Getting interested in interests for employee selection: Key concerns and areas for future research

The paper by Wille and De Fruyt suggests that vocational interests should be used throughout the human resources cycle and provides a useful model that can facilitate the application of interests throughout this process. This commentary builds on their review to discuss the unique benefits and challenges of implementing vocational interests in the employee selection process. Using research from the employee selection literature, we also discuss potential solutions for many of the issues raised by Wille and De Fruyt. Therefore, our commentary is meant to supplement the focal article and answer specific questions about why and how vocational interests can be used in this high-stakes setting.     

Hiring on vocational interests to simultaneously improve validity and organizational diversity

We discuss how using vocational interests in the selection process can help address the diversity-validity dilemma. First, we point out how incorporating vocational interests as predictors in selection could help to reduce adverse impact. We further suggest that by using optimal predictor weights, one could simultaneously improve validity while enhancing organisational diversity. Finally, the predictive validity of vocational interests arises from their ability to capture the congruence between individuals and occupations, which is a cross-level phenomenon. Thus, when gathering validity evidence for vocational interests, multi-occupation samples should be incorporated into validation efforts.     

Competing interests: The need to control conflict of interests in biomedical research

Individual and institutional conflict of interests in biomedical research have becomes matters of increasing concern in recent years. In the United States, the growth in relationships — sponsored research agreements, consultancies, memberships on boards, licensing agreements, and equity ownership — between for-profit corporations and research universities and their scientists has made the problem of conflicts, particularly financial conflicts, more acute. Conflicts can interfere with or compromise important principles and obligations of researchers and their institutions, e.g., adherence to accepted research norms, duty of care to patients, and open exchange of information. Disclosure is a key component of a successful conflict policy. Commitments which conflict with a faculty member's primary obligations to teaching, research, administrative responsibilities, or patient care also need attention. Institutional conflict of interests present different problems, some of which are discussed in an analysis of an actual problem posed by two proposed clinical trials. This paper is adapted from a lecture presented to a Symposium on Scientific Integrity, Warsaw, Poland, 23 November 1995. Daniel Steiner was Vice-President and General Counsel of Harvard University (1972–92) and in that capacity became familiar with conflict of interest issues. He is currently Counsel to the Boston law firm. Ropes and Gray, and is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University.     

A case study of conflicting interests: Flemish engineers involved in environmental impact assessment

This article reports of the activities of the working group, Ethics & Engineers, of the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers. More particularly, the ethical problems that engineers face in the preparation of an environmental report are illuminated. Irrespective to which party the engineer belongs, he or she is confronted with the difficult weighting of his or her personal interest, the interests of private companies and last but not least the common good. It is argued that the implementation of a code of ethics and the introduction of courses on engineering ethics into the education of engineers would strengthen the engineer in the fulfilment of his vocation. Dirk Holemans is a bio-engineer preparing a doctoral thesis on the social responsibility of engineers, Herman Lodewyckx teaches ethics and has research interests in professional and applied ethics.     

The Influence of Holland's Vocational Interests on Work-Family Conflict: An Exploratory Analysis

Drawing on a sample of 438 working professionals from various organizations across the central United States, the authors investigated the relationship between Holland's (1959, 1997) RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) model and employee perceptions of work-family conflict. Results revealed that the RIASEC model contributed unique variance in predicting work-family conflict beyond demographic characteristics and the Big Five personality constructs. The RIASEC interests were found to be associated with different dimensions of work-family conflict. These results signal that vocational interests may influence not only work-related attitudes and behaviors (e.g., job satisfaction, performance), but also one's ability to balance work and family demands.     

