Marcus Credé

Much Ado About Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Grit Literature.

Grit has been presented as a higher order personality trait that is highly predictive of both success and performance and distinct from other traits such as conscientiousness. This paper provides a meta-analytic review of the grit literature with a particular focus on the structure of grit and the relation between grit and performance, retention, conscientiousness, cognitive ability, and demographic variables. Our results based on 584 effect sizes from 88 independent samples representing 66,807 individuals indicate that the higher order structure of grit is not confirmed, that grit is only moderately correlated with performance and retention, and that grit is very strongly correlated with conscientiousness. We also find that the perseverance of effort facet has significantly stronger criterion validities than the consistency of interest facet and that perseverance of effort explains variance in academic performance even after controlling for conscientiousness. In aggregate our results suggest that interventions designed to enhance grit may only have weak effects on performance and success, that the construct validity of grit is in question, and that the primary utility of the grit construct may lie in the perseverance facet.

An Assessment of the Magnitude of Effect Sizes: Evidence From 30 Years of Meta-Analysis in Management

This study compiles information from more than 250 meta-analyses conducted over the past 30 years to assess the magnitude of reported effect sizes in the organizational behavior (OB)/human resources (HR) literatures. Our analysis revealed an average uncorrected effect of r = .227 and an average corrected effect of ρ = .278 (SDρ = .140). Based on the distribution of effect sizes we report, Cohen’s effect size benchmarks are not appropriate for use in OB/HR research as they overestimate the actual breakpoints between small, medium, and large effects. We also assessed the average statistical power reported in meta-analytic conclusions and found substantial evidence that the majority of primary studies in the management literature are statistically underpowered. Finally, we investigated the impact of the file drawer problem in meta-analyses and our findings indicate that the file drawer problem is not a significant concern for meta-analysts. We conclude by discussing various implications of this study for OB/HR researchers.

Two is more valid than one: Examining the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS).

The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a) is the most widely used measure of self-compassion. Self-compassion, as measured by the SCS, is robustly linked to psychological health (Macbeth & Gumley, 2012; Zessin, Dickhaüser, & Garbade, 2015). The SCS is currently understood as exhibiting a higher-order structure comprised of 6 first-order factors and 1 second-order general self-compassion factor. Recently, some researchers have questioned the internal validity of this 1-factor conceptualization, and posit that the SCS may instead be comprised of 2 general factors—self-compassion and self-coldness. The current paper provides an in-depth examination of the internal structure of the SCS using oblique, higher-order, and bifactor structural models in a sample of 1,115 college students. The bifactor model comprised of 2 general factors—self-compassion and self-coldness—and 6 specific factors demonstrated the best fit to the data. Results also indicated the Self-Coldness factor accounted for unique variance in depression, anxiety, and stress, whereas the Self-Compassion factor only accounted for unique variance in its association with depression, providing further evidence for the presence of 2 distinct factors. Results did not provide support for the 1-factor composition of self-compassion currently used in research. Implications for using, scoring, and interpreting the SCS are discussed.

Leading to Stimulate Employees\' Ideas: A Quantitative Review of Leader-Member Exchange, Employee Voice, Creativity, and Innovative Behavior

Through social exchange, leaders can offer relational support or resources to facilitate employees proactive attempts to bring positive change (voice) or novel ideas (creativity) and behaviors (innovative behavior) to their work. We consider these three outcomes under the same nomological network as they all represent employees idea contribution to the organisation. The present paper thus meta-analytically reviews the findings of research relating leader–member exchange (LMX) to voice (37 samples), creativity (53 samples), and innovative behavior (29 samples). Results show that LMX positively predicts voice, creativity, and innovative behavior. Moreover, LMX is more strongly related with creativity than with voice or innovative behavior, a significant difference maintained even after controlling for study characteristics that may act as confounding variables. Implications of our findings and directions for future research are also discussed.

The structure of group task performance-A second look at "collective intelligence": Comment on Woolley et al. (2010).

Collective intelligence has been described as a general factor that “explains a group’s performance on a wide variety of tasks” (Woolley, Chabris, Pentland, Hashmi, & Malone, 2010, p. 686), much like the general intelligence factor explains individuals’ performance on cognitive ability tasks. This construct has received widespread attention in both the media and academic community. In this article we reexamine the data from 6 previously published samples that have been used to examine the existence of the collective intelligence construct and show that the empirical support for the construct is generally weak. Specifically, we show that the general factor explains only little variance in the performance on many group tasks. We also highlight how 2 statistical artifacts—the apparent presence of low effort responding and the nested nature of the data—may also have inflated the little covariation that exists between group performance on different tasks. These findings suggest that there is insufficient support for the existence of a collective intelligence construct.

Assessing the Utility of Compound Trait Estimates of Narrow Personality Traits.

