhancement on the other. The structure generated from the theory specifies dynamic relations among the motivational domains of values (Sagiv and Schwartz, 1995). Their international samples were mainly composed of teachers and university students. The populations examined in the present study are similar. Maslovaty and Levy (2001) showed that the orientation of values provide the rationale for the circular order of life areas, in the teachers’

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Figure 1. Mapping sentence: the multivariate and multifaceted definition of the ideal student as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers

personal value system. In this study, I hypothesized that ‘‘the ideal student traits will be organized according to the three orientations: personal, interpersonal and impersonal’’ (facet B in the mapping sentence, Figure 1). The relationships within, and the similarities among the structures of the value systems, as well as the attitude and behavior systems were studied. Sagiv and Schwartz (1995) claim that values correlate to attitudes and behaviors by content and create the same basic structure of the higher-order content types, with bipolar partitioning. Similar models of relations between values and behavior activities were found for populations of adolescents (Maslovaty, 1992; Shitreet, 1999). Tal (1996) investigated Schwartz’s (1992) model on elementary school teachers, and uncovered a complex, and yet organized and dynamic value-attitude-behavior system. The daily and teaching activities correlated positively with values that shared common contents. Values tended to explain the variance related to behaviors in daily situations, and attitudes tended to predict behaviors in teaching situations. In this regard, it would be valuable to investigate the structure of the ideal student trait system, as having contents similar to the value system but with a focus on teaching and learning situations, as part of the professional identity of the teacher. In this study, I hypothesize that the ‘‘ideal high school student’’ as perceived by the teacher as a professional entity will have a similar bipolar high-order construct (see facet C in the mapping sentence, Figure 1). Teachers’ priorities in their professional trait system and personal value system The belief system, which is composed of constructs described by contents and structures of mental states, provides a foundation for understanding teachers’

priorities in their professional trait system and their personal value system. A comparison of the results of two studies investigating teachers’ value priorities, according to rank order of the means, indicated certain similarities between them. The first, Maslovaty (1997), asked high school teachers about the intensity of their values, and the second, Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997), asked elementary school teachers. The two groups of teachers shared the high rank order of the means of interpersonal relationship values, the middle placement of study skills and professional values, and the low ranking of personal and enjoyment values. It is interesting to note that this rank ordering of the teachers’ personal value system is not congruent with the rank order of the ideal student trait system that expresses teachers’ perceptions of educational goals. Regarding the student traits, the teachers evaluated the learning traits highest (Almozlino, 1996; Benyamini and Limor, 1995; Maslovaty and Iram, 1997). Yet in their personal value system, they ranked the interpersonal values highest (Maslovaty, 1997; Maslovaty and Gaziel, 1997). It seems that the place of these two content areas in the teachers’ belief system is not perceived as having the same importance. In this study I hypothesize that the ‘‘ideal high school student traits’’ will be correlated to the educational goals, and will construct content regions by intensity and by structure. The definitional frame Having defined the overall concept of ‘‘ideal student traits’’, I shall now construct a classification scheme for the particular variety of traits considered here. This study includes traits related to a variety of educational goals areas expressing different orientations, and high-order bipolar continua, as specified in the mapping sentence below, which provides the definitional framework for the universe of traits that are studied. The research design expressed by the mapping sentence above calls for assigning to each respondent (X) a response of the range R for each item. Six educational goals areas for the traits are differentiated in facet A which can be divided according to three orientations, in facet B. The traits are organized in competing approaches into higher-order traits on the bipolar continua in facet C, which are fundamental to understanding the results. In this study, the analysis of the belief system will refer to several defining concepts found in Figure 1: the intensity of the traits (determined by their means); the structures of the content areas; and the constructs of the bipolar, higher-order traits (described by SSA). Method Guttman (1982) defines a theory as the hypothesis of a correspondence between a definitional system for a universe of observations and an aspect of the empirical structure of those observations, together with a rationale for such an hypothesis (Levy, 1994). The form that Guttman developed for the definition of the observations is the mapping sentence. The theory is expressed as a relationship among facets. Facet theory includes the fundamental assumption

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that there is lawfulness that stems from the definition of the observations and their empirical correlations. Thus, the empirical analysis of a set of variables can be used to study the facets. Several approaches to dealing with data for theories of structure exist (Maslovaty et al., 2001). Factor analysis is one commonly used approach in which a number of variables are reduced into factors which are considered components of the theoretical structure. Factor analysis may or may not be used within a theoretical framework. Smallest space analysis (SSA), also known as structural similarity analysis, is another approach to analyzing structure. SSA maps the location of each item within a multidimensional space. It treats each variable as a point in a Euclidian space in such a way that the higher the correlation between two variables, the closer they are in the space (Guttman, 1968). The location of each item is determined by a coefficient of similarity or dissimilarity to all of the other items. This is done by maintaining ratios of similarity/dissimilarity to distance. The empirical aspect of theory dealt with by SSA comprises sets of inter-correlations among observations. The emphasis is on structural lawfulness through regional hypotheses based on the relative size of the correlations. One of the benefits of using SSA is that it is typically used within the framework of Guttman’s facet theory (Guttman, 1954, 1957, 1965, 1982; Guttman and Levy, 1991; Levy, 1994). In their comparison of factor analysis (FA) with FT and SSA, Maslovaty et al. (2001) conclude that the latter has a number of advantages. In terms of design of the study, FT provides a format which links the theory to the analysis. Through the use of the mapping sentence, the hypothesis is distinctly defined and can be clearly tested. On the other hand, while FA can be used in conjunction with theory, it often is not. In addition, SSA performed within the context of FT allows for more flexibility. The choice of coefficients in the matrix submitted for analysis is much greater than in FA and allows for the use of monotonically transformed coefficients. As a result, the output is much easier to interpret. Furthermore, in SSA, partitioning of items is determined by the researcher and based upon theory, whereas in FA, the analysis itself dictates which items fall into which factors, limiting interpretation. Finally, the SSA analysis within FT allows for examination of more components or dimensions of the theory than does FA. Instrument Four different versions of ‘‘the ideal high school student questionnaire’’ were administered anonymously to prospective and practicing teachers. The written questionnaire evaluates the importance of ‘‘ideal’’ student traits on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaires varied depending on the aims of each study, the population investigated, and the changes in the educational goals. The questionnaire was derived from one developed by Iram and Maslovaty (1994) that included 20 traits of the elementary school student. On the basis of this questionnaire, the four versions relating to the ‘‘ideal’’ student were developed.

Miron and Maslovaty (1995) used the 20 traits from the original questionnaire to compare the perception of prospective teachers at two universities, one secular and one religious. Maslovaty and Iram (1997) expanded the questionnaire to include 25 traits to examine the taxonomy of the cognitive domain, according to the Piagetian constructivistic shift in education toward higher-order thinking. To this version, Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997) added 15 traits which reflected educational goals defined by the cultural Vygotskian constructivistic perception and state religious education. Maslovaty and Sitton (1999) chose 19 traits from Maslovaty and Gaziel’s (1997) questionnaire to compare prospective teachers from two universities, secular and religious. Research samples The populations sampled in this study were drawn from the Israeli educational system and, as such, this system merits discussion. The Israeli educational system has three subsystems: state (secular) education, state religious (SR) education, and independent (parochial) education. The research samples were drawn from teachers working in both the secular and the religious state education system, supervised by the Ministry of Education which also determines the educational goals that pertain to all schools. SR education is similar to state education in both the core curriculum and teaching methods, differing only in its emphasis on religious education. This paper is a comparative analysis of the results of four studies. The prospective teachers studied in two universities which differ in their educational aims: the religious university adds religious and social goals to its academic goals. However, there were both observant and non-religious students in both universities. Seven research samples are presented: prospective teachers in a religious university (n ¼ 109) and in a secular university (n ¼ 146) (Miron and Maslovaty, 1995); prospective teachers in a religious university (n ¼ 90) and in a secular university (n ¼ 113) (Maslovaty and Sitton, 1999); prospective teachers in a religious university (n ¼ 134) and practicing teachers studying toward their BA in a regional college (N = 28) (Maslovaty and Iram, 1997); and practicing high school teachers working in the religious state system (n ¼ 356) (Maslovaty and Gaziel, 1997). Results The variables of the study were analyzed using two methods: the intensity of means was used to analyze the traits, and SSA was used for the structure: the educational goals and the bipolar continua construct traits, which comprise the ideal trait system. The traits Table I summarizes the comparison of the weighted means of practicing and prospective teachers’ perceptions of the ideal high school students according to five educational goals areas.

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Table I. Practicing vs prospective teachers’ perceptions of ideal high school students’ traits by educational goals – a comparison of weighted means

Traits by educational goals

Population Practicing teachers Prospective teachers n ¼ 384 n ¼ 592

A. Personality Pleasant temperament Sense of humor

4.12 3.26

3.55a 2.66

B. Learning skills Obedient Studious and industrious Has mastery of subject matter Well organized Concentrates on learning Prepares homework Active participant in lessons

4.29 4.31 4.19 4.17 4.17 4.14 4.07

3.84a 3.91 4.10b 3.93a 4.07a 3.97 3.60a

C. Higher-order thinking Draws conclusions Ambitious Analyzes logically Independent in learning Original thinker Reads beyond requirements Adapts to new learning situations

4.42 4.30 4.29 4.27 4.22 4.13 3.96

4.54b 4.30 3.81a 4.03a 4.20 3.85 4.17a

D. Interpersonal relations Honest on tests Helpful Cooperative Sociable Popular

4.55 4.38 4.22 4.16 4.08

4.43b 3.81a 3.81a 3.56 3.36a

E. Society and nation Volunteers for social tasks

3.92

3.06b

3.26-4.55

2.66-4.54

Total range Notes: a n ¼ 389; bn ¼ 337

Only traits included on three of the four versions of the questionnaires were included in the comparison, yielding 22 traits. A total of 22 traits from Maslovaty and Iram (1997) and Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997), 18 traits from Miron and Maslovaty (1995), and ten traits from Maslovaty and Sitton (1999) were compared. The findings show that the practicing teachers evaluated highly all the ‘‘ideal’’ traits except for ‘‘draws conclusions’’. Of the 22 traits evaluated, 20 were considered to be ‘‘important’’ or ‘‘very important’’ (mean = 4+) by practicing teachers, while the prospective teachers considered only eight traits to be ‘‘important’’ or ‘‘very important’’. The means of the practicing teachers ranged from 3.26 to 4.55, as compared to those of the prospective teachers which ranged between 2.66 and 4.54. Thus, the prospective teachers evaluated the traits lower than did the practicing teachers, and differentiated more between the traits in every educational goal area.

