The worker as politician: How online information and electoral heuristics shape personnel selection and careers

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1377-1396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda L Berkelaar ◽  
Joshua M Scacco ◽  
Jeffrey L Birdsell
Keyword(s):  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Online Information

Cybervetting

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda L. Berkelaar ◽  
Millie A. Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
Past Behavior ◽  
Or Organization ◽  
Social Media Communication ◽  
New Hires

Broadly speaking, cybervetting can be described as the acquisition and use of online information to evaluate the suitability of an individual or organization for a particular role. When cybervetting, an information seeker gathers information about an information target from online sources in order to evaluate past behavior, to predict future behavior, or to address some combination thereof. Information targets may be individuals, groups, or organizations. Although often considered in terms of new hires or personnel selection, cybervetting may also include acquiring and using online information in order to evaluate a prospective or current client, employee, employer, romantic partner, roommate, tenant, client, or other relational partner, as well as criminal, civil, or intelligence suspects. Cybervetting takes advantage of information made increasingly available and easily accessible by regular and popular uses and affordances of Internet technologies, in particular social media. Communication scholars have long been interested in the information seeking, impression management, surveillance, and other processes implicated in cybervetting; however, the uses and affordances of new online information technologies offer new dimensions for theory and research as well as ethical and practical concerns for individuals, groups, organizations, and society.

How implicit theories help differentiate approaches to online impression management: A preliminary typology

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2039-2058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda L. Berkelaar
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Information Management ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Management Behavior

This article proposes an empirically-grounded typology to describe how people approach online impression management across multiple digital sites given employers’ use of online information for personnel selection. Qualitative analysis revealed four primary online impression management types: acceptor, dissident, scrubber, and strategist. The four types are primarily differentiated based on people’s relatively fixed or relatively flexible implicit theories about information, technology, visibility, and identity, and whether people take passive, reactive, or active approaches to online impression management. Although research on implicit theories usually focuses on individual attributes, these findings highlight how people’s implicit theories about the context or field of communicative action work in combination to influence impression management behavior. This study suggests practical interventions to increase people’s agency and effectiveness in managing online information and provides foundations for future research on online impression, information management, and implicit theories.

The Impact of a Highly Publicized Celebrity Suicide on Suicide-Related Online Information Seeking

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt ◽  
Sebastian Scherr
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Celebrity Suicide ◽  
Online Information Seeking ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Background: Research has already acknowledged the importance of the Internet in suicide prevention as search engines such as Google are increasingly used in seeking both helpful and harmful suicide-related information. Aims: We aimed to assess the impact of a highly publicized suicide by a Hollywood actor on suicide-related online information seeking. Method: We tested the impact of the highly publicized suicide of Robin Williams on volumes of suicide-related search queries. Results: Both harmful and helpful search terms increased immediately after the actor's suicide, with a substantial jump of harmful queries. Limitations: The study has limitations (e.g., possible validity threats of the query share measure, use of ambiguous search terms). Conclusion: Online suicide prevention efforts should try to increase online users' awareness of and motivation to seek help, for which Google's own helpline box could play an even more crucial role in the future.

Handwriting Analysis and Personality Assessment

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Greasley
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Handwriting Analysis ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Personnel Recruitment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Better Than

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.

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

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
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.

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

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
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.

Applicants’ Self-Presentational Behavior

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-85 ◽  
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.

Test-Taking Motivation and Personality Test Validity

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. O’Neill ◽  
Richard D. Goffin ◽  
Ian R. Gellatly
Keyword(s):  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Test Validity ◽  
Personality Testing ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Field Sample ◽  
Moderation Effect ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Valid Criterion

In this study we assessed whether the predictive validity of personality scores is stronger when respondent test-taking motivation (TTM) is higher rather than lower. Results from a field sample comprising 269 employees provided evidence for this moderation effect for one trait, Steadfastness. However, for Conscientiousness, valid criterion prediction was only obtained at low levels of TTM. Thus, it appears that TTM relates to the criterion validity of personality testing differently depending on the personality trait assessed. Overall, these and additional findings regarding the nomological net of TTM suggest that it is a unique construct that may have significant implications when personality assessment is used in personnel selection.

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