Jeffrey Edwards

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | UNC · Organizational Behavior, Kenan-Flagler Business School

This essay concerns the extent to which quantitative research (QR) in management and organizational studies is divorced from ethics, as alleged in a recent JBE editorial by Zyphur and Pierides (2017). After carefully examining the criticisms set forth by Zyphur and Pierides and the merits of the alternative they propose, I conclude that the problem...

Consumers have described retargeted ads as "creepy," possibly because these ads cue consumers that marketers are collecting personal data. Participants (N = 280) were either exposed to an ad that was targeted to past online behaviors or a general product ad. Behavioral targeting had a positive direct effect on purchase intent, but it also set off a...

Background As lower-income countries look to develop a mature healthcare workforce and to improve quality and reduce costs, they are increasingly turning to quality improvement (QI), a widely-used strategy in higher-income countries. Although QI is an effective strategy for promoting evidence-based practices, QI interventions often fail to deliver...

Research in behavioral operations management and related areas relies heavily on self‐report measures. The utility of such measures depends on the extent to which the responses are valid, meaning they correspond to the thoughts and beliefs of respondents with regard to the phenomena under study. Response validity is undermined when respondents are...

Purpose This article contains a commentary on the article by Aguinis, Martin, Gomez-Mejia, O’Boyle and Joo published in this same issue. Design/methodology/approach Google Scholar tells us that over a quarter of a million studies examine the relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance. Aguinis et al. (2018) take much of that work...

The study of congruence is central to organizational research. Congruence refers to the fit, match, similarity, or agreement between two constructs and is typically framed as a predictor of outcomes relevant to individuals and organizations. Previous studies often operationalized congruence as the algebraic, absolute, or squared difference between...

Partial least squares (PLS) path modeling is increasingly being promoted as a technique of choice for various analysis scenarios, despite the serious shortcomings of the method. The current lack of methodological justification for PLS prompted the editors of this journal to declare that research using this technique is likely to be deck-rejected (G...

We clarify differences among moderation, partial mediation, and full mediation and identify methodological problems related to moderation and mediation from a review of articles in Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science published from 2005 to 2014. Regarding moderation, we discuss measurement error, range restriction, and unequal sam...

Statistical control is widely used in correlational studies with the intent of providing more accurate estimates of relationships among variables, more conservative tests of hypotheses, or ruling out alternative explanations for empirical findings. However, the use of control variables can produce uninterpretable parameter estimates, erroneous infe...

Statistical control is widely used in correlational studies with the intent of providing more accurate estimates of relationships among variables, more conservative tests of hypotheses, or ruling out alternative explanations for empirical findings. However, the use of control variables can produce uninterpretable parameter estimates, erroneous infe...

Using a survey of 393 employees who were natives and residents of China, Japan, and South Korea, we examined the extent to which employees from different countries within East Asia experience distributive justice when they perceived that their work outcomes relative to a referent other (i.e., someone with similar “inputs” such as educational backgr...

In organizational psychology research, most theories put forth directional predictions, such as stating that an increase in one construct will result in an increase or decrease in another construct. Such predictions are imprecise, given that they can be confirmed by a wide range of values, and theories that rely on such predictions bear little risk...

The purpose of the present article is to take stock of a recent exchange in Organizational Research Methods between critics and proponents of partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM). The two target articles were centered around six principal issues, namely whether PLS-PM: (a) can be truly characterized as a technique for structural equation mo...

Using a survey of 393 employees who were natives and residents of China, Japan, and South Korea, we examined the extent to which employees from different countries within East Asia experience distributive justice when they perceived that their work outcomes relative to a referent other (i.e., someone with similar “inputs” such as educational backgr...

We discuss seven methodological improvements that would stimulate important advancements in management research. We refer to these improvements as ‘wishes’ that we hope will materialize within the next decade. To promote the implementation of these improvements, we offer concrete and actionable recommendations that researchers can apply when design...

A great deal of research has examined the causes and consequences of stress in organizations (Cooper & Marshall, 1980; Cooper & Payne, 1988; Cooper & Smith, 1985). This research has examined a wide variety of specific person and situation variables, most of which may be grouped into one of four broad categories: (1) stressful situations and events,...

Extensive research has been conducted on the role of the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). TABP was initially identified by Friedman and Rosenman (1959), who noted that patients with more severe CHD tended to exhibit competitiveness, time urgency, aggressiveness, and hostility. Since this initial wor...

A tremendous amount of research has examined the impacts of job stress on psychological and physiological disorder This research has yielded invaluable evidence concerning the link between negative psychological states, such as stress, and mental and physical illness [1–7] This research has provided invaluable information regarding the nature of th...

