Image Theory's Compatibility Test and Evaluations of the Status Quo

The research on image theory's concept of progress decisions about either (1) the acceptability of the status quo vis a desired state or (2) the acceptability of movement toward a desired state has been limited to the laboratory. To demonstrate the feasibility of research on nonlaboratory, job-related progress decisions and to develop methods for doing it with minimal intrusion on participant work time, two experiments examined evaluations of the status quo vis a desired state in the context of three organizations: a controller's office, a pretrial services office, and a chain of fast food restaurants. Experiment 1 used fairly elaborate, time consuming methods in the controller's office and pretrial services office to measure the compatibility between participants' images of desirable supervision and their images of current supervision as well as their satisfaction with both supervision and with the organization. In both cases, as compatibility decreased, satisfaction decreased, but satisfaction with the organization appeared to derive from satisfaction with supervision rather than directly from compatibility. Experiment 2 measured the same concepts in the fast food chain using simple, single-item methods, obtaining roughly the same results as Experiment 1, except that it also demonstrated that hope for change can mitigate the effects of incompatibility on satisfaction. These results provide evidence for the role of compatibility in decision making and for the feasibility of using simple methods of measuring compatibility, acceptability, and hope in nonlaboratory research. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.