Table II presents the intensity of the means of ideal student traits as perceived by the different samples of prospective and practicing teachers in the various educational settings. The findings presented in Table II show that practicing teachers studying education in a regional college ranked highest 11 traits which can be characterized as higher-order thinking traits while the religious high school teachers who were not studying ranked highest ten traits which can be characterized as social and learning skills traits. A comparison between the prospective teachers who studied in the religious and secular universities shows that the former evaluated personality and higher-order thinking lower, while the latter evaluated social and involvement traits lower. The structures and the constructs Two SSA maps are presented here as an example. The first (Figure 2) relates to prospective teachers and the second (Figure 3) to practicing teachers. The partitioning of the space in both is similar and corresponds to the mapping sentence (Figure 1). Maslovaty and Sitton (1999) presented a brief version of 19 traits attributed to the ideal student in high school, as perceived by prospective students in two universities. According to facet theory (Levy, 1994), a mapping sentence with three content facets, was defined from a comparison of constructivistic theories: (A) educational goals, (B) orientation, and (C) higher order, similar to Schwartz’s bipolar continua. Following facet theory and using the mapping sentence, smallest space analysis (SSA) was conducted (Amar and Toledano, 1994); the results are presented in Figure 2. In Figure 2, we see that a geometric pattern of a circular space, a radex partitioning, was formed; the three facets (A, B, C) defined in the mapping sentence polarize the space. Facet A, the educational goals, plays a polarizing role in partitioning the radex space into five regions emanating from one origin. Beginning at the upper part of the circle and proceeding clockwise, the order is as follows: interpersonal relationships, society and nation, religiosity, learning skills and higher-order thinking. As expected, there is further partitioning of the space, conforming to the elements of facet B (orientation): interpersonal, impersonal, and personal. The higher-order bipolar continua of facet C correspond to Schwartz’s (1992) model, ranging from conservation to openness to change, and from self-transcendence to self-enhancement. SSA, following facet theory and using the mapping sentence, was conducted on the 40 traits of the Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997) study. Three facets (A, B, C) defined in the mapping sentence polarize the space. The results of the analysis are presented in Figure 3. Six regions presented in Figure 3 correspond to facet A of the mapping sentence by polarizing the space into the following regions (clockwise from top left): personality, interpersonal relations, religiosity, society and nation, learning skills and higher-order thinking. Facet B, the orientation polarizes the space into three regions. The two-dimensional

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Table II. Means and standard deviations of the ideal high school traits as perceived by practicing teachers and prospective teachers (STs) in different educational environments

Pleasant temperament Sense of humor Obedient Studious and industrious

Mastery of subject matter Well organized Concentrates on learning Prepares homework Active participant in lessons Draws conclusions Ambitious Analyzes logically

Independent in learning Adapts to new situations Original thinker Reads beyond requirements Being honest on tests Helpful

Cooperative Sociable Popular

Volunteers for social tasks

A

B

C

D

E

Traits of the ideal high school student

3.94

4.24 4.16 4.10

4.26 4.19 4.18 4.10 4.54 4.36

4.18 4.17 4.17 4.15 4.09 4.41 4.29 4.28

4.13 3.26 4.32 4.31

0.84

0.71 0.75 0.78

0.78 0.76 0.82 0.82 0.67 0.73

0.72 0.80 0.75 0.76 0.81 0.67 0.80 0.73

0.78 0.91 0.76 0.76

Religious teachers (n ¼ 356) Mean SD

Maslovaty and Gaziel (1997)

3.64

4.03 4.18 3.82

4.42 4.28 4.75 4.46 4.71 4.14

4.35 4.14 4.17 4.03 3.85 4.67 4.46 4.44

3.96 3.21 4.03 4.39

0.73

0.70 0.78 0.77

0.79 0.59 0.51 0.74 0.53 0.89

0.62 0.80 0.72 0.79 0.75 0.47 0.63 0.64

0.96 1.16 0.79 0.62

Teachers in college (n ¼ 28) Mean SD

3.34

3.87 3.71 3.44

4.01 4.13 4.10 3.75 4.50 3.87

4.20 3.76 4.02 3.88 3.57 4.56 4.15 4.26

3.41 2.62 3.79 3.80

0.96

0.77 1.00 0.89

0.83 0.86 0.85 0.95 0.74 0.92

0.73 0.95 0.83 0.92 0.94 0.69 0.86 0.72

0.95 0.84 0.86 0.88

Univ. B STs (n ¼ 134) Mean SD

Maslovaty and Iram (1997)

0.89 1.13 1.04

0.98

3.68 3.74 3.52 3.25

0.93 0.85 0.89 1.06

0.76 0.79

4.36 4.31 4.01 4.16 4.21 3.73

0.95 0.85 0.95 1.07

1.03 1.09 1.03 0.86

3.95 4.04 3.98 3.45

3.50 2.66 3.66 4.04

Univ. A STs (n ¼ 146) Mean SD

3.85 3.87 3.41

3.94

4.07 4.33 4.16 3.73

4.28 4.44

4.10 4.16 4.10 3.85

3.81 2.72 4.04 4.19

0.91 0.99 0.96

0.98

0.88 0.72 0.84 1.01

0.81 0.74

0.82 0.75 0.86 0.84

0.94 1.00 0.88 0.81

Univ. B STs (n ¼ 109) Mean SD

Miron and Maslovaty (1995)

3.63

3.38

1.07

1.16

0.76 0.87 0.86

0.66 0.76

4.56 4.16

4.40 4.16 4.34

1.05

0.82

0.94

3.76

4.02

3.73

Univ. A STs (n ¼ 113) Mean SD

3.68

3.25

4.14 3.96 4.45

4.50 4.12

3.76

4.06

3.74

1.04

1.12

0.81 0.94 0.80

0.65 0.80

0.91

0.78

0.88

Univ. B STs (n ¼ 90) Mean SD

Maslovaty and Sitton (1999)

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Figure 2. Radex graphic display of the interrelationships among characteristics of the ideal high school student as perceived by prospective teachers (n ¼ 203)

mapping plot shows that the space can be divided by two bipolar continua, one ranging from self-enhancement traits to self-transcendence traits, and the other from conservation traits to openness to change traits, corresponding to facet C. This multivariate and multifaceted partitioning could not be achieved by factor analysis. Discussion Teachers may find themselves in a dilemma when they make a decision, based on their priorities, that affects their behavior in school as compared to real life situations. This incongruity indicates that teachers may need to differentiate between the ‘‘personal’’ and the ‘‘professional’’ in their role functioning. It appears that the teachers’ professional socialization process motivates them to promote in their students the content of traits of ideal high school students, which is more dependent on the ideology of educational policy and theories at a prevailing time than on their personal value system. The quality of teachers’ work life will be improved by a broad value-based consensus (Seashore-Louis, 1990), which resolves this dilemma and supports education and teachers. This paper presents the similarities and differences in the contents and constructs of the ideal high school student trait system as perceived by prospective and practicing teachers. This comparison, both within the trait system of pre-service and in-service teachers and between their trait system and their value system, reflects dynamic components of the belief system as they represent corresponding professional and personal entities.

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Figure 3. Radex graphic display of the interrelationships among characteristics of the ideal high school student as perceived by practicing teachers (n ¼ 356)

The unique, continuously developing, and changeable commitment to professional goals, as opposed to personal goals which are more stationary, simulates issues of conflicting contents, needs, and procedures of decision making when facing dilemmas in teaching situations in the educational environment. These dilemmas, which involve a process of decision making, are accentuated in our post-modern multi-cultural society. The differences in rank order (Maslovaty, 2002) between the professional and the personal system and within the trait system, as they relate to teaching experience and professional enrichment, are a sign of change and development. Further, the stability and consistency of the belief constructs containing the bipolar continua, enhance the universal meaning of the two systems. Thus, there is a need to develop continuous educational processes in various pre-service and in-service

environments that consider the multivariate and multifaceted definition of the ideal student trait system, as part of promoting, theorizing, and evaluating educational goals, because of the importance to the work environment and to create equilibrium between the personal and the group perceptions on different levels of training and teaching.

Organizational learning

Intensity of the traits The comparisons between the means of the traits show several directions worth noting. Maslovaty (2002) found two groups of traits: one dealt with learning and intellectual contents, corresponding to Piagetian developmental constructivism (Vadeboncoeur, 1997), in which the focus was on two types of goals: higher-order thinking on one hand, and learning skills on the other. Consensus has been achieved, throughout the years regarding the importance attributed to academic contents in educational environments (Benyamini and Limor, 1995). The other group of traits, pertaining to social-cultural contents, presents a differential evaluation of these contents, indicating a multicultural perception, corresponding to Vygotskian socio-cultural and emancipatory constructivism (Vadeboncoeur, 1997). In this paper, practicing teachers tended to appreciate the educational traits more than did prospective teachers; evidence of the influence of teaching experience. Practicing teachers studying toward their degrees at a college showed the most openness and expressed innovative preference of traits indicating that their pedagogical and practical experience, together with their new theoretical knowledge, had transformed and enriched their perceptions. This finding is confirmed by Maslovaty and Zukerman (in preparation, cited in Maslovaty, 2002, p. 24) which shows the development of higher-order and multi-directional thinking in teachers studying toward an MA degree, as compared with those studying toward a BA and with prospective teachers. These findings correspond to those of Almozlino (1996) and Tal (1996). Almozlino explains the differentiation between veteran and novice teachers by a lack of pedagogical experience. Novice teachers have not yet changed their beliefs, which were formulated on the basis of their experience as students and on their knowledge of the subject matter, but is not yet based on practical pedagogic experience. Tal also found that age is a moderator between values and behaviors, expressing daily and teaching openness to change behaviors. As such, it appears to us that practicing teachers have additional experience in matters relating to the organization and management of the class environment as well as in coping with social and personal issues, in the context of both the classroom and the educational system.

