Size, Functional Heterogeneity, and Teamwork Quality Predict Team Creativity and Innovation

Team size, heterogeneity, and an aggregate measure of teamwork quality predicted the effectiveness of organizational problem solving teams in generating ideas and obtaining the acceptance of management for these ideas. The results of regression analyses revealed that large teams generated more total and implemented ideas than smaller teams. In addition to more total and implemented ideas, teams with higher functional heterogeneity and teamwork quality generated more total and implemented ideas per member. Team size also moderated the effects of self-reported teamwork quality such that larger teams showed a stronger positive relation of teamwork quality with total and implemented ideas than smaller teams. Management evaluations of the teams were unrelated to size, functional heterogeneity, and teamwork quality. The findings support the treatment of team size as an important predictor of effectiveness rather than relegating it to the status of a mere control variable. Also, the results support previous observations that subjective judgments of team effectiveness are not equivalent to objective measures and that researchers should use multiple criteria of team success. Finally, rather than relying on concurrent, cross-sectional designs, research is needed that uses predictive models to assess how well team characteristics forecast effectiveness

Exploring Stimulus Variability in Applicant Attractiveness

Previous research on physical attractiveness bias in job applicant evaluations has ignored three important issues. First, the sex-typing of the positions for which applicants are evaluated is usually weak despite the need to provide strongly male and female-typed positions in testing for beauty is beastly effects. Second, the samples of stimuli used in the manipulations of applicant sex, attractiveness, and sex-typing of the job are small. Third, the statistical analyses used in testing hypotheses fail to incorporate variability among both human participants and stimuli. The present research corrected for these three omissions in an experiment in which participants evaluated the suitability of applicants who were physically attractive or unattractive, male or female, and were applying for a male-typed or female-typed position. The experimental design was a within-person 2 (applicant sex) X 2 (applicant attractiveness) X 2 (sex-type of job) ANOVA. Each participant received a set of eight applicants with the photograph used in the manipulation of sex and attractiveness and the type of job randomly drawn from a pool of photographs and jobs. Consistent with the recommendations of Clark (1973), the hypotheses were tested using as subjects the human participants (F1 analyses), pictures (F2 analyses), positions (F2 analyses), and picture-position combinations (F2 analyses). Also, quasi-Fs were conducted to incorporate variability of both human participants and stimuli. All the analyses revealed an attractiveness bias in which the attractive candidates were evaluated more favorably than unattractive candidates. A job sex-type X applicant sex interaction revealed that males were evaluated more favorably for male-typed positions and females for female-typed positions. Also found were main effects for applicant sex and job-type, although these effects were subsumed by the job sex-type X applicant sex interaction. The analyses of the ratings of suitability were consistent with chi-square analyses of best- and worst-fit choices. The findings suggest that the bias against attractive applicants is robust across stimuli as well as human participants. No evidence was found for a beauty is beastly effect. Exploratory analyses suggested that a bias against attractive females is limited to a narrow domain of jobs

Eight Outrageous Statements About Hr Science

The thesis of this article is that HRM research falls short on all three of the criteria that define a successful science: rigor, relevance, cumulative progress. To bring HR research to the level of a successful science, programmatic, theory based research is needed in which there is a pursuit of important research questions and the use of diverse research methods. The needs of a variety of stakeholders must be considered in addition to those of corporate management. The context of HRM should be considered, along with the paradox, complexity, and chaos that inevitably accompany such consideration. Finally, and perhaps most important, attempts to improve HR as science must avoid overreactions in which one criterion of successful science is overemphasized to the neglect of the others. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

The Role Of Communication In Intuitive And Analytical Employee Selection

The mission of human resource management (HRM) as an area of scholarship and application is achieving a good fit between people and their work, and employee selection is a primary means of doing this. Organizational agents must induce job seekers to apply, evaluate the relative qualifications of applicants, and then choose among them. Selection decisions range from initial screening in which applicants are moved to the next stage of scrutiny (e.g., the decision of a recruiter to recommend inviting for an in-house interview) to the final offer of employment. Employee selection is arguably the area of research in HRM and industrial and organizational psychology that has made the most progress in research and theory and has had the greatest impact on HRM practice. The psychometric approach is the dominant paradigm and tends to treat selection as a set of scales, inventories, and tests to be administered, scored, and then plugged into selection decisions. However, selection is a dynamic process in which job seekers and various agents of the organization exchange information and construct meaning in the pursuit of their individual objectives. This has not been ignored in communication research, which has produced an impressive body of findings on the employment interview (e.g., Jablin, 2001). Yet, selection involves more than interviewing. This chapter explores possible ways that an understanding of communication can contribute to the understanding and improvement of selection in organizations

Discrimination At Work: The Psychological And Organizational Bases

This volume brings together top scholars in industrial and organizational psychology with social psychologists to explore the research and theory relating to various areas of workplace discrimination. Many of the contributors to this book participated in a conference on workplace discrimination held at Rice University in May 2000. The idea came from the realization that there had been no attempt to bring together the various literatures on the topic. Discrimination and issues of employment diversity are significant topics today in IO psychology, business, and human resource management. This edited volume examines the following components of this important discussion: • how to explain discrimination in organizations; • understanding discrimination against specific groups; and • implications for practical efforts to reduce discrimination. This book brings together, in one volume, a review of the research on discrimination based on race, age, sexual orientation, gender, physical appearance, disability, and personality. In addition, it explores the multilevel antecedents and potential bases for a general model of discrimination in the workplace. While social psychological research and theory have provided invaluable insights, an understanding of discrimination in the workplace and solutions will require incorporating factors at the organizational level in addition to factors at the individual and group levels. Although a definitive model is not reached, the aim of this text is to facilitate future research and theory