SJTs: They’re Not Perfect, but Gosh Darn it they Work!

Topic: Selection
Publication: Human Performance
Article: Contextual effects on SJT responses: An examination of construct validity and mean differences across applicant and incumbent contexts
Authors: W.I. MacKenzie, R.E. Ployhart, J.A. Weekley, and C. Ehlers
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 A situational judgment test (SJT) is a commonly used employee selection tool which presents job applicants with realistic work situations.  Job applicants are required to choose from several response options, which range in their effectiveness (as rated by subject matter experts).  While SJTs tend to predict future job performance rather well, there is still debate as to what SJTs actually measure (SJTs correlate with and likely measure cognitive ability, personality, job knowledge, and experience simultaneously) and how they operate in different contexts (e.g., job applicants vs. incumbents).  

To further investigate the validity of SJTs, MacKenzie et al. (2010) addressed a few major issues common in SJT research.  For example, much of the existing research on SJTs relies on samples of job incumbents.  However, SJTs are most frequently used in new employee selection and the authors speculate that the knowledge, skills, and abilities of incumbents may differ significantly from that of job applicants.  In other words, SJTs may operate differently for job incumbents and applicants. 

Do Optimistic Predictions Lead to Quicker Completion Times? Sometimes…

Topic: Goals, Job Performance, Judgment
Publication: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Article: Finishing on time: When do predictions influence completion times?
Authors: R. Buehler, J. Peetz, and D. Griffin
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Past research has shown that human beings often underestimate the amount of time necessary for task completion (“I can finish this project by...”).  This optimistic bias has been consistently demonstrated in many work-related settings and most of the research has focused on why this happens.  However, a recent series of studies by Buehler, Peetz and Griffin (2010) investigated whether optimistic prediction times have the ability to improve actual completion times and if so, for what kinds of tasks?

Buehler et al. found that optimistic completion time predictions can have a positive impact on actual completion times, but it depends largely on the type of task/project.  For instance, the effect of optimistic predictions on completion times appears to be more favorable when tasks can be completed in a single session (e.g., short computer tutorial, writing a memo) vs. when tasks require multiple steps to be completed at different time points (e.g., launching an employee engagement survey, filing a federal tax return – ugh!).  Interestingly, Buehler et al. also found that the tendency to underestimate completion times was more prevalent for tasks that require multiple sessions. 

Ultimately, Buehler et al. concluded that optimistic completion time predictions can be useful for tasks/projects that require one shot.  However, optimistic completion time predictions appear to have little power for tasks that require multiple sessions over multiple time points.  Additionally, although predictions don’t always have a positive impact on completion times, they do to have a positive influence on task/project start times.  Thus, Buehler and colleagues conclude that completion time predictions initiate action early on, but apparently lose their power over time, especially for longer tasks/projects that require many sessions or steps.

Buehler, R., Peetz, J., & Griffin, D. (2010). Finishing on time: When do predictions influence completion times? Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111, 23-32.

Are Female Leaders Judged More Harshly than Male Leaders?

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance, Diversity
Publication: Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Article: Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates’ Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders.
Authors: Ayman, R., Korabik, K., and Morris, S.
Reviewed By: Samantha Paustian-Underdahl

 Amongst researchers and practitioners, one of the most popular leadership styles today is transformational leadership. Transformational leaders inspire their subordinates through motivational communication and action. They are generally concerned with promoting personal growth and development in their followers by challenging them to learn new skills and abilities.  But how is the perceived effectiveness of transformational leadership different for male and female leaders?

Ayman, Korabik, and Morris (2009) believe that women who use a transformational leadership style will be evaluated as less effective than their male counterparts who adopt the same style. This may be due to the gender stereotypes that are prevalent in our society - that leadership and masculinity go hand-in-hand. According to Eagly and Karau’s (2002) role congruency theory, when raters experience incongruence between the behavior they expect of a leader and what they expect of a woman, they under-value the female leader’s behavior and performance.

In a recent study, Ayman, Korabik, and Morris (2009) examined 109 leader-subordinate dyads in Canada. The relationship between a leader’s transformational leadership and their subordinates’ evaluation of their performance was significantly less positive for female leaders with male subordinates than for female leaders with female subordinates. However, when male leaders were evaluated, male and female subordinates rated their performance as equally effective, regardless of their levels of transformational leadership. 

