Construct Confusion and Assessment Centers: A Person-Situation Interactionist Perspective

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, Business, 2006Despite the evidence that assessment centers (ACs) are effective predictors of career advancement and job performance, considerable confusion remains regarding why this is the case. Traditional AC theory and practice suggest it is because the skill dimensions typically evaluated in ACs (e.g. such as critical thinking, organizing and planning, and stress tolerance) represent stable traits that can be assessed across various exercises (Sackett & Dreher, 1982). However, reviews of the empirical findings accumulated over the last 25 years show that correlations between different dimensions within exercises are larger than correlations of the same dimensions across exercises (Lance et al., 2004b). That is, participants tend to score higher on dimensions in one exercise but lower on all these dimensions in another exercise. Person-situation interactionist models suggest that these findings may be due to the interaction of individual differences and exercise characteristics (Lance et al, 2000; Schneider, 1983). Based on these models, exercise form (i.e. group interaction vs. individual presentation) and the competitive nature of the exercise were hypothesized to moderate the relationships between participants' individual difference variables (i.e. communication apprehension and collectivistic values) and their dimension scores. 282 students participated in oral presentation and group discussion exercises in an assessment center and were scored on their performance by trained raters on oral communication and critical thinking dimensions. Regression results indicated that participants' scores on critical thinking did vary across exercises depending on their communication apprehension. This demonstrates that performance is likely to vary across exercises depending on salient exercise characteristics and individual characteristics of the participants and can help explain the lack of construct validity reported in the assessment center literature (Lievens, Chasteen, Day, Christiansen, 2006). In addition, structural equation modeling results demonstrated that communication apprehension completely mediated the relationships between individuals' extraversion and emotional stability and their dimension scores. These data give insight into why extraversion and emotional stability have consistently been related to AC performance. The findings have implications for how developmental feedback is given to participants, how exercises are designed and selected, and how the communication requirements of exercises may influence participants' performance in ACs

Tuning the interactions of spin-polarized fermions using quasi-one-dimensional confinement

The behavior of ultracold atomic gases depends crucially on the two-body scattering properties of these systems. We develop a multichannel scattering theory for atom-atom collisions in quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) geometries such as atomic waveguides or highly elongated traps. We apply our general framework to the low energy scattering of two spin-polarized fermions and show that tightly-confined fermions have infinitely strong interactions at a particular value of the 3D, free-space p-wave scattering volume. Moreover, we describe a mapping of this strongly interacting system of two quasi-1D fermions to a weakly interacting system of two 1D bosons.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

The interplay between the level of voluntary participation and supervisor support on trainee motivation and transfer

International audienceAbstract There have been conflicting findings about whether mandatory versus voluntary training leads to more positive training outcomes. We propose moving away from a dichotomous distinction to a more dynamic participation approach to better elucidate theoretical differences relating to self‐determination theory. A sample of 311 trainees from eight companies participated in a variety of open skill (e.g., leadership) training programs. Results indicated that higher levels of voluntary participation were positively related to trainees' transfer motivation and training transfer. We also found that the level of voluntary participation moderates the relationship between supervisor support and both motivation to transfer and training transfer. Supervisor support facilitates trainee motivation and transfer to a larger extent when participation is less voluntary. Future training should be framed and promoted to increase employee motivation to voluntarily participate, especially for employees with less supervisor support

Individual- and organizational-level consequences of organizational citizenship behaviors: A meta-analysis.

