Choosing how to choose : Institutional pressures affecting the adoption of personnel selection procedures

The gap between science and practice in personnel selection is an ongoing concern of human resource management. This paper takes Oliver´s framework of organizations´ strategic responses to institutional pressures as a basis for outlining the diverse economic and social demands that facilitate or inhibit the application of scientifically recommended selection procedures. Faced with a complex network of multiple requirements, practitioners make more diverse choices in response to any of these pressures than has previously been acknowledged in the scientific literature. Implications for the science-practitioner gap are discussed

Applicant versus employee scores on self-report emotional intelligence measures

There exists growing interest to assess applicants' emotional intelligence (EI) via self-report trait-based measures of EI as part of the selection process. However, some studies that experimentally manipulated applicant conditions have cautioned that in these conditions use of self-report measures for assessing EI might lead to considerably higher scores than current norm scores suggest. So far, no studies have scrutinized self-reported EI scores among a sample of actual job applicants. Therefore, this study compares the scores of actual applicants at a large ICT organization (n = 109) on a well-known self-report measure of EI to the scores of employees already working in the organization (n = 239). The current study is the first to show that applicants' scores on a self-report measure of EI during the selection process are indeed higher (d = 1.12) and have less variance (SD ratio = 0.86/1) than incumbents' scores. Finally, a meta-analytic combination of our results with those of earlier research showed that a score increase of about 1 SD in applicant conditions seems to be the rule, regardless of the type of setting, self-report EI measure, and within-versus between-subjects design employed

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: How Verbal Deception Cues Signal Deceptive Versus Honest Impression Management and Influence Interview Ratings

Impression management (IM), especially deceptive IM (faking), is a cause for concern in selection interviews. The current study combines findings on lie detection with signaling theory to address how candidates’ deceptive versus honest IM shows in verbal deception cues, which then relate to interview ratings of candidates’ interview performance. After completing a structured interview rated by two trained interviewers, 182 candidates reported their deceptive and honest IM. Verbal deception cues (plausibility, verbal uncertainty) were coded from video recordings. Results supported the hypotheses: Deceptive IM directly raised interviewer ratings (intended positive signal) but lowered the responses’ plausibility and enhanced verbal uncertainties (unintended negative signals). Honest IM raised responses’ plausibility. Plausibility related positively to interviewer ratings (receiver reaction), thus accounting for a negative indirect effect of deceptive IM and a positive indirect effect of honest IM on interviewer ratings. This study contributes to theory and practice regarding faking detection in employment interviews

A New Scoring Procedure in Assessment Centers: Insights from Interaction Analysis

This paper proposes interaction analysis as an alternative scoring procedure in assessment centers (ACs). Interaction analysis allows for a more fine-grained scoring approach by which candidate behaviors are captured as they actually happen, thus avoiding judgment errors typically associated with traditional scoring procedures. We describe interaction analysis and explain how this procedure can improve the validity of ACs. In a short research example, we showcase how interaction analysis can be implemented in AC settings. Finally, we integrate our arguments in terms of three key propositions which we hope will inspire future research on more dynamic scoring procedures

The relationship between the ability to identify evaluation criteria and integrity test scores

It has been argued that applicants who have the ability to identify what kind of behavior is evaluated positively in a personnel selection situation can use this information to adapt their behavior accordingly. Although this idea has been tested for assessment centers and structured interviews, it has not been studied with regard to integrity tests (or other personality tests). Therefore, this study tested whether candidates’ ability to identify evaluation criteria (ATIC) correlates with their integrity test scores. Candidates were tested in an application training setting (N = 92). The results supported the idea that ATIC also plays an important role for integrity tests. New directions for future research are suggested based on this finding

"I know what you want to know": The impact of interviewees' ability to identify criteria on interview performance and construct-related validity

The current study tested whether candidates' ability to identify the targeted interview dimensions fosters their interview success as well as the interviews' convergent and discriminant validity. Ninety-two interviewees participated in a simulated structured interview developed to measure three different dimensions. In line with the hypotheses, interviewees who were more proficient at identifying the targeted dimensions received better evaluations. Furthermore, interviewees' ability to identify these evaluation criteria accounted for substantial variance in predicting their performance even after controlling for cognitive ability. Finally, the interviewer ratings showed poor discriminant and convergent validity. However, we found some support for the hypothesis that the quality of the interviewer ratings improves when one only considers ratings from questions for which interviewees had correctly identified the intended dimensions

The Influence of Economic and Social Factors on the Choice of Search Procedures Used by Third Party Recruiters

Many organizations employ the services of third party recruiters in order to find suitable candidates for their free positions. Yet, we still know little about what drives search agents to use the specific recruitment tools they use. Based on institutional theory, we predicted three economic (costs and time investment, speed and longevity) and three social factors (reactions by client organizations and by candidates, diffusion in the field) to influence search agents\u27 choice of recruitment procedures. Additionally, institutional theory suggested several moderators such as the contract structure between the search agent and their clients, the likelihood of follow-up work, the availability of suitable candidates and the economic uncertainty in the field. Assumptions were tested via an online-survey distributed to 149 search agents working in the Netherlands. Hierarchical linear modelling generally supported the relevance of the economic and social predictors proposed as well as the working of several, albeit not all, moderators proposed

Impression management behavior in assessment centers: Artificial behavior or much ado about nothing?

Candidates’ assertive impression-management (IM) behaviors affect performance ratings during selection interviews, a finding that has caused some concern about selection interviews’ objectivity and accuracy. Similar effects have been proposed for assessment centers, yet research on IM in assessments centers is rare and inconclusive. This study uses trait-activation theory (Tett & Guterman, 2000) to predict how assertive IM-behaviors emerge and influence performance ratings during assessments centers. Results showed that candidates’ ingratiation behaviors related to observer ratings on the conceptually related AC-dimension cooperation, whereas self-promotion behaviors related to ratings on the dimensions leadership and planning. Furthermore, assertive IM behaviors during the assessment center construct-related validity and correlated significantly with candidates’ performance in non-evaluative situations. Consequently, assertive IM behaviors in personnel selection may pose less of a threat than frequently assumed but may partially reflect a behavioral manifestation of candidates’ underlying interindividual differences

The evaluation of re-employment programmes: Between impact assessment and theory-based approaches

In spite of a much improved labor market, the outcome of a leading evaluation report on reemployment programs in the Netherlands turned out negative. This result might be due to limitations of the evaluation method used by the researchers, who had to content themselves with a nonexperimental approach. Currently, for many evaluation researchers, the experimental method stands out as the superior design, especially when combined with a meta-analysis over several trials. We show, however, that experimental evaluations do not solve the uncertainties in this field. Meta-analyses of evaluation studies in Europe and the United States produced strikingly mixed results. Efforts to trace their diversity to variations in reemployment programs have not been very successful. This is mainly because of the “black box character” of many experimental evaluations, which offer little information about the content of the programs. Following “realistic evaluation,” we argue for a focus on the theories behind these programs in evaluation research. To this end, reemployment services are depicted in twelve core (mediating) mechanisms