COMMUNICATIVE EFFECTS OF GAZE BEHAVIOR

This experiment was undertaken to test two contrasting explanations of the effects of eye gaze on social perceptions and outcomes. A social meaning model holds that differing levels of gaze have such clear meaning that gaze alone accounts for the reactions to it. A nonverbal expectancy violations model holds that normative behaviors are expected in social interactions with strangers and that violating these expectations produces different results depending on whether the violator is deemed highly “rewarding” or “nonrewarding.” This experiment, the third in a series, proposed to extend the violations model by incorporating the concept of positive and negative types ofviolations. Subjects (N = 145) interviewed one of four confederate interviewees who manipulated one of three levels of eye gaze (nearly constant, normal, andnearly constant aversion) and who were assigned one of two levels of reward (highly qualified for the job or highly unqualified). Differential gaze behavior resulted in varied impressions of attraction, credibility, and relational communication, with gaze aversion producing consistently negative effects. Interpretations and communication consequences were mediated by reward, gender, and confederate differences.     

RELATIONAL DISTANCE IN MANAGING CONFLICT

This study assessed the extent to which providing a problem-solving structure to conflicting dyads might impact members' use of language to mark their relational distance. It was hypothesized that conflicting subjects instructed to use a set of decision rules to resolve the conflict would use less immediate and more formal relational code choices than conflicting subjects free to resolve the conflict in any manner they chose. This hypothesis was confirmed for the immediacy, but not the formality variable. The discussion section suggested that because decision rules may encourage conflicting dyads to use less “liking” language to resolve their dispute, such rules may serve to discourage participants from creating more integrative solutions to conflicts.     

SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT TESTS, RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS, AND VALIDITY: A META-ANALYSIS

Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are personnel selection instruments that present job applicants with work-related situations and possible responses to the situations. There are typically 2 types of instructions: behavioral tendency and knowledge. Behavioral tendency instructions ask respondents to identify how they would likely behave in a given situation. Knowledge instructions ask respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of possible responses to a given situation. Results showed that response instructions influenced the constructs measured by the tests. Tests with knowledge instructions had higher correlations with cognitive ability. Tests with behavioral tendency instructions showed higher correlations with personality constructs. Results also showed that response instructions had little moderating effect on criterion-related validity. Supplemental analyses showed that the moderating effect of response instructions on construct validity was not due to systematic differences in item content. SJTs have incremental validity over cognitive ability, the Big 5, and over a composite of cognitive ability and the Big 5.     

DEVELOPMENT ENGAGEMENT WITHIN AND FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT CENTERS: CONSIDERING FEEDBACK FAVORABILITY AND SELF–ASSESSOR AGREEMENT

This study sought to understand employees' level of behavioral engagement in response to feedback received in developmental assessment center (DAC) programs. Hypotheses were drawn from theories of self‐enhancement and self‐consistency and from findings in the multisource feedback and assessment center literatures regarding recipients' perceptions of feedback. Data were gathered from 172 U.S. middle managers participating in a DAC program. Results suggested that more favorable feedback was related to higher behavioral engagement. When discrepancies between self‐ and assessor ratings were examined, overraters (participants whose overall self‐ratings were higher than their assessor ratings) tended to show less engagement in the program compared to underraters. However, pattern agreement on the participant's dimension profile did not significantly correlate with behavioral engagement. Based on these findings, avenues for future research are presented and practical implications are discussed.     

EFFICACY DISPERSION IN TEAMS: MOVING BEYOND AGREEMENT AND AGGREGATION

We challenge the assumption that within-team variability in team efficacy is simply a methodological concern and statistical prerequisite. We do so by developing a theoretical model and research agenda for the study of dispersion in team efficacy. We construct a taxonomy that distinguishes 4 distinct forms of dispersion in team efficacy, discuss the antecedents to these forms of dispersion, and examine how the forms of efficacy dispersion impact team emergent states, processes, and effectiveness.     

The Nature of Conversational Involvement and Nonverbal Encoding Patterns

Conversational involvement refers to the degree to which participants in a communicative exchange are cognitively and behaviorially engaged in the topic, relationship, and/or situation. It is argued that involvement should be viewed from a functional perspective and conceptualized as entailing fiue dimensions: immediacy, expressiveness, interaction management, altercentrism, and social anxiety. Specific nonverbal behaviors that are actually encoded to express involvement along these five dimensions are examined within an interview context. Unacquainted dyads (N=52) engaged in baseline interviews followed by a second interview in which one participant was asked to increase or decrease involvement significantly. Tiuentyone kinesic, proxemic, and vocalic behaviors were rated during five intervals. Change scores from baseline to manipulations shouted numerous differences between high and low involvement, as did correlations between magnitude of involvement and nonverbal behaviors. The behaviors that most strongly discriminated high from low involvement were general kinesic/proxemic attentiveness, forward lean, relaxed laughter, coordinated speech, fewer silences and latencies, and fewer object manipulations. Behaviors most predictive of magnitude of involvement change were facial animation, vocal warmth/interest, deeper pitch, less random movement, and more vocal attentiveness.