High Need For Achievement Research Articles

An Assessment of the Psychological Determinants of Planning in Small Businesses

DR. JAMES W. CARLAND, DR. JO ANN C.CARLAND and CARROLL D. ABY. Jr. are with the Western Carolina University School of Business. North Carolina, United State of America. A sample of 368 small business owners/managers were divided into three groups: those who use formal, written plans; those who employ informal, unwritten plans; and non-planners. The groups were compared on their need for achievement, innovative preferences and risk-taking propensity as well as education level, sales, management structure, and number of employees. The group employing written plans was found to have significantly higher need for achievement, innovative preference and risk-taking propensity than the group employing unwritten plans and non-planners.

Personality Correlates between Need for Achievement and Subscales of the F-Scale of Authoritarianism

One section of data collected from an earlier, more complex experiment is examined to test the proposition that the achievement motive predicts authoritarian behavior. Particular subscales of the F-scale correlated differentially for 22 men and 30 women with the need for achievement, supporting the notion that authoritarianism may result, in part, from an individual with a high need for achievement.

Psychological characteristics associated with performence in entrepreneurial firms and smaller businesses

This article examines the prevalence of five psychological attributes in a sample of established entrepreneurs. These attributes are need for achievement, locus of control, risk-taking propensity, tolerance of ambiguity, and Type A behavior. These characteristics are widely regarded as hallmarks of the entrepreneurial personality. The focus of the study is twofold: 1) Do these attributes distinguish entrepreneurs (founders) from small business managers (nonfounders)? 2) Does the presence of these “entrepreneurial” attributes relate to the financial performance of the firm? Survey questionnaires were completed by 239 members of the Smaller Business Association of New England. Founders in this sample score significantly higher than nonfounders for three of the five dimensions: need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, and tolerance of ambiguity. Both groups manifest an internal locus of control: that is, they share a perception that they can influence events in their lives and are thereby free from external forces such as destiny or luck. In terms of Type A behavior, founders and nonfounders alike score 60% above the midpoint on the Type A scale. Such Type A persons tend to be competitive, restless strivers who constantly struggle against the limitations of time. The relationships between psychological attributes and financial performance are few, but suggestive. Among founders, internal locus of control relates to a low liquidity ratio. Among non- founders, high tolerance of ambiguity associates with high return on assets (ROA), and high need for achievement associates with a high liquidity ratio. A test for curvilinearity reveals a “threshold effect” : in three instances, a psychological attribute associates with corporate performance only to a certain point. Beyond this optimal level, the psychological pattern appears to become dysfunctional and financial returns falter. In the founders, for example, moderate risk-taking is associated with increased ROA. However, the ROA of these firms decreases when risk-taking becomes excessive. In similar fashion, founders may see their firms' ROA flourish if this attribute is present to a moderate extent. When too pronounced, the profitability of the firm may decline. The same pattern exists between tolerance of ambiguity and growth rate in the nonfounder group. Excessive ambiguity tolerance may lead to a lack of response mechanisms for dealing with environmental change. In assessing the leadership of established ventures, it might be prudent for bankers, investors, and entrepreneurs themselves to pay heed to the mix of these characteristics

Organizational culture relationships with creativity and other job-related variables

The relationship between three types of organizational cultures and managerial creativity, motivation, and other job-related variables were examined. Respondents were 165 managers in a western metropolitan area (69 females, 96 males). Bureaucratic culture combined with high need for power was found to have significant positive relationships to job satisfaction and involvement, and negative connections to propensity to leave. Innovative culture combined with high need for achievement was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction and significantly and negatively to propensity to leave. Supportive culture combined with high need for affiliation was significantly and positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to propensity to leave.

What Management Development Means for American CEOs

A good starting point for management development staff is to interview company “high flyers” to establish their views. Research carried out among 711 American client executives (CEOs) to discover their perceptions of management development shows that managers with a high need for achievement tend to make their own plans, and if these do not tally with the company's plan for them, will leave. Jobs should be designed so as to stretch managers and provide a learning support system, and an overall jobs plan for the company provided.

