Nicolas Roulin

Personnel Selection as a Signaling Game

Personnel selection involves exchanges of information between job market actors (applicants and organizations). These actors do not have an incentive to exchange accurate information about their ability and commitment to the employment relationship unless it is to their advantage. This state of affairs explains numerous phenomena in personnel selection (e.g., faking). Signaling theory describes a mechanism by which parties with partly conflicting interests (and thus an incentive for deception) can nevertheless exchange accurate information. We apply signaling theory to personnel selection, distinguishing between adaptive relationships between applicants and organizations, among applicants, and among organizations. In each case, repeated adaptations and counteradaptations between actors can lead to situations of equilibrium or escalation (arms races). We show that viewing personnel selection as a network of adaptive relationships among job market actors enables an understanding of both classic and underexplored micro- and macro-level selection phenomena and their dynamic interactions.

Students' Use of Extra-Curricular Activities for Positional Advantage in Competitive Job Markets.

With the rise of mass higher education, competition between graduates in the labour market is increasing. Students are aware that their degree will not guarantee them a job and realise they should add value and distinction to their credentials to achieve a positional advantage. Participation in extra-curricular activities (ECAs) is one such strategy, as it allows students to demonstrate competencies not otherwise visible in their résumés due to limited job experience. This article presents data from interviews with 66 students about their use of ECAs in relation to the labour market. It describes the reasons students got involved in ECAs, how they integrate them in their résumés, their perceptions of their peers’ behaviour and their beliefs about how employers will interpret their activities. Our data show that especially students involved in associations use ECAs to distinguish themselves from competition. Implications for employers, students and further research are discussed.

The Influence of High- and Low-Context Communication Styles On the Design, Content, and Language of Business-To-Business Web Sites

Language and communication, especially high- versus low-context communication styles, have been shown to lead to differences in Web sites. Low-context communication provides the lowest common denominator for intercultural communication through the Internet by making messages linear, articulated, explicit, and therefore easier to understand in the absence of contextual clues. Based on theories of intercultural business communication and recent empirical studies, this article investigates how communication styles influence Web site design and content. It is hypothesized that, for the global audience, Web sites from low-context communication countries are easier to find, use colors and graphics more effectively, make navigation more user-friendly, contain more corporate and product information cues, and offer more contract- and relationship-related content than Web sites from high-context communication countries. This article also contributes to international business communication by investigating the choice of languages in business-to-business (B2B) Web sites. Empirical findings confirm the influence of high- versus low-context communication styles through systematic content analysis of 597 B2B Web sites in 57 countries. High-context communication style may be detrimental to the design of global Web sites, making them less readable, less effective in their use of colors and graphics, and less interactive for the globally dispersed users.

Cultural, National, and Industry-Level Differences in B2B Web Site Design and Content

Web sites are a major instrument for companies to transmit information to customers and conduct transactions in business markets. Differences in Web site design and content across companies can be explained by cultural factors (mainly high- or low-context communication, individualism, and power distance), characteristics of a companys home country, and corporate demographics. Based on a review of recent studies, mostly in B2C settings, this paper summarizes what is known about the impact of cultural dimensions on Web site design and content. Content analysis of 600 B2B Web sites in 57 countries confirms the interrelatedness of certain antecedent variables with Web site design and content. Some cultural orientations, especially high-context communication, may be detrimental to the design of Web sites, making them less clear, less attractive, and less interactive. Companies in countries characterized either by high-context communication, collectivism, or high power distance should strive for cultural adaptation of Web sites. Firm size and R&D intensity also have an impact on Web site design and content.

A dynamic model of applicant faking

In the past years, several authors have proposed theoretical models of faking at selection. Although these models greatly improved our understanding of applicant faking, they mostly offer static approaches. In contrast, we propose a model of applicant faking derived from signaling theory, which describes faking as a dynamic process driven by applicants’ and organizations’ adaptations in a competitive environment. We argue that faking depends on applicants’ motivation and capacity to fake, which are determined by individual differences in skills, abilities, and stable attitudes, as well as by perceptions of the competition, but also on applicants’ perceived opportunities versus risks to fake, which are contingent upon organizations’ measures to increase the costs of faking. We further explain how selection outcomes can trigger adaptations of applicants, such as faking in subsequent selection encounters, and of organizations, such as changes in measures making faking costly for applicants in the long term.

Using Blatant Extreme Responding for Detecting Faking in High‐Stakes Selection: Construct Validity, Relationship with General Mental Ability, and Subgroup Differences

Although there has been a steady growth in research and use of self‐report measures of personality in the last 20 years, faking in personality testing remains as a major concern. Blatant extreme responding (BER), which includes endorsing desirable extreme responses (i.e., 1 and 5 s), has recently been identified as a potential faking detection technique. In a large‐scale (N = 358,033), high‐stakes selection context, we investigate the construct validity of BER, the extent to which BER relates to general mental ability, and the extent to which BER differs across jobs, gender, and ethnic groups. We find that BER reflects applicant faking by showing that BER relates to a more established measure of faking, an unlikely virtue (UV) scale, and that applicants score higher than incumbents on BER. BER is (slightly) positively related to general mental ability whereas UV is negatively related to it. Applicants for managerial positions score slightly higher on BER than applicants for non-managerial positions. In addition, there was no gender or racial differences on BER. The implications of these findings for detecting faking in personnel selection are delineated.

Impression Management and Social Media Profiles

There is ample evidence from the selection literature that job applicants engage in various forms of impression management (IM), for instance when completing personality tests or answering employment interview questions. Such behaviors can impact the selection process outcome and threaten its validity, particularly if applicants use deceptive IM. In parallel, research in cyberpsychology has examined how social media users engage in IM to create specific impressions on friends or family members, and achieve a positive online identity. However, with organizations increasingly relying on cyber-vetting, job applicants are also likely to engage in IM tactics oriented towards employers in their social media profiles. This chapter thus brings those two literatures together and proposes a framework of job applicants’ IM on social media.

Editorial: Impression Management and Faking in Job Interviews

Organizations place a great deal of emphasis on hiring individuals who are a good fit for the organization and the job. Among the many ways that individuals are screened for a job, the employment interview is particularly prevalent and nearly universally used (Macan, 2009; Huffcutt and Culbertson, 2011). This Research Topic is devoted to a construct that plays a critical role in our understanding of job interviews: impression management (IM). In the interview context, IM describes behaviors an individual uses to influence the impression that others have of them (Bozeman and Kacmar, 1997). For instance, a job applicant can flatter an interviewer to be seen as likable (i.e., ingratiation), play up their qualifications and abilities to be seen as competent (i.e., self-promotion), or utilize excuses or justifications to make up for a negative event or error (i.e., defensive IM; Ellis et al., 2002). IM has emerged as a central theme in the interview literature over the last several decades (for reviews, see Posthuma et al., 2002; Levashina et al., 2014). Despite some pioneering early work (e.g., Schlenker, 1980; Leary and Kowalski, 1990; Stevens and Kristof, 1995), there has been a resurgence of interest in the area over the last decade. While the literature to date has set up a solid foundational knowledge about interview IM, there are a number of emerging trends and directions. In the following, we lay out some critical areas of inquiry in interview IM, and highlight how the innovative set of papers in this Research Topic is illustrative of these new directions.