MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESOURCES and FIRM PERFORMANCE: HOW MUCH ERROR IS THERE AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE EFFECT SIZE ESTIMATES?

Studies of the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance typically use a single respondent to assess firm level HR practices or HR effectiveness. However, previous research in other substantive areas suggests that rater differences are a potentially important source of measurement error. We demonstrate analytically the potential consequences of both random and systematic measurement error in research on HR and firm performance. However, our main focus is on random error and we show how generalizability theory can be applied to obtain better estimates of reliability by simultaneously recognizing multiple sources (e.g., items, raters) of random measurement error. These more inclusive reliability estimates, in turn, offer the possibility of more precisely quantifying substantive relationships in the HR and firm performance literature. In our sample, reliabilities (as estimated by generalizability coefficients) for single-rater assessments of HR variables were generally below .50. This degree of measurement error, if present in substantive studies on HR and firm performance, could lead to considerable bias, given that an unstandardized regression coefficient is corrected for measurement error in the independent variable by dividing by its reliability coefficient (not its square root). We also found only limited convergent validity between HR and line managers ratings of a second type of HR measure, HR effectiveness. In general, our findings suggest that future researchers need to devote greater attention to measurement error and construct validity issues. Our study provides an example of how generalizability theory can be useful in this pursuit.     

WHY DOES PROACTIVE PERSONALITY PREDICT EMPLOYEE LIFE SATISFACTION AND WORK BEHAVIORS? A FIELD INVESTIGATION OF THE MEDIATING ROLE OF THE SELF-CONCORDANCE MODEL

We integrated the proactive personality and the self-concordance model literatures to hypothesize and test a model that explicates the processes through which proactive personality relates to employee life satisfaction, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Across 3 time periods, data were collected from 165 employees and their supervisors. Results indicated that more proactive individuals were more likely to set self-concordant goals and attain their goals, which in turn predicted psychological need satisfaction. Psychological need satisfaction subsequently predicted employee life satisfaction, in-role performance, and OCBs. Further, goal attainment directly predicted employee life satisfaction. Our results also indicated that proactive personality's relations with employee life satisfaction, in-role performance, and OCBs were entirely indirect through goal self-concordance, goal attainment, and psychological need satisfaction.     

Establishing Special Education Programs: Experiences of Christian School Principals

This phenomenological study investigated the experiences of principals who initiated special education programs in Christian schools. Principals described efforts involved to effect changes in the school and noted difficulties in dealing with reluctant staff members. Principals described academic and social rewards of providing services and the satisfaction of parents who found it possible to send their children with special needs to a Christian school. A prominent theme evidenced in this study was the spiritual change in the school as all students interacted and cared for each other.     

Development of a Selection Measure for Access to Public Employment Assistance Programs

The author provides a prototype measure of employability to be used as a tool in public employment programs political and ethical implications pertaining to the use of such a selection instrument for welfare recipients are considered.     

THE PRACTICALITY OF BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES, BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATION SCALES, AND TRAIT SCALES

The practicality of three appraisal instruments were measured in terms of user preference, namely, behavioral observation scales (BOS), behavioral expectation scales (BES), and trait scales. A questionnaire containing items pertaining to differentiating good from poor performers, objectivity, providing feedback, suggesting training needs, and ease of use was administered to managers and their subordinates. In all instances, BOS were preferred to BES, and in all but two instances, BOS were viewed as superior to trait scales. Trait scales were felt to be as good if not better than BES. A second questionnaire administered to attorneys indicated that BOS would be easier to defend in the courtroom than either BES or trait scales.     

Training Creativity in Adolescence: A Discussion of Strategy*

Contemporary psychologists are beginning to do more than identify those traits characteristic of creative adolescents, for while a trait approach to creativity is indeed informative, it fails to suggest precisely how creativity may be enhanced. In the following paper, Davis suggests that creativity profitably may be conceptualized as consisting mainly of three trainable components, (1) appropriate creative attitudes, the most critical of which is a favorable attitude toward highly imaginative problem solutions, (2) various cognitive abilities which facilitate whatever mental abstracting, combining, perceiving, associating, filling in gaps, etc., contribute to the fluent production of original ideas, and (3) techniques for the conscious and systematic production of new combinations of ideas. Further, by incorporating many concepts and principles from this three-part model, Davis describes a novel program for developing creativity in adolescents.     

Opiate Addicts and Their Parents

A minority of opiate addicts, especially young males, maintain close ties with their parents. These families, referred to here as “addict-families,” are characterized by: (a) much greater success by the parents in meeting reality demands than by the addicts; (b) apparent congeniality and closeness but an absence of effective communication; (c) unsuccessful attempts by the parents to control the addict's behavior; (d) a tendency for the father to dominate the mother; (e) extreme overindulgence of the addict by one or both parents; (f) absence of parental support for movement toward adult responsibility in the addict; (g) family consensus in perceiving the addict as failing by conventional values. The characteristics seem to perpetuate the addiction, and the addiction appears to maintain the stability of the family.