Sheridan, J. E., & Slocum, J. W. (1977). Causal inferences in motivation research: A reinterpretation of results from panel studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62(4), 510-513.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.62.4.510
Presents a secondary analysis of the data reported in 3 previous studies (E. E. Lawler, 1968; E. E. Lawler and J. L. Suttle, 1973; J. Sheridan et al, 1975) on the causal relationships between an expectancy construct of motivation and job performance. Corrected cross-lagged correlations indicate that the previous statistical inferences of causality may have been artifact of varying measurement reliability and that the observed relationships were spurious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)