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ACROSS‐INDIVIDUAL, WITHIN‐INDIVIDUAL AND RETURN ON EFFORT VERSIONS OF EXPECTANCY THEORY 1
Author(s) -
Kopelman Richard E.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1977.tb01110.x
Subject(s) - expectancy theory , psychology , sample (material) , statistics , econometrics , social psychology , mathematics , chemistry , chromatography
The author reviewed the conceptual, methodological, and empirical problems associated with across‐individual tests of expectancy theory predictions of work behavior. Based on the literature it was hypothesized that within‐individual expectancy theory predictions would be superior to across‐individual predictions. Using a sample of 159 college students, results were generally supportive: mean across‐individual and mean within‐individual correlations were r=.24 and r=.35, respectively. Also, in light of the widespread use of incremental (marginal) decision algorithms in various disciplines, it was hypothesized that a return on effort (ROE) predictor would yield better correlations than the conventional maximum expected benefits predictor. As hypothesized, correlations using the ROE predictor consistently exceeded correlations using the maximum expected benefits predictor in both the across‐ and within‐individual paradigms r=.27 versus r=.18, and r=.52 versus r=.35, respectively.