Psychology Commons^™

Exploring The Feasibility Of Assessing Cultural Competence In Police Officers, Sydney L. Reichin, Alexander T. Jackson, Mark C. Frame, Michael Hein

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Pathology, personality, and integrity-related construct assessments have been widely used in the selection of police officers. However, the incidence of police brutality and misconduct is still concerning. The present study explored the feasibility of the assessment of cultural competence in police officers. We explored the extent to which the change to the agency’s first ever Black CEO would affect cultural competence of the officers as well as incidence of misconduct. Results showed that scores on a cultural competence factor of an in-basket simulation used for promotional assessments at a state highway patrol agency were not predictive of either supervisor-rated performance …

Applicant Justice Perceptions Of Machine Learning Algorithms In Personnel Selection, Megan Warrenbrand

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Machine-learning artificial intelligence algorithms provide organizations with the opportunity to quickly and efficiently process information about potential employees while reducing costs associated with selection and turnover. However, any bias or error present in the programming of such algorithms as a result of information drawn from historically biased data is evident in the resulting output (Illingworth, 2015). Recently, applicants have expressed growing fairness and equity concerns about the risks associated with the use of algorithms in selection processes. The present quasi-experiment analyzed applicant reactions to selection processes to understand whether machine learning algorithms or human hiring decision-makers influence perceptions of fairness …

Is It Complicated? Validity Of Personality Interactions For Predicting Performance, Jacob C. Bradburn, Ann Marie Ryan, Anthony Boyce, Tamera Mckinniss, Jason Way

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Research on personality within the organizational sciences and for employee selection typically focuses on main effects, as opposed to interactive effects between personality variables. Large, multi-organizational datasets involving two different measures of personality were examined to test theoretically driven trait by trait interactions in predicting job performance. Interactive effects of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extraversion, Extraversion and Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness were hypothesized as predicting overall job performance. However, these hypothesized effects were generally not supported. Implications for personality assessment are discussed.

Social Media Posts About Racism Leads To Evaluative Backlash For Black Job Applicants, Simon Howard, Kalen Kennedy, Francisco Tejeda

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Black Americans post about race and race-related issues on social media more than any other racial group. In this study, we investigated whether Black Americans who post about racism on social networking sites (i.e., Facebook) experience evaluative backlash during the employee selection process. Participants (N = 154) were given a Black job candidate’s cover letter, resume, and a scanned printout of their social media. Depending on what condition they were randomly assigned to, the applicant’s social media contained posts about racism or posts that were race neutral. Results indicated that Black individuals whose posts were about racism were evaluated …

Does X Mark The Applicant? Assessing Reactions To Gender Non-Binary Job Seekers, Kelly Mason Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses

The number of individuals who identify as a non-binary gender has almost tripled over the last 10 years. This growing population, and the legal protection against sex discrimination afforded to them under Title VII, puts a responsibility on employers to better understand their experiences in the workplace. The purpose of the current study was to examine how disclosing a non-binary gender identity when applying for jobs influenced hiring outcomes. Specifically, my study assessed (a) hiring managers' beliefs about non-binary gender identities, (b) how those beliefs impacted hiring managers' perceived ability to provide social support to prospective applicants, and (c) how …

Effects Of Personality Retesting On Validity Coefficients As Moderated By Situational Strength, Daniel R. Abben

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The use of valid selection tests enables organizations to better select employees who have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are necessary for success. While cognitive ability tests are one of the best predictors of performance, they have well-known limitations. Specifically, they can result in adverse impact, and there is clear evidence of retest effects. The use of personality tests, when included in a selection battery, can ameliorate adverse impact and can provide incremental validity. Personality tests, however, also have limitations. Namely, they can be faked, the construct can be measured in various ways (i.e., there are myriad …

Hexaco Personality Predicts Counterproductive Work Behavior And Organizational Citizenship Behavior In Low-Stakes And Job Applicant Contexts, Jeromy Anglim, Filip Lievens, Lisa Everton, Sharon L. Grant, Andrew Marty

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examined the degree to which the predictive validity of personality declines in job applicant settings. Participants completed the 200-item HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised, either as part of confidential research (347 non-applicants) or an actual job application (260 job applicants). Approximately 18-months later, participants completed a confidential survey measuring organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). There was evidence for a small drop in predictive validity among job applicants, however honesty-humility, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness predicted lower levels of CWB and higher levels of OCB in both job applicants and non -applicants. The study also informs the use …

