Effects of Societal Trends on Participation Research

The authors thank John R. Hollenbeck and Daniel R. Ilgen for suggestions made during the formative stages of this paper and Michael K. Moch for his comments on working drafts. We also thank Marie McKendall for her assistance during early phases of our research and Colleen K. Kniffen for her help during its completion. In addition, we thank the Associate Editor and ASQ reviewers for the guidance and insights they provided. Parts of this paper were presented at the 46th and 47th annual meetings of the Academy of Management, 1986 and 1987. This paper presents three studies investigating discrepancies in published American research on participation and its outcomes. The first study, a longitudinal meta-analysis of participation-outcome research published between 1950 and 1985, revealed apparent relationships between societal issues in the U.S. and the questions asked by American researchers, the methods used to perform research, and the magnitudes of reported effects. The second and third studies provided corollary evidence clarifying these findings, showing the absence of general method trends throughout the organization sciences but suggesting the existence of a relationship between researchers' social attitudes and the conduct of participation-outcome research. Besides explaining inconsistencies among published findings, these results suggest that societal trends have affected the conduct of participation resea rch.-