Download Category: Employee Selection

In support of personality assessment in organizational settings

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C., & Judge, T. A.
Personnel Psychology, 60, 995-1027.
(2007)

Personality constructs have been demonstrated to be useful for explaining and predicting attitudes, behaviors, performance, and outcomes in organizational settings. Many professionally developed measures of personality constructs display useful levels of criterion-related validity for job performance and its facets. In this response to Morgeson et al. (2007), we comprehensively summarize previously published meta-analyses on (a) the optimal and unit-weighted multiple correlations between the Big Five personality dimensions and behaviors in organizations, including job performance; (b) generalizable bivariate relationships of Conscientiousness and its facets (e.g., achievement orientation, dependability, cautiousness) with job performance constructs; (c) the validity of compound personality measures; and (d) the incremental validity of personality measures over cognitive ability. Hundreds of primary studies and dozens of meta-analyses conducted and published since the mid 1980s indicate strong support for using personality measures in staffing decisions. Moreover, there is little evidence that response distortion among job applicants ruins the psychometric properties, including criterion-related validity, of personality measures. We also provide a brief evaluation of the merits of alternatives that have been offered in place of traditional self-report personality measures for organizational decision making. Given the cumulative data, writing off the whole domain of individual differences in personality or all self-report measures of personality from personnel selection and organizational decision making is counterproductive for the science and practice of I-O psychology.

Response distortion in personality measurement: Born to deceive, yet capable of providing valid self-assessments?

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Deller, J.
Psychology Science, 48, 209-225.
(2006)

This introductory article to the special issue of Psychology Science devoted to the subject of “Considering Response Distortion in Personality Measurement for Industrial, Work and Organizational Psychology Research and Practice” presents an overview of the issues of response distortion in personality measurement. It also provides a summary of the other articles published as part of this special issue addressing social desirability, impression management, self-presentation, response distortion, and faking in personality measurement in industrial, work, and organizational settings.

Big Five factors of personality

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Van Rooy, D. L., & Viswesvaran, C.
In J. H. Greenhaus & G. A. Callanan (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of career development (vol. 1, pp. 36-42).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2006)

The first part of this encyclopedia entry presents a brief history of the Big Five dimensions of personality. Then, each Big Five dimension is described. The entry concludes with a review of the relevance and usefulness of the Big Five in work and career contexts.

Emotional intelligence

Van Rooy, D. L., Viswesvaran, C., Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
In J. H. Greenhaus & G. A. Callanan (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of career development (vol. 1, pp. 259-265).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2006)

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a concept that has caught the attention of researchers, practitioners, and the general public over the last decade. The idea that career development involves not only a cognitive but also an affective component has been promoted in recent years. Popular books discuss the importance of EI for success in academic and occupational settings, as well as how it determines success in current jobs, promotions, and other important life outcomes. Claims abound that successful negotiation of relationships in a career depends on the perceptions and management of emotions in oneself and others. This entry covers three areas associated EI. First, there is a review of the competing conceptualizations (and associated measurements) of EI. Second, there is an overview of empirical studies that attempt to link EI to successful career development. Finally, there is an identification of some critical future research needs and potential applications.

Multiplying intelligences: Are general, emotional, and practical intelligences equal?

Van Rooy, D. L., Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C., & Ones, D. S.
In K. R. Murphy (Ed.), A critique of emotional intelligence:
What are the problems and how can they be fixed? (pp. 235-262).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

A wide range of measures have been used to help make decisions in personnel selection, and an extensive research base exists on the criterion-related validity of these measures. Across different jobs, general mental ability (GMA) has been found to be the best predictor of overall performance and task performance. Even if organizations value additional criteria, the prediction of task performance is central to personnel selection. In a fast-changing competitive environment, organizations will generally strive to select individuals high on intelligence in an attempt to maximize performance. On the downside, selecting individuals based on GMA often results in adverse impact for minority groups and can lead to costly litigation for organizations in the United States. Furthermore, there is the competing demand for a diverse workforce as an advantage in a multicultural society and global economy. These two conflicting demands (the need to hire individuals high on general cognitive ability and to obtain a diverse workforce) have contributed to interest in the development of measures of alternate or multiple intelligences. In this chapter, we discuss the three intelligences that have received the most attention in the personnel selection arena. The “Big 3” intelligences consist of general, emotional, and practical intelligence. In this chapter, we provide an overview of each of these and discuss the main merits of each. We conclude by relating the three intelligences together and discuss if there is a “best” intelligence to rely on in personnel selection.