In recent years, the person-environment (P-E) fit approach to stress has become widely accepted among organizational stress researchers (Eulberg, Weekley and Bhagat, 1988). The P-E fit approach characterizes stress as a lack of correspondence between characteristics of the person (e.g. abilities, values) and the environment (e.g. demands, supplies)...

Theory development is a high priority in organizational and management research. However, theory development is often equated with building new theory, a practice that is rewarded in the publication process and encouraged by norms that pervade the field. This practice has produced a proliferation of theories, most of which are not exposed to rigoro...

In management research, theory testing confronts a paradox described by Meehl in which designing studies with greater methodological rigor puts theories at less risk of falsification. This paradox exists because most management theories make predictions that are merely directional, such as stating that two variables will be positively or negatively...

In management research, there is a growing trend toward formative measurement, in which measures are treated as causes of constructs. Formative measurement can be contrasted with reflective measurement, in which constructs are specified as causes of measures. Although recent work seems to suggest that formative measurement is a viable alternative t...

Temporal focus is the attention individuals devote to thinking about the past, present, and future, and the concept is important because it affects how people incorporate perceptions about past experiences, current situations, and future expectations into their attitudes, cognitions, and behavior. However, temporal focus has not been clearly define...

Research on value congruence has attempted to explain why value congruence leads to positive outcomes, but few of these explanations have been tested empirically. In this article, the authors develop and test a theoretical model that integrates 4 key explanations of value congruence effects, which are framed in terms of communication, predictabilit...

A large segment of management research in recent years has used structural equation modeling (SEM) as an analytical approach that simultaneously combines factor analysis and linear regression models for theory testing. With this approach, latent variables (factors) represent the concepts of a theory, and data from measures (indicators) are used as...

Donna Klein, director of the newly founded Department of Work and Family Life at Marriott Corporation, is charged with designing a set of programs that meets the work and family needs expressed by Marriott's diverse work force of 200,000. The A case provides background information regarding Klein, Marriott Corporation, and its employees. The B case...

This technical note contains a scale measuring Type-A behavior patterns (Bortner, 1969), describes its impact on the individual and the organization, contains two short cases describing Type-A and Type-B individuals, and presents recommendations for modifying Type-A behavior patterns. (See also OB-0363.)

Progress in organizational psychology (OP) research depends on the rigor and quality of the methods we use. This paper identifies ten methodological barriers to progress and offers suggestions for overcoming the barriers, in part or whole. The barriers address how we derive hypotheses from theories, the nature and scope of the questions we pursue i...

Person–environment (P–E) fit is a central concept in organizational behavior research. Historically, reviews of P–E fit research have summarized empirical studies but said little about whether P–E fit research has made theoretical progress. This chapter applies criteria for evaluating theory to review and assess the theoretical status and progress...

Moderation is central to research in the organizational and social sciences. Moderation occurs when the relationship between an inde-pendent variable and dependent variable depends on the level of a third variable, usually called a moderator variable* (Aiken & West, 1991; Cohen, 1978). Moderation is involved in research demonstrat-ing that the effe...

During the past decade, the use of polynomial regression has become increasingly prevalent in congruence research. One drawback of polynomial regression is that it relies on the assumption that variables are measured without error. This assumption is relaxed by structural equation modeling with latent variables. One application of structural equati...

Studies that combine moderation and mediation are prevalent in basic and applied psychology research. Typically, these studies are framed in terms of moderated mediation or mediated moderation, both of which involve similar analytical approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches have important shortcomings that conceal the nature of the moderated an...

The authors distinguished 3 approaches to the study of perceived person-environment fit (P-E fit): (a) atomistic, which examines perceptions of the person and environment as separate entities; (b) molecular, which concerns the perceived comparison between the person and environment; and (c) molar, which focuses on the perceived similarity, match, o...

This study examined the linkage between social comparison and organizational justice and the moderating influence of individual values and country. Based on a sample of 550 employees from various organizations in China, Japan, Korea, and the U.S., results revealed a curvilinear relationship between social comparison and perceived fairness. However,...

The past US-Asia comparisons studies associated with justice have devoted their attention to examine how Asians make justice judgment differently from U.S. Americans. Although they have provided useful insights on organizational justice, they have generally failed to examine underlying psychological processes to make justice judgment. To address th...

Numerous theories in organizational behavior and industrial/organizational psychology predict that causal relationships are contingent upon various individual and situational variables. These contingencies are often framed in terms of moderation, whereby the relationship between an independent variable and dependent variable is influenced by a thir...

Complementary and supplementary fit represent 2 distinct traditions within the person-environment fit paradigm. However, these traditions have progressed in parallel but separate streams. This article articulates the theoretical underpinnings of the 2 traditions, using psychological need fulfillment and value congruence as prototypes of each tradit...

