Managerial Recruitment Advertisements – Just How Market Orientated Are They?

There is a wealth of advice offered by ‘experts’ in HRM concerning the content of the effective job advertisement. This study considers whether following such advice would provide the potential job applicant with the information they want and questions the extent to which employers actually heed this advice. It firstly compares the normative guidelines with what potential applicants' for managerial posts consider to be important. A second strand to the analysis examines the extent to which advertising practice mirrors the requirements of the job-seeker market. The results give some solace to recruiters but also demonstrates that there is a long way to go before job advertisements achieve the content that job-seekers require.     

Book Reviews

Richard A. Swanson and Elwood F. Holton III, (eds), Human Resource Development Research Handbook. Linking Research and Practice Nathan Body and Howard Erlichman, Personal Psychology, The Science of Individuality Neil Anderson and Peter Herriot, International Handbook of Selection and Assessment     

Altered Arm-Body Coordination with Triggered Pointing Responses as Influenced by Task Predictability

Abstract

Reaching movements generate reaction forces that affect postural stability, requiring sophisticated coordination between body and arm movement to maintain balance. In voluntary movement, this coordination involves feedforward shifts of posture, and such anticipatory postural muscle activity also accompanies the rapid modulation of an ongoing point to suddenly a shifting target (double-step). However, it is unknown if this early postural activity depends on target-shift predictability and whether arm and body motion are similar coordinated to voluntary movement. Body and arm motion coordination during double-step pointing movements from standing were done under differing conditions of target-shift predictability. In a proportion of trials, the pointing target was displaced, with the predictability of target-shift direction varied between two peripheral targets (target-shift direction known) and two central targets (target-shift direction uncertain). The target jump evoked an adjustment in the arm then body response, opposite to the pointing responses to the initial target. The triggered arm-then-body ordering was consistent across target-shift predictability, although known target-shift direction resulted in closer timing of arm and body onsets. The altered coordination in triggered corrections suggests that the body component in triggered reactions depend on response predictability, showing an altered control of arm and body motion.     

Reducing online application redundancy: Effects on applicant attrition and quality

Job applications have long been a staple of the hiring process and online applications have rapidly become the new norm. The ability to examine applicant attrition—those who start the application but do not finish—and applicant quality are the two benefits of online applications. This study evaluates the effect of reducing application redundancy (not making applicants re‐enter information contained on their resumes) on applicant attrition and quality, with hypotheses derived from signaling theory and economics (cost/benefits). Results demonstrate that reducing redundancy leads to a reduction in applicant attrition across jobs, with the largest magnitude of change found in computer‐related jobs. This reduced attrition does not reduce applicant quality and some evidence suggests that applicant quality may even increase.     

Automatic mimicry reactions as related to differences in emotional empathy

The hypotheses of this investigation were derived by conceiving of automatic mimicking as a component of emotional empathy. Differences between subjects high and low in emotional empathy were investigated. The parameters compared were facial mimicry reactions, as represented by electromyographic (EMG) activity when subjects were exposed to pictures of angry or happy faces, and the degree of correspondence between subjects' facial EMG reactions and their self-reported feelings. The comparisons were made at different stimulus exposure times in order to elicit reactions at different levels of information processing. The high-empathy subjects were found to have a higher degree of mimicking behavior than the low-empathy subjects, a difference that emerged at short exposure times (17-40 ms) that represented automatic reactions. The low-empathy subjects tended already at short exposure times (17-40 ms) to show inverse zygomaticus muscle reactions, namely "smiling" when exposed to an angry face. The high-empathy group was characterized by a significantly higher correspondence between facial expressions and self-reported feelings. No differences were found between the high- and low-empathy subjects in their verbally reported feelings when presented a happy or an angry face. Thus, the differences between the groups in emotional empathy appeared to be related to differences in automatic somatic reactions to facial stimuli rather than to differences in their conscious interpretation of the emotional situation.     

Speech anxiety and rapid emotional reactions to angry and happy facial expressions

The aim was to explore whether people high as opposed to low in speech anxiety react with a more pronounced differential facial response when exposed to angry and happy facial stimuli. High and low fear participants were selected based on their scores on a fear of public speaking questionnaire. All participants were exposed to pictures of angry and happy faces while facial electromyographic (EMG) activity from the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomaticus major muscle regions was recorded. Skin conductance responses (SCR), heart rate (HR) and ratings were also collected. Participants high as opposed to low in speech anxiety displayed a larger differential corrugator responding, indicating a larger negative emotional reaction, between angry and happy faces. They also reacted with a larger differential zygomatic responding, indicating a larger positive emotional reaction, between happy and angry faces. Consistent with the facial reaction patterns, the high fear group rated angry faces as more unpleasant and as expressing more disgust, and further rated happy faces as more pleasant. There were no differences in SCR or HR responding between high and low speech anxiety groups. The present results support the hypothesis that people high in speech anxiety are disposed to show an exaggerated sensitivity and facial responsiveness to social stimuli.     

Living with Hereditary Non-polyposis Colorectal Cancer; Experiences from and Impact of Genetic Testing

Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) is one of our most common cancer syndromes and an increasing number of individuals live in families with verified hereditary cancer. We conducted an interview study to explore experiences from and perceived impact on life after genetic testing for HNPCC. Three major themes emerged: reactions and emotions, family relations and implications for life. Among the reactions described were suspecting heredity, feelings of guilt, the importance of experiential knowledge, and coping strategies. The impact on family relations was related to perceived responsibility for conveying information, encountering different reactions among family members, and difficulties in communication and relations. The implications described included uncertainty, adaptation, new choices and changes in life, family planning issues, and experiences of surveillance programs. We suggest that the themes and sub-themes identified should be taken into account during genetic counselling in order to facilitate the spread of information and to prepare family members for the impact on life that knowledge about hereditary cancer may have.     

THE ANALYST'S WAY OF BEING: RECOGNIZING SEPARABLE SUBJECTIVITIES AND THE PENDULUM'S SWING

Whether the analyst finds the patient's emerging transference affectively tolerable or intolerable plays an important role in the analytic couple's negotiation of the configuration that the transference‐countertransference relationship ultimately assumes. If the analyst is deeply repelled by transference‐related roles to which he is assigned, patient‐ascribed attributions, or projection‐drenched interactions, he may react in violent protest, engaging in enactments that say more about his separable subjectivity than about the intersubjective situation. While there has been a recent trend to view enactments as a crucial aspect of psychoanalytic technique, this trend risks overlooking the way in which the analyst's way of being comes into play in the treatment.     

Every cloud has a silver lining: positive effects of deviant coworkers

Drawing on the labeling perspective of deviance, we investigate employee reactions to coworkers perceived as deviants. We look at two positive effects for employees in the presence of a deviant coworker. First, in comparison to a deviant individual, other employees can draw more positive conclusions about themselves; and second, a deviant can be informative about organizational norms, thereby improving employee role clarity. We also examine individual and situational moderators. For the purpose of the study, we developed a measure of the presence of a deviant. The hypothesized relationships were tested in two large samples using multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that in the presence of a deviant coworker, employees reported enhanced self-evaluation. The presence of a deviant coworker was associated with better role clarity only for employees with more interdependent jobs. We also discuss practical implications of the findings and future research directions.