Organizational Psychology I
Attitudes and Effect Sizes
Each student will find and read an article from the Journal of Applied Psychology, the
Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Personnel Psychology, the
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology or other approved research journal
that describes predictors of job satisfaction and/or organizational commitment in a specific
populations (e.g., nurses, engineers, truck drivers, clerical workers, manufacturing
employees, teachers, salesmen/saleswomen, service workers, etc.). Try to find an article on
your designated population published after 2001. It does not matter whether satisfaction or
commitment were used as the predictor or as the criterion.
In 1000 words, you will (in about two pages, single spaced, 12 point font, Times New
Roman, 1 inch margins):
1. Provide a full APA citation.
2. Identify the main purpose of the study and the specific population that was used. Report
N. Report gender, race, or other major group membership.
3. Describe the method in a few sentences.
4. Describe how satisfaction and/or commitment were measured. Be specific. Describe the
number of items, which facets of satisfaction were measure, how the items was scaled
(strongly agree to strongly disagree), how the measure was scored (summed, averaged,
weighted, etc.) and the reliability (internal consistency is most likely, and may need to be
reported by subscale) of the measure as reported in that study. If sample items are available,
list them.
5. Describe the predictors of satisfaction and/or commitment only, including situational or
environmental variables. How were these predictors measured or operationalized? Be as
specific as in #3. Once again, it does not matter if the satisfaction and/or commitment
measure was the predictor or criterion. Be sure to report their internal consistency, if
appropriate.
6. Report the results pertaining to satisfaction and/or commitment only. Reports which tests
of significance were used.
7. Report the effect sizes of all the variables that predict or are predicted by satisfaction
and/or commitment using r as the effect size estimate. If you need to convert your effect
sizes to r, do so. This information might be best presented in a table, like the following.
However, feel free to make yours look pretty.
Attitude
Operationalization
Job Satisfaction
Job Descriptive Index
Sample
Dunin Donut Makers
N
231
Alpha
.85
Criterion A
(absences)
- .23
Criterion B
(tenure)
.15
8. Report the conclusions of the study in a couple of sentences.
Questions 4 through 7 should make up the bulk of the report. A hard copy of the summary
must be provided to all class members when class meets. You will present your summary,
informally, and we will generate our own model of the predictors of satisfaction and commitment
in class based on your summaries. You must submit a .pdf version of your article to NPR via email by 5:00 PM the Monday before class.
Who is in charge of what population?
Sarah
Amanda K
Amanda S.
Brandie
Kristina
Yu-En
Jason
Andy
Jon
Karl
Brandon
Leigh
Jenny
Police
Blue collar/manufacturing
Retail employees
Service industry, hospitality
Physicians
Nurses
Social workers
Accountants or similar business nerds
Teachers
Professors
Clerical workers
OK, I cant’ read my writing. It looks like tea-bags, which is unlikely.
Was this the “anyone who drives anything,” like delivery people or postal
works, population?
Engineers