COGNITIVE AND MOTIVATIONAL FRAMEWORKS IN US RESEARCH ON PARTICIPATION- A METAANALYSIS OF PRIMARY EFFECTS

In this paper we classify 86 published studies of participation conduc ted in the U.S. according to whether they are based on cognitive or mo tivational conceptual frameworks, then conduct a meta-analysis of 124 correlation coefficients obtained from them to determine whether disti nguishing between conceptual frameworks portends differences in the fi ndings of U.S. research on the effects of participatory processes on p erformance and satisfaction. Results reveal noticeable differences in the findings of participation-satisfaction research, but also indicate that these differences diminish substantially upon elimination of res earch based on single-source self-reports. If interpreted as evidence of percept-percept inflation, these findings are wholly consistent wit h those of other recent analyses. If interpreted as evidence of the gr eater accuracy of self-report measures of intra-psychic phenomena, the y suggest that research on the relationship between participation and satisfaction has been influenced by the conceptual frameworks used to design studies and formulate conclusions. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Son s, Ltd.