Académique Documents
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RESEARCH IN
PERSONNEL AND
HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
EDITED BY
HUI LIAO
University of Maryland, USA
JOSEPH J. MARTOCCHIO
University of Illinois, USA
APARNA JOSHI
University of Illinois, USA
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ISBN: 978-0-85724-125-2
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CONTENTS
v
vi CONTENTS
vii
viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
ABSTRACT
Fig. 1. A Multilevel Model of Workplace Safety. Notes: Solid lines with arrows represent expected direct effects. Dashed
lines with arrows designate expected moderation. Arced lines with arrows represent feedback loops.
6 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
individual level safety outcomes and rates would differ across workers in the
same jobs and same industries.
Related to the above discussion, Holzberg (1981) has discussed how
cultural values inuence social stratication through the political economies
of nations. This point is relevant to our discussion, as such processes can
operate in a manner where different racial/ethnic or socioeconomic groups
are at times disproportionately exposed to hazardous work environments.
The reader is also referred to Baum, Be`gin, Houweling, and Taylor (2009)
and the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH, 2008) for
more general discussions of the social determinants of health inequities
within and across nations. For instance, within the United States, African-
American men have higher cancer rates than White men and these
differences are, in part, attributed to differential exposures to hazardous
occupational conditions (see Briggs et al., 2003). As another example, in both
declining types of work (e.g., hand harvesting of row crops) and expanding
labor-intensive types of work (e.g., construction and landscaping) in the
southern United States, a pattern has emerged where these types of work are
done by Hispanic workers who are experiencing some of the nations highest
fatal occupational injury rates (Richardson et al., 2004). Also, in comparison
to non-Hispanic White men, African-American and Hispanic men miss more
work days due to injury (Strong & Zimmerman, 2005). These developments
signal a strong need, as discussed in detail below, to reconsider how
educational/development activities can take into account backgrounds of
workers along with information on the severity of workplace hazards to
enhance worker motivation to learn about and avoid such hazards (some of
which may seem quite benign, such as wood dust).
Together, we expect political/economic factors to have meaningful direct
effects on organizational policies and practices in relation to safety and
workplace hazards that are present in these organizations. Furthermore,
while some research has examined direct relationships between political/
economic factors and occupational injury rates (e.g., Loomis et al., 2009),
we view the effect of political/economic factors on safety performance and
safety outcomes such as fatal occupational injuries to be indirect through
the environment (workplace hazards and safety climate) that workers
experience. To date, research has not been directed at addressing expected
cross-level mediated relationships involving factors at the national and
organizational levels of analysis as specied in Fig. 1.
Finally, as indicated in Fig. 1, we expect cultural values to directly affect
leadership in organizations. As noted above, evidence indicates that cultural
values, such as those focused on equality and respect for individual rights,
Workplace Safety: A Multilevel, Interdisciplinary Perspective 13
become personalized in the sense that they remain relatively stable over
time. In addition, Hofstedes cultural dimensions, in particular those
focused on individualism and masculinity, have been shown to have a
greater effect on workers perceptions of the ethicality of actions within
organizations than ethicality as specied in company codes of conduct
(Arnold, Bernardi, Neidermeyer, & Schmee, 2007). As such, we expect
cultural values to affect organizational safety climate indirectly through the
actions of organizational leaders embedded within those nations. We will
comment further on this expectation below.
Organizational/Group-Level Antecedents
2004). Notably, within supply chains, Cantor (2008) discusses how human
resource practices as well as physical resources and production technologies
can enable organizations to better track and monitor activities and promote
a strong safety climate. In an age of global sourcing practices, we note that
the issue of workplace safety in organizational supply chains is an
understudied area, where unsafe practices in one leg of the chain or
organization can have catastrophic adverse consequences in another part of
the supply chain (see Cantor, 2008).
may also have important implications for how workers perceive the safety of
their work environments with respect to their well-being and the well-being
of others.
As an example of how the changing nature of work can potentially affect
safety climate, we will briey discuss a few implications of the massive public
works effort to repair the national highway system in the United States. This
change from a focus on building highways to an emphasis on the repair of
highways has brought with it a new method of repair, which uses large crews
to cut, break-up, and remove large blocks of concrete. This process results in
the generation of large amounts of dust and increased risk of silicosis for
workers (Valiante, Schill, Rosenman, & Socie, 2004). Silicosis is a disabling,
nonreversible lung disease (NIOSH, 2002). Given the context of this work,
the threat is also a public health concern. While health-monitoring processes
such as epidemiological exposure assessments can provide valuable
information related to potential work exposures of this nature (Ott, 1998),
broader safety climate assessments (at either the individual or organiza-
tional level of analysis) have the potential for identifying where more
immediate actions and interventions could be initiated to safeguard various
constituents. This is just one example where improved conceptualizations
and measures of safety climate from a multiple stakeholder perspective may
provide valuable data for understanding safety-related outcomes.
Personality
A substantial amount of empirical evidence exists concerning relationships
among personality characteristics, safety performance, and accident involve-
ment (Christian et al., 2009; Clarke & Roberston, 2008). While many studies
have employed measures of general personality characteristics that could
be classied within the Big 5 framework (e.g., conscientiousness, Geller,
Roberts, & Gilmore, 1996; extraversion, Iverson & Erwin, 1997), research has
also focused on several more specic aspects of personality (i.e., propensity
for risk taking, Frone, 1998; locus of control, Salminen & Klen, 1994).
In terms of safety performance and accident involvement, a number of
studies have examined locus of control as a predictor (e.g., Brown, Wilis, &
Prussia, 2000; Eklof, 2002; Hsu, Lee, Wu, & Takano, 2008; Rundmo, 2001).
Locus of control is the extent to which an individual believes that events are
under his or her control as opposed to being the result of situational factors.
Meta-analytic ndings are consistent with the expectation that individuals
who are higher in terms of internal control are more motivated to learn
about workplace safety, engage in higher levels of both safety participation
and safety compliance, and have fewer accidents (see Christian et al., 2009).
20 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
are more friendly, good natured, and likely to conform to social norms.
These characteristics should lead to higher levels of safety motivation and,
consequently, higher levels of safety participation and safety compliance and
fewer accidents. On the other hand, we do not have a strong basis for
suggesting how openness to experience will affect safety outcomes. Yet, to
the extent that elevated levels of openness to experience and extraversion are
related to thrill seeking or the propensity to take risks (an amalgamation of
Big 5 traits; see Nicholson, Soane, Fenton-OCreevy, & Willman, 2005), we
would expect safety motivation to decrease and consequent unsafe work
behavior to increase. In effect, the thrill seeking would be expected to
undermine the desire or need to engage in safe work behavior.
Education/Development Experiences
Educational and development experiences broadly dened are expected to
lead to both the development of safety motivation and acquisition of safety
knowledge. Formal on-the-job (Baird, Holland, & Deacon, 1999; Seibert,
1999) as well as informal or off-site (Curwick, Reeb-Whitaker, & Connon,
2003; Marsick & Watkins, 1997) educational activities within the safety
domain focus heavily on the development of factual (often referred to as
declarative) knowledge and procedural knowledge and skills related to using
personal protective equipment, engaging in work practices to reduce risk,
communicating health and safety information, and exercising employee
rights and responsibilities. From here onward, we will use the term safety
knowledge interchangeably with the concepts of declarative and proce-
dural knowledge. In addition, educational activities can be directed at the
development of worker attitudes and regulatory activities in efforts to
enhance safety motivation (Ford & Tetrick, 2008). Thus, we would expect
these educational experiences to directly relate to safety motivation.
The primary means for developing safety knowledge is formal training
(Colligan & Cohen, 2004), which is occasionally guided by the application of
a particular learning theory. For instance, the literature is replete with
applications of stage learning theories (e.g., Azizi et al., 2000), rein-
forcement theory (e.g., Cooper, 2009; Lingard & Rowlinson, 1997), and
principles of social and experiential learning theories (e.g., Lueveswanij,
Nittayananta, & Robison, 2000) to safety knowledge development. The later
interventions often employ more hands-on, experiential training methods
such as role-plays, demonstrations with practice, and simulations
involving individuals, dyads, and teams. Along with the use of multiple
training methods in the delivery of training, many of the training programs
based on social and experiential learning theories emphasize individualized
22 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
feedback and dialogue in small groups (e.g., Luskin, Somers, Wooding, &
Levenstein, 1992).
In 2006, Burke et al. reported on a meta-analysis that examined the
relative effectiveness of safety and health training methods according to the
extent to which trainees participated in the learning process. Their meta-
analytic ndings were consistent with the theoretical argument that as the
method of safety and health training becomes more engaging (going from
passive, less engaging methods such as lecture to experiential-based, highly
engaging methods such as hands-on training that incorporate dialogue), the
effect of training is greater for knowledge acquisition, safety performance,
and the reduction of accidents and injuries. Importantly, their ndings point
to needed research on the usefulness of incorporating more active forms of
participation into traditionally structured safety training and development
efforts including the commonly employed computer-based and distance
instructional methods.
Burke et al.s (2006) ndings also suggest that the unbridled promotion of
reinforcement or operant theory as Behavioral Safety be tempered. The
reader is referred to Geller (1996) and McSween (2002) for discussions of
operant theory that underlies moderately engaging feedback interventions.
As discussed elsewhere (Burke et al., 2007; Cooper, 2009), applications of
operant theory are most effective when work is relatively static (i.e., involves
primarily routine actions) and where the intended target behaviors relate to
safety compliance. Also, as discussed by Olson and Winchester (2008), the
workplace literature on behavioral self-monitoring (BSM, another name
associated with applications of operant theory) is theoretically unfocused
and has neglected relevant scholarly work.
A particular deciency in the literature on educational efforts to develop
safety knowledge and safety motivation is that we know little about learning
conditions that promote dialogue and reective thinking. Arguably, dialogue
and reection are critical elements of the learning process and efcacy
formation (Burke, Holman, & Birdi, 2006; Gorsky & Caspi, 2005; Holman,
2000a, 2000b). Dialogue involves discussion with others including virtual
others (interpersonal dialogue) or ones self (intrapersonal dialogue), often
with respect to actions taken or considered. Dialogue is characterized by
thought-provoking activities such as questioning, explaining, and evaluating
issues or problems at hand. Reection is a systematic thought process
concerned with simplifying experience (i.e., thinking about contradictions,
dilemmas, and possibilities). Practitioners and researchers alike could
consider different forms of dialogue (e.g., inquiry, debate, argumentation,
storytelling; see Cullen & Fein, 2005; Gorsky & Caspi, 2005) and different
Workplace Safety: A Multilevel, Interdisciplinary Perspective 23
than those with at least a high school diploma. Notably, these ndings are
maintained when controlling for the type of work and number of hours
worked. These results imply that individual differences such as those
modeled in Fig. 1 might be fruitfully investigated to further explicate the
role of individual differences associated with educational attainment that
are impacting workplace safety for those with more vs. those with less
formal education. Finally, although various approaches have been
considered for imparting work-relevant safety knowledge to high school
students and young workers (e.g., through vocational/technical education,
skill standards, career clusters initiatives, and apprenticeships), we know
very little about how these efforts affect safety performance and safety
outcomes (see Schulte, Stephenson, Okun, Palassis, & Biddle, 2005).
Cognitive Abilities
While general mental ability is well recognized as an antecedent to job
knowledge as specied in Fig. 1 (Colquitt, LePine, & Noe, 2000; Schmidt,
Hunter, & Outerbridge, 1986), the study of cognitive abilities in safety
research has been largely delimited to the role of cognitive abilities in
accidents (e.g., Arthur, Barrett, & Alexander, 1991; Lawton & Parker, 1998;
Wallace & Vodanovich, 2003). Here, research indicates that selective
attention and cognitive failures are meaningful predictors of safety
performance and accident involvement (Wallace & Vodanovich, 2003).
Cognitive failure refers to a breakdown in cognitive functioning, which
results in an error or mistake in task execution.
Cognitive failures have origins in the organization of work (e.g., 12-hour
shifts in units with stafng shortages for nurses; see Smith, Folkard, Tucker, &
Macdonald, 1998), sleep opportunities (Dawson & McCulloch, 2005), and
relatively stable individual differences. In regard to stable individual
differences, some personality characteristics may predispose individuals to
being more susceptible to experiencing cognitive failures than others (Wallace,
Kass, & Stanny, 2002). While research has examined expected interactions
between cognitive failures and conscientiousness on accidents, examination of
how the interactive effect of cognitive failure and personality characteristics
such as conscientiousness operate through safety compliance on safety
outcomes including accidents and near misses has not been made.
In addition, learning disabilities, a general term used to describe a variety
of information-processing problems, would be expected to directly relate to
the acquisition and retention of safety knowledge. Depending on the learning
disability including attention-decit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), pro-
blems may arise with respect to reading, memory, abstract reasoning, and
26 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
Safety Knowledge
Consistent with general models of performance (e.g., Campbell, 1990) and
more specic models of workplace safety (Neal & Grifn, 2004; Christian
et al., 2009), safety knowledge is posited as a direct antecedent to safety
performance. In particular, Burke and Sarpy (2003) discuss how and why
28 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
Safety Motivation
Along with safety knowledge, safety motivation is posited as a direct
antecedent to safety performance. This expectation is consistent with
recognized models of workplace safety (Neal & Grifn, 2004; Christian
et al., 2009). Given that safety participation is characterized as behavior that
is more volitional in nature, researchers have expected safety motivation to
be more strongly related to safety participation than to safety compliance.
Some evidence, where participation motivation was measured, indicates that
motivation is more strongly related to safety participation than to safety
compliance with safety knowledge being the primary determinant of safety
compliance (Grifn & Neal, 2000). Nevertheless, Christian et al.s (2009)
meta-analytic ndings indicate that safety motivation is an important
antecedent of safety performance, where performance was primarily
measured with respect to safety compliance.
As specied in Fig. 1, safety motivation would be expected to mediate the
relationship among psychological work climate, personality, and education/
development variables on safety performance. In regard to climate, this
general expectation has been examined in several studies where climate and
conscientiousness were expected to predict safety motivation, which in turn
was expected to relate to safety performance (Christian et al., 2009; Wallace &
Chen, 2006). Notably, these expected mediated effects were found when safety
motivation was conceptualized and measured in a more general manner (see
Christian et al., 2009) as opposed to a more specic conceptualization and
measurement (see Wallace & Chen, 2006, with respect to regulatory focus
theory), and when climate was conceptualized and measured at the individual
vs. group levels in these respective studies.
For the most part, research attention in the domain of workplace safety
has been directed at how safety motivation and safety knowledge mediate
the effects of personality characteristics and climate variables on safety
performance. This research has not examined mediation involving cognitive
abilities and education/development experiences as exogenous variables.
Research incorporating constructs and measures from the latter domains
would inform the relative causal inuence of distal antecedents of both a
cognitive and affective nature on safety performance. This point is
important as safety motivation would be expected to primarily mediate
the effects of affectively oriented distal antecedents on safety participation;
whereas safety knowledge would be expected to primarily mediate the
effects of more cognitively oriented distal antecedents on safety compliance.
More recent research points to the need to examine safety motivation
in relation to two sometimes-competing performance goals: safety and
30 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
With a few exceptions (e.g., Barling, Loughlin, & Kelloway, 2002), models of
workplace safety conceptualize safety-related behavior as a direct antecedent
of accidents, near misses, injury, and illness (e.g., Neal & Grifn, 2004). Tests
of structural equation models of workplace safety have lent strong support to
the conceptualization of safety behavior as direct antecedents to accidents
and injuries (see Christian et al., 2009; Paul & Maiti, 2007). Our modeling of
workplace injuries, however, considers accidents as partially mediating the
safety performanceinjury relationship. The rationale for the latter expected
partial mediation is that some injuries result from accidents, but many
injuries such as cumulative trauma, musculoskeletal, and knee injuries result
directly from work behavior (e.g., Alnaser, 2007; Brulin et al., 1998; Chen
et al., 2004; Marras, Davis, Kirking, & Bertsche, 1999). That is, different
combinations or repeated exposure to lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling,
and carrying can precede injury in the absence of an accident. This discussion
also suggests that some physical work exposures of either a repetitive
or prolonged nature may interact with worker behavior to produce
occupational injuries and illnesses with delayed onset of symptoms (Cole,
Ibrahim, & Shannon, 2005; Melchior et al., 2005). Furthermore, the indirect
relationship between safety performance and injuries through accidents is
Workplace Safety: A Multilevel, Interdisciplinary Perspective 31
knowledge and safe work behavior, but also the reduction of symptoms
themselves as determined via clinical examinations (e.g., Held, Mygind,
Wolff, Gyntelberg, & Anger, 2002, in the case of occupational contact
dermatitis). Consistent with the above discussion, we believe that future
research directed toward examining a hypothesized interaction between the
level of engagement of these types of behavioral interventions and the
potential severity of exposure (which in the case of many occupational
illnesses and diseases is high) on knowledge acquisition and safety
performance would be informative. Along with engineering solutions,
conrming such an expectation would have important practice implications
related to conducting behavioral interventions to reduce risks associated
with occupational illnesses and diseases.
