On the Premature Death of Need-Satisfaction Models: An Investigation of Salancik and Pfeffer's Views on Priming and Consistency Artifacts

Abstract

Employing a laboratory experiment research strategy and data from 165 subjects, this study assessed the operation of priming and consistency artifacts in need-satisfaction-model based research. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions, each of which corresponded to a different ordering of various activities (e.g., performance of a task, measurement of job characteristics, growth need strength, and job satisfaction). Within-condition means, covariances, and reliability estimates were used to test for order of activity based priming, consistency, and reliability artifacts. Results of multivariate and univariate analyses showed that the experimental treatments had (a) negligible effects on the mean values of measured variables, (b) no effect on correlations between variables, and (c) marked effects on the reliability of measured variables. Implications of these findings are presented.

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