Steven F. Cronshaw

Functional job analysis : a foundation for human resources management

Contents: E.A. Fleishman, Series Foreword. Preface. Introduction. Part I: Learning and Understanding the FJA Model. The Work-Doing System. The Work Organization. The Worker. The Work. Reducing Friction in the Work-Doing System. Part II: Generating the FJA Data. Generating Task Data With Workers: The FJA Focus Group. Consulting With Management to Introduce FJA Into the Work-Doing System. The Use of FJA in TQM. Part III: Using FJA in HRM Applications. Recruitment--Attracting a Workforce. Selection--Testing Applicants. Selection--Interviewing Applicants. Training--Improving Worker Skill. Performance Appraisal--Acknowledging Worker Contributions. Career Development and Coaching--Encouraging Worker Growth. Pay--Rewarding Worker Performance and Growth. Job Design--Building Better Work. FJA and the Law--Meeting the Legal Test. Appendices: FJA Scales. Selecting Functional Job Analysts. Training and Accrediting Functional Job Analysts. FJA Task Bank Editing Manual.

One answer to the demand for accountability: Selection utility as an investment decision

Abstract An examination of selection utility models demonstrates that they bear a considerable resemblance to capital budgeting models well established in the finance literature. Five applications of capital budgeting to selection utility are suggested and discussed. Capital budgeting concepts are recommended as a rich source of further practical and theoretical development of selection Utility models.

Self-Monitoring and Leader Emergence A Test of Moderator Effects

The present research seeks to further understanding of the relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence in groups. It does so by focusing on two proposed moderators of this relationship: sex of the group members and nature of the task confronting the group. On the basis of previous research, it was hypothesized that high self-monitoring would be related to leader emergence for males, but not for females, in mixed-sex groups. Further, the relationship between self-monitoring and leader emergence was hypothesized to be stronger for a task providing minimal feedback on the task competence of group members. These hypotheses were tested in a long-term study of natural mixed-sex groups. The sex-moderator hypothesis was supported, but the task-moderator hypothesis was not. Post hoc analyses suggested that high self-monitors emerge as group leaders because they are more adaptive in their behavior than low self-monitors. Both theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

A Process Investigation of Self-Monitoring and Leader Emergence

Although previous research has shown that high self-monitors tend to emerge as group leaders, little is known about the processes by which this personality trait influences leader emergence. Extrapolating from self-monitoring theory (Snyder, 1987), it was postulated that high self-monitors emerge as group leaders because they are sensitive to, and act on, social cues regarding appropriate leader style, whereas low self-monitors emerge as leaders as a function of favorable attitudes toward leadership. Two hypotheses corresponding to these postulates were tested in a laboratory experiment conducted on 68 business students assigned to 4-person problem-solving groups in an organization simulation. Both hypotheses were supported, thus showing the value of self-monitoring theory for furthering the understanding of leader emergence within groups. The implications of these findings for selfmonitoring theory, as well as for the measurement and development of organization leadership, are explored.

A critical re-examination and analysis of cognitive ability tests using the Thorndike model of fairness

The literature investigating the bias of cognitive ability tests (CATs) is often conflated with the controversy surrounding which method for determining test bias is superior. The general acceptance of the Cleary (1968) model of test bias in industrial/organizational psychology has served to deter evaluations of tests against other models of test bias because acceptance of the Cleary model as ‘superior’ implies the limited relevance of investigations of tests against other models of bias. Although these other models are not considered to be models of predictive bias in the psychometric sense, they nonetheless have significant implications for workplace diversity. Most notably, the existing literature lacks the precision and depth necessary to extrapolate the actual false-rejection rate in selection decisions that burden visible minority groups when CATs are used. The current study identifies these gaps in the literature in addition to evaluating CATs against the Thorndike (1971) model of test bias. Results indicate that a one standard deviation (SD) difference in Black-White CAT scores is associated with a Black-White difference in job performance of approximately 1/3 SD. The Black-White difference in job performance is reduced to approximately 1/10 SD when objective, rather than subjective, job performance criteria are used. We therefore conclude that CATs are biased against Blacks when evaluated using the Thorndike model. The implications for use of CATs in personnel selection are discussed.

