Social Networking Websites,Personality Ratings,and the Organizational Context: More Than Meets the Eye?1

We examined the psychometric properties of the Big Five personality traits assessed through social networking profiles in 2 studies consisting of 274 and 244 social networking website (SNW) users. First, SNW ratings demonstrated sufficient interrater reliability and internal consistency. Second, ratings via SNWs demonstrated convergent validity with self‐ratings of the Big Five traits. Third, SNW ratings correlated with job performance, hirability, and academic performance criteria; and the magnitude of these correlations was generally larger than for self‐ratings. Finally, SNW ratings accounted for significant variance in the criterion measures beyond self‐ratings of personality and cognitive ability. We suggest that SNWs may provide useful information for potential use in organizational research and practice, taking into consideration various legal and ethical issues.     

SYMMETRIES OF THE KINGDOM: SUGGESTIONS FROM GIRARD AND BONHOEFFER ON THINKING THE CHURCH—STATE RELATION

The work of René Girard invites us to re‐imagine a ‘religious–secular’ interactivity within social space in a way released from the violent dualisms of the ‘sacred/profane.’ Earlier Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered the same task and suggested directions for a positive theology of church‐state relations, even as the inherited forms of these institutions were collapsing about him. This paper explores the Girardian scenario for church and state becoming rivalrous ‘doubles’– whether it be secular utopic projects doubling religious narratives of redemption, or churches doubling the state as parallel yet purer societies – and suggests resources from Bonhoeffer by which a non‐rivalrous church‐state relationality ‐ both mutually‐constituting and mutually‐limiting ‐ may be configured.     

Explaining the Weak Relationship Between Job Performance and Ratings of Job Performance

Ratings of job performance are widely viewed as poor measures of job performance. Three models of the performance–performance rating relationship offer very different explanations and solutions for this seemingly weak relationship. One-factor models suggest that measurement error is the main difference between performance and performance ratings and they offer a simple solution—that is, the correction for attenuation. Multifactor models suggest that the effects of job performance on performance ratings are often masked by a range of systematic nonperformance factors that also influence these ratings. These models suggest isolating and dampening the effects of these nonperformance factors. Mediated models suggest that intentional distortions are a key reason that ratings often fail to reflect ratee performance. These models suggest that raters must be given both the tools and the incentive to perform well as measurement instruments and that systematic efforts to remove the negative consequences of giving honest performance ratings are needed if we hope to use performance ratings as serious measures of job performance.     

Actualism and Incarnation: The High Christology of Friedrich Schleiermacher

Abstract: Defining Schleiermacher's Christology simply as ‘low’ is inadequate, and based on a neglect of the crucial role that actualism plays in his theology. However, accounts that see his Christology as so high as to be docetic are equally unhappy. This article shows that there is a different way to read Schleiermacher's theology, one that avoids both views. By looking at how Schleiermacher's Christology proceeds in both ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ directions, it shows that through correctly understanding Schleiermacher's actualism we are able to see that, for Schleiermacher, Christ is the one who reproduces God's pure act of love through his own God‐consciousness. Christ, then, exists as pure activity and so, for Schleiermacher, is God incarnate. The article then addresses two common objections to Schleiermacher's Christology: that Schleiermacher's Christ is not fully human; and that, if Christ is pure act, what of the passion? The piece closes with an account of the relationship of Christology and Trinity.     

THE CONTROVERSY OVER SCORE BANDING IN PERSONNEL SELECTION: ANSWERS TO 10 KEY QUESTIONS

A particular form of test score banding, in which bands are based on the reliability of the test and in which selection within bands takes into account criteria that are likely to enhance workforce diversity, has been proposed as an alternative to the traditional top-down (rank-order) hiring systems, but it has been hotly debated among both scientists and practitioners. In a question-and-answer format, this article presents three different viewpoints (proponents, critics, and neutral observers) on the scientific, legal, and practical issues. The article also attempts to seek some consensus among experts on this controversial procedure.     

Religious Life-Styles and Mental Health: A Follow-Up Study

This study is part of a longitudinal research project designed to discover more about the relations between religious involvement and mental health. It represents a 3-year follow-up on a group of religious young adults. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and by means of a psychological test battery. The results are discussed.