747

Structures and constructs of the traits The comparison of the two university environments, the religious and the secular, shows that prospective teachers in the religious university evaluated social and involvement traits higher while prospective teachers in the secular university evaluated personality and higher-order thinking traits higher. This

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is in line with the goal priorities of the two universities and shows the connection between religiosity and conservation on one pole, vs higher-order thinking and openness to change on the other. The circular space in Figures 2 and 3 is partitioned into regions emanating from a common origin, each region corresponding to a specific educational goals area (facet A). The orientation of the traits provides the rationale for the circular order of educational goals corresponding the orientations of values (Maslovaty and Levy, 2001), the personal, interpersonal and impersonal. The constructs of the teachers’ value system and the teachers’ perception of the ideal student are similar, corresponding Schwartz and Bilsky (1990), Schwartz (1992), Sagiv and Schwartz (1995) theory on the two bipolar continua: conservation versus openness to change, and self-transcendence versus selfenhancement. There are two dimensions of underlying needs in cultural values: individualism vs collectivism and materialism vs humanism. Similarly, based on a number of studies, Benyamini and Limor (1995) found two perpendicular axes on the SSA chart of the ideal student: one extending from academicintellective traits to personal-social traits and another from conformity to spontaneity. In the studies analyzed here, the SSA (Figures 2 and 3) resulted in a clearer way of describing the contextual and structural dynamic relationships of the multivariate and multifaceted concept of the ‘‘ideal student’’. This study shows the utility of facet theory (FT) and SSA for theory development and theory validation as well as construction of the scales. This is evident in the fact that the theory identified three facets which could only be confirmed through SSA. Dynamics of the structure The continua present the dynamics of conflict and compatibility among the structures of traits. Conflict is between structures of traits in regions that contrast with one another, specifically along the continua between the poles. Compatibility is among structures of traits in regions that are near one another. This pattern, which Schwartz (1992) and Tal (1996) found for values, attitudes and activities, was also found in this study for the educational goals perceived by teachers. From the SSA, three similar, though not overlapping, content facets were detected: goals, orientation, and higher-order bipolar continua. The analysis facilitated an understanding of the simultaneous multidimensionality of each ideal trait to a number of content facets, such as ‘‘draws conclusions’’, which can be found within teaching goals as ‘‘higher-order thinking’’, in the ‘‘personal’’ orientation and in the ‘‘openness to change’’ pole. The similarity between the value and the trait constructs points to the generalizability of the contents, but does not indicate the individual priorities and the decision to act in a particular manner in a pedagogical situation in the educational environment. This is why professional enrichment and coaching are important in training prospective and practicing teachers.

The teachers differentiated in their personal value system and their professional ideal student trait system according to the teaching context in which they participated. Research indicates that the greater the fit between a person’s value priorities and context priorities, the more satisfied the person is (Seashore-Louis, 1990). We can add that the fit between a teacher’s professional belief system and the school staff’s belief system is another important aspect of satisfaction. From the educational setting, Benyamini and Limor (1995) generalized the notion of an implicit role theory (IRT). IRT is a considerable body of research pertaining to psychological constructs held by people in particular social roles about others in complementary role categories. IRT denotes a ‘‘cognitive structure of schema, subjective by nature and akin to the more general implicit personality theory postulated by students of person perception . . .. IRT is said to consist of a number of role-relevant traits that are organized in a multifaceted structure. Following these stipulations a new universe of items is proposed with the common range of a most fit to best fit with respect to the implicit theory of a given role’’ (Benyamini and Limor, 1995, p. 285). To the knowledge base, the present results add the finding that a separate behavioral universe, relating to teachers’ professional belief systems, exists. This behavioral universe of the trait system has similar constructs, as contained in the value-attitude-behavior system (Sagiv and Schwartz, 1995; Tal, 1996). Implications Seashore-Louis and Leithwood (1998) envision a shift from organizational learning to professional learning communities which can be developed through conversation and mutual learning of both individual and collective belief systems. The similarities and differences within and between the personal value structure and the professional or ideal student trait structure call for a focus on unique methods to narrow the gap within and between personal and professional belief systems. Richardson (1996) claims that facilitating meaningful change in practicing teachers in both beliefs and practice may be easier than promoting changes in beliefs at the pre-service level. She found that pre-service and in-service programs that approach learning to teach in a constructivist manner tend to be successful. Successful constructivist development programs can be characterized as long-term programs in which: the participants’ beliefs and understandings are a major element of the content of the developmental process; the goal of the process is to enable the participants to understand their own beliefs and consider alternatives; beliefs and practices are linked to the moral dimensions of teaching and schooling; discussions move toward personal control of the agenda, process and content; and the process allows participants to value their own expertise and beliefs (Richardson, 1996, p. 113). Two developmental methods, constructed on the ideas of the multivariate and multifaceted definition of educational goals, are proposed. The first describes a means for unraveling teachers’ implicit concepts of the student by

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devising a method termed ‘‘normative consensus’’ (Benyamini and Limor, 1995). In this method, groups of teachers were instructed to give their students an overall evaluation by rating each of them from ‘‘best’’ to ‘‘worst’’. Then the teachers were requested to analyze, through introspection, along what dimensions or aspects they had made their evaluations. With the aim at arriving at a consensual list, the investigator then led a group discussion on the variables proposed by participants and helped to clarify and define them in trait language. The trait vocabulary produced was taken to represent the specific language through which teachers construe their students. This method is proposed as a way of developing the school staff and enriching their vocabulary of common traits or ‘‘educational goals’’. This method also creates a normative consensus among school staff for educational goals or general standards to be accepted and used in individual or collaborative teaching within the school environment. The second method (King et al., 1998) presents concept mapping as a means of increasing organizational learning. Concept mapping is a graphic technique for understanding individuals’ thoughts and how their ideas are linked. The researchers apply Trochim’s (1989) process of ‘‘structured conceptualization’’ to school restructuring. The maps deal with teachers’ definitions of educational goals. The process seeks to assist those involved to understand which key concepts guide their efforts and how they are related. The process also involves a program evaluation and planning function in which different individuals are able to compare their personal maps to determine similarities and differences in the school environment. The ‘‘normative consensus’’ and the ‘‘concept map’’ are two methods which articulate the ideas of multivariate and multifaceted conceptualizations of educational goals. These methods are important means for developing the conscious awareness of educational goals among prospective and practicing teachers, as translated into their perceptions of ideal student traits. Equally important is the need for teachers to become aware of their personal value system and its areas of compatibility and conflict within and among their professional trait system, which together comprise their belief system. This awareness will facilitate the development of their identity, both as teachers and as individuals, and contribute to their professional growth and development. This paper has presented an example of organizational learning by teachers. The theories, perceptions and learning strategies presented here can be applied in other educational frameworks in the medical and social work professions, which deal with prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. References Almozlino, U. (1996), ‘‘Preference for educational goals among new and veteran teachers teaching humanistic or science subjects’’, unpublished master’s thesis, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan (Hebrew). Amar, R. and Toledano, S. (1994), Hudap Manual with Mathematics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Anderson, R.D. (1996), Study of Curriculum Reform: Vol. I, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington, DC. Aschbacher, P.R. (1994), ‘‘Helping educators to develop and use alternative assessments: barriers and facilitators’’, Educational Policy, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 202-23. Benyamini, K. and Limor, L. (1995), ‘‘Implicit role theory: from research to theory’’, in BenShakhar, G. and Lieblich, A. (Eds), Studies in Psychology: In Honor of Solomon Kugelmass, Magnes, Jerusalem (Hebrew), pp. 276-99. Bramald, R., Hardman, R. and Leat, D. (1995), ‘‘Initial teacher trainees and their views of teaching and learning’’, Teacher and Teacher Education, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 23-31. Clark, C.M. (1988), ‘‘Asking the right questions about preparation: contributions of research on teacher thinking’’, Educational Researcher, Vol. 17, pp. 5-12. Darling-Hammond, L., Cobb, V. and Bullmaster, M. (1998), ‘‘Professional development schools as contexts for teacher learning and leadership’’, in Leithwood, K. and Seashore-Louis, K. (Eds), Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 149-76. Dori, J., Barnea, N. and Kaberman, Z. (1999), ‘‘Assessment of the ‘22 schools’ project’’, in Bagrut 2000, The Technion and the Ministry of Education and Culture, Haifa (Hebrew). Guttman, L. (1954), ‘‘A new approach to factor analysis: the Radex’’, in Lazarsfeld, P. (Ed.), Mathematical Thinking in the Social Sciences, Free Press, Glencow, IL, pp. 258-348. Guttman, L. (1957), ‘‘Empirical verification of the radex structure of mental abilities and personality traits’’, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 17, pp. 391-407. Guttman, L. (1965), ‘‘The structure of interrelations among intelligence tests’’, in Harris, C.W. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1964 Invitational Conference on Testing Problems, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ, pp. 25-36. Guttman, L. (1968), ‘‘A general nonmetric technique for finding the smallest co-ordinate space for a configuration of points’’, Psychometrika, Vol. 33, pp. 469-506. Guttman, L. (1982), ‘‘‘What is not what’ in theory construction’’, in Hauser, R.M., Mechanic, D. and Haller, H. (Eds), Social Structure and Behavior, Academic Press, New York, NY, pp. 331-48. Guttman, L. and Levy, S. (1991), ‘‘Two structural lanes for intelligence tests’’, Intelligence, Vol. 15, pp. 79-103. Hawley, W.D. and Valli, L. (1999), ‘‘The essentials of effective professional development: a new consensus’’, in Darling-Hammond, L. and Dykes, G. (Eds), Teaching as the Learning Profession, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, pp. 127-50. Iram, Y. and Maslovaty, N. (1994), ‘‘Students’ real and ideal characteristics as perceived by teachers’’, New Education, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 33-52. Kallestad, J.H. and Olweus, D. (1998), ‘‘Teachers’ emphases on general education goals: a study of Norwegian teachers’’, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 257-79. King, J.A., Allen, J. and Nguyen, K. (1998), ‘‘Talking about restructuring: using concept maps’’, in Leithwood, K. and Seashore-Louis, K. (Eds), Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 93-125. Leithwood, K. and Seashore-Louis, K. (Eds) (1998), ‘‘Organizational learning in schools: an introduction’’, Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 1-14. Leithwood, K., Jantzi, J. and Steinbach, R. (1998), ‘‘Leadership and other conditions which foster organizational learning in schools’’, in Leithwood, K. and Seashore-Louis, K. (Eds), Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 67-90. Levy, S. (Ed.) (1994), Louis Guttman on Theory and Methodology: Selected Writings, Adershot, Dartmouth.

