Smiling in a Job Interview: When Less Is More

Two studies examined the effect of applicants’ smiling on hireability. In a pre-test study, participants were asked to rate the expected behavior for four types of applicants. Newspaper reporter applicants were expected to be more serious than applicants for other jobs. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned to be an applicant or interviewer for a newspaper reporting job. Smiling was negatively related to hiring, and smiling mediated the relation between applicants’ motivation to make a good impression and hiring. Hiring was maximized when applicants smiled less in the middle of the interview relative to the start and end. In Study 2, participants watched Study 1 clips and were randomly assigned to believe the applicants were applying to one of four jobs. Participants rated more suitability when applicants smiled less, especially for jobs associated with a serious demeanor. This research shows that job type is an important moderator of the impact of smiling on hiring.     

PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS EXPLAINING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INTEGRITY TESTS AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: BIG FIVE,OR ONE IN ADDITION?

Although the criterion-related validity of integrity tests is well established, there has not been enough research examining which personality constructs contribute to their criterion-related validity. Moreover, evidence of how well findings on integrity tests in North America generalize to non-English speaking countries is virtually absent. This research addressed these issues with data obtained from employees and students in Canada and Germany (total N = 853). Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that (a) Honesty–Humility, as specified in the HEXACO model of personality, is relatively more important than the Big 5 dimensions of personality in accounting for the criterion-related validity of overt integrity tests, whereas (b) the Big 5 are relatively more important in explaining the validity of personality-based integrity tests. These predictions were tested using 2 criteria (counterproductive work behavior and counterproductive academic behavior) as well as 2 overt and 2 personality-based integrity tests. We found evidence of the expected differences between types of integrity tests largely regardless of culture of the sample, specific test, criterion, or population under research, pointing to some degree of generalizability of findings in integrity testing research. Implications include theoretical refinements in research on integrity testing and encouragement of practical applications beyond North America.     

LinkedIn as a new selection method: Psychometric properties and assessment approach

Various surveys suggest LinkedIn is used as a screening and selection tool by many hiring managers. Despite this widespread use, fairly little is known about whether LinkedIn meets established selection criteria, such as reliability, validity, and legality (i.e., no adverse impact). We examine the properties of LinkedIn-based assessments in two studies. Study 1 shows that raters reach acceptable levels of consistency in their assessments of applicant skills, personality, and cognitive ability. Initial ratings also correlate with subsequent ratings done 1-year later (i.e., demonstrating temporal stability), with slightly higher correlations when profile updates are taken into account. Initial LinkedIn-based ratings correlate with self-reports for more visible skills (leadership, communication, and planning) and personality traits (Extraversion), and for cognitive ability. LinkedIn-based hiring recommendations are positively associated with indicators of career success. Potential adverse impact is also limited. Profiles that are longer, include a picture, and have more connections are rated more positively. Some of those features are valid cues to applicants’ characteristics (e.g., applicants high on Conscientiousness have longer profiles). In Study 2, we show that an itemized LinkedIn assessment is more effective than a global assessment. Implications of these findings for selection and future research are discussed.     

The Impact of Job Applicants' Facial Maturity, Gender, and Academic Achievement on Hiring Recommendations

Two studies investigated the impact of job applicants' facial maturity, gender, and achievement level on hiring recommendations. The results revealed that discrimination based on gender and facial appearance varies with the type of job for which an applicant is being considered. Applicants who were babyfaced or female were favored for jobs requiring qualities of warmth and submission, whereas those who were maturefaced or male were favored for jobs requiring qualities of shrewdness and leadership. These hiring preferences were most pronounced for high achieving applicants. They were also paralleled by stereotypical perceptions of the job- relevant attributes possessed by the applicants, which suggests that the effects of applicants' gender and facial maturity are mediated by the perceived fit between their assumed attributes and the job requirements. Finally, the jobs for which male and maturefaced applicants were favored were those for which high-achieving applicants were also favored, which suggests that female and babyfaced applicants are most apt to be discriminated against when applying for higher status jobs.     

