IJSA v.19 #2: Personality, personality, personality (and more)

The June 2011 issue of the International Journal of Selection and Assessment (IJSA, volume 19, issue 2) is out. And it's chalk full of articles on personality measurement, but includes other topics as well, so let's jump in! Warning: lots of content ahead.

- O'Brien and LaHuis analyzed applicant and incumbent responses to the 16PF personality inventory and found differential item functioning for over half the items (but of those only 20% were in the hypothesized direction!).

- Reddock, et al. report on an interesting study of personality scores and cognitive ability predicting GPA among students. "At school" frame-of-reference instructions increased validity and, even more interesting, within-person inconsistency on personality dimensions increased validity beyond conscientiousness and ability.

- Fein & Klein introduce a creative approach: using combinations of facets of Five-Factor Model traits to predict outcomes. Specifically, the authors found that a combination (e.g., assertiveness, activity, deliberation) did as well or better in predicting behavioral self-regulation compared to any single facet or trait.

- Think openness to experience is the runt of the FFM? Mussel, et al. would beg to disagree. The authors argue that subdimensions and facets of openness (e.g., curiosity, creativity) are highly relevant for the workplace and understudied--and demonstrate differential criterion-related and construct validity.

- So just when you're thinking to yourself, "hey, I'm liking this subdimension/facet approach), along comes van der Linden, et al. with a study of the so-called General Factor of Personality (GFP) that is proposed to occupy a place at the top of the personality structure hierarchy. The authors studied over 20,000 members of the Netherlands armed forces (fun facts: active force of 61,000, 1.65% of GDP) and found evidence that supports a GFP and value in its measurement (i.e., it predicted dropping out from military training). Unsurprisingly, not everyone is on the GFP bus.

- Next, another fascinating study by Robie et al. on the impact of the economy on incumbent leaders' personality scores. In their sample of US bank employees, as unemployment went up, so did personality inventory results. Faking or environmental impact? Fun coffee break discussion.

- Recruiters, through training and years of experience, are better at judging applicant personality than laypersons, right? Sort of. Mast, et al. found that while recruiters were better at judging the "global personality profile" of videotaped applicants as well as detecting lies, laypeople (students in this case) were better at judging specific personality traits.

- Last one on the personality front: Iliescu, et al. report the results of a study of the Employee Screening Questionnaire (ESQ), a well-known covert, forced-choice integrity measure. Scores showed high criterion-related validity, particularly for counterproductive work behaviors.

- Okay, let's move away from personality testing. Ziegler, et al. present a meta-analysis of predicting training success using g, specific abilities, and interviews. The authors were curious whether the dominant paradigm that g is the single best predictor would hold up in a single sample. Answer? Yep. But specific abilities and structured interviews were valuable additions (unstructured interviews--not so much), and job complexity moderated some of the relationships.

- Given their popularity and long history, it's surprising that there isn't more research on role-players in assessment centers (ACs). Schollaert and Lievens aim to rectify this by investigating the utility of predetermined prompts for role-players during ACs. Turns out there are advantages for measuring certain dimensions (problem solving, interpersonal sensitivity). Sounds promising to me. Fortunately you can read the article here.

- What's the best way to combine assessment scores into an overall profile? Depends who you ask. Diab, et al. gathered information from a sample of adults and found that those in the U.S. preferred holistic over mechanical integration of both interview and other test scores, whereas those outside the U.S. preferred holistic for interview scores only.

- Still with me? Last but not least, re-testing effects are a persistent concern, particularly on knowledge-based tests. Dunlop et al. looked at a sample of firefighter applicants and found the largest practice effects for abstract reasoning and mechanical comprehension (both timed)--although even those were only two-fifths of a standard deviation. Smaller effects were found for a timed test of numerical comprehension ability and an untimed situational judgment test. For all four tests, practice effects diminished to non-significance upon a third session.

November '10 J.A.P.