Unlike other models of workplace safety, we posit that dialogue (of either
intrapersonal or interpersonal nature) and reecting on ones work-related
safety experiences are key elements in learning from these experiences.
As discussed above, reection is a systematic thought process concerned
with simplifying experience as well as a process involving thinking about
contradictions, dilemmas, and possibilities. In particular, intrapersonal and/
or interpersonal dialogue subsequent to the experience of either positive or
negative consequences of safety-related behavior including a near miss is
likely to engender concrete reection in relation to actions taken and the
consequences of those actions. In regard to the severity of injury and illness
that was or could have been experienced as a result of safety-related
behavior, this dialogue would likely focus on the dilemmas faced and
possibilities associated with these critical situations and actions taken.
In considering the situational demands, this reection might also take into
account information on leader behavior and safety climate considerations.
Importantly, dialogue and reection in regard to critical situations,
actions taken, and their consequences would be expected to enhance ones
knowledge and efcacy for handling future events (Burke, 2008). Thus, in
Fig. 1, we propose feedback loops from dialogue and reection to safety
knowledge and safety motivation. Our expectation in regard to self-efcacy
for handling future events of a similar nature is that that self-efcacy
develops, in part, when individuals engage in extensive self-reection on
their experience and the adequacy of their thoughts and actions (Bandura,
1986). In regard to safety knowledge development, our expectation is
34 MICHAEL J. BURKE AND SLOANE M. SIGNAL
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, we integrated research on workplace safety from a variety of
disciplines and elds within business, engineering, psychology, public health,
and medicine to develop a multilevel model of the processes that affect
Workplace Safety: A Multilevel, Interdisciplinary Perspective 35
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EXECUTIVE PAY AND FIRM
PERFORMANCE:
METHODOLOGICAL
CONSIDERATIONS AND
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
ABSTRACT
of the issues and ndings over the past few decades. This will set the stage
for our later discussion of functional forms, empirical problems, and other
issues.
The study of executive compensation goes back at least to Roberts (1956)
and even Bearle and Means (1932). There were also notable papers decades
ago such as Masson (1971), Lewellen and Huntsman (1970), and Coughlin
and Schmidt (1985) among others. Although the eld really took off with
the availability and use of better data (both in terms of quantity and quality)
and Murphys (1985) landmark study.
Murphy (1985) collected data on the compensation and performance of
461 executives at 71 rms over a number of years. But, rather than
estimating simple cross-sectional relationships (which showed no relation-
ship between CEO pay and performance), Murphy (1985) introduced
xed-effects models (described below) and found a strong relationship
between pay and performance. This empirical method was not novel in
economics at the time, but it had not been applied to the CEO pay literature
and was an interesting and important advance for reasons we discuss below.
Murphy (1985), documenting a relationship between pay and performance
also wrote a paper in the Harvard Business Review at the time stating that
CEOs are worth every nickel they can get.
Five years later Jensen and Murphy (1990) wrote an important paper
using rst-difference methods (also described below). In that paper, they
found that for every $1,000 increase in shareholder value (measured as a
change in the market value of equity), CEO pay went up by $3.25. Their
interpretation of this was that, although there was a relationship between
pay and performance, the relationship was rather weak and could be
strengthened. In part, due to Jensen and Murphys work, and due to calls
from practitioners, this leads to the extraordinary rise in the use of stock
and stock options in executive compensation contracts. Options and stock
became much more important components of executive pay packages
starting in the early 1990s.2
Later in the 1990s, Hall and Liebman (1998) asked whether CEOs were
paid like bureaucrats? They collected unique data on stock and stock
options (that were at the time not more formally disclosed) and found
stronger relationships between pay and performance than found by Jensen
and Murphy (1990), on the order of $5.29 for every $1,000 increase in
shareholder wealth. They conclude that while this may still seem like
quite a weak relationship, their work suggests that even small changes in
performance can have very large effects on the lifetime wealth of an
executive.
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 53
More recently, Bebchuk and Fried (2004, 2006) wrote a provocative book
called Pay Without Performance. This book carefully articulates the
difference between the often-discussed arms-length bargaining frame-
work and what they call the managerial power perspective, where, in
essence, boards are captured by CEOs. They discuss many reasons why they
think the system for setting CEO pay needs reform.3
Answering the pay-for-performance debate in executive compensation is
obviously a difcult question. There are many complications. For example,
researchers use different data sources, companies have different compensa-
tion and business strategies (even in the same industry), and there are many
potential factors that are not easily measured by academic researchers.
However, one of the main reasons we think the debate has not yet been
resolved is methodological issues that we explore in the rest of this paper.
But, rst we turn to some practical, institutional issues.
DATA ISSUES
In this section, we will outline several data issues that have confronted
researchers who study executive compensation. This will include a
discussion of the types of compensation data, Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) rules changes on reporting compensation, and specic
ways rms are required to report today. We will also discuss major sources
of data used by practitioners and academics. We will then go on to briey
describe pay levels and pay mix for CEOs across industries and rm sizes
from a set of 2,108 companies.
One of the reasons for the meteoric rise in the number of papers published
on executive compensation is the availability of data. Data on executive pay
have been widely available since 1992, when the SEC through new disclosure
rules required rms to report on top ofcer compensation in a systematic
way. However, the way data were reported was not, until very recently
(a 2006 SEC change that we discuss below), entirely satisfying in terms of
really understanding the way executives were paid at a point in time. For
example, prior to 2006, we may have known an executives salary, bonus,
value of stocks sold, and options exercised in a given year. However, those
options and that stock may have been accumulated over many years so the
54 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
of the time it is granted. Stock options represent the value of the options
granted over the prior year. Stock options pose a unique problem in valuing
executive compensation contracts. The numbers included in rms proxy
statement summary compensation tables are accounting-based numbers
and do not necessarily reect the value of the options at the time of the grant.
Therefore, we recommend and most researchers use the value of stock
options from the stock option grant summary tables, which are also included
in rm proxy statements.4 Finally, other compensation refers to amounts
of perquisites of $10,000 or more or to tax gross-ups, company contributions
for security, private use of aircraft, nancial planning, etc.
Table 1 is an example of a Summary Compensation Table for the General
Electric for 2009. Several features of the table are noteworthy. The table lists
compensation for the CEO, CFO, and ve other executives. As noted above,
rms are required to list the CEO, CFO, and at least three others. One reason
for listing more than ve executives is the fact that some may have retired or
otherwise left the rm during the year. Another (which is not the case
for GE) is the example of co-CEOs. It is also clear from the table that
information is included for each of the last three years. This is the third year
since the new SEC regulations came into place so is, therefore, the rst time
outsiders can see three years of compensation information all in the same
proxy statement. Table 1 also shows the seven different pay components that
are required to be reported for each executive.5 It is also interesting to see
that at GE, the CEO was not the highest paid executive (at least as reported
in the most recent proxy statement). In fact, as reported in Table 1, three
others earned more than the CEO. Hallock and Torok (2010) report that of
2,108 rms they studied, in only 81% CEO was the highest paid executive.
There are many reasons why the CEO may not be the highest paid, including
one-time signing bonus, larger than normal option grants (commonplace
when hiring new executives) or severance, for example. In the case of GE in
Table 1, the CEO received no bonus, option awards, or nonequity incentive
payout. All three executives who were paid more than the CEO had non-zero
values for each of these elements of compensation. Finally, it is interesting to
see, in Table 1, the diversity of compensation across pay elements and to see
the diversity of pay within the top management team.
There are three major commercial data sources on executive pay at the
person- and rm-level that are now relatively widely used. The rst,
Table 1. Proxy Statement for General Electric Company (2008 Summary Compensation Table).
Name and Principal Year Salary1 Bonus Stock Option Nonequity Change in Pension All Other Total
Position ($) ($) Awards2 Awards4 Incentive Plan Value and Compensation6 ($)
56
($) ($) Compensation Nonqualied ($)
($) Deferred
Compensation
Earnings5 ($)
years, as well as prior scal years, in accordance with SFAS 123R. Pursuant to SEC rules, the amounts shown exclude the impact of estimated
forfeitures related to service-based vesting conditions. For RSUs, fair value is calculated using the closing price of GE stock on the date of grant.
As Mr. Wright is eligible for retirement, the fair value of his awards that have been held for more than a year have already been fully expensed.
For additional information, refer to note 23 of the GE nancial statements in the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as led with
the SEC. For information on the valuation assumptions with respect to grants made prior to 2007, refer to the note on Other Stock-Related
Information for the GE nancial statements in the Form 10-K for the respective year-end. Refer to note 3 below for a discussion of the
calculation of the fair value of PSUs. See the Grants of Plan-Based Awards table for information on grants awarded in 2007. These amounts
reect the companys accounting expense, and do not correspond to the actual value that will be realized by the named executives.
3
This amount represents the companys accounting expense for PSUs pursuant to SFAS 123R and SEC rules. It reects the expense for all
previously granted PSUs, not only those granted in 2006 or 2007. The actual value received depends on performance: 50% of the PSUs
converts into GE stock only if GEs cash ow from operating activities, adjusted to exclude the effect of unusual events, has grown an average
of 10% or more per year over the performance period, and 50% converts into GE stock only if GEs total shareowner return meets or exceeds
that of the S&P 500 over the performance period. Accordingly, Mr. Immelt may receive 0%, 50%, or 100% of each PSU grant. For example,
as described in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis on page 17, Mr. Immelt did not earn 50%, or a total of 215,000 shares, from the
PSUs granted to him in September 2003 and February 2006 because the total shareowner return condition was not met. Although the PSUs
not earned by Mr. Immelt were cancelled, the related accounting expense of $4.3 million has been disclosed as compensation to Mr. Immelt
over the performance period. In measuring fair value, SFAS 123R distinguishes between the PSU vesting condition related to the companys
stock price and the nonstock price-related performance condition. The restrictions on the PSUs lapse at the MDCC meeting in February
Executive Pay and Firm Performance
salary plans in effect between 1987 and 2007. See Nonqualied Deferred Compensation beginning on page 29 for additional information.
6
See the All Other Compensation table below for additional information.
58 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
Pay Levels and Pay Mix across Industries and Size Groups in 2009
This section is designed to set the basic context for the kinds of pay levels,
mix (types of pay across different components of compensation), and pay
distributions.7 The data for this section are from salary.com and comprise
2,108 publicly traded rms who reported executive compensation informa-
tion in their proxy statements as of June 2009.
Fig. 1 displays two measures of compensation. The rst is dened as
cash and is the sum of salary, bonus, and nonequity incentive. The second
measure is total compensation. This is dened as the sum of salary, bonus,
nonequity incentive, stock, stock options, change in pension and non-
qualied deferred earnings, and other. Fig. 1 displays the median cash
compensation and total compensation for CEOs by industry for each of 22
different industries. Notice the dramatic heterogeneity in compensation levels
for the median CEO across industries. For example, the median CEO in
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 59
Fig. 1. CEO Compensation by Industry. Source: From Hallock and Torok (2010).
Data from salary.com
60 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
Commercial Banks earned about $581,000 in cash pay and $906,000 in total
compensation. At the other extreme is the Food and Tobacco industry where
the median CEO earned $2.28 million in cash compensation and $5.80
million in total compensation. These statistics alone mask another level of
heterogeneity. Consider, for example, the Food and Tobacco industry
(numbers not reported in tables or gures). There, the CEO at the 10th
percentile earned $575,000 in cash pay and $901,632 in total compensation
but the CEO at the 90th percentile of that industry earned $5.6 million in
cash and $14.9 million in total compensation (Table 2).
It may seem strange that Commercial Banks represent the industry with
the lowest paid median CEO. It must be kept in mind that these numbers
do not control for the size of the organization. In fact, there are a large
number of Commercial Banks in the sample and many of them are quite
small. Organization size (e.g., revenue and employees) is highly positively
correlated with the compensation of the senior leaders. Fig. 2 is a case in
point. In this gure, the 2,108 companies are sorted by their level of annual
revenue. The smallest 10 percent are in decile 1, the next 10 percent in
decile 2, and up to the largest 10 percent in decile 10. It is clear that the
median level of compensation rises monotonically with organization size.
In particular, for the smallest 10 percent of companies (those with annual
revenues below $155 million, the median CEO earned $522,000 in cash pay
and $1.04 million in total compensation. This rises monotonically up to the
largest 10 percent of rms (those with annual revenues above $9.6 billion)
where the median CEO earned $3.03 million in cash compensation and
$11.3 million in total compensation. Again, the median masks the larger
distribution. For example, for the largest 10 percent of companies, the CEO
at the 10th percentile earned $4.2 million in total compensation but the CEO
at the 90th percentile earned $25 million in total compensation.
Understanding the levels of pay for CEOs is interesting and important but
misses a more interesting and important part of executive compensation,
how executives are paid. In particular, we now explore how executives are
paid across the seven components of compensation discussed above. Fig. 3
shows a great deal of heterogeneity across compensation components by
industry. In fact, it is quite reasonable to expect diversity in compensation
mix within industry. Fig. 4 reports the pay mix distribution on rm size
deciles (the same deciles reported in Fig. 2). Notice that as the average rm
gets larger a smaller fraction of the total compensation is paid in salary and
a larger fraction is paid in stock and stock options. For example, for the
smallest 10 percent of companies, the fraction of total compensation paid
in salary is 43.91 percent but for the largest 10 percent of companies, the
Table 2. CEO Compensation by Industry.
