Ellen M. Whitener

Do “high commitment” human resource practices affect employee commitment? A cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modeling

Relying on a cross-level paradigm and on social exchange theory (i.e., perceived organizational support) I explore the relationships among human resource practices, trust-in-management, and organizational commitment. Individual-level analyses from a sample of 1689 employees from 180 credit unions indicate that trust-in-management partially mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. Cross-level analyses using hierarchical linear modeling indicate that human resource practices affect the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment or trust-in-management.

Confusion of confidence intervals and credibility intervals in meta-analysis.

A review of 30 meta-analyses that have been conducted in organizational behavior and human resource management using procedures described by Hunter, Schmidt, and Jackson (1982) suggests that there is confusion regarding the use and interpretation of confidence intervals and credibility intervals. This confusion can lead to conflicting conclusions about the relationships between variables

Perceived trustworthiness of knowledge sources: the moderating impact of relationship length.

Prior meta-analytic evidence has indicated no association between relationship length and perceived trustworthiness. Viewing trustors as information processors, the authors propose a model in which relationship length, although having no direct effect on perceived trustworthiness, moderates the association between perceived trustworthiness and the basis on which people decide to trust each other. Specifically, as trustors learn about others, they base their trust on different kinds of information (demographic similarity, trustworthy behavior, and shared perspective). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses of a field survey of supervisors and subordinates from 3 companies (N = 88) provide evidence consistent with this prediction: Perceived trustworthiness is associated with demographic similarity in newer relationships, with trustworthy behavior in relationships that are neither brand new nor old but in-between, and with shared perspective in older relationships.

Do “high commitment” human resource practices affect employee commitment?

Relying on a cross-level paradigm and on social exchange theory (i.e., perceived organizational support) I explore the relationships among human resource practices, trust-in-management, and organizational commitment. Individual-level analyses from a sample of 1689 employees from 180 credit unions indicate that trust-in-management partially mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment. Cross-level analyses using hierarchical linear modeling indicate that human resource practices affect the relationship between perceived organizational support and organizational commitment or trust-in-management.

Reclaiming Personality Traits for Personnel Selection: Self-Esteem as an Illustrative Case

Previous reviews documenting the low validity and utility associ-ated with personality measures should not lead researchers in the area of personnel selection to abandon the use of such variables. The lack offindings in past research can be explained by (a) misspecification of the model by anticipating direct effects; (b) inadequate statistical power; and (c) contamination of measures by relying on self-report or observational methods. An alternative model in which personality measures have interactive effects with ability tests in predicting per-formance provides a stronger theoretical rationale to support a rela-tionship between personality variables and performance. Sample sizes also need to be increased significantly in order to provide adequate tests of the validity of personality measures in personnel selection. Measures of personality traits based on perception and judgment pro-vide a more promising approach to obtaining less contaminated in-dices. Future research that avoids the problems of the past may pro-vide a more positive picture of the utility of personality traits as screening devices.

An Empirical Note on the Interaction of Personality and Aptitude in Personnel Selection

The purpose of this research is to test whether measures of personality traits, widely recognized as poor predictors of job performance, might indeed serve as useful screening devices under certain circumstances. In particular, the possibility that personality variables have utility when used in conjunction with aptitude tests was empirically tested in two field settings. The results indicated that self-esteem interacted with aptitude to predictfuture performance of a sample of life insurance salespersons and that locus of control interacted with aptitude to predict performance for a sample of college students. The implications of these results for the study of personality traits in personnel selection are discussed.

The role of goal specificity in the goal-setting process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between goal specificity and task performance, with specificity operationalized as a continuous quantitative variable reflecting the range of performance levels individuals chose as their personal goals. It was hypothesized that, controlling for goal difficulty, specific personal goals would be associated with higher levels of task performance. It was also hypothesized that task strategy would mediate the relationship between goal specificity and performance and that specific goals would be associated with smaller goal-performance discrepancies. The results from a sample of 162 college students working on an eye-hand coordination task supported the hypothesis concerning goal-performance discrepancies. They hypotheses regarding task strategy and the relationship between goal specificity and performance were supported only on the second of two trials.

A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effect on Learning of the Interaction Between Prior Achievement and Instructional Support

Aptitude-treatment interaction research has been plagued by conceptual and methodological problems that are evidenced in inconsistent results and unreplicated studies. These problems can be addressed, in part, by using meta-analytic techniques. These techniques were used in this study to test the effect of the interaction of prior achievement with instructional support on learning. This aptitude-treatment interaction was tested by assessing how the learning of subjects with different levels of prior achievement is effected by providing organizational and structuring instructional support as opposed to learner-controlled or self-paced instructional support. The results reveal an interaction that is consistent with the interpretation that there are greater differences in learning achievement between subjects with high prior achievement and subjects with low prior achievement when structuring and organizing support are provided and smaller differences between these subjects when instruction is self-paced. Although this study indicates that differences in achievement levels can be reduced through instructional treatment, further research is needed to evaluate other effects, such as total and subgroup mean achievement.

Fairness in Personnel Selection: A Meta-Analysis and Policy Implications

Previous research has suggested that selection procedures and performance evaluations are not unfair to minorities. Results of a meta-analysis indicated that Whites performed higher than non-Whites on cognitive ability tests (d = .464) and on supervisory ratings (d = .284), but not on objective results (d = -.009) and that validities between the tests and ratings and results were not significantly different. In addition, a comparison of predicted to actual mean standardized criterion differences between White and non-White subgroups suggested that cognitive ability underpredicted actual differences in supervisory ratings. These results imply that researchers and policymakers need to continue to evaluate fairness in testing and performance evaluation because, contrary to prior evidence, the use of cognitive ability tests may indeed be unfair to non-Whites.