The November 2010 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology is out, so let's take a look at the relevant articles:

Woods & Hampson report the results of a fascinating study looking at the relationship between childhood personality and adult occupational choice. The participants (N ~ 600) were given a 5-factor personality inventory when they were between 6 and 12 years old, then reported their occupation 40 years later using Holland's vocational types. Results? Openness/Intellect and Conscientiousness scores were correlated with occupational choice as adults. Implication? Career choice may be determined fairly early on in some cases and be influenced by how we're hard-wired as well as through friends, family, etc.

Perhaps even more interesting, the authors found that for the most strongly sex-typed work environments (think construction, nursing), the results related to Openness/Intellect were moderated by gender, supporting the idea that gender stereotyping in these jobs is impacted by individual differences as well as other factors (e.g., cultural norms).


Next up, a study by Maltarich, et al. on the relationship between cognitive ability and voluntary turnover, with some (what I thought were) counter-intuitive results. The authors focused on cognitive demands as the moderating factor, so think for a second about what you would expect to find for a job with high cognitive demands (think lawyer)--who would be most likely to leave, those with high cognitive ability or those with low? I naturally assumed the latter.

Turns out it was neither. The authors found a curvilinear relationship, such that those low and high in cognitive ability were more likely to leave than those in the middle.

What about jobs lower in cognitive demands? Who would you expect to have higher voluntary turnover--those with high cognitive ability or lower cognitive ability? I assumed high, and again I was wrong. Turns out the relationship the authors found in that case was more of a straight negative linear relationship: the higher the cognitive demands, the less likely to leave.

What might explain these relationships? Check out I/O at Work's post about this article for more details including potential explanations from the authors. It certainly has implications for selection decisions based on cognitive ability scores (and reminds me of Jordan v. New London).


Do initial impressions of candidates matter during an interview? The next article, by Barrick et al. helps us tease out the answer. The authors found that candidates that made a better impression in the opening minutes of an interview received higher interview scores (r=.44) and were more likely to receive an internship offer (r=.22). Evaluations of initial competence impacted interview outcomes not only with the same interviewer, but with separate interviewers, and even separate interviewers who skipped rapport building.

But perhaps more interestingly, the authors found that assessments of candidate liking and similarity were not significantly related to other judgments made by separate interviewers. Thus, while these results support the idea that initial impression matter, they also provide strong support for using a panel interview with a diverse makeup, so that bias unrelated to competence is less likely to influence selection decisions.


Finally, Dierdorff et al. describe the results of a field study that looked at who might benefit most from frame-of-reference training (FOR). As a reminder, FOR is used to provide raters with a context for their rating and typically involves discussing the multi-dimensional nature of performance and rating anchors, and conducting practice sessions with feedback to increase accuracy and effectiveness (Landy & Conte, 2009).

In this case, the authors were interested in finding out whether individual differences might impact the effectiveness of FOR. What they found was that the negative impact of having a motivational tendency to avoid performance can be mitigated by having higher levels of learning self-efficacy. In other words, FOR training may be particularly effective for individuals that believe they are capable of learning and applying training, and overall results may be enhanced by encouraging this belief among all the raters.


References:

Landy, F. and Conte, J. (2009). Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (Third Edition). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

IPAC conference to feature Campbell, McDaniel, Highhouse, and more

Those of you on the fence about attending the 2010 International Personnel Assessment Council (IPAC) conference on July 18-21 may be interested to know that a preliminary schedule has been released that reveals some great speakers and topics. For example:

- David Campbell's provocatively titled opening session, The Use of Picture Postcards for Exploring Diversity Issues Such as Bias and Prejudices, or "How Can We Keep Our Grandchildren From Going to War With Each Other?"

- Not to be outdone, Michael McDaniel kicks things off Tuesday morning with Abolish the Uniform Guidelines.

