Estimating Trait and Situational Variance in a Situational Judgment Test

In organizational research, situational judgment tests (SJTs) consistently demonstrate incremental validity, yet our theoretical understanding of SJTs is limited. Our knowledge could be advanced by decomposing the variance of SJT items into trait variance and situation variance; we do that by applying statistical methods used to analyze multitrait–multimethod matrices. A college-student sample (N = 2,747) was administered an SJT of goal orientation traits (i.e., mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoid). Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the proportions of item variance to attributable to situational differences (across students) and to trait-based differences in students (across situations). Situation factors accounted for over three times the amount of variance as did individual difference factors. We conclude with general implications for the design of SJTs in organizational research.     

The Mediating Role of Sales Behaviors: An Alternative Perspective of Sales Performance and Effectiveness

Business decisions about hiring, promoting, an purchasing should be made in an unbiassed way When sex stereotyping influences the decisio process. Such decisions are not only unfair bi can lead to large economic and social costs. A experiment involving more than 200 MBAs measured the impact of general attitudes toward women in business and various personal characteristics on the extent to which there was se stereotyping with regard to men and women in sales positions. Results suggest that sex stereotyping still exists, but its extent depends on the attitude being measured and on characteristics of the stereotyping the solution is to provide exposure to competent females in selling and sales manage ment positions.     

The Appeal of Personal Selling as a Career: A Decade Later

While students' attitudes and perceptions toward personal selling as a career have been discussed at length, the literature reflects remarkably little effort to understand students' preferences for sales careers. The authors synthesize extant knowledge on the subject and extend the knowledge base by conducting a time-series replication of an earlier study and by examining the relative importance of marketing-related career characteristics. Managerial implications of this research are discussed.     

Aggressiveness and Perceived Marital Quality: The Moderating Role of a Family-Supportive Work Climate

In this article, we examined the impact of language (i.e., native English speakers vs. non-native English speakers) on two aspects of information processing associated with multinational coalition operations in a simulated precrisis, command and control (C2) headquarters (HQ). First, we examined the impact of language on situation awareness (SA) and confidence in the participants' SA responses. Second, we examined the participants' responses to questions about various aspects of language, information sharing, decision-making, identity, and cultural issues that exist within a multinational coalition operation C2 HQ. The primary findings from this work revealed that there was very little impact of language on SA and confidence and that both language groups overwhelmingly shared the same views on information sharing, decision-making, and organizational/cultural issues.     

Heidegger à la Wittgenstein or ‘coping’ with Professor Dreyfus

This is a critique of the interpretation of Heidegger's Being and Time that has been proposed by Hubert Dreyfus. Through an assimilation of much of Heidegger's thought to that of Wittgenstein, Dreyfus treats human being (Dasein) as being principally defined by its embeddedness in ‘shared social practices’ and claims that the mode of comportment he calls ‘coping’ is the source of the intelligibility of our world which he also identifies with being as such. Against this, I argue that unless it is brought into much closer contact with Heidegger's ontological account of the kind of entity Dasein is, ‘coping’ remains an ontic concept that cannot perform the function Dreyfus assigns to it. The thesis that Dasein is distinguished by the fact that it is self‐interpreting is also examined and found wanting for much the same reasons; and Dreyfus's conception of the larger design of Being and Time is shown to be seriously flawed by his failure to do justice to Heidegger's central theme ‐being as presence. In a final section, Heidegger's account of Das Man is reviewed as is Dreyfus's thesis that this anonymous modality of social existence is the master concept for understanding Dasein. This paradoxical magnification of the role of Das Man within human being is shown to fail because it does not distinguish between skills and social norms, and misses the fact that Das Man is a deformation of our social being (Mitsein), not its highest achievement as Dreyfus apparently supposed it to be.     

