recruiter perceptions of information that employment references should provide to assist in making selection decisions

Authors investigated perceptions of campus recruiters (N = 168) in the San Francisco Bay Area regarding the importance of 15 types of information they solicit from job applicants' references in making selection decisions. Results suggest campus recruiters should consider 10 types of information to assist them in making selection decisions. Results also indicate that selected recruiters' demographic variables affect only 4 types of information job applicants' references should provide: decision‐making skills, computer skills, work ethic, and fit with the corporate culture and prospective coworkers. The implications of these results for both employment references and recruiters are discussed.     

Newcomer Information Seeking: Individual and Contextual Influences

This study examined situational and individual influences on the proactive information seeking of newcomers. Task interdependence was expected to be positively related to information seeking, given that it links newcomers to organizational insiders. Newcomers' work related self-efficacy and the physical accessibility of organizational insiders were both predicted to moderate the relationship between task interdependence and information seeking. Usable surveys were completed by 421 co-op students (295 males and 126 females) who had been participating in career-relevant internships for approximately 4.5 weeks. All students were enrolled in an educational programme that rotates students between twelve weeks in class and twelve weeks on internship over a period of five years. Controlling for the number of previous internships and size of work group, results supported the joint moderating effect, with newcomers low on self-efficacy exhibiting greater information seeking when task interdependence and accessibility were high. Applied implications of the results and directions for future research on proactive information seeking and socialization are discussed.     

The Font of all Wisdom

Can Religion be Explained Away ? D. Z. Phillips (ed.) Atheism and Theism , J. J.C. Smart and J. J. Haldane Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion , Robin Le Poidevin     

Moon over academe

The authors consider critically the Annual International Conference of the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) sponsored by S.M. Moon. Thirty eminent scientists who had endorsed ICUS responded to a personal letter. By analyzing their replies systematically, we identified their rationales in the face of anti-cult publicity. Our experiences represent a case history in the calculated misapplication of the principles of open expression, religious freedom, and the search for values.