- Scott Highhouse closes things up Wednesday with A Critical Look at Holistic Assessment

- Great pre-conference workshops on everything from job analysis to fairness

- Wonderfully diverse concurrent sessions on topics such as public service motivation, leadership coaching, simulations, engagement, online testing, charging for exams, test transportability, cross-cultural personality assessment, measuring workforce gaps, adverse impact analysis, faking and lie detection, and succession planning. And that's just a sample!

Staying current on assessment through professional education is one of the commandments of our field. I hope you'll be joining your friends and colleagues in Newport Beach. Early bird registration ends June 1st.

Webinar on 21st Century Assessment

Went to a pretty darn good webinar yesterday put on by HCI and featuring Ken Lahti (PreVisor) and Charles Handler (Rocket-Hire). The topic was 21st century assessment.

Some of the topics covered included:

- increased functionality and usability of testing platforms

- increased sophistication of security methods

- off-the-shelf tests and "I/O psychologists in a box"

- integrating assessment with your overall talent strategy

And my two favorites:

- advanced simulations (such as those using video game technology)

- candidate data that follows them

The webinar is going to be re-broadcast several times today and tomorrow, if you have a chance check it out. You can also see a copy of the slides for free if you're an HCI member (which is free).

Free, short, and full of information--that's my kind of training.

Webinar on using blogs for recruitment

We all know blogs can be a great way to share information. But what about using them for recruiting purposes?

I wrote about this a while back--how blogs can be used as information "push" and "pull" mechanisms or even as a retention tool--but if you're interested in learning more, check out this webinar on Thursday November 6th put on by Bernard Hodes and the American Hospital Association.

Speaking of webinars, in this time of budgetary challenge, make sure to check out all the free webinars offered by places like HR.com and HCI. Could be a good time to focus on internal competencies. Just be wary of giving out your email address too freely--unless you like lots of email.

Upcoming webinar on defending your tests

Tests aren't valid or invalid per se--it depends on what you use them for.

But if your tests are challenged legally (say, because they have a discriminatory impact against a protected group), one of the things you'll want to defend yourself with is a test validation report--a documentation of why the test was developed, how it was developed, and the purposes for which the test should be used.

This is one of the topics that will be covered in an upcoming webinar sponsored by Talent Management and presented by some well known folks over at APT. Taking place on November 11th at 11am PST, the webinar is titled "Testing the Test: What You Need to Know about Test Validation, Litigation, and Risk Management."

Should be worth a watch/listen.

On a related note, the latest issue of Talent Management had some good articles in it, including ones on "role based" assessment (which just sounds like good 'ol fashioned position-based assessment) and employee surveys. It's actually not a bad little magazine, and it's free. You can subscribe here.

Free webinar on adverse impact

My colleague Dr. Jim Higgins shares my passion for providing education on topics relating to recruitment, testing, and selection.

So I'm pleased to draw your attention to an upcoming free webinar he's offering on Understanding Adverse Impact in Testing, Selection, Promotion, and Staff Reductions.

From the registration page:

"This free webinar will help you better understand the history, present and future of adverse impact analysis and will aid in your efforts to ensure that your organization takes the steps necessary to protect itself from claims of discrimination. It will also help you ensure that your organization’s hiring and promotional practices are maximally compliant with the letter and spirit of EEO laws and regulations."

The webinar takes place on September 16th at 11am and it's only 45 minutes. If you like what you see/hear, Jim offers a free (yes, free) 9-session course on basic applied statistics.

OFCCP Webinar on March 6

On Thursday, March 6, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will be having a webinar. The webinar will start with an overview of the agency's policymaking agenda but the main event will be an extended Q&A session.

The presenters will be OFCCP Deputy Director David Frank and Lynn Clements, Acting Director of OFCCP's Division of Policy, Planning, and Program Development.

Reasons to care:

- They oversee several laws relating to recruiting and hiring

- They go after employers (PDF file)

- A little something called the Internet Applicant Rule

You can sign up here.

