THE AVAILABILITY AND HELPFULNESS OF SOCIALIZATION PRACTICES

This study reports on the socialization practices most available to new employees and the extent to which these practices are seen by newcomers as being helpful in becoming effective organizational members. The results showed that socialization practices are differentially available to newcomers, and perceptions of their helpfulness vary. The helpfulness of various socialization practices as reported by newcomers appears to affect their feelings of subsequent job satisfaction and commitment.     

Work Attitudes and Values of College Women

Despite woman's fast emergence into the working world, few studies have focused on individual changing attitudes and values that become initially responsible for setting future employment trends in our society. Following a historical perspective, a survey is presented that samples the inner feelings of young college women and their personal stand on the world of work. The results indicate a general rejection of much of the traditional work ethic. Although the attitudes expressed in this survey are simply contemporary, their hidden strength hints to the shape of a future American society that will potentially change the life-style of every individual.     

BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES FOR PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL PURPOSES

Behavioral items ( N = 78) critical to the job success of logging supervisors were developed from 1204 critical incidents, the frequency with which a supervisor ( N = 300) engaged in each behavior was rated on a 5-point Likert type scale by two sets of observers. A factor analysis reduced the items to 38 and 33, respectively, for the two sets of observers which in turn constituted 10 and 11 factors or criteria for performance evaluation purposes. Multiple regression equations based on composite scores were used to predict cost-related measures of logging crew effectiveness. The shrinkage in Rs after double cross-validation was moderately small. Moreover, the behavioral observation scales (BOS) that were developed by factor analyzing the observation ratings had moderately high reliability and accounted for more variance in the cost-related measures than did the BOS developed by traditional judgmental clustering techniques. The similarities and differences between BOS and BES procedures are discussed.     

EFFECTS OF TRAINING AND RATING SCALES ON RATING ERRORS

Ninety business students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions where they used behavioral observation scales (BOS), behavioral expectation scales (BES), or trait scales in observing people on videotape. Half the individuals received four hours of training to minimize rating errors. Rating errors were reduced significantly regardless of the rating scale that was used. However, behavioral criteria were more resistant to rating errors than trait scales. There was no significant difference between BOS and BES on this dimension. With regard to practicality, BOS were evaluated as significantly better than BES and trait scales. BES and trait scales did not differ significantly on this measure.     

CONSTRAINTS ON THE ADOPTION OF PSYCHOLOGY-BASED PERSONNEL PRACTICES: LESSONS FROM ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION

Surveys of organizational personnel practices often indicate that techniques advocated by industrial and organizational (I/O) psychologists are used with less frequency than might be expected given their technical merit. This article attempts to explain this phenomenon by viewing the adoption of I/O-type personnel practices as organizational innovations that are subject to the mechanisms and processes described in the innovation-diffusion literature. It is argued that the adoption of I/O-type personnel practices constitutes administrative innovation and that such innovation is not strongly influenced by technical merit. Rather, imitation processes, environmental threat, government regulation, and political influence often dominate highly uncertain adoption processes. Recommendations are made for enhancing the adoption rate for psychology-based personnel innovations.     

APPLICANT REACTIONS TO THE INITIAL EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW: EXPLORING THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES

Prior studies of the simultaneous effects of recruiting practices and job attributes on applicant reactions to the initial employment interview offered consistent support for a job attributes effect, but limited support for a recruiting practices effect. The present study, using a preinterview-postinterview design, found that recruiting practices significantly affected all measures of student applicants' reactions to campus interviews. Recruiters had a greater effect on perceptions of the job itself than on perceptions of other job attributes. However, likelihood of job acceptance–the applicant reaction that was conceptually closest to job choice–was still mostly unaffected by recruiting practices. Further research examining the effect of recruiting practices on applicant responses throughout the recruitment process is recommended.     

REMOTE CONTROL: PREDICTORS OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING INTENSITY AND SECRECY

Electronic monitoring research has focused predominantly on the reactions of monitored employees and less attention has been paid to the processes that trigger managers' decisions to electronically monitor subordinates. Employing a distributed virtual team simulation, this study examined the effects of dependence, future performance expectations, and propensity to trust on team leaders' decisions to electronically monitor their subordinates. Results indicate that team leaders electronically monitor subordinates more intensely when dependence on subordinates is high or future performance expectations are low. Moreover, team leaders are more likely to monitor in secret when dependence is high or propensity to trust is low. Although team leaders increased their level of electronic monitoring over time, this tendency was stronger when the leader had consistently low performance expectations.     

A FIELD STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF RATING PURPOSE ON THE QUALITY OF MULTISOURCE RATINGS

Using a field sample of peers and subordinates, the current study employed generalizability theory to estimate sources of systematic variability associated with both developmental and administrative ratings (variance due to items, raters, etc.) and then used these values to estimate the dependability (i.e., reliability) of the performance ratings under various conditions. Results indicated that the combined rater and rater-by-ratee interaction effect and the residual effect were substantially larger than the person effect (i.e., object of measurement) for both rater sources across both purpose conditions. For subordinates, the person effect accounted for a significantly greater percentage of total variance in developmental ratings than in administrative ratings; however, no differences were observed for peer ratings as a function of rating purpose. These results suggest that subordinate ratings are of significantly better quality when made for developmental than for administrative purposes, but the same is not true for peer ratings.