Who's Watching the Race? Racial Salience in Recruitment Advertising1

A recent finding (Thomas & Wise, 1999) suggested that the race of organizational representatives may be more important to minority applicants than to White applicants. Consequently, this study empirically examines the impact of race in recruitment advertising on applicant attraction. Participants (N= 194) were recruited in 3 field settings and were exposed to recruitment literature varying the race of a depicted organizational representative. Results indicate that Black and Hispanic participants were more attracted when minority representatives were depicted; White participants' reactions were unaffected by representative race. Moreover, the extent to which participants believed themselves to be similar to the representative fully mediated the effect for minority participants.     

Response time accuracy in Apple Macintosh computers

The accuracy and variability of response times (RTs) collected on stock Apple Macintosh computers using USB keyboards was assessed. A photodiode detected a change in the screen’s luminosity and triggered a solenoid that pressed a key on the keyboard. The RTs collected in this way were reliable, but could be as much as 100 ms too long. The standard deviation of the measured RTs varied between 2.5 and 10 ms, and the distributions approximated a normal distribution. Surprisingly, two recent Apple-branded USB keyboards differed in their accuracy by as much as 20 ms. The most accurate RTs were collected when an external CRT was used to display the stimuli and Psychtoolbox was able to synchronize presentation with the screen refresh. We conclude that RTs collected on stock iMacs can detect a difference as small as 5–10 ms under realistic conditions, and this dictates which types of research should or should not use these systems.     

Disentangling the effects of voice: the incremental roles of opportunity, behavior, and instrumentality in predicting procedural fairness

Many voice studies have failed to distinguish among voice opportunity, perceived voice opportunity, voice behavior, and voice instrumentality. Thus, the authors sought to clarify the roles of each in determining procedural fairness perceptions. Controlling for the effect of voice opportunity, each of the 3 remaining constructs was hypothesized to predict fairness. Furthermore, voice instrumentality was hypothesized to moderate the effect of voice behavior on fairness. Undergraduates (N = 102; 81 for some analyses) participated in an orientation-week design simulation in which voice opportunity was manipulated. The results indicated significant incremental effects of perceived voice opportunity and the predicted Voice Instrumentality x Voice Behavior interaction. Fairness was lowest for individuals who were denied voice opportunity, perceived less voice opportunity, and provided high levels of noninstrumental voice behavior.     

Engaging the aging workforce: the relationship between perceived age similarity, satisfaction with coworkers, and employee engagement

Business publications and the popular press have stressed the importance of creating conditions for meaningful employee expression in work roles, also known as engagement. Few empirical studies, however, have examined how individual or situational factors relate to engagement. Consequently, this study examines the interplay between employee age, perceived coworker age composition, and satisfaction with older (older than 55) and younger (younger than 40) coworkers on engagement using a sample of 901 individuals employed in the United Kingdom. Results indicated that satisfaction with one's coworkers related significantly to engagement. Moreover, perceived age similarity was associated with higher levels of engagement among older workers when they were highly satisfied with their coworkers over 55 and lower levels of engagement when they were not.     

Is Relational Demography Relative? How Employment Status Influences Effects of Supervisor–Subordinate Demographic Similarity

Purpose  

Because diversity is vital to many businesses, it is important to understand how demographic differences between individuals in the workplace influence employee behavior. In this study, we focused on demographic similarity (i.e., sex, racioethnicity) with one’s supervisor as a predictor of employee withdrawal. Further, we examined employees’ employment status (i.e., part-time vs. full-time) as a moderator of the similarity–withdrawal relationships.     

The impact of achievement goal states on working memory

The present study examines the influence of achievement goal states on working memory under varying executive load. Seventy-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either a mastery-approach condition (goal was to develop self-referential competence), a performance-approach condition (goal was to demonstrate normative competence) or a control condition (no goal assigned) prior to completing the N-Back working memory task. Analyses revealed achievement goal effects on working memory under high executive load (3-back) but not under the less demanding loads (1-back, 2-back). Under high load, pursuit of a performance-approach goal resulted in poorer working memory processing than pursuit of a mastery-approach goal or no-goal control. Findings are unlikely to be confounded by cognitive ability, working memory capacity or state-anxiety. Contributions to the motivation–cognition interface and suggestions for future research are discussed.