Equal Employment Opportunity and Fairness

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Krueger, R. F.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 12(2), 143-150.
(2019)

Personality tests are reliable and valid tools that can aid organizations in identifying suitable employees. They provide utility for maximizing organizational productivity and for avoiding claims of negligent hiring. When properly deployed, personality tests (both normal and abnormal/clinical) pose little threat of violating individuals’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or other Equal Employment Opportunity–related laws and regulations. As evidenced by a dearth of successful legal challenges, even with increasing use of personality tests in recent years, organizations have become educated and sophisticated with regard to the ethical and legal use of such tests in employment settings. We predict this trend will continue, incorporating recent developments relating to contemporary models of psychopathology (Kotov et al., 2017; Markon, Krueger, & Watson, 2005), neurobiologically informed theoretical explanations of psychopathology (DeYoung & Krueger, 2018), and the alternative model of personality disorders (AMPD) included in the most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition; DSM-5).

Albrecht, A.-G., Wiernik, B. M., Deller, J., Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Paulus, F. M.
In B. M. Wiernik, H. Rüger, & D. S. Ones (Eds.)
Managing expatriates: Success factors in private and public domains (pp. 131–148).
Budrich
(2018)

Age and international experience are widely believed to importantly impact expatriate success. These variables are believed to be proxies for variables such as job knowledge, adaptability, and trainability and have a strong influence on organizational expatriation decisions. In this chapter, we examine age and experience relations with expatriate success in the iGOES samples. We find that age and experience have weak relations with most criteria and suggest more fruitful avenues for future expatriate research and practice.

Wiernik, B. M., Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1-15.
(2016)

Recent economic and societal developments have led to an increasing emphasis on organizational environmental performance. At the same time, demographic trends are resulting in increasingly aging labor forces in many industrialized nations. Commonly held stereotypes suggest that older workers are less likely to be environmentally responsible than younger workers. To evaluate the degree to which such age differences are present, we meta-analyzed 132 independent correlations and 336 d-values based on 4676 professional workers from 22 samples in 11 countries. Contrary to popular stereotypes, age showed small positive relationships with pro-environmental behaviors, suggesting that older adults engaged in these workplace behaviors slightly more frequently. Relationships with age appeared to be linear for overall, Conserving, Avoiding Harm, and Taking Initiative pro-environmental behaviors, but non-linear trends were observed for Transforming and Influencing Others behaviors.

Klein, R. M., Dilchert, S. Ones, D. S., & Dages, K. D.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 1497-1510.
(2015)

Age differences on measures of general mental ability and specific cognitive abilities were examined in 2 samples of job applicants to executive positions as well as a mix of executive/nonexecutive positions to determine which predictors might lead to age-based adverse impact in making selection and advancement decisions. Generalizability of the pattern of findings was also investigated in 2 samples from the general adult population. Age was negatively related to general mental ability, with older executives scoring lower than younger executives. For specific ability components, the direction and magnitude of age differences depended on the specific ability in question. Older executives scored higher on verbal ability, a measure most often associated with crystallized intelligence. This finding generalized across samples examined in this study. Also, consistent with findings that fluid abilities decline with age, older executives scored somewhat lower on figural reasoning than younger executives, and much lower on a letter series test of inductive reasoning. Other measures of inductive reasoning, such as Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices, also showed similar age group mean differences across settings. Implications for employee selection and adverse impact on older job candidates are discussed.

[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.

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Davis, R. D., & Rostow, C. D.
In F. Avallone, H. K. Sinangil, & A. Caetano (Eds.),
Convivence in organizations and society (pp. 203-208).
Milan, Italy: Guerini Studio.
(2005)

This study reports frequencies of observed counterproductive work behaviors by gender and race in a large sample of law enforcement personnel. Data are reported separately for overall, organizationally targeted, and interpersonal counterproductivity. Results indicate mat gender differences exist (men engaging in CWB more frequently than women), yet all these differences are small. Race differences in observed frequencies of CWB appear negligible. Implications for organizational diversity are discussed.

Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Dilchert, S. (2005)
In O. Wilhelm & R. W. Engle (Eds.),
Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence (pp. 431-468).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2040)

In this chapter, our objective is to summarize the evidence supporting the use of cognitive ability tests for personnel selection and for university admissions. We first provide an overview of results from meta-analyses examining the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests in multiple educational and occupational settings, across national boundaries. The overwhelming evidence suggests that cognitive ability tests are predictive of important criteria across jobs and cultures. Given this evidence, we then explore why these tests are valid. In doing so, we discuss the different theoretical causal process mechanisms proposed and tested to explain how and why cognitive ability tests come to predict important behaviors and outcomes in educational and work settings. We also discuss controversial issues around cognitive ability testing in selection settings: (a) predictive value of general mental ability versus specific abilities and (b) gender and ethnic group differences on cognitive ability measures and implications for adverse impact. We conclude with a discussion of individual and societal implications of using cognitive ability test scores for making important selection decisions in applied settings.

Viswesvaran, C., Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S.
In F. Avallone, H. K. Sinangil, & A. Caetano (Eds.),
Identity and diversity in organizations (pp. 185-191).
Milan, Italy: Guerini Studio.
(2003)

Cognitive ability is a powerful predictor in personnel selection. It has been repeatedly shown to have strong criterion related validity for job performance across situations, jobs, organizations and settings. However, there are large mean differences in cognitive ability across racial groups. In this paper, we review findings, clarify some terms, and discuss the implications of these group differences for organizational diversity composition. We conclude with a discussion of alternatives proposed to address these issues.