JournalTOCs

Personnel Assessment and Decisions
Number of Followers: 2

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2377-8822
Published by Bowling Green State University

[5 journals]

SPECIAL ISSUE - CALL FOR PAPERS: Understanding Effects of Impression
Management on Assessment Outcomes
- Authors: Neil Christiansen et al.
  PubDate: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 14:01:27 PDT
A New Perspective to Measuring Employee Growth: Developing a Successful
Aging at Work Scale
- Authors: Stanimira K. Taneva et al.
  Abstract: The aging of the world’s population has become a grand societal challenge, which requires an urgent response from researchers, professionals, and the wider society. One way to respond to this challenge is by supporting individuals in sustaining longer and healthier working lives, that is, age successfully. Although the advantages of promoting and enabling successful aging at work have been widely acknowledged, no single instrument for measuring this construct has been published so far. We develop and test in three consecutive samples a two-dimensional successful aging at work scale. This novel instrument is rooted conceptually in the most recent theoretical developments and is applicable to a variety of work settings and groups of workers. It can be used by both employees and employers for the purposes of individual and organizational development. We also propose directions for future research.
  PubDate: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:26:29 PST
Behavioral Assessment of Expert Talent Competencies: Analysis, Decision
Making, and Written and Verbal Communication Skills
- Authors: Homayoon Kord et al.
  Abstract: Organizations face challenges of screening applicants for critical skills to serve in expert staff positions requiring interactions with line managers. Such positions require a special set of cognitive and interpersonal competencies. This study investigates the psychometric qualities of a new behavioral assessment method in use in an applied setting. Using data from a group of 219 finalists for positions in a large Iranian steel company, it examined the validity and fairness of the method in relation to other test and demographic information. Results showed evidence of convergent and discriminant validity and no discrimination against women or older candidates. The study contributes to a clearer understanding of expert competencies and a practical method for assessing and training such competencies. Next steps and future needs are identified.
  PubDate: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:26:25 PST
Initial Reliability and Validity for the Critical Hire® - Screen
- Authors: Tony Tatman et al.
  Abstract: Although the use of integrity testing during the application process has become a frequent practice in general business settings, their use has been rather nonexistent in the field of corrections. This limited use may stem from a lack of awareness about integrity tests in corrections, as well as a lack of integrity measures that have been normed and validated for use with correctional applicants. This study outlines the development, reliability, and validity for the Critical Hire®-Screen (CH-S), an overt integrity assessment measure developed for probation, parole, and other correctional officer job applicants. Four separate studies were conducted and provide evidence for the internal consistency, test‒retest reliability, and convergent validity for the CH-S. Results provide initial support for correctional agencies to use the tool to measure various traits of integrity at a pre-offer phase in the hiring process.
  PubDate: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:26:21 PST
Some Advice for Psychologists Who Want to Work With Computer Scientists on
Big Data
- Authors: Cornelius J. König et al.
  Abstract: This article is based on conversations from the project “Big Data in Psychological Assessment” (BDPA) funded by the European Union, which was initiated because of the advances in data science and artificial intelligence that offer tremendous opportunities for personnel assessment practice in handling and interpreting this kind of data. We argue that psychologists and computer scientists can benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration. This article aims to inform psychologists who are interested in working with computer scientists about the potentials of interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as the challenges such as differing terminologies, foci of interest, data quality standards, approaches to data analyses, and diverging publication practices. Finally, we provide recommendations preparing psychologists who want to engage in collaborations with computer scientists. We argue that psychologists should proactively approach computer scientists, learn computer scientific fundamentals, appreciate that research interests are likely to converge, and prepare novice psychologists for a data-oriented scientific future.
  PubDate: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:26:16 PST
Situational Judgment Tests: An Overview of Development Practices and
Psychometric Characteristics
- Authors: Deborah L. Whetzel et al.
  Abstract: Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are popular assessment methods often used for personnel selection and promotion. SJTs present problem scenarios to examinees, who then evaluate each response option for addressing the issue described in the scenario. As guidance for practitioners and researchers alike, this paper provides experience- and evidence-based best practices for developing SJTs: writing scenarios and response options, creating response instructions, and selecting a response format. This review describes scoring options, including key stretching and within-person standardization. The authors also describe research on psychometric issues that affect SJTs, including reliability, validity, group differences, presentation modes, faking, and coaching.