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Lewy, A. (1991), ‘‘Dimensions of attitude toward higher mental function curricular objectives’’, Megamot, Vol. 33 No. 3-4, pp. 522-34 (Hebrew). Maslovaty, N. (1992), ‘‘Selected areas of the value structure of adolescents’’, in Klages, H., Hippler, J.H. and Herbert, W. (Eds), Werte und Vandel: Ergebnisse und Methoden einer Froschungs Tradition, Campus, Frankfurt, pp. 523-52. Maslovaty, N. (1997), The Structure and Intensity of the Value System of High School Teachers (Interim Report), Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan (Hebrew). Maslovaty, N. (2002), ‘‘The perception of the desirable students’ traits: an additional dimension of the teacher’s belief system’’, in Maslovaty, N. and Iram, Y. (Eds), Values Education in Various Teaching Contexts, Ramot, Tel Aviv (Hebrew), pp. 227-52. Maslovaty, N. (in press), ‘‘The placement of moral contents in the belief system of teachers and high school students’’. Maslovaty, N. and Gaziel, H. (1997), Teachers in Religious State Education: Background, Teaching Contexts, Interests and Satisfaction with Different Components of Teaching, The School of Education, Bar-Ilan University and the Teachers’ Association for the Advancement of Education and Teaching, Ramat-Gan (Hebrew). Maslovaty, N. and Iram, Y. (1997), ‘‘Study habits, sociability and higher order thinking: priorities according to perceptions of university students’’, in Ephraty, N. and Lidor, R. (Eds), Teacher Education: Stability, Evolution and Revolution: Vol. I, Zinman College, Israel (Hebrew), pp. 271-8. Maslovaty, N. and Levy, S. (2001), ‘‘A comparative approach in developing a structural value theory’’, in Elizur, D. (Ed.), Integrating Theory Construction with Data Analysis, Matfyzpress, University of Karlovy, Prague, pp. 20-32. Maslovaty, N. and Sitton, S. (1999), ‘‘Patterns of pedagogical and social beliefs and attitudes perceived by prospective teachers’’, Curriculum and Teaching, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 49-74. Maslovaty, N., Marshall, A.E. and Alkin, M.C. (2001), ‘‘Teachers perceptions structured through facet theory: smallest space analysis versus factor analysis’’, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 71-84. Matsagouras, E. and Riding, S. (1996), ‘‘The rating of educational aims by Greek and English student-teachers’’, Mediterranean Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 93-115. Miron, M. and Maslovaty, N. (1995), ‘‘The ideal high school student as perceived by prospective teachers’’, paper presented at the 6th European Conference for Research and Instruction, August 26-31, Niemegen. Oakes, T. and Lipton, M. (1999), Teaching to Change the World, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Oppewal, T.J. (1993), ‘‘Pre-service teachers’ thinking about classroom events’’, Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 127-36. Raudenbush, S.W., Rowan, B. and Cheong, Y.F. (1993), ‘‘Higher order instructional goals in secondary schools: class, teacher and school influences’’, American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 523-53. Rich, I., Eluz, S. and Kula, O. (2000), ‘‘Attitudes of prospective religious teachers in teachers’ colleges’’, paper presented at the 12th Annual Conference of the Israeli Association of Educational Research, Tel Aviv. Richardson, V. (1996), ‘‘The role of attitudes and beliefs in learning to teach’’, in Sikula, J., Buttery, T.J. and Guyton, E. (Eds), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2nd ed., Macmillan, New York, NY, pp. 102-19. Richardson, V. (Ed.) (1997), Constructivist Teacher Education, Falmer, London. Sagiv, L. and Schwartz, S.H. (1995), ‘‘Value priorities and readiness for outgroup social contact’’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 437-48.

Schwartz, S.H. (1992), ‘‘Universals in the content and structure of values: theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries’’, in Zanna, M. (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 25, Academic Press, New York, NY, pp. 1-65. Schwartz, S.H. and Bilsky, W. (1990), ‘‘Toward a theory of the universal content and structure of values’’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 58, pp. 878-91. Seashore-Louis, K. (1990), ‘‘Social and community values and the quality of teacher’s work life’’, in McLaughlin, M.W., Talbert, J.E. and Bascia, N., The Contents of Teaching in Secondary Schools, Teachers College Press, New York, NY, pp. 11-39. Seashore-Louis, K. and Leithwood, K. (Eds) (1998), ‘‘From organizational learning to professional learning communities’’, Organizational Learning in Schools, Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, pp. 275-85. Shitreet, E. (1999), ‘‘The relationship among personal background and study framework and motivational areas of values, parents’ values and the behavior of Ethiopian-born adolescents’’, unpublished master’s thesis, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan (Hebrew). Tal, C. (1996), ‘‘Embedded and central attitudes within the value-attitude-behavior system’’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Bar-Ilan University (Hebrew). Trochim, W. (1989), ‘‘An introduction to concept mapping for planning and evaluation’’, Evaluation and Program Planning, Vol. 12, pp. 1-16. Vadeboncoeur, J.A. (1997), ‘‘Child development and the purpose of education: a historical context for constructivism in teacher education’’, in Richardson, V. (Ed.), Constructivist Teacher Education: Building New Understandings, Falmer, London, pp. 15-37.

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International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 23 No. 8, 2002, pp. 754-769. # MCB UP Limited, 0143-7720 DOI 10.1108/01437720210453984

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7720.htm

A model for managing trust Nico Martins University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa Keywords Trust, Management styles, Management attitudes, Interpersonal communications Abstract The study, representing 6,528 employees, investigates the relationship of the ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions and managerial practices to the dimension of trust relationships between managers and employees, and also the relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. Results indicate that managerial practices have an influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees. A weaker relationship with the dimension of trust was obtained for the ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions. Although there appears to be a weaker relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and the dimension of trust, the relatively good fit of the model indicates that an overall implication of the model is that both managerial practices and the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects of the manager might influence his/her subordinates indirectly. The results indicate that although managers perceived it to be a good instrument to use, future research is needed to expand other anecdotes of trust.

Introduction Trust affects all relationships between individuals and groups of individuals. For example, it affects relationships between couples, parents and children, teachers and students, citizens and governments, doctors and patients, school administrators and teachers, and managers and employees (De Furia, 1996). Interest in the concept of trust grew throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s (Creed and Miles, 1996) and trust has been studied from a variety of perspectives over the past several decades (Kipnis, 1996). Charlton (2000) sees trust as a non-negotiable – a constant learning process in any relationship and in trusting children to take responsibility. Global trends in the 1990s saw a sharp upsurge in re-engineering, mergers, outsourcing and downsizing that suddenly affected company levels that, for years, had been havens of job security (Bews and Martins, 1996). In South Africa, organisations immune to this type of change under the old order have recently had their foundations shaken by drastic change, re-engineering, downsizing, ferocious global competition and the implementation of the new labour laws. These changes have led to a shift on both sides of the employment contract which is widening the trust gap between employees and their employers. These new organisational arrangements have fractured the bonds of loyalty which made trust possible in the past. A new trust relationship takes time to develop (Reynolds, 1997). According to Robbins (1999), trust takes a long time to build, can be easily destroyed, and is hard to regain. Also, since breaking trust gives rise to distrust, maintaining trust requires careful attention from management. It appears that effective managers today must develop trusting relationships with those they seek to lead. The impact of trust is aptly summarised by Shaw (1997): ‘‘With trust, life becomes much simpler. With trust, we can devote our attention to a much broader range of activities than would be possible in an environment of

suspicion.’’ This article focuses on the relationship between managers and employees and the possibility of developing a model for managing trust in an organisational context. Models of trust Researchers have examined trust at three distinct levels of analysis: individual, interpersonal/intergroup, and institutional/cultural (McKnight and Webster, 2001). Trust has been dealt with at a multidisciplinary level by numerous scholars (Horton and Reid, 1991; Mayer et al., 1993; Hiltrap, 1995; Howard, 1996; Kramer and Tyler, 1996), which has led to the accumulation of a great deal of knowledge on the subject. However, there is little evidence of any effort to integrate this knowledge and to build a comprehensive theory of trust (Lewicki and Bunker, 1996). The context of this article is the institutional level, and the discussion and research will focus on the institutional or organisational impact of trust. Research done during 1995/1996 by the Centre of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of South Africa (Unisa) into the possible antecedents of trust (or mistrust) led to the assumption that trust within companies is probably created by personal factors and managerial practices. It is well known in industry that many unsuccessful attempts have been made at associating work performance with personality aspects. Over the last couple of decades, consensus has begun to emerge that five dimensions largely describe human personality (Ivancevich and Matteson, 1999). Recent research (on which consensus has widely been reached) has shown that these five personality aspects, popularly referred to as the ‘‘big five’’, tend to significantly predict work performance in industrial settings. The five factors are agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience (resourcefulness), emotional stability and extraversion. In the Unisa audit, these personality factors were viewed as possible antecedents of interpersonal trust between superiors and subordinates (Harvey et al., 1995; Martins et al., 1997). Figure 1 gives an overview of the conceptual model which was the result of the factor analysis and path analysis of the preliminary analysis. The positive results of these preliminary analyses and model encouraged the researcher to continue gathering data and to validate the model. The aim of this paper is to validate a model that can be used to predict the development of trust in organisations. In the South African context, the concept of trust is even more important if we consider the impact of culture, work ethics, language, politics, dress codes, time management, basic values, and all the other prejudices influencing relationships. Whom do we trust? Those we can understand; those most predictable to us. Who are they? Those who are most like ourselves (Ritvo et al., 1995). In many organisations, the level of trust among key groups is low. Different groups often have not only divergent objectives, but also differing points of view on how the business should operate (Shaw, 1997). According to Shaw (1997), people who cannot trust each other will end up cooperating only

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Figure 1. Conceptual model of the manifestations of trust in organisations

under a system of formal rules and regulations, which may have to be negotiated and enforced, sometimes by coercive means. The changing South African environment emphasises the need to develop a model of trust in organisations. Various researchers have highlighted different aspects and dimensions of trust in an effort to develop a theory of trust. Towards this end, Mayer et al. (1993) proposed that the characteristics of both the trustee and the trustor should be considered. Their proposed model also differentiates between factors that give rise to trust, trust itself and outcomes of trust. According to Shaw (1997), the key imperatives in building high-trust organisations and teams are achieving results, acting with integrity and demonstrating concern. Shaw (1997) identifies the key leverage points as leadership practices, organisational architecture and organisational culture. Mishra (1996) also emphasises the importance of competency, openness, concern and reliability. Charlton (2000) summarises the competencies of trust as: .

congruence in word and deed;

.

expressing positive regard and belief in others (individual trust);

.

manifesting accountability, predictability and reliability of an organisation’s position;

.

articulating and embodying a moral code that cares about people (innate worth of people); and

.

relying on people and enabling them to enrich their lives.