Racial Prototypicality,Affirmative Action,and Hiring Decisions in a Multiracial World

This research examined how the racial prototypicality of minority job applicants' faces influenced hiring decisions under different affirmative action (AA) policies: no AA, soft AA (recruitment of minorities with merit‐based hiring), and hard AA (race as a tie‐break factor in hiring). Participants (N=252) evaluated resume/photograph pairs, each containing a Caucasian and a Black applicant, with minority applicants representing three levels of racial prototypicality. The number of jobs awarded to minorities increased as Black racial prototypicality increased. Each level of AA policy strength increased the number of minority hires, but these increases came with a price: AA directives decreased the percentage of minority hires attributed to higher qualifications and increased perceptions that hires were due to AA more than was actually the case.     

Employment Qualifications,Person–Job Fit,Underemployment Attributions,and Hiring Recommendations: A three‐study investigation

Using an experimental design across three studies and four samples, we investigated the effects of employment qualification level (i.e., underqualified, adequately qualified, or overqualified) on hiring recommendations, and how the relationship was influenced by person–job (P‐J) fit and underemployment attributions. In Study 1, we tested and found support for the strength and effectiveness of the employment qualification level manipulation. In Study 2, the results demonstrated that overqualified applicants received higher ratings on objective P‐J fit, subjective P‐J fit, and hiring recommendations than underqualified applicants. Also, overqualified applicants were rated higher on objective and subjective P‐J fit than adequately qualified applicants. However, the results indicated no significant differences between adequately qualified and overqualified applicants on hiring recommendations. Finally, P‐J fit was found to fully mediate the employment qualification level–hiring recommendation relationship, but only subjective P‐J fit (i.e., and not objective P‐J fit) was a significant mediator. In Study 3, we assessed the potential effects of underemployment attribution (i.e., internal‐controllable vs. external‐uncontrollable) on interviewer hiring recommendation. Results demonstrated that applicants who made an external‐uncontrollable attribution for their overqualification were perceived negatively and received lower ratings on hiring recommendations than applicants who made an internal‐controllable attribution for their underemployment. Furthermore, the underemployment attribution‐hiring recommendation relationship was found to be fully mediated by subjective (but not objective) P‐J fit. Contributions of these results to theory, research, and practice, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Predicting counterproductivity among drug store applicants

The ability of a preemployment integrity test to predict future admissions of counterproductive behavior by employees was investigated. Job applicants completed the London House Personnel Selection Inventory (PSI) as part of an overall selection process. Approximately one year later, a survey was sent to applicants at their home addresses. The survey asked for the frequency with which these applicants engaged in a variety of counterproductive behaviors at work. The PSI accurately predicted admissions of cash and merchandise theft, theft of time, behaviors associated with poor job performance, and the frequency with which the theft of other employees was observed.     

Constructed criteria: redefining merit to justify discrimination

This article presents an account of job discrimination according to which people redefine merit in a manner congenial to the idiosyncratic credentials of individual applicants from desired groups. In three studies, participants assigned male and female applicants to gender-stereotypical jobs. However, they did not view male and female applicants as having different strengths and weaknesses. Instead, they redefined the criteria for success at the job as requiring the specific credentials that a candidate of the desired gender happened to have. Commitment to hiring criteria prior to disclosure of the applicant's gender eliminated discrimination, suggesting that bias in the construction of hiring criteria plays a causal role in discrimination.     

Multitasking as a Predictor of Pilot Performance: Validity Beyond Serial Single-Task Assessments

Although multitasking has been identified as an important competency for many jobs, standardized preemployment tests of multitasking are uncommon, and their validity beyond separate single-task assessments is unclear. To address this gap, this study compared the validity of a preemployment multitasking assessment (with math, memorization, and monitoring tasks presented concurrently) to an assessment in which the same constituent tasks were assessed separately. Among military pilot applicants, concurrent multitasking predicted both flying and academic performance, whereas serial single-task scores and their combination predicted only academic performance. Larger multitasking decrements (i.e., operationalized as the difference between single-task and multiple-task performance of the same constituent tasks) were associated with poorer flying performance. Results suggest the potential utility of multitasking assessments in selection for military jobs requiring competing, concurrent task demands.     

