2004/01/01 by Bruce M. Meglino, Audrey Korsgaard · 372 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Affect (linguistics) #Chief executive officer #Cultural Differences and Values #Disposition #Epistemology #Ethics in Business and Education #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Management #Officer #Organizational behavior #Organizational commitment #Orientation (vector space) #Psychology #Rationality #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.6.946
published in Journal of Applied Psychology 89(6), 946-959 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2004/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
In contrast with major theories of attitudes and behavior, the authors propose that individuals are not equally motivated to pursue their self-interests. The authors show that differences in other orientation affect the extent to which actions and attitudes reflect self-interested calculation (instrumental rationality) and the extent to which beliefs represent their external environment (epistemic rationality). These differences have consequences for processes underlying a wide range of attitudes and behavior typically assumed to be rationally self-interested. Thus, the authors' model exposes a common explanation for diverse organizational phenomena. It also clarifies inconsistencies surrounding the validity of certain attitudinal and motivational models, the relationship between job attitudes and actions, cross-cultural differences in attitudes and behavior, escalation of commitment, and the relationship between chief executive officer characteristics and organizational performance.