May mega research update

It's time once again for the monthly research round-up.  So let's dive right in:

The June International Journal of Selection and Assessment doesn't disappoint; let's take a look:

- More evidence of the link between personality variables and CWBs; this time with concurrent data in China

- Dovetailing nicely with a post I've been working on regarding promotional testing, this research indicates some interesting characteristics of internal test takers

- Why are supervisors open to behavioral interviews but shun discussion of "structure"?  Looks like how we communicate about them plays a big role.

- More research on self-efficacy, this time teasing apart the concept a bit.

- Always a popular topic: applicant reactions to selection mechanisms.  This time with a sample from Saudi Arabia.

- Speaking of applicant reactions...how about another study?  This one comparing U.S. and Vietnamese college students.  By the way, not surprisingly work samples came out a winner in both of these studies.

- Next, a fascinating study of a hidden bonus to UIT: despite the cheating element, it likely increases your candidate pool and eventually performance outcomes

- Speaking of response distortion, here's another study, this time of military cadet selection using personality inventories

- Okay, one more on inflation.  This time a study of Chinese applicants--no difference compared to American samples.

- Back in March I wrote about a study Jeremy Bernerth published in J.A.P.  that got a lot of attention.  This time, Bernerth studied ethnic differences and found minority status was negatively related to credit scores.


Moving on to the summer issue of Personnel Psychology:

-  The "file drawer problem" is the theory that nonsignificant results are less likely to get published.  According to this study, that appears unlikely.  But IMHO looking at all correlations is different than looking at the correlations key to one's hypothesis(es)...

- Back to faking (that may be this post's theme!), can response elaboration reduce faking on biodata items?  This study suggests so.  Although I'm left wondering...what was the impact on validity?

- Speaking of biodata, there are various ways of keying these items.  This research suggests the best method depends on your sample size, although rational keying performed the worst.


How about the May issue of Journal of Applied Psychology?

-  Well this is interesting...Chad Van Iddekinge and his colleagues have provided an updated meta-analysis on the criterion-related validity of integrity tests.  What did they find? Well, the results appear to be less promising than those published previously (e.g., corrected r=.18 for job performance).  Much like SIOP's research journal, this time J.A.P. published several commentaries in response to the study that...well, let's just say a debate ensued about the analysis...

- The Dark Triad.  It sounds like something in a Dan Brown novel.  But in this meta-analysis the authors show that personality characteristics that make up this triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) explain some variance in CWBs.

- Why are some people more proactive in seeking career goals than others?  It's an important and under-researched question.  In this study the authors show that part of the explanation lies in "future work selves", or how people's hopes and aspirations as they relate to work.

- Think self-reports of CWBs are biased?  Perhaps not, according to this new study.

- Interested in what causes proactive customer service behavior?  According to this multi-national study, self-efficacy is a key (along with service climate).

- Why do some leaders engage in more self-interested behavior than others?  Perhaps not surprisingly, it appears due in part to the strength of their moral identity.


The May issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology has a couple gems...

- Hey, look, turns out being sensitive to your subordinates pays off.  Talk about a lesson that needs frequent repeating...

- And that's it.  Oh, wait, just this little study about using Facebook profiles to predict job performance...that I wrote about before....available in FULL right now...


Okay, getting to the end...The May/June issue of HRM:

- An interesting study of adverse impact in promotion decisions for managers in a Fortune 500 retailer.  The authors compared three methods (top-down assessment, assessment centers, and  multisource appraisal) and the results demonstrate how complex these analyses are!

- Speaking of complex.  Think that successful job postings on the web is just fancy graphics?  Think again--it still involves some classic factors like the labor market, firm reputation, and compensation incentives.  The more things change...

- Identifying future leaders.  There are few other issues that are as important for most organizations.  Yet how exactly to do it eludes many.  These authors propose a model that focuses on four main features: analytical ability, learning agility, drive, and emergent leadership.


Finally, a few from PARE:

- Does item order impact response anxiety?  Not according to this study.