Evaluation of video-based assessment in transit operator selection

The use of video testing is relatively new in personnel selection. Initial research has shown that the visual presentation of behaviorial incidents to job applicants may be a practical alternative to paper-and-pencil selection tests. Little research, however, has been conducted on the psychometric properties of video testing. To address this shortcoming in the personnel selection literature, this study reports the results of a validation study conducted on a video test for transit operators conducted in a large Canadian transit authority. The test, the Metro Seattle Video Test (MSVT), was designed to assess the interpersonal skills required of transit operators. The results show that, although content validation evidence was supportive, other psychometric evidence (i.e., reliability, criterion-related validation evidence, and construct-oriented validation evidence) is not consistent with an adequate selection test of interpersonal skills. Recommendations are made for future development and use of video testing in transit operator selection, as well as for improving the reliability and validity of video-based assessment of interpersonal skills.

The Impact of Sociotechnical Task Demands on Use of Worker Discretion and Functional Skill

This research applies theoretical propositions from macro-organizational research to the level of task-based work as performed by individual workers. A model, theoretical propositions, and testable hypotheses are developed which relate sociotechnical demand to decisional discretion and worker skill at the task level. Measures of sociotechnical demand are developed for the purpose of this research and the remaining measures of decisional discretion and worker skill are taken from the Functional Job Analysis system. An archival set of 100 tasks from a wide variety of jobs was rated by trained raters on measures of sociotechnical demand, decisional discretion, and worker skill. Analysis of these ratings provided generally good support for our theoretical predictions, with decisional discretion mediating the impact of both technological and social demands on cognitive skill. Complexity of social skill increased exponentially as a function of greater social demand, suggesting some important implications for labor economic theory and analysis. The results provided a strong empirical validation of the Functional Job Analysis model. Implications of the findings for social scientists, human resource planners, government policy makers, and human resource specialists are discuss

Incorporating risk into selection utility: Two models for sensitivity analysis and risk simulation☆

Abstract This study offers two techniques for assessing the impact of uncertainty in inputs such as the number of selectees and the selection ratio on selection utility estimates. These models, which express utility as an expected distribution of net present values, extend recent advances in finance theory to utility estimation. Sensitivity analysis and a risk simulation were run using actual data collected for the clerical/administrative trade group in the Canadian military. Although the overall level of utility resulting from use of the existing ability test composite was very high, the results demonstrated that considerable risk was associated with the selection investment. One input (i.e., number of selectees or N s ) was identified as the major contributor to risk in the utility analysis. Further refinement of the N s input was recommended. Sensitivity analysis and risk simulation were recommended as valuable tools for more adequately representing the benefits achievable from personnel programs Such as selection.

DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS OF WORKPLACE ADAPTIVE SKILL

This study examined the dynamic development of workplace adaptive skills using the functional-perspectivist paradigm. Extensions to a model of behavioral functionality are tested whereby workers in four age groups are assessed through an interview-based methodology on the improvement and coalescence of their adaptive skills. Analysis of responses show the dynamic structure of workplace adaptive skills changes over the age groups. Workers in their 20s face the developmental task of resolving tensions between their inward- and outward-directed focus. Workers in their 30s must equalize the opposing tendencies of agency and accommodation of purpose. Things, Data, and People functional skills of locus appear to play a stable role within the adaptive skill dynamics across tested age groups. Instability in focus and purpose across age groups is probably brought about by the need to maintain an adaptive balance between innate predispositions toward individual development combined with the simultaneous need of the worker to function effectively within specific social-historical contexts. The functional-perspectivist paradigm is recommended in understanding development of workplace skills.

Is Organizational Leadership Structural or Processual

Leadership theory, research, and practice have taken a structuralist turn whereby the leader role is viewed as a component of structural design within and for the organization. Not surprisingly, a considerable amount of theory and research exists which adumbrates the leader role as a structure and investigates its effects on outcomes such as leadership perceptions, follower reactions, and organizational productivity. This line of leadership inquiry follows the positivist approach of substantivizing organizational concepts via nouns and studying them as quasi-substances with fixed, stable, and enduring structures. Process studies insists on conceptualizing and studying the leader role as a process, i.e., as the process of leadership, with its attendant novelty and emergence. This paper investigates the implications of a shift from a substance- to process-based conception of leadership. The result is a movement from a fixed structure of leadership within an established and routinized organizational hierarchy to a liberated leadership that functions outside the parameters and constraints of organization design. Implications for organization process studies are discussed.