Characteristics of Participants and Nonparticipants in Experimental Research

Characteristics of students who volunteered to participate in a laboratory experiment on group performance were compared with those of students who did not elect to participate. Subjects were 113 undergraduate students (65 men, 48 women; median age 23 yr.). There were no significant differences for the total sample between the participants and nonparticipants on locus of control, need for achievement, need for affiliation, age, or sex. Participation was, however, related to academic major, and male participants had higher need for achievement than male nonparticipants. Also, comparison of male and female subsamples with published national means indicated significant differences on need for achievement and need for affiliation. Male and female nonparticipants were higher than national means on need for achievement and lower than national means on need for affiliation. Need for achievement of male nonparticipants was lower than national means. Issues associated with volunteer bias are discussed and cautions raised.

運動技能学習に及ぼす達成動機づけの効果 : 回転追跡技能について

This study was attempted to test the following hypotheses. Those who have high need for achievement (High n Ach group) would show a greater learning effect on motor skill tasks than those who have low need for achievement (Low n Ach group). In the process of motor skill learning, the High n Ach group would have higher task motivation, more strategies, and clearer imagery than the Low n Ach group. The High (n=15) and Low (n=15) n Ach groups were screened from a total sample of 162 male undergraduate students on the basis of their responses to the Mehrabian Measure of Achieving Tendency. A rotary pursuit tracking was employed as a motor learning task. For the training session, the subjects were given 50 30-sec. trials with 15~sec. intertrial rests. Following 5 min. rest, 5 trials were treated as the test session with the same procedure of the training session. The task motivation questionnaire, the checklist of strategy and the vividness test of imagery for this task were administered in the process of motor skill learning. In comparison with the Low n Ach group, the High n Ach group showed significantly higher scores on the time on target, the task motivation questionnaire and the vividness test of kinesthetic imagery. These results supported the hypotheses in this study. Therefore, it was concluded that the High n Ach group had a greater learning effect on the motor skill task than the Low n Ach group, and the superiority for the High n Ach group could have resulted from the strong task motivation at this task. However, there were no distinct differences between the two groups concerning the number of strategies. Further investigations into this problem must be conducted in consideration of behavioral and cognitive aspects of the learning strategy.

Co-Workers and Hospital Staff??s Work Attitudes

The specific implications of the patient care motives of health care staff are considered for the relationship between experiences with co-workers and attitudinal criteria. Personal attitudes toward co-workers (member attraction) and perceptions of strain among co-workers (group fragmentation) are found to be significantly related to intrinsic reward satisfaction and propensity to leave. The implications of individual differences are addressed by considering the moderating effects that internal-external control orientation and need for achievement have on the relationship between work group variables and work attitudes. Modest evidence is found that member attraction is more highly related to work attitudes for externals than for internals. Work group experiences are also found to be more highly related to work attitudes for technicians, aides, and orderlies, who have a low need for achievement than for others in this staff group. High need for achievement is found to be associated with high intrinsic reward satisfaction and low propensity to leave for both staff groups. It is cautioned that these findings may not generalize to many non-health-care settings. It is suggested that hospital supervisors should be sensitive to differences among individuals' responses to group pressures and stresses, even when precise personality measures are not available to them.

Achievement imagery in women's lives from adolescence to adulthood.

Situational influences have long been recognized as a primary source of variation in the relation between achievement imagery and behavior. These situational influences occur within the evolving life course and reflect both the past and the anticipated future. Using a well-known longitudinal archive, this study views situational incentives in the anticipated careers of adolescent girls as a contextual determinant of the relation between their achievement imagery and behavior from adolescence,to early adulthood. The analysis identifies two motivational trajectories: the social-marital path of achievement-oriented girls who claimed a domestic or family-centered future and the worklife-career sequence of highly motivated girls (high need for Achievement) who favored family and work interests. The first career sequence links achievement motivation with investment in activities that are part of the sequence of dating, courtship, and marriage. Boys and dating ranked high in the adolescence of these young women, and they tended to bear more children in their adult years. In the second career of education and work, the achievement imagery of girls is related to their IQ, grades, and conversational topics that are about other than boy-girl issues. In young adulthood these women tended to finish school, marry, and start a family at a later age. The study highlights the value of a life-course perspective on achievement thoughts and motivation across the life span. The relation between achievement motivation and behavior warrants greater consideration within the life course. Typically, the behavioral expression of need for Achievement (« Ach) has been examined within a situation-specific framework, 1 but the temporal frame of action extends beyond specific situations to the experienced and anticipated life course. Achievement motivation acquires more precise meaning and direction when examined within the context of life goals (e.g., vocational desires). Two goal frameworks (family-centered/domestic and career oriented) specify different lines of action for