N Cash Compensation Total Compensation
10th 25th Mean Median 75th 90th 10th 25th Mean Median 75th 90th
Business services 88 500,000 683,542 1,352,478 1,071,563 1,637,340 2,493,708 686,254 1,199,744 3,438,851 2,232,751 5,430,194 7,282,921
Chemicals 183 463,040 661,770 1,585,984 1,063,750 1,966,500 3,526,250 823,005 1,403,982 4,666,154 2,686,526 6,454,073 11,500,000
Commercial banks 185 332,083 402,500 696,411 581,250 875,000 1,158,041 437,261 580,432 1,762,620 905,673 1,895,970 3,493,447
Commodities 85 678,501 961,299 1,867,734 1,524,583 2,434,725 3,284,000 1,102,336 1,686,500 5,099,530 3,606,402 6,353,118 10,800,000
Communications 78 654,711 780,000 1,585,526 1,137,002 1,732,500 3,577,845 819,035 1,518,311 4,293,980 2,849,066 5,615,136 11,900,000
Computer services 137 370,000 555,024 1,220,244 875,308 1,375,350 2,671,250 589,629 1,132,758 3,285,691 1,939,824 3,845,512 7,676,077
Construction 26 833,750 1,000,000 2,100,333 1,353,457 2,386,318 5,005,000 1,705,216 2,252,217 5,297,176 4,349,201 7,411,561 11,000,000
Electronics 153 395,159 550,000 1,223,686 878,333 1,427,375 2,548,000 638,707 1,256,280 3,277,515 2,307,811 3,979,451 7,614,834
Energy 97 465,500 646,154 1,628,969 1,199,756 2,025,597 4,400,600 838,168 1,292,547 5,011,330 2,761,803 6,986,162 16,200,000
Executive Pay and Firm Performance
Financial services 58 500,000 800,000 1,860,484 1,009,856 2,740,276 4,950,000 840,944 1,254,669 4,619,841 3,416,057 7,606,430 15,100,000
(nonbanks)
Food and tobacco 50 575,000 1,147,342 2,922,108 2,277,237 4,046,612 5,614,329 901,632 2,025,222 6,946,929 5,804,652 9,575,570 14,900,000
Holding companies 109 416,678 652,000 1,222,678 1,000,000 1,590,750 2,330,144 865,876 1,307,296 3,036,322 2,271,405 4,053,217 6,983,402
Industrial and 162 450,000 717,750 1,841,272 1,204,883 2,250,000 4,000,002 769,648 1,399,934 4,999,320 2,959,994 6,875,570 13,000,000
transportation
equipment
Insurance 89 612,435 894,072 1,993,162 1,375,000 2,839,000 4,100,000 941,741 1,830,011 5,683,356 3,269,665 7,325,265 14,900,000
Lumber and paper 40 602,077 788,987 1,373,753 1,124,018 1,692,627 2,691,200 936,277 1,393,705 3,588,637 3,313,487 5,167,598 6,929,589
Other manufacturing 132 479,938 631,222 1,277,607 900,000 1,708,600 2,501,325 803,130 1,169,791 3,831,050 2,346,803 4,958,694 7,682,034
Other services 91 500,000 800,000 1,308,878 1,003,167 1,600,000 2,163,333 836,708 1,192,087 3,530,677 2,459,920 4,387,239 6,765,583
Retail trade 127 437,396 700,000 1,553,112 1,116,926 1,700,000 3,167,087 657,296 1,330,447 4,186,537 2,579,077 5,259,613 9,182,022
Textile and apparel 20 654,647 852,332 1,505,563 1,325,500 2,292,103 3,477,798 984,558 1,450,150 3,268,828 2,053,119 6,072,780 8,106,963
Transportation 59 429,504 640,000 1,516,370 1,040,000 1,800,126 3,600,000 710,625 1,405,963 3,941,940 2,398,471 5,293,130 7,904,901
Utilities 86 548,035 850,962 1,694,643 1,287,665 2,050,000 3,457,587 874,643 1,800,794 4,551,456 3,217,168 6,571,790 10,700,000
Wholesale trade (S) 53 605,000 891,033 1,774,548 1,450,059 2,075,000 2,841,266 1,185,812 1,629,529 3,575,034 2,888,031 4,674,634 6,929,124
Fig. 2. CEO Compensation by Company Size. Source: From Hallock and Torok
(2010). Data from salary.com
In this section, we briey describe some of the institutions that are important
in setting CEO and other senior executive compensation in the United
States. In particular, we briey mention the role of the Board of Directors,
the Compensation Committee of the board, and the role of executive
compensation consultants. We go on to highlight some of what are known as
Executive Pay and Firm Performance
Fig. 3. CEO Compensation Mix by Industry. Source: From Hallock and Torok (2010). Data from salary.com
63
64
Fig. 4. CEO Compensation Mix by Size Group. Source: From Hallock and Torok (2010). Data from salary.com
BETH FLORIN ET AL.
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 65
proxy advisory services, and the roles they play in executive compensation
in the United States today.
Very little academic work formally discusses the role of the Board of
Directors or the Compensation Committee of the Board, even though
these are the organizations that formally set pay of executives in publicly
traded companies.8 The Board is formally responsible for executive
compensation but most boards have a Compensation Committee (a subset
of the board) who set pay of the CEO and his or her top team. Hallock,
Tonello, and Torok (2010) show that the median Boards across 10 deciles
of rm size have between 8 and 12 members. The median compensation of
Board members from the top decile of rms in 2009 was $191,000 (Hallock
et al., 2010).
Formally the Board is required to set compensation of the executive and
expected to be independent. Many Boards hire compensation consultants
to facilitate the development of compensation strategy and bring relevant
data to help frame pay decisions for CEOs and other top managers. These
compensation professionals consider the rms business strategy, compensa-
tion strategy, industry, organization size, composition of pay of like rms,
and make recommendations to the board.
Many in the press, government, and academia (most notably Bebchuk &
Fried, 2006) have been critical of the formal system that exists in the
United States for setting pay for executives. Bebchuk and Fried (2006) argue
that there is no arms-length negotiation between boards and the CEO
over executive contracts. On the other hand, they argue that boards (and
consultants) are captured by CEOs who try to surround themselves with
those who advocate for higher pay or more favorable compensation mix.
To ameliorate this potential conict, some have argued that compensation
consultants to boards should be independent. An example of this is large
multipurpose HR consulting companies that provide executive compensa-
tion consulting services, while at the same time providing others HR and
benets administration and consulting services. Since the revenue to the HR
consulting rm from providing executive compensation consulting services
may be only a small fraction of the total revenue received from that
particular rm, some argue that the executive compensation consultants
may want to give the CEO higher pay in implicit exchange for the large
volume of other services provided to their company.
66 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
Many proxy advisory services have emerged in the past decade including
Risk Metrics (formerly Institutional Shareholder Services), Glass Lewis, and
GovernanceMetrics International. These organizations market and sell their
services to smaller investors, rms, and institutional investors. Among the
services they provide is a type of scorecard by rm for thousands of
publicly traded companies. They might, for example make recommenda-
tions on votes before the company, provide information about directors and
also provide some information about executive compensation.
The kinds of information these organizations provide about executive
compensation is varied but quite limited. For example, in 2008, the typical
Risk Metrics report was on the order of 15 pages, one of which was devoted to
executive compensation. This included a total of three charts showing (1) the
CEOs total compensation relative to a peer group median, (2) salary, bonus,
and nonequity compensation of the CEO relative to the median of a peer
group, and (3) stock and option awards of the CEO relative to a peer group.
A comparable 10-page report from Glass Lewis for the same time period
devoted one page to executive compensation. This included (1) a grade (AF)
and historical compensation score, (2) two charts comparing various
components of compensation with sector groups, and (3) a chart on shareholder
wealth and business performance. GovernanceMetrics International for the
same time period produced a three-page report for each rm that was entirely
devoted to executive compensation. This included some charts on pay levels
plotted against shareholder returns, comparisons to industry, charts on returns
and pay, relative to industry, a chart on pay mix, and a one-page narrative.
While we think these companies provide easily understood summaries to
investors and rms with respect to CEO pay, rm performance, and com-
parison groups, the analysis is extremely simple and largely reports numbers
straight out of individual rm proxy statements (except for some median
comparisons by industry). This serves as an example where the chasm
between academic work on executive compensation and the practical world is
enormous. Almost none of what has been learned in the past decades about
executive compensation, pay, or performance is included in these sources.
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
In this section, we explore two main issues. First, there have been a wide
variety of empirical specications in diverse research on pay and
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 67
performance for CEOs of publicly traded rms. We explore the diverse set
of specication and how one might make different interpretations of results
depending on specication used. Second, we discuss the issue of causality
in empirical research on the payperformance relationship for CEOs.
Our intent is to help consolidate understanding and hopefully help
researchers synthesize the diverse results.
Empirical Specications
One of the difculties in comparing the results of all papers in the executive
pay literature is that very few of them estimate the exact same model. While
there does not appear to be a consensus on the best specication, there are
many commonalities that appear over and over again.
We begin our discussion with how compensation is actually dened. The
most popular denition is to use total compensation (see our discussion
above) as the dependent variable, but many studies also focused on
option (Almazan, Hartzell, & Starks, 2005), bonus (Fattorusso, Skovoroda,
Buck, & Bruce, 2007), or basic cash compensation (Comprix & Muller,
2006). One desirable trend in many papers is the analysis of several models,
dening executive compensation differently each time, and demonstrating
their results are robust to multiple forms of pay. Clearly, it is natural to
expect certain forms of pay to be more strongly related to certain measures
of rm performance than others. For example, it is reasonable to expect that
stock and stock option compensation are more highly correlated with rm
performance than salary.
One important feature of a papers empirical specication is the
functional form chosen to represent key variables. Specically, the natural
log-transformation, which is used to deal with skewed data, is commonly
applied to the dependent and many independent variables. While the
interpretation of coefcients is slightly less straightforward following a log-
transformation, it is especially important for valid statistical inference when
dealing with variables with a very skewed distribution such as compensation
and sales data (Hallock, 1997 provided evidence that the log-transformation
is important in executive compensation settings). Unfortunately, slightly less
than half of the empirical papers we surveyed used the log-transformation
on the dependent variable. This omission has the potential to seriously alter
the magnitude and interpretation of results.
One generally agreed-upon aspect is the need to control for a rms size
when estimating an executives pay. While not unanimous, nearly every study
68 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
we examined controls for size in some way. By far, the two most common
ways to control for rm size were to use a measure of sales (revenue) or assets
held by a rm. Another popular measure is the total number of employees.
These three variables are commonly highly correlated, except in banks and
other nancial institutions, where assets are obviously substantially higher
than sales and employees, relative to many other industries.
When examining the link between pay and performance, a crucial choice
authors must make is how exactly to dene performance. There are a
number of accepted ways this is done, although the most convincing studies
present the results for several different measures (Abowd, 1990). The most
common performance measure is a rms return on assets, followed by the
return on common stock. Other measures include the return on equity,
shareholder wealth, or rm prots. This point will be revisited in more detail
later in this section.
One important factor when looking at the effect of performance on pay,
which only about a third of studies control for, is the variability of
performance. The intuition being that some industries naturally have very
volatile performance indicators, likely weakening the payperformance
(observed) relationship because a high (or low) value may not necessarily
be a signal of the executives ability but rather a random shock. Studies
that control for volatility generally use either the standard deviation
(or variance) of performance (e.g., Garen, 1994) or the cumulative
distribution function (CDF) of performance (e.g., Garvey & Milbourn,
2003; Dee, Lulseged, & Nowlin, 2005). The CDF appears to be the better
option since it is a measure of the entire distribution of performance rather
than just the spread.
One class of variables conspicuously absent from the majority of models
is demographic information about the executive (Kostiuk, 1990; Hallock,
1997; Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2001; Bertrand & Hallock, 2001 are
notable exceptions). Very few studies include standard control variables
such as gender, race, or age. Age and tenure (and their squared terms) seem
particularly important to include in any sort of wage equation (as they are
standard practice dating back to the original Mincerian wage equations).
However, whether due to data constraints or omission, these variables
appear in less than a fth of the empirical studies we examined.
Another important feature of many papers (particularly those without
rm xed-effects) is the inclusion of some measure of corporate governance
(such as Core, Holthausen, & Larcker, 1999; Cornett, Marcus, & Tehranian,
2008). Evidence suggests that the strength of a rms corporate governance
is positively related to the association between pay and performance.
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 69
While not all studies use panel data, and some that do dont take full
advantage of their panels, the papers that fully utilize panel data tend to be
the most convincing works. To begin our brief panel discussion, it seems
that including industry xed-effects are a bare minimum (this is true in
a cross-sectional framework as well). Nearly every paper with rms in
different industries either includes industry indicators or runs separate
regressions for different industries. The most common panel data approach
taken by studies in this literature is a rst-difference approach (Boschen &
Smith, 1995; Anderson & Bizjak, 2003; Becker, 2006 just to name a few),
with relatively few papers using a rm/executive xed-effect strategy
(such as Aggarwal & Samwick, 1999a, 1999b, 2003; Cichello, 2005; Murphy,
1985). In many cases, this is likely due to a lack of data or insufcient
variation within executive pay/performance measures. That said, the papers
that are able to employ a xed-effects/differencing strategy are most likely
to come close to obtaining the best estimates of the true causal effect
of performance on executive pay. We discuss this in more detail below in a
section on causality.
In total, about half of the empirical papers we examined attempt to
fully exploit the panel nature of their data to varying degrees of success.
The rst-difference model was used by about a third of our sample of
empirical studies, with CEO/rm xed-effects used by slightly less than
a fth of papers. A discussion of which of these approaches is more
appropriate (they are equivalent only in the case of two time periods) and is
beyond the scope of our project, and rests on distributional assumptions and
serial correlation of the error term (Table 3).
To give the reader an idea of the relative frequency of the approaches to
estimating executive compensation, we have compiled Table 4, which breaks
down the studies by type of model (xed-effects, rst-difference, etc.) and
whether the log-transformation was applied to the dependent variable.
It should be noted that the 49 studies that appear in the table represent only
a sample of the executive pay literature (we believe a representative sample
of the top research), and there are undoubtedly a number of other papers
that could appear in the table but are not included.
10th 25th Mean Median 75th 90th 10th 25th Mean Median 75th 90th
0o116 326,774 396,000 616,804 521,703 765,290 975,849 449,349 676,779 1,382,037 1,034,623 1,631,245 2,500,199
116o219 330,000 412,961 694,353 560,800 765,164 1,090,000 418,168 621,750 1,465,745 1,043,271 1,501,970 2,906,560
219o360 385,467 500,000 827,883 700,625 967,500 1,418,027 521,101 807,011 1,787,558 1,309,888 2,138,803 3,562,378
360o600 473,525 642,310 1,041,286 897,188 1,090,939 1,690,000 726,737 1,067,464 2,218,387 1,694,451 2,905,494 4,158,242
600o912 530,173 690,000 1,163,253 948,147 1,334,500 1,741,250 854,755 1,484,095 2,729,881 2,118,466 3,234,420 4,677,025
912o1371 638,230 838,235 1,452,193 1,223,614 1,723,000 2,399,341 1,078,276 1,681,375 3,246,883 2,648,624 4,031,500 6,461,061
1371o2209 727,282 1,000,000 1,616,560 1,421,101 1,950,913 2,977,725 1,535,356 2,249,450 4,118,238 3,632,436 5,238,242 7,186,328
2209o3974 800,000 1,031,279 2,037,876 1,703,739 2,440,838 3,750,000 1,567,596 2,664,599 5,434,129 4,662,380 6,702,930 9,479,940
3974o9637 900,000 1,233,333 2,264,928 1,875,000 3,008,750 4,325,333 2,114,767 3,315,934 6,673,713 6,108,194 8,477,317 12,900,000
9637 1,000,000 1,694,000 3,334,802 3,025,857 4,468,336 7,016,500 4,223,182 6,478,689 11,600,000 11,300,000 16,100,000 25,000,000
(2007)
Hambrick and Finkelstein (1995)
Jensen and Murphy (1990)
Lippert and Moore (1994)
Rajgopal, Shevlin, and Zamora
(2006)
These control variables may include measures such as the size of the rm,
the age of the executive, or any other factors that we believe has an impact
on an executives pay. In this case, for us to assign a causal interpretation to
Executive Pay and Firm Performance 73
algebraically identical. In panels with more than two years the two methods
differ, but the statistical assumptions underlying the difference between
these methods is beyond the scope of this chapter (although should be taken
seriously by the researcher). Murphys (1985) classic is the rst example of
this method in the empirical CEO pay literature.
CEO Payt CEO Payt1 bPerformancet Performancet1
(5)
Z t Z t1 d t t1
Instrumental Variables
Empirical Problems
The two methods for establishing causality outlined above are by no means
a panacea and have many problems that must be addressed in practice.
In fact, many researchers use these methods blindly and are lulled into a false
sense of security that all problems have been solved via use of these methods.
Clearly that is not the case. For a rst-difference/xed-effects approach,
having a large dataset is crucial, since multicollinearity is exacerbated in this
setting. In an IV framework, strong instruments are often hard to nd, and
must be rigorously justied in order to be accepted as valid.
When surveying the pay-for-performance, or any empirical literature for
that matter, it is important to keep this causal thought process in mind.
Many studies will come to wildly different conclusions, for a variety of
different reasons, and this line of thinking is key to discerning between the
studies you should believe and those you shouldnt.
Performance Metrics
As one might expect, the link between executive pay and performance
appears to be inuenced somewhat by the performance metric used. For
instance, Abowd (1990) found that the link was much stronger for market
measures than for accounting measures.
Another class of performance metrics deals with the possibility that rms
reward (or punish) their executives based on how the rm performs relative
to other comparable rms in the same industry. The most common way to
test for the presence of relative performance evaluation is simply to control
for the difference between a rms performance measure and the market
average for that same measure. Two of the papers that focus explicitly on
this type of performance metric are Antle and Smith (1986) and Gibbons
and Murphy (1990).
As mentioned earlier, some studies explore the link between pay and
performance using less quantitative and more subjective measures of
performance. Denis, Hanouna, and Sarin (2006) nd a positive link between
allegations of securities fraud and executive stock options. In a similarly
themed paper, Efendi, Srivastava, and Swanson (2007) nd a positive
correlation between misstated nancial statements and executive stock
options which were in the money. Finally, McGuire, Dow, and Argheyd
(2003) nd that executive compensation is unrelated to various measures of
social performance.
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
Generally, very little is known about international issues in compensation
and in executive compensation in particular. Part of the problem with the
study of executive compensation and the pay-for-performance issue across
nations is related to differences in disclosure and, therefore, availability of
data across countries. There are two main issues we discuss here. First is
why there may be differences in compensation across countries. Second, is
the state of the payperformance literature using various within-country
data sources.
