Pre-emptive Management of the Psychological Contract Through Personnel Selection in the Digital Era

It has been estimated that graphology is used by over 80% of European companies as part of their personnel recruitment process. And yet, after over three decades of research into the validity of graphology as a means of assessing personality, we are left with a legacy of equivocal results. For every experiment that has provided evidence to show that graphologists are able to identify personality traits from features of handwriting, there are just as many to show that, under rigorously controlled conditions, graphologists perform no better than chance expectations. In light of this confusion, this paper takes a different approach to the subject by focusing on the rationale and modus operandi of graphology. When we take a closer look at the academic literature, we note that there is no discussion of the actual rules by which graphologists make their assessments of personality from handwriting samples. Examination of these rules reveals a practice founded upon analogy, symbolism, and metaphor in the absence of empirical studies that have established the associations between particular features of handwriting and personality traits proposed by graphologists. These rules guide both popular graphology and that practiced by professional graphologists in personnel selection.

Download Full-text

The Validity of Specific Cognitive Abilities for the Prediction of Training Success in Germany

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000110 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 123-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Wiebke Goertz ◽

Ute R. Hülsheger ◽

Günter W. Maier

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Personnel Selection ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Mental Ability ◽

Occupational Category ◽

General Mental Ability ◽

Training Success ◽

Specific Cognitive Abilities ◽

Better Than

General mental ability (GMA) has long been considered one of the best predictors of training success and considerably better than specific cognitive abilities (SCAs). Recently, however, researchers have provided evidence that SCAs may be of similar importance for training success, a finding supporting personnel selection based on job-related requirements. The present meta-analysis therefore seeks to assess validities of SCAs for training success in various occupations in a sample of German primary studies. Our meta-analysis (k = 72) revealed operational validities between ρ = .18 and ρ = .26 for different SCAs. Furthermore, results varied by occupational category, supporting a job-specific benefit of SCAs.

Download Full-text

Psychological Contract Fulfillment and Employee Responses to Pay System Change

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000186 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 172-185 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Christine J. Syrek ◽

Conny H. Antoni

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Psychological Contract ◽

Pay For Performance ◽

Psychological Contracts ◽

Change Processes ◽

Affective Organizational Commitment ◽

Before And After ◽

Psychological Contract Fulfillment ◽

Pay System ◽

Employee Responses

Abstract. The implementation of a new pay system is a balancing act that produces uncertainty and draws employees’ attention to the fulfillment of exchange agreements. Transformational leadership may be essential during these change processes. Based on psychological contract theory, we expected that transformational leadership impacts job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment through the fulfillment of relational psychological contracts, while the fulfillment of transactional psychological contracts may be crucial for employees’ pay and bonus satisfaction. We assessed 143 employees nested within 34 teams before and after (24 months) a pay for performance (pfp) system was introduced. Our results supported the mediation hypotheses considering job and pay satisfaction, but not considering commitment. Unexpectedly, the effect on bonus satisfaction was mediated via relational psychological contracts.

Download Full-text

Effects of Targeted Self-Coaching on Applicant Distortion of Personality Measures

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000069 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 169-175 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Katherine A. Sliter ◽

Neil D. Christiansen

Keyword(s):

Impression Management ◽

Personality Assessment ◽

Personnel Selection ◽

Lie Detection ◽

Personality Test ◽

Personality Measures ◽

Personality Tests ◽

The Impact

The present study evaluated the impact of reading self-coaching book excerpts on success at faking a personality test. Participants (N = 207) completed an initial honest personality assessment and a subsequent assessment with faking instructions under one of the following self-coaching conditions: no coaching, chapters from a commercial book on how to fake preemployment personality scales, and personality coaching plus a chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales. Results showed that those receiving coaching materials had greater success in raising their personality scores, primarily on the traits that had been targeted in the chapters. In addition, those who read the chapter on avoiding lie-detection scales scored significantly lower on a popular impression management scale while simultaneously increasing their personality scores. Implications for the use of personality tests in personnel selection are discussed.

Download Full-text

Applicants’ Self-Presentational Behavior

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000046 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 77-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Anne Jansen ◽

Cornelius J. König ◽

Eveline H. Stadelmann ◽

Martin Kleinmann

Keyword(s):

Personnel Selection ◽

Randomized Response Technique ◽

Randomized Response ◽

Self Presentation ◽

Actual Use

This study contributes to the literature on self-presentation by comparing recruiters’ expectations about applicants’ self-presentational behaviors in personnel selection settings to applicants’ actual use of these behaviors. Recruiters (N = 51) rated the perceived appropriateness of 24 self-presentational behaviors. In addition, the prevalence of these behaviors was separately assessed in two subsamples of applicants (N1 = 416 and N2 = 88) with the randomized response technique. In line with the script concept, the results revealed that recruiters similarly evaluated the appropriateness of specific self-presentational behaviors and that applicants’ general use of these behaviors corresponded to recruiters’ shared expectations. The findings indicate that applicants who use strategic self-presentational behaviors may just be trying to fulfill situational requirements.

Download Full-text