January '08 issue of J.A.P.

The January 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology is out. Unfortunately there are only three articles directly related to recruitment and assessment, but they're pretty good ones, so let's dive in.

First up, a Monte Carlo investigation of the impact of faking on personality tests by Komar, et al. "What is a Monte Carlo investigation?" you may ask. Essentially it's when researchers use computers to simulate data scenarios rather than collecting actual data from participants/subjects/victims. Anyway, the researchers looked at the impact on the criterion-related validity (as measured by supervisory ratings) of conscientiousness scores adjusting for various "faking" scenarios. They found that the validity is impacted by a variety of factors, most notably proportion of fakers, magnitude of faking, and the relationship between faking and performance. Another shot across the bow of self-report personality inventories, methinks, although the debate will no doubt continue!

Next a fascinating study of motherhood bias in both expectations and screening decisions by Heilman and Okimoto. The researchers found a bias against both male and female parents when it came to anticipated job commitment, achievement striving, and dependability, although anticipated competence was uniquely low for mothers and seemed to be the major contributing factor to lowered expectations and screening recommendations. An unfortunate reminder that these factors do matter and something to watch out for. The results are reminiscent of negative behavior toward "pregnant" women found in a previous study.

Finally, Zyphur, Chaturvedi, and Arvey present a discussion of job performance. They address two subjects: the impact of past performance on future performance and individual differences in performance trajectories. Analyzing past literature, the authors note that performance feedback influences future performance directly and different individuals do have different latent performance trajectories, which has big implications for selection. Why? Because many assessment techniques (e.g., T&Es, behavioral interviews) rely on an general assumption that more experience equals better performance. This study adds ammunition to those that argue that assumption has serious flaws (or at least is overly simplistic).

In addition to these three, you may find the following interesting as well:

Challenging conventional wisdom about who quits: Revelations from corporate America. (great stuff for those of you interested in retention)

Effectiveness of error management training: A meta-analysis. (for all you trainers out there)

Effects of task performance, helping, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal ratings. (for those interested in performance ratings)

2007 SHRM Staffing Management Conference in New Orleans

From April 23-25, SHRM will be having its annual conference devoted to employment and staffing in New Orleans, LA. (Note this used to be the Employment Management Association Conference & Exposition).

So why would I go?

1) You're a SHRM member and you have $875 to spare, OR
2) You're a non-SHRM member and you have $1120 to spare

AND

3) You're really into conferences devoted to recruitment and assessment
4) You like New Orleans

Unfortunately I meet the third and fourth criteria but neither the first nor the second. But, I can give you a flavor of what's in store in addition to some great keynote speakers, including Malcolm Gladwell, whose books are often mentioned on this blog.

What are the topics?

Rather than attempt to summarize the entire conference, I'm going to list the most relevant presentation titles, which are heavy on sourcing techniques and avoiding legal pitfalls. Several of these look really interesting; the full menu can be found here.

- Recruiting the best and the brightest: How to develop a market-and customer-focused mindset
- Interviewing: Identifying the liars, avoiding illegal questions
- Interactive recruitment marketing: Navigating the Internet to attract A-level talent
- Extreme caution advised: Dealing with federal and state laws regulating preemployment screening and safe hiring
- Recruiting an agile workforce that adds value to customers and shareholders
- Superstar selling techniques for non-sellers
- Impacting recruitment, retention and employee engagement with culture
- Daniel Boone and the tracking of applicants [new OFCCP regs]
- Extreme makeover: Renovating recruiting at Great-West
- Personality assessment in employee selection and promotion
- Avoid negligent hiring--best practices and legal compliance
- America's new regional demography
- "DOT" jobs: What have we learned about Internet recruiting in the past five years?
- Talent hunting: Sales skill development for the corporate recruiter
- Recent changes in immigration law that affect HR decision-making
- Rebuilding a world-class staffing function--from administration to profit center
- I'm not just a recruiter...I'm an expert consultant! Key consulting skills for recruitment professionals
- Effectively interviewing global talent
- Best practice techniques for finding and selling professional-level candidates
- Winning the talent war--meeting the recruitment challenges of the next decade
- Your candidate's experience: Black hole or North star?
- Background checks and the law
- The circle of recruitment success
- Get GenderSmart! Communicating with and managing women for recruiting and retention results

ATP Conference in Palm Springs

Tired of cold weather?

