Shared Influence and Organizational Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Situational Variables Expected to Moderate Participation-Outcome Relationships

Abstract

This study is a meta-analysis of the effects of four situational moderators on relationships between participation and five outcomes. Results based on 118 correlation coefficients indicate that, with the influence of percept-percept research procedures controlled, group size, task interdependence, task complexity, and performance standards exert a few statistically significant moderating effects, and that participation typically has only modest influence on task performance, decision performance, motivation, satisfaction, and acceptance. Combined with evidence from another recent meta-analysis by Miller and Monge, the results suggest that methodological artifacts explain many of the noteworthy positive findings published in research on relationships between participation and its outcomes.