Identifying Exceptional Application Software Developers: A Comparison of Students and Professionals

Exceptional application software developers are a scarce resource. It is therefore important for employers to identify, retain, and cultivate individuals who exhibit this capacity. This study compared the personality characteristics of exceptional, experienced application software developers with the personality characteristics of junior and senior level IS and CS students (who can be seen as entry-level, or pre-entry level, IT developers). We used the Adjective Checklist to measure personality characteristics for all subjects, then mapped the resultant scales to the Five Factor Model of Personality. The results of this study suggest that exceptional application software developers exhibit significantly higher levels of Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Exceptional students (as determined by GPA), however, were actually found to be introverted. Thus, when GPA is used to pre-screen or filter for entry-level positions, recruiters may actually be excluding some of those candidates who are most likely to become exceptional application software developers. These results have implications for understanding and managing the recruiting of IT personnel and their progression from entry level (novice) to more experienced positions

Listening between the Lines: Learning Personal Attributes from Conversations

Open-domain dialogue agents must be able to converse about many topics while incorporating knowledge about the user into the conversation. In this work we address the acquisition of such knowledge, for personalization in downstream Web applications, by extracting personal attributes from conversations. This problem is more challenging than the established task of information extraction from scientific publications or Wikipedia articles, because dialogues often give merely implicit cues about the speaker. We propose methods for inferring personal attributes, such as profession, age or family status, from conversations using deep learning. Specifically, we propose several Hidden Attribute Models, which are neural networks leveraging attention mechanisms and embeddings. Our methods are trained on a per-predicate basis to output rankings of object values for a given subject-predicate combination (e.g., ranking the doctor and nurse professions high when speakers talk about patients, emergency rooms, etc). Experiments with various conversational texts including Reddit discussions, movie scripts and a collection of crowdsourced personal dialogues demonstrate the viability of our methods and their superior performance compared to state-of-the-art baselines.Comment: published in WWW'1

Desegregating HRM: A Review and Synthesis of Micro and Macro Human Resource Management Research

Since the early 1980’s the field of HRM has seen the independent evolution of two independent subfields (strategic and functional), which we believe is dysfunctional to the field as a whole. We propose a typology of HRM research based on two dimensions: Level of analysis (individual/ group or organization) and number of practices (single or multiple). We use this framework to review the recent research in each of the four sub-areas. We argue that while significant progress has been made within each area, the potential for greater gains exists by looking across each area. Toward this end we suggest some future research directions based on a more integrative view of HRM. We believe that both areas can contribute significantly to each other resulting in a more profound impact on the field of HRM than each can contribute independently

Research and Applications of the Processes of Performance Appraisal: A Bibliography of Recent Literature, 1981-1989

[Excerpt] There have been several recent reviews of different subtopics within the general performance appraisal literature. The reader of these reviews will find, however, that the accompanying citations may be of limited utility for one or more reasons. For example, the reference sections of these reviews are usually composed of citations which support a specific theory or practical approach to the evaluation of human performance. Consequently, the citation lists for these reviews are, as they must be, highly selective and do not include works that may have only a peripheral relationship to a given reviewer\u27s target concerns. Another problem is that the citations are out of date. That is, review articles frequently contain many citations that are fifteen or more years old. The generation of new studies and knowledge in this field occurs very rapidly. This creates a need for additional reference information solely devoted to identifying the wealth of new research, ideas, and writing that is changing the field

Performance Evaluation Trait Validation

NPS NRP Technical ReportA valid and credible performance evaluation system is critical for identifying and managing talent in the US Navy. Yet, while multiple performance trait item banks have been developed to rate promotion candidates based on the quality of their candidacy, a systematic study of the validity of such trait items has not been conducted. The objective of this research is to assess the construct validity of draft performance trait/value statements recently developed to assist with promotion board decisions. This study aims to provide N1 with a set of unbiased, validated performance trait/value statements for performance evaluation efforts across the Navy, offering leadership an informed perspective on the potential benefits and risks associated these new metrics.N1 - Manpower, Personnel, Training & EducationThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

A Multidiscipline Approach to Mitigating the Insider Threat

Preventing and detecting the malicious insider is an inherently difficult problem that expands across many areas of expertise such as social, behavioral and technical disciplines. Unfortunately, current methodologies to combat the insider threat have had limited success primarily because techniques have focused on these areas in isolation. The technology community is searching for technical solutions such as anomaly detection systems, data mining and honeypots. The law enforcement and counterintelligence communities, however, have tended to focus on human behavioral characteristics to identify suspicious activities. These independent methods have limited effectiveness because of the unique dynamics associated with the insider threat. The solution requires a multidisciplinary approach with a clearly defined methodology that attacks the problem in an organized and consistent manner. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework that provides a systematic way to identify the malicious insider and describe a methodology to counter the threat. Our model, the Multidiscipline Approach to Mitigating the Insider Threat (MAMIT), introduces a novel process for addressing this challenge. MAMIT focuses on the collaboration of information from the relative disciplines and uses indicators to produce a consolidated matrix demonstrating the likelihood of an individual being a malicious insider. The well-known espionage case study involving Robert Hanssen is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the framework

Assessment of Navy Performance Evaluation

NPS NRP Technical ReportThis project will review the Navy performance evaluation system and make recommendations to the Navy for changes. The assessment will involve two parts. The first part will be an analysis of the current performance evaluation research literature and Department of Defense (DoD) Service-level policies to identify a set of best practices. The second part will involve focus groups with Navy subject matter experts (SME) and stakeholders, namely past and current board members, to get their impressions of the Navy Performance Evaluation System, their opinions on how other services do Performance Evaluations, and their top recommendations to address current issues in the Navy Performance Evaluation System. The PIs will use the focus group recommendations as inputs in a survey where Navy personnel quantify/rank the recommendations to arrive at the top recommendations selected by the surveyed population. This three-pronged approach will provide the Navy a unique set of recommendations for change based on qualitative and quantitative data. This project supports the Task Force One Navy LOE#2: Talent Management, in particular LOE #2.5 and 2.6 on selection board processes.N1 - Manpower, Personnel, Training & EducationThis research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.