MULTI-STAGE SELECTION STRATEGIES: A MONTE CARLO INVESTIGATION OF EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE AND MINORITY HIRING

This study explores alternative selection strategies available when a firm has two valid predictors that differ in the magnitude of subgroup differences. We examine 14 different selection rules (e.g., select on a composite of the two predictors versus screen on the first and then select on the second versus screen on the first and then select on a composite of the two), and document through a Monte Carlo simulation that the various selection rules can produce markedly different consequences in terms of the level of job performance achieved and the level of minority representation achieved. The selection rules examined include the use of within-group norming, whichwas restricted by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the study examines how selection rules that do and do not include within-group norming fare in terms of the tradeoffs between performance and minority representation. The study shows that the preferred selection strategy will depend on the relative value the firm places on performance and on minority representation, and that the effects of different screen-then-select selection strategies vary as a result of the selection ratios at the screening and selection stages, thus precluding simple conclusions about the merits of each selection strategy.     

Babytalk as a communication of intimate attachment: An initial study in adult romances and friendships

Babytalk is a speech register that has been studied most extensively as it is spoken by mothers to infants, but without attention to its possible role in emotional bonding. We suggest that babytalk plays such a role–that it expresses and facilitates intimate psychological connection, and in a variety of relationships. We first overview relevant literature to show that an association between babytalk and intimate attachment makes sense. Then we report a questionnaire study, which is the first to explore this association as well as the first empirical documentation that babytalk occurs in adult romances and friendships. Self-reported features and examples of the speech register (as spoken in a particular romance) verified it as babytalk. Individuals who had babytalked to friends or romantic partners tended to be more secure and less avoidant with regard to attachments in general. Within a particular romantic relationship, indicators of intimacy and attachment accounted for about 22% of the variance in babytalk frequency. Partner's babytalking was the strongest predictor, accounting for about 42% of the variance. Communication intentions accompanying babytalk paralleled the hallmarks of attachment, especially affection and play. These and other results suggest that babytalk functions in the process of intimate personal connection.     

Internal Validity Studies of a Telephone Preemployment Measure

In this article, the authors present data on the validity and reliability of a new form of employee honesty testing: The Integrity Interview. Advantages of this form of employee honesty testing over other forms are discussed.     

IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPRESSED WORK SCHEDULES: PARTICIPATION AND JOB REDESIGN AS CRITICAL FACTORS FOR EMPLOYEE ACCEPTANCE

This paper summarizes the empirical evidence on compressed work weeks and analyzes the effects of an implementation of a three-day/ thirty-eight hour (3/38) work schedule among information systems personnel ( N = 84). Data showed that eighteen months after implementation, 3/38 employees still strongly favor the compressed schedule. Those most likely to express favorable attitudes towards the schedule were employees who had participated in the decision to implement 3/38, those whose jobs had been enriched by the schedule change, and those with strong higher order needs. Fatigue did not appear to be a problem. The data also suggest substantial organizational payoffs including reductions in sick time, overtime, and personal leave time.     

CONCEPTUALIZING CONVERSATIONAL COMPLEXITY

A successful conversation requires participants to have knowledge of both the topic under discussion and the nature of conversation. This study asks whether people who are more sophisticated in their representation of conversation behave differently than their less sophisticated counterparts. This issue was probed by devising two operationalizations of what we call Conversational complexity. The two measures assessed peoples' constructs about conversation (operationalized by a measure of construct differentiation) and the manner in which people psychologically structure conversations (via a sorting task tapping the degree to which they focus on the surface features, or deeper structures, of conversations). Individuals who completed the two measures of complexity also participated in conversations and completed a number of personality indices. Each operationalization of conversational complexity was positively correlated with a variety of conversational involvement behaviors, measures of conversational enjoyment and person complexity, and memory for the interactions. Generally speaking, effective interactants who enjoyed conversations and recalled them well tended to have more constructs about conversations and psychologically represented conversations at a deeper level than their counterparts.     

The link between sociotropy/autonomy and dimensions of relationship commitment: Evidence from gay and lesbian couples

The tendency to be excessively concerned about either interpersonal relationships (sociotropy) or self‐reliance (autonomy) has been regarded as increasing one's susceptibility to experience symptoms of depression. In this study, both one's own and one's partner's scores for each tendency were linked to two dimensions of one's own appraisal of relationship commitment (attractions to the relationship and constraints against leaving the relationship) in a sample of both partners from 29 gay and 35 lesbian cohabiting couples. One's own high autonomy was linked to perceiving few attractions to the relationship, whereas one's own high sociotropy was linked to perceiving many constraints to leaving the relationship under two conditions: when one's partner's sociotropy was low or when one regarded the partner as highly dependable. Findings support the view that individual differences variables may serve as either risk factors for or protective factors against difficulties in maintaining a close relationship and underscore the need to examine cross‐partner effects and moderating effects in identifying the individual differences variables linked to relationship functioning.