William I. Sauser

Creativity and Certain Personality Traits: Understanding the Mediating Effect of Intrinsic Motivation

Creativity is a topic of ever-increasing interest, given its importance and applicability to literally every field. Personality traits have been frequently and predictably related to creative achievement. Amabile (1983) pointed out that individuals may have certain traits and abilities that are favorable for creativity, but whether these will actually result in achieving creative results depends on their intrinsic motivation. Additionally, under certain circumstances extrinsic motivation has been found to have a positive effect on creativity. We hypothesized a conceptual model and tested the mediating and moderating role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation respectively in the relationship between 3 personality traits (openness to experience, self-efficacy, and perseverance) and creativity. This study, conducted in a university setting, found support for the potential mediating role of intrinsic motivation between creativity/openness to experience as intrinsic motivation partially mediated this relationship. Self-efficacy was closely related to creativity, with intrinsic motivation completely mediating this relationship. Extrinsic motivation moderated the relationship between self-efficacy/creativity and perseverance/creativity and had a negative association with creativity.

Shortcut methods for deriving behaviorally anchored rating scales

Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) have traditionally required a great amount of time and effort to develop. Two variations of an alternative method to construct BARS are suggested. The traditional and the two simplified methods were used to develop scales for the evaluation of teacher performance. The scales were used by 231 undergraduate students to evaluate seven psychology instructors. The scales were compared across five content dimensions in terms of reliabilities, means, intercorrelations, and expert judgments. The three procedures were found to produce similar scales using these criteria. On the basis of this study, the shortcut derivation method is recommended as preferable for applied use because it requires considerably less construction time. Since this represents the first attempt to use these shortcut methods, additional experimental and field research is necessary to confirm this recommendation.

INTELLIGENCE AND PHYSICAL FITNESS AS PREDICTORS OF SUCCESS IN EARLY INFANTRY TRAINING

The purpose of this research was to assess how well success in early combat training was predicted by scores on a test of general intelligence (the General Technical composite of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) and three measures of physical fitness (pushups, situps, and run time). Age and education were also considered as predictors. The criterion was performance on the test given at the end of training, and the subjects were 259 trainees in entry-level infantry training. Analysis indicated that intelligence test scores and run time significantly predicted success, each adding to the prediction provided by the other. The other variables did not appear to be useful predictors of success.

Preparing Business and Information Technology Students to Contribute to Organizational Cultures Grounded in Moral Character

The ethical crisis in business and information technology is very real. Countering this crisis by creating organizational cultures grounded in moral character is the challenge people face as leaders if they are to regain the respect and confidence of the public. As educators of future business and information technology leaders, how can educators prepare their students to understand, appreciate, and contribute to the establishment of cultures of character in the organizations which employ them-and which they may ultimately lead? In this article the authors distinguish among four corporate cultures with respect to ethics -cultures of defiance, compliance, neglect, and character-and present a blueprint for constructing an organizational culture grounded in moral character. With respect to showing students how to contribute to such a culture, the authors then a describe how to establish an effective learning context for teaching about ethics, b proffer a number of practical suggestions for student assignments and experiences that can empower students to understand, appreciate, and contribute to organizational cultures of character, and c explain how to enhance experiential learning by conducting an effective debriefing session. The authors conclude the article by providing three examples from their own experience illustrating how these ideas can be incorporated into programs designed to show business and information technology students how to contribute to organizational cultures grounded in moral character.

Psychometric Characteristics of a Preemployment Screening Device

Compu-Scan is a preemployment screening device which considers a job applicants potential for such undesirable behaviors as substance abuse, theft, and violation of company policy to assign an over-all risk score. A “theft” subscale score may also be derived. This study assessed certain psychometric characteristics of Compu-Scan. Data provided by a private security firm included 445 completed Compu-Scans; 48 persons had also undergone an independent polygraph examination. A coefficient alpha of .84 was obtained for the 91-item “over-all risk” scale; the 43-item “theft” subscale yielded a similar coefficient of .83. Compared with predictions from the polygraph, validity coefficients of .45 and .36 were found for the “over-all” and “theft” scores, respectively. While evidence for the convergent validity of the two scales was noted, substantial method variance was also indicated. These results compare favorably with those reported for similar honesty measures and support the view that preemployment honesty screening is potentially a viable personnel practice.