The Impact Of Leader Race And Gender On Perceptions Of Organizations In Response To Corporate Error, Nicolas Derek Brown

Dissertations and Theses

Prior research has demonstrated that CEO behavior influences how people perceive corporations and that CEOs associated with controversy can damage corporate reputations. Research also illustrates that attitudes based on prescribed racial and gender characteristics render Black and female CEOs as incongruent with leadership positions. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of two different corporate errors as justification factors leading to prejudicial evaluations of leaders with stigmatized identities (e.g., race and gender), with a particular emphasis on the intersection of race and gender on leader- and organization-based evaluations. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 12 corporate …

Word Counts In Response To Cognitively Demanding Essay Prompts As Reflections Of General Cognitive Ability And Broad Cognitive Abilities, Michael Beaumont Armstrong

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Natural language processing techniques can be used to analyze text and speech data. These techniques have been applied within many domains to date but have only recently been examined in the domain of personnel assessment. By linking workplace-relevant constructs such as general cognitive ability (GCA) to natural language processing outcomes such as word counts, a foundation for language-based psychological assessment of those abilities can be laid. Over 400 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to write cognitively demanding essays and complete a battery of cognitive tests. Essays were analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). Structural equation modeling …

Predicting Score Change: An Empirical Investigation Of Cheating On Unproctored Employment Tests, Katelyn J. Cavanaugh

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Unproctored internet testing (UIT) is used widely to administer employment tests (Fallaw, Solomonson, & McClelland, 2009), although cognitively loaded tests delivered by UIT are suspected to offer test takers greater opportunities to cheat and increase the risk of test taker cheating (Chapman & Webster, 2003; Tippins et al., 2006; Tippins, 2009). Despite the wide use and suspected cheating concerns, there is a dearth of research investigating cheating on cognitively loaded UITs (Naglieri et al., 2004; Beaty et al., 2011). Based on the lack of theoretically-grounded empirical studies, the current study had two goals: (1) identify which cheating methods are used …

The Effects Of Selection System Characteristics And Privacy Needs On Procedural Justice Perceptions: An Investigation Of Social Networking Data In Employee Selection, Rachel C. Callan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Privacy violations have been suggested as an important variable in procedural justice perceptions, but the nature of this relationship is not well understood. Privacy has been investigated as a precursor to overall justice perceptions, but to date no published research investigates the role of privacy in the Gilliland procedural justice model (1993), one of the most influential procedural justice models in the literature. This dissertation explored this relationship by applying the Gilliland model to a situation rife with potential privacy issues: the use of social networking site information in employee selection. As in Gilliland’s model, selection system characteristics altered procedural …

Video Killed The Interview Star: Does Picture-In-Picture Affect Interview Performance?, Ryan G. Horn, Tara S. Behrend

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Although technology-mediated selection interviews have become more prevalent in practice, research on this phenomenon has failed to keep pace. One pressing need is to understand the dimensions upon which technology-mediated interviews might differ from one another. Particular aspects of synchronous video technology may negatively affect interviewees and those negative effects may be exacerbated by the evaluative nature of the interview. We explored this question by investigating the effects that one such aspect, the picture-in-picture window, has on interviewees. This study used a 2 (picture-in-picture vs. no picture-in-picture) x 2 (evaluative framing vs. non-evaluative framing) between-subjects experimental design to test the …

Predicting Employee Performance Using Text Data From Resumes, Joshua D. Weaver

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Text analytics using term frequency was proposed as an extension of biodata for predicting job performance and addressing criticisms of biodata and predictor methods—that they do not identify the constructs they are measuring or their predictive elements. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software was used to analyze and sort text into validated categories. Prolific Academic was used to recruit full-time workers who provided a copy of their resume and were assessed on impression management (IM), cognitive ability, and job performance. Predictive analyses used resumes with 100+ words (n = 667), whereas correlational analyses used the full sample (N …

Practical Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, And Social Intelligence, Filip Lievens, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the years, practical intelligence, social intelligence, and especially emotional intelligence have received substantial attention in both the academic and practitioner literatures. However, at the same time, these individual dierence “constructs” have also fueled controversies and criticisms, including their applications to employee selection. It is without doubt that their definition, dimensionality, and operationalization (measurement) have been much more questioned as compared to the more traditional or established constructs (i.e., cognitive ability, personality) in this section of the Handbook.