  PubDate: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 09:26:12 PST
Crowdsourcing Job Satisfaction Data: Examining the Construct Validity of
Glassdoor.com Ratings
- Authors: Richard N. Landers et al.
  Abstract: Researchers, practitioners, and job seekers now routinely use crowdsourced data about organizations for both decision-making and research purposes. Despite the popularity of such websites, empirical evidence regarding their validity is generally absent. In this study, we tackled this problem by combining two curated datasets: (a) the results of the 2017 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), which contains facet-level job satisfaction ratings from 407,789 US federal employees, and which we aggregated to the agency level, and (b) current overall and facet ratings of job satisfaction of the federal agencies contained within FEVS from Glassdoor.com as scraped from the Glassdoor application programming interface (API) within a month of the FEVS survey’s administration. Using these data, we examined convergent validity, discriminant validity, and methods effects for the measurement of both overall and facet-level job satisfaction by analyzing a multitrait-multimethod matrix (MTMM). Most centrally, we provide evidence that overall Glassdoor ratings of satisfaction within US federal agencies correlate moderately with aggregated FEVS overall ratings (r = .516), supporting the validity of the overall Glassdoor rating as a measure of overall job satisfaction aggregated to the organizational level. In contrast, the validity of facet-level measurement was not well-supported. Overall, given varying strengths and weaknesses with both Glassdoor and survey data, we recommend the combined use of both traditional and crowdsourced data on organizational characteristics for both research and practice.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:57:04 PST
“Where’s the I-O'” Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
in Talent Management Systems
- Authors: Manuel F. Gonzalez et al.
  Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have seen widespread adoption by organizations seeking to identify and hire high-quality job applicants. Yet the volume, variety, and velocity of professional involvement among I-O psychologists remains relatively limited when it comes to developing and evaluating AI/ML applications for talent assessment and selection. Furthermore, there is a paucity of empirical research that investigates the reliability, validity, and fairness of AI/ML tools in organizational contexts. To stimulate future involvement and research, we share our review and perspective on the current state of AI/ML in talent assessment as well as its benefits and potential pitfalls; and in addressing the issue of fairness, we present experimental evidence regarding the potential for AI/ML to evoke adverse reactions from job applicants during selection procedures. We close by emphasizing increased collaboration among I-O psychologists, computer scientists, legal scholars, and members of other professional disciplines in developing, implementing, and evaluating AI/ML applications in organizational contexts.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:56:59 PST
Developing Device-Equivalent and Effective Measures of Complex Thinking
with an Information Processing Framework and Mobile First Design
Principles
- Authors: Darrin M. Grelle et al.
  Abstract: Organizations are increasingly offering pre-employment assessments on mobile devices to evaluate candidates. The aim of this study is to investigate whether employing a mobile first responsive web design based on an information processing framework will result in device-equivalent measures of cognitive ability. Tests of numerical and deductive reasoning composed of interactive item types were tested for measurement equivalence across device types. Hypotheses were tested using data collected from paid participants over 3 weeks in 2018. Participants completed the test on both a PC and a mobile device. Paired samples t-tests indicated no mean differences in scores or number of items completed across device type. Additional analyses indicated that these item types demonstrated configural invariance and at least partial metric and scalar invariance across device types. The results of this study provide strong support that mobile first design can yield a valid and reliable test that can be used on any device and for any job level.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:56:54 PST
Validity Evidence for Off-the-Shelf Language-Based Personality Assessment
Using Video Interviews: Convergent and Discriminant Relationships with
Self and Observer Ratings
- Authors: Louis Hickman et al.
  Abstract: Technological advances have led to the development of automated methods for personnel assessment that are purported to augment or outperform human judgment. However, empirical research providing validity evidence for such techniques in the selection context remains scarce. In addressing this void, this study focuses on language-based personality assessments using an off-the-shelf, commercially available product (i.e., IBM Watson Personality Insights) in the context of video-based interviews. The scores derived from the language-based assessment were compared to self and observer ratings of personality to examine convergent and discriminant relationships. The language-based assessment scores showed low convergence with self-ratings for openness, and with self- and observer ratings for agreeableness. No validity evidence was found for extraversion and conscientiousness. For neuroticism, the patterns of correlations were in the opposite of what was theoretically expected, which raised a significant concern. We suggest more validation work is needed to further improve emerging assessment techniques and to understand when and how such approaches can appropriately be applied in personnel assessment and selection.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:56:48 PST
Fair and Flexible'! Explanations Can Improve Applicant Reactions
Toward Asynchronous Video Interviews
- Authors: Johannes M. Basch et al.
