Jerel E. Slaughter

Personality Trait Inferences About Organizations: Development of a Measure and Assessment of Construct Validity

The authors conducted 4 studies to construct a multidimensional measure of perceptions of organization personality. Results of the first 2 studies suggest that (a) 5 broad factors are sufficient to capture the structure of organization personality perceptions, (b) real-world organizations differ on personality profiles, and (c) personality trait inferences are related to organizational attraction. Results of a 3rd study suggest that personality trait inferences assessed in 1 sample are related lo ratings of organizational attractiveness by a 2nd sample. Finally, results of a 4th study suggest that the measure is sensitive to experimental manipulations of organizational descriptions. Implications and suggestions for the use of this measure in future research are discussed.

Organizational justice and Black applicants' reactions to affirmative action.

Using organizational justice as a guiding framework, the authors studied perceptions of affirmative action programs by presumed beneficiaries. Three conceptual issues were addressed: (a) the content of different affirmative action plans; (b) the 3-way interaction among distributive, procedural, and interactional justice; and (c) the distinction between outcome favorability and distributive justice. These ideas were tested with a sample of Black engineering students who responded to 1 of 6 plans. Participants distinguished among the various plans, with some policies being viewed as more fair than others. In addition, a 3-way interaction among the 3 types of organizational justice was observed. Specifically, the 2-way interaction between distributive and interactional fairness was only significant when procedural justice was low. Implications for organizational justice and for the design of affirmative action programs are discussed.

A New Look at the Role of Insiders in the Newcomer Socialization Process

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of socialization-related attitudes and behaviors exhibited by insiders on the development of organizational newcomers. New graduate students, advanced graduate students, and faculty members responded to surveys at two different time periods. Insiders’ attitudes toward socialization were predictive of their involvement in socialization activities. New student involvement in activities that were initiated by faculty members and advanced students was related to role conflict, role ambiguity, and service to the department. Faculty and advanced student attitudes and behaviors, aggregated to the department level, predicted new student departmental service. The authors conclude that the recent call for renewed interest in the role of insiders in the socialization process is warranted.

Decoy effects and attribute-level inferences

A decoy effect occurs when the addition of an inferior choice alternative changes the preference relations among the other alternatives in the set. Whereas many authors have suggested that the decoy effect has considerable relevance to applied decision-making contexts, others have suggested that the phenomenon may not be found in situations more realistic than those used in typical decoy experiments. The authors examined whether the effect would generalize to situations in which decision makers are required to infer attribute values. The results of the current study showed that even when no numerical attribute information is presented, decoy effects can be quite strong. These findings suggest that decoy effects may indeed be generalizable to realistic choice situations requiring attribute-level inferences.

The neurotic employee: Theoretical analysis of the influence of narrow facets of neuroticism on cognitive, social, and behavioral processes relevant to job performance

In this chapter, we argue that despite the fact that empirical research on trait neuroticism has shown fairly weak relations between the broad neuroticism trait and overall job performance, organizational research can benefit by increased attention to the neuroticism construct. This is because the influence of neuroticism on work behavior can be best understood by separating the more general neuroticism domain into its lower level facets. We discuss various conceptualizations of neuroticism and then review existing research on the relation between the facets of neuroticism and job performance. Next, we turn our attention to a theoretical framework that suggests that the relations between neuroticism facets and job performance outcomes are explained by the social, cognitive, and behavioral effects of having varying levels of neuroticism-based traits. In so doing, we not only focus on mediated relationships between facets of neuroticism and job performance dimensions but also recognize some important moderators, as well as some expected direct relations between the facets and job performance. Finally, we discuss implications for further conceptual development, offer some suggestions for testing the propositions, and discuss potential practical implications of finding support for this model.

Bias in Performance Ratings: Clarifying the Role of Positive Versus Negative Escalation

This study replicated and refined research on the effects of escalation of commitment in performance ratings. We utilized experimental manipulations in a laboratory setting to determine whether positive escalation or negative escalation (or both) could be responsible for the effect. In one session, participants (N = 210) were assigned to the perspective of the potential employees supervisor and chose 1 of 2 candidates for a sales position. In a second session, participants rated the performance of (a) the individual they selected; (b) the individual they rejected; or (c) a third individual, whose preselection information they never viewed. Results replicated previous findings, such that ratings were biased upward when participants rated the performance of the salesperson they had originally selected. Results were not biased downward when individuals rated the performance of the salesperson they had rejected, however. Thus, our results suggest that positive escalation, and not negative escalation, was the cause of the bias.