Threat Of Technological Unemployment: Are Hiring Managers Discounted For Using Standardized Employee Selection Practices?, Kevin P. Nolan, Nathan T. Carter, Dev K. Dalal

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Two studies were conducted to examine the tenability of Meehl’s (1986) “threat of technological unemployment” explanation for why practitioners of employee selection resist using standardized decision-making practices. The results of Study 1 support the existence of this threat by demonstrating that practitioners received less credit for the outcomes of employment decisions when structured rather than unstructured interviews were used to evaluate candidates and analytical rather than holistic data combination was used to determine candidates’ overall evaluations. The results of Study 2 support the influence of this threat on employee selection by demonstrating that practitioners recognized the effects using the standardized …

Cognitive Ability And Computer Simulation, Charles C. Buford

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

General Mental Ability (GMA) is the single strongest predictor of future work performance currently available. Tests of GMA used for selection purposes carry potential for adverse impact if used as a primary tool for employee selection; however, a factor of GMA known as Fluid Intelligence (Gf) should represent a more equitable assessment construct. Computer simulations appear to offer some beneficial attributes for selection purposes, but potential negative effects of GMA assessment may carry over to the new medium. In this study, I successfully used a computer simulated game to approximate two tests of Gf with a study of both pilot …

Alternative Predictors For Dealing With The Diversity-Validity Dilemma In Personnel Selection: The Constructed Response Multimedia Test, Britt De Soete, Filip Lievens, Janneke Oostrom, Lena Westerveld

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the context of the diversity-validity dilemma in personnel selection, the present field study compared ethnic subgroup differences on an innovative constructed response multimedia test to other commonly used selection instruments. Applicants (N=245, 27% ethnic minorities) for entry-level police jobs completed a constructed response multimedia test, cognitive ability test, language proficiency test, personality inventory, structured interview, and role play. Results demonstrated minor ethnic subgroup differences on constructed response multimedia test scores as compared to other instruments. Constructed response multimedia test scores were related to the selection decision, and no evidence for predictive bias was found. Subgroup differences were also examined …

Hedonic Prediction And Likeability Effects In Evaluating Biodata For Selection, Peggy Tyler

All Dissertations

Employees involved in the selection process for new co-workers are conventionally thought to be acting as agents for the interests of the hiring organization. But do individuals act as effective surrogates or are they making emotional predictions about their own personal compatibility with a potential colleague that influence their subsequent judgments? Three interlinking studies examined this question. First, a meta-analysis of the relationship between likeability and hireability was conducted in order to determine the effect size for the relationship between likeability and hiring. A corrected effect size of .60 indicated that likeability was a substantial factor in hiring, but there …

Usability Of Unproctored Internet Testing: Needs Of Older Applicants, Leslie Ann Hagen

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to contribute to bridging the gap between research and practice by investigating the particular usability and design issues that impact applicant perceptions when using unproctored testing, particularly the potentially unique reactions of older applicants. Age was also used as a variable to determine if it moderates applicant perceptions of procedural justice, organizational attraction and intentions toward the organization when taking an unproctored test.

Does Sacrificial Leadership Have To Hurt? The Realities Of Putting Others First, Rob Mckenna, Terran Brown

SPU Works

Sacrificial leadership has generally been associated with positive outcomes for organizations and employees. While it is often desired by organizations, we suggest that current organizational systems often fail to promote sacrificial behaviors. We present a new perspective sacrificial leadership that includes character-based elements such as humility, a willingness to calculate the cost of leading and the courage to be irrelevant in the presence of systems that pressure leaders to behave otherwise. We discuss how these elements are often not encouraged in current selection, employee development, and succession planning processes.

Mixed Signals At The Intersection The Effect Of Organizational Composition On Ratings Of Black Women's Management Suitability, Laticia D. Bowens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historically, Black women‘s workplace experiences have been understudied, partially due to an implicit assumption that their experiences are subsumed by research on Black men and/or White women. This oversight is even more evident in the field of management. However, considerable attention has been given to the debate about whether Black women are at a double advantage (i.e., as supposed affirmative action ―two-for-one bargains‖) or at a double disadvantage due to their double marginalizing characteristics. Empirical research in the area has found support for each side, furthering the debate, but also advancing an overly simplistic explanation for a set of experiences …

Assessing The Cost Of Underperformance: A Computer Programmer Example

L. A. Witt

No abstract provided.