Fig. 5. CEO Compensation versus Firm Size across Countries. Source: From
Gabaix and Landier (2008). With permission from MIT Press Journals.
78 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
countries, and vastly different social norms in some countries, this may
prove to be difcult yet interesting work.
rms may put more emphasis on performance measures not easily observable
still holds. Consistent with the non-prot literature, this study nds that
socially responsible rms (as measured by the Domini Social Index) have
a much weaker link between pay and nancial performance, and that option
grants do not appear to induce the same risk-taking behavior in socially
responsible rms that is observed in nonsocially responsible rms.
NOTES
1. See for example Devers, Cannella, Reilly, and Yoder (2007) and Murphy (1999)
for recent reviews.
2. One other reason for the dramatic increase in the use of options could have
been due to the accounting treatment of the options. Until recently, most standard
employee options did not have to count as an expense in the company balance sheet.
3. See Kay and Van Putten (2007) for a rejoinder written by experienced
practitioners in the eld.
4. The subject of how to value stock options for executives and other employees is
an interested issue for debate. We do not focus on it in this paper. The interested
reader can nd discussion of this in Lambert, Larcker, and Verrecchia (1991),
Hall and Murphy (2002), and Hallock and Olson (2010).
5. Recall that for most studies, researchers dont use the stock options data from
this table but use the stock option grants table that appears later in proxy statements.
82 BETH FLORIN ET AL.
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A TIME-BASED PERSPECTIVE
ON EMOTION REGULATION
IN EMOTIONAL-LABOR
PERFORMANCE
ABSTRACT
We extend emotional-labor research by developing a time-based theory
of the effects of emotion regulation in emotional-labor performance.
Drawing on Grosss (1998a) process model, we argue that antecedent-
and response-focused regulatory styles can be used to make differential
predictions about outcomes such as performance, health, and antisocial
behavior and that these effects differ in shorter- and longer-time windows.
We discuss the theoretical implications and address the strengths and
limitations of our approach.
studied under the label of emotional labor (Beal, Trougakos, Weiss, &
Green, 2006). The increasing importance of emotional labor is reected not
only in its presence in todays workplace, but also in the surge of research
interest in understanding its consequences (e.g., Cote & Morgan, 2002;
Grandey, Fisk, & Steiner, 2005). On one hand, researchers have found that
emotional labor not only negatively affects individuals physical and mental
health (e.g., Pugliesi, 1999), but also imposes staggering total societal
costs (e.g., Landy, 1992; Morris & Feldman, 1996). Some research has also
shown occupation-level wage penalties for performing emotional labor,
especially in jobs lower in other forms of cognitive complexity (e.g., Glomb,
Kammeyer-Mueller, & Rotundo, 2004). On the other hand, effective
emotional displays have been often argued to relate positively to individual
and organizational performance (e.g., Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993).
Although the past decade witnessed much progress, the emotional-
labor literature has been beset by conceptual inconsistencies and an
absence of inquiry into the processes underlying the appropriate display
of emotions in business settings. Indeed, the conceptual literature has split
between focusing on the task characteristics that elicit emotional labor
(e.g., Morris & Feldman, 1996) and the appropriate display of emotions
(e.g., Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993), while the empirical literature has
centered around what Beal et al. (2006) referred to as affective delivery or
the maintenance of required emotional displays at work. As those authors
pointed out, a detailed understanding of how employees successfully
regulate their emotional expressions at work seems necessary (p. 1053).
We take steps in this direction in this paper.
In her ambitious essay, Grandey (2000) linked the emotional-labor
literature to more basic psychological theory on emotion regulation or the
ways individuals inuence which emotions they have, when they have
them, and how they experience and express these emotions (Gross, 1999,
p. 557). Regulation strategies can take various forms, but can be broadly
categorized as antecedent focused (regulating the emotion before it is fully
formed) or response focused (regulating the emotion after it is fully formed).
She proposed that emotion-regulation research could serve to guide our
understanding of the regulatory processes underlying emotional-labor
performance. In this paper, we extend her work on emotion regulation in
emotional-labor performance by developing a theory of the differential
effects of emotion-regulation strategies on individual outcomes in work
settings. Our themes are individuals must regulate their emotions when
they are confronted with emotion-labor tasks and required-display rules,
regulatory styles play a role in determining important employee-related
Time and Emotion Regulation 89
change, and suppression in terms of job performance and mental health, and
long-term predictions in terms of job performance, physical health, and
exposure to accidents, abusive situations, and aggression.
Job Performance
In an initial attempt to link emotion-regulation strategies to work-related
outcomes, Grandey (2000) proposed that individuals using antecedent-
focused regulation would perform better in customer-service roles than
those using suppression regulation. She argued that emotional suppression
may relate to observers perceptions that the individual is faking or is
disingenuous. Alternatively, those engaging in attentional deployment or
cognitive change have either reevaluated their emotional state and/or
recall other emotions to get through the moment (Gross, 1998a, 1998b).
Accordingly, observers are less likely to detect their true feelings. On the
surface, these generalizations appear accurate, but a closer examination of
the theoretical foundation of emotion regulation reveals that we can derive
more specic propositions.
First, in the emotional-labor context, the type of emotion regulation may
affect job performance depending on how deeply one interacts with others.
To illustrate, suppression, which requires that an individual inhibits a
generated emotion, may powerfully impact individuals (Gross, 1998a).
In contrast, antecedent-focused regulation is a front-end approach in which
an individual interprets an emotional cue in unemotional terms before it
is fully generated. The process of emotion suppression results in slightly
higher levels of sympathetic activation (Gross & Levenson, 1997) than the
process of emotion regulation through attentional deployment and cognitive
change; the activation difference may mean that the suppressor is more
engaged (e.g., energetic or on edge) in surface-level or shallow interactions
than is the antecedent-focused regulator. Antecedent-focused regulation, by
denition, means that the individual is more detached from the environ-
mental or emotional cue (recall the example of the aria-whistling server),
and observers may perceive them as being less engaged, and hence
performing more poorly. In many occupations rife with emotional labor,
the level of interpersonal interaction with others is often quite shallow
(e.g., a receptionist directing trafc in a busy ofce, or a food-service
employee managing a drive-through window). Because of heightened
physiological activation, these situations provide opportunities for higher
96 MICHELLE K. DUFFY ET AL.
Mental Health
Having an accurate perception of reality is often seen as a hallmark of
mental health and well-being, but considerable evidence has suggested that
individuals may enjoy increased mental health by maintaining positive
illusions (Alloy & Ahrens, 1987; Taylor, 1983). As Taylor and Brown
noted, the happy person appears to have the enviable capacity to distort
reality (1988, p. 204) to enhance their views of control and optimism.
98 MICHELLE K. DUFFY ET AL.
The connections are clear between this literature base and reappraisal as an
emotion-regulation style. In a manner similar to reappraisal, individuals
may protect their well-being by using lters that distort or modify negativity
in the environment. Returning to the whistling-arias anecdote, individuals
who use antecedent-focused (attentional deployment and cognitive change)
emotion-regulation approaches create, in essence, positive illusions
about situations so that they experience the emotion in a direction that
enhances self-esteem, maintains beliefs in personal efcacy, and promotes an
optimistic view of the future (Taylor & Brown, 1988, p. 204). Empirical
evidence has suggested that at least in the short-term, antecedent-focused
(attentional deployment and cognitive change) approaches are effective;
individuals who are asked to reappraise emotions rather than suppress them
tend to report lower subjective levels of that emotion (e.g., Gross, 1998a).
Thus, we suggest the following proposition:
Proposition 4. Antecedent-focused emotion regulation (attentional
deployment and cognitive change) will result in better short-term mental
health than response-focused emotion regulation (suppression).
Job Performance
Several theoretical perspectives posit that the long-term consequences
for job performance will be more severe among those using response-
focused rather than antecedent-focused emotion-regulation strategies.
First, self-discrepancy theory (e.g., Higgins, Klein, & Strauman, 1985) holds
that individuals are motivated to achieve a match between self-concept
and a number of personally relevant self-guides. Mismatches between the
actual-self (the attributes you believe you possess) and the ought-self
(the attributes you believe you should possess) can cause discomfort, guilt,
and the tendency toward self-punishment (Higgins, 1987). Conformance to
scripts can cause employees to deviate from their ought-self to another
socially prescribed actual-self. Following the self-discrepancy model,
individuals often suffer guilt and shame when they transgress or fail to
meet their self-imposed standards. When a salesperson suppresses negative
emotions and pretends to be chipper as if the customer is always right,
negative outcomes may surface. Beyond these outcomes, Higgins (1987)
reviewed a substantial body of evidence that related these forms of self-
discrepancies to irritation, lethargy, and disinterest over time, all factors
Time and Emotion Regulation 99
that should reduce an employees ability to perform well on the job. Possibly
antecedent-focused regulation may also cause emotional laborers to display
diminished performance over time, but following a self-discrepancy
approach, these negative effects on job performance in the long term
should be more pronounced under a suppression regulatory style.
A second theoretical issue concerns enhanced accessibility of emotional
cues over time. Polivy (1998) and others (e.g., Rachman, 1980) argued
that emotions are a cue for appropriate behaviors and that repeated
inhibition or suppression may eventually produce a surge in target thoughts
during the attempted suppression as well as behavioral excess over
time. This effect is particularly plausible for long-term job performance,
because research has demonstrated that the surge in thoughts about the
emotion may increase dramatically after lapses occur in mental control
either voluntarily (a work break, for example) or involuntarily (an acute
increase in cognitive demands). Just as restrained dieters may suddenly lose
control and overindulge, individuals regulating their response-focused
emotion may, over time, lose their strength to suppress emotions and
ultimately become incapable of doing so. Wegner and Schneider (1989)
called this phenomenon the rebound effect. Repeated suppression
attempts and frequent relinquishment of mental control over time should
weaken performance.
Proposition 5. Response-focused emotion regulation (suppression) will
have more severe negative effects on job performance over time than
antecedent-focused emotion regulation (attentional deployment and
cognitive change).
Physical Health
Although emotion regulation in the form of suppression reduces the
intensity of emotional displays, it does not exempt the person from
experiencing the emotion physically and psychologically. Studies have
suggested that suppression increases physiological activation and elevates
indicators such as nger pulse, nger temperature, and skin conductance
(Gross, 1998a; Gross & Levenson, 1997). Although these indicators may not
be hazardous in isolation, the cumulative effects of prolonged sympathetic
activation are related to a number of damaging health problems over
time (Krantz & Manuck, 1984). The physical consequences of emotion
regulation suppression in particular can relate to cardiovascular and
immunological system malfunctioning (Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000). Each
time the stress response is engaged, the immune system may be selectively
100 MICHELLE K. DUFFY ET AL.
In addition, they can redirect their attention from the cue demanding higher
levels of concentration to another task, which consumes cognitive resources
that they could use to process the emotion fully. Both avenues for attentional
deployment may impede the process for detecting and dealing with threat-
relevant cues in the work context (Marx et al., 2005).
Our arguments concerning antecedent-focused regulation and workplace
targeting involve not only the threat-identication arguments above, but also
the idea that attentional deployment and cognitive change can compromise
defense activation or reex systems. The key interference point for defensive
reexes is during the postencounter stage what emotion-regulation
researchers have called the emotion-soliciting situational cue. During this
stage, normal responses would include freezing, focusing attention on the
cue, and considering the potential threat. This stage, which precedes the
more commonly discussed ght-or-ight stage, is critical not only in terms
of evaluating the situational cue but also in handling the situation. Ignoring
situational warnings or reevaluating ones capacity to manage the situation
interferes with, and perhaps disables, this process. In essence, these
antecedent-focused strategies allow an individual to get through the moment
but may inadvertently result in a failure to utilize valuable information
that the task or emotional cue contains. An individual using distraction to
fend off a distressing emotion may be able to function, but may fail to see
potential hazards in the social environment even under the circumstances
in which such arousal might be directly linked to such threat cues (Marx
et al., 2005, p. 81). Although unrelated to interpersonal deviance, research
examining safety at work has linked distraction and proneness to
distractibility as signicant predictors of accidents (e.g., Hansen, 1989).
Likewise, an individual who engages in cognitive change while dealing
with irritating or hostile coworkers or customers may start to believe
that the situation is not so bad or under control, when in reality the
situation should be activating defensive reexes. These individuals,
confronted with signs that others are bullying or aggressive, may ignore
the signals or reevaluate them as harmless. By ignoring their adaptive
emotion-based defenses they may become more vulnerable to future acts of
aggression by coworkers or customers. This risk may be heightened by the
fact that these employees may also present themselves more passively in
social interactions (i.e., they do not feel a need to appear assertive because
they do not perceive danger). Recent research has suggested that individuals
who appear to be more passive and are low in self-determination are more
likely to report being victimized at work (e.g., Aquino, Grover, Bradeld &
Allen, 1999).
102 MICHELLE K. DUFFY ET AL.
The propositions delineated here are clearly testable, although not without
challenges. As noted above, much of the empirical testing of emotion-
regulation theory tenets has been conducted in short-term laboratory
settings where emotion-regulation strategies have been manipulated
experimentally. But the nature of emotion regulation and outcomes such
as performance, physical health, and antisocial behavior lend themselves to
longitudinal or multiwave studies. These work dynamics may play out in
immediate contexts or within certain interactions for example, a customer
directly targeting an employee but in many cases will unfold over time.
One-to-one correspondence will not appear between an employee engaging
in attentional deployment or cognitive change and the outcomes of interest;
rather our thesis suggests that these regulation approaches increase the
likelihood or probability that an individual will experience better or worse
performance, health, and antisocial-behavior-related outcomes over time.
Similarly, even in longer time windows, we would expect that not every
incidence of suppression would result in direct or displaced antisocial
behavior, for example, but that repeated attempts to suppress negative
emotions would increase the likelihood of these outcomes. Gross (2001,
2002) concluded his reviews of emotion-regulation research by suggesting
that researchers explore the potential differential consequences of different
regulatory styles and pursue a research agenda focused on the long-term
consequences of differing emotion regulation strategies (p. 218). The Cote
and Morgan (2002) study represented an initial attempt to study regulation
processes over time, but they used a one-month time lag, which may be
insufcient for differential effects to emerge. On the positive side, several
researchers, including Cote and Morgan (2002) and Grandey et al. (2005),
have developed and usefully employed measures of emotion regulation in
eld settings. Thus, the key challenges to overcome in terms of adequate
tests of our propositions would seem to be designing and executing a study
that would allow these dynamic processes to unfold.
Woven throughout our analysis is the apparent critical need for examining
outcomes of emotion regulation in eld research where dynamics related
to time are in play. As a number of authors (e.g., Goodman, Lawrence,
Ancona, & Tushman, 2001) have pointed out, time has multiple meanings
and can be conceptualized in different ways. In terms of understanding the
temporal dynamics of emotion regulation, the problems are no less complex.
Marks, Mathieu, and Zaccaro (2001), in their theory of time and team
processes, conceptualized team performance episodes as distinguishable
periods of time over which performance accrues and feedback is available
(p. 359). Emotion-regulation episodes could be similarly viewed as the time
Time and Emotion Regulation 107
between the situational cue that initiated the regulation process and the end
of the regulated interaction or, perhaps, at the point when the emotion was
no longer being regulated. In longer-duration and interaction-rich inter-
personal contexts, emotional leakage has more opportunity to emerge
(e.g., Ekman & Friesen, 1969), and observers have more opportunity to
detect whether and how individuals are regulating their emotions. Time in an
emotion-regulation context can also be conceptualized as the mapping
of multiple regulation events in terms of cycles, frequency, and rhythm
(Ancona, Okhuysen, & Perlow, 2001) a conceptualization that Marks et al.
(2001) labeled a recurring phase model of time. It may be possible to capture
this view of time by simply operationalizing it as job tenure. Because our
propositions concerning long-term outcomes implicitly assume greater or
lower likelihood of outcomes over time, it is reasonable to assume that
job tenure moderates these relationships such that the relationships are
stronger when job tenure is high. But, although convenient, job tenure as an
operationalization of recurring phases falls somewhat short of capturing the
full nature of the construct. Marks et al. (2001) pointed out that when time is
conceptualized as a series of episodes, it can be deconstructed into action
antecedent- or response-focused regulating in our case and transition phases.
