Five common themes were derived from the literature on effective work groups, and then characteristics representing the themes were related to effectivness criteria. Themes included job design, interdependence, composition, context, and process. They contained 19 group characteristics which were assessed by employees and managers. Effectiveness criteria included productivity, employee satisfaction, and manager judgments. Data were collected from 391 employees, 70 managers, and archival records for 80 work groups in a financial organization. Results showed that all three effectiveness criteria were predicted by the characteristics, and nearly all characteristics predicted some of the effectiveness criteria. The job design and process themes were slightly more predictive than the interdependence, composition, and context themes. Implications for designing effective work groups were discussed, and a 54‐item measure of the 19 characteristics was presented for future research.

This paper presents logic, procedures, validity, and use of employee attitude surveys targeted on strategic objectives of the firm. The logic is that employees at the front line are in an optimal position to report on the degree to which strategic initiatives are being carried out. The procedure is to design survey questions that focus on the initiative rather than on employees' personal feelings or satisfaction. To validate employee reports, the relationships between those reports and customer satisfaction over four quarters of the use of the survey are shown. Evidence shows that the logical and empirical keying of employee surveys to strategic initiatives and objectives of the firm provide data of immediate use to management, in the present case to both marketing and human resources management.

Strategy plays two roles in the practice of an I/O psychology consultant. First, strategy sets the direction for any organization, including a consulting firm of I/O psychologists as well as an independent consulting business of an individual consultant. Second, strategy can be a consulting area for I/O psychologists because it requires expertise in management and organizational processes.This chapter gives a brief overview of strategy in these two roles. For a more detailed presentation, there are many sources on strategy or on organizational processes. A few are referenced in this chapter. 1 Strategic planning is essentially deciding what your organization wants to accomplish, what opportunities or challenges it faces, what capabilities it has, its specific plan, and how all its members contribute to its success. In spite of the obvious natural fit between the process of developing strategic plan-This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Cathy Higgs-visionary thinker, extraordinary consultant, mentor, and friend. Her intelligence, creativity, and generosity will always be remembered.'A useful Web site for I/O psychologist consultants is that of Andrea Corney, JD, MBA (http://www.acorn-od.com/), who outlines particular tools and uses of organizational process consulting skills in a strategy setting. Corney's Web site is one of the few sources with specific examples of how organizational consulting skills apply in a strategy setting. A second useful source is Galbraith (1995), particularly chapter 9, which outlines a step-by-step process for building an organizational design based on strategy.

No abstract