The results of this study suggest that popular leadership styles like transformational leadership may not be equally effective for men and women. Male subordinates, as compared to female subordinates, were more negative in their evaluations when a female leader considered herself high on transformational leadership behaviors. This highlights the subtle biases female leaders face in diverse work settings. Female leaders should focus on understanding others’ perceptions of their behavior. Organizations can work to reduce these gender biases by promoting diversity training and the use of bias-free personnel feedback systems.

Ayman, R., Korabik, K., and Morris, S. (2009). Is Transformational Leadership Always Perceived as Effective? Male Subordinates’ Devaluation of Female Transformational Leaders. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39 (4), 852-879.

Leading Employees by Involving Them Leads to Results

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance, Citizenship Behavior      
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Article: Does participative leadership enhance work performance by inducing empowerment or trust? The differential effects on managerial and non-managerial subordinates
Authors: X. Huang, J. Iun, A. Liu, and Y. Gong
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Isn’t it nice when our supervisors invite our ideas/opinions and include us in decision making?  Of course it is!  These kinds of supervisory behaviors are known as participative leadership behaviors and, not surprisingly, they tend to positively impact employee job performance.  Although this effect is expected for all employees, a recent study by Huang and colleagues (2010) suggests that the reasons why participative leadership behaviors lead to improved performance depends on a subordinate’s hierarchical level in the organization. 

In their study, Huang et al. collected a sample of 527 employees from a Fortune 500 telecommunications company in China.  As expected, they found that participative leadership behaviors of supervisors leads to improved task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) of their subordinates.  But, as mentioned above, there appear to be slightly different reasons why these effects occur depending on the hierarchical level of the subordinate (i.e., managerial vs. non-managerial).  

Specifically, the effect of participative leadership behaviors on performance for managers appears to be due to psychological empowerment (i.e., feelings of competence and meaningfulness) whereas these effects are due to the trust placed in leaders for non-managerial employees. 

To Monitor or not to Monitor Emails: That is the Question

Topic: Job Performance
Publication: Academy of Management Perspectives
Article: Monitoring employee emails: Is there any room for privacy?
Authors: W.P. Smith and F. Tabak
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 It’s hard to imagine work without email.  For many employees, email is a necessity.  One potential problem with email, however, is that it can be easily abused by employees (i.e., using email for personal reasons at work).  In response, many organizations have implemented email monitoring software.  But, is email monitoring fair?  Does it illegally infringe on the rights of employees?  And how does it affect employees? 

In a recent review of the email monitoring literature and relevant case law, Smith and Tabak note three basic reasons why organizations may want to monitor employee emails:

(1)           To protect the organization from potentially damaging information being transmitted via email.

(2)           To protect the organization’s assets that may be leaked during email transmission.

(3)           To facilitate productivity that may be cut due to excessive emailing.

The Legal Perspective: Though these are certainly legitimate concerns, the major legal issue is whether email monitoring infringes on employees’ rights to privacy.  Although there are good arguments for and against employee privacy, the courts have predominately ruled in favor of organizations using email monitoring systems.  However, case law in the area of email monitoring is sparse and thus provides little resolution to this issue.    

Do You, You, Feel Like I Do?

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance
Publication: The Leadership Quarterly
Article: Do you feel what I feel? Mood contagion and leadership outcomes
Authors: S.K. Johnson
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed from time-to-time - and leaders are certainly no exception. 

As a recent example, a study by Johnson (2009) shows that followers’ moods are directly impacted by the expressed moods of leaders.  This phenomenon is known as mood contagion, which in this case refers to the automatic transfer of moods from leaders to followers.  Mood contagion occurs unconsciously and thus employees have little control over it. 

First, Johnson demonstrated the mood contagion effect, such that when participants (university students) saw a video of a leader expressing a positive mood, they tended to report positive moods.  Similarly, when participants saw a video of a leader expressing a negative mood, they too tended to report negative moods. 

More importantly, participants reporting positive moods outperformed those reporting negative moods on a relevant task (a mock hiring task which related to the content of the videos shown to participants).  Johnson demonstrated that mood contagion was partially responsible for the performance outcomes.  Additionally, leaders who exhibited positive moods in the videos were rated as more charismatic, which was also found to affect follower performance on the task.

Because we are all subject to mood changes, leaders must be aware of how their moods can affect their followers’ performance.  Johnson’s study shows that moods can be highly contagious and can either enhance or damage employee performance. 

