Time After Time: Creating a Culture of Development by Assessing at Multiple Times

Organizations that promote a culture of learning and development among their employees are more likely to adapt and remain afloat in the turbulent environment in which most business are facing today. This symposium will discuss how assessing employee performance using varied methods and at different times can help to create culture change over time. The symposium will address the implementation of these methods as well as help practitioners to better understand the implications of changing assessment scores form time-one to time-two. The symposium will address the processes and the obstacles involved with using individual assessments to create long term change in the learning and development aspects of an organization’s culture

Exploring the Feasibility of Assessing Cultural Competence in Police Officers

Pathology, personality, and integrity-related construct assessments have been widely used in the selection of police officers. However, the incidence of police brutality and misconduct is still concerning. The present study explored the feasibility of the assessment of cultural competence in police officers. We explored the extent to which the change to the agency’s first ever Black CEO would affect cultural competence of the officers as well as incidence of misconduct. Results showed that scores on a cultural competence factor of an in-basket simulation used for promotional assessments at a state highway patrol agency were not predictive of either supervisor-rated performance or incidence of misconduct. Whereas results showed that misconduct was not predicted by the agency’s first Black CEO, cultural competence of the officers did increase after the change in command. Practical implications for law enforcement agencies and suggestions for future research are discussed

Soft Target Security: Examining the Need and Readiness for Sector-Specific Standards

This report was commissioned by The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE), a Department of Homeland Security (OHS) Center of Excellence (COE), to inform policymakers on issues related to the potential development of sector-specific security standards for soft targets. The findings and recommendations outlined in this research are intended to guide the development of policies and initiatives to address their unique security challenges. A soft target is a publicly-accessible location, venue or event that typically attracts groups of people and is vulnerable to attack due to a lack of robust protection measures. Many soft targets are privately owned, operate with limited resources, and struggle to balance security, aesthetics, and ease of accessibility. Their open nature makes them attractive to a variety of threat actors, from terrorists to malicious insiders. They have unique environments, cultures, operational practices, and vulnerabilities. The research addresses these critical questions: Are current security standards and guidance for soft targets both utilized and sufficient? Could customized, context-specific standards fill an existing gap and improve efforts to secure soft target venues

Retesting in a promotional process: Amount of time between tests accounting for magnitude of score increases

There are many reasons why an applicant may retake a selection test, whether it’s due to reasons outside of their control or perhaps their first test administration was unsuccessful. Research has shown that scores generally increase when applicants retake a test. However, research on situational judgment tests and in-basket simulations have been overshadowed by research on admissions tests, cognitive ability tests, and personality tests. Further, much research has focused on retesting effects during the initial selection process, but the current research aims to shed light on retesting effects during the promotional process. The literature shows conflicting findings regarding time between tests. While some literature says that more time between tests results in larger score increases, other research says that less time between tests results in larger score increases. The current study aims to clarify this conflicting history of research while closing the gap on types of assessments examined in the retesting literature. Results showed that more time between tests resulted in larger score gains for both the SJT and in the in-basket simulation. This is probably due to the nature of the test. SJTs and In-Baskets require a lot of job knowledge. Having more time on the job between tests would allow candidates to learn more and apply that on their second attempt at promotion. The literature on time between supports this notion. Studies that showed less time between tests resulted in larger score increases were assessing some aspect of cognitive ability. Perhaps for other tests less time between tests allows for greater score increases, but for job knowledge tests, more time between tests allows for these greater score increases. Practical implications and areas for future research are discussed. Keywords: retesting, promotion, in-basket, situational judgment tes

Defending your competency model: Sit back, relax and get comfortable

While commonly used in practice, some researchers have objected that competency models are not rigorously developed. The current study examines the utilization of development methods and the influence on the level of comfort with legally defending the competency model. Results indicated practitioners were more comfortable legally defending a model that was developed through SME interviews

The effects of self-efficacy, perceptions of ethical misconduct, and guilt-proneness on CWBs

This study examined the relationship between generalized self-efficacy, perceptions of ethical misconduct, guilt-proneness, and counterproductive work behaviors. We first hypothesized that self-efficacy would be negatively related to counterproductive work behaviors. Secondly, we hypothesized that perceptions of ethical misconduct and levels of guilt-proneness would mediate the negative relationship between generalized self-efficacy and counterproductive work behaviors. We surveyed 190 undergraduate students. To test our hypotheses, we used serial mediation (self-efficacy perceptions of ethical misconduct Guilt CWBs). Results supported our first hypothesis. However, we did not find support for the mediated relationship proposed in our second hypothesis

