WHY DO ASSESSMENT CENTERS WORK? THE PUZZLE OF ASSESSMENT CENTER VALIDITY

The finding that assessment centers are successful in making valid predictions of managerial success is well established in the literature. Unfortunately, it is not clearly understood why assessment centers work. For example, construct validity of assessment center dimensions is rarely obtained. In this paper we affirm the evidence for predictive validity of assessment centers and conclude that assessment centers can work for a variety of purposes and in numerous contexts. But we also assert that we do not know why they work. The bulk of the paper goes on to raise possible explanations for the predictive validity observed in assessment centers and raises implications for practice and guidance of future research.     

PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES: CONSTITUENCY PERSPECTIVES AND PREFERENCES

The multiple constituency approach is proposed as a meaningful framework for analyzing the activities of the personnel department. A basic hypothesis on the differences in constituency preferences was empirically tested in 150 organizational units of three large organizations. Four constituencies were found to desire significantly different activities from the department. Minor contextual effects on the pattern of differences were also observed across the three organizations. Future research agendas and implications for practice based on the multiple constituency approach are discussed.     

Job Satisfaction Among Married Working Women

Data from a recent national opinion survey were used to evaluate an array of work and nonwork variables in terms of their relationships to reported job satisfaction of married working women. Women's job satisfaction was found to be related to such variables as life satisfaction, age, and importance of job income but unrelated to such indices as race, educational level, occupational prestige, income level, and attitude toward women working.     

THE COMPARATIVE VALIDITY OF SELECTED LEADERSHIP SCALES RELATIVE TO SUCCESS IN PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

For 113 managerial personnel, a new supervisory judgment test, the Leadership Evaluation and Development Scale (LEADS) was found to be the best (r = .36) of four predictors of salary corrected for age and length of service. Other predictors were a verbal comprehension measure and the two Leadership Opinion Questionnaire scores. The R involving all four predictors was .39. LEADS was also found to be the best predictor of personnel department ratings on performance in the employee relations area. None of the predictors was significantly related to supervisors' ratings. Meaningful dimensions of supervisory performance not indicated by the other predictors appear to be measured by LEADS.     

Employee Reactions to the Physical Work Environment: The Role of Childhood Residential Attributes1

This study examines the possibility that 2 employee background attributes, childhood residential density and childhood community type, moderate relations between characteristics of the physical work environment and employee responses. Administrative employees (N= 75) from 25 offices of a university participated in the research. Results demonstrate that employees from high-density childhood residences and urban communities exhibited more positive responses as adults (i. e., higher performance and lower crowding) to high-contact work environments (i. e., those characterized by few enclosures, high spatial density, and close interpersonal distance) than employees from other combinations of childhood residential density and community type. Results also suggest that the contributions of residential density and community type were somewhat accounted for by individual differences in social avoidance tendencies and noise sensitivities.     

NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS: PARAMETERS OF BIODATA INVASIVENESS

In this research, biodata items were evaluated for their perceived invasiveness by over 200 professionals (psychologists and social scientists), as well as three samples of nonprofessionals. In addition to item subject matter, perceived invasiveness of items was related to various biodata attributes, in that items that were more verifiable, more transparent in purpose, and more impersonal were seen as less invasive. Subjects with more positive attitudes toward biodata and organizational selection measures viewed fewer items as invasive, as did those with more education. Dispositional variables and gender were related to invasiveness perceptions in some samples. Four general motives or topics were determined to generate the greatest concern: fear of stigmatization, concern about having applicants recall traumatic events, intimacy, and religion. The results may help develop consensus about defining "invasive" and contribute to ways of reducing perceptions of invasiveness.     

Using the Spiritual Perspective in Counseling Persons with HIV/AIDS: An Integrative Approach

The authors explore counseling persons infected with HIV and AIDS, within the specific themes of rejection, powerlessness, and death. These themes have been chosen because they are common concerns of people with HIV and AIDS. Selected quotations from 14 interviews with persons diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are used to clarify these concerns. Specific counseling recommendations are provided to make counseling an effective, compassionate endeavor with this population. Counselors are encouraged to struggle with these themes to enhance the counseling they provide to people with HIV and AIDS.     

Stroke patients' well-being as a function of caregiving spouses' helpful and unhelpful actions

This study examined the perceptions that 55 older married stroke patients had about themselves and about the motivations of their caregiving spouses when they judged their spouses' actions to be helpful and when they judged them to be unhelpful. It also examined how these perceptions were related to patients' well-being (depression, positive affect, marital satisfaction). Patients had more negative perceptions of themselves and of their spouses when they judged the actions to be unhelpful than when they judged them to be helpful. The hypothesis that perceptions about unhelpful actions would be more strongly related to patients' well-being than would perceptions about helpful actions was only partially supported. Perceptions about unhelpful actions were related to patients' depression, but perceptions about helpful actions were related to positive affect. Both kinds of perceptions were related to marital satisfaction. Findings begin to explicate the complex relationship between perceived helpfulness of actions and well-being.     

The Structure of Family Perceptions Among Adolescents and Their Parents: Individual Satisfaction Factors and Family System Factors

This study examined the underlying structure of self-reports of family functioning by adolescents, mothers, and fathers (N of individuals = 360) from intact families. Participants completed a multidimensional self-report measure of family functioning, and their responses were entered into a factor analysis with the family as the unit of analysis (N of cases = 120). The results indicate two types of factors: individual satisfaction factors and family system factors. The findings are consistent with the view that different types of characteristics assessed in self-report measures of the family may be stored as different kinds of memories. The findings also provide preliminary data toward understanding the linkages between family system factors and satisfaction with the family based on family roles as adolescents, mothers, and fathers.