Feel like being spontaneous?

Then maybe you should consider the 2007 Association of Test Publishers Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

The conference takes place February 5-7 and has some tantalizing presentations, such as:

Converting from Paper-Based Tests to Computer-Based Tests: The Practical Issues

Head to Head: Online Technology Vendors Sound Off

Creating Computerized Performance Assessments

Video, Audio, and Simulations Over the Web

Cross-Cultural Testing: Issues and Practice

That's just a very small sample of the all the conference goodness. Another highlight is Dr. Frank Schmidt receiving the Career Achievement award. Full conference program is available here.

Cost? A mere $695 for ATP members, $750 for non-members.

I don't know about you, but sunny and mid-70s sounds heavenly right now!

SIOP Conference Registration open

Registration is now open for the 2007 SIOP Conference, to be held in New York City on April 26-29.

The conference program won't be available until mid-late February, but we do know what the half-day workshops (held on the 26th) will be. Here are some you might be interested in:

- Building Legal Defensibility Into Your HR Processes

- Are We Ready? Strategic Human Resource Management and the Maturing Workforce (including how to recruit and retain older workers)

- Leading a Thriving Consulting Practice: Building the Foundation, Operating Practicalities, Clients, and Their Needs

- The State of the Art in Personality Assessment (focusing on alternatives to multiple-choice self-report surveys)

- An Update on the Science and Practice of I/O Psychology (worth going just to see/hear Frank Landy)

- Early Identification and Development of Senior Leadership Talent: The Secret Insider's Guide

- The Role of E-HR in Human Resource Transformation: Build, Buy, or Outsource, and at Least Twenty More Questions Answered

- Fits about Fit: Can You Have Too Much of a Good Thing and Is There Anything You Can Do About it? (includes a focus on the possible downsides of having too many of the same type of person in an organization)

- Talent Management: The Promise and Paradox of Potential

Cost? Two sessions cost $400 for SIOP members and affiliates, $650 for non-members.

Register here.

I'll try to do a similar summary for the actual conference sessions, but chances are I'll get about 20 sessions in and pass out (there are an unbelievable number of session choices at every SIOP conference. Check out 2006's program).

Manpower and the changing temp landscape

Good article in the latest Economist about employment-services giant Manpower.

The article covers a lot of ground, including company history, acquisitions, and changes in strategic focus.

Highlights:

- Only 13% of Manpower's revenue comes from America. France is the company's biggest market and source of about 1/3 of its revenues.

- Traditional temp work now accounts for 70% of its profits, down from 96% in 1999. CEO Jeff Joerres expects this to drop to 50% within five years.

- As providing temps has become a low-margin business, Manpower has expanded into placing permanent employees and training/coaching (dovetailing with its purchase of Right Management in 2004). A newer development is training employed individuals who are hoping for a promotion.

- The article references a 2006 survey of 32,000 employers in 26 countries Manpower conducted where it found 29% of respondents said they would have hired more professional staff if candidates had had the necessary skills. That figure was 45% for U.S. employers.

- Finally, this juicy and spot-on quote:

"...once people have been hired, the attrition rate can be expensively high--particularly for the most talented. This owes as much to the lack of training and career development opportunities as to salaries...the leading Indian firms, such as Infosys, have been addressing the skills gap and high turnover rates by establishing in-house universities."

p.s.: Just a thought: I wonder if they've ever considered changing their name. Manpower reminds me of the old Ace Hardware tune ("Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man") or the Culligan motto ("Hey! Culligan man!"). Mmm....discrimination...

