Article Review

Instructions for Journal Article Review Assignments

1. Select your articles from legitimate journals relating to HRM,

Training, Organizational Behavior, Organizational Development,

Management, etc. Sources from the internet (blogs, wikis, news

reports) are not considered legitimate sources of information.

2. The Journal Article Reviews for this class are to follow the five

paragraph APA format as follows:

1. APA Style Citation

2. Purpose of the study/article

3. Method/Procedures used

4. Outcome/summary of major points covered

5. Applications of the study/article

6. Your reactions

One to three pages total. Double space your assignment. All reviews

are to be submitted through Turnitin. A Turnitin value above 18% is

considered too high.

Example

Offermann, L. and Peta, H. (1996). Leadership Behavior and Subordinate Stress: A

360 0

View. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1(4), 382 – 390.

1. The purpose of this article is to examine multiple facets of the relationship

between leadership behaviors and subordinate work stress focusing

specifically on the perceptions of both groups: To what extent do leaders and

subordinates view the causes and effects of stress in the same way?

2. Participants were 343 mid-level managers of a multinational bank. The Survey

of Management Practices was used to elicit a 360 o assessment of leader

behavior and subordinate responses. The data were analyzed utilizing

correlation, factor analysis, and regression procedures.

3. The researchers found that what leaders believe relates to subordinate stress

does not always match what subordinates themselves believe enhances or

reduces stress. For instance, leaders exhibiting high controlling behaviors may

believe that by being mindful of the details and monitoring employee

performance, they are relieving employees of the “stress” of having to attend

to these issues. From the subordinates perspective such behavior increases

rather than reduces stress. On the other hand, some leaders may perceive

that delegation and encouraging participation as being factors which increase

subordinate stress, a view not shared by the subordinates themselves.

In examining the results by staff level (professional or clerical) the researchers

found that the relationship between leader behavior and stress level to be

stronger for clerical personnel despite the fact that reported stress levels were

higher for professional staff. The researchers suggested that in instances

where leader instructions lacked clarity, professional staff were better able to

set goals of their own and also noted that professional staff typically

participated in more extensive support networks than was typical for clerical

personnel.

4. This article underscores the need for leader support in five areas – work

facilitation, approachability, team building, interest in subordinate growth, and

building trust. It also highlights the importance of delegation and encouraging

participation along with emotional support as means of decreasing employee

stress. The findings such that leaders and subordinates may not share

common views regarding what behaviors serve to increase or decrease stress.

This article relates both to the material on stress and well-being in the

workplace, but also highlights that some supervisors make the fundamental

attribution area of attributing stress to the employees themselves without

awareness of their own role and the climate being provided for the employee.

5. I learned that it is important for a leader to be aware of the effects of his

behavior and not to assume that the behavior being exhibited by a subordinate

has to do with factors not related to the manner in which the subordinate is

being led.