Heidegger on presence: A reply

Taylor Carman has argued that the passages I submitted to him as proof that Heidegger identifies being with presence are really just his characterizations of a metaphysical conception of being that he repudiates. I show that he has misread these passages and has misunderstood the nature of the continuity that Heidegger himself recognizes between the views of Kant which are under discussion in the texts from which these passages are drawn and his own (Heidegger's) position which finds expression in them. I then cite other passages from another work by Heidegger that make the same point about being and presence just as emphatically and quite independently of any account of any other philosopher's views. Finally, I explain the difference between the ways Heidegger uses the word Anwesenheit ‐ his word for presence. One of these is as a translation of the Greek ousia which he interprets as a concept of being as presence sans temporality; the other is the radicalized concept of being as presence toward which Heidegger was working in Being and Time.     

Pervasiveness and correlates of implicit attitudes and stereotypes

http://implicit.harvard.edu/ was created to provide experience with the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a procedure designed to measure social knowledge that may operate outside awareness or control. Significant by-products of the website's existence are large datasets contributed to by the site's many visitors. This article summarises data from more than 2.5 million completed IATs and self-reports across 17 topics obtained between July 2000 and May 2006. In addition to reinforcing several published findings with a heterogeneous sample, the data help to establish that: (a) implicit preferences and stereotypes are pervasive across demographic groups and topics, (b) as with self-report, there is substantial inter-individual variability in implicit attitudes and stereotypes, (c) variations in gender, ethnicity, age, and political orientation predict variation in implicit and explicit measures, and (d) implicit and explicit attitudes and stereotypes are related, but distinct.     

Predicting the Presence and Search for Life Meaning: Test of an Attachment Theory-Driven Model

To date, little is known about how perceptions of life meaning are formed, although recent evidence suggests that “basic attitudes about the meaning of existence are commonly rooted in evolved biological factors and conjointly influenced through people’s experiences with life” (Steger et al. in J Posit Psychol 6:181–191, 2011a). In line with this view, we proposed that multidimensional aspects of adult attachment security and trait authenticity would independently predict perceptions regarding the presence and search for life meaning. Correlational findings largely supported hypothesized relationships among these variables. Regression findings further demonstrated that adult attachment orientations and trait authenticity uniquely predicted the presence of life meaning, and made more modest contributions to the search for meaning. In both predictions, experiences of self-alienation appeared to function as a mediator of the relationship between attachment security and meaning in life perceptions. Implications of our findings for advancing understanding of the formation of these perceptions are discussed.     

Thinking Ahead: Assuming Linear Versus Nonlinear Personality-Criterion Relationships in Personnel Selection

Recent studies suggest that the form of some personality–performance relationships may be curvilinear, meaning that traditional top-down selection is inefficient in capitalizing on underlying personality–performance relationships. This study examines how mean performance is affected by how well the selection method is aligned with the nature of personality–criterion relationships. A simulation manipulated the linearity or nonlinear inflection point of predictor–criterion relationships, and several selection approaches were implemented that varied in level of congruence with these relationships. Results indicate that incongruence can produce notable decrements in mean performance under some conditions. Some evidence also suggests that decrements can be greater when linearity is assumed but relationships are nonlinear (vs. when nonlinearity is assumed but relationships are linear), selection ratios are smaller, and a single predictor is used.     

Word list memory predicts everyday function and problem-solving in the elderly: results from the ACTIVE cognitive intervention trial

Data from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial (N = 2,802) were analyzed to examine whether word list learning predicts future everyday functioning. Using stepwise random effects modeling, measures from the modified administrations of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) and the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) were independently predictive of everyday IADL functioning, problem-solving, and psychomotor speed. Associations between memory scores and everyday functioning outcomes remained significant across follow-up intervals spanning 5 years. HVLT total recall score was consistently the strongest predictor of each functional outcome. Results suggest that verbal memory measures are uniquely associated with both current and future functioning and that specific verbal memory tests like the HVLT and AVLT have important clinical utility in predicting future functional ability among older adults.