Comparison of the factors influencing interviewer hiring decisions for applicants with and those without disabilities

Two studies present an examination of the factors that influence hiring decisions for applicants with, and those without, disabilities in the employment interview. In Study 1, an integrative conceptual model of interviewer hiring decisions was proposed and tested in a field sample of applicants with disabilities. Interviewers provided ratings for 70 unstructured interviews with disabled applicants. Study 2 examined the fit of the model in an independent field sample of interviews with fully-able applicants (n=165). Results supported the model among both groups of applicants. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.This paper has been improved greatly through the suggestions of John Binning, Michael Campion, Robert L. Dipboye, Miles Patterson, and Mark Tubbs, and Lisa Brady and Jennifer Malatesta. Study 1 was partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the Wright State University Office of Disability Services (Theodore L. Hayes, co-Principal Investigator).     

Sexism and beautyism effects in selection as a function of self-monitoring level of decision maker

The authors, in two experiments, investigated the influence of the sex and attractiveness of applicants for male and female sex-typed jobs on selection decisions made by low and high self-monitors. In both experiments, attractiveness and the congruence between applicants' sex and the sex type of the job influenced selection decisions. In addition, high self-monitors were more influenced by attractiveness and sex of the applicant when hiring for sex-typed jobs than low self-monitors, but this difference in hiring pattern was not evident when the job was gender neutral. Results indicate that job applicants may encounter different employment opportunities as a function of their sex, their physical attractiveness, the sex type of the job, and the self-monitoring level of the decision maker. Implications of results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Pre-employment integrity testing across multiple industries

Despite the robust meta-analytic data available, very little comparative research exists on validities of integrity measures within specific industries. Among a sample of 2456 Israeli job applicants, integrity scores were found to be significantly correlated with self-reported counterproductive work behaviors across eight different industries, with no evidence of adverse impact by gender, age, or national origin. These results are believed to be of practical importance to the diverse organizations administering integrity tests.     

Job Type and Recruiters' Inferences of Applicant Personality Drawn from Resume Biodata: Their Relationships with Hiring Recommendations

Using data collected from 244 recruiters who reviewed resumes and made dispositional inferences and hiring recommendations for 122 entry‐level job applicants, we found that type of job opening (Holland's Conventional vs. Enterprising jobs) moderated relationships between recruiter inferences of applicant personality traits and recruiter judgments of applicant employability. Results showed Conscientiousness correlated with employability ratings for Conventional jobs (e.g., accounting) while extraversion was most associated with employability ratings for Enterprising jobs (e.g., marketing).     

Pre‐employment risk screening: Comparability of integrity assessment technology platforms

The prevalence of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) has led to job applicants increasingly choosing to use these mobile devices to complete online pre‐employment assessments in the application process. This study identifies increasing mobile device usage trends for applicants completing an unproctored integrity assessment across 13 quarterly time periods. Further, the comparability of the integrity assessment results when completed on mobile devices compared to when it is completed on computers was examined. Results revealed that the integrity assessment had comparable mean scores, number of admissions, reliability estimates, and validity coefficients across mobile devices and computers. Pass rates for the assessment across the delivery modes showed small differences though some were statistically significant. Applicants using smartphones to complete the assessment took significantly more time than applicants using computers or tablets.     

Personality and absenteeism: a meta‐analysis of integrity tests

Until recently, research focus has been on a variety of demographic, attitudinal, and organizational variables in predicting and explaining absenteeism. If personality traits predict absenteeism, then it may be possible to use measures of these traits to identify and select job applicants and thereby reduce absenteeism rates. In this research, our goal was to examine whether integrity tests could be used to predict absenteeism. Meta‐analysis was applied to studies of the validity of pre‐employment integrity tests for predicting voluntary absenteeism. Twenty‐eight studies based on a total sample of 13 972 were meta‐analysed. The estimated mean predictive validity of personality‐based integrity tests was 0.33. This operational validity generalized across various predictor scales, organizations, settings, and jobs (SD_ρ = 0.00). Overt integrity tests, however, showed much lower predictive validity for absenteeism and greater variability than personality‐based tests (ρ = 0.09; SD_ρ = 0.16). The results indicate that a personnel selection approach to reducing absenteeism in organizations may be a useful strategy, particularly if personality‐based integrity tests are utilized. Potential explanations for differences between these results and those found for Big Five measures of personality are offered. Future research investigating models of absenteeism should incorporate the personality constructs assessed by integrity tests. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender Bias in Leader Selection? Evidence from a Hiring Simulation Study