Although one of the main reasons for the interest in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) is the potential consequences of these behaviors, no study has been reported that summarizes the research regarding the relationships between OCBs and their outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a meta-analytic examination of the relationships between OCBs and a variety of individual-and organizational-level outcomes. Results, based on 168 independent samples (N ϭ 51,235 individuals), indicated that OCBs are related to a number of individual-level outcomes, including managerial ratings of employee performance, reward allocation decisions, and a variety of withdrawal-related criteria (e.g., employee turnover intentions, actual turnover, and absenteeism). In addition, OCBs were found to be related (k ϭ 38; N ϭ 3,611 units) to a number of organizational-level outcomes (e.g., productivity, efficiency, reduced costs, customer satisfaction, and unit-level turnover). Of interest, somewhat stronger relationships were observed between OCBs and unit-level performance measures in longitudinal studies than in cross-sectional studies, providing some evidence that OCBs are causally related to these criteria. The implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed. Keywords: organizational citizenship behaviors, contextual performance, meta-analysis, customer satisfaction, withdrawal If the number of articles that have been published over the past quarter century is any indication, it would appear that organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are firmly embedded in the fabric of the fields of organizational behavior and industrialorganizational psychology. For example, since Organ and his colleagues (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ (1988) originally defined organizational citizenship behavior as "individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization" (p. 4). However, more recently, he modified this definition to say that OCB is "performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which task performance takes place" (Organ, 1997, p. 95). The advantage of this revised definition is that it (a) maintains the distinction that has empirically been shown to exist between task performance and OCBs (MacKenzie, Podsakoff, & Fetter, 1991; Of course, if one assumes that OCBs have an effect on organizational performance, it makes sense to identify those variables that increase these behaviors in organizational settings. That is probably why most of the research in this domain has focused on the potential antecedents of OCBs, such as personality traits (cf. There are several good reasons for the growing interest in the effects that OCBs have on these types of outcomes. First, if OCBs do have positive relationships with organizational effectiveness criteria, then it is important for us to quantify these effects so that we have a more complete picture of the potential impact that OCBs have on the "bottom line" of the organization. Second, it is important to examine the relationships between OCBs and organizational effectiveness criteria because, despite the fact that OCBs are assumed to be positively related to unit or organizational effectiveness, there is some evidence that this assumption is not always true. For example, in their study of 116 insurance agencies, Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide a quantitative summary of the empirical relationships between OCBs and individual and organizational outcomes. As a first step in this process, we review several theoretical explanations for why we expect OCBs to influence both individual and organizational outcomes. Following this, we conduct a meta-analytic review of the studies examining these relationships. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results and identify several avenues for future research. This study makes several contributions to the literature. First, although there have been a substantial number of meta-analyses that have reported the relationships between OCBs and some of their antecedents (Borman et al., 2001; Background and Hypothese

Survey of Activated FLT3 Signaling in Leukemia

Activating mutations of FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) are found in approximately 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FLT3 is therefore an attractive drug target. However, the molecular mechanisms by which FLT3 mutations lead to cell transformation in AML remain unclear. To develop a better understanding of FLT3 signaling as well as its downstream effectors, we performed detailed phosphoproteomic analysis of FLT3 signaling in human leukemia cells. We identified over 1000 tyrosine phosphorylation sites from about 750 proteins in both AML (wild type and mutant FLT3) and B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (normal and amplification of FLT3) cell lines. Furthermore, using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC), we were able to quantified over 400 phosphorylation sites (pTyr, pSer, and pThr) that were responsive to FLT3 inhibition in FLT3 driven human leukemia cell lines. We also extended this phosphoproteomic analysis on bone marrow from primary AML patient samples, and identify over 200 tyrosine and 800 serine/threonine phosphorylation sites in vivo. This study showed that oncogenic FLT3 regulates proteins involving diverse cellular processes and affects multiple signaling pathways in human leukemia that we previously appreciated, such as Fc epsilon RI-mediated signaling, BCR, and CD40 signaling pathways. It provides a valuable resource for investigation of oncogenic FLT3 signaling in human leukemia

Recommendations for the design of therapeutic trials for neonatal seizures

Although seizures have a higher incidence in neonates than any other age group and are associated with significant mortality and neurodevelopmental disability, treatment is largely guided by physician preference and tradition, due to a lack of data from welldesigned clinical trials. There is increasing interest in conducting trials of novel drugs to treat neonatal seizures, but the unique characteristics of this disorder and patient population require special consideration with regard to trial design. The Critical Path Institute formed a global working group of experts and key stakeholders from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies, neonatal nurse associations, and patient advocacy groups to develop consensus recommendations for design of clinical trials to treat neonatal seizures. The broad expertise and perspectives of this group were invaluable in developing recommendations addressing: (1) use of neonate-specific adaptive trial designs, (2) inclusion/exclusion criteria, (3) stratification and randomization, (4) statistical analysis, (5) safety monitoring, and (6) definitions of important outcomes. The guidelines are based on available literature and expert consensus, pharmacokinetic analyses, ethical considerations, and parental concerns. These recommendations will ultimately facilitate development of a Master Protocol and design of efficient and successful drug trials to improve the treatment and outcome for this highly vulnerable population

Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes

Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy

Attributions to intuition in the venture founding process: Do entrepreneurs actually use intuition or just say that they do?

Even though entrepreneurs often cite the use of intuition as a basis for their venturing decisions, verifying that entrepreneurs are actually using intuition is very difficult. We distinguish between entrepreneurs' attributions to intuition and their actual use of intuition. We propose characteristics of entrepreneurs that increase the likelihood that they will attribute intuition as a basis for decisions during the venture founding process. We then delineate characteristics that make the development and effective use of entrepreneurial intuition more likely. Theoretical implications for researchers studying intuition and practical implications for entrepreneurs using intuition are discussed.Entrepreneurial intuition Venture founding Cognitive processes