Commercial Innovation from University Faculty

Abstract Study of a sample of faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) has determined that many academic scientists and engineers have commercially-oriented ideas. “Idea-havers” scored high on creativity measurement instruments and participated in more diverse work environment. Academic “idea-exploiters” are marked by personal background characteristic of family, religion and parental occupation that have been identified in earlier research as characteristics of new technical company enterpreneurs. Other indicators reflecting high need for achievement were also observed in the idea-exploiting group. Policy implications for universities and countries interested in technology-oriented development are described.

Commercial innovation from university faculty

Study of a sample of faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) has determined that many academic scientists and engineers have commercially-oriented ideas. “Idea-havers” scored high on creativity measurement instruments and participated in more diverse work environment. Academic “idea-exploiters” are marked by personal background characteristic of family, religion and parental occupation that have been identified in earlier research as characteristics of new technical company enterpreneurs. Other indicators reflecting high need for achievement were also observed in the idea-exploiting group. Policy implications for universities and countries interested in technology-oriented development are described.

Effects of person-job compatibility on managerial reactions to role ambiguity

This research examines the moderating effects of each of (a) need for achievement and locus of control, and (b) job scope characteristics, both independently and jointly, on managers' affective responses to role ambiguity. Data were collected from a sample of 89 middle-lower managerial personnel in a large, heavy-equipment manufacturing firm in the Midwest. Moderated regression and subgroup, joint-moderator analyses were performed on the data and the results provide support for the hypothesized moderating effects of personality and job characteristics. In particular, the results show that managers with either low need for achievement or external locus of control who work on unenriched, low-scope jobs respond most negatively to role ambiguity while no such relation exists for managers with high need for achievement or internal locus of control who work on enriched, high-scope jobs. Implications of the findings for stress management and work adjustment are discussed.

Professional Development of Nurse Practitioners

This study assessed the relationship of loci of control, learning styles, and motivational needs of 53 graduates of the Wichita State University Nurse Clinician Program to amounts and types of professional activities performed in a clinical setting. A self-appraisal was also considered in the analyses. Motivational needs assessed included the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power. Findings revealed that nurse clinicians with moderate need for achievement, high need for affiliation, and moderate need for power performed significantly (p less than .03) more professional activities than nurses with high need for achievement, low need for affiliation, and high need for power. Other findings showed a significant (p less than .04) negative relationship between chance locus of control and self-appraisals. Amounts and types of professional activities performed were not significantly related to loci of control or to learning styles.

INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION, INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES, GOAL DIFFICULTY, GOAL ACCEPTANCE, GOAL INSTRUMENTALITY, AND PERFORMANCE

A field study was conducted with 41 female typists in a large corporation to test an explanatory model of goal setting. Weekly productivity goals were either assigned by the supervisors or were set jointly with a typist. Goals were set for ten consecutive weeks. A correlational analysis of the data indicated that difficult goals led to higher performance. Higher performance led to higher absolute goals for the subsequent week, but smaller improvement goals. Persons with a high need for achievement and an internal control orientation set higher goals. Goal setting led to greater overall performance improvement for employees who had high self esteem or who perceived goal attainment to be instrumental for getting extrinsic rewards. Hypothesized relationships involving goal acceptance were not supported, which may have been due to a lack of validity for the goal acceptance measure.