Across jobs, the frequency and duration of the emotion-regulation episodes
and the length of transition phases may differ markedly. Auto salespersons
may face only one or two daily incidences that require them to regulate
emotions, although, as noted, the incidences may last a relatively long time but
be alleviated by long transition or recovery phases in between. Other
salespersons such as call-center employees may have numerous, short, daily
interactions that require emotion regulation and multiple, short-transition
periods while they wait for their next call. The rhythms of these cycles are
markedly different and likely have different implications for workplace
outcomes, implications that in all likelihood will be masked by simple time
measures such as tenure. Beyond these frequency and duration issues, some
research has also suggested that the content of transition periods also affects
future behaviors. Harinck and De Dreu (2008) found that when they
distracted their experimental participants with another task during a break, the
participants later reached higher-quality negotiated agreements, as compared
with participants who continued to reect on the ongoing negotiations during
the break. Thus multiple periods of distracting transitions may diffuse or
ameliorate the effects of response-focused regulation and aggression.
A third way to view time concerns regulators temporal perceptions,
which can range from perceptions of time passage (e.g., time ying, time
passing, or time dragging; McGrath & Kelly, 1986), but also perceptions
108 MICHELLE K. DUFFY ET AL.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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INSIGHTS FROM VOCATIONAL
AND CAREER DEVELOPMENTAL
THEORIES: THEIR POTENTIAL
CONTRIBUTIONS FOR ADVANCING
THE UNDERSTANDING OF
EMPLOYEE TURNOVER
ABSTRACT
Theories and research on why and how employees sever employment ties
have undergone a renaissance in modern times (Holtom, Mitchell, Lee, &
Eberly, 2008; Hom, 2010). After fallow years during the late 20th century
(OReilly, 1991), turnover scholars began introducing a host of innovative
theories (e.g., Lee & Mitchells, 1994 unfolding model; macro-level
models of aggregate quit rates; Kacmar, Andrews, Rooy, Steilberg, &
Cerrone, 2006) and constructs ( job embeddedness, Mitchell, Holtom,
Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001b; movement capital, Trevor, 2001) as well
as new methodologies (latent growth modeling; Bentein, Vandenberg,
Vandenberghe, & Stinglhamber, 2005) to promote understanding and
prediction of organizational withdrawal. These recent developments are
stimulating considerable rethinking and empirical inquiry (Holtom et al.,
2008; Hom, 2010). Despite such theoretical and methodological advances,
however, there remain major gaps in turnover perspectives and unresolved
questions about certain turnover phenomena.
To illustrate, though it is the most comprehensive formulation about
proximal antecedents and processes leading to turnover thus yet conceived
(Hom, 2010), the unfolding model fails to fully elucidate why various critical
events (shocks) precipitate thoughts of leaving (Lee & Mitchell, 1994).
For example, T. W. Lee, Mitchell, Wise, and Fireman (1996) observed that
some nurses quit when they become pregnant, a shock that sets in motion
preexisting plans to exit for childbearing. They also noted that other nurses
exit because their hospital switched from individualized to team-based
patient care, a negative event violating personal career plans or goals. While
specifying that preexisting plans (to quit) and violations of career plans
mediate shocks impact, this theory nevertheless overlooks why employees
adopt certain plans. Quite likely, employees react to the same critical events
differently (not necessarily leaving) based on their assessment of how such
events affect their personal plans (Sweeny, 2008). Other nurses facing
pregnancies or team-based nursing would not necessarily resign if they
plan to work during motherhood or if this hospital policy ts their
professional image. Consequently, greater clarication of how different
individuals appraise critical events is essential because critical events are
prime movers of nonaffective turnover paths in the unfolding model that
Career Theories and Turnover 117
many if not most leavers follow (Holtom, Mitchell, Lee, & Inderrieden, 2005;
T. H. Lee, Gerhart, Weller, & Trevor, 2008; Mitchell, Holtom, & Lee, 2001a).
Similarly, theoretical accounts of many well-documented withdrawal
phenomena remain unspecied or insufcient. To illustrate, empirical
research has long established that age and rm tenure are inversely
related to quits, such associations becoming styled facts in the turnover
literature (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000; Hom, Roberson, & Ellis, 2008).
While often treated as control variables or proxies for proximal antecedents
(Mitchell et al., 2001b; Mobley, Horner, & Hollingsworth, 1978), these
demographic characteristics deserve greater scholarly attention. After all,
they often forecast attrition more reliably than common explanatory
constructs (e.g., job satisfaction; Griffeth et al., 2000) and may reect more
fundamental but neglected distal causes (e.g., life stages). Further, many
scholars (Judge & Watanabe, 1995) and practitioners (Khatri, Fern, &
Budhwar, 2001) believe that the Hobo syndrome (Ghiselli, 1973; Hulin,
Rosnowski, & Hachiya, 1985; Maertz & Campion, 2004), an individuals
job-hopping history, is a reliable signal of future quits. Though the premise
that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior is deemed a basis
for the hobo syndrome (Griffeth & Hom, 2001), prediction is not, however,
explanation. In short, what explains hobos wanderlust?
To enrich turnover perspectives and clarify certain turnover phenomena,
we draw on theory and research from career and vocational psychology.
Three of the most prominent theories in this discipline are Supers life-span
career development theory, Hollands career model, and social cognitive
career theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). These views have long
dominated research on vocational choice and behavior (Leong & Barak,
2001). Turnover investigators nonetheless have rarely capitalized on
insights and ndings from this longstanding research stream. To address
this oversight, our chapter demonstrates how these vocational models
can further illuminate the reasons and manner by which incumbents vacate
their jobs. Because certain SCCT constructs (e.g., newcomer self-efcacy)
have been investigated by socialization scholars as turnover antecedents, we
further elaborate and rene SCCT theory to extend existing socialization
research on newcomer attrition.
According to Supers (1953, 1990) theory, there are ve life and career
development stages. These ve stages are: (1) Growth stage (birth to 15),
which is concerned with the development of the self-concept and ones
capacity, attitudes, interests, needs as they pertain to performance at school
and at home; (2) Exploration stage (ages 1524), which produces tentative
career/vocational choices and involves career exploration activities including
class selection, work experiences, and hobbies; (3) Establishment stage (ages
2544), which entails entry into the workforce and the start of ones ofcial
career during which initial skill-building and stabilization in ones work
experiences occur; (4) Maintenance stage (ages 4564), which consists of an
adjustment process to advance ones position at work and to nd continuing
satisfaction in work activities that one has mastered at an earlier stage; and
(5) Decline stage (around age 65 onwards), which includes reduced output
and productivity in preparation for retirement. Super later reformulated this
last stage into a more positive Readiness for retirement stage.
Embedded within the major development stages, Super also articulated
certain phases with specic developmental tasks that interact with an
individuals experiences. Because our chapter focuses on turnover, we focus
on phases within career development stages. Within the Exploration stage,
the rst phase involves Crystallization (ages 1418) during which one is
developing and planning a tentative vocational goal. This is followed by
a Specication phase (ages 1821) where one rms up ones vocational goal
and moves on to the Implementation phase (ages 2124), when one seeks
and obtains the requisite education and training for the chosen career or
vocation. The Establishment stage is comprised of two phases. During a
Stabilization phase (ages 2435), individuals begin working and conrming
Career Theories and Turnover 119
Career Constructs
complex. For example, Ito and Brotheridge (2005) examined the impact of
organizational support for career adaptability of employees in the form of
career information, advice, and encouragement. Unexpectedly, they found
that career adaptability was positively associated with both organizational
commitment and intentions to leave, suggesting some unintended con-
sequences for management approaches supporting career adaptability
(p. 5). Apparently, promoting greater career adaptability among employees
can increase their ease of movement (March & Simon, 1958).
We return to describing Supers theory and consider the life career
rainbow. In his later formulations, Super began examining the notion of
career salience or work centrality. He recognized that a career might not be
central to everyone and that its centrality may change over time as other life
roles compete for ones attention and energies. Within this later program
of research, he conceptualized the career rainbow in which an individual
has six life roles: worker, student, citizen, husband/wife, parent, and leisure.
The rainbow concept presumes that work becomes central for people at
the middle stages of life but loses centrality due to competing demands of
family, leisure activities, and so forth. Outside the middle life stages, other
life roles may become more central than work.
ofcial careers) than the typical Exploration stage, whereas others may settle
on a career at a relatively young age. If so, the ACCI would more precisely
diagnose turnover motives of people in the Exploration stage than would
proxies based on job tenure or work history. After all, Supers theory allows
for the possibility of two individuals with the same length of employment
belonging to different career stages.
Among his other conceptions, Supers notion of self-concept implementa-
tion can extend Lee and Mitchells (1994) unfolding model (more fully
described below) by dening the content of matching scripts (preexisting
plans to quit) and internal images (i.e., career plans or goals, which path 2
shocks might violate), increasing its precision for predicting when shocks
evoke various withdrawal paths (shown in Fig. 1). According to Super,
people prefer and choose vocations where they can fulll values embodying
Personal Activates
Quit
Event Matching Script
Unsolicited Job Compare with Current Job Quit for Better Job
Inquiry/Offer May Pursue Other Jobs
the human capital job incumbents possess that enhances job mobility
(Trevor, 2001) to encompass perceived control over ones vocational plans
and self-condence to pursue ones career goals. Although initially dened
in terms of education and occupational skills (Trevor, 2001), movement
capital might also include career adaptability, which enable incumbents
to exit for better career opportunities elsewhere (Ito & Brotheridge,
2005). Additionally, people high in career adaptability may attract more
unsolicited job offers as employers may believe that they can better manage
dynamic and wide-ranging challenges in the hypercompetitive global
marketplace (see Fig. 1).
Further, Supers thoughts about the life career rainbow and how career
or work salience uctuates across life stages can further explicate the
organizational withdrawal process. Multiple competing life roles have rarely
been examined in turnover research (Hom & Griffeth, 1995), though some
authors have alluded to work centrality (Mobley, 1982; Mobley, Griffeth,
Hand, & Meglino, 1979). In particular, the life career rainbow may illuminate
womens higher attrition in female-dominated jobs (e.g., nursing; Hom &
Griffeth, 1991) and male-dominated elds or workplaces (Hom et al., 2008).
Turnover scholars often recognize how womens greater domestic responsi-
bilities (e.g., kinship responsibilities; Price & Mueller, 1981) can impel their
departures but fail to realize that such obligations change across life stages.
When starting new careers in their 20s (Establishment stage), many women
begin bearing children before their biological clock runs out (Booth et al.,
1999). During this period of simultaneous childbearing and career establish-
ment, young women face intense work family conict especially in
professional service rms (e.g., law and accounting rms; Dalton, Hill, &
Ramsay, 1997) and research universities (Fox, 2005) that impose rigorous and
xed up-or-out promotion systems. Turnover experts have noted that such
interrole conict can drive quits (Hom & Kinicki, 2001) but have not formally
recognized how such conict varies across womens life stages, waxing during
Career Establishment (for young mothers beginning careers) and waning
during Career Maintenance (when children have grown up). Indeed, such
implicit static views overstate motherhood as an intrinsic (or deterministic)
explanation of womens higher quit propensity (Fox, 2005). By the same
token, turnover theorists cannot account for why some men take time off
from work or switch to less challenging careers to spend more time with
family or why some leave organizations to have a more balanced investment
of energy across multiple life roles (Hom & Kinicki, 2001; Hulin et al., 1985).
In short, turnover scholars increasingly acknowledge that some leavers exit
the workforce but offer few theoretical explanations for nonemployment
Career Theories and Turnover 127
expression of their true attitudes and values (Weinrach & Srebalus, 1990).
A second premise is that an individuals behavior (e.g., career choice, job
changes) is a product of the interaction of his or her personality and
environment (Weinrach & Srebalus, 1990). The next premise says that
individuals experience reinforcement and satisfaction when environ-
ments they are in match their personalities. Reinforcing situations make
behavior (e.g., attendance) more stable (Spokane et al., 2002). The fourth
premise addresses situations of an environment-personality mismatch.
Mismatches stimulate behavioral change in order to remove incongruence
(i.e., mismatch). In such circumstances, individuals may search for a
different, congruent work environment or adjust their outlook and behavior
to t their current environment (Spokane et al., 2002).
offers (path 3 shocks) impel departures. Using the same running example,
I-oriented business faculty may abandon their academic posts because other
universities recruit them away with the lure of superior opportunities to
fulll I preferences (e.g., supervising PhD candidates rather than teaching
MBA students). In short, alternative jobs represent better matches for their
occupational orientation. Fig. 1 thus shows an inuence of RIASEC
vocational t on employees consideration of alternative job options that
offer better t with occupational preferences.
ON-THE-JOB OFF-THE-JOB
LINKS LINKS
VOCATIONAL
IDENTITY
VOCATIONAL
DIFFERENTIATION
ON-THE-JOB OFF-THE-JOB
SACRIFICE SACRIFICE
embedding their coworkers (Felps et al., 2009), and mediates how high-
commitment human resources management systems affect quit decisions
and rm commitment (Hom et al., 2009).
An obvious point of intersection between Hollands theory and job
embeddedness is the organizational t construct in Mitchell and Lees (2001)
model. Embeddedness theorists describe this construct as a compilation of
various other t constructs considered in previous literature. The broader
nature of their construct is reected in the items used to assess on-the-job t.
Items ask about liking of work group members, similarity to coworkers,
utilization of skills and talents on the job, quality of match with company, t
with company culture, and satisfaction with the level of authority and
responsibility granted (Mitchell et al., 2001b). Though this conceptualization
of t parallels Hollands congruence construct, some elements of congruence
as described by Holland are arguably omitted. Measures about the match
between ones career interests and job, ability to express ones attitudes
and values, and interest level in ones job roles, may be usefully added.
Indeed, other authors have long advocated for more comprehensive
conceptualization and measurement of personenvironment t, arguing that
consideration of individual variability in the types of t people nd most
important can best elucidate how t affects outcomes of interest (Piasentin &
Chapman, 2006). Along with composition of more thorough measures of
organizational t, expansion of the conceptual domain of the organizational
t dimension to encompass vocational congruence is thus a viable direction
for further development of the embeddedness construct. That said, Fig. 2
represents this proposition with a pathway from RIASEC match to
on-the-job t: Greater vocational congruence yields higher on-the-job t.
Also missing from job embeddedness theory and research is consideration
of individual differences that, given equal levels of links and sacrices,
may lead to the same level of t being unequally embedding for different
individuals. We contend that in this regard, Hollands differentiation
construct can make a theoretical contribution to job embeddedness theory.
As we discussed above, persons with low differentiation of interests are
more willing to adapt to situations of low organizational t. Adaptable
individuals whose vocational interests are exible may ultimately experience
a high overall level of embeddedness despite an initial experience of low
organizational t. Over time, these individuals may adjust things about
themselves or their environment so as to attain higher on-the-job t. For
example, Vandenberg and Nelson (1999) suggest that certain organizational
cultures may be amenable to employees taking action to eliminate a source
of discomfort, such as asking to be transferred to a different supervisor.
140 PETER W. HOM ET AL.
Later, Lent et al. (1994) expanded Hackett and Betzs (1981) theory to
fully incorporate Banduras (1991) other constructs and introduced three
interrelated SCCT models corresponding to three career development
stages: (1) formation of career interests; (2) academic and vocational
choices; and (3) performance and persistence in educational and occupa-
tional pursuits. Though domain content varies across stages, all models
share Banduras (1991) core constructs: self-efcacy, outcome expectations
(anticipated behavioral outcomes), outcome values, and goals. Specically,
each model posits that anticipated outcomes of behavior, such as tangible
rewards and self-evaluative outcomes (e.g., anticipated self-satisfaction)
shape interests and goal-directed behaviors. Each model further presumes
that self-efcacy is a more potent behavioral determinant than are outcome
expectations (Bandura, 1997). People refrain from performing an act if they
doubt that they can enact it even when they expect rewards from its
enactment (Lent et al., 1994). Conversely, a strong sense of personal efcacy
can motivate individuals to perform behaviors even if they are uncertain
about the prospects of earning rewards. Indeed, a resilient sense of personal
efcacy is most crucial for tackling difcult behaviors because the road
to success is usually strewn with countless impediments (Bandura, 1997,
p. 126). Moreover, each SCCT model positions self-efcacy as the prime
behavioral cause when the quality of performance guarantees particular
outcomes (Lent et al., 1994, p. 84). For such actions, self-efcacy directly
shapes expected outcomes because people perceiving that they can perform
these behaviors know they will likely attain behavioral outcomes. Finally,
self-efcacy beliefs can affect outcome values. For example, students who
feel inefcacious about their academic abilities devalue academic accom-
plishments. We next describe how the SCCT perspective explains the three
key phases of career development.
