Fairness from the Applicant's Perspective: Reactions to Employee Selection Procedures

Applicants' reactions to selection procedures were examined in terms of the satisfaction and/or violation of 10 procedural justice rules. Critical incidents (n= 237) of fair and unfair treatment during selection were collected from 31 individuals who had recently experienced job search and hiring processes. Incidents were categorized into 10 procedural justice rules and the distribution of these incidents was examined for different hiring outcomes and different selection procedures. Dominant procedural concerns reflected selection procedure job relatedness and interpersonal treatment applicants received. Accepted applicants were primarily concerned about consistency of treatment, while rejected applicants were more concerned with timely feedback and blatant bias. Ease of faking was the primary procedural concern of applicants taking honesty and personality tests, while job relatedness was the primary concern with ability and work sample tests. Research issues were discussed and a number of practical suggestions were offered in terms of minimizing applicants' negative reactions to the selection process.     

The Challenges of Clinical Practice in Small or Rural Communities: Case Studies in Managing Dual Relationships in and Outside of Therapy

Clinicians who practice and reside in small or rural communities face a unique challenge in managing dual relationships which are not experienced by clinicians in large urban areas. Effective clinical practice in small communities requires a unique understanding and flexibility regarding transference and countertransference issues. Most psychotherapy theory and practice techniques do not adequately prepare clinicians for the necessary adaptations they must make when practicing and residing in the same small community. Suggestions regarding procedural, ethical and practice oriented issues for the clinicians in such situations are addressed.     

Applied pluralism in the evaluation of employee counselling

The method and major findings of a complex, 'pluralist' evaluation, which investigated the effectiveness of the counselling provision of an employee support and counselling service in a local authority education department over 22 months, are outlined. Reference is made to the underlying philosophical approach of integrated pluralist evaluation, which may represent a significant step forward from the accepted methods of triangulation. In addition to achieving predicted high satisfaction rates from clients, counsellors and clients both indicated significant improvements in all measures used. These were maintained at follow-up which took place at intervals from 1 to 18 months after counselling had ended. Reduction in absenteeism post-counselling suggested the possibility of very substantial revenue savings. Responses also indicated the acute, and often chronic, need for employee counselling provision in the education system.     

Modeling the Relationship Between Pay Level and Pay Satisfaction

The relationship between pay level and pay satisfaction was modeled in a field study with 456 employees of nursing departments in a large hospital. After controlling for person, job, and pay system characteristics, pay satisfaction variance was better explained by treating pay level as a power function rather than a linear function. This result was expected given the low wage rate relative to the market, the lack of a formal rewards system, and the high level of tenure in the workforce. Implications of this finding for theory, research, and practice were discussed.     

Book reviews

History of Islamic Philosophy Seyyed Hossein Nasr & Oliver Leaman, Editors, 1996 London, Routledge Part I, xx+ 780 pp., Part II, xiv + 428 pp., hb ISBN 0415 05 6675, £120.00

Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: the Mahāyāna context of the Gaudapādiya‐Kārikā Richard King, 1995 Albany, State University of New York Press xii + 341 pp., pb $19.95

Vaisnavism: its philosophy, theology and religious discipline S.M. Srinwasa Chari, 1994 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass xxxviii + 383 pp., pb Rs. 350

Vaisnavism: contemporary scholars discuss the Gaudiya tradition Steven J. Rosen (Ed.), 1992 Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1994 ix + 354 pp., pb Rs. 160

Cultural Realism: strategic culture and grand strategy in Chinese history Alastair Iain Johnston, 1995 Princeton, Princeton University Press xiii + 367 pp., hb ISBN 0691029962, $39.50

Laughing at the Tao: debates among Buddhists and Taoists in medieval China Livia Kohn, 1995 Princeton, Princeton University Press xii + 281 pp. hb (price not given)

Pantheism. A Non‐theistic Concept of Deity Michael P. Levine, 1994 London, Routledge xii + 388 pp., hb £45 ISBN 0415070643     

Diversity in the Classroom

It is important to appreciate how the battle between multiculturalist and individualist theories of education ahs shaped the pedagogical advice that some institutions of higher learning now give their instructors. In an important sense, that advice invites college and university teachers to pursue conflicting, irreconcilable goals in their teaching. By examining a particular North American example of such advice, I try to explain why the understandable attempt to accommodate both multiculturalism and individualism in the classroom inevitably makes for incoherent pedagogy.     

Externalism and Action-Guiding Epistemic Norms

In his book, Contemporary Theories of Knowledge, John Pollock argues that all externalist theories of justification should be rejected on the grounds that they do not do justice to the action-guiding character of epistemic norms. I reply that Pollocks argument is ineffective -- because not all externalisms are intended to involve action-guiding norms, and because Pollock does not give a good reason for thinking that action-guiding norms must be internalist norms. Second, I consider rehabilitating Pollocks argument by restricting his conclusion to theories that do involve action-guiding norms and providing a better reason to think that action-guiding norms must be internalist norms. But I claim that if Pollocks argument is made strong enough to rule out all externalisms, it rules out too much, namely, any plausible conception of epistemic norms.     

Text representations as reflected in patterns of cognitive distance

Subjects performed a task that involved learning a text and then indicating, for each of a series of pairs of words, whether they belonged to the same sentence of that text. When the principle of argument overlap or causal coherence was the sole integrative factor in a text, negative response times and error rates reflected distances in the network representation predicted by the principle. When the two principles predicted conflicting representations for a text, response times and error rates reflected the predictions of the principle of argument overlap. The results were interpreted as suggesting that network connections predicted by the two principles are both present in the memory representations of texts and that causal connections are recorded at a more abstract level of representation than are argument overlap connections.     

The Investigation of Personality Structure: Statistical Models

This article provides an introduction to a number of statistical techniques for investigating the structure of measures of personality. Each of these techniques is illustrated through its application to a set of 12 items from Snyder's (1974) self-monitoring scale. Approaches are presented for both continuous and dichotomous observed measures and for underlying constructs that are assumed to be continuous as well as those that are assumed to be discrete classes. Our emphasis is on techniques which permit tests of hypothesized structures (with a special focus on confirmatory factor analysis); however, exploratory approaches are also considered. We identify the critical assumptions, limitations, and areas of application of these techniques with an aim toward fostering their critical and appropriate usage.