Achievement Need, Salary Grade, Age, and Sex among Bank Employees

This smdy concerned the part played by achievement motivation in the careers of bank employees. Subjects were 27 women and 10 men employed by a large metropolitan bank in San Francisco. The measure of achievement motivation employed was the NachNaff scale developed by Lindgren (1976). The scale has 30 pairs of self-descriptive adjectives. One adjective in each pair describes behavior consistent with achievement-related behavior, whereas the orher describes affiliation-relard behavior. The respondent is asked to select the adjective in each pair which is the more descriptive of his usual behavior. Subjects completed the NachNaff scale anonymously and also reported their sex, age, and monthly salary. Ages ranged from under 20 to 55 yr., with means of 28 for women and 30 for men, and monthly salaries ranged from $650 to $2000, with means of $1250 for women and $1335 for men. An analysis of the scores of the NachNaff scale showed clear sex differences in achievement motivation. for the mean for women was 15.41 (SD 5.85) and the mean for men was 19.1 (SD 5.4). These means are significantly higher (p < .OI) than those reported by Lindgren for samples of community college and university smdents which ranged from 11.17 to 13.57. The differences in means between bank employees and college students are consistent with McClelland's (1961) analyses, which would lead one to expect that people in business would be more competitive and achievement-oriented than those in the academic world. but the expected relationship between achievement motivation and economic did not appear within the context of the bank in auestion. The Pearsonian correlation between the achievement motivation of the women employees and their salary grade was an insignificant -.06, and a correlation of -.64 (p < .05)-the opposite of what might be expected-was found for the men. Women's salaries were, however, significantly correlated .62 (p < .01) with age while the correlation of .50 for men was not statistically significant. Correlations of achievement motivation with age were nonsignificant: -.I8 for women and -.36 for men. One can only speculate about the surprising negative correlation between xhievement motivation and salary for the men. It may be that affiliation-rype motives, as characterized by cooperation, support, and trust, are more consistent with success in banking than is achievement behavior, as characterized by competitiveness, opportunism, and assertiveness. Perhaps younger, more achievement-oriented employees are discouraged and drop our. Or it may be thar male employees, who initially have high need for achievement, find this need diminished with succeeding promotions.

Birth Order, Graduate School, and Marriage

The results from previous research have shown that firstborn children have both higher needs for achievement and greater needs for affiliation than do later borns. Sampson (1962) found a higher achievement need (see McClelland, 1961) among firstborns than Later borns, and Schachter (1963) discovered that firstborns are over-represented in graduate schools, a finding which also suggests that firstborns have a higher need for achievement. In addition, Schachter (1959) demonstrated that firstborn children showed more evidence of affiliative behavior in response to the arousal of anxiety or distress than later born children, and Smart (1965) found a greater need for affiliation among firstborn males which was reflected in a greater number of club memberships. The present study investigated whether or not firstborns are more likely to be married than later borns while in college. Since early marriage might interfere with long-range options and career plans and limit freedom of movement or mobility, the higher need for achievement of firstborns suggests that they should delay gratification longer and postpone marriage for more years than larer borns. The higher need for affiliation, on the other hand, of firstborns would suggest that they should more likely be married, since marriage is one form of affiliative behavior. The present study tested this hypothesis, and replicated Schacter's (1963) findings of over-representation of firstborns in graduate school. Questionnaires were given to a random sample of 300 married students (276 males, 24 females) attending rhe University of Missouri at Rolla which for the most part consisted of science and engineering majors. Subjects indicated order of birth (first, second, third, etc.) and sex. Thus, the only children were classified with the firstborns and factors such as number of children in the family, age differences between siblings, and the sex of the nearest sibling were not considered. The same questionnaire was also given to a random sample of 143 graduate students (138 males, 5 females) to see if Schachter's (1963) findings of over-representation of firstborns in graduate school could be replicated within this particular specialized, i.e., science and engineering, population of subjects. The results for married students indicated that only 56 6% ( 136 out of 276) married males were firstborn and that only 11 o ut of 24 (45 8% 'i;) married females were firstborn. Since 43% of the general population are firstborn or only children, these results do not differ significantly from chance for either males (x' = .55, df = 1) or females (x' = .17, df = 1). The results for graduate students indicated that 88% of the males (121 out of 138) were firstborns (x3 = 113.81, df = 1, p < .001). Among females, 100% were firstborn (5 out of 5), but the sample size is too small for conclusions. Combining the results for all graduate students. 88.1% were firstborn. While firstborns were tremendously over-represented in graduate school (a confirmation of Schachter's results), they probably did not differ from later borns with regard to being married while in college.

Psycho-Social Study of Outstanding Female Athletes

Abstract This was an ex post facto analysis of the life histories of 24 Olympic female champions to determine events and variables in the psychological and social driving forces behind outstanding achievement in sports. The data were gathered by personal interviews, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (epps), and a Data Questionnaire. The analysis of the clinical data revealed some developmental dynamics that seemed to characterize all subjects: a deep desire to excel, early goal-setting, and the ability to follow through on these goals, a strong self-concept, well-developed heterosexuality, and parents who were supportive and had high expectations for their daughters. The analysis of the epps data revealed two pronounced psychological variables: a high need for achievement and high need for autonomy. The personality profile of the group showed a balanced curve, indicating emotional stability and normal personal adjustment.

