JOB ORIENTATION OF BLACK AND WHITE COLLEGE GRADUATES IN BUSINESS

Differences in job orientation between black and white male and female business college graduates were examined. Significant race differences were found on 10 of 25 job characteristics, with blacks rating 9 of these more important than whites. Significant race by sex interactions exist on four characteristics, while sex differences were found on nine. Factor analysis indicates that blacks value long-range career objectives and structure considerably more than do whites, while their preference for intrinsic and extrinsic factors was less pronounced. Methods by which organizations can satisfy the greater importance placed on many job characteristics by blacks are explored.     

AN EVALUATION OF ALTERNATE SCORING METHODS FOR THE MIXED STANDARD SCALE

This study investigated the psychometric properties of three methods of scoring a Mixed Standard Scale (MSS) performance evaluation: the patterned procedure as corrected by Saal (1979); a simple nonpatterned scoring procedure suggested by Prien, Jones, and Miller (1977), which gives equal weights to the performance statements; and a procedure that assigned differential weights to each statement on the basis of scale values provided by a panel of subject matter experts. Interrater reliabilities, scale variances for averaged ratings, and a convergent/discriminant validity analysis, which included an alternate method of job skill ratings, indicated no difference in the score distribution variance, interrater reliability, or validity of different method scores.     

Reciprocal Relationships between Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) and Job Satisfaction: A Cross‐Lagged Analysis

While previous research has mainly emphasised the importance of leader–member exchange (LMX) to job satisfaction, there is a lack of research on reciprocal relationships between job satisfaction and LMX. In this study, we not only suggest that good LMX increases job satisfaction, but that job satisfaction can also enhance high‐quality supervisor–employee relationships. A full cross‐lagged panel analysis was used to test reciprocal relationships between LMX and job satisfaction. Employees (N= 279) of a large information technology company filled out questionnaires at two times, with a time lag of 3 months. In line with our predictions, findings revealed a positive relationship between LMX and job satisfaction both at Time 1 and Time 2. Moreover, LMX at Time 1 predicted the increase of job satisfaction at Time 2, and job satisfaction at Time 1 predicted the increase of LMX at Time 2. The results demonstrate the need to consider reciprocal relationships between job satisfaction and LMX when explaining employees' workplace outcomes. Our findings are discussed in terms of positive psychology theory.     

任职者任务绩效水平对其工作分析结果的影响

在控制了个体人口统计学变量和排除组织水平变量的影响下,探讨了电厂设计和编辑两个职位任职者的任务绩效水平对于他们Occupational Information Network (以下缩写为O*NET)工作分析问卷评价结果的影响。层次回归结果发现,控制了相关因素后,发电厂设计人员的任务绩效水平能显著影响其对技术性技能的水平评价,编辑的任务绩效水平能显著影响信息处理的重要性评价和水平评价,在一定程度上证实了“工作分析结果差异来源于真实差异”的理论     

The Role of Job Seekers' Individual Characteristics on Job Seeking Behavior and Psychological Well‐being

The job search process is considered a complex and intensive procedure requiring investment in time and effort on behalf of job seekers. Our study attempts to explore further the effects of a number of individual characteristics on job search behavior, effort, job search outcomes, as well as, on psychological well‐being. We examined these relationships using a daily diary methodology with the participation of 79 recent university graduates–job seekers in Greece at the beginning of the recent financial crisis. Our results did not support the importance of these individual characteristics on job search behavior, effort, and job search outcomes, but it supported their role of daily psychological well‐being, especially their self‐esteem. We discuss implications for job seekers to cultivate these skills that are related to these individual characteristics helpful in maintaining a positive psychological state during the job search period.     

工作满意度、情感承诺和工作投入对工作技能评价结果的影响

通过对从事人力资源管理工作的公务员、软件工程师、网络编辑和报纸广告销售人员四个职业的272名任职者调查数据的层次回归分析,文章发现控制了职业和人口统计学变量的影响之后,工作满意度、情感承诺和工作投入三个工作态度变量对工作技能的重要性和水平评价有显著影响。进一步对比发现,工作满意度对于技能的重要性和水平评价的影响效应较大。该研究对多个职业的分析结果拓展了人们对工作分析结果影响因素的认识,并对未来工作分析研究和实践有重要的启示作用     

Evidence for the Impact of Organisational Resources Versus Job Characteristics in Assessments of Occupational Stress Over Time

Considerable evidence demonstrates the importance of both job demands and job resources in the prediction of employee health and motivational outcomes. However, scant empirical evidence explains how broader organisational factors can also have an impact on these outcomes. Utilising the job demands-resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical explanation of occupational stress, we examined the impact of employees’ alignment with their organisation's strategic objectives (strategic alignment) in predicting long-term occupational health outcomes. The sample consisted of 1,601 police officers employed in one Australian police service, who completed two self-report surveys over 12 months. Results of the study indicated that strategic alignment was the only resource to reduce psychological strain, and to increase work engagement over time. Job demands were not found to be significantly associated with either psychological strain or work engagement over time. There was also no evidence of the moderating effects of job resources on health and motivational outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of the inclusion of strategic alignment as an organisational resource are discussed.     