Johnson, S.K. (2009). Do you feel what I feel? Mood contagion and leadership outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 814-827.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Invigorating Leadership/Job Performance Chain

Topic: Leadership, Job Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology
Article: How leaders cultivate social capital and nurture employee vigor: Implications for job performance
Authors: A. Carmeli, B. Ben-Hador, D.A., Waldman, and D.E. Rupp
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 One important characteristic of effective leaders is the ability to build relationships and encourage communication and collaboration among their employees (i.e., leader relational behaviors).  Although we can probably all agree that leader relational behaviors should have a positive impact on employee and organizational performance, Carmeli and colleagues recently showed that the relationship between leader relational behaviors and job performance is a complex process.

Importantly, Carmeli et al. placed a heavy focus on the role of employee vigor (energetic feeling about work) in this process linking leader relational behaviors to employee job performance.  The authors collected data from 209 employees and 15 managers of several Israeli community centers. 

Not surprisingly, employees with managers who exhibit more leader relational behaviors tend to have more high-quality relationships with others in the workplace.

Mentoring: A Win-Win-Win Situation

Topic: Mentoring, Job Performance
Publication: Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Article: What can I gain as a mentor? The effect of mentoring on the job performance and social status of mentors in China
Authors: D. Liu, J. Liu, H.K. Kwan, and Y. Mao
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

  Generally, mentoring relationships are intended to develop younger and/or less experienced employees.  However, research has shown that mentoring relationships benefit mentors as well as their protégés.  In a recent investigation, Liu and colleagues (2009) found that mentoring relationships relate favorably to mentors’ job performance ratings and social status within the organization. 

Using a large sample of mentors from a Chinese manufacturing firm, Liu et al. found that mentors who engage in more mentoring activities tend to have higher job performance ratings.  This relationship appears to be due the increased learning opportunities made available to mentors through the mentoring process.  Thus, mentoring activities offer mentors additional opportunities to learn which may influence their job performance.

After the Honeymoon: Supervisor support is still important

Topic: Job Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology
Article: Change in newcomers’ supervisor support and socialization outcomes after organizational entry
Authors: M. Jokisaari, J. Nurmi
Reviewed by: Larry Martinez

 Most organizational researchers know about the “Honeymoon Effect” – the notion that employees are on their best behavior in the months directly following their hire.  However, previous research has been limited to the first year after hire and has not investigated specific aspects of employee socialization that might contribute to this initial good behavior.  Recently, Jokisaari and Nurmi looked into supervisor support as a predictor of important work outcomes over the first two years of employment. 

They found that as time goes on, supervisor support seems to go down…and the faster this support goes down, the faster role clarity, job satisfaction, and salary increases go down as well (not only mean levels decrease, but rates of change slow proportionately).  So, newcomers could probably benefit from this knowledge by capitalizing on the initial quality time they get with their supervisor before the attention starts to wane.  They can prepare themselves so they are not disenchanted when their supervisor starts paying less attention to them.  Looks like romantic relationships aren’t the only ones that might benefit from “keeping the fires burning.”

 

Jokisaari, M., & Nurmi, J. (2009).  Change in newcomers’ supervisor support and socialization outcomes 

after organizational entry.  Academy of Management Journal, 52, 527-544.

Great Expectations: Catalyst for Employee Learning and Development

Topic: Job Performance, Leadership, Training
Publication: Journal of Management
Article: Pygmalion and employee learning: The role of leader behaviors
Authors: X.M. Bezuijen, P.T. van den Berg, K. van Dam, and H. Thierry
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

 Isn’t it fascinating how our expectations of others so frequently come to fruition?  The finding that supervisors’ expectations of their employees’ capabilities accurately reflect their actual performance is well-established.  This phenomenon is called the self-fulfilling prophesy (AKA the Pygmalion effect).  But, how and why do supervisors’ expectations of employees’ capabilities reflect their performance?  Is it magic?  Is it a sixth sense?  Is it prescience? 

No, no and no….

A recent study by Bezuijen and colleagues (2009) suggests that supervisors’ expectations of their employees’ capabilities to learn job-related skills is primarily due to goal-setting (bummer, I had guessed magic).  They demonstrated that high expectations lead supervisors to assign more difficult and specific goals to employees and also provide these employees with more learning opportunities.  Increased opportunities, in addition to more difficult and specific goals, make it more likely that employees will engage in learning and development activities.