Definition of trust Various definitions of trust have emerged based on the individual researcher’s disciplinary focus, for instance: Belief that those on whom we depend will meet our expectations of them (Shaw, 1997).

There is inspiring trust in the leader and what he/she is trying to accomplish – as well as the leader trusting other people to do what needs to be done. Leaders need to be congruent and ethical in word and deed (Charlton, 2000).

A model for managing trust

The willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party (Mayer et al., 1993). Reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behaviour (Kreitner and Kinicki, 1995).

These definitions show that trust is a dynamic phenomenon that depends on the interplay of various factors that might affect the building of a model of trust. How trust is defined is also likely to vary with the context. Various characteristics emerge from the current models and definitions, which focus on features such as integrity, competence, openness, vulnerability, reliability and expectations and also on the role of the trustee and trustor. Most researchers focus only on some aspects or characteristics of trust. In this study the focus is on trust in an organisational context with the emphasis on the relationship between employees and those to whom these employees report directly. It extends previous research by looking not only at trust between the two groups but also at the dimensions that influence this relationship. Given this, trust can be defined as the process in which a trustor relies on a trustee (a person or group of people) to act according to specific expectations that are important to the trustor without taking advantage of the trustor’s vulnerability. Hypotheses In structural equation modelling (SEM) the purpose is to reject the null hypothesis, given that the null hypothesis is false. The null hypothesis is assessed by means of a discrepancy function of the covariances between the variables included in the model and the data characteristics. The research hypotheses are as follows: H1. There will be statistically positive relationships between the ‘‘big five’’ and the trust relationship. H2. There will be a statistically positive relationship between the managerial practices and trust relationship. H3. There will be a statistically positive relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. H4. The proposed (conceptual) model of organisational trust will fit the empirical data. Method Sample and sampling procedure Using the model and dimensions of the preliminary analysis, organisations were invited to participate in a trust audit. A covering letter that explained the purpose of the survey was included in the questionnaire. A contact person at each company assisted with the distribution

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and collection of the questionnaires. Respondents received questionnaires and covering letters in person at work and could send or hand in the questionnaires after completion. A combination of convenience and judgmental sampling was employed to select employees to whom to distribute questionnaires. The research involved 6,528 employees from 22 South African companies. The participants ranged from executive management to operational staff. All qualification and language groups were included in the audits (Table I). Most participants indicated their home language as Afrikaans (40.1 percent) or English (22.0 percent); many candidates (21.7 percent) indicated Grade 12 (Std 10) qualifications; 60 percent of the participants were male and 40 percent female. In some instances facilitators were used to explain concepts in the various African languages. Measuring instruments The ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects were measured by means of the adapted ‘‘big five’’ questionnaire (Kramer and Tyler, 1996). The ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects can be described as follows (Table II): . Conscientiousness. This includes traits such as being organised and hardworking as well as dependable, trustworthy and responsible. The opposite pole would be carelessness or irresponsibility. . Agreeableness. This reflects being liked, courteous, good-natured, cooperative, forgiving and soft-hearted. The opposite pole would be cold, rude, unkind and independent. No. Position in company Qualification groups

Language groups

Table I. Biographical composition of the population

Union affiliation

%

No.

%

No.

%

No.

%

Executive management 120 2.1

Management 558 10.0

Supervisors 1,345 24.0

Operational and professional 3,571 63.8

Std 8 (Grade 10) and lower qualifications 1,037 17.3

Std 10 (Grade 12) 1,304 21.7

Certificate/ Diploma 2,179 36.3

Degree and higher 404 6.7

English 1,398 22.0

North Sotho 351 5.5

Tsonga 95 1.5

Xhosa 238 3.7

Afrikaans 2,542 40.1

South Sotho 319 5.0

Tswana 149 2.3

Ndebele 153 2.4

Swazi 257 4.0

NUM 1,170 29.6

NUMSA 447 11.3

MWU 1,159 29.4

Non-members 951 24.1

Venda 26 0.04 EEA 114 2.9

Zulu 753

11.9

Other 65 1.0 SAWU 106 2.7

Agreeableness cold-hearted – warm-hearted unfriendly – friendly rude – tactful insensitive – sympathetic hostile – peaceful mean – gentle opposing – cooperative angry – happy

Conscientiousness irresponsible – responsible disorganised – organised sloppy – neat lazy – hardworking dishonest – honest careless – careful deceitful – trustworthy

Extraversion quiet – talkative withdrawn – sociable unassertive – assertive reserved – outgoing gloomy – cheerful shy – bold passive – active

Resourcefulness dull – intelligent unimaginative – creative conventional – innovative indifferent – curious believing – questioning simple – complex prefers routine – prefers variety

Emotional stability nervous – relaxed moody – stable insecure – confident touchy – even-tempered agitated – calm .

.

.

Emotional stability. This reflects the absence of anxiety, depression, anger, worry and insecurity. The opposite pole is called neuroticism. Resourcefulness (openness to experience). This reflects imaginativeness, creativeness, broad-mindedness and intelligence. The opposite pole is narrow-mindedness, unimaginativeness and conventionality. Extraversion. This reflects sociability, cheerfulness, talkativeness and activity. The opposite pole dimension is introverted, quiet, shy and reserved.

Altogether 35 questions relating to the ‘‘big five’’ personality dimensions were included in the questionnaire. A more pragmatic approach was followed in regard to managerial practices. Interviews were conducted with more than 100 employees to establish what managers and supervisors can do to enhance trust in their organisation. These responses were operationalised by compiling a questionnaire with items related to the presence of managerial practices which enhance trust within an organisation. A sample of 475 employees from six companies participated in the preliminary analysis of the proposed model (Martins et al., 1997). The managerial aspects were measured by the following managerial dimensions: . Credibility. This includes a willingness to listen, consider proposals, allow others the freedom to express feelings, tolerate mistakes and ensure that employees enjoy prestige and credibility in the organisation.

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Table II. ‘‘Big five’’ personality aspects

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.

.

760 .

Team management. This dimension refers to the effective management of team and individual goal accomplishments and the handling of conflict within groups. Information sharing. This dimension indicates willingness to give individual feedback on performance and to reveal company-related information in an honest manner. Work support. This dimension deals with willingness to support employees when necessary and to provide job-related information for the accomplishment of objectives.

Trust measurement With regard to the measurement of trust, five questions in the questionnaire were directly related to the trust dimension. These five questions deal with various aspects of trust between employees and their immediate supervisor. The trust relationship dimension reflects the relationship with the immediate supervisor in terms of openness, honesty, fairness and intention to motivate employees. Table III shows the results of Cronbach’s alpha for the ten dimensions. The alpha coefficients portray highly satisfactory results with coefficients ranging between 0.82 and 0.95. Results The descriptive statistics for the ten dimensions are reported in Table IV. Developing a structural equation model Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a linear cross-sectional statistical modeling technique which includes confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and regression analysis (Botha, 1999). Because SEM is mostly used to determine whether a certain model is valid rather than to ‘‘find’’ a suitable model, it is the most applicable statistical method to validate the proposed trust model. How can one determine which model is correct? This is where theory plays an important role in justifying (specifying) a model. Path analysis does Dimensions

Table III. Scales description

Conscientiousness Agreeableness Emotional stability Resourcefulness Extraversion Credibility Team management Information sharing Work support Trust relationship

No. of questions

Cronbach’s alpha

8 8 5 7 7 13 9 4 3 5

0.93 0.95 0.87 0.87 0.89 0.94 0.89 0.84 0.82 0.91

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Agreeableness Conscientiousness Extraversion Resourcefulness Emotional stability Credibility Team management Information sharing Work support Trust relationship

Dimensions 70.5248 73.3473 70.5360 68.3984 69.9762 64.6208 69.0029 62.5414 71.2357 72.5607

Mean 23.6966 23.6629 22.9379 21.7220 22.9519 25.4024 24.3423 24.4640 23.9704 21.9870

Std 1.000 0.673 0.656 0.571 0.733 0.497 0.485 0.477 0.540 0.589

1

1.000 0.538 0.532 0.619 0.467 0.506 0.466 0.525 0.568

2

1.000 0.559 0.548 0.368 0.416 0.376 0.395 0.420

3

1.000 0.602 0.422 0.0460 0.414 0.429 0.457

4

1.000 0.460 0.0479 0.452 0.510 0.549

5

1.000 0.0646 0.653 0.621 0.585

6

1.000 0.676 0.653 0.578

7

1.000 0.671 0.614

8

10

1.000

9

1.000 0.659

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Table IV. Descriptive statistics

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not provide a way to specify the model, but rather estimates the effects among the variables once the model has been specified a priori on the basis of theoretical considerations (Schumacher and Lomax, 1996). The 6,528 questionnaires that were returned were statistically analysed. Two software programs, namely SPSS and EQS for Windows, were used to analyse the data. The SPSS program was used for the data integration, analysing frequencies, establishing means, summarising dimensions and reporting back to the participating companies. The EQS program was used to test the trust model using structural equation modeling (Bentler and Wu, 1995). To build the EQS model the following procedures were applied: .

The maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method. The ML function in structured means models reflects how closely the sample mean vector is reproduced by the estimated model mean vector. It also indicates how closely the sample covariance matrix is reproduced by the estimated model covariance matrix. As a result a model may fit badly if the means are modeled poorly, or if the covariances are modeled poorly, or both (Bentler and Wu, 1995).

