The call for an increased role of replication, extension, and mixed‐methods study designs in organizational research

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2059
• Published date: 01 April 2016
• Date: 01 April 2016
• Author: Thomas A. Wright,Dennis A. Sweeney

The call for an increased role of replication,

extension, and mixed-methods study designs in

organizational research

THOMAS A. WRIGHT

1

*AND DENNIS A. SWEENEY

2

1

Management Systems Area, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, U.S.A.

2

Richardson, Texas, U.S.A.

Summary Examples from previously published work by the lead author on the role of employee health indicators on

individual and organizational outcomes provide an intriguing backdrop through the use of illustration for sug-

gesting some of the many benefits obtained by the incorporation of replication, extension, and mixed-methods

study designs in organizational research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: emotional exhaustion; psychological well-being; replication; job performance; mixed methods

Not all ideas and data get publ ished. In the present scientific culture, novel and positive results are considered more publish-

able than replications and negative results.

Nosek & Lakens, 2014: 137

While replication evidence has long been called a gold standard by which scientific claims are evaluated, rep-

lication research remains rare in the social and organizational sciences (Bonett, 2012). Just how rare is evidenced

by Makel, Plucker, and Hegarty’s (2012) informative analysis of the complete publication history of the top 100

psychology journals with the highest 5-year impact factors. Makel et al. found the low overall replication rate of

just 1.07 percent. Sadly, it appears that top applied psychology and business journals have replication publication

rates in the 1–2 percent range as well. A case in point is the reported replication rate of 1.11 percent for the Jour-

nal of Applied Psychology. As a point of reference, the replication rate for the Journal of Organizational Behavior

was higher at 1.75 percent but still well within the 1–2 percent range.

This lack of replication does not seem to be of concern for such journals as the Academy of Management Jour-

nal. While famous for the often stated “expectation that every submission [to AMJ] will make a theoretical con-

tribution”(Eden, 2002, p. 842), this policy no doubt inhibits replication research and quite possibly “pressures

researchers into devising novel, one-time theoretical models that really do not amount to much and may never

be used again.”Interestingly, this “no replication”policy has not led to a noticeable increase in the use of exten-

sion and mixed-methods study designs. This is unfortunate as replication, extension, and mixed-methods research

designs provide a viable path to the accumulation of scientific understanding. Just how viable this path to knowl-

edge accumulation might be is suggested by two examples from previously published work by the lead author on

the importance of employee well-being indicators on such individual and organizational outcomes as cardiovas-

cular health, job performance, and employee retention.

The first example by Wright, Cropanzano, Bonett, and Diamond (2009) examined the role of psychological

well-being (PWB) in predicting employee cardiovascular health and highlights the need for replication in organi-

zational research. Our second example, Wright and Cropanzano’s (1998) examination of the role of employee

*Correspondence to: Thomas A. Wright, Management Systems Area, Fordham University, Bronx, New York 10458, U.S.A. E-mail: twright17@

fordham.edu

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 21 September 2015, Accepted 22 September 2015

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 37, 480–486 (2016)

Published online 27 October 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2059

The Incubator