Impact of situational constraints on subjective and objective criteria of managerial job performance

Abstract

Laboratory research has consistently indicated that situational constraints may have a substantial impact on performance criteria. However, little research has attempted to study situational constraints in organizational field settings, and no field research to date has examined their influence upon objective performance criteria. The effects of situational constraints on supervisory appraisals, self-ratings, and objective performance criteria were investigated for a sample of 438 branch managers from a large finance company. A Hotelling T2 statistic indicated significant effects for situational constraints on the performance criteria of the study. Conventional t tests revealed significant differences between groups of managers from high- and low-constraint settings on supervisory appraisal ratings, self-appraisals, and one objective measure of performance (i.e., past due control). The study's contributions to the literature on the relationship between situational constraints and performance are discussed.