CAN MULTI-SOURCE FEEDBACK CHANGE PERCEPTIONS OF GOAL ACCOMPLISHMENT,SELF-EVALUATIONS,AND PERFORMANCE-RELATED OUTCOMES? THEORY-BASED APPLICATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH

Multi-source feedback extends traditional performance appraisal by collecting information from subordinates, peers, supervisors, and customers. Ratees often receive the results along with normative data and self-ratings. This paper explores how multi-source feedback goes beyond traditional performance appraisal by providing ratees with comparative information. Focusing on person perception and information processing dynamics, this paper develops a model and associated propositions to explain the effects of multi-source feedback on perceptions of goal accomplishment, re-evaluation of self-image, and changes in outcomes such as goals, development, behavior, and performance. Moderators of relationships between the major components in the model include individual difference variables (self-image, feedback seeking, self-monitoring, task-specific self-efficacy, and impression management) and situational conditions (the content and process of multi-source feedback and organizational performance standards). Issues of research and practice intended to improve understanding and effectiveness of multi-source feedback are discussed.     

GENERALIZATION OF EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT TRAINING TO THE JOB SETTING: INDIVIDUAL AND SITUATIONAL EFFECTS

This study examined whether variables at individual, unit, and suborganization levels influence the extent to which the knowledge and skills learned in employee involvement (EI) training are generalized beyond specific EI activities. Training generalization occurs when the knowledge and skills learned in training for a specific purpose in one context (e.g., EI training for use in quality circles) are applied by trainees in another context (e.g., regular job duties). A multiple-cross-level design using data gathered from 252 employees and supervisors drawn from 88 units across 11 suborganizations provided support for both individual and situational effects. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated that characteristics at individual, unit, and suborganization levels significantly predicted the extent EI knowledge, skills, and attitudes were generalized to the core job activities. As predicted, trainees were more likely to use EI training in performing core job activities the more EI activities they participated in, the greater their commitment to the organization, and the less cynical they were about the likelihood of positive organizational change. Contrary to expectations, more generalization of EI training was found to occur in units and suborganizations with less participative climates.     

USING THE UNMATCHED COUNT TECHNIQUE (UCT) TO ESTIMATE BASE RATES FOR SENSITIVE BEHAVIOR

Many areas of personnel research are "sensitive." We provide an empirical assessment of the unmatched count technique (UCT) to determine the base rate for a number of proscribed behaviors for professional auctioneers. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical application of a UCT technique in organizational studies. Advantages of the UCT are discussed including: (a) a more accurate estimate of the base rates for sensitive behavior, (b) absolute anonymity to subjects, (c) "legal immunity" to the researcher, and (d) facilitation of complete disclosure to subjects with no deception.     

PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK EFFECTS IN TRAINING: THE ROLE OF PERCEIVED CONTROLLABILITY

A field experiment with 86 employees tested whether performance feedback that attributes past performance to factors within trainees' control would result in heightened software efficacy, goal commitment, positive mood, and learning, compared to feedback that attributes past performance to factors outside trainees' control. In addition, we assessed whether the use of feedback would produce a Galatea effect, or gain in trainees' performance that is the result of a boost in their self-efficacy. The results show that trainees who received feedback that attributed their performance to factors within their control had higher software efficacy. Software efficacy was positively related to learning (both declarative knowledge and compilation). Contrary to our expectations, feedback did not influence goal commitment or positive mood. Further, a statistically significant Galatea effect was not obtained; however, feedback that attributes performance to factors outside trainees' control was related to a decrease in software efficacy.     

EFFECTS OF MULTIPLE ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE MMPI FOR EMPLOYEE SCREENING

Psychological screening has become commonplace in a number of occupational groups. With the growing popularity of screening and the relative scarcity of appropriate personality measures, re-screening individuals with the same inventory is frequent. This paper examines the effect of re-screening with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) on contract workers (n = 1,997) from the nuclear power industry. Participants completed the Inventory as a part of a routine screening procedure. Each participant provided several profiles as a result of regular employment cycles. Although the differences are generally small, some scales show large enough mean changes to warrant concern when interpreting the profiles of those who have taken the profile multiple times. Although scale reliabilities tend to increase, the usefulness of the Inventory appears to decrease with an increasing number of administrations. The effect is one of increasing normality of test profiles. One interpretation of the results is that candidates for jobs become "test-wise," and the scores are the result of a combination of responses to the repeated assessment. It becomes increasingly difficult to identify unfit employees with the Inventory. Given these results, further research on retesting effects of the Inventov, as well as other personality measures, is indicated.     

PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE: IMPLICATIONS FROM COGNITIVE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY AND INTERACTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Underlying assumptions and rationale of psychological climate are addressed from the perspectives of cognitive social learning theory and interactional psychology. Major emphasis is placed on the implications of these theoretical models for psychological climate. It is suggested that psychological climate (a) reflects psychologically meaningful, cognitive representations of situations rather than automatic reflections of specific situational events; (b) is generally more important than the objective situation in the prediction of many salient individual dependent variables; (c) is predicated on developmental experience, and frequently involves conflicting orientations generated by the preservation of valued and familiar schemas, on one hand, and openness to change in the interest of achieving adaptive and functional person-environment fits, on the other; and (d) is related reciprocally to memory, affect, and behavior in a causal model which predicts a reciprocal causation between perception and affect, and between individuals and environments. The suggestions above are employed to provide recommendations for future research.     

MODERATOR RESEARCH AND THE LAW OF SMALL NUMBERS1

The thesis of this paper is that many proposed moderators in personnel psychology are probably illusory, having been created solely by belief in the law of small numbers. Evidence is presented that race as a moderator of test validity is one such illusory moderator. In addition, a model for validity generalization is described which, in addition to eliminating the need for criterion-related validity studies under certain circumstances, strongly calls into question the idea that situations moderate test validity, i.e., the traditional doctrine of situational specificity of test validities. Calculations are presented which show that adequate statistical power in moderator research requires much larger sample sizes than have typically been employed. This requirement is illustrated empirically using validity data for the Army Classification Battery for 35 jobs and 21,000 individuals. These analyses show that (1) even when a moderator is generally assumed to be large, large samples are required to gauge its effect reliably and (2) large sample research may show that moderators that appear plausible and important a priori are nonexistent or trivial in magnitude. The practice of pooling across numerous small sample studies to obtain statistical power equivalent to that of large sample studies is recommended. In light of the evidence that many proposed moderators may not exist, the authors hypothesize that the true structure of underlying relationships in personnel psychology is considerably simpler than personnel psychologists have generally imagined it to be.     

Moral Judgment Research and the Cognitive-Developmental Approach to Moral Education

Describing Kohlberg's interview test and his own Defining Issues Test (DIT), Rest assures us that we now have usable, reliable ways of assessing an individual's moral judgment development level. There is evidence for accepting a developmental sequence in moral judgment, from low stage thinking to higher stage thinking. Rest reviews the evidence for three aspects of morality as part of the cognitive domain, although numerous other factors beyond moral judgment influence concrete behavior. The author offers impressions about educational interventions. Moral judgment theory is considered the current best choice for “theoretical richness, practical implications, validated findings.”     

THE VALIDITY and FAIRNESS OF EMPLOYMENT and EDUCATIONAL TESTS FOR HISPANIC AMERICANS: A REVIEW and ANALYSIS

This study examined the questions of whether employment and educational tests demonstrate either differential validity or test unfairness to Hispanic Americans relative to the majority group. Relevant data from 19 published and unpublished studies formed the basis of the review and analysis. Results for employment tests, based on a very large amount of data, indicated that differential validity occurs no more frequently than would be expected on the basis of chance plus the operation of various statistical artifacts. The frequencies of slope and intercept differences between Hispanic and majority regressions were also within the chance range. A similar pattern of results obtained for the more limited amount of data available on educational tests. Taken together, the results provide strong evidence that tests are neither differentially valid for, nor unfair to, Hispanics. These findings are consistent with the results of previous studies of test validity and fairness for blacks.     

FUNCTIONS OF LIFE INSURANCE AGENCY MANAGERS and RELATIONSHIPS WITH AGENCY CHARACTERISTICS and MANAGERIAL TENURE

A questionnaire completed by 1282 male life insurance agency managers from 50 companies was used to develop (via factor analysis) six behavorial functions of agency managers. The relationship between the frequency of activity in each function and five variables–number of agents, number of supervisors, tenure, type of agency and origin of agency–was examined using zero order and multiple correlation procedures. The two measures of size, number of agents and number of supervisors, were the most consistent correlates of behavior. The degree of shared variance among management functions and the five variables, though significant statistically, did not exceed 9%. Reasons cited for these results included: (1) policies and practices particular to individual companies; (2) the discretion managers have in choosing task activities; (3) the limited number of variables examined as correlates of managerial functions; and, (4) individual differences among agency managers. It was concluded, for practical reasons, that management research should include efforts to develop taxonomies that cut across technological categories of managers as well as defining the specific behavior functions of managers in particular technological categories. Such specific taxonomies are required for effective human resource management practices at managerial levels in organizations.