The present research investigated factors that might affect gender discrimination in a hiring simulation context from the perspectives of social role theory and the shifting standards model. Specifically, the experimental study investigated whether gender biases are evident in the screening and hiring stage of the personnel selection process depending on the applicants?? social role and evaluators?? gender. A sample of German undergraduate business students (54 women, 53 men) was asked to make a personnel selection decision (short-listing or hiring) about a fictitious applicant (man or woman) in a specific role (leader or non-leader) for a managerial position. Consistent with social role theory??s assumption that social role information is more influential than gender information, participants selected applicants described as leaders over applicants described as non-leaders, regardless of applicant gender. In addition, in the presence of role information, female applicants portrayed as leaders were similarly short-listed and hired as male applicants with the same credentials. In the absence of role information, female applicants were similarly short-listed as male applicants; however, male applicants were hired over female applicants, albeit by male participants only. This is consistent with the shifting standards model??s assumption that group members are held to a higher standard to confirm traits on which they are perceived to be deficient: Male participants hired female applicants portrayed as non-leaders with less certainty than their male counterparts possibly due to higher confirmatory standards for leadership ability in women than men. The research and practice implications of these results are discussed.     

Promoting Responsible Research Conduct: A South African Perspective

A great deal of effort has gone into developing capacity in the sphere of human research protection programmes in South Africa and Africa over the last decade or more, by several international organisations. However the promotion of the broader agenda of research integrity or ‘RCR’ (Responsible Conduct of Research) has lagged behind. From a global perspective South Africa and other African countries are actively involved in research endeavours and collaborations across a very broad spectrum of scientific fields. For this research to fulfil its potential social value it must be reliable and trustworthy and hence it is essential that research institutions and universities take the promotion of research integrity seriously. The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of an institutional office of research integrity within the context of academic research particularly in South Africa but also in Africa. I will reflect on my own experience over a period of five years as a research integrity officer at a South African academic institution to highlight concerns in five domains; the promotion of an ethic of responsibility in opposition to compliance and bureaucracy, collaboration ethics and collegiality especially in the context of North-South collaborations, authorship and publication ethics, the problem of plagiarism and the utility of policy and procedure. I will suggest that the establishment of such an office can be of great value in the promotion of a broad culture of research ethics and responsible research conduct. The possible role and scope of function of an institutional office of research integrity will be briefly outlined.     

Quitters would not prosper: Examining the relationship between online assessment performance and assessment attrition behavior

Hiring managers are often hesitant to implement online assessments over concerns that higher‐quality candidates are more likely to quit lengthy assessment batteries than lower‐quality candidates. In this paper, we present the results of two studies that collectively challenge this assumption. In Study 1, data from 327,517 job‐seekers spanning eight hiring contexts showed that assessment performance was negatively associated with subsequent assessment attrition behavior. In Study 2, we replicated this pattern of effects in two additional samples comprising 1,844,604 applicants for hourly associate positions, and 18,937 applicants for nursing positions. Collectively, these findings suggest that some degree of attrition may ultimately benefit, rather than harm, organizations using prehire assessments.     

Job level, demands, and resources as antecedents of work–family conflict

Although substantial research has examined the conflict that employees experience between their work and family roles, the literature has not investigated the prevalence and antecedents of work–family conflict for individuals who work at different levels of an organization. This study examines differences in work–family conflict (work interference with family and family interference with work) for lower-level and higher-level employees, the factors that might explain these differences, and the differential effect of resources on conflict across job levels. Results indicate that higher-level workers experience greater conflict in both directions than lower-level workers, and that work- and home-based resources are differentially related to the conflict experienced by employees who hold lower-level and higher-level jobs.