Category Archives: *Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Could Your Facebook Persona Cost You a Job? (IO Psychology)
Topic: Selection, Personality, Recruiting
Publication: Journal of Applied Social Psychology (MAY 2012)
Article: Social Networking Websites: Personality Ratings, and the Organizational Context: More Than Meets the Eye?
Authors: D. H. Kluemper, P. A. Rosen, and K. W. Mossholder
Reviewed By: Megan Leasher
We are used to companies having candidates take personality tests. Candidates answer a ton of seemingly annoying and repetitive questions about themselves, and poof! They magically and accurately clue companies in to whether or not they will be a strong performer and/or a good fit. (When I say “poof,” please envision the happy leprechaun opening his box of Lucky Charms and witnessing the jubilant rainbow explosion of marshmallows. It will ensure you are in the right frame of mind.) But have you heard of other people taking a personality test, answering the questions based on what they think YOUR personality is like? Holy creepy, Batman. And what if I told you the “other people” were complete strangers answering those questions about YOUR personality based on what they saw on YOUR Facebook page? Holy switcheroo, Batman!
We all make judgments of others based on what they post on their Facebook page. For example, if you post a picture of yourself doing the “I’m the king of the world” pose on a cruise ship, I will deem you an idiot. If you update your status with random movie quotes from Best in Show, I will proclaim your brilliance. This study took those judgments and morphed them into a scientific evaluation of a candidate’s personality.
Trained evaluators viewed an individual’s Facebook page then completed a personality test, answering the questions about the individual, utilizing only their impressions from seeing the Facebook page. The individuals themselves also took the same personality test answering the questions about their own personality. In addition, the researchers obtained on-the-job performance ratings from the individuals’ supervisors. Can strangers accurately rate your personality based on your Facebook persona? If so, do those perceptions of your personality statistically predict job performance?
The answer to the first question is yes. Sorta. Evaluators’ perceptions of individuals’ personalities based on their Facebook pages had some overlap with how individuals rated their own personalities, but they certainly didn’t agree 100%. So they had some similar impressions and some unique impressions, as well. To answer the second question, the study found that evaluator-rated personality was a slightly stronger predictor of job performance than an individual’s self-reported personality. But the difference wasn’t that large in a practical sense. I have to wonder, if evaluator ratings of a candidate’s personality don’t predict job performance much more than a candidate completing a personality test about themselves, why add all of those work hours to the organization? The time it takes a candidate to complete a personality test does not generally cost an organization anything.
But is a stranger rating a candidate’s personality from a Facebook page even the right thing to do? I feel like you are taking away a bit of the candidate’s say in the matter. Sure, they have full control over what they put on their Facebook page, but that’s certainly not the end-all-be-all of a person. (Note: If it is, don’t hire them.) Where is the candidate’s ability to speak up in all of this? If Facebook does all of the “talking” early on in the screening process, will the candidate ever get a chance to speak for themselves in an interview? Just playing devil’s advocate here, as I see both sides to this argument. And what about candidates who have their Facebook privacy settings up high and a random outsider can’t see it? Or don’t use Facebook? What might that mean about their personalities? Are they the savviest of all?
This study, despite its limitations, is hopefully one of many to come on this sexy and timely topic. But there are tons of caveats to consider, including potential adverse impact, ever-changing Facebook privacy settings, and how to implement consistent processes when social networking is involved…Many unknowns. Holy puzzlers, Batman.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
source for picture: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Dancing_g399-People_Dancing_In_Disco_Night_Club_p54133.html
Why Are You Asking Me This? Investigating Reactions to Puzzle Interviews (IO Psychology)
Topic: Interviewing, Selection
Publication: Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Article: Why Are Manhole Covers Round? A Laboratory Study of Reactions to Puzzle Interviews (in press)
Authors: Chris W. Wright, Chris J. Sablynski, Todd M. Manson, & Steven Oshiro
Reviewed By: Thaddeus Rada
Despite controversy over their effectiveness, interviews remain a tool that many organizations rely on when making hiring decisions. There is a great deal of variability in the way that interviews are organized, and in the content that they assess. Familiar to many I-O psychologists is the distinction between structured and unstructured interviews; however, one type of interview that is less well-known is the puzzle interview. Originally pioneered by Microsoft in the 1990s, puzzle interviews continue to be used in many well-known organizations, such as Google and Amazon.com.
What is a puzzle interview? Essentially, it an interview consisting of unconventional questions that are designed to assess applicants’ creativity, problem-solving skills, and ability to handle unexpected circumstances (i.e. many job applicants may receive some coaching on how to perform well in an interview, but this training rarely includes coverage of puzzle interviews). An example of a question that might be asked during a puzzle interview is “How would you measure exactly 4 gallons of water using only a 3-gallon bottle and a 5-gallon bottle?”
Despite their popularity in some organizations, research on puzzle interviews is scarce. A recent study by Chris Wright and colleagues examined reactions to puzzle interviews, especially in terms of perceptions of fairness and effectiveness. The authors found that, among a sample of college students, reactions to the puzzle interview were quite poor when compared with reactions to a behavioral interview. As noted previously, research on puzzle interviews remains in its infancy, and a great deal more work remains to be done. However, at the present time, the authors conclude that organizations should use caution when using puzzle interviews; not only does their overall effectiveness remain unknown, but people appear to have rather negative reactions to them. Such reactions can contribute to a host of problems for organizations, and so it may be best for organizations to refrain from emphasizing puzzle interviews in their hiring process.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
Using Facebook profiles to assess personality (IO Psychology)
Topic: Personality Assessment, Selection
Publication: Journal of Applied Social Psychology (in press)
Article: Social networking websites, personality ratings, and the organizational context: More than meets the eye?
Authors: Kluemper, D. H., Rosen, P. A., & Mossholder, K. W.
Reviewed by: Alexandra Rechlin
As Facebook becomes increasingly more popular, employers are starting to look at the profiles of applicants. Numerous pictures of drunken debauchery may be informative to employers, but can Facebook profiles be used to assess an applicant’s personality? A recent study by Donald Kluemper and his colleagues suggests that they can.
In this study, raters used 15 questions from the IPIP (International Personality Item Pool) to rate participants’ Facebook profiles for the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) in 2007 and 2008. According to the authors, many indicators of personality can be found on a person’s Facebook page. For example, the number of friends that a person has is related to extraversion, and someone high in conscientiousness may be more careful regarding the types of posts he writes or comments on. Someone high in agreeableness may be more trusting and therefore post more personal information.
The authors found that raters showed good agreement about the personality ratings, and that they were fairly consistent. Also, other-ratings (the ratings based on Facebook profiles) showed pretty good agreement (r = .23 – .44) with self-ratings, which is about what would be expected based on past research looking at the accuracy of ratings from friends and family. In other words, Facebook profiles seem to be a pretty good way of getting personality ratings. In addition, the Facebook ratings were more strongly related to job performance than were self-ratings. The authors also found that of the Big Five, agreeableness and conscientiousness were the most important predictors of hirability ratings, and those ratings in turn were related to actual job performance.
These findings are interesting, but what do they really mean? We now know that Facebook profiles can be used as a source of personality ratings. However, should we really use them that way? As you can imagine, there are many potential legal and ethical issues related to using Facebook profiles in selection. In addition, many users now make their profiles private and therefore inaccessible to employers. It appears that using Facebook profiles in personality assessment could be useful, but at this point there remain potential legal risks.
human resource management, organizational industrial psychology, organizational management
source for picture: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Internet_g170-Click_Like_p39776.html