- What's that?  How do we use a new jacknife procedure to eliminating items and improve structural equation modeling?  You're in luck.

- Looks like a lot of research rely on beta weights when interpreting and reporting multiple linear regression results.  But there's so much more...


Happy reading!

What The Avengers can teach us about high-performance teams

Like millions of other people, I saw Marvel's The Avengers yesterday.  It's anticipated to bring in around $200M in its opening weekend.  It's full of explosions, space aliens, and people in outlandish costumes.

So what does The Avengers have to do with recruiting and hiring?  Nothing.  Unless you care about building a high-performance team.

Sure, the movie is nominally about a egomaniacal godlike being, Loki, who is attempting to destroy all humans using an army of aliens summoned through a space portal (I call that Monday).  But I think what the movie's really about is the challenge of building and sustaining a high-performance team.

The power of teamwork

Nick Fury has a tough job.  As the Director of a secret international espionage and military agency, he's tasked with figuring out how to respond to the threat that Loki poses.  While his bosses (let's call them the board) encourage him to use more drastic solutions, Fury steadfastly sticks to his team (that'd be The Avengers--Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Hawkeye, and The Hulk).  Why?  Because he believes that their sum exceeds their parts.

Which brings us to our first lessons:

1) Teams are particularly effective when you need the benefits that come with combining talents and skills to deal with a complex situation beyond the abilities of any individual.

2) Successful team leaders believe passionately in the power of the team and are personally devoted to seeing them succeed.  They may even need to resist pressure from above and put their reputation on the line.

Dealing with Superstars(heroes)

Fury's biggest challenge lies in assembling the team and keeping them cohesive.  Why?  Because each one of them is a "high producer".  Technically they don't need each other to do great things--and each one of them is extremely confident in their abilities (with Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr. being the poster boy).  Each is used to dealing with big challenges themselves, in their own way.  Not only are they not used to a "boss" (Fury), but they struggle to form a group identity.  Lessons:

3) Recognize that building a team of superstars will be a challenge.  And then recognize it publicly.  Acknowledge to the team that accomplishing great things will likely not be easy--but it is doable (and in this case, necessary).

4) Plan ahead for what will attract these individual performers to come together.  Is it broader recognition?  Satisfaction of a job well done?  A sense of duty?  An opportunity to right wrongs?

5) Prepare for some in-fighting.  This is likely inevitable among individuals used to working in their own fashion (and, not coincidentally, getting all the glory).

Bringing them together

So how do you recruit and keep together a group of often-selfish, always stubborn, personalities?  Fury gives us some clues...

6) Seek out the diverse talents you need.  While each member of The Avengers is super in their own right, each also brings something different.  For example, Black Widow is particularly adept at persuasion and interrogation; Captain America is a natural leader; and Thor, well...Thor happens to be related to the main bad guy so he's pretty familiar with the core issues.

7) Appeal to a greater cause.  Fury isn't shy about sharing his passion for the idea of The Avengers: the world's most powerful superheroes coming together to defeat evil that threatens the planet.  That's a pretty powerful EVP and/or leadership vision, wouldn't you say?  (By the way, he's also good at manipulating team emotions for the greater cause)

8) Harness the unique talents of your team members.  While Fury is a pretty good recruiter in his own right, he recognizes that certain team members (namely Dr. Bruce Banner a.k.a. The Hulk) might be better wooed by others (i.e., Black Widow).  Similarly, as the two scientists, Iron Man and Bruce Banner, are brought together we see immediate results of their complimentary passion and talent.

Keeping them together

Here's where Fury stumbles a little, and it results in the biggest setback the team experiences.  The team starts bickering and Fury lets himself get drawn into it.  This intensifies the mistrust and distracts them while their enemies infiltrate their headquarters.  Only the immediate threat solidifies the team.  Last lessons:

9) As a leader, stay above the fray.  Teams with strong personalities don't need another one.  Your job is to stay and produce calm.  Fury would have been better served by calling for a time out so people could cool their jets.