This paper used temporal comparison theory (Albert, 1977) to predict how dispositional affectivity interacts with current and previous rewards to influence satisfaction. We predict that people prefer increasing rewards over time, however, the strength of the relationship between rewards and satisfaction depend upon dispositional affectivity.

This study proposes a cognitive appraisal model of justice judgments. The model examines the underlying psychological processes by which people form justice perceptions that draws from two fundamental theoretical principles in justice literature: social comparison and normative comparison. This study also examines how these psychological processes...

Breach and fulfillment in a psychological contract has traditionally been studied with approaches that are conceptually and methodologically limited. We compared predictions derived from the traditional view to predictions from an expanded view that maintains the distinction between promised and delivered inducements and examines their joint relati...

The purpose of this article is to review recent advanced applications of causal modeling methods in organizational and management research. Developments over the past 10 years involving research on measurement and structural components of causal models will be discussed. Specific topics to be addressed include reflective vs. formative measurement,...

This study compared identity and utilitarian motives as predictors of time investment in work and family roles, using structural equation modeling with a sample of 623 working men and women. We tested within-role and cross-role relationships as well as the reciprocal effects of time invested in one role on time invested in the other role. As predic...

This chapter provides an overview of polynomial regression analysis as an alternative to difference scores. Difference scores typically consist of the algebraic, absolute, or squared difference between two measures or the sum of squared or absolute differences between profiles of measures. The chapter begins with a review of major problems with dif...

Difference scores have been widely used in studies of fit, similarity, and agreement. Despite their widespread use, difference scores suffer from numerous methodological problems. These problems can be mitigated or avoided with polynomial regression analysis, and this method has become increasingly prevalent during the past decade. Unfortunately, a...

Multidimensional constructs are widely used to represent several distinct dimensions as a single theoretical concept. The utility of multidimensional constructs relative to their dimensions has generated considerable debate, and this debate creates a dilemma for researchers who want the breadth and comprehensiveness of multidimensional constructs a...

Research into the changing nature of work requires comprehensive models of work design. One such model is the interdisciplinary framework (M. A. Campion, 1988), which integrates 4 work-design approaches (motivational, mechanistic, biological, perceptual-motor) and links each approach to specific outcomes. Unfortunately, studies of this framework ha...

We focus on the beliefs that applicants develop about organizational culture during the anticipatory stage of socialization. Data from 240 job applicants suggested that an organization used product and company information to encourage applicants to hold favorable, rather than accurate, culture beliefs. For example, the organization appeared to over...

Theory development typically focuses on relationships among theoretical constructs, placing little emphasis on relationships between constructs and measures. In most cases, constructs are treated as causes of their measures. However, this causal flow is sometimes reversed, such that measures are viewed as causes of constructs. Procedures have been...

Work-family research emphasizes the importance of mechanisms that link work and family. However, these mechanisms typically are described in metaphoric terms poorly suited to rigorous research. In this article we translate work-family linking mechanisms into causal relationships between work and family constructs. For each relationship we explain i...

To study the changing nature of work, researchers need measures of work that are valid and comprehensive. One potentially useful measure of work is the Multimethod Job Design Questionnaire (MJDQ; Campion, 1988), which was developed to assess 4 general approaches to work design (i.e., motivational, mechanistic, biological, perceptual-motor). Althoug...

Research indicates that work and family are significant sources of stress. However, this research has underemphasized the cognitive appraisal process by which work and family generate stress. This study used person-environment fit theory to examine how the comparison of work and family experiences to the person's values relates to stress and well-b...

One of the most widely used measures of coping is the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). Despite its widespread use, evidence regarding the construct validity of WCQ scores is limited and inconclusive, due primarily to the use of exploratory factor analyses to examine WCQ data and the absence of evidence regarding the correspondence between the WC...

During the past two decades, the nature of work has changed dramatically, as more and more organizations downsize, outsource and move toward short-term contracts, part-time working and teleworking. The costs of stress in the workplace in most of the developed and developing world have risen accordingly in terms of increased sickness absence, labour...

A key assumption underlying methods of construct validation is that constructs and their indicators are represented at the appropriate depth (i.e., the specificity versus generality of constructs and their indicators). This article presents a framework that depicts constructs and indicators at various depths and provides guidelines for choosing fro...

This study examined two versions of the person-environment (P-E) fit approach to stress, one representing the fit between environmental supplies and employee values (S-V fit), and another the fit between environmental demands and employee abilities (D-A fit). Hypotheses based on three competing models derived from the P-E fit literature were tested...