.

A factor loading of 0.5. Any factor loading of 0.5 or above, in absolute value, is taken as evidence that a variable is a good indicator of a factor.

.

All the variables in the model were used and for the exogenous latent variables, the factor variances were set equal to 1.0. For the endogenous variables, one path linking each construct to its respective indicator was set equal to 1.0.

Following the procedure outlined by Schumacher and Lomax (1996) and Bentler and Wu (1995) a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine whether the data conformed with the supposition that each of the proposed latent variables represents separate constructs. The first step in building an EQS model was to determine the relationship between the personality factors (the ‘‘big five’’) and the managerial practices. The results revealed a chi-square of 646.92 based on 24 degrees of freedom with a probability value of less than 0.001. The comparative fit index (CFI) ¼ 0.982, the Bentler and Bonet normed fit index (BDNFI) ¼ 0.973 and Bentler and Bonet non-normed fit index (BBNNFI) ¼ 0.973, all close to the recommended perfect fit (0 no fit and 1.0 perfect fit). The results reflect a good model fit. The second step in building the EQS model was to include the personality aspects, the managerial practices and the trust relationships. Results revealed chi-square of 4404.5 based on 33 degrees of freedom with a probability value of less than 0.001. The normal theory chi-square for this solution is 3538.3. Additionally, the comparative fit index (CFI) ¼ 0.890, the Bentler and Bonet normed fit index (BDNFI) ¼ 0.889 and the Bentler and Bonet non-normed fit index (BBNNFI) ¼ 0.850. All are very close to the recommended perfect fit (0 no fit to 1 perfect), which reflects a good model fit.

The statistically significant standardised parameter estimates for the revised theoretical model are presented in Figures 2 and 3. It is clear from Figure 2 that all the dimensions of the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects and the managerial practices correlate with the construct of trust. All the parameter estimations are significant on the 5 percent significance level. The error variance (1
R2 ) indicates the extent to which the variance in the manifested variables can be contributed to the latent factor. Agreeableness as measured by the ‘‘big five’’ questionnaire is a significant manifestation of the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects. However, it must be noted that 56 percent of the variance is due to measurement error and 44 percent of variance can be attributed to agreeableness. The biggest error variance is noted for information sharing (88 percent) and only 12 percent of the variance can be attributed to information sharing. The results of Figure 2 confirm H3, namely that there is a statistically positive relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. It is interesting to note that all the dimensions correlate very highly (above 0.65) with the two main dimensions (the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices). These results also indicate a strong relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices. As shown in Figure 3, there is a strong relationship between trust and the personality aspects (0.24). This supports H1, which stated a positive relationship between trust and personality. The results of the model confirm H2, which shows a positive relationship between trust and managerial practices (0.56). The summary of the statistics indicates a reasonable fit regarding the comparative fit index (CFI) as stated in H3, although, in terms of the model presented in Figure 3, the dimensions on personality aspects are not supported. In addition to the hypothesized relationship contained in the theoretical model, the additional nine statistically significant parameters are represented in Figures 2 and 3. These results suggest that agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, resourcefulness and stability are associated with the personality aspects – the ‘‘big five’’. The results also indicate that credibility, team management and work support are directly associated with managerial practices. Information sharing, on the other hand, does not appear to be directly associated with managerial practices (Figure 3). Discussion The results indicate support for a connection between trust relationships in an organisation and managerial practices (H2). This finding provides support for the belief that managerial practices have an influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees. These findings support the research of Tyler and Degoey (1996) that trust is affected by the decisions of people in authority in organisations. The weaker relationships between the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects appear to indicate that employees’ trust in managers is to a large degree not influenced by their managers’ personality aspects as defined by the ‘‘big five’’. Although there appears to be a weaker relationship between

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Figure 2. The ‘‘big five’’ and managerial practices

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Figure 3. Empirical evaluation of proposed trust relationship model

the ‘‘big five’’ and trust relationships, the relatively good fit of the model indicates that an overall implication of the model is that the manager’s personality might influence his/her subordinates indirectly. Figure 2 shows a strong relationship between the ‘‘big five’’ personality aspects and the managerial practices. This is an indication that these dimensions influence each other, even if trust is not included in the relationship. The implication of this is that both the personality aspects of a manager and

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his/her behaviour and managerial practices have an influence on the relationship (H3). Additional research is needed to further investigate the relationships between trust and other managerial indicators. The weak relationship between managerial practices and information sharing might be focused on two aspects only of information sharing, namely individual feedback performance and the revealing of company-related information (two questions each). Additional questions that focus on other aspects of communication, for instance informal communication between manager and employee and communication sources, might improve the relationship. It is proposed that the following questions should be added to the dimension of information sharing: . I receive important information from the person I report to on time. . The person I report to continuously informs me about the objective(s) of my department. . The person I report to encourages open communication of both good and bad news. . The person I report to communicates the organisation’s core values and principles. . The person I report to clearly communicates the company’s rules and regulations. . The person I report to listens to our ideas and opinions. Feedback from participating companies Focus sessions were held with the main participants in the audit (4; 500 participants) to determine the practical implications of the study, i.e. strengths and weaknesses. The following is the main feedback that was received: (1) Positive . the questionnaire is a good tool to use; . the questionnaire was well understood; . the translation into four languages was positive; . the audit results are regarded as credible; . shareholder involvement was good; . the questionnaire dealt with trust issues in work teams; and . the results link with the results of other measuring tools. (2) Negative . more time is needed for marketing the audit; . the mix of the job levels is not adequate;

some questions are difficult for people on lower levels; employees do not trust human resources professionals to give them feedback on the results of the audit; . copying of the questionnaire is expensive; and . biographical information was problematic due to the complexity of the organisation. (3) Proposals . audit before the annual business planning; . proper communication to all stakeholders; . simplify the biographical information; and . obtain a more representative sample size. . .

Limitations The high scale reliability of the dimensions (Table III) indicates high correlations between the items, but not a strong relationship between the two dependent variables and the independent variable. This might be due to an incorrectly formulated hypothesis which was included in the study, namely that personality aspects and managerial practices have a direct influence on trust in an organisation. Although much has been written about trust, not many models based on structural analysis were available for use as a starting point. In many ways the study was exploratory in nature. A limitation on the gathering and use of data was that the biographical composition of the population was largely in the hands of the various participating companies. During the biographical analysis of the data it was noted that not all respondents had indicated their home language. This might have had an impact on the overall goodness-of-fit of the model based on a specific population. A large percentage of participants (39.7 percent) also indicated their home language as other than Afrikaans and English, which could have had an impact on their understanding of the questionnaire. Implications for future research The findings of the present study indicate that additional processes relating to trust relationships need to be explained and researched. The research is especially important in that it showed the relationships between trust relationships and managerial practices, but also highlighted a low relationship between trust relationships and personality aspects. Future research needs to focus on expanding the dimension of information sharing and including other anecdotes of trust. Including dimensions such as leadership and their relationships with trust relationships as well as the styles of leadership might indicate other parameters of the influence on trust relationships between managers and employees. The feedback from the participating organisations and their proposals need to be incorporated into future studies.

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References Bentler, P.M. and Wu, J.C. (1995), EQS for Windows: Users’ Guide, Multivariate Software Inc., Encino, CA. Bews, N. and Martins, N. (1996), ‘‘The trust gap’’, People Dynamics, Vol. 14 No. 11, November/ December, pp. 42-9. Botha, E.J. (1999), ‘‘The relationship between work effectiveness and psychological optimality’’ (Afrikaans text), unpublished master’s thesis, Potchefstroom University for CHE, Potchefstroom. Charlton, G. (2000), Human Habits of Highly Effective Organisations, Van Schaik, Pretoria. Creed, D.W.E. and Miles, R.E. (1996), ‘‘Trust in organisations: a conceptual framework linking organizational forms, philosophies, and the opportunity cost of controls’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 16-38. De Furia, G.L. (1996), Facilitator’s Guide to the Interpersonal Trust Surveys, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Harvey, R.J., Murray, W.D. and Markham, S.E. (1995), ‘‘A ‘big five’ scoring system for the MyersBriggs type indicator’’, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, May, Orlando, FL. Hiltrap, J. (1995), ‘‘The changing psychological contract: the human resource challenge of the 1990s’’, European Management Journal, Vol. 13, pp. 286-94. Horton, R.T. and Reid, P.C. (1991), Beyond the Trust Gap: Forging a New Partnership Between Managers and their Employees, Business One Irwin, Homewood, IL. Howard, A. (Ed.) (1996), The Changing Nature of Work, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Ivancevich, J.M. and Matteson, M.T. (1999), Organisational Behaviour and Management, McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA. Kipnis, D. (1996), ‘‘Trust and technology’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 39-50. Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds) (1996), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Kreitner, R. and Kinicki, A. (1995), Organizational Behavior, Irwin, Chicago, IL. Lewicki, R.J. and Bunker, B.B. (1996), ‘‘Developing and maintaining trust in work relationships’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 114-39. McKnight, D.H. and Webster, J. (2001), ‘‘Collaborative insight or privacy invasion. Trust climate as a lens for understanding acceptance of awareness systems’’, in Cartwright, S. and Early, P.C. (Eds), The International Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate, John Wiley, Chichester, p. 538. Martins, N., Watkins, M., Von der Ohe, H. and De Beer, M. (1997), ‘‘Unisa: trust audit. Summary report’’, unpublished report, Unisa, Pretoria. Mayer, C.R., Davis, J.H. and Schoorman, F.D. (1993), ‘‘An intergrative model of organisational trust’’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 709-34. Mishra, A.K. (1996), ‘‘Organizational responses to crisis: the centrality of trust’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 261-87. Reynolds, L. (1997), The Trust Effect: Creating the High Trust, High Performance Organisation, Nicholas Brealy, London. Ritvo, A., Litwin, A.H. and Butler, L. (1995), Managing in the Age of Change, Irwin, Barr Ridge, IL.