10) Stay focused.  Don't let distractions such as momentary setbacks or petty infighting ruin the potential.  Remind people why they're there.

11) Be honest.  In Fury's case, he's caught with hidden intentions and it drastically lowers team trust.  Superstars are often particularly adept at spotting weaknesses in leaders.  Don't give them reason to doubt.


There's a lot of research and writing on the topic of building and sustaining high-performance teams.  Heck, there are even conferences devoted to it. Interestingly, it's one of the most enduring themes in graphic novels as well (think Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc.).  There's a reason why there is so much interest: there are times when special teams are called for, and it's exciting to think about harnessing disparate talents and focusing them on achieving great things.

The best lessons, I think, to draw from The Avengers are that bringing together superstars isn't easy, and keeping them together may be even more difficult.  And it's another example of where the strength of leadership can make or break the mission.  We may not be trying to recruit and engage superheroes.  But we should all be familiar with the challenges inherent in bringing individuals together in the pursuit of a common goal.  Even if it isn't saving the world.

A fascinating example of an organization making hiring job #1

Recently the employee handbook of Valve, a software and video game development and distribution company (famous for things like Half-Life and it's Steam service) was leaked and frankly it's one of the most interesting things I've read in a long time.  It's available several places, including here as of this writing.

Why so interesting? Several reasons...

1) It doesn't look or read like a typical employee handbook.  It's very informal, devoid of legalese, balances positivity and expectations, and is graphically very attractive.  Not exactly signs of your typical handbook.  As an example, the document starts with this statement on the cover:

A fearless adventure in knowing what to do when no one’s there telling you what to do.

(They do keep their formal policies on their Intranet (e.g., about benefits).)

2) It's a very interesting example of how a flat organization describes itself.  They don't appear to have much of a management hierarchy so much of the handbook is devoted to explaining how employees are supposed to select assignments, etc.

3) The document itself is editable on their Intranet.  Yes, you read that right, the employee handbook is a collaborative document.

Last but definitely not least,

4) This is a great example of how an organization can emphasize that hiring is the most important activity employees engage in.  The document is replete with examples.  Consider the following passages from the handbook:

p. 6: "hiring is the single most important thing you will ever do at Valve"

p. 14: "We have made significant strides toward bringing more predictability, measurement, and analysis to recruiting. A process that many assume must be treated only as a “soft” art because it has to do with humans, personalities, language, and nuance, actually has ample room for a healthy dose of science."

p. 17: "The thing we work hardest at is hiring good people"

here's my favorite:

p. 44: "Hiring well is the most important thing in the universe. Nothing else comes close. It’s more important than breathing. So when you’re working on hiring—participating in an interview loop or innovating in the general area of recruiting—everything else you could be doing is stupid and should be ignored!"

p. 45: "Missing out on hiring that great person is likely the most expensive kind of mistake we can make...a poor hiring decision can cause lots of damage, and can sometimes go unchecked for too long."

They also talk about how they hire:

p. 47: "When unchecked, people have a tendency to hire others who are lower-powered than themselves...We should hire people more capable than ourselves, not less."

pp. 47-48: "[In some circumstances] hiring someone who is at least capable seems (in the short term) to be smarter than not hiring anyone at all. But that’s actually a huge mistake. We can always bring on temporary/contract help to get us through tough spots, but we should never lower the hiring bar."

There are so many examples it's almost more of a introduction to hiring rather than to the company!

Also, in case you're interested, here's their "work at valve" page, which supports the culture as described in the handbook.


This "leak" has gotten a lot of press, and likely has done a lot to increase its attractiveness as an employer--another reason why this is such a fascinating example.

So I ask you: how much of your organization's handbook discusses the importance of hiring?  Do they make it clear it's a shared responsibility of every employee?  Is there a passion for hiring right?

April research update

Okay, so I didn't quite hit my March update...date. But I'm awful close, so without further ado let's take a look at what research has come out lately. And boy is there a lot to cover...

