Task 9

Question 1

How to asses job performance

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Meta analytical findings

Answer 2

findings found through meta analysis are increasingly accepted (if applicated right) in the area of personnel selection

Question 3

Impact of FFM on personality

Answer 3

o Can indicate job performance to a certain extent but is still influenced by other factors

Question 4

Moderator effect

Answer 4

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)

Question 5

Mediator effects

Answer 5

o Effects of personality are only indirect over mediators on job performance (e.g. goal setting behaviours as mediator for conscientiousness)

Question 6

What is tested in performance assessment

Answer 6

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

Question 7

the role of conscientiousness

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Agreeableness

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Extraversion and emotional stability

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Honesty Humility

Answer 10

o Low levels predispose people to engage in counterproductive behaviour, triggered by the right situation (kind of job)

Question 11

Openness to experience

Answer 11

o Low use of coalitions

o Greater creativity

Question 12

Integrity test

Answer 12

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)

Question 13

MMPI

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Self-reports

Answer 14

o Based on structured and unstructured questionnaires, interviews or CVs
o Validity threatened by faking/dissimilation
 Impression management and social desirability

Question 15

Observation data

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Test performance

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Personal history

Answer 17

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

Question 18

A simple selection method

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Personality tests

Answer 19

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

Question 20

The problem of faking

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Effects of faking

Answer 21

o Highest rate for faking was for negative-keyed items to downplay undesirable characteristics
o Reduction in validity

Question 22

Correcting for faking

Answer 22

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)

Question 23

Faking scales

Answer 23

questions about e.g. moral lapses that presumably everyone did, persons who indicate not performing are detect as liar
 Serious doubts about effectiveness

Question 24

Other methods reducing faking

Answer 24

 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)

Question 25

the faking warning

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Faking detection

Answer 26

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

Question 27

The forced choice method of personality assessment

Answer 27

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

Question 28

impression management

Answer 28

try to create good impression by leaving out or adding (untrue) information
o Conscious process

Question 29

Self-deception

Answer 29

when people answer honestly but the content is untrue caused by a lack of self-awareness

Question 30

Broad or narrower personality measure

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Main reasons why broad measures are so bad predictors

Answer 31

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-

Question 32

Narrow bad width

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Broad bandwith

Answer 33

test for broad personality domains such as conscientiousness
o Different facets often have different predictability (possibility of one supressing another)

Question 34

Predictor criterion correspondence

Answer 34

o Personality and job performance should by examined by correlating specific personality dimensions to specific performance dimensions
 Works only with narrower traits

Question 35

Incremental validity

Answer 35

use broad and narrow test because some facets might supress others in the broad test

Question 36

Applicant reaction

Answer 36

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