The feds rock

Bet you don't hear that very often.

Surfing around today, I came across one of those resources that you hit yourself for not finding sooner.

It's IPMA-HR's Federal Section.

"Wow, Bryan, that sounds fascinating," you're thinking. Well, check it out, that's all I ask. The page has links to a variety of excellent presentations including:

Attracting, Maintaining and Motivating the Best and the Brightest

Categorical Ranking

Recruitment Branding

Attracting Talent - A 21st Century Approach

That last presentation has within it an example of job preview videos created by OPM that are well worth a look. These types of videos are common in the private sector, much less among government agencies--and it's unfortunate that more organizations aren't taking advantage of this technology.

So kudos to the Federal Section for offering such a wealth of information and kudos to OPM for the example they continue to set.

Next up: I had a very interesting demo this afternoon from HireVue, so I will be posting about that shortly!

The great recruiting discrimination debate

Just had a chance to listen to a webinar from back in May called "The Great Recruiting Discrimination Debate."

If you haven't watched/listened to it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best I've heard. It gives very specific examples of discrimination both large and small and has a wonderful panel of folks including both recruiters and EEOC staff. It focuses quite a bit on the obligation of recruiters to refrain from discriminating on behalf of clients.

You can access it by clicking here and clicking on "Watch the Webinar." Note that you may need to disable your pop-up blocker (in IE you can do this simply by pressing and holding CTRL then clicking on the link).

The second round happened on November 14th and I'm hoping they'll post that soon.

Hiring presentation

Just got a copy of a presentation I did in July down in Clark County (for those not familiar with WA, Clark County is just north of Portland, OR). The presentation is about 2 hours long and covers a variety of topics, including legal aspects of hiring, best practices, applicant perceptions, utility, etc. PLUS, a game of jeopardy at the end. (How many presentations can say THAT).

A few notes before you watch it (because I know you're dying to!):

1. Only people with a microphone are clearly audible. In the vast majority of the video, this is me, although I try to repeat peoples' questions and comments.

2. This is actually four separate video (VOB) files that I spliced into one. So there may be some rough transition spots.

3. The quality is passable but not outstanding--I tried to keep the file size manageable but still visible/audible. Some of the footnotes aren't visible but I'm more than happy to post those.

4. On a related point, the audio is slightly detached from the video. Instead of being frustrated by this, try to see it as a fascinating experiment in perception.

Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions...as long as it's not about my fashion sense.

Presentations available from 2006 IPMA training conference

Many presentations from the 2006 IPMA training conference are now available .

Some of the highlights:

- Recruitment: Filling hard-to-fill positions by the always-entertaining Harry Brull from PDI

- Demographic and market cycles: The economic effects of an aging baby boom generation by Doug Robinson. You have to read this one just to see what the average age of a motorcycle purchaser is (hint: it's not 18).

- Legal update by Richard Whitmore of the omnipresent Liebert, Cassidy and Whitmore. If you haven't been following legal developments in HR, this is a GREAT summary.

- Building bridges across generations by Rosie Rodriguez of the University of Connecticut Health Center.

New IPMAAC conference reimbursement policy

For anyone that's wanted to go to IPMAAC conference but doesn't have the dough, they just implemented a new policy (see section C-6) whereby presenters are given a break on fees. Should help a little for those of us that aren't independently wealthy.

IPMAAC accepting conference proposals

IPMAAC has posted its Call for Proposals for next year's conference in St. Louis. The title of the conference is "The Gateway to Excellence in Assessment" and is being held June 10-13. The IPMAAC conference is, for my money, the best value for scientists-practioners. Next year's conference will feature talks by some of the best minds in the field, including Wayne Cascio, Nancy Tippins, and Bob Hogan.