Tag Archives: C.

The Curious Case of Recruiters

1

Topic: Interviewing, Selection
Publication: International Journal of Selection and Assessment (JUN 2011)
Article: How Accurate are Recruiters’ First Impressions of Applicants in Employment Interviews?
Authors: Mast, M. S., Bangerter, A., Bulliard, C., & Aerni, G.
Reviewed By: Thaddeus Rada

Recruiters are still used by a variety of organizations to evaluate applicants and identify candidates that exhibit the potential to become successful employees in the organization. Recruiters typically have a relatively long time in which to form a first impression of a candidate; the authors of the current study, Marianne Mast and colleagues, were interested in knowing if recruiters are able to more accurately (compared to a layperson) assess the personality of job applicants if they have a shorter amount of time in which to make their assessment. Does this shorter time frame inhibit their ability to make accurate assessments about others?

Participants in this study came from one of two groups: recruiters, and students. The students acted as a sort of control group, with their performance thought to be representative of how laypeople might perform on the assessment task. Participants viewed videotapes of mock job applicants; compared to a typical job interview, the videos were much shorter, exposing participants to each applicant for an average of only two minutes. Participants then assessed each applicant’s personality (the assessment utilized the Big 5 personality components). The accuracy of the participants’ assessments were measure against self-assessments completed by the applicants, as well as peer assessments completed by two friends of each applicant. The researchers found that students were able to accurately assess more personality traits (openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness) than the recruiters were (openness only), while recruiters were better able to assess the complete personality profile of each applicant.

Ultimately, the authors argue that recruiters’ skill at assessing personality profiles gives support to the notion that recruiters should continue to be utilized in the personnel selection process. However, it may also be worth considering whether there are instances in which a specific personality dimension is more important than the entire personality profile. The authors note that previous research has found that conscientiousness is the personality dimension most predictive of job performance, in a variety of occupations. In the current study, the authors found that students were able to accurately assess conscientiousness, while recruiters were not. It is my belief that the necessity of “total” personality assessment, as it applies to personnel selection, should continue to be evaluated.

Mast, M. S., Bangerter, A., Bulliard, C., & Aerni, G. (2011). How accurate are recruiters’ first impressions of applicants in employment interviews? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 19, 198-208.

Using performance management practices to drive employee engagement

2

Topic: Engagement, Job Performance, Job Attitudes
Publication: Journal of Business and Psychology (JUN 2011)
Article: Performance management at the wheel: Driving employee engagement in organizations
Authors: Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B., Stine, C.
Reviewed by: Alexandra Rechlin

You’ve probably heard quite a bit about employee engagement lately, and you know that you want engaged employees. However, what can you do to increase levels of employee engagement? This article discusses ways in which performance management practices can be used to drive employee engagement and provides suggestions for future research.

Many different definitions of engagement exist. In this article, engaged employees are defined as those who feel committed, involved, passionate, and empowered, and they must demonstrate those feelings in their behavior. The authors use prior research and theory to support their argument for why each of five different performance management practices can lead to increased engagement. The performance management practices described are: (1) setting performance and development goals, (2) providing ongoing feedback and recognition, (3) managing employee development, (4) conducting mid-year and end-year appraisals, and (5) building a climate of trust and empowerment.

Following any of the above performance management practices should lead to increased levels of employee engagement, but the authors note that the relevant impact of the different practices remains to be studied.

Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B., & Stine, C. (2011). Performance management at the wheel: Driving employee engagement in organizations. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26, 205-212. doi: 10.1007/s10869-011-9222-9

human resource management,organizational industrial psychology, organizational management

Relax! Weekend Recovery Does a Career Good!

Reply

Topic: Work-Life Balance, Stress
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior (NOV 2010)
Article:The weekend matters: Relationships between stress recovery and affective experiences
Authors: Fritz, C., Sonnentag, S., Spector, P. E., & McInroe, J.
Reviewed by: Charleen Maher

Admit it. We all look forward to the weekend after a long week at work. Here’s another reason to look forward to it: Research finds that it’s important to emotionally recover from stressful work demands. A recent study by Binnewies et al. (click here for the IOATWORK review) found that mentally detaching oneself from work, relaxing, and engaging in non job-related tasks during the weekend helps employees feel recovered during the following work week.  This leads to better self-reported performance and citizenship behaviors as well as increased initiative to complete work tasks.  These are positive outcomes for organizations, but when it comes to employees, there are more specific emotional benefits to consider.