Vocational Interests
To model how career interests arise, Lent and colleagues (1994) postulate
that children and adolescents begin developing a sense of efcacy about
certain career-relevant activities from doing them and observing others do
them. Through experience or vicarious learning, they also learn to expect
certain outcomes from such activities. More formally, Lent et al.s interest
model submits that self-efcacy perceptions and outcome expectations
(especially anticipated self-satisfaction from meeting internal performance
Career Theories and Turnover 143
Vocational Choice
The second SCCT model by Lent and colleagues (1994) addresses
development of career choices and entry once career interests are formed.
Analogous to their interest model, they theorize that self-efcacy (about
ones success in a career rather than a particular activity), outcome
expectations (about rewards available from a career), and goals (career
decision) shape choice actions, such as actions to implement the career
choice. Thus, individuals who feel condent about succeeding in a particular
career, anticipate desirable career rewards, and have strong (preexisting)
interests in activities associated with this career will form a goal (career
choice) to pursue a particular career direction (choosing a vocation or
declaring a college major). Strong intentions translate into actual career
actions, such as enrolling in a training program, selecting an academic
major, or applying for a job in the occupational eld.
Vocational Implementation
For the career implementation stage, Lent et al.s (1994) third SCCT model
seeks to explain career accomplishments (e.g., course grades) and persistence
(e.g., stability of academic major). According to this model, individuals who
believe that they can effectively perform a career-relevant task and expect
rewards from successful performance would set more challenging perfor-
mance goals. To illustrate, engineering students who feel condent that they
can achieve high grades in engineering courses and who expect rewarding
144 PETER W. HOM ET AL.
outcomes (e.g., more job opportunities) from stellar grades will establish
high GPA goals. Higher goals then promote greater task performance as
hard goals induce more effort and persistence. Finally, this model postulates
that ability and past performance affect task performance directly as well
as indirectly via self-efcacy and outcome expectations. Sustaining the
three SCCT models, an early meta-analysis by Lent and colleagues (1994)
documented that self-efcacy and outcome expectations positively and
moderately correlate with vocational interests, choice, and performance.
Later research also corroborated these models (Betz & Hackett, 2006),
establishing their validity for predicting academic interests and choice goals
(Lent, Lopez, Lopez, & Sheu, 2008) as well as academic performance and
persistence (Brown et al., 2008).
Though SCCT theorists primarily strive to explain students vocational
and academic choices, performance, and persistence, their viewpoints can
also help account for their workplace behaviors once they completed
occupational training. After all, Lent et al. (1994) proposed that an SCCT
perspective can apply across the career life span and elucidate various
kinds of work adjustment (subsequent to schooling), such as occupational
satisfaction and career change. Given its validity for predicting student
attrition from academic elds of study (Harvey & McMurray, 1994), we
extend SCCT theory to deepen insight into why new employees leave
workplaces. Our theoretical extension thus echoes Banduras (1997) assertion
that the sense of efcacy that newcomers bring and further develop during
the course of their occupational training at the beginning stage of their
careers contributes to the success of [the] socialization process (p. 446).
In the section below, we adapt Lent et al.s (1994) SCCT perspective
especially their performance model to advance understanding of the
termination process among the most exit-prone segment of the workforce:
newcomers (Hom et al., 2008).
Hom et al., 1998; Wanous, 1992). After all, coping represents a persons
constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specic
external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding
the persons resources (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, &
Gruen, 1986, p. 993). We draw from Lazarus and Folkmans (1984)
framework about how people cope with stress to adapt Lent et al.s (1994)
constructs to the domain of coping. Our SCCT model of coping thus
asserts that newcomers condence in surmounting assimilation obstacles
(coping self-efcacy), their expectations about outcomes derived from
meeting these demands (coping outcome expectations), and the goals they
set to meet such demands (coping goals) promote their adaptation to
unfamiliar work settings.
We also strengthen the explanatory power of Lent et al.s (1994) model by
conceptualizing SCCT constructs in terms of well-established socialization
concepts. In particular, our SCCT formulation species coping goals for the
key socialization tasks that many scholars have identied (Feldman, 1976).
Thus, we maintain that newcomers would form separate coping goals to
become effective performers and socially integrated within work groups
(Chan & Schmitt, 2000; Feldman, 1976; Kammeyer-Meuller & Wanberg,
2003). Similarly, our model species how different socialization tactics
(Jones, 1986) can furnish the bases for developing (coping) self-efcacy,
noting how these tactics embody the diverse self-efcacy underpinnings
(e.g., vicarious learning) noted by Bandura (1997) and SCCT theories.
From theory and research on coping with workplace stress (Latack,
Kinicki, & Prussia, 1995), our reformulated SCCT model subsumes coping
strategies to represent how newcomers can manage assimilation difculties.
For instance, new hires might become more procient in satisfying work
role requirements by changing work methods or soliciting advice from
others (Feldman & Brett, 1983; Latack, 1986; Latack et al., 1995). Our
SCCT coping perspective also recognizes that newcomers must regulate
emotional distress because coping thinkers hold that coping success
entails both effective stress management and problem-solving (Bandura,
1997; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Sweeney, 2008). By modeling stress
management, we also acknowledge longstanding observations that new-
comers feel reality shock upon learning that the job does not live up to
expectations and anxiety when they enter novel workplaces (Hom et al.,
1998; Kramer, 1974; Meglino, DeNisi, Youngblood, & Williams, 1988;
Wanous, 1992). As a result, our theoretical approach asserts that entry
shock can invoke dysfunctional thoughts and emotions among newcomers,
which can derail their adjustment.
Career Theories and Turnover 147
Transition to New
Primary Appraisal
Workplace Perceived Threat or Emotional States
Encounter Opportunity Shock-Driven
Anxiety Arousal
Unexpected Conditions Secondary Appraisal Turnover Path
Stress Reactions
Reality Shock Can I Cope?
Face Uncertainty
coping strategies according to the two functions that they fulll: problem
and stress management. In support, Folkman et al. (1986) noted that a
multitude of distinct coping strategies (e.g., seeking social support, positive
reappraisal) people use to handle stressful encounters in their day-to-day
lives either serve to regulate stressful emotions or modify stressors (or both).
Likewise, Latack (1986) and Latack et al. (1995) interpreted employees
various ways for coping with job stress as embodying a proactive strategy to
resolve problems or a means to manage emotional reactions. Further,
Feldman and Brett (1983) observed that beginning employees cope with new
transitions by changing the environment (e.g., work longer hours, redene
the job, get others to provide help, seek social support) or recalibrating
affective responses to the environment (e.g., overindulge in alcohol, repress
awareness of stress).
Drawing from Lazarus and Folkman (1984) and Bandura (1997), our
theory thus classies coping strategies according to problem management
(actions to handle socialization demands, such as working long hours;
Feldman & Brett, 1983; Morrison, 2002) or stress management (blocking
out dysfunctional thoughts and emotions; Bandura, 1997). These coping
strategies are deployed to achieve specic coping goals and thereby
constitute the means by which newcomers address socialization challenges.
To meet the task-mastery coping goal, new hires might redene tasks and
seek task advice from established incumbents (problem management) as
well as participate in cognitive reappraisal or constructive self-talk (stress
management; Manz & Neck, 1999) when facing frustrations or setbacks
(Bandura, 1997).
Stereotype Threat
Our SCCT viewpoint highlights how minorities and women entering
nontraditional vocational elds or workplaces may appraise threats posed
by role transitions differently or more severely than do white men.
Specically, they are prone to stereotype threat (Roberson & Kulik,
2007), feeling anxiety about conrming negative stereotypes about their
Career Theories and Turnover 155
CONCLUDING REMARKS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank Neal Schmitt for his assistance in providing a review of our earlier
drafts.
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HOW DID YOU FIGURE THAT OUT?
EMPLOYEE LEARNING DURING
SOCIALIZATION
ABSTRACT
this process for the benet of both individual and organization (Cable &
Parsons, 2001).
During the development of socialization research, scholars have scruti-
nized the experiences of new employees as a means to gain new insights into
this process. Some researchers have looked at the inuence of newcomer
proactivity (Chan & Schmitt, 2000; Kammeyer-Mueller & Wanberg, 2003),
control (Ashforth & Saks, 2000), and involvement (Bauer & Green, 1994)
during the socialization experience, while others have examined the role
of information and feedback seeking during these experiences (Bauer &
Green, 1998; Morrison, 1993a, 1993b; Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992, 1993).
Recent reviews (e.g. Ashforth, Sluss, & Harrison, 2007; Bauer et al., 1998)
and meta-analyses (Bauer, Bodner, Erdogan, Truxillo, & Tucker, 2007; Saks,
Uggerslev, & Fassina, 2007) attest to the developed nature of this research
area. However, while the study of socialization is vigorously active, one key
area of the socialization process has yet to receive much scholarly scrutiny:
the learning process that occurs during socialization.
The role of learning in socialization has been evident from the beginning,
because it is implied that employees must be learning as they see the
organizational world and begin to inculcate and understand its traditions
(Van Maanen & Schein, 1979). Stage models addressed learning tangentially
by identifying what an employee could expect to learn at any given time in
the socialization process; with all of it culminating in an employee becoming
not only fully capable of carrying out the duties and functions of the job, but
also being enmeshed in the culture of the organization (cf., Schein, 1978).
The research that has examined portions of the learning process during the
socialization experience has focused on information acquisition (Ostroff &
Kozlowski, 1993), sources of information (Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992),
content of information (Burke & Bolf, 1986), and some of the factors that
can enhance or inhibit employee learning (Morrison & Brantner, 1992).
However, none of this has addressed the entire process through which
employees learn. Individual learning occurs when people make changes in
their mental associations and their behavior based on information gathered
from personal experiences (Ormand, 1999). The process through which
employees make sense of their surroundings likely has a signicant impact
upon how fully enmeshed in an organization an employee becomes through
socialization. From social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) we know that
employees make sense of their roles in an organization by learning from
the situation, the individuals around them, and the formal organizational
practices. As employees try to understand and adjust to a work situation,
they will engage in different learning processes (e.g., Visser, 2007).
170 JARON HARVEY ET AL.
two. In the next section, we focus on research about the role of information
and feedback seeking during the socialization experience.
While little research has been conducted about the role of the actual learning
process in socialization, a good deal of research has been done that is related
to the learning process. The topics of information seeking and feedback
seeking (e.g., Ashford & Black, 1996; Kim, Cable, & Kim, 2005) have
been at the center of several investigations of the socialization process (cf.,
De Vos, Buyens, & Shalk, 2003; Kim et al., 2005; Morrison & Brantner,
1992). These studies are important in understanding the learning process,
which underlies socialization experiences, because they focus on one of
the fundamental element of learning: information. Information is what
individuals gather from their experiences, which then shape thoughts and
behaviors (Ormand, 1999). While none of these studies has focused on the
cognitive processes of learning, they have concentrated on various aspects of
information, such as sources of information, the acquisition of information,
and the context around individuals providing information (e.g., Burke &
Bolf, 1986; Morrison & Brantner, 1992; Godshalk & Sosik, 2003). The
ndings of these studies suggest how important information is to the
socialization experience.
Prior socialization research on information and feedback seeking has
focused on studying these variables in the context of new hires (e.g., De Vos
et al., 2003). Some of this work has concentrated on specic populations of
new hires, like trainees (Fedor, Rensvold, & Adams, 1992) and other work
has examined the mentorprotege relationship (Godshalk & Sosik, 2003).
Most of these studies have looked at the role of information, either the
seeking of it or the type of information, and its relationship with various
socialization outcomes (e.g., De Vos et al., 2003; Fedor et al., 1992;
Godshalk & Sosik, 2003). Because information plays a critical role in the
learning process, without it individuals would not have a reason to change
their behavior (Ormand, 1999), it is only natural that it plays an important
role in socialization research. In a general sense, during a socialization
experience, information aids workers in understanding what they should do
to fulll their role and be successful in their circumstances. Information also
reduces an individuals level of uncertainty about what types of behaviors
are appropriate in his or her new setting (Ashford & Black, 1996).
Socialization and Learning 175
know what socialization is, and the key role that information plays during
employee socialization experiences (i.e., the more information an employee
has the better his or her socialization experience). In the next section, we
discuss boundary crossings and the role they play in socialization experiences.
We suggest that crossing boundaries will have two outcomes for workers:
rst, it will inuence their motivation to learn and second, it will place them
in contact with new sources of information. To gain a better understanding
of boundary crossings, and the effects of these crossings we turn to
uncertainty reduction theory (Berger, 1979) and SIP theory (Salanik &
Pfeffer, 1978). Prior work in the socialization literature has used uncertainty
reduction theory to explain the behaviors of employees during socializa-
tion (e.g., Kramer, 1994; Lester, 1987; Mignery, Rubin, & Gorden, 1995),
because it focuses on the reaction of individuals when they experience
uncertainty, and it suggests what individuals will do to reduce their
uncertainty. We also turn to the SIP theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) to
determine how the work environment around employees is important during
the socialization process. SIP theory holds that coworkers, other indivi-
duals, and the workplace surrounding employees provides critical informa-
tion for employees as they work to make sense of their situation (Jex & Britt,
2008; Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978). Drawing from these two theories, we can
further understand the role of learning in the socialization process.
Motivation to Learn
Returning to boundary crossings, we know that each boundary-crossing
experience creates uncertainty for the employee. We suggest that this desire
to reduce uncertainty will increase workers motivation to learn. Motivation
to learn is a desire to engage in training, learn job-related content, and take
part in development activities (e.g., Carlson, Bozeman, Kacmar, Wright, &
McMahan, 2000). Prior work links motivation to learn with certain
individual characteristics (Major, Turner, & Fletcher, 2006), but we also
182 JARON HARVEY ET AL.
Information
The reduction of uncertainty is one of the primary reasons that individuals
seek information during the socialization process (Miller & Jablin, 1991). As
employees strive to become insiders in the organization by reducing the level
of uncertainty they feel about their position and the organization, SIP theory
suggests they feel they will seek to gain information from the environment
around them (Zalesny & Ford, 1990). To nd this information workers will
be able to turn to the new supervisors, coworkers, mentors, and written
documents (Miller & Jablin, 1991; Morrison, 1993b; Ostroff & Kozlowski,
1993) that surround this new position. For example, employees who are
engaged in an institutionalized socialization experience can turn to other
coworkers and ask questions that are relevant and important to gaining
information about their job, work role, or other related content. Mentors can
also be a critical component of the socialization process because they are
an important source of information for employees during socialization
experiences (cf. Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992).
However, some employees may not always ask others when acquiring
information, because they worry about how this might look to their
supervisor or colleagues (Morrison, 1993b). Instead, they may simply
observe the individuals, and strive to glean relevant information from the
actions of these persons (Morrison, 1993a; Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1993), or
turn to the written documents that are relevant to their position (Miller &
Jablin, 1991). The sources of information available to a worker may be
determined by the tactics the organization uses while socializing the worker.
If an organization uses individual tactics and separates the employee from
his or her coworkers (Cable & Parsons, 2001) he or she will not be able to
use those coworkers as sources of information. Therefore, while boundary
crossings will generally provide new sources of information to employees,
the socialization tactics used by an organization may also inuence the
number of sources available. For this reason, we suggest that future work
differentiate between sources of information.
Socialization and Learning 183
Tenure
One important factor that will inuence the socialization process over the
career of an employee is tenure, both tenure in the organization and tenure
in a position. Uncertainty reduction theory suggests that time is important
to reduce the anxiety that people feel because of uncertainty (Berger, 1979).
Over the course of time, individuals are able to gain knowledge about
behaviors, which helps to reduce uncertainty (Berger & Calabrese, 1975).
If an individual remains in a single organization for an extended period, his
or her motivation to learn is likely to decrease because he or she will have a
base of knowledge about how things work, which will reduce uncertainty
when crossing boundaries in that organization. Indeed, the more familiar
184 JARON HARVEY ET AL.
individuals are with situations and the people around them the less
uncertainty they will feel (Berger, 1979). As employees spend more time in
an organization, or more importantly a single position, their familiarity with
both the duties of the job and other employees increases. This results in a
reduced level of uncertainty, and we suggest that consequently the employee
will have less motivation to learn.
While tenure may diminish employees motivation to learn, it could
increase the number of sources from which employees can get information.
