Task 9 Flashcards
How to asses job performance
o Use object records of productivity: e.g. counting the number of customers served by a cashier, or counterproductive cations such as being late
May fail to encounter every aspect of job performance
o Supervisor/co-worker evaluation: widely applicable through jobs
Meta analytical findings
findings found through meta analysis are increasingly accepted (if applicated right) in the area of personnel selection
Impact of FFM on personality
o Can indicate job performance to a certain extent but is still influenced by other factors
Moderator effect
o Moderators: kind of job and work field and other situational factors
o FFM traits influence each other (e.g. extraversion is a good predictor if employee is also high in conscientiousness)
Mediator effects
o Effects of personality are only indirect over mediators on job performance (e.g. goal setting behaviours as mediator for conscientiousness)
What is tested in performance assessment
o Abilities: general abilities such as ability to learn new things (e.g. IQ tests)
o Motivation: refers to a persons values an drives (in absence of rewards or punishment)
o Preferences/personality: refers to favour certain activities over others
the role of conscientiousness
o Positively correlated with job performance (rather modest .20)
o Still best predictor for overall job performance
o Better predictor if employees perceived high levels of organizational politics but not with low levels
Agreeableness
shows modest positive correlation with performance in customer service jobs, (interpersonal skills)
o Getting along with co-workers
o Low use of legitimisation or pressure
Extraversion and emotional stability
modest positive correlation with performance in sales and managerial jobs
o Extraversion related to showing leadership on the job and use of inspirational appeal and ingratiation
o Emotional stability related to better management of job stress, use of rational persuasion and low use of inspirational appeal
Honesty Humility
o Low levels predispose people to engage in counterproductive behaviour, triggered by the right situation (kind of job)
Openness to experience
o Low use of coalitions
o Greater creativity
Integrity test
self-report questionnaires that aim to asses an employees level of honesty and dependability (tendency for counterproductive behaviour) (correlation to job performance .15)
o Overt integrity test: ask the job applicant to indicate whether she/he has engaged in various dishonest acts
Ask the applicant to indicate their attitudes and opinions about the acts
o Personality based test:
Similar content to typical self-report personality inventories
Are often obviously meant to assess socially desirable or undesirable characteristics (easy to cheat)
MMPI
used in personality assessment despite the fact that is not a good predictor for job performance
o In general the quality and knowledge about the used test is low for personality assessment companies
Self-reports
o Based on structured and unstructured questionnaires, interviews or CVs
o Validity threatened by faking/dissimilation
Impression management and social desirability
Observation data
o Based on others rating of this person
o Data sets differ depending on who is the observer (e.g. former Boss or a friend)
o Still can favour the potential employee because of a good relationship (focus on positive features)
Test performance
asses the maximum/typical performance of the applicant
o Often testers do not know about the quality and applicability of the psychometric properties of the tests
o Some abilities are not transferrable between jobs
Personal history
o Where they were born and educated, social status, coming from minority groups
o Tries to asses biographical markers of success in particular jobs
o Advantages:
Objectivity
Cheap
Checkability (answers can be verified)
Validity
Self-presentation (more accepted by the applicant than personality test)
o Disadvantages:
Cloning the past: hold the assumption that past behaviour is consistent with future behaviour
Faking (checking for faking is extremely expensive)
Fairness in the law, might enhance discrimination against e.g. age, sex and race
Minorities can not be detected by computers and so can’t be treated fairly
Biodata do not travel well (not the same predictability across jobs)
Time consuming
Predictability shrinks over time
A simple selection method
o Selectors have a list of competencies which they are looking for
o Problems:
Assumption of linearity: the more is the better in every domain (e.g. IQ) but it is needed the optimal rather the maximal amount
Personality tests
o Success depends on the test and the sample
o Especially important conscientiousness and neuroticism (applicable to all jobs)
o Different jobs require different personality traits
Successful managers have a clear profile: they tend to be low on neuroticism (i.e., very stable), low on agreeableness, average on openness, high on extraversion, and very high on conscientiousness
o Asses motivation/avoidance (effort and drive)
o Advantages
Provides numeric results which are good for interpersonal comparisons
Explicit and specific results
Test are thought to be fair
Comprehensive, asses all personality facets
Scientifically proven
o Disadvantages:
Can be influenced by momentary mood
Faking is easy
Some claim the absence of good norms for comparison (WEIRD)
Interpretation of test is expensive
The problem of faking
o Also called response distortion
o Fairly strong degree of response distortion in job applicants
o Integrity test still can display relative levels of integrity and related traits
Effects of faking
o Highest rate for faking was for negative-keyed items to downplay undesirable characteristics
o Reduction in validity
Correcting for faking
o Including items where high scores may indicate dissimulation
o Use statistical mechanisms to correct faking (do not improve validity
o In general correcting is hard to use because different persons might fake different aspects so it is hard to find a global correction strategy)
Faking scales
questions about e.g. moral lapses that presumably everyone did, persons who indicate not performing are detect as liar
Serious doubts about effectiveness
Other methods reducing faking
Use of time limits on applicants responses
Use items with equally un/desirable statements from which the applicant chooses which describes him best
Non self-report measures (new focus in assessing job performance)
the faking warning
o Warning the test takers that the test includes faking detection and that there will be consequences
o May reduce faking by 30%
o Reduces motivation to fake
o Mostly effective if:
Personality assessment takes place after resumes have been submitted (possibility of comparing)
Some items of the questionnaire asses potentially observable manifestations of the trait
Faking detection
o Latency of the test-takers response might detect fakers
o Faking scales (combination with latency is most accurate)
o Item response theory (IRT): uses a mathematical model to describe the relationship between test-taker levels on the personality trait being measured and their probability of choosing the various response options of a given personality item (just a mathematical model to detect faking)
Some aspects might be useful for faking detection
The forced choice method of personality assessment
o Presenting statements in groups that asses different traits, but have been equated with respect to perceived desirability level
o Participant has to indicate which one fits best and worst
o Theis counteracts desirability effect
o Reduces ability to fake
impression management
try to create good impression by leaving out or adding (untrue) information
o Conscious process
Self-deception
when people answer honestly but the content is untrue caused by a lack of self-awareness
Broad or narrower personality measure
o More broad measure is appropriate for predicting an equally broad measure of overall success at work
o More specific, lower facets of FFM my result in stronger correlation to more lower level criteria
o Different facets of a trait have different predictive value
Main reasons why broad measures are so bad predictors
o The absence of theory linking personality to job performance
o the difficulty in matching personality to relevant job performance criteria
o the poor quality of so many personality measures-
Narrow bad width
asses trait facets such as orderliness or achievement striving
o Can asses more specific behaviour
o when perceived as more job related, increase in satisfaction of applicant
Broad bandwith
test for broad personality domains such as conscientiousness
o Different facets often have different predictability (possibility of one supressing another)
Predictor criterion correspondence
o Personality and job performance should by examined by correlating specific personality dimensions to specific performance dimensions
Works only with narrower traits
Incremental validity
use broad and narrow test because some facets might supress others in the broad test
Applicant reaction
o The effect on organizational attractiveness: fair questionnaires favour the company where as unfair ones might lead to pursuing employment elsewhere
o Validity and utility: lack of face validity might decrease motivation for completing the questionnaire properly
Using broad factors might decrease face validity
o Lack of face validity: might lead to increase the likelihood of legal complains
