Adverse impact of assessment centers (May Applied Psych)

The May '08 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology is out with lots of great content. Unfortunately only one is directly related to recruitment and assessment, so let's check that one out then I'll give you links to some others that look interesting.

The study is Ethnic and gender subgroup differences in assessment center ratings: A meta-analysis by Dean, Roth, and Bobko. The authors found overall d-values of .52 for Black-White differences, .28 for Hispanic-White differences, and -.19 for male-female differences. (the second group in these comparisons performs better)

The results suggest that the Black-White difference is larger than previously thought but may be a more "diversity friendly" option for Hispanics and females.

There are some other great articles in here for fans of organizational behavior, including:

Subjective cognitive effort: A model of states, traits, and time. (which, by the way, suggests another reason why conscientiousness may predict job performance)

Early predictors of job burnout and engagement.

Event justice perceptions and employees' reactions: Perceptions of social entity justice as a moderator.

Harmful help: The costs of backing-up behavior in teams.

Trust that binds: The impact of collective felt trust on organizational performance.

Stirring the hearts of followers: Charismatic leadership as the transferal of affect.

The influence of psychological flexibility on work redesign: Mediated moderation of a work reorganization intervention.

...and several more!

Too fat or too thin? You may not get hired.

Job candidates that are either too fat or too thin may have a more a difficult time getting hired than those in the middle weight ranges according to a study by Swami, et al. reported in the most recent issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Weighting in line
The authors found that when men were asked to rate a variety of female pictures for either a management position or for providing help (N=30 and 28, respectively), they were less likely to hire or help women with body mass indices (BMI) over 30 or under 15. Those with a slender body (BMI = 19-20) were most likely to be hired or helped. This shouldn't be surprising, given that studies have consistently linked physical attributes, including weight, with employment decisions, but it's certainly a reminder to watch your biases when evaluating candidates!

Predict-ability
In another article, Truxillo et al. found a relationship between cognitive ability and the ability to accurately judge one's performance on an employment test. Using a video-based situational judgment test of customer service skills, the authors found that those with high cognitive ability were able to predict their performance while those with low cognitive ability were not. Practical implications? Providing thorough test feedback may be particularly important for candidates lower in cognitive ability as they may be more likely to be surprised (and dismayed) by the results. This means providing information prior to the test as well as afterward (e.g., how it was developed, how it is scored, how you can improve your performance).

Working IT
In a third study, Johnson, et al. found gender and ethnic group differences in how IT careers are perceived as well as in self-efficacy related to IT. Using data from 159 African- and 98 Anglo-Americans, the authors found that African American men reported higher levels of IT self-efficacy than all other groups, whereas Anglo women reported the lowest levels. In addition, Anglos had more negative stereotypes of IT professionals than did African Americans. This study had a small sample size, but the implication is that how people see their own ability related to an occupation, as well as how they perceive those in it, influences their career choices. This will in turn impact your applicant demographics as well as your recruiting success.

The rest
There are some other interesting reads in here, including:

When emotional displays of leaders may increase follower performance

How to give performance feedback

Self-perceptions of ethical behavior

2007 SIOP Conference: Highlights, Part 2

This is the third in a series of posts about the 2007 SIOP Conference. In Part 1 I talked about some of the new products out there and in Part 2 I went over some of the research that was presented. In this post I'll point out some more research that you may find interesting...

Legal risks and defensibility factors for employee selection procedures

Posthuma, Roehling, and Campion analyzed nearly 600 federal district court cases and came up with some very interesting results:

- Employers are most likely to win (by far) when defending tests of math or mechanical ability. Employers also fare well when defending assessments of employment history and interviews.

- Employers did worst when defending physical ability tests and medical examinations. Tests of verbal ability and job knowledge were also more likely to result in a plaintiff win.

Predicting Internet job search behavior and turnover

Using a sample of 110 nurses in Texas, Posthuma et al. found using longitudinal survey data that (among other things) Internet job search behavior was related to turnover--folks weren't just surfing for fun. This suggests that organizations need to pay close attention to job searching behavior among employees; not necessarily to curtail it but instead to figure out why high performers want to leave.

Gender differences in career choice influences

After analyzing survey data from nearly 1,400 fourth-year medical students from two U.S. schools, Behrend et al. found a gender difference in preferred career: specifically, female medical students valued "opportunities to provide comprehensive care" when choosing a specialty much more than men. This is consistent with other work that has showed women to be more "relationship-oriented" than men when it comes to choosing a career.

Portraying an organization's culture through properties of a recruitment website

In this study of 278 undergraduate students, Kroustalis and Meade found that inclusion of pictures on a website that were intended to portray a certain organizational culture did so--but only for certain cultural characteristics. Specifically, pictures that implied a culture of either innovation or diversity had the intended effect--but pictures representing a team orientation did not. Interestingly, "employee testimonials" designed to emphasize these cultural aspects failed to do so for any of the three aspects studied. Finally, individuals who perceived a greater fit between themselves and the organization (in terms of the three cultural aspects) reported being more attracted to the organization.

Recruiting solutions for adverse impact: Race differences in organizational attraction

Last but definitely not least, Lyon and Newman gathered data from nearly 600 university students on their reactions to 40 hypothetical job postings...and came away with some very interesting results. For example:

- Conscientious individuals were more likely to apply to postings that explicitly stated a preference for conscientious applicants.

- Conscientious individuals were more likely to apply to postings that described the company as results-oriented.

- Black applicants with higher cognitive ability were more likely to respond to ads seeking conscientious individuals while White applicants with higher cognitive ability were less likely to do so.

- When a company was described as innovative, Black applicants high on conscientiousness were more likely to apply; this was not the case for White applicants.