The more interactions people have and the more knowledge they
gain, the more they will be able to reduce their uncertainty (Berger &
Calabrese, 1975). The longer employees stay in a single organization, the
greater the number of colleagues they will have and the more interactions
they will have had with these individuals. Employees will have more time to
observe, try new behaviors, and learn about the organizational policies
and procedures. The greater a workers familiarity with these sources, the
less likely he or she is to experience uncertainty when faced with boundary
crossings. We expect that tenure in an organization will positively inuence
the number of information sources to which workers have access, which will
be helpful to employees when crossing boundaries during a socialization
experience; therefore we offer the following guideline for future research.
Guideline 5. Future socialization research should seek to account for
tenure interactions when employees are changing to new positions within
the same organization.
As workers seek to gain insider status, they must learn how to behave in
their new workplace. Learning is the permanent change that occurs in an
individuals cognitive associations or personal behaviors due to the
experiences he or she has (Ormand, 1999). The behavior of workers in
organizations is a function of employees cognitive processes and the
environment around them (Davis & Luthans, 1980). The interaction between
workers cognitions and the situation around them, learning, is what shapes
how they behave in the workplace. To better understand the learning process
that employees experience during socialization we turn to social learning
theory (Bandura, 1977) to help us grasp how the learning process functions
in organizational settings. Social learning theory is a behavioral theory that
explains how individuals learn in organizations. It incorporates some of
the principles of operant conditioning (Skinner, 1969), along with the social
Socialization and Learning 185
Planned Learning
Planned learning occurs when organizations create and maintain a system,
routine, procedure, or structure with the specic purpose of inducing
organizational members to learn (Schon, 1971, 1975). Planned learning is
the type of learning that organizations rely on to create better employees.
When an individual enters an organization, there are certain processes
and rituals that he or she experiences. Many individuals spend their rst
few hours as newcomers in an organization, reading forms and lling out
required paperwork. There may be hours or days of specied training about
Socialization and Learning 187
how their job is properly preformed. The processes of orientation and other
forms of training are part of a broader effort to inuence and teach
employees what it takes to become an insider in the organization (Van
Maanen & Schein, 1979). By utilizing these types of systems organizations
require employees to engage in planned learning.
The most important element of planned learning is that it inuences
employee behavior (Visser, 2007). The incorporation of planned learning
leads employees to alter their behavior in some way to better fulll job
roles or t into a work group. Planned learning is most likely to occur
when organizations take an institutionalized approach to socialization. For
example, both sequential and xed tactics of socialization can facilitate to
planned learning. Employees are given explicit information about the
activities they will participate in when sequential tactics are employed and
xed tactics provide precise information about what will occur during each
stage of the socialization process (Ashforth & Saks, 1996; Van Maanen &
Schein, 1979). Additionally, planned learning is the ideal way for gaining
referent information. This is because referent information lends itself to
communication through an established routine or system that helps workers
to know explicitly what is expected of them in their jobs. Other implications
for the use of planned learning during a socialization experience are that an
organization can adjust and adapt the socialization process based on the
outcomes, such as employee role mastery, to obtain the desired results.
Planned learning has the potential to induce meta-learning among employees
because of the creation and maintenance of learning systems (Visser, 2007).
Because of this, planned learning is a critical component for organizations
that desire to inuence employees during the socialization process and we
suggest the following:
Guideline 6. Researchers should theorize about the circumstances under
which planned learning will be most effective during the socialization
process. In contemplating these circumstances, they should focus on the
desired outcomes of the socialization process.
Meta-Learning
The next mode of learning that underlies socialization experiences is meta-
learning. When a specic course of action fails to produce the desired
results, individuals will try to learn what went wrong. This discrepancy,
between the desired and actual results, is where the learning process begins
(Visser, 2007). The process of meta-learning occurs when an individual
begins to process the inconsistency between expectations and actual
188 JARON HARVEY ET AL.
Deutero-Learning
The context that surrounds an employee provides a wealth of information
for employees as they attempt to learn about their job and place in the
organization. Deutero-learning draws information from context-specic
events and nonverbal cues (Visser, 2007). At an unconscious level,
individuals are constantly learning and absorbing knowledge about the
organization, acceptable forms of behavior, expectations, requirements,
and other nuances of organizational life. Deutero-learning is based on two
main principles: all systems are capable of adaptation, in which learning is
inherent, and learning occurs through an interaction (Bateson, 1963, 1972).
First, all systems are capable of adaptation that requires learning. All
systems, be they biological, social, ecological, or organizational, change over
time. This change occurs as the system adapts to the existing environment.
Inherent in this adaptation is learning about what works and what does
190 JARON HARVEY ET AL.
not; with those who learn and adapt continuing their existence. The second
principle of deutero-learning is that learning occurs through an interaction.
Individuals do not learn in isolation, there must be an interaction with
something or someone in order for learning to occur (Bateson, 1972; Visser,
2007). Employees learn by witnessing or experiencing event A in the context
of X. The interaction of A and X creates information, which then facilitates
learning. The results of this learning will be extended to similar situations
where it will be maintained, or altered depending on the results of the new
interaction and the patterns of behavior that develop from it (Bateson, 1972).
Three main factors characterize deutero-learning. First, it is a continuous
process of behavioral communication that is mostly unconscious (Haley,
1963; Watzlawick, Bavelas, & Jackson, 1967) and can be both outward
and incidental in nature. Interactions occur continuously as individuals are
around one another and communicate with each other. Simple messages
provide learning experiences by creating the context of a situation and
through the elicitation of a response and nonverbal cues. We sometimes
know that we are learning and at other times we do not know we are
learning. The second feature of deutero-learning is that it cannot be overtly
controlled. Attempts to control a deutero-learning situation create a new
learning process, because attempts to control result in a new context, which
then creates a new interaction and from this interaction employees are able to
extract new information (Visser, 2007). The nal characteristic of deutero-
learning is that it does not always lead to the improvement in the individual
or organization; individuals sometimes learn counterproductive behaviors.
While this type of learning can certainly occur in a fashion that leads to the
betterment of the individual or the organization, research has indicated that
certain types of situations may result in negative outcomes for both the
individual and the organization (Bateson, 1972; Dopson & Neumann, 1998;
Haley, 1963; Smith, 1976; Watzlawick, Bavelas, & Jackson, 1967).
Because deutero-learning is constantly occurring, it is inevitable that
workers having a socialization experience will engage in this learning
process. For example, in the socialization setting, workers may be told
that certain procedures are important; however, the tone, expression, and
posture of the person communicating this message may convey that this
procedure is actually unimportant. Individuals responsible for the socializa-
tion of employees may unconsciously or consciously communicate nonverbal
messages that contradict the verbal message being communicated. For
employees who are socialized through serial tactics, which provide an
experienced organizational member as a role model (Cable & Parsons, 2001),
deutero-learning helps them to process this experience by using information
Socialization and Learning 191
from both their experience and the context of the situation. Additionally,
relational information, which aids individuals in knowing where they stand
in their relationships with other individuals (Miller & Jablin, 1991), is most
likely to be acquired through deutero-learning. The workers relationship
status will most likely be communicated through subtle tones, posture, and
expressions of those they interact with; which will provide information for
individuals to process through deutero-learning.
Deutero-learning may also be particularly important for individuals
who are worried about appearing incompetent because they ask too many
questions (Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992) or for socialization experiences that
occur later in careers. Employees who are promoted, returning from an
international assignment, or adapting to a change in leadership may rely on
deutero-learning to glean important details about how they can become
organizational insiders once again. Because this type of learning is not
always a conscious effort on the part of the learner (Bateson, 1972), it is
likely to continue throughout individuals careers as they experience various
boundary crossings and move closer to being insiders. In many cases,
deutero-learning helps employees to read the information between the lines
as an organizational insider should, and for this reason we suggest the
following guideline:
jobs, and employees must cope with these changes the best they can. In
addition to the outside pressures, inuencing workers, there are personal
choices that alter career paths and create new and different situations in
organizational life. Employees may apply for promotions, be transferred to
different positions, experience leadership changes, or switch organizations
all together. As individuals work through these different changes and
adjust to new roles, jobs, and coworkers they continue to have socializa-
tion experiences. This happens because they are making every effort to
become, or regain their status as, organizational insiders. In this paper,
we have sought to understand how the learning process, which underlies
socialization works.
According to Fig. 1, there are several important elements to learning
during the socialization experience. We can see that workers in an
organization experience boundary crossings, or changes in their job, role,
or people around them. Boundary crossings, which result in increases to
employees uncertainty and anxiety, then increase employees motivation to
learn. Additionally, boundary crossing also inuences both the sources and
types of information to which workers have access. However, tenure in a
certain position or with the organization is likely to lower employees moti-
vation to learn, because the more familiar individuals are with the people
around them and their situation the less uncertain they will feel because of it
(Berger & Calabrese, 1975). For this reason, the longer an individual is
tenured in an organization the less uncertainty he or she will face when
crossing boundaries. On the other hand, tenure in an organization, and the
associated familiarity with other employees and the processes and practices
of the organization, will increase the number of sources from which workers
can acquire information. The increased motivation to learn, that results from
boundary crossings, drives workers to engage in learning, and the newly
acquired sources that provide a variety of information types, all of which
feed into the planned, meta-, and deutero- modes of learning. The processing
of information through these three modes of learning is the nal step in the
learning process, and leads employees to change what they think and how
they behave.
In taking a long-term view of the socialization process, we suggest that
individuals will have multiple socialization experiences, and a learning
view of socialization is applicable to an entire career rather than for
organizational entry only. The most common focus of socialization
research is the point of organizational entry when a newcomer enters
and adjusts to an organization (Ashforth et al., 2007; Louis, 1980). This
creates a constricted focus on a very limited period of time and a very
select group of individuals. Ashforth et al. (2007) called this narrow focus
into question when they asked researchers to challenge some of the
traditional assumptions of socialization research. There appears to be a
need to expand the time period surrounding socialization research, so as to
recognize different times in an employees career and the inuences of
different groups of employees. Using a learning perspective, we contend
that socialization has an overlooked temporal aspect. Individuals will
learn throughout their careers, and socialization experiences can occur at
different times during the course of a career; for instance they may happen
after promotions, transfers, and organizational changes. Thus, the
socialization experience does not occur a single point in time, but rather
the multiple boundary crossings that occur during the course of an
individuals career create many opportunities for this experience. These
crossings trigger the learning process so employees can regain their insider
status. When this happens, employees are motivated to learn and they
begin to draw from all their sources of information to learn what it is that
they need to do next.
lead to the changes in thoughts and behaviors that indicate that learning has
occurred (Ormand, 1999). This paper, and the uncovering of the learning
processes that occur during socialization, suggests a series of important
directions for future research.
The rst direction is in clearly linking socialization tactics to different
types of information and modes of learning. As we have suggested, different
types of tactics and approaches to socialization lend themselves to providing
different types of information and engaging different modes of learning.
Some tactics are more likely to be linked with certain types of information.
Employees in organizations that have an individualized approach to
socialization, which separates employees from each other (Cable & Parsons,
2001), are less likely to receive relational information (Miller & Jablin, 1991)
about their relationships with other employees and the organization. When
considering modes of learning, an institutionalized approach to socialization
(Jones, 1986) is likely to have a stronger association with planned learning
than it is with meta-learning. Future research should seek to explore these
relationships to help organizations understand what types of information
workers will receive, and how their employees will learn from different
socialization tactics.
Second, by extending the temporal window of the socialization process
to include the span of an entire career and focusing instead on boundary
crossings, we can see how individuals will have multiple socialization
experiences within a single organization. During an individuals career span,
individuals will experience myriad socialization events and may be more
susceptible to different learning modes during these multiple socialization
events. The way individuals learn during these socialization experiences also
has important implications for understanding why certain outcomes occur.
The model we propose integrates learning types into the socialization
process, and we posit there are several outcomes of the socialization process
are the result of these learning processes. With each boundary crossing
employees are motivated to learn, acquire different types of information
from sources, and learn from that the way they need to behave so they can
reestablish themselves as insiders.
Third, in future work researchers need to address issues of measurement
for these different modes of learning. For both planned and meta-learning,
prior work that has focused on role ambiguity (e.g., Gruman et al., 2006;
Holder, 1996) may be particularly helpful. Because reducing role ambiguity
is an important outcome during socialization, and socialization programs
are designed to reduce ambiguity, this may provide a starting point for
scholars. In developing measures of planned and meta-learning researchers
Socialization and Learning 195
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COMPARING APPLES AND
ORANGES: TOWARD A TYPOLOGY
FOR ASSESSING E-LEARNING
EFFECTIVENESS
ABSTRACT
E-LEARNING DEFINITION
have been Clark (1983) and Kozma (1991). Clark (1983) argued that any
medium, appropriately applied, can be used to provide quality instruction,
while Kozma (1991) argued that media attributes alone inuence learning,
and the effectiveness of a medium to provide quality instruction depends on
how much of the learners cognitive work is performed by the medium. Two
recent meta-analyses (Bernard et al., 2004; Sitzmann, Kraiger, Stewart &
Wisher, 2006) conrmed Clarks position by showing that the instructional
methods built into the program tend to take precedence over the technology
used to deliver instruction. Bernard et al. (2004) found that there were
instances in which a distance learning group outperformed the traditional
classroom instruction group, whereas in other instances the opposite
occurred. The authors concluded that it is the instructional methods, such as
the feedback provided and the degree of learner engagement, independent of
the medium, that determine learning effectiveness. Consistent with this,
Sitzmann et al.s (2006) ndings indicated that web-based instruction and
classroom instruction were equally effective for teaching declarative
knowledge when the same instructional methods (e.g., the same level of
interaction with the learner and the same level of learner control) were used.
Consistent with the dominant position in the distance education literature
(Anderson & Elloumi, 2004; Carter, 1996; Jonassen et al., 1994), we argue
that both technological features and instructional methods shape the
learning experience. Further, these two factors combine with characteristics
of the instructor and other learners in the program to create different
learning experiences for learners. These learning experiences vary in the
nature of the learning interactions that occur, including interactions between
the learner and instructor, the learner and other learners, and the learner
and instructional material. Our focus on learning interactions is based on
both general and distance learning theories that predict that effective
learning is facilitated by learning interactions. Next, we review these theories
that provide the foundation for our typology.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL TYPOLOGY
OF LEARNING INTERACTIONS
Based on the theories reviewed in the previous section, we argue that
the range of different e-learning programs used in organizations create
signicant variation in the types of learning interactions they produce
Comparing Apples and Oranges 211
Degree of Interaction
This dimension describes the extent to which a learner has control over the
interactions available in the e-learning program, such that the learner is able
to tailor the instruction to his or her individual needs. E-learning programs
in which the sequencing of the content is structured in advance (e.g.,
traditional lecture via videoconferencing) are situated at the lower end of
this dimension. At the higher end of the learner control dimension are
e-learning programs that allow learners to assess their own learning needs
and adjust the program accordingly (e.g., web-based training providing
hyperlinks to different knowledge sources).
In the existing literature, learner control most typically refers to control
of interaction with the instructional material (e.g., DeRouin et al., 2005).
In this regard, several types of learner control and their impact on learning
effectiveness have been discussed, including learner control of sequence,
pacing, content, context, method of presentation, task difculty, and
incentives (DeRouin et al., 2005). However, we propose that it is also
important to consider learner control of interactions with the instructor and
other learners. This is consistent with the broad denition of learner control
provided in the literature as any instructional strategy in which learners
assume some form of control (DeRouin et al., 2005). For example, Wydra
(1980) dened learner control as a mode of instruction in which one or
more key instructional decisions are delegated to the learner (p. 3). Reeves
(1993) dened learner control as the degree to which an individual is given
control over various instructional features during a lesson or training
program. New forms of technologies allow learners to control interactions
with the instructor and other learners. For example, learner control of
interactions with the instructor is high when the e-learning course provides
the opportunity to chat with a content expert whenever the learner desires.
This exibility allows the type (i.e., instructor versus other learners) and
amount of interaction to be tailored to meet learners needs (Keller, 1983;
Milheim & Martin, 1991).
Several different theoretical perspectives have been used to explain the
positive impact of learner control on learning effectiveness (Milheim &
Martin, 1991). From a motivational perspective, learner control should
inuence motivation to learn, which has been shown to increase learning
effectiveness (Klein et al., 2006). This occurs through several mechanisms
(Milheim & Martin, 1991). First, learners needs are more likely to be
satised when training is made more relevant to a learner by providing the
learner with greater control. Second, consistent with adult learning theory
Comparing Apples and Oranges 213
that e-learning consisting of static text will transmit fewer cues to aid
understanding of learning than e-learning programs in which multimedia is
used to create a richer learning experience.
