Ute-Christine Klehe

Working hard and working smart: Motivation and ability during typical and maximum performance

The distinction between what people can do (maximum performance) and what they will do (typical performance) has received considerable theoretical but scant empirical attention in industrial-organizational psychology. This study of 138 participants performing an Internet-search task offers an initial test and verification of P. R. Sackett, S. Zedeck, and L. Foglis (1988) model of typical versus maximum performance: Motivation--in the form of direction, level, and persistence of effort exerted--rose significantly under the maximum performance condition. Consequently, the correlation between motivation--in the form of direction and level of effort--and performance diminished, whereas the correlation between ability--in the form of declarative knowledge and procedural skills--and performance increased under the maximum performance condition. Overall, results confirm the general propositions of the model. Implications for the generalizability of these findings, theory, practice, and directions for future studies of typical and maximum performance are discussed.

The Moderating Influence of Personality and Culture on Social Loafing in Typical Versus Maximum Performance Situations

The current paper combines research from personality, cultural, social, and work- and organizational psychology. More precisely, it addresses the motivating effects of situations that either foster or inhibit social loafing under typical vs maximum performance conditions. It further tests how these effects are moderated by the three individual difference variables of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience, and the two cultural dimension variables of collectivism and power distance. Results reveal positive main effects for inherently motivating situations, maximum performance conditions, conscientiousness, agreeableness and collectivism, as well as a significant interaction between the degree to which the situation invites social loafing and the typical vs maximum performance condition. These findings thus confirm a possible overlap between the theories of social loafing and of typical vs maximum performance. Finally, power distance showed a number of surprising interactions that may, in part, account for cultural differences found in the social loafing literature. Implications for theory building, empirical research and practice are discussed.

Messen Einstellungsinterviews das, was sie messen sollen? Zur Bedeutung der Bewerberkognitionen über bewertetes Verhalten

Zusammenfassung. Mit strukturierten Einstellungsinterviews wird haufig versucht, verschiedene Anforderungsdimensionen zu erfassen, die fur eine erfolgreiche berufliche Tatigkeit notig sind. Allerdings ist noch weitgehend ungeklart, inwieweit es gelingt, die angestrebten Dimensionen tatsachlich zu erfassen. Zur Untersuchung dieser Frage wurde im Rahmen eines Bewerbungs-Trainings ein strukturiertes Interview durchgefuhrt, das aus drei Komponenten (Selbstvorstellung, biographischen Fragen und situativen Fragen) bestand. Eine Analyse der Multitrait-Multimethod-Matrix ergab, dass das verwendete Interview wenig konstruktvalide war. Allerdings zeigte sich, dass die Gesamtbeurteilung im Interview mit der Anzahl der Fragen korrelierte, fur die die Interviewten die jeweilige Anforderungsdimension korrekt erkannten. Zudem wurden Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer auch intraindividuell besser bei Fragen beurteilt, bei denen sie die jeweils relevante Dimension erkannten, als bei Fragen, bei denen dies nicht der Fall war. ...