组织支持对工作压力的中介效应研究——基于知识型员工样本的实证分析

采用中介变量分析的一般范式,以知识型员工为研究样本,实证检验了组织支持在工作压力源与压力反应之间的中介效应。研究表明:组织支持在良性压力源(如任务要求、能力要求)与积极压力反应(如组织承诺、工作满意度、工作参与感)之间发挥显著的中介作用;在负性压力源(如人际冲突、组织结构问题、时间冲突)与积极和消极压力反应(如消极工作情绪)之间都发挥显著的缓冲作用。管理者在知识型员工压力管理过程中,应高度重视组织支持的中介缓冲作用。     

Job search as goal-directed behavior: Objectives and methods

This study investigated the relationship between job search objectives (finding a new job/turnover, staying aware of job alternatives, developing a professional network, and obtaining leverage against an employer) and job search methods (looking at job ads, visiting job sites, networking, contacting employment agencies, contacting employers, and submitting applications). In a sample of 205 employed individuals from Belgium and Romania, job search objectives were significantly related to job search methods even after job satisfaction was controlled. Furthermore, particular objectives predicted specific methods. While the finding a new job/turnover objective predicted all search methods, staying aware of alternatives predicted using job ads and sites; the network objective predicted networking and contacting employers; and the leverage objective predicted contacting employers. Results suggest that search objectives are important for understanding job seekers’ search behavior and support the view that job search is a self-regulatory process that begins with objectives which activate search behavior.     

RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF VERBAL, ARTICULATIVE, AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION TO EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS IN THE JOB INTERVIEW SETTING

Recruiter ratings of 338 on-campus interviews were used in a discriminant analysis procedure to determine the relative importance of the verbal, articulative, and nonverbal dimensions of communication during the job interview. Correlation of seven variables with the discriminant function indicated that appropriateness of content, fluency of speech, and composure were of greatest importance in contributing to a favorable employment decision. These findings were contrary to the recent literature which has emphasized the importance of nonverbal behavior. Implications for job-interview skills training are discussed, and suggestions for a comprehensive workshop model are presented.     

A COMPARISON OF GLOBAL JUDGMENT VS. TASK ORIENTED APPROACHES TO JOB CLASSIFICATION

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which direct judgments of similarity by supervisors and incumbents could provide the same job classification results as a more elaborate job analysis procedure involving measures of task overlap among jobs. To accomplish this, 8 foreman jobs in a chemical processing plant were analyzed and compared on 237 task statements. In addition, 15 foremen incumbents and 17 supervisors evaluated the similarities among the same 8 foremen jobs in a paired comparisons rating task. The task-oriented job analysis required hundreds of man-hours to complete; the rating task took 15 minutes. Results using hierarchical cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that the global judgments and the task-oriented data led to identical conclusions. Also, it was found that incumbent ratings produced the same results as ratings from supervisors. Uses, advantages, and disadvantages of the procedure are outlined.     

THE FUNCTION OF JOB ANALYSIS IN CONTENT VALIDATION1

Job analysis is invariably mentioned as a part of industrial/organizational activities, but the treatment rarely matches the acknowledged importance. While the amount of research on job analysis methods has increased dramatically in the past decade several critical issues remain unresolved. The EEOC Selection Guidelines have increased the dependence on the process and results of job analysis with respect to personnel selection and especially content validation. In the absence of research which defines the necessary and sufficient job analysis method a multi-method approach using both task-and worker-methods is strongly recommended.     

Using individual differences to predict job performance: correcting for direct and indirect restriction of range

The present study investigates the relationship between individual differences, indicated by personality (FFM) and general mental ability (GMA), and job performance applying two different methods of correction for range restriction. The results, derived by analyzing meta-analytic correlations, show that the more accurate method of correcting for indirect range restriction increased the operational validity of individual differences in predicting job performance and that this increase primarily was due to general mental ability being a stronger predictor than any of the personality traits. The estimates for single traits can be applied in practice to maximize prediction of job performance. Further, differences in the relative importance of general mental ability in relation to overall personality assessment methods was substantive and the estimates provided enables practitioners to perform a correct utility analysis of their overall selection procedure.     