Based on the construct of media richness, Kirkman and Mathieu
(2005) dened a new construct: informational value. They argued that
media richness was dened as a characteristic of the information carrying
capacity of the communication media; however, the construct of richness
also applies to other types of information exchange, beyond direct
communications between one individual and another. For example, an
individual might post a presentation or engineering drawing to a website to
be viewed by others. Informational value is a more general term that applies
to all types of information exchanges, not just direct communications
between individuals. Therefore, in an e-learning context, informational
value is relevant to learning interactions involving direct communication
with an instructor and other learners as well as the presentation of
information to learners via the instructional material. This is consistent with
our denition of e-learning as the use of both the information and
communication technologies to deliver instruction to learners.
Kirkman and Mathieus (2005) construct of informational value focused
on the media used for communication and information exchange. In an
e-learning context, we view informational value as a characteristic of
the interaction that is shaped, not only by the media characteristics but
also by the extent to which that media is used by instructors and other
learners to provide cues that enhance learning. For example, an interaction
in which the instructor uses a richer communication media in a way that is
very expressive and provides a lot of nonverbal cues will create an
interaction of higher informational value than one in which an instructor
uses the same media with a lower level of expressiveness. We discuss this
idea further in a later section in which we discuss the antecedents of
informational value. Based on the theoretical perspectives above, interac-
tions that are higher in informational value should facilitate greater
understanding on the part of the learner, and therefore enhance learning
effectiveness.
Taken together, the three learning interaction dimensions we have dened
form a typology for distinguishing between different e-learning programs.
The typology has important theoretical implications for research that
(1) compares the effectiveness of different e-learning, blended learning, and
classroom instruction and (2) identies factors that inuence e-learning
effectiveness. We discuss these two theoretical implications in the sections
that follow.
Comparing Apples and Oranges 215
in which students were allowed to control the sequencing of content and the
presentation format. Zhang found the highest level of student satisfaction
and performance in the e-learning condition with learner control. In
contrast, Tutty and Klein (2008) found that students who were paired in
learning dyads performed better for an individual learning assignment
in the face-to-face condition compared to a computer-mediated program.
Using follow-up surveys of the students and observation, the research team
explained this result by the fact that students in the face-to-face condition
had higher levels of interaction (degree of interaction) and also were able to
use nonverbal and contextual cues to more effectively share information
with their partners (informational value).
The research ndings above demonstrate the importance of clearly
isolating where the learning programs that are being compared fall along
the dimensions of our typology. The importance of this approach is also
illustrated by considering research that has compared blended learning with
classroom instruction (for a review, see Klein et al., 2006). Researchers have
explained their ndings that blended learning is more effective by pointing to
the fact that blended learning incorporates the advantages of both classroom
and e-learning (Klein et al., 2006; Sitzmann et al., 2006). For example,
according to Sitzmann et al. (2006), The instructional advantage of blended
learning may be due to incorporating the benets of personal interaction
typically found in CI [classroom instruction] and self study between
instructional meetings using the Web (p. 646). These benets of blended
learning can be more precisely understood by comparing blended learning
to classroom instruction using our typology. On the one hand, because
blended learning programs involve some classroom instruction, they have
the potential to provide a high level of interaction and informational value
of learning interactions compared to pure e-learning. On the other hand, the
e-learning component frequently allows the learner more control over the
pace and depth of learning than traditional classroom learning. As a next
step, researchers could use our typology to more precisely identify the types
of blended learning programs that are most effective. This is important
because within the continuum of blended learning, many different
combinations of classroom instruction and e-learning are possible.
A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
FOR E-LEARNING RESEARCH
inuence e-learning effectiveness (see Fig. 1). In this framework, the learning
interaction dimensions of the typology are central mediating mechanisms
that explain the relationship between characteristics of an e-learning
program and learning effectiveness. This theoretical framework facilitates
research related to factors that inuence e-learning effectiveness in four
categories: e-learning program characteristics, learner characteristics,
contextual factors, and learning goals. Next, we describe each component
of this framework and its relationship to the dimensions of our typology.
We also develop propositions to guide e-learning research related to each
component of the framework.
other learners have more collaborative learning styles and greater technical
expertise, they will tend to seek out more interactions with a learner,
resulting in a higher degree of learnerlearner interaction.
Proposition 1. The degree of interaction in an e-learning program is
inuenced by characteristics of the instructional design (e.g., learning
model, including requirements for interaction and number of partici-
pants), characteristics of the technology (e.g., time dependency and
perceived ease of use), and characteristics of the instructor (e.g.,
personality, teaching style) and other learners (e.g., cognitive style and
technical expertise).
Instructor and Other Learners. The control that learners have over
interactions with the instructor, the other learners, and the instructional
material will also be determined by characteristics of the instructor and
other learners. First, as argued by Anderson and Elloumi (2004), instructors
differ in their teaching style and skills for responding to diverse learner
needs. Even given the constraints of the programs instructional design,
instructors vary in the extent to which they take a more instructor-led versus
student-led approach to instruction. In a more instructor-led approach, an
active instructor teaches a passive learner and decides where to build in
opportunities for interaction with others. In addition, the instructor
determines the pace, sequence, and methods of instruction (Anderson &
Elloumi, 2004). This kind of learning reects the goals of the instructor and
ignores the learners needs (Moore, 1973). In contrast, learner control of the
Comparing Apples and Oranges 223
different learning interactions will increase when the instructor, within the
constraints of the programs design, takes a learner-centered (i.e.,
supporting individualized learning activities), community-centered (i.e.,
encouraging collaborative and individual interactions in many formats), and
content-centered (i.e., providing direct access to vast libraries of content)
approach (Anderson & Elloumi, 2004; Whipp & Chiarelli, 2004).
Learner characteristics that will have an impact on the extent to which
learners can control their interactions with each other are cognitive style
and expertise in using e-learning technologies. A learners control over
interactions with other learners requires that these other learners be willing
to engage in interactions that suit the learners needs. As discussed above,
we expect cognitive styles that relate to preference for learning collabora-
tively with others and expertise in using e-learning technologies to have a
positive effect on willingness to engage in learning interactions. Thus, when
other learners in an e-learning program have these characteristics, this
should result in a learner having more control over interactions with these
learners.
Proposition 2. Learner control of the interactions in an e-learning
program is inuenced by characteristics of the instructional design (e.g.,
learning model and accessibility of the instructor and other learners),
characteristics of the technology (e.g., linearity and time dependency), and
characteristics of the instructor (e.g., teaching style) and other learners
(e.g., cognitive style and technical expertise).
Learner Characteristics
A good match between the characteristics of the learner and the learning
interaction opportunities offered by the e-learning program will enhance
learning effectiveness, both directly and through motivation to learn
(Colquitt, LePine, & Noe, 2000). Motivation to learn describes a learners
desire to learn the content of the training program and has been shown to
inuence learning effectiveness (Colquitt et al., 2000). Motivation to learn
may be particularly important for e-learning because compared to more
traditional classroom instruction, e-learning requires learners to take greater
responsibility for their own learning. Further, since many e-learning programs
are completed over a longer period of time, there is a greater need for learners
to demonstrate persistence to complete an e-learning program.
With regard to the direct inuence, learners whose characteristics make
them more able to cope with demands of the e-learning environment will
perform better in that environment. Also, such learners tend to spend more
time in the e-learning program, which allows for greater exploration of the
program content and more comprehensive practice, leading to greater
learning effectiveness (Brown, 2001; Wang & Newlin, 2000). With regard to
the inuence through motivation to learn, several theoretical perspectives
suggest that a match between individual characteristics and the e-learning
program characteristics will inuence motivation to learn (for a review, see
Colquitt et al., 2000). For example, social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986)
proposes that ones believe about ones ability to execute a task will increase
motivation to perform that task. Learners whose characteristics are better
matched to the program will be more condent of their ability to learn
using the e-learning program, and hence more motivated to learn. Similarly,
based on the technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989), a match in learner
characteristics is likely to inuence perceived ease of use of the e-learning
program, which according to this perspective, will inuence motivation to
use the program.
In their review of distance learning research, Salas et al. (2002) noted that
there is a growing body of research to show that individual characteristics
predict distance learning outcomes. However, they cautioned that although
some individual characteristics will be important for all distance learning
environments, research has yet to identify the learner characteristics that
are important in specic DL [distance learning] environments (p. 145).
We agree that a shortcoming of most of the existing research in this area is
that researchers fail to specify the type of e-learning for which a particular
individual characteristic will be most important. Categorizing an e-learning
Comparing Apples and Oranges 227
styles proposes that people differ in the cognitive mechanisms they use to
organize and govern tasks. Externals prefer to work through problems
together with others and prefer approaches, such as group brainstorming,
where solutions evolve through collaborative problem solving (cf. Workman,
Kahnweiler, & Bommer, 2003). In contrast, Sternberg dened an internal
thinking style that describes people who prefer working alone. Internals nd
it disruptive to their concentration to interact with others while problem
solving or analyzing information. Given their preference for joint problem
solving and collaborative information processing, externals are likely to
learn less effectively in a learning environment with fewer opportunities for
interaction with others (i.e., low degree of interaction).
Research related to learning styles has also identied cognitive style
dimensions that encompass preference for collaborative learning methods
(for reviews, see Riding & Cheema, 1991; Smith et al., 2003). For example,
the Wholist cognitive style dimension identied by Riding and Cheema
(1991) describes learners who prefer to learn in groups and to interact
frequently with other learners, as well as the instructor, as opposed to
learners who respond better to more independent and more individualized
approaches. Underlying this cognitive style is a tendency to be sociable and
socially dependent. Related to this, Salas et al. (2002) suggested that
researchers should strive to better understand how differences in social needs
of learners affect learning effectiveness in a distance learning environment.
Personality researchers have identied a number of individual differences
related to individuals need for social interaction, for example, Cheek and
Buss (1981) sociability and Hills (1987) interpersonal orientation. In
summary, we argue that learners who have a greater desire for interaction
with others during the learning process will benet more from programs that
have a high degree of learnerinstructor and learnerlearner interactions.
Contextual Factors
Since most e-learning research has taken place in educational, rather than
workplace settings (DeRouin et al., 2005), contextual factors related to
e-learning have received relatively little research attention. Yet, the limited
research in this area (e.g., Klein et al., 2006), as well as the practitioner
literature (Frankola, 2001; Hequet & Johnson, 2003; Moshinskie, 2001;
American Society for Training and Development/The Masie Center, 2001),
suggests that contextual factors can have a signicant impact on whether
learners engage in and complete e-learning programs. In Fig. 1, we include
contextual factors as important moderators of the relationships between the
typology dimensions and learning effectiveness. We argue that learning
effectiveness will be enhanced when characteristics of the learning context
align with the learning interaction characteristics of the e-learning program.
Our argument for this relationship is based on a similar rationale to that
presented for the moderating role of learner characteristics. First, contextual
factors can act as enablers or present barriers to engage in e-learning (Klein
et al., 2006; Martins & Kellermanns, 2004). In addition, the alignment of
contextual factors with learning interaction characteristics can inuence
learning effectiveness through motivation to learn. First, such an alignment
can inuence learners perception of how easy it is to engage in e-learning.
As discussed above, this perception has been linked theoretically to
motivation to learn (e.g., social cognitive theory, Bandura, 1986; technology
acceptance model, Davis, 1989; and expectancy theory, Vroom, 1964).
Second, this alignment can also increase motivation to learn by inuencing
perceptions of the utility of participating in e-learning. For example,
expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) suggests that when employees perceive
that there are benets associated with participating in e-learning, their
motivation to engage in e-learning will increase.
Traditional training research has focused on contextual factors such
as climate for transfer and opportunity to perform (Colquitt et al., 2000;
232 N. SHARON HILL AND KAREN WOUTERS
Noe, 2005) that inuence learning outcomes. These factors will also be
important in an e-learning environment; however, as with our discussion of
learner characteristics, we focus here on contextual factors that are likely to
be particularly germane to e-learning. Two contextual factors that we
propose will interact with all the typology dimensions to inuence learning
effectiveness is the extent to which a learner has easy access to appropriate
technology tools and technology support. E-learning programs that offer
more interactivity, greater learner control, and increased informational
value will typically require the use of technologies with more complex
technical requirements. Hence, it is important for learners to have access to
appropriate technologies and adequate support in using those technologies.
Access to the technology required to effectively use an e-learning program
and availability of technical support are related to a learners use of the
system (Martins & Kellermanns, 2004). In addition, as noted above, the
extent to which learners have the opportunity to engage in e-learning
without distractions will inuence the extent to which a high degree of
interaction, high learner control, and high-informational value translates
into learning effectiveness.
DeRouin, Fritzsche, and Salas (2004) reviewed several contextual factors,
based on theories of motivation, which are relevant for increasing a learners
willingness to engage with an e-learning program. These include supervisors
expressing condence in learners, providing them with encouragement
and valued rewards for participation in e-learning, working with learners
to set difcult but attainable goals for learner performance as a result of
participating in an e-learning program, and monitoring learner progress
against those goals.
Based on the arguments above, we propose that it is possible to
differentiate different work contexts in terms of their climate for e-learning.
We dene climate for e-learning as learners shared perceptions about
characteristics of the work environment that facilitate e-learning in general,
regardless of the type of e-learning program. Our denition is based on the
denition of climate in the organizational literature. Climate has been dened
as employees shared perception of the events, practices, and procedures as
well as the kind of behaviors that get rewarded, supported, and expected in
a particular organization (Schneider, 1990). The relationship between climate
and behavior has been demonstrated at different levels of analysis for
different elements of the work setting (e.g., Colquitt, Noe, & Jackson, 2002;
Hofmann, Morgeson, & Gerras, 2003; Simons & Roberson, 2003).
It is possible to conceptualize and measure climate for e-learning at
multiple levels of analysis. For example, organizations with strong climates
Comparing Apples and Oranges 233
Learning Goals
etc. Second, more complex learning goals may require higher interactivity
with the instructor and fellow learners in order to exchange information and
ask for feedback (Garrison, 1993; Lowe & Holton, 2005). Finally, the
informational value provided in the interactions is important if more
advanced knowledge and skills are the target. Learners need to acquire
coherent mental models and situational awareness to reach this target,
and this can be facilitated by providing multiple data and contextual cues
(Bell & Kozlowski, 2006).
We believe that our typology is a useful way to integrate existing research
related to matching learning goals to the e-learning experience provided to
the learner. To extend this research, researchers should examine the relative
importance of each learning interaction dimension to different levels of
learning goals. This will allow e-learning program designers to make trade-
offs in the design process. For example, given a more complex learning goal,
is it best to allocate resources to providing greater levels of learner control or
increasing the informational value of the program? We believe that these are
important questions to address in future research in this area.
CONCLUSION
E-learning holds much promise for helping organizations meet their future
training demands. However, to realize its full potential, there needs to be a
clearer understanding of how different e-learning program congurations
inuence learning outcomes. To this end, Smith and Dillon (1999) noted the
importance of clearly articulating the dimensions along which e-learning
programs differ. In response to this, we developed a typology based on
general theories of learning that compares e-learning programs according
to the nature of the learning interactions they provide for learners. The three
dimensions of the typology that describe important characteristics of the
learning interaction dimensions are degree of interaction, learner control
of interactions, and informational value of interactions. These dimensions
apply to interactions that occur between the learner and instructor, other
learners, and instructional material.
We highlighted several important theoretical contributions of the typology.
First, we discussed how the typology can be used in research to compare the
effectiveness of different e-learning, blended learning, and classroom
Comparing Apples and Oranges 237
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
243
244 ABOUT THE AUTHORS
the exchanges that occur when employees go the extra mile for their
employers.
N. Sharon Hill is an assistant professor at The George Washington
University School of Business. She received her Ph.D. in organizational
behavior and human resources from University of Maryland, College Park.
Dr. Hills research interests include technology-mediated work arrange-
ments (e-learning and virtual teams) and organizational change. These
interests are motivated by her extensive corporate work experience prior to
obtaining her Ph.D. Dr. Hill has presented her research at national and
international conferences. Her work has appeared in Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes and the Journal of Applied
Behavioral Science, and has been recognized as a Best Paper by the
Academy of Management Organizational Development and Change
Division.