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DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF TASK UNCERTAINTY: A LABORATORY AND FIELD INVESTIGATION
Author(s) -
Victor Bart,
Blackburn Richard S.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1987.tb00452.x
Subject(s) - task (project management) , perception , function (biology) , argument (complex analysis) , field (mathematics) , simple (philosophy) , psychology , cognitive psychology , computer science , social psychology , management science , epistemology , mathematics , economics , management , evolutionary biology , neuroscience , biology , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , pure mathematics
This article presents evidence and argument concerning the utility of the concept of task uncertainty for organization theory and practice. The results from two studies, one field and one laboratory, are reported. The results support the hypotheses that: (1) perceptions of task uncertainty are a simple function of the number and analysability of exceptions encountered, and (2) perceptions of task exceptions and search difficulty have distinct relationships with behaviours of interest (communication and decision‐making). Given these two findings, it is argued that the concept of task uncertainty should be replaced by the two source constructs.