Robbins, S.P. (1996), Essentials of Organizational Behavior. Concepts, Controversies, Applications, 7th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Schumacher, R.E. and Lomax, R.G. (1996), A Beginner’s Guide to Structural Equation Modeling, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Shaw, R.B. (1997), Trust in the Balance, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Tyler, T.R. and Degoey, P. (1996), ‘‘Trust in organizational authorities’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 331-58. Further reading Bentler, P.M. (1995), EQS Structural Equations Program Manual, Multivariate Software Inc., Encino, CA. Bert, R.S. and Knez, M. (1996), ‘‘Trust and third-party gossip’’, in Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (Eds), Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 68-89. Jo¨reskog, K. and So¨rbom, D. (1993a), Lisrel Version 8.12a for Windows, Scientific Software International, Chicago, IL. Jo¨reskog, K. and So¨rbom, D. (1993b), Lisrel 8: Structural Equation Modeling with the Simplis Command Language, Laurence Erlbaum, London. Martins, N. (1998), ‘‘Organisational trust in the workplace’’, People Dynamics, Vol. 16 No. 10, pp. 26-31. Mayer, R.C. and Davis, J.H. (in press), ‘‘The effect of the performance appraisal system on trust for management: a field quasi experiment’’, Journal of Applied Psychology. Nelson, D.L. and Quick, J.C. (2000), Organizational Behaviour: Foundations, Realities and Challenges, 3rd ed., South Western College, Cincinatti, OH. Robbins, S.P. (1999), Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications, 8th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Watkins, M.L. (1997), ‘‘‘Results of the trust relationships research project conducted by the Department of Industrial Psychology, Unisa’’, paper presented at the Trust Conference, Pretoria.

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Book review Inequality and Industrial Change: A Global View James K. Galbraith and Maureen Berner (Eds) Cambridge University Press 2001 322 pp. ISBN 0-521-00993-6 (paperback) Under the influence of new international social movements against (the consequences of) globalization, the question whether income inequality in and among countries is increasing, and if so why, is now widely researched and debated[1]. Unsurprisingly researchers, international institutions such as the World Bank and policymakers often disagree about how inequality should be measured and compared over time, and about the quality and availability of data, which are often problematic. Conclusions about trends in world income distribution are therefore at least partially dependent on the choice of measurements and data[2]. The most widely used measure of inequality is of course the Gini coefficient, which is derived from the Lorenz curve. Alternatively, ratios of the income of the richest decile of the population to that of poorer deciles, or average income of a set of developed countries to that of a set of developing countries, are often used. In this volume however an alternative method is presented, based on the work of Henri Theil. In the four chapters on theory and method that open and close the book the editors introduce Theil’s T measure and explain how to work with it, making use of the statistical techniques of cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis. They argue that Theil’s T not only satisfies the standard conditions for an acceptable measure of inequality such as the principle of transfers, which requires that a transfer from a poorer to a richer person increase the index and vice versa, but also has the additional advantage that it can be used when adequate or reliable data at the individual level are not available. On the basis of industrial classification schemes of governments they compute between-groups components of Theil’s index, which give lower bound estimates of the inequality of manufacturing earnings. This, they argue, gives ‘‘an uncannily good estimate of the movement in the dispersion of earnings through time, so long as classification schemes and employment structures do not change too much. And fortunately, classification schemes generally remain stable over time (thanks to bureaucratic inertia), while changes in the employment structure, which do occur, tend to be sporadic and can also be isolated from data sets’’. Insights that this approach can lead to are then presented in 12 chapters, all (co-)authored by Galbraith, dealing with different countries around the world. The theme of the book’s second part is inequality, unemployment and industrial change, and it contains four papers. Ferguson and Galbraith examine the US wage structure from 1920 to 1947 and argue, in a reversal of the usual

notions of macro-to-macro causality, that a small number of macroeconomic variables account for 97 percent of the variance in wage changes across groups. Galbraith and Cantu´ compute new measures of earnings and wage inequality in US manufacturing from 1920 to 1998, and conclude that manufacturing inequality rose sharply in the 1950s and began declining again in 1994. Calistri and Galbraith present an analysis of the evolution of industrial wages in a cross-section of countries that are members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and argue that the between-group variation across time usually reflects the movement of macroeconomic variables, internal as well as external. Conceic¸a˜o, Ferreira and Galbraith argue – I suspect that this will surprise some people – that it is not at all obvious that the USA is less equal than the EU if we calculate measures of inequality not for individual EU-member states but for the EU as a whole. They argue that the reverse is probably the case, and suggest that the key to reducing unemployment in the EU lies in measures that reduce – and not as is often proposed increase – inequalities in the structure of pay, at the continental level. The eight papers in the third part of the book have inequality and development as their common theme. Conceic¸a˜o and Galbraith examine the dynamics of inequality across the OECD and find that an augmented Kuznets curve for developed countries, where inequality increases with income growth for the highest-income countries, is consistent with their data set, thus offering a macroeconomic alternative to the skill-biased technological change hypothesis which is often presented as an explanation for increasing inequality. Galbraith and Lu measure the evolution of inequality in the global economy and show that although it remains possible for rich and determined countries to keep control of their wage structure, the predominant recent trend in inequality worldwide has been decisively upwards. In their paper on economic regionalization, inequality and financial crises, Galbraith and Jiaquing show that crises typically generate increases in inequality, but more so in less developed countries and more so in regions that are more liberal in their policy regimes. In a short chapter on inequality and state violence, Galbraith and Purcell argue that there is a relationship between various forms of state violence and inequality in manufacturing earnings in countries around the world from 1960 to 1995. Galbraith and Cantu´ set out in a chapter on the performance of Latin American regimes from 1970 to 1995 that changes in earnings inequality are a sensitive indicator of slump, repression, political turmoil, civil war, natural disaster, and occasional periods of growth and stability in Latin America. Calmon, Conceic˛aˆo, Galbrith, Cantu´ and Sanchez review the evolution of industrial earnings inequality in Mexico (1968 to 1998) and Brazil (1976 to 1995) and find that both countries show increases in wage dispersion over time, with a strong correlation with the rate of real economic growth.

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Galbraith and Kim present an empirical analysis of industrial policies in Korea and show how Korean development has depended both on government and on the market. Finally, in his concluding reflections on inequality and economic developments, Galbraith argues that a central institutional condition for social and economic development, underlying all other desirable institutional features such as education, life expectancy and democracy, is an acceptably fair and reasonably stable distribution of pay. He argues that ‘‘we haven’t even begun to work out the ways and means for establishing stable growth and declining inequality in a liberal world’’. And he concludes: ‘‘Unless and until this problem is solved, it is reasonable to infer that in the long run the neoliberal world order cannot, will not, and probably should not endure.’’ As a whole, I find this is a very useful and stimulating book, which deserves to be widely read. It is well organized, with an index and abstracts at the beginning of every chapter. The chapters on measurements and statistical techniques are useful for those who want to make themselves acquainted with the methods used, but readers who are not that interested in the techniques can easily skip them without losing much, because the other chapters are well written and very accessible. The main limitation of the method used seems to me that it only takes manufacturing earnings into account. Galbraith and Lu mention this as one of two deficiencies of the grouped Theil measure in comparison with the Gini coefficient. They then argue that it is pointless to complain about the lack of measurements for other sectors, particularly in poorer countries, and that changes in inequality within manufacturing are often a good indicator of changes in other sections, but this does not convince me. However, that does not diminish the value of this work. As was already noted in the beginning of this review, no indicator of inequality is uncontested or without problems. New approaches and interpretations that refine the picture, such as those presented here, are therefore more than welcome. Dr Robert Went Faculty of Economics and Econometrics, University of Amsterdam Notes 1. For opposing views on global inequality see for example Robert Wade, ‘‘The rising inequality of world income distribution’’, Finance & Development, December 2001, pp. 37-9, and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, ‘‘The disturbing ‘rise’ of global income inequality’’, NBER, Working Paper 8904. 2. See for example Sanjay G. Reddy and Thomas W. Pogge, ‘‘How not to count the poor’’, paper available at www.socialanalysis.org, which is an interesting critique of the estimates of the extent, distribution and trend of global income poverty made by the World Bank.

About the authors Jeffrey Kantor Jeffrey Kantor is a Professor of Accounting in the Odette Business School at the University of Windsor in Canada. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Professor Kantor is a Professional Accountant in the USA (CPA and CMA), in Canada (CA) and in Israel (CPA). His current research interests include international accounting, cost accounting and virtual learning. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

About the authors

773

Nico Martins Nico Martins is a Professor of Industrial Psychology in the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of South Africa. He is a registered industrial psychologist and an International Affiliate of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology (SIOP). His current research interests include organisational trust, organisational climate and organisational culture. E-mail: [email protected] Nava Maslovaty Nava Maslovaty is a Lecturer in the School of Education at Bar-Ilan University, and recipient of the Schritzer prize for research in the field of economics and society. Her major areas of specialization are values and moral development, evaluation and alternative assessment. E-mail: [email protected] Andreas Nachbagauer Andreas Nachbagauer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Personnel Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. He is also Lecturer at several Fachhochschulen in Austria. His current research interests include human resource management, general management and systems theory. E-mail: [email protected] Margaret Patrickson Margaret Patrickson is Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at the International Graduate School of Management at the University of South Australia. Her research interests include older workers and international diversity. E-mail: [email protected] Gabriela Riedl Gabriela Riedl is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Personnel Management at Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration as well. She is also a Trainer and Consultant for Human Resource Management.