Examining Factors Influencing Use of a Decision Aid in Personnel Selection

In this research, two studies were conducted to examine factors influencing reliance on a decision aid in personnel selection. Specifically, this study examined the effect of feedback, validity of selection predictors, and presence of a decision aid on the use of the aid in personnel selection. The results demonstrate that when people are provided with the decision aid, their predictions were significantly more similar to the predictions made by the aid than people who were not provided with the aid. This suggests that when people are provided with an aid, they will use it to some degree. This research also shows that when provided with a decision aid with high cue validity, people will increase their reliance on the decision aid over multiple decisions

Threat and Risk Assessment Measurement: A State of the Science Review

Threat and risk assessment are the processes of identifying, assessing, and managing threats of targeted violence prompted by warning behaviors. Threat assessment differs from the traditional operations of law enforcement as it may provide predictive information rather than investigating threats after a violent offense has been committed. Threat and risk assessment examines the escalation of behavior over time and corroborates information from multiple sources to reach a level of concern. Initially developed as a way to prevent assassinations, the tools and approaches around threat assessment have emerged as a violence prevention measure in many settings, including workplaces, schools, universities, and even private corporations. Due to its increasing and ubiquitous use, it is necessary to critically examine the effectiveness of such methods and models in preventing violent and harmful events. The National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education (NCITE) Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha was tasked to examine the current state and promising practices of threat assessment and threat management programs by the Department of Homeland Security. More specifically, this effort seeks to evaluate current programs to better understand the need, utilization, and efficacy of these tools and models. This objective was met via three deliverables. An examination of 23 meta-analyses, comprising 2,108 individual studies that include more than 1 million participants, the Threat/Risk Assessment Literature Review provides a comprehensive framing of what threat and risk assessment entails, the effectiveness of these assessments, and the potential implications of these assessments at preventing or mitigating targeted violence. Threat Assessment Interviews: Threat Assessment Practices in the Field provides a more detailed understanding of how threat and risk assessment professionals are using these tools in their day-to-day work along with any challenges that may impact the tools\u27 effectiveness. Lastly, What Works in Threat and Risk Assessment, for Whom, and in What Circumstances? The State of the Evidence acts as a supplementary document to the overall Threat/Risk Assessment Literature Review. This document examines if these tools have worked, how they worked, what conditions are needed for success, what needs to be implemented, and the cost of using these tools

Are job qualifications only skin deep? How stigma against tattoos can result in failing to hire more qualified job candidates

Historically, tattoos and other body modification techniques have often been attributed to individuals that engage in negative behaviors, such as violence, sexual promiscuity and other less-than-healthy practices. Despite the stigma that has developed surrounding tattoos, the popularity of body-modification continues to rise. The current experiment analyzed the responses from 56 participants that completed a hiring simulation. The results of the study demonstrate that participants that had the lowest level of stigma against tattoos tended to make hiring decisions based on job qualifications and were more likely to hire job candidates that were more qualified when compared to minimally qualified job candidates regardless of the presence of visible tattoos on the job candidate. However, those with the highest levels of stigma against tattoos were more likely to make hiring decisions based solely on whether or not the job candidate had visible tattoos, and not based on job qualifications. Future research is recommended and practical considerations are discussed

Physical security culture: The neglected foundation for effective security

Those tasked with protecting soft targets, including organizations, have tried to counteract threats against them by increasing security, yet the effectiveness of these measures remains largely unknown. Organizations, researchers, and practitioners can gain a more holistic understanding of how, when, why, and where security measures are effective (or ineffective) by examining organizational culture. The purpose of this paper more specifically is to build upon the current security culture models (i.e., Security Culture: Hofreiter et al., 2020: Nuclear Security Culture, IAEA, 2017) to propose a more comprehensive framework and nomological network of physical security culture that can be applied to organizations and soft targets. This article reviews the current understanding of physical security culture. Further, this article looks to the more developed information security culture and safety culture literatures to better understand how physical security culture may impact security outcomes in soft targets. This article also explores multiple avenues for future research that is needed to understand how physical security culture develops and how to best promote it for the health, safety, and security of employees