Selden, Sally Coleman <br/><br/>
Work motivation in the senior executive service :  testing the high performance cycle theory 

 -  jul. 2000 
<br/><br/> Some scholars believe that more effort should be devoted to the development of a comprehensive theory of work motivation. Several candidate theories have been advanced in recent years, but they are radically differentand empirical testing is almost nonexistent. This article reports the first known effort to test one of these metatheories - the high performance cycle proposed by Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham. Specifically, we assess the empirical adequacy of the high performance cycle among senior federal executives, using attitudinal data from the U. S. Office of Personnel Management's 1991-1992 Survey of Federal Government Employees. The overall fit of the LISREL 8 model is good, and there is strong empirical support for the key hypothesized relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications and limitations of this research