The causal relation between job attitudes and performance: a meta-analysis

¶ … Meta-Analysis Stages and Practices

(based on Figure 1, p. 307, Kirca & Yaprak, 2010)

The Causal Relation Between Job Attitudes and Performance:

A Meta-Analysis of Panel Studies

How Important Are Job Attitudes? Meta-Analytic Comparisons Of Integrative Behavioral Outcomes And Time Sequences

Formulate problem

Identify and read relevant theoretical and empirical articles

studies were utilized.

Contextual performance and focal performance were the two main factors on which the studies were based

Identify important, common variables, study, and measurement characteristics to assess

The two variables being studied were job attitudes and job performance

Job attitudes were linked to different factors that came under the category of contextual and focal performance

Identify contradictory findings

Decide on meta-analysis objectives

To fill the gap between the relationship of these two factors.

To fill the gap between the relationships of these two factors.

Develop preliminary theoretical framework

Job attitudes were defined as a person's affective and cognitive evaluation of their job.

Meta-analytic correlation matrix was used

2. Collect Data

Conduct key-word database searches

Search terms used were satisfaction, commitment, work or job organization.

Search terms were job satisfaction, absence, lateness, contextual and focal performance

Search references of key studies

The Databases studied were ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier, PsycINFO and Web of Science.

The Databases studied were ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier, PsycINFO and Web of Science.

Manually search relevant publications

Lists of studies including previous meta analysis, qualitative review on satisfaction, commitment, and performance were checked.

Lists of studies including previous meta analysis, qualitative review on satisfaction, commitment, and performance were checked.

Solicit studies from key researchers

Colleagues who searched this area were requested. Furthermore, a request for unpublished data through mailing list of German association of industrial and organization psychologists was also sent.

Previous studies were used

Post requests for articles and working papers on academic list-serves

A request for unpublished data was posted on the page of Society for Industries and Organizational Psychology.

Develop elimination criteria

Studies that took place in classrooms, sports teams or artificial environments were excluded.

Screen studies according to elimination criteria

Studies were reviewed based on the seven criteria's stated.

Two main criteria were discussed that were further divided into sub-categories

Decide whether data is sufficient to proceed with meta-analysis

16 studies were declared usable.

Number of studies was not mentioned

3. Evaluate Data

Identify common metrics across studies (e.g. correlation coefficient)

Single and joint correlations for commitment and satisfaction.

Correlations between different criteria, job satisfaction and job attitude

Identify key substantial and methodological study characteristics

This was not done in the study

This was not mentioned

Prepare coding form and manual

This was done

This was done

Code each study

This was done

This was done

Prepare database and check for errors

Hunter and Schmidt's chi test was used

Hunter and Schmidt's chi test was used

4. Analyze Data

Conduct univariate analysis of mean effect sizes

As mentioned above, analysis was done of the two job attitudes: commitment and satisfaction and of job satisfaction as well.

The analysis was bivariate

Search for moderators using bivariate analysis of effect sizes

Search for moderators using multivariate analysis of effect sizes

Construct and analyze the meta-analytical correlation matrix to test theory

This was carried out.

This was carried out

5. Interpret and discuss

Report univariate and bivariate findings using tables and figures

This was also done.

This was done

Make detailed recommendations for future research based on the findings

The recommendations were that more studies need to be done to figure out the causal relationship between the two variables.

Article 1 critique

Article Name: The Causal Relation Between Job Attitudes and Performance: A Meta-Analysis of Panel Studies

Critique

The foundation on which this article has been based upon is the compatibility principle that is a part of the attitude theory. Making use of this principle the research question of this article is whether or not overall job attitude, which includes organizational commitment and job satisfaction, has the potential to provide significantly powerful prediction with respect to the criteria of increasing integrative behavior. The integrative behavioral criteria are composed of contextual performance, focal performance, absence, lateness, and turnover. The research question was thoroughly studied by making use of the different stages of meta-analysis as well as structural equations. The combination of the aforementioned resulted in better adjustment of unified models as compared to the diversified models with respect to meta-analytic correlations between the criteria that has been mentioned above. According to the results, the overall job attitude was a string predictor of higher-value behavioral construct, which is defined as the desirable contributions that are made to an individual's work role. The author of this article has explained in great detail how meta-analytical tools have been applied to different studies that have been done in the past with respect to finding the relationship between the given criterion and job attitudes of the individuals. Different levels of relationships were sought through meta-analysis of different results of the studies that have already been carried out in this regard.

The identification of the key variables was a difficult task for this research because the study is quite diverse and involves more than one variable. It cannot be said that there were any contra indicatory findings but it will not be wrong to say that the relationship predicted for a certain criterion and job attitudes. After the development of the theoretical framework, the meta-analytical tools have been applied to the study. Every criterion has been analyzed individually using the meta-analytical tools, therefore it was quite hard to construct a concrete relationship between the factors and job attitude.