First, the Spring Personnel Psychology, which it should be noted is all free at the time of this writing (!):

- Moore, et al. describe the development and test of a measure of "an individual's propensity to morally disengage", which is really (as the title suggests) about investigating why people do bad things at work. Looks like it has promise beyond existing measures that predict things like CWBs.

- Next, O'Boyle and Aguinis present the results of a fascinating study of the distribution of human performance. Turns out it may not be normal after all, but rather Paretian. This has big implications for...well, all sorts of things, including selection. Read here for more.

- Avery, et al. describe results of a study of racioethnic matching (employees and customers) and the impact on productivity (which turned out to be positive, through customer satisfaction). The authors present several very practical ways of interpreting this finding without jumping to hiring based on race.


Next, the March Journal of Applied Psychology:

- First, van Hooft and Born with a fascinating study of eye-tracking to investigating faking on personality and integrity measures. Looks like eye movement differs depending on the intent to inflate, and it also suggests response time could be an indicator of inflation.

- Next, Madera and Hebl with another eye-tracking study, but this time on the impact that facial stigmatization has on interview performance. Discouragingly (but perhaps not surprising), the results suggest individuals with facial stigmatization may receive lower ratings, in part due to the interviewer being distracted.

- Into core self-evaluations? You might want to read this study by Wu and Griffin, in which they argue that CSEs are predictors of, but also influenced by, contextual factors such as job satisfaction.

- Lievens and Sackett provide evidence that individuals' procedural knowledge of interpersonal behavior may be valuable in predicting performance (in this case, medical students).

- Bernerth and colleagues discuss the usefulness of credit scores in predicting job performance, which I wrote about in an earlier blog post.



Next up, the May Journal of Organizational Behavior:

- Peng, et al. suggest that deployed soldiers with higher levels of conscientiousness and lower levels of neuroticism may be able to better cope with psychological distress (the effect of extraversion was mixed).

- Derous, et al. discuss discrimination in resume screening among individuals who belong to multiple minority groups (in this case with a focus on Arab women). Applicant, job, and recruiter characteristics were all important.



The March Industrial and Organizational Psychology has a fascinating focal article on how I/O psychology and HR can contribute to organizational strategy and competitive advantage. Several commentaries follow, at least one of which directly addresses selection. Move quick, because right now both the focal article and the commentaries are free!


Now here are some miscellaneous articles you may be interested in:

- Jackson, et al. describe a study that suggests going through military training may alter someone's personality...

- Using a 1- or 2-item measure of personality traits, thinking you don't need more than that? Think again.

- Looking for creative thinkers? Gino and Ariely provide evidence that may give you pause: those that are the most creative may be more dishonest...(!)

- Hiring people into a particularly political environment (naw, none of us ever have that)? Chang, et al. present results that suggest you may want to pay attention to their self-monitoring skill and level of conscientiousness...but maybe not in the way you think.

- Still getting over St. Patrick's Day? Then check out van den Born and van Witteloostuijn's research on "shamrock" organizations. They suggest this type of organization may explain the conflicting findings on modern job tenure.


Finally, all the presentations from the 2011 IPAC conference that were previously available only to members have been made public. There is so much good stuff here I can't even begin to summarize it. Just go check it out.

Facebook fallout continues

The fallout from earlier reports of employers asking applicants for their Facebook passwords continues. Obviously a nerve was struck.

Today, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Charles E. Schumer formally asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to launch an investigation into whether this practice violates federal laws.

From the press release:

"Blumenthal and Schumer argued that this disturbing practice represents a grave intrusion into personal privacy that could set a dangerous precedent for personal privacy and online privacy, make it more difficult for Americans to get jobs, and expose employers to discrimination claims"

"'With few exceptions, employers do not have the need or the right to demand access to applicants’ private, password-protected information.'”

"'In an age where more and more of our personal information – and our private social interactions – are online, it is vital that all individuals be allowed to determine for themselves what personal information they want to make public and protect personal information from their would-be employers. This is especially important during the job-seeking process, when all the power is on one side of the fence.'"