  Abstract: Asynchronous video interviews are used more and more for the preselection of potential job candidates. However, recent research has shown that they are less accepted by applicants than face-to-face interviews. Our study aimed to identify ways to improve perceptions of video interviews by using explanations that emphasize standardization and flexibility. Our results showed that an explanation stressing the higher level of standardization improved fairness perceptions, whereas an explanation stressing the flexibility concerning interview scheduling improved perceptions of usability. Additionally, the improvement of fairness perceptions eventually influenced perceived organizational attractiveness. Furthermore, older participants accepted video interviews less. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:56:44 PST
Introduction to the Special Issue on Advanced Technologies in Assessment:
A Science-Practice Concern
- Authors: Tara S. Behrend et al.
  PubDate: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:56:39 PST
The Impact of Suspect Descriptions in University Crime Reports on Racial
Bias
- Authors: Naomi M. Fa-Kaji et al.
  Abstract: Crime reports often include suspect descriptions to alert community members and aid in police investigations. However, vague descriptions of suspects with racial identifiers can potentially do more harm than good. We first conducted an archival study to examine the frequency of reporting suspect race, as well as the relationship between the inclusion of race and the likelihood that the suspect was caught. Then we conducted an experimental study to examine how reporting race may affect overt and subtle racial attitudes. We found no significant relationship between the racial identification of a suspect and the likelihood that the suspect was caught in our archival study. However, our findings from the experimental study demonstrate increased overt and subtle racial bias towards Black people when comparing participants who read a crime report with a Black suspect to those who read one about a suspect with no racial identification. Implications and future directions are discussed.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:18:25 PDT
Disability, Gender and Race: Does Educational Attainment Reduce Earning
Disparity for All or Just Some'
- Authors: David C. Baldridge et al.
  Abstract: Although interest in research on persons with disabilities has grown steadily, these individuals continue to encounter workplace discrimination and remain marginalized and understudied. We draw on human capital and discrimination theories to propose and test hypotheses on the effects of educational attainment on earnings (in)equality for persons with disabilities and the moderating influence of gender and race using 885,950 records, including 40,438 persons with disabilities from the American Community Survey 2015 (United States Census Bureau, 2015). Consistent with human capital theory, we find that persons with disabilities benefit from greater educational attainment, yet consistent with disability discrimination theories, we find evidence that they are less likely to convert educational gains for master’s and higher degrees into earning gains, and consistent with theories on multiple sources of discrimination, we find that women with disabilities may be doubly disadvantaged. These results, however, are mixed and complex. Considering the importance of harnessing diverse talent in organizations, we outline implications for research and practice toward reducing workplace discrimination.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:18:10 PDT
Examining Why and for Whom Reflection Diversity Training Works
- Authors: Alex P. Lindsey et al.
  Abstract: This research introduces a novel approach to diversity training by theoretically developing and empirically testing a model that considers a new training exercise aimed at improving proximal and distal pro-diversity outcomes. This new training exercise, reflection, is proposed to be effective at increasing pro-diversity attitudes and behaviors due to the promotion of one's internal motivations to respond without prejudice. Further, we test a critical trainee characteristic, social dominance orientation (SDO), as a boundary condition of our proposed effects. Results from an online experiment with two time points indicate that reflection can be an effective diversity training exercise and leads to better pro-diversity attitudes and behaviors through one's internal motivation to respond without prejudice. Social dominance orientation moderated these indirect effects, such that reflection was more effective for those high in SDO, counter to expectations. Implications of this research and future directions are discussed.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:17:54 PDT
Framing Matters: The Influence of Group-Image Threat on Reactions To
Affirmative Action Policies
- Authors: Kisha S. Jones et al.