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Her preferred research fields are human resource management, theory of social inequality and systems management. E-mail: [email protected] Jacob Weisberg Jacob Weisberg received his PhD from the London School of Economics, England. He is the Head of Management Studies at the Graduate School of Business Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His current research interests include labor turnover, compensation and incentive schemes, wage determination, leadership in Russia, appointment of CEOs in the USA, and labor market issues in Poland. E-mail: [email protected]

Index to International Journal of Manpower, volume 23, 2002

Index

775 Authors AGOCS, C., Canada’s employment equity legislation and policy, 1987-2000: the gap between policy and practice, No. 3, pp. 256-76. BARUCH, Y., STEELE, D.J. and QUANTRILL, G.A., Management of expatriation and repatriation for novice global player, No. 7, pp. 659-71. BATTU, H. and SLOANE, P.J., To what extent are ethnic minorities in Britain over-educated?, No. 3, pp. 192-208. BONNAL, L., MENDES, S. and SOFER, C., School-to-work transition: apprenticeship versus vocational school in France, No. 5, pp. 426-42. ¨ CHEL, F., Successful apprenticeship-to-work transitions: on the long-term change in BU significance of the German school-leaving certificate, No. 5, pp. 394-410. CHELLI, F. and ROSTI, L., Age and gender differences in Italian workers’ mobility, No. 4, pp. 313-25. DE GRIP, A., see DEKKER, R. DE WITTE, M.C., see VAN DER ZWAAN, A.H. DEKKER, R., DE GRIP, A. and HEIJKE, H., The effects of training and overeducation on career mobility in a segmented labour market, No. 2, pp. 106-25. ELIZUR, D., see STASHEVSKY, S. FRANZ, W. and ZIMMERMANN, V., The transition from apprenticeship training to work, No. 5, pp. 411-25. GIDDINGS, L., Has the shift toward markets hurt ethnic minorities? Changes in ethnic earnings differentials in Bulgaria’s early transition, No. 1, pp. 9-31. GRIFFIN, G., see TEICHER, J. HEIJKE, H., see DEKKER, R. HSIEH, A.-T., see LIN, S.-L. JAIN, H.C., see VENKATA RATNAM, C.S. KANTOR, J. and WEISBERG, J., Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models?, No. 8, pp. 687-703. LAUER, C., Participation in higher education: the role of cost and return expectations, No. 5, pp. 443-57. LEE, G.O.M. and WARNER, M., Labour-market policies in Shanghai and Hong Kong: a study of ‘‘one country, two systems’’ in Greater China, No. 6, pp. 505-26. LIN, S.-L. and HSIEH, A.-T., Constraints of task identity on organizational commitment, No. 2, pp. 151-65. LINEHAN, M. and SCULLION, H., The repatriation of female international managers: an empirical study, No. 7, pp. 649-58. LINZ, S.J., Ownership and employment in Russian industry: 1992-1995, No. 1, pp. 32-61. McGUINNESS, S., Private sector postgraduate training and graduate overeducation: evidence from Northern Ireland, No. 6, pp. 527-41. MALINOWSKI, C., see PAIK, Y. MAO, H.-Y., Moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between voluntary employer changes and salary attainment, No. 4, pp. 345-61. MARGOLIS, D.N. and SIMONNET, V., Technical/professional versus general education, labor market networks and labor market outcomes, No. 5, pp. 471-92. MARTINS, N., A model for managing trust, No. 8, pp. 754-69.

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MASLOVATY, N., Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system, No. 8, pp. 734-53. MENDES, S., see BONNAL, L. NACHBAGAUER, A.G.M. and RIEDL, G., Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment, No. 8, pp. 716-33. O’SULLIVAN, S.L., The protean approach to managing repatriation transitions, No. 7, pp. 597-616. PAIK, Y., SEGAUD, B. and MALINOWSKI, C., How to improve repatriation management: are motivations and expectations congruent between the company and expatriates?, No. 7, pp. 635-48. PATRICKSON, M., Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers?, No. 8, pp. 704-15. QUANTRILL, G.A., see BARUCH, Y. REGNE´R, H., The effects of on-the-job training on wages in Sweden, No. 4, pp. 326-44. RENAUD, S., Rethinking the union membership/job satisfaction relationship: some empirical evidence in Canada, No. 2, pp. 137-50. RIEDL, G., see NACHBAGAUER, A.G.M. ROGUT, A. and TOKARSKI, T., Regional diversity of employment structure and outflows from unemployment to employment in Poland, No. 1, pp. 62-76. ROSTI, L., see CHELLI, F. SCULLION, H., see LINEHAN, M. SEGAUD, B., see PAIK, Y. SHAH, C., see TEICHER, J. SIMONNET, V., see MARGOLIS, D.N. SLOANE, P.J., see BATTU, H. SOCHA, M.W. and WEISBERG, J., Labor market transition in Poland: changes in the public and private sectors, No. 6, pp. 553-77. SOFER, C., see BONNAL, L. STASHEVSKY, S. and ELIZUR, D., Quality management of organizational referents: a structural analysis, No. 4, pp. 362-75. STEELE, D.J., see BARUCH, Y. ¨ LIMAA, K., Antecedents of repatriation adjustment: new evidence from SUUTARI, V. and VA Finnish repatriates, No. 7, pp. 617-34. TEICHER, J., SHAH, C. and GRIFFIN, G., Australian immigration: the triumph of economics over prejudice?, No. 3, pp. 209-36. THOMAS, A., Employment equity in South Africa: lessons from the global school, No. 3, pp. 237-55. TOKARSKI, T., see ROGUT, A. ¨ LIMAA, K., see SUUTARI, V. VA VAN DER ZWAAN, A.H., VON EIJE J.H. and DE WITTE, M.C., HRM consequences of going public, No. 2, pp. 126-36. VENKATA RATNAM, C.S. and JAIN, H.C., Women in trade unions in India, No. 3, pp. 277-92. VODOPIVEC, M., Worker reallocation during Estonia’s transition to market, No. 1, pp. 77-97. VON EIJE J.H., see VAN DER ZWAAN, A.H. WARNER, M., see LEE, G.O.M.

WEISBERG, J., see KANTOR, J. WEISBERG, J., see SOCHA, M.W. WOLTER, S.C. and ZBINDEN, A., Labour market expectations of Swiss university students, No. 5, pp. 458-70. ZBINDEN, A., see WOLTER, S.C. ZIMMERMANN, V., see FRANZ, W. ZWICK, T., Employee resistance against innovations, No. 6, pp. 542-52. Titles Age and gender differences in Italian workers’ mobility, CHELLI, F. and ROSTI, L., No. 4, pp. 313-25. Antecedents of repatriation adjustment: new evidence from Finnish repatriates, SUUTARI, V. ¨ LIMAA, K., No. 7, pp. 617-34. and VA Australian immigration: the triumph of economics over prejudice?, TEICHER, J., SHAH, C. and GRIFFIN, G., No. 3, pp. 209-36. Canada’s employment equity legislation and policy, 1987-2000: the gap between policy and practice, AGOCS, C., No. 3, pp. 256-76. Constraints of task identity on organizational commitment, LIN, S.-L. and HSIEH, A.-T., No. 2, pp. 151-65. Effects of concepts of career plateaus on performance, work satisfaction and commitment, NACHBAGAUER, A.G.M. and RIEDL, G., No. 8, pp. 716-33. (The) effects of on-the-job training on wages in Sweden, REGNE´R, H., No. 4, pp. 326-44. (The) effects of training and overeducation on career mobility in a segmented labour market, DEKKER, R., DE GRIP, A. and HEIJKE, H., No. 2, pp. 106-25. Employee resistance against innovations, ZWICK, T., No. 6, pp. 542-52. Employment equity in South Africa: lessons from the global school, THOMAS, A., No. 3, pp. 237-55. Ethical attitudes and ethical behavior: are managers role models?, KANTOR, J. and WEISBERG, J., No. 8, pp. 687-703. Has the shift toward markets hurt ethnic minorities? Changes in ethnic earnings differentials in Bulgaria’s early transition, GIDDINGS, L., No. 1, pp. 9-31. How to improve repatriation management: are motivations and expectations congruent between the company and expatriates?, PAIK, Y., SEGAUD, B. and MALINOWSKI, C., No. 7, pp. 635-48. HRM consequences of going public, VAN DER ZWAAN, A.H., VON EIJE, J.H. and DE WITTE, M.C., No. 2, pp. 126-36. Labour market expectations of Swiss university students, WOLTER, S.C. and ZBINDEN, A., No. 5, pp. 458-70. Labour-market policies in Shanghai and Hong Kong: a study of ‘‘one country, two systems’’ in Greater China, LEE, G.O.M. and WARNER, M., No. 6, pp. 505-26. Labor market transition in Poland: changes in the public and private sectors, SOCHA, M.W. and WEISBERG, J., No. 6, pp. 553-77. Management of expatriation and repatriation for novice global player, BARUCH, Y., STEELE, D.J. and QUANTRILL, G.A., No. 7, pp. 659-71. (A) model for managing trust, MARTINS, N., No. 8, pp. 754-69.

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Moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between voluntary employer changes and salary attainment, MAO, H.-Y., No. 4, pp. 345-61. Organizational learning: teachers’ perceptions of the ‘‘ideal student’’ trait system, MASLOVATY, N., No. 8, pp. 734-53. Ownership and employment in Russian industry: 1992-1995, LINZ, S.J., No. 1, pp. 32-61. Participation in higher education: the role of cost and return expectations, LAUER, C., No. 5, pp. 443-57. Private sector postgraduate training and graduate overeducation: evidence from Northern Ireland, McGUINNESS, S., No. 6, pp. 527-41. (The) protean approach to managing repatriation transitions, O’SULLIVAN, S.L., No. 7, pp. 597-616. Quality management of organizational referents: a structural analysis, STASHEVSKY, S. and ELIZUR, D., No. 4, pp. 362-75. Regional diversity of employment structure and outflows from unemployment to employment in Poland, ROGUT, A. and TOKARSKI, T., No. 1, pp. 62-76. (The) repatriation of female international managers: an empirical study, LINEHAN, M. and SCULLION, H., No. 7, pp. 649-58. Rethinking the union membership/job satisfaction relationship: some empirical evidence in Canada, RENAUD, S., No. 2, pp. 137-50. School-to-work transition: apprenticeship versus vocational school in France, BONNAL, L., MENDES, S. and SOFER, C., No. 5, pp. 426-42. Successful apprenticeship-to-work transitions: on the long-term change in significance of the ¨ CHEL, F., No. 5, pp. 394-410. German school-leaving certificate, BU Technical/professional versus general education, labor market networks and labor market outcomes, MARGOLIS, D.N. and SIMONNET, V., No. 5, pp. 471-92. Teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers?, PATRICKSON, M., No. 8, pp. 704-15. To what extent are ethnic minorities in Britain over-educated?, BATTU, H. and SLOANE, P.J., No. 3, pp. 192-208. (The) transition from apprenticeship training to work, FRANZ, W. and ZIMMERMANN, V., No. 5, pp. 411-25. Women in trade unions in India, VENKATA RATNAM, C.S. and JAIN, H.C., No. 3, pp. 277-92. Worker reallocation during Estonia’s transition to market, VODOPIVEC, M., No. 1, pp. 77-97.