The Generalizability of Social Information Processing to Organizational Settings: A Summary of two Field Experiments 1

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to conduct two field experiments of the Social Information Processing (SIP) theory of job attitudes and reports of job characteristics. in the first, subjects were randomly assigned to either positive or no feedback regarding the job satisfaction of others in similar jobs. The results indicated that being exposed to such feedback had no effect on job satisfaction or perceptions of job characteristics. A second experiment was conducted in which both newly hired employees and employees with considerable job experience were randomly assigned to positive, negative, or no feedback conditions. The results were consistent with those of Exp. 1 in that being exposed to feedback regarding the job satisfaction of others had no effect on satisfaction or job perceptions. This was true regardless of job experience. Salancik and Pfeffer in 1978 may have overstated the importance of social cues in organizational settings.

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