  Abstract: Affirmative action (AA) attempts to rectify the institutional effects of prior employment discrimination toward minority groups. Although AA has played a large role in increasing workplace diversity, organizations may vary in their perspectives towards diversity itself, ranging from a sole focus on increasing diversity to appreciating the value diversity may add. Support for AA has been considered as a form of White identity management (Knowles, Lowery, Chow, & Unzueta, 2014) and is impacted by the extent to which White people experience group-image threat to their racial identity. Our findings suggest that the level of group-image threat experienced by White people impacts both their organizational trust and AA policy attitudes depending on whether the policy rationale was framed around rectifying past discrimination or highlighting the importance of diversity to the organization. These results have implications for how organizations can attract, maintain, and develop a workforce with White employees who value and support diversity.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:17:42 PDT
Motivations to Control Prejudice Bias Performance Feedback in
Developmental Relationships
- Authors: C. Malik Boykin et al.
  Abstract: In developmental relationships, providing accurate assessments of performance is necessary to maximize the developmental benefits for those receiving the feedback. Research suggests that performance assessments for underrepresented minorities are susceptible to biases related to out-group prejudice; however, little is known about the contributions of motivations to control prejudice, particularly in face-to-face settings. Addressing this, we examined the influences of internal and external motivations to control prejudice (IMS and EMS) on the positivity of White mentor’s feedback about their underrepresented minority mentee’s task performance. We analyzed video-recorded interactions between 56 randomly assigned cross-racial dyads, wherein mentees performed a speech task and were given subsequent face-to-face verbal feedback from their mentor. To gain comparatively unbiased assessments of feedback positivity and of mentee performance, we used independent coders. Using structural equation modeling, our results suggested that positivity of mentors’ feedback was uniquely predicted by both IMS and EMS over and above mentee performance.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:17:31 PDT
The Effects of Perspective Taking Implementing Intentions on Employee
Evaluations and Hostile Sexism
- Authors: Saaid A. Mendoza et al.
  Abstract: The current research examined whether gender bias in the workplace could be reduced through perspective taking implementation intentions, which are if–then statements that specify how to accomplish goals (Gollwitzer, 1999). Amazon MTurk participants (N = 180, 53% male) learned they would complete a two-step performance review for a consulting company. Prior to receiving a male or female employee’s record, all participants were given a goal strategy to be fair in their review, with half also receiving an if–then strategy that encouraged perspective taking. Participants rated the employee on three work related dimensions (skillset, performance, and traits), provided an overall promotion recommendation, and completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (Glick & Fiske, 1996). Although we did not find evidence of gender bias on the work measures, we found that the implementation intention strategy resulted in more positive employee evaluations overall and less hostile sexism than a simple goal strategy. We discuss the potential organizational benefits of employing perspective taking implementation intentions.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:17:18 PDT
Helping or Hurting': Understanding Women’s Perceptions of Male
Allies
- Authors: Shannon K. Cheng et al.
  Abstract: In the past decade, organizational scholars have begun to explore the role of allies in mitigating workplace discrimination toward women and members of minority groups. However, this nascent literature has, to this point, failed to consider the perspective of targets of ally behavior. That is, we do not yet know how targets of discrimination experience others’ intervention or advocacy. To begin to understand these issues, we examine target perceptions of allyship through a qualitative critical incident approach, asking women to describe experiences in which a man has effectively and ineffectively acted as an ally to them in the workplace. Our findings from surveying 100 women provide new insights regarding who engages in ally behaviors, what behaviors these allies enact, when and where the behaviors take place, and why participants believed their male ally engaged in this behavior.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:17:06 PDT
Reducing Interpersonal Discrimination for Pregnant Job Applicants Seeking
Professional Jobs
- Authors: Sarah Singletary Walker et al.
  Abstract: This study seeks to extend previous research on the experiences of pregnant job applicants from retail settings (see Botsford Morgan, Walker, Hebl, & King, 2013) to entry-level professional jobs. The current research utilized a 2 (expectant status: not pregnant, pregnant) x 4 (counterstereotypic information: control, competence, commitment, flexibility) betweensubjects factorial design to empirically test the relative efficacy of real, practical interventions designed to reduce the interpersonal discrimination (enhanced negativity and reduced positivity) that pregnant women may encounter when applying for entry-level professional jobs. Results reveal that pregnant job applicants experience more positive interactions when presenting information about their competence than when they say nothing. This study extends our understanding of manifestations of bias and its reduction with regard to pregnant workers applying for entry-level professional jobs.
  PubDate: Tue, 08 Oct 2019 10:16:55 PDT