Forced-choice and conventional personality assessment: Each may have unique value in pre-employment testing

Forced-choice (FC) personality scales are purported to predict criteria such as counterproductive work behavior (CWB) incrementally beyond conventional personality measures in pre-employment testing situations. Unfortunately, the research upon which FC tests’ claims of superiority are founded, relies upon undergraduate participants in highly artificial scenarios. Moreover, the possible predictive advantages of FC personality scales with regards to important contextual performance (CP; Borman & Motowidlo, 1993) criteria have not been investigated. We used a sample of call center employees to investigate the incremental validity of a FC personality scale over a conventional personality scale (and vice versa) with CP measures, and CWB, as criteria. Our FC and conventional personality measures were highly correlated, but each still offered unique predictive value with regards to CP or CWB. Thus, contrary to past research with student samples, in field settings FC personality scales may not be clearly superior to conventional personality scales. Moreover, contrary to widespread concern that FC measures’ predictiveness is attributable to their overlap with general mental ability, the unique predictive value of our FC measure remained even when variance due to general mental ability was statistically controlled.     

The effects of managerial regulatory fit priming on reactions to explanations

We investigated the interactive effects of regulatory focus priming and message framing on the perceived fairness of unfavorable events. We hypothesized that individuals’ perceptions of fairness are higher when they receive a regulatory focus prime (promotion versus prevention) that is congruent with the framing of an explanation (gain versus loss), as opposed to one that is incongruent. We also hypothesized that these effects are mediated by counterfactual thinking. Three studies revealed that primed regulatory fit (promotion/gain or prevention/loss) led to higher levels of justice perceptions than regulatory misfit (promotion/loss or prevention/gain). Additionally, “could” and “should” counterfactuals partially mediated the relationship between regulatory fit and interactional justice (Study 3).     

The Cross‐Level Mediating Effect of Psychological Capital on the Organizational Innovation Climate–Employee Innovative Behavior Relationship

Organizational innovation climates have been found to be effective predictors of employee creativity and organizational innovation. As such, climate assessments provide a basis for useful organizational interventions in enhancing creativity and innovation. Researchers now call for better articulation of the motivational mechanisms that link social context to employee innovation. In responding to the above call, this study found that employee positive psychological capital (PsyCap) is more influential than organizational innovation climate on employee innovative behavior. With a large sample (N  = 781) from 16 organizations and a cross‐level analysis, we examined the relationship between organizational innovation climate and employee innovative behavior with employee PsyCap as mediator. The results showed that both organizational innovation climate and employee PsyCap significantly affect employee innovative behavior, and more importantly, employee PsyCap fully mediates this relationship. The innovation journey is a challenging and risky one with many frustrations and discouraging moments from idea generation to idea implementation. The research results presented here imply that to be innovatively effective, organizations are advised to manage both social (organizational innovation climate) and psychological (PsyCap) resources of employees in enhancing employee innovative behavior. Other theoretic and practical implications are discussed.     

Dual support in contract workers' triangular employment relationships

This study investigated the interplay between perceived investment in contract worker development by the client organization and contract workers' perceived organizational support from their temporary employment agency. A study among 2021 contract workers from three temporary employment agencies in Norway showed that the relationships between perceived investment in contract worker development and task and contextual performance were moderated by contract workers' perceived organizational support from the agency. The form of the moderations revealed no positive relationships between perceived investment in contract worker development and performance unless the perceived investment by the client organization was accompanied by higher levels of perceived support from the temporary employment agency. These findings suggest that client organizations, which hire from temporary employment agencies that provide support to their contract workers, will get the most out of their investments in these contract workers' development.     

Commitment profiles: The configural effect of the forms and foci of commitment on work outcomes

This study is based upon the conceptual linking of the multidimensional and multi-focal nature of work-related commitment. The main aims of our study were to create, through K-means cluster analysis, commitment profiles based on the three components of organizational and occupational commitment, and to examine their joint effect on key work outcomes. One hundred and fifty seven working adults completed questionnaires measuring the three components of organizational and occupational commitment, and work outcomes. Our findings show (a) the incremental validity of occupational commitment in the prediction of work-related variables, (b) the compatibility of occupational and organizational commitment as reflected in the four form-oriented commitment profiles that emerged (highly committed, affective–normative dominant, continuance dominant, and non-committed), and (c) the positive effect of the highly committed profile (dually foci-committed employees with high AC, CC, and NC) on focal and discretionary behaviors. On a practical level, our results can foster the practice of management concerning control of withdrawal behaviors and development of desirable discretionary behaviors.     

Innovation Implementation

Abstract— In changing work environments, innovation is imperative. Yet, many teams and organizations fail to realize the expected benefits of innovations that they adopt. A key reason is not innovation failure but implementation failure—the failure to gain targeted employees' skilled, consistent, and committed use of the innovation in question. We review research on the implementation process, outlining the reasons why implementation is so challenging for many teams and organizations. We then describe the organizational characteristics that together enhance the likelihood of successful implementation, including a strong, positive climate for implementation; management support for innovation implementation; financial resource availability; and a learning orientation.     

生物医学技术创新与产业化浅议--中南大学生殖与干细胞工程研究所技术创新实践的思考

回顾辅助生殖技术到干细胞工程的发展历程,探讨生物医学技术产业化过程中存在的问题及生物医学技术创新对学科建设和发展的影响.结论是生物医学科学创新原理必须转化为技术创新原理才能进而转化为生产力.而生物医学技术的不断创新要通过产业化来实现,产业化促进了学科发展规模和科学研究的持续深入.     

医学创新教育的目标与模式研究

结合国内外创新教育的经验,将创新教育的两种教学模式结合起来,开展实验研究。对医学创新教育的目标、模式、内容进行了探讨,为高教改革,特别是医学院校的深入改革、医学生创新能力的开发与培养提供调查分析资料。     

“莱昂假说”与克隆性分析技术的思想启迪

克隆性分析技术已经很大程度上影响和改变着人们对肿瘤的思维。“莱昂假说”的创立、印证以及克隆性分析技术的发展、应用,已经使我们重新认识了许多肿瘤和肿瘤前期病变的性质。其间的研究工作启示我们,科学需要源于事实基础的大胆猜测,更需要有求异性思维,敢于突破、善于联想根源于深厚的知识沉淀。     

When organizational justice and the self-concept meet: Consequences for the organization and its members

In two studies, we examined the joint effects of employed participants’ self-concept levels and perceptions of fairness on organizational attitudes and citizenship behavior intentions. We examined the effects of chronic self-concept activation in Study 1, whereas we primed the working self-concept in Study 2. Combining the results of both studies, we found support for our hypotheses that particular self-concept levels and organizational justice dimensions interact to predict various work-related outcomes. Specifically, we observed interactions between the relational self-concept and interactional justice, and between the collective self-concept and procedural justice, such that the justice–outcome relationships were stronger for those experiencing higher activation on the relevant self-concept level. Thus, as hypothesized, justice information is weighted differently depending on the particular level of self-concept that is active. In addition, interesting direct effects of employees’ self-concepts were also observed. We discuss the implications of these findings and the importance of considering the self-concept in conjunction with organizational justice.