Cognitive ability: Measurement and validity for employee selection

Ones, D. S., Dilchert, S., Viswesvaran, C., & Salgado, J. F.
In J. L. Farr & N. T. Tippins (Eds.),
Handbook of employee selection (2nd ed., pp. 251-276).
Routledge
(2017)

In this chapter, we provide an overview of cognitive ability’s key role in staffing organizations and provide evidence-based practice recommendations. We first present a brief synopsis of the history, current usage, and acceptance of cognitive ability tests in employee selection. Second, we highlight the theoretical underpinnings and structure of cognitive ability as a construct. Third, we discuss developments in its measurement. Fourth, we present an overview of the criterion-related validity of cognitive ability tests in predicting valued work behaviors and outcomes, including non-task-performance criteria that have been increasingly investigated in recent years. Fifth, we discuss the issue of group differences in cognitive ability test scores both within the United States and internationally. We conclude by discussing future research and challenges facing organizations that intend to use cognitive ability tests in making employee selection decisions.

Sustainability: Implications for organizations

Dilchert, S., Wiernik, B. M., & Ones, D. S.
In S. G. Rogelberg (Ed.),
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2016, October)

Sustainability refers to an organization’s ability to deliver enduring performance and thus continue to exist over time. In this regard, performance refers not only to a company’s financial results. Sustainability applies to a wide range of organizations (e.g., businesses, not-for-profit, non-governmental organizations) and encompasses performance in the economic/financial, social, and environmental domains. This conceptualization of sustainability—which includes the notion that the three different aspects of organizational performance are interconnected and equally important for long-term survival of an organization—has been described as the “triple bottom line.” Over the last three decades, research in the organizational sciences as well as applied practice has focused on the social aspect of organizational performance, such as employee welfare, community outreach, and charitable involvement. Most recently, climate change and ensuing societal awareness have triggered increasing attention on the environmental dimension of organizational performance and have resulted in a growing movement focused on environmental sustainability within industrial-organizational psychology.

Age and employee green behaviors: A meta-analysis

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.

مدیریت منابع انسانی برای توسعه پایدار

Jackson, S. E., Ones, D. S., & Dilchert, S. (Eds.); شهرین ستوده (Translator)
مدیریت منابع انسانی برای توسعه پایدار [Managing human resources for environmental sustainability].
Teheran, Iran: اسمان نگار.
(1393)

در جهان امروز، هر گونه کسب و کاری مستلزم توسعه فرهنگ مسئولیت پذیری اجتماعی و پاسخگویی به جامعه با رویکرد چگونگی جهت گیری فعالیتهای مسئولانه  به همراه تولید ثروت است. در واقع این موضوع به معنای رفتارهای تجاری همه ذینفعان اعم از سهامداران، مشتریان و کارکنان که در شخصیت منابع انسانی در سازمانها و بنگاههای تولیدی و خدماتی ظاهر می­شوند، ناشی می­شود که به این سئوال یکایک آحاد جامعه پاسخ می­دهند که: آیا کسب و کار شما در خدمت رفع چالشهای اجتماعی قراردارد؟!

Creative interests and personality: Scientific versus artistic creativity

Wiernik, B. M., Dilchert, S., & Ones, D. S.
Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie.
(in press)

The present study used intraindividual criterion profile analysis to investigate the relationship between creative artistic and investigative interests and the Big Five personality traits. In 19 samples, we found that artistic and investigative interests showed distinct intraindividual personality profile patterns. Investigative interests were associated with elevated openness to intellect, conscientiousness, and emotional stability and low extraversion and agreeableness, relative to individuals’ other traits. Artistic interests were associated with personal strengths for openness to experiences and personal weaknesses for conscientiousness, assertiveness, and emotional stability. Across creative interests, profile pattern, not absolute trait level, drove the relationship between personality traits and interests. These findings replicated across numerous personality inventories and levels of interest specificity (RIASEC, basic interests, occupation-specific interests). We discuss the implications of these results for the complementary use of personality and interest scales in vocational counseling and personnel selection.

Pro-environmental behavior

Ones, D. S., Wiernik, B. M., Dilchert, S., & Klein, R. M.
In J. D. Wright (Ed.),
International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 82-88).
Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
(2015)

Environmental sustainability is one of the most pressing issues facing societies today. Employees play a key role in contributing to organizational environmental performance. This article describes the domain of employee green behaviors (pro-environmental behaviors at work), distinguishes them from related constructs, provides an overview of determinants, and reviews interventions designed to support them.

Cognitive predictors and age-based adverse impact among business executives

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.

Openness as a factor underlying successful expatriation: A brief report of project iGOES

Deller, J., Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., Albrecht, A.-G., & Paulus, F. M.
In X. Dai & G.-M. Chen (eds.),
Intercultural communication competence (pp. 356-365).
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
(2014)

Organizations that conduct business globally feel an increasing need to send employees on international assignments. Such international assignments are a challenge both for the organization and its employees. Reports from the applied and also the scholarly community reveal that reliable, valid, and easily applicable methods for selecting, preparing, and developing expatriate workers are crucial to the success of international assignments in general. This chapter provides an overview of project iGOES (international Generalizability of Expatriate Success Factors), which investigates the relevance of demographic variables, background characteristics, and individual differences traits in predicting expatriate adjustment and success. The most comprehensive project of its kind, iGOES systematically investigated whether relevant success factors differ across world regions expatriates are active in. The chapter illustrates the usefulness of the approach by focusing on and summarizing results for the personality trait of openness.

Maladaptive personality constructs, measures, and work behaviors: Scientific background and employment practice recommendations

Dilchert, S., Ones, D. S., & Krueger, R. F.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 7, 98-110.
(2014)

Important changes have been occurring in the clinical psychology literature that are relevant to how maladaptive personality characteristics are conceptualized, measured, and used in workplace applications. We aim to clarify distinctions among maladaptive personality traits, measures of maladaptive personality constructs, and their behavioral consequences at work. In pursuing a connection between the industrial–organizational (I–O) and clinical psychology literatures on maladaptive personality, we distinguish maladaptive constructs, maladaptive measures, and maladaptive work behaviors. Conceptual clarification and linguistic precision are essential, as their distinctions are not merely academic but have important consequences for workplace research and practice.

Review of Non-Verbal IQ Test

Dilchert, S.
In J. F. Carlson, K. F. Geisinger, & J. L. Johnson (Eds.),
Mental measurements yearbook (19th ed., pp. 491-494). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
(2014)

This review provides information about the development, reliability, and validity of the Non-Verbal IQ Test (NVIQT). The NVIQT is a nonverbal measure of cognitive ability, developed to assess spatial ability and pattern recognition. The stated purpose of the test is to serve as a measure of intelligence that minimizes irrelevant cultural or educational influences on test scores. The technical manual accompanying the test does not further delineate the nature of the construct that the test is intended to assess. Limited information is provided on the intended target population or intended uses of the test…