A Review and Synthesis of Situational Strength in the Organizational Sciences

Situational strength pertains to the idea that various characteristics of situations have the ability to restrict the expression and, therefore, the criterion-related validity of individual differences. Despite situational strength’s intuitive appeal, however, little information exists regarding its...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Management Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 121 - 140
Main Authors Meyer, Rustin D., Dalal, Reeshad S., Hermida, Richard
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2010
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Classification
Individual differences
Literature reviews
Operations research
Psychological aspects
strong situation
personality
interactionism
situational strength
moderator
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Summary:Situational strength pertains to the idea that various characteristics of situations have the ability to restrict the expression and, therefore, the criterion-related validity of individual differences. Despite situational strength’s intuitive appeal, however, little information exists regarding its construct space. This review (a) categorizes extant operationalizations into four facets (constraints, consequences, clarity, and consistency), (b) examines the empirical literature on situational strength—relevant hypotheses, and, on the basis of the proposed taxonomy and literature review, (c) provides several avenues for future theoretical and empirical research. It is the authors’ hope that these efforts will encourage additional research and theorizing on this potentially important psychological construct.
ISSN:0149-2063
1557-1211
DOI:10.1177/0149206309349309