Development of Standard Anchors for Scoring Generic Past-Behaviour Questions in Structured Interviews

A structured interviewing system was developed which included an item bank of pre-written past-behaviour questions. Scoring anchors for each of 168 questions in the item bank were created from analysis of protocols from individual assessments. A concurrent validation study was conducted, focusing on the job of highway patrol sergeant. Job knowledge experts used a job analysis tool to select a subset of twelve questions from the item bank. Panel interviews were conducted with 32 highway patrol sergeants as subjects. Average inter-rater reliability was 0.65 and interview validity was 0.42 for group consensus scores and 0.44 for panel average scores. Discussion focused on practical issues affecting the interviewing system.     

Reactive Adjustment or Proactive Embedding? Multistudy,Multiwave Evidence for Dual Pathways to Expatriate Retention

The dominant perspective on expatriation characterizes the process as a continuing adaptation to existing job demands on an international assignment. Another, less studied perspective, emphasizes that expatriates can initiate tactics to acquire task, interpersonal, and affective resources for shaping their assignment experiences. Adopting a positive organizational scholarship lens and drawing on the job demands–resources model, we simultaneously examine both of these reactive demand‐based and proactive resource‐based pathways to expatriate retention. We propose that cross‐cultural uncertainty demands and expatriate‐initiated resource acquisition tactics both influence adjustment and embeddedness. Thus embeddedness works alongside adjustment to drive expatriates’ plans to remain in the international position, which in turn leads to actual retention. Using evidence from 2 separate panel studies (one with 2 waves and the other with 4 waves of data), we demonstrate the importance of the resource‐based pathway for expatriate assignments.     

Analysis of the control exerted by a complex cooperation procedure

The study examined the effects of the availability of a non-cooperative response on cooperative responding when cooperation did not have to result in an equal distribution of work or reinforcers. Also, an attempt was made to determine if the cooperative responding was under the control of the cooperation procedure. Pairs of institutionalized retardates were tested in full view of each other. For each subject, reinforcers (money) were contingent upon responses on each of two panels: (1) a matching panel for working matching-to-sample problems, and (2) a sample panel for producing the sample stimulus. The matching panels of the two subjects were 6 m apart, but a subject's sample panel could be placed at different distances from his matching panel. For each subject, either his own or his partner's sample panel could be nearest his matching panel such that less walking was required to reach one sample panel than the other. Subjects could work either individually, by producing their own sample stimulus, or cooperatively, by producing the sample stimulus for their partner. Subjects selected whichever solution involved the least amount of walking. The importance of testing for control by the cooperation procedure was indicated by the findings that cooperative-like responses were not always under the control of the cooperation procedure.     

LEGAL CONCERNS IN THE USE OF WEIGHTED APPLICATIONS1

The use of the standard weighted application procedure relies on strictly empirically derived keys for validity. While weighted applications are generally valid in terms of the correlation between score on the application and position on the criterion, the empirical scheme may weight items that can not be shown to be relevant to the job for which they predict. To the extent that employment decisions are based on non-job-relevant weighted applications, such decisions may be contrary to the letter or the spirit of the Civil Rights Act. Alternative methods incorporating job relevance into the weighting procedure via job analysis inject the “hand of reason” into the process. Such rational-empirical approaches ensure job-relatedness as well as validity.     

EVALUATION OF TASK AND JOB SKILL LINKAGE JUDGMENTS USED TO DEVELOP TEST SPECIFICATIONS

The research on job analysis judgments, such as "time spent," has been relatively limited, particularly with reference to external criteria remote from the job analysis operation. The more complex job analysis judgment linking a job skill to specific tasks or duties has not been systematically examined. While it would appear that a simple scaling of importance of a skill for a task or duty or a retranslation judgment would suffice, the fact is that a single job skill may be a prerequisite for performance in a variety of tasks, and any one task may require multiple skills of varying levels for effective performance. With a multiple assignment of tasks to job skills, the evaluation becomes considerably more difficult. In the present study, a sequence of statistical evaluations was conducted to examine, first, the reliability of the subject matter expert (SME) panel's association of tasks and job skills and, second, the factor structure of the task by job skill relationship. The results are discussed with reference to developing selection test specifications and test budgets.     

Continuing problems in exploring the structure of job satisfaction

Job satisfaction ratings-defined as the product (importance) X (what the job should offer, what the job actually offers)-on 29 job dimensions were factor analyzed for two large and randomly drawn samples of management-level males. An identical analysis was also carried out on the perceived discrepancy score alone. Differences between the results of the analyses on the two types of measures indicated that while the importance weighted measure of job satisfaction is more elegant and conceptually appealing, it is embedded in considerable measurement difficulty. Some probable sources of and possible approaches to handling this difficulty were offered.