IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF AN ASSESSMENT CLASSIFICATION MODEL FOR MANPOWER UTILIZATION1

The present study deals with implementing and evaluating Schoenfeldt's assessment-classification model in an industrial setting using a multiplicity of job families and a range of criteria. A total of 1,987 non-exempt employees of a U. S. oil company were administered an extensive autobiographical inventory. Hierarchical clustering of the resulting biographical profiles produced 18 subgroups of employees such that within any one subgroup, background experiences and interests were similar and between subgroups they were different. A similar methodology was applied to job analysis data in creating a structure of 19 job families for 939 office and clerical jobs. Significant relationships were found between biodata subgroups and criteria of sex, education level, termination rate, equal employment opportunity job classification and performance ratings. There was no statistically significant relationship between subgroup membership and race. In addition, there was a significant relationship between subgroups and job families. Applications for a variety of personnel management practices are discussed.     

What are the prospects for a higher-order stimulus theory of perception?

Abstract.— Gibson has advocated a pure higher-order stimulus theory of perception. Johansson has agreed that the stimuli for perception are higher order variables of stimulation. However, unlike Gibson, Johansson assigns an important role to decoding principles in determining perception. Evidence is reviewed to show that percept-percept relations are involved in perception. On this ground it was argued that the prospects for a successful pure-stimulus theory are poor and that Johansson's views should be elaborated to include various types of decoding principles.     

The Effects of a Job-Interview Skills Workshop on Drug-Abuse Clients

By performing a field experiment, we tested the hypothesis that a job-interview skills workshop would improve the employment status of subjects with drug-abuse problems. Subjects from a drug-abuse treatment program were randomly assigned either to an experimental situation that included a workshop that stressed behavioral interview skills, such as preparing for an interview, application completion, grooming, nonverbal communication, and phrasing of answers to interviewer questions, or to a control group that received no treatment. A 6-months follow-up of subjects showed no significant attitudinal differences between the two groups. All three behavioral measures of employment status showed either significant differences or strong trends in favor of the experimental group, however. Possible alternative explanations of results were discussed and future research suggested.     

Expectations About Initial Interaction An Examination of the Effects of Global Uncertainty

This inquiry extended uncertainty reduction theory to include actors’ uncertainty about acquaintanceship in general (global uncertainty). Study 1 involved examination of the self-reports of 139 female and 85 male participants. Results of the analysis showed that participants high in global uncertainty define initial interaction in comparatively negative ways, more frequently attempt to avoid conversations with unfamiliar targets, perform less effectively when meeting others for the first time, and develop less satisfactory long-term relationships than persons low in global uncertainty. Global uncertainty also combined with participants’ sense of the self-assuredness-awkwardness of first encounters to predict initial interaction performance. Study 2 examined the conversational performance of 48 females and 28 males who had participated in the first investigation. This analysis revealed that, during the first minute of interaction, persons high in global uncertainty engaged in comparatively low levels of question asking but relatively high levels of disclosure. High globally uncertain participants were also rated less competent by their partners than were persons low in global uncertainty. Study 3 explored the relationship between global uncertainty, communication competence, and communication apprehension. Examination of the self-reports of 63 females and 49 males showed that persons high in global uncertainty are apprehensive when meeting strangers and enact acquaintanceship episodes relatively inexpertly, although the magnitude of correlations between the constructs provide strong evidence that global uncertainty is distinguishable from both competence and apprehension. The implications of these findings are discussed.