The current study by Fritz et al. examined the effect of several types of weekend recovery experiences on both positive and negative feelings. Relaxation during the weekend increased positive feelings (joviality, serenity, self-assurance) and decreased negative feelings (fear, hostility, sadness) by the end of the weekend. Engaging in mastery experiences (activities that promote challenge and provide opportunities to learn new skills) during the weekend was related to increased positive feelings (joviality, serenity, self-assurance).  Finally, psychological detachment (mentally distancing oneself from work) was also related to increased positive feelings (only joviality and serenity) by the end of the weekend. 

The weekend isn’t always full of positive recovery experiences, however. 

Continue reading →

Organization-based self-esteem: – It’s good for me AND the bottom line.

Reply

Topic: Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Performance
Publication: Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (SEP 2010)
Article:A meta-analysis of the predictors and consequences of organization-based self esteem.
Authors: Bowling, N. A., Eschleman, K. J., Wang, Q., Kirkendall, C.,& Alarcon, G.
Reviewed by: Charleen Maher

Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) is a role-specific type of self-esteem that describes employees’ beliefs about their value and competence as a member of an organization – “I’m valued around here!”  So, what predicts OBSE in employees and what are the outcomes of experiencing OBSE?

A meta-analysis by Bowling and colleagues found that OSBE is predicted by the dispositional,  “hard wired” traits of general self-esteem and self-efficacy (the belief a person has that he/she can achieve goals).  Additionally, job complexity, autonomy, perceived organizational support, and social support from managers and coworkers were work conditions that predicted OBSE in employees.

As for outcomes, the present study found that OBSE was positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, performance, and organizational citizenship behavior. 

Continue reading →

Task Conflict, Team Creativity and…Goldilocks?

1

Topic: Conflict, Creativity
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (AUG 2010)
Article: Task conflict and team creativity: A question of how much and when
Authors: Farh, J. L., Lee, C., & Farh, C. I.
Reviewed By: Bobby Bullock

The concept of team creativity has become more and more salient in recent years due to an increasing reliance on teams to enhance an organization’s competitiveness.  Team creativity is defined as the creation of new and helpful ideas concerning services, procedures, products, and processes by a team of individuals.  So while, yes, we all want our teams to be creative, what environmental factors will encourage this? 

Searching for such factors, Farh, Lee, and Farh (2010) set out to examine the roles that task conflict (or conflict about policies, procedures, decisions, interpretation of facts, and the distribution of resources) and the phase of a project team’s lifecycle (i.e., team formation, mid-point, and project deadline) have in determining team creativity.

Consistent with previous findings, Farh et al. (2010) found that there is a curvilinear relationship between task conflict and team creativity, meaning that when task conflict was extremely low or extremely high, team creativity was at its lowest, and moderate amounts of task conflict were linked with the highest amounts of team creativity.  This supports the ‘Goldilocksian’ idea that too much disagreement and team members may become frustrated or lose sight of the group’s main goal, while too little disagreement could lead to groupthink and complacency.  However, ‘just the right’ amount of disagreement can expose members to new ideas and stimulate divergent thinking! 

Farh et al. (2010) also found that project team lifecycle interacted with task conflict to produce creative outcomes.  Their findings indicate that the curvilinear relationship was only present at the early phase of a team’s lifecycle.  This means that, as project teams near their deadline, task conflict will cease to produce creative solutions.  They theorized that this is due to a team’s inability to change course or incorporate new ideas when they are nearing their deadlines. 

The implications to this research are valuable for any organization that wishes to get the most from their project teams:

  • Managers or team leaders should not discourage conflict based on ideas, decisions, etc…  In fact, if they encourage some level of task conflict, they can expect their teams to come up with more creative solutions through the dissemination of more ideas and divergent thinking.
  • Task conflict should be embraced particularly at the early phases of a team project, when members are defining/refining objectives and planning a course of to attain those objectives.
  • According to Farh et al. (2010), managers should also “build a psychologically safe team climate early on in the project, so that team members feel safe to bring up ideas that may be counter to the majority opinion,” (pp. 6-7). 

With all this said, it’s important for managers to keep in mind that too much task conflict and too many arguments can shift a team towards relationship conflicts, frustration and lack of productivity!  Just like  that old story with the blond girl, the three bears and the porridge!

Farh, J. L., Lee, C., & Farh, C. I. (2010). Task conflict and team creativity: A question of how much and when. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0020015