Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Using Technology To Reduce The Burden Of Paperwork: Preliminary Lessons Learned From The Qic -Wd Virginia Site, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) partnered with the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) in 2017 to conduct research examining the efficacy of technology interventions aimed at reducing child welfare staff turnover and improving child welfare outcomes. Virginia is a state-supervised, countyadministered child welfare system. The state elected to study the implementation of and outcomes from job modernization technology interventions in 18 localities. These 18 localities represent a workforce of approximately 450 of the state’s 2,200 frontline staff. The intervention is occurring in multiple phases: (1) transcription services; (2) a mobility technology application; and (3) a Comprehensive …

The Impact Of Suspect Descriptions In University Crime Reports On Racial Bias, Naomi M. Fa-Kaji, Shannon K. Cheng, Mikki R. Hebl

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Disability, Gender And Race: Does Educational Attainment Reduce Earning Disparity For All Or Just Some?, David C. Baldridge, Mukta Kulkarni, Beatrix Eugster, Richard Dirmyer

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Examining Why And For Whom Reflection Diversity Training Works, Alex P. Lindsey, Eden King, Brittney Amber, Isaac Sabat, Afra S. Ahmad

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Framing Matters: The Influence Of Group-Image Threat On Reactions To Affirmative Action Policies, Kisha S. Jones, Anuradha Anantharaman, Anjali Bhatt

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Motivations To Control Prejudice Bias Performance Feedback In Developmental Relationships, C. Malik Boykin, Christine R. Smith

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

The Effects Of Perspective Taking Implementing Intentions On Employee Evaluations And Hostile Sexism, Saaid A. Mendoza, Jeanine L. M. Skorinko, Sarah A. Martin, Lauren E. Martone

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Helping Or Hurting?: Understanding Women’S Perceptions Of Male Allies, Shannon K. Cheng, Linnea C. Ng, Allison M. Traylor, Eden B. King

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

Reducing Interpersonal Discrimination For Pregnant Job Applicants Seeking Professional Jobs, Sarah Singletary Walker, Whitney Botsford Morgan

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

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 …

A Review Of Compensatory Strategies To Mitigate Bias, Oscar Holmes Iv, Gabrielle Lopiano, Erika V. Hall

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Experiences of bias and discrimination remain pernicious obstacles for many individuals. Both micro- and macro-level interventions are necessary to eliminate and/or mitigate these negative experiences. This review focuses on micro-level interventions, specifically, five types of compensatory strategies that targets can use to eliminate and/or mitigate the bias and discrimination they experience. In this manuscript, we synthesize the research on humor, avoidance, affiliation, enhancement, and social category label switching strategies; describe identities with which the strategies could be used; and highlight strengths and weaknesses of each of the strategies. Finally, we propose actionable directions for future research for each of the …

To Look Or Not To Look: Acknowledging Facial Stigmas In The Interview To Reduce Discrimination, Juan M. Madera, Mikki Hebl

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

As the use of technology-mediated interviews (e.g., Skype) is becoming a standard method to interview applicants, it is important to understand how discrimination can still manifest in these types of interviews. Because technology-mediated interviews focus on applicants’ faces, discrimination based on facial stigmas can be particularly inevitable. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to examine how a facial stigma affects visual attention during a technology-mediated interview and acknowledgment as a remediation strategy that individuals might use to reduce the amount of visual attention on a facial stigma. We used a 2 (acknowledge: yes or no) x 2 (target …

“Say It Loud, I’M Black And Proud:” The Effectiveness Of Racial Acknowledgments At Work, Enrica N. Ruggs, Sarah Singletary Walker, Abby Corrington, Christine L. Nittrouer

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Research underscores engagement in identity management strategies as an effective way to reduce workplace discrimination, particularly subtle forms of discrimination. The aim of the current study is to examine the use and effectiveness of different methods of the specific identity management strategy of acknowledging race as a way to reduce workplace discrimination and lead to other positive outcomes for Black individuals. A sample of Black and White individuals with professional work experience participated in an online vignettebased survey. Participants read four short vignettes involving race in the workplace and responded to a series of questions assessing usage of various acknowledgment …

Special Issue On Reducing Discrimination In The Workplace: An Introduction, Mikki Hebl, Juan M. Madera, Whitney Botsford Morgan

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

No abstract provided.

Understanding Competing Climates: A Theoretical Framework For Examining Service And Ethical Climates, Cristopher T. Huynh

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of work climate has expanded our understanding of how context impacts individuals in the workplace. While most climate research has focused on single- or multi-faceted organizational climates and how they directly impact the individual employee, little has been done to understand the influence of multiple, competing work climates on employee behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the multiple, competing climates perspective (Schneider et al., 2013) to better understand the influence of context on an employee’s work-related attitudes. This dissertation begins with a brief review of the climate literature and its existing challenges, highlighting the importance …

Workplace Bullying: A National Survey Of Dental Hygienists, Savannah Dawn Sundburg

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

Problem: Workplace bullying in health care affects career satisfaction, career longevity and patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if bullying was occurring in dental hygiene employment settings as well as its prevalence in a convenience sample of dental hygienists.

Methods: After IRB approval, 1200 subscribers to a professional dental hygiene journal were invited to participate. Employing the validated Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R), participants were asked to indicate how often they experienced 22 defined negative behaviors according to rate of occurrence (never, now and then or monthly, weekly or daily) over the past six months. Bullying was …

The Effect Of Differing Degrees Of Automation And Reliability On Simulated Luggage Screening Performance, Molly M. Liechty

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present work examined the effects of two types of decision support systems in a simulated luggage screening task: An input aid and an output aid. An input aid supports an operator’s information gathering. An output aid supports decision making and action selection. A Time-Accuracy Function (TAF) analysis was applied to isolate processing time from performance asymptote, which conventional performance measures such as sensitivity and response time do not distinguish one from the other. Sixty participants performed a luggage screening task unaided (manual condition), with the assistance of an input aid (spatial aid), and with the assistance of an output …

How Are You Preparing For Change Part 3, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.

Are You Serious About Change_Part 2, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Nasa Affordability Culture And Implications On Engineering Management, Jonathon Sullivan, Christopher White

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Introducing Virginia’S Mobile Solution, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) and the 18 local departments of social services (LDSS) identified the lack of technological supports to help child welfare workers complete the administrative tasks of their job as a cause of turnover. The Virginia site rolled out the first part of their intervention (transcription services) in 2018 and is now preparing to roll out a mobile application in late fall 2019. This one-page summary describes COMPASS, Virginia’s mobile app designed to make it easier for workers to manage the administrative aspects of their job.