Should You Hire Fluffybunny61@Yahoo.Com?: An Analysis Of Job Applicants' Email Addresses And Their Scores On Pre-Employment Assessments, Evan Blackhurst

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In an age where electronic mail is displacing traditional mail, email addresses are functioning as names, and names can be the basis of first impressions. What can be said about someone who applies for a job using an inappropriate email address (i.e. babyslayer666@mail.com)? The aim of this study was to determine if there are differences in job qualifications (as determined by pre-employment tests) between individuals who use appropriate email addresses to apply for jobs and individuals who use inappropriate email addresses. This study analyzed applicant email addresses in two ways. First, subject matter experts (SMEs) subjectively rated each email address …

Improving The Adverse Impact And Validity Trade-Off In Paraeto Optimal Composites A Comparison Of Weights Developed On Contextual Vs Task Performance, Howin Tsang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research in reducing adverse impact in personnel selection has focused on the use of various weighting schemes to balance levels of adverse impact and the validity of selection processes. De Corte Lievens & Sackett (2007) suggested the use of the normal boundary intersection method to create a number of weights that optimize adverse impact and criterion validity. This study seeks to improve the efficacy of this solution by looking at specific types of performance, namely task and contextual performance. It will investigate whether a focus on contextual performance will improve the trade-off by requiring smaller losses in validity for …

Predictors Of Task And Contextual Performance: Frame-Of-Reference Effects And Applicant Reaction Effects On Selection System Validity, John Hunthausen

Dissertations and Theses

An employment process suprasystem contains human resource-related systems such as training, recruitment, performance appraisal, and personnel selection. Similarly, a personnel selection system consists of interdependent subsystems that work together to manifest its properties (e.g., the acquisition of qualified and high-potential individuals). Finally, each of these complex subsystems (e.g., applicant reactions to selection methods) have interdependent elements (e.g., procedural and distributive justice) that work together to manifest the properties of the subsystem (e.g., applicant fairness perceptions).

This dissertation takes such a systems approach to understanding the complexities of a personnel selection system to explore the interactions among three of its subsystems: …

Using A Realistic Job Preview To Communicate Organizational Culture, Johanna Glode

Dissertations and Theses

The present study sought to determine how organizational culture information could best be presented to job applicants for the purpose of attracting employees who will fit into an organization's culture. Attraction to the organization's culture was hypothesized to influence applicant self-selection into the company. Two different types of Realistic Job Previews (RJPs), semantic and episodic, were compared in their ability to convey information accurately about a hypothetical organizational culture. Participant knowledge of the culture was hypothesized to align objective, or actual, fit with subjective perceptions of fit.

Knowledge of the organization's culture, objective fit, subjective fit, attractiveness of the culture, …

The Effects Of A Realistic Job Preview On An Applicant's Ability To Self-Select Into Organizations, Melissa Lynn Burton

Dissertations and Theses

In typical selection processes organizations gather information about an applicant. Rarely, however, do applicants collect equal information about the job or organization. This unequal exchange can inhibit an applicant's participation in the selection process. Studies have shown that realistic job previews (RJPs) positively influence applicants' job expectations, job satisfaction, turnover, self-selection, etc. Applicant self-selection can benefit both the organization and the applicant in terms of time, money, and energy required during the selection process and after organizational entry.

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between RJPs and self-selection. The study assessed the influence of a …

Job Applicants' Age, Gender, And Exercise Lifestyle As Determinants Of Evaluations Of Hiring Application Forms, Sally Allene Kaiser

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Attention To Irrelevant Information On Personnel Selection, Travis Ralph Gibbs

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Person Perception And The Employment Interview: The Impact Of Facial Features In The Employee Selection Process, Susan C. Muller

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that the structural makeup of the face influences the manner by which individuals perceive others and attribute characteristics to them. In addition, support has been provided for the hypothesis that nonverbal cues significantly influence an interviewer's perception of a job candidate and the pending hiring decision. Taken together, this study hypothesized that the nonverbal cues emitted from the structural makeup of the face would impact the decision to hire and the perceptions of the job applicant's personality. It was also expected that variations in facial structure would influence an employer's decision in hiring the applicant for …