t scale evaluating

Supervisors completed a nine-item, seven-point scale that assessed job complexity (e.g., “To what degree is a person required to combine a lot of different information in order to perform this higher level job?”) and a two- item, seven-point scale evaluating promotability [“What is the likelihood that the employee will be promoted to this higher level job in the next ten years?” and “What is the likelihood that the employee will be promoted to this higher level job sometime during his/her career?”). The promotability instrument also included a set of six 7-point scale items for rating employ- ees’ work skills, including decision making, creativity, and planning and organizing. These items were intended to direct the supervisor’s attention to these skills as they rated promotability.

RESULTS

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, reliabilities, and correla- tions for the research variables for the combined data of both companies. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with square root transformations was used to analyze the relationships of the number of script tracks witb (1) the frequency of the occurrence of job problems (within subject) and (2) the order of presentation of ieveis of frequency. The fre- quency of the occurrence of job problems has a significant main effect on the number of script tracks in the direction predicted by Hypothesis 1 (F^ sg = 76.8, p < .01). The effects of order of presentation are not statistically significant [F^r^^ = .16, p > .05). Table 2 shows the results of this analysis.

A Wilcoxon sign-rank test was used to examine the relationship of the frequency of the occurrence of job problems with the engagement of script tracks and strategy structures for the combined data. Based on the data coded from the verbal protocols, the results indicate that the frequency of a job problem’s occurrence is not related to the types of cognitive structures re- trieved, whether previously accessed script tracks, new script tracks, or strategy structures [Z = 0.0, N = 44, p > .05). Thus, results do not support Hypothesis 2. Low interrater reliability for the cognitive processes measures, particularly for frequently occurring job problems, reduces confidence in these results.

The relationship of job tenure with the number of script tracks is not significant for frequently occurring job problems (rtjg ^ .01, p > .05) or for rarely occurring job problems (rga = – .07, p > .05]. Thus Hypothesis 3 was not supported.

1994 Wofford 187

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