In organizational research, difference scores and profile similarity indices are often used as dependent variables in studies predicting the congruence (i.e., fit, match, similarity, agreement) between two constructs. Unfortunately, this practice introduces serious conceptual and methodological problems that render results ambiguous and potentially...

Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68519/2/10.1177_014920639402000311.pdf

Numerous studies in organizational behavior research have examined the congruence (i.e., fit, match, agreement, similarity) between two constructs as a predictor of some outcome. The vast majority of these studies have operationalized congruence by collapsing two or more measures into a single index, such as an algebraic, absolute, or squared diffe...

Profile similarity indices (PSIs) have become widely used in studies of congruence (i.e., fit, matching, similarity, agreement) in organizational research. PSIs combine two sets of measures, or profiles, from corresponding entities (e.g., the person and organization, supervisor and subordinate, organization and environment) into a single score inte...

The most influential study of the person-environment (P-E) fit approach to stress was conducted by J. R. P. French, R. D. Caplan, and R. V. Harrison (1982). Unfortunately, this study operationalized fit using various transformations of difference scores, thereby introducing numerous substantive and methodological problems. In the present study, the...

The most influential study of the person–environment (P–E) fit approach to stress was conducted by J. R. French et al (1982). Unfortunately, this study operationalized fit using various transformations of difference scores, thereby introducing numerous substantive and methodological problems. In the present study, the authors reanalyze data from Fr...

Though numerous Measures of coping have been presented in the literature, procedures used to evaluate the construct validiy of these measures are incomplete, and few studies have examined multiple measures using data from the same sample, This study presents a comparative evaluation of the construct validity of the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL; L...

Many major theories of organizational stress (OS) reflect basic principles of cybernetics, most notably the negative feedback loop. However, these principles are rarely examined in empirical OS research, which focuses predominantly on simple bivariate relationships embedded in OS theories. This problem may reflect an implicit rejection of cyberneti...

Reports an error in the original article by J. R. Edwards and A. J. Baglioni ( Journal of Applied Psychology, 1991[Apr], Vol 76[2], 276–290). The sentence "Items with negative loadings were reversed" should be deleted from the note to Table 3. The original scoring procedures were used for all TABP measures for the analyses reported in Table 3. (The...

Reports an error in the original article by J. R. Edwards and A. J. Baglioni ( Journal of Applied Psychology, 1991[Apr], Vol 76[2], 276–290). The sentence "Items with negative loadings were reversed" should be deleted from the note to Table 3. The original scoring procedures were used for all TABP measures for the analyses reported in Table 3. (The...

Reports an error in the original article by J. R. Edwards et al ( Journal of Applied Psychology, 1990[Aug], Vol 75[4], 440–454). The loading for Item 8 of the JAS–AB in Table 4 (.404) is misplaced. This loading should be under the HC column, not the SI column. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1991-00161-001 ). T...

Reports an error in the original article by J. R. Edwards et al ( Journal of Applied Psychology, 1990[Aug], Vol 75[4], 440–454). The loading for Item 8 of the JAS–AB in Table 4 (.404) is misplaced. This loading should be under the HC column, not the SI column. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1991-00161-001 ). T...

Although the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) is typically considered a set of distinct components, most studies of TABP have used global measures, which collapse several components into a single index. These measures are inherently multidimensional and, as such, contain several conceptual and methodological problems. In this study, data from 240 exe...

Although the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) is typically considered a set of distinct components, most studies of TABP have used global measures, which collapse several components into a single index. These measures are inherently multidimensional and, as such, contain several conceptual and methodological problems. In this study, data from 240 exe...

an overview of the P-J [person-job] fit literature reveals three basic deficiencies / first, despite the common emphasis on P-J fit across many areas of OB [organizational behavior] and I/O [industrial/organizational] psychology, developments in these areas have largely occurred independently / this has produced streams of P-J fit research that are...

Theoretical and empirical organizational stress research typically focuses on some combination of stress, personality factors, coping, and symptoms of ill health. Though these factors are typically considered important, there is considerable disagreement regarding the underlying process by which they are interrelated. This article discusses and emp...

The most widely used self-report measures of the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) are the Bortner scale, the Framingham scale, and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS). Though high scores on each of these measures have been linked to the development of coronary heart disease, their intercorrelations are rather low, suggesting that they may reflect diffe...

Recent evidence indicates that the relationship between Type A behaviour pattern (TABP) and coronary heart disease (CHD) is dependent upon the method of measuring TABP. This suggests that the psychometric properties of TABP measures should be carefully investigated. This article examines one widely used TABP measure, the Bortner Scale, using data f...

The most widely used self-report measures of the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) are the Bortner scale, the Framingham scale, and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS). Though high scores on each of these measures have been linked to the development of coronary heart disease, their intercorrelations are rather low, suggesting that they may reflect diffe...