ABSTRACT It has been argued that approximations of narrow traits can be made through linear combinations of broad traits such as the Big Five personality traits. Indeed, Hough and Ones (2001) used a qualitative analysis of scale content to arrive at a taxonomy of how Big Five traits might be combined to approximate various narrow traits. However, the utility of such compound trait approximations has yet to be established beyond specific cases such as integrity and customer service orientation. Using data from the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (Goldberg, 2008), we explore the ability of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits to approximate scores on 127 narrow trait measures from 5 well-known non-Big-Five omnibus measures of personality. Our findings indicate that individuals standing on more than 30 narrow traits can be well estimated from 3 different types of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits without a substantial sacrifice in criterion validity. We discuss theoretical accounts for why such relationships exist as well as the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners.

A Negative Effect of a Contractive Pose Is Not Evidence for the Positive Effect of an Expansive Pose: Commentary on Cuddy, Schultz, and Fosse (2018)

Cuddy, Schultz and Fosse (2018) present the results of p-curve analyses that are interpreted as providing clear evidential value for power posing effects”. This commentary highlights that the vast majority of the studies included in the p-curve analyses were not designed in a way that could speak to the efficacy of power poses relative to a normal or neutral pose. Further, I discuss how the few studies that were designed to shed light on this issue indicate that any overall effect of physical pose on feelings of power, emotions, affect, and self-evaluations is almost entirely due to the negative effect of a contractive pose and not any positive effect of expansive power poses.

Shall we serve the dark lords? A meta-analytic review of psychopathy and leadership.

Both scholars and the popular press have expressed concern regarding the potential prevalence of individuals with psychopathic tendencies in corporate leadership positions and the negative effects they may have on both individual workers and their organizations as a whole. However, research to date has been inconclusive as to whether such individuals are more likely to emerge as leaders or whether they are (in)effective leaders. To clarify the state of the literature, we conducted a meta-analysis on the association between psychopathic personality characteristics and leadership emergence, leadership effectiveness, and transformational leadership. Our results, based on data from 92 independent samples, showed a weak positive correlation for psychopathic tendencies and leadership emergence, a weak negative association for psychopathic tendencies and leadership effectiveness, and a moderate negative correlation for psychopathic tendencies and transformational leadership. Subgroup analyses on methodological factors did not indicate any differences from the main results. However, moderator analyses showed a gender difference in these associations such that psychopathic tendencies in men were weakly positively correlated with leadership emergence and effectiveness and negatively correlated with transformational leadership, while psychopathic tendencies in women were negatively associated with effectiveness and transformational leadership, and largely unassociated with emergence. In addition, small but consistent curvilinear associations were found for all leadership criteria. Overall, these results suggest that concern over psychopathic tendencies in organizational leaders may be overblown, but that gender can function to obscure real effects.

Using the common-sense model to understand health outcomes for medically unexplained symptoms: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Consistent with the common-sense model of self-regulation, illness representations are considered the key to improving health outcomes for medically unexplained symptoms and illnesses (MUS). Which illness representations are related to outcomes and how they are related is not well understood. In response, we conducted a meta-analysis of the relationship between illness representations, self-management/coping, and health outcomes (perceived disease state, psychological distress, and quality of life) for patients with MUS. We reviewed 23 studies and found that threat-related illness representations and emotional representations were related to worse health outcomes and more negative coping (moderate to large effect). Generally, increases in negative coping mediated (with a moderate to large effect) the relationship of threat/emotional illness representations and health outcomes. Protective illness representations were related to better health outcomes, less use of negative coping and greater use of positive coping (small to moderate effect). The relationship of protective illness representations to better health outcomes was mediated by decreases in negative coping (moderate to large effect) and increases in positive coping (moderate effect). Perceiving a psychological cause to the MUS was related to more negative health outcomes (moderate to large effect) and more negative emotional coping (small effect). The relationship of perceiving a psychological cause and more negative health outcomes was mediated by increases in negative emotional coping. Improving our understanding of how illness representations impact health outcomes can inform efforts to improve treatments for MUS. Our results suggest behavioural treatments should focus on reducing threat-related illness representations and negative coping.

What Shall We Do About Grit? A Critical Review of What We Know and What We Don’t Know

Grit is a construct that is widely studied by educational researchers and that has generally been enthusiastically received by educational practitioners. This essay highlights that many of the core claims about grit have either been unexamined or are directly contradicted by the accumulated empirical evidence. Specifically, there appears to be no reason to accept the combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals into a single grit construct, nor is there any support for the claim that grit is a particularly good predictor of success and performance in an educational setting or that grit is likely to be responsive to interventions. I describe avenues for future research on grit that may help to clarify if grit can contribute to our understanding of success and performance. These avenues include examinations of possible configural relationships between passion and perseverance, whether grit or grit facets represent necessary but not sufficient conditions for performance, interactions between ability and either grit or the facets of grit in the prediction of performance, possible polynomial relationships between grit or grit facets and performance, and improvements in the manner in which grit is assessed. Alternative predictors of performance that are more strongly related to success and performance and that may be more responsive to interventions are also discussed.