Need for Achievement and Competitiveness as Determinants of Political Party Success in Elections and Coalitions

Need for achievement and strategic predispositions among political party elites are hypothesized to have an important impact on the success parties enjoy in elections and in coalitions. More specifically, this study develops and tests a model which suggests that parties whose leaders have high need for achievement and are predisposed to pursue a mixed competitive/cooperative strategy are more likely to do well in elections and in coalitions than are parties whose leaders are low in need for achievement and oriented to either cooperative or competitive strategies.When the Indian political party system between 1967 and 1971 is used as the data base, the success or failure of political parties is correctly predicted by need for achievement for thirteen out of fourteen variables. By means of multiple regression analysis, as much as seventy-two per cent of the variance in the electoral success of Indian parties is explained by the model.

Motivation and the Recall of Completed and Incompleted Achievement Items

On the basis of previous research and theoretical considerations, the recall of completed and incompleted items in an examination situation was studied as a function of individual differences in repression-sensitization tendencies and resultant achievement motivation (need-for-achievement minus fear-of-failure). The Zeigarnik effect, that is, the greater recall of incompleted over completed tasks was found to be significantly more frequent in Ss of high than low resultant achievement motivation, but no difference was found between repressors and sensitizers in this effect. Results supported Atkinson's theoretical analysis of achievement motivation and task recall but did not sup port a repression analysis. No significant level-of-aspiration differences were obtained between Ss high or low in resultant achievement motivation or between repressors and sensitizers. THE ZEIGARNIK effect refers to the phe nomenon of greater recall of interrupted or in completed tasks than uninterrupted or completed tasks reported by Zeigarnik (9). The subject in the Zeigarnik paradigm is given a number of tasks to perform and is interrupted before finish ing some of them, and is subsequently admin istered an unexpected test of recall for both the incompleted (I) and completed (C) tasks. Al though Zeigarnik reported greater recall of I than C tasks, not all investigators have obtained com parable results. Atkinson (1) partially resolved the reported differences by pointing out that im portant sample differences between studies may have been producing the divergent results. He demonstrated that in achievement-oriented con texts individuals high in need-for-achievement recall more I than C tasks, whereas, persons low in need-for-achievement but relatively high in fear of failure recall more C than I tasks. An analysis of the samples used in prior conflicting research suggested that anxiety differences were signifi cant. Atkinson's argument for greater I than C recall by high need-for-achievement Ss was that the recall of I tasks is seen by the high need-for achievement S as important to the attainment of achievement-related goals. The opposite result is expected for persons low in need-for-achievement as they avoid achievement-related goals. Weiner, Johnson, Mehrabian (8) investigated the hypothesis that the recall of completed and in completed tasks is a function of achievement motivation, but rather than use laboratory-type tasks, they utilized the real-life situation of a final examination, which they argued should maximize aroused achievement motivation and task involvement, and therefore magnify previous findings . (8:181-182). Following the final exam, Ss were tested unexpectedly for recall of the exam items. They had at a previous time been administered measures of resultant achievement motivation, that is, need-for-achievement minus anxiety or fear-of-failure. It was found that Ss high in resultant achievement motivation recalled a greater percentage of I (failed) than C (passed) items on the test, and also demonstrated a greater Zeigarnik effect than Ss low in resultant achieve ment motivation. The recall differences were at tributed to the greater recall of failed items by the high motivation Ss. Level of aspiration on the test was also measured and was found to be a function of resultant achievement motivation only when this variable was measured by a pro jects ve test rather than a self-report question naire.

Future Time Perspectives of Americans and Subcultures in India

Earlier studies using projective tests showed that Americans wrote significantly more stories with future themes than did a comparable Indian sample. The present study tested samples from 7 Indian subcultures which have different family traditions. Ss were presented with 4 present tense sentences with 4 themes (economic, educational, occupational, and political, respectively) and asked to develop a story following from them. Kshatriyas, Sikhs and Parsees as well as Americans tended to write stories with future themes, while Brahmins, Vasiyas, Sudras and Muslims wrote stories with past themes. Also, the former groups had a higher need for achievement than the latter groups. It is suggested that measures of time perspective can profitably be used for assessing strength of motivation.