Rick Jacobs

High reliability process industries: Individual, micro, and macro organizational influences on safety performance.

Within the process industries (e.g., chemical and nuclear power plants), safety is of paramount importance. Although there has been much research investigating safety issues in these industries, the current paper reviews and integrates literature pertaining to individual, micro organizational, and macro organizational influences on safety. This paper can serve as a starting point for continued consideration of the influences of social-organizational factors on safety.

Dynamic criteria and the measurement of change.

The question of whether work performance criteria are dynamic has been addressed by applied psychologists for many years. Despite this attention, we have few definitive answers. This article provides both theoretical and methodological arguments for refocusing investigations into dynamic criteria toward the study of intraindividual change and interindividual differences in intraindividual change. A longitudinal sample of insurance sales personnels performance is used to demonstrate that systematic time trends are present at the individual level and that there are interindividual differences in these change patterns

Validity Evidence Linking Polychronicity and Big Five Personality Dimensions to Absence, Lateness, and Supervisory Performance Ratings

This study developed criterion and construct validity evidence for polychronicity, which is the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks or activities at the same time. Hypothesized relationships between polychronicity and lateness, absence, and supervisory ratings of performance were developed and tested in a heterogenous field sample of 181 train operators. Results indicated that polychronicity was significantly related to absence (r = .25), lateness (r = .19), and supervisory performance ratings (r = -.17). Hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions (Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism) were also significantly associated with absence, but not lateness. Specifically, absence was significantly related to Conscientiousness (r = -.23), Extraversion (r = .15), and Neuroticism (r = .19). In addition, polychronicity accounted for variance in absence and lateness beyond that accounted for by hypothesized Big Five personality dimensions, cognitive ability, and demographic characteristics. Future research directions for work on polychronicity are discussed.

Utility concepts in performance measurement

Abstract For several decades, personnel psychologists have struggled to apply utility concepts to personnel decision strategies. One of the obstacles to greater acceptance of the utility concept has been the difficulty in translating performance variance into a dollar metric. Recently, it has been demonstrated how that might be done without the use of expensive and questionable cost-accounting procedures. The extension of the utility logic to cover other areas of personnel including the performance measurement and feedback paradigm is proposed and a demonstration of such an application is provided. Programmatic research concerned with fundamental and applied issues in this area is proposed.

Organizational processes and nuclear power plant safety

Abstract This paper describes an integrated effort to define and measure organizational factors related to nuclear power plant safety. The research began by reviewing previously conducted studies looking at nuclear power operations and operations in other high reliability industries for indications of common safety-related, performance dimensions. Having established a list of 20 common dimensions, the project went on to fully define these dimensions and develop methods for their assessment. The methods of assessment developed for this application were employee survey—a series of self report questions answered by employees, behavioral checklist—sets of statements about the plant and its operations that observers respond to by answering yes or no, structured interview—a set of questions and interviewer asks of an employee and built around the 20 dimensions identified, and behaviorally anchored rating scales—an extension of the methodology used for assessing the performance of individuals to the process of assessing a nuclear power plant. Each of the methodologies is described as it applies to the assessment within the nuclear power environment and examples of each method are presented. Pilot tests of the feasibility of using these assessment methods were conducted in two nuclear power plants and the results are encouraging both in terms of the immediate identification of potential safety issues and as valuable additions to probabilistic risk assessment. Implications of this work for the future assessment of organizational factors related to nuclear power safety are discussed.

A Closer Look at Halo Error in Performance Ratings

This study focused on conceptualizing and measuring a particularly pervasive form of rating error—halo. Longitudinal data were analyzed to assess the relationship between rater-ratee familiarity an...

Bad to the Bone Empirically Defining and Measuring Destructive Leader Behavior

Although destructive leader behavior is an increasingly popular area of study, little is known about its content or dimensionality at a broad level. In this study, an inventory of destructive behaviors was developed through inductive and deductive methods. Across multiple studies, three behavioral dimensions emerged and were used to create a measure of the construct. Results provide support for the instrument’s construct and criterion validity and its predictive validity over abusive supervision. The study highlights the progress and limitations of prior research, suggests directions for future studies, and provides a practically useful measure of destructive leader behavior in organizations.

The Attitudinal and Behavioral Openness Scale: scale development and construct validation

Abstract The focus of this study is the development and construct validation of the Attitudinal and Behavioral Openness Scale (ABOS). This scale measures the personality construct of openness with behavioral and attitudinal indicators. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest multiple dimensions of the Attitudinal and Behavioral Openness Scale: Participation in Cultural Activities, Foreign Experiences, Openness Attitudes, and Comfort with Differences. Additional analyses establish a nomological network for this construct by demonstrating convergence between the ABOS and theoretically linked sociopolitical constructs, attitudinal and personality constructs, in particular a self-rated adjective measure of openness.

Bargaining Cycles And Work-Related Attitudes: Evidence For Threat-Rigidity Effects

In this study, we proposed that union members would be more similar in their attitudes toward bargaining-related outcomes during contract negotiation years than union members at other stages of the...

Perceptions of work contexts: Disentangling influences at multiple levels of analysis

Individuals’ perceptions of work contexts are ine uenced by factors at both the individual level and the contextual level. However, methodological considerations have often resulted in researchers choosing a single level of analysis when studying perceptions of work environments. The current study investigated individual and contextual ine uences on teachers’ satisfaction within school districts. Hierarchical Linear Models were proposed as a useful method for simultaneously assessing variation in perceptions of community support at two levels of analysis. Perceptions of support were found to vary systematically at both the individual and the organizational level. Hypotheses about di Verent predictors of teacher perceptions at both levels of analysis and mediation across levels were supported. Implications for the assessment of employee perceptions in organizations are discussed.