Unterscheidung ist noch lange keine Diskriminierung – HR und Fairness

[To “discriminate between” does not equal to “discriminate against” – HR and fairness]
Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S., & Deller, J.
Wirtschaftspsychologie Aktuell, 2-3, 51-53.
(2006)

Deutschland hat nun ein „Allgemeines Gleichstellungsgesetz“ genanntes „Antidiskriminierungsgesetz“ bekommen, mit dem die deutsche Wirtschaft nicht eben glücklich ist. Die Sorge unter Human-Resource-Managern ist groß, demnächst permanent mit einem Bein im Fettnapf zu stehen.

Personality at work: Raising awareness and correcting misconceptions

Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Dilchert, S.
Human Performance, 18, 389-404.
(2005)

Personality variables have always predicted important behaviors and outcomes in industrial, work, and organizational psychology. In this commentary, we first review empirically supported structural models of personality that show the following: (a) Personality traits are hierarchically organized, (b) the Big Five are not orthogonal, (c) abnormal personality measures assess the same continuum of traits as normal adult personality measures, and (d) there are compound personality traits that are especially useful in the prediction of organizational behaviors. Second, we provide a brief overview of meta-analyses of compound personality variables. The highest operational validities of single scales (.40s) are associated with personality measures assessing broad, compound personality characteristics, such as integrity, violence potential, customer service orientation, and managerial potential, that incorporate aspects from multiple dimensions of the Big Five. Third, we also review meta-analytic evidence that has linked personality attributes to other important organizational attitudes and behaviors, such as job satisfaction, motivation, and leadership, with multiple correlations for the Big Five in the .40 to .50 range. Fourth, we discuss the important role that meta-analysis has had in establishing the predictive and explanatory value of personality variables. We conclude with some caveats and directions for future research.

Cognitive ability in personnel selection decisions

Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Dilchert, S.
In A. Evers, O. Voskuijl, & N. Anderson (Eds.),
Handbook of personnel selection (pp. 143-173).
Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
(2005)

Our main objective in this chapter is to provide an overview of the vast literature on CA tests in selection contexts. We first discuss the unique status of CA in selection, and clarify its psychometric and psychological meaning. We then review information on the prevalence of CA test use in personnel selection from around the world. We also discuss acceptability of ability testing and applicant reactions. Next, we review the evidence supporting the use of CA tests for selection by summarizing results from meta-analyses examining their criterion-related validity in occupational settings, across national boundaries. The overwhelming evidence suggests that CA tests are predictive of job performance across jobs and cultures. Given this conclusion, we explore the causal mechanisms through which CA comes to influence job performance. Next, we briefly note research on race, ethnic group, gender, and age differences on CA tests and their implications for adverse impact. We conclude our chapter with a discussion of current and new directions for research on CA, including the assessment of CA using various selection methods such as interviews, assessment centers, situational judgment tests (SJTs), and newly proposed intelligences (such as practical intelligence, emotional intelligence, etc.).

Emotional intelligence: New! Useful?

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Van Rooy, D. L., & Viswesvaran, C.
In F. Avallone, H. K. Sinangil, & A. Caetano (Eds.),
Convivence in organizations and society (pp. 161-168).
Milan, Italy: Guerini Studio.
(2005)

Emotional intelligence (EI) has dramatically gained in popularity over the last ten years. In recent years, the construct bas seen increased numbers of applications in diverse domains (Matthews, Zeidner, & Roberts, 2002) and has been touted as an essential ingredient for success in school, higher education, and the workplace (see, for example, Gibbs, 1995; Goleman. 1995). claims have been made that EI is an essential ingredient for successful relationships in all walks of life. Several recent works (see Murphy, in press; Van Rooy, Dilchert. Viswesvaran, & Ones, in press; Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004) have evaluated the numerous claims regarding the utility of EI in applied contexts. The aim of this paper is to revisit validity and measurement issues, but to outline different conceptualizations of EI, and sketch its role in navigating through relationships in organizational contexts. The paper is organized into two main sections. In the first section, we review the different conceptualizations of the construct found in the scientific literature and summarize the differences between them. In the second section, we discuss potential process mechanisms through which EI relates to interpersonal behaviors in organizations.

A review of the Emotional Judgment Inventory

Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In R. A. Spies & B. S. Plake (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (16th ed., pp. 356-359). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2005)

The Emotional Judgment Inventory (EJI) is a self-report measure, assessing seven dimensions of emotional intelligence. The test is based on the definition of emotional intelligence from Salovey and Mayer (1990) as “the ability to appraise one’s own and others’ emotions, manage one’s own and others’ emotions, and use one’s emotions intelligently and adaptively in problem solving” (manual, p. 1). Seven EJl scales assess (a) being aware of emotions, (b) identifying own emotions, (c) identifying others’ emotions, (d) managing own emotions, (e) managing others’ emotions, (f) using emotions in problem solving, and (g) expressing emotions adaptively…