Getting scientists to think about what they are doing

Research scientists are trained to produce specialised bricks of knowledge, but not to look at the whole building. Increasing public concern about the social role of science is forcing science students to think about what they are actually learning to do. What sort of knowledge will they be producing, and how will it be used? Science education now requires serious consideration of these philosophical and ethical questions. But the many different forms of knowledge produced by modern science cannot be covered by any single philosophical principle. Sociology and cognitive psychology are also needed to understand what the sciences have in common and the significance of what they generate. Again, traditional modes of ethical analysis cannot deal adequately with the values, norms and interests activated by present-day technoscience without reference to its sociological, political and economic dimensions. What science education now requires is ‘metascience’, a discipline that extends beyond conventional philosophy and ethics to include the social and humanistic aspects of the scientific enterprise. For example, students need to learn about the practices, institutions, career choices, and societal responsibilities of research scientists, and to rehearse in advance some of the moral dilemmas that they are likely to meet. They need also to realise that science is changing rapidly, not only in its research techniques and organisational structures but also in its relationships with society at large.     

大学生的基本兴趣及其与专业承诺的关系

该研究调查了1304名来自18个不同专业领域的大学生的基本兴趣和专业承诺,并用回归法分析了特定基本兴趣与专业承诺之间的关系.结果发现：（1）大学生的31种基本兴趣在二维空间中呈现近似圆形的排列,且基本兴趣结构上的性别差异不明显;（2）在14个专业领域内大学生的特定基本兴趣能显著预测其专业承诺,所解释的变异量平均为20％,接近中等水平的效果大小;（3）在不同专业领域内基本兴趣对专业承诺的影响效果大小有所不同.     

Exploring the links between gender,dwelling, and career orientations of African emerging adults

The study explored the socio-ecological (i.e. gender and geographical location) influences on the career orientations of emerging adults. The participants comprised a convenience sample of 159 black African South African university students (57% rural, 43% urban; 63% females, 37% males; mean age = 19.0, SD = 2.24). The emerging adults completed a career orientations inventory and also self-reported their demographics. We applied hierarchical regression analysis to predict the emerging adults’ career orientations from their gender and place of dwelling (geographical location) controlling for age. Results indicate that gender predicts interest in entrepreneurial creativity orientations for males rather than for females, and interest in service-oriented occupations for females compared to males. Geographical location predicted interest in entrepreneurial, general management, and service type of occupations for those from the rural rather than urban areas. Urban location predicted interest in technical and functional careers anchors. Career orientations among South African emerging adults appeared to be gendered and tied to place of geographical origin, suggesting social context socialisation influences.     

Sex Differences in Variability in Vocational Interests: Evidence from Two Large Samples

Greater male variability has been established in cognitive abilities and physical attributes. This study investigated sex differences in variability in vocational interests with two large samples (N > 40 000 and N > 70 000). The results show that although men varied more in Realistic and Enterprising interests, women varied more in Artistic and Conventional interests. These differences in variability had considerable influence on the female–male tail ratios in vocational interests that have been found to contribute to reported gender disparities in certain fields of work and academic disciplines. Moreover, differences in means and variability interacted non‐linearly in shaping tail‐ratio imbalances. An age‐specific analysis additionally revealed that differences in variability diminished with age: Older samples showed smaller differences in variance in Realistic, Artistic, and Social interests than younger samples. Thus, I found no evidence that greater male variability applies for vocational interests in general. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The structure of vocational interests in Filipino adolescents

The structure of vocational interests was investigated in Filipino high school students (N = 503), who rated their interest in 303 culture-relevant occupational titles and 93 major fields of study. Item-level principal components analyses identified general interest, prestige, and sex-type dimensions, rather than Prediger's (1982) People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions. Additional factor analyses were conducted to derive scales that measure more specific interests, including Unskilled/Semiskilled Labor, Male-dominated, Engineering/Technology, Science, Medical, Arts, Commerce, Government/Law, and Education. The interest scales showed some resemblance or overlap with Holland's types, and gender differences on the scales conformed to expectations. However, the relationships among the scales and occupations were better accounted for by prestige and sex-type than by People/Things and Data/Ideas dimensions or by Holland's circular model. Developmental, cultural, educational, and economic factors that might account for Filipino students' focus on prestige and sex-type were discussed.