"In their letter to the Justice Department, Blumenthal and Schumer pointed out that two courts have found that when supervisors request employee login credentials, and access otherwise private information with those credentials, that those supervisors may be subject to civil liability. Although those two cases involved current employees, the courts’ reasoning does not clearly distinguish between employees and applicants."

"Blumenthal and Schumer also announced that they are currently drafting legislation that would seek to fill any gaps in federal law that allow employers to require personal login information from prospective employees to be considered for a job."


In related news, on today's Talk of the Nation show, they discussed this issue with a reporter from Wired magazine and an HR consultant.


There are a lot of issues here, ranging from online privacy to public reputation to discrimination, but one that I think deserves more attention is how employers can legitimately get the type of information they're seeking. Again, we're not talking about a background check for, say, a peace officer position, we're talking about your run-of-the-mill clerical job. Basically employers are hungry for any information like displays of poor judgment, a negative attitude about their employer, duplicity in their application, etc.

How might an employer get this type of information without resorting to asking for applicant passwords? It's pretty simple actually, we go back to the basics such as:

1) Reference checks; highly under-used and maligned, with many organizations unaware of technological advances made in this area that make it more likely they'll get the information they need.

2) Work sample/performance tests that simulate actual job tasks. These can be very effective in determining how an applicant will respond in an actual situation (i.e., where things like judgment are important).

3) Situational judgment tests: a lower fidelity version of a performance test that nonetheless can be very effective at assessing candidate's knowledge of, and propensity to engage in, appropriate behavior in various situations.

4) Personality inventories: made to measure things like conscientiousness, openness to experience, and extraversion, which may all be good or bad things depending on the needs of the position.

Bottom line: there are other--better--forms of assessment out there that have been around for a long time and when done well, do the trick. No need to ask for someone's online diary.


As a reminder, for those of you that are IPAC members, I gave a webinar about this topic about a year and a half ago where I gave an overview of the technology as well as a summary of many of the major challenges inherent in this practice. The recording is available in the Members Only area.

Epic fail: Employers continue asking applicants for Facebook account

The Associated Press put out an article this week about the ongoing trend of employers doing something stupid: asking applicants for their Facebook passwords.

Why stupid? Let me count the ways:

1) It makes the applicants feel like they've applied to a totalitarian regime. And they'll tell others, which goes to your reputation. And what do we know about employer reputation? It drives who applies for your jobs.

2) Employers are likely to see things they wish they hadn't. I don't just mean people passed out drunk at a party, I mean things like religious affiliation.

3) If you're trying to access their profile on your own, many are marked private and you won't see anything.

4) If you ask them to log into their account during the interview, it's like asking to see their personal diary.

5) The content on people's FB page is largely outside their control (e.g., comments, photos they're tagged in).

Oh, and let's not forget:

6) The content of someone's profile--aside from things like education and work history which you should have already--is likely to be totally unrelated to job performance, regardless of its potential usefulness, because frankly most employers aren't graduate students in psychology who have received training on interpreting Big 5 characteristics.

The only caveat I can think of is when this request is made as part of a full background check, in which case pretty much your life is an open book.

Facebook, notoriously unpredictable regarding its privacy policies, subsequently warned employers not to do this...but I don't anticipate that this will stop. Why? Because employers are obsessed (rightfully so) with getting as much--and as varied--information as they possibly can.

This just isn't the right way to do it.

Has your organization given up on rigorous assessment?

I'd like to hear from you:

Has your organization given up on rigorous assessment? Given in to the incessant demands for "faster, cheaper"? Sold its soul to the T&E gods? Failed to replace seasoned, trained, and passionate assessment experts and replaced them with generalists?

Or have you gone the opposite direction--are you innovating and experimenting with new forms of assessment (like the feds are)? Are you selective in whom you choose to work on assessment? Do you resist efforts by management to "dumb down" your selection processes?