At Work: An Applied Case Study: Keystone RV Company, Goshen, Indiana 109 Focus on Ethics: Ethics Behind Privacy in the Workplace 109 Chapter Summary. In the Workplace: An Applied Case Study: Managing Change in Carlson Restaurants 551 Focus on Ethics: Managing Change 551 Chapter Summary.
PREFACE
Jean Powell Kirnan, College of New Jersey; Janet Kottke, California State University San Bernardino; Charles Lance, University of Georgia; Laurie Lankin, Mercer University; Paul Lloyd, Southwest Missouri State University;. James Mitchell, LIMRA International; Paul Nail, Southwestern Oklahoma State University; Craig Parks, Washington State University; Charles Pierce, University of Memphis; Marc Pratarelli, University of Southern Colorado; Juan Sanchez,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
On the Job: Applied Case Study: Conducting Research at the Vancouver (British Columbia) International Airport Authority, Canada.
Introduction to I/O Psychology
Industrial/organizational psychology is a branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the workplace. One factor that helps distinguish I/O psychology from other areas of psychology is its reliance on the scientist-practitioner model.
Personnel Psychology
The industrial approach (“I” in I/O psychology) focuses on determining the competencies needed to perform a job, staffing the organization with employees who have those competencies, and enhancing those competencies through training. The organizational approach ("O" in I/O psychology) creates an organizational structure and culture that will motivate employees to perform well, provide them with the information they need to do their jobs, and provide working conditions that are safe and result in a pleasant and satisfying work environment.
Organizational Psychology
I/O psychology can therefore improve the quality of life at levels equal to, and often exceeding, those of fields such as counseling psychology and medicine.
Human Factors/Ergonomics
Much to the researchers' surprise, the actual working conditions did not affect productivity in the predicted way. I/O psychologists in the public sector work for a local or state government or for the federal government.
Types of Graduate Programs
Now that you have a good idea about the field of I/O psychology, it's time to learn the essentials of one of the foundations of the coming chapters: research. You may not learn much new material by studying, but you can at least refresh your memory on material you've already learned but may have forgotten.
Answering Questions and Making Decisions
Research and Everyday Life
Common Sense Is Often Wrong
Ideas, Hypotheses, and Theories
In other cases it is difficult to form a hypothesis because a prediction can go either way. Sometimes a hypothesis is not supported by a study, even though the logic and theory behind it are correct.
Literature Reviews
In the field of psychology, two prime examples of this lack of precision are the use of the "little Albert" story to demonstrate the role of classical conditioning in learning phobias and the use of the Kitty Genovese story to demonstrate the lack of bystanders. intervention. In discussions of the accuracy of textbook information, Harris () found many errors in little Albert's secondary accounts, as did Manning, Levine, and Collins () with what really happened to Kitty Genovese.
The Location of the Study
When studies involve negative consequences for the subject, as would be the case if workers were exposed to intense heat to study the effects of temperature, informed consent can only be waived if the importance of the study outweighs the negative consequences. Interestingly, authors of studies conducted in organizations submitted their research plans to institutional review boards only % of the time (Ilgen & . Bell, b).
The Research Method to Be Used
For example, in , the Roanoke Times and World News conducted a survey of the best movies in history. When directly applying an effect size to a particular situation, you need to know the standard deviation of the variable in question.
Subject Samples
These factors are called artifacts, and you can learn more about them in the meta-analysis chapter of the statistical editorial written as an appendix to this text (Aamodt, Cohen, and Surrette. Thirty subjects are randomly assigned to the training group, and the other randomly assigned to a no-training control group.
Running the Study
Statistical Analysis
Another interesting example was given by Mullins () in a presentation on the incorrect interpretation of correlation coefficients. To summarize everything you learned about research in Chapter , complete exercises . and . in your workbook.
Job Analysis and Evaluation
When John White arrived on Roanoke Island in , he found no trace of the colony and only the word Croatian carved on a tree. To this day, it is not known what happened to the settlers of the lost colony of Roanoke.
Writing Job Descriptions
One theory is that the members of the colony were not prepared to survive in the new continent; that is, the group consisted of politicians, soldiers and sailors. In fact, the colony might have survived if settlers with more appropriate skills, such as farmers, had been sent instead of the traditional explorer types.
Employee Selection
In , English settlers established a colony on Roanoke Island near what is now the Outer Banks of the North Carolina coast. Many theories have been put forward to explain the fate of the lost colony - it was killed by Indians, moved to another location, etc.
Training
Personpower Planning
Performance Appraisal
Job Classifi cation
Job Evaluation
Job Design
Compliance with Legal Guidelines
Organizational Analysis
If you are doing a job analysis, the best advice I can give is to involve yourself in the process by learning as much as possible about the job. To do this effectively, the job analyst must be fully and truly engaged in the process.
Job Title
In fact, Virginia Tech has a policy that states that the university can require employees to perform any duties that are not on the employees' job descriptions for a period of up to three months. After three months, the duty must either be eliminated or permanently added to the employee's job description, after which a review will also be made to determine whether the addition is significant enough to merit a salary increase.
Brief Summary
Work Activities
Tools and Equipment Used
Job Context
Work Performance
Compensation Information
Job Competencies
Checks members' previous address and current employment to see if loan payments can be made. The bookkeeper is evaluated annually by the office manager using the credit union's standard performance appraisal system.
Who Will Conduct the Analysis?
Consultants are a good choice for conducting a job analysis because they are well trained and have extensive experience. Graduate students from I/O psychology programs typically have training and experience in job analysis and can be hired at a relatively low cost (often at no charge).
How Often Should a Job Description Be Updated?
If job handlers or supervisors are used, it is important that they are thoroughly trained in job analysis procedures. The Uniform Guidelines state that a job analysis must be "professionally conducted," and a job analyst certainly cannot be called a professional unless she is trained.
Which Employees Should Participate?
It should come as no surprise that people with different perspectives on the job (eg employee, supervisor, customer) produce different job analysis results. For example, Mueller and Belcher () found that incumbents (fire captains) and their supervisors (fire chiefs, deputy fire chiefs, and division chiefs) gave different task ratings during a firework analysis. captain position.
What Types of Information Should Be Obtained?
Identify Tasks Performed
Prepare for the interview by informing the employee in advance of the job analysis by choosing a quiet and private interview location. During a job analysis observation, the job analyst observes actual employees performing their jobs in the work environment.
Write Task Statements
This is especially important because many employees find it difficult to describe exactly what they do. Psychologist Wayman Mullins used work participation techniques to analyze the work of a nobleman.
Rate Task Statements
Tasks will not be included in the final task inventory if they have an average rating of . or less on the frequency (F) or importance (I) scales, or a combined average rating (CR) of less than. Using these criteria, tasks , , and in Table . would be included in the job description, and tasks and would be included in the final inventory of tasks used in the next step of the job analysis.
Determine Essential KSAOs
Selecting Tests to Tap KSAOs
As a result, O*NET has incorporated the types of information obtained in many job analysis techniques. The best method for job analysis appears to be related to the end use of job analysis information.
Determining Compensable Job Factors
Internal pay equity involves comparing jobs within an organization to ensure that the people in jobs worth the most money are paid accordingly. Because a complete discussion of all job evaluation methods is beyond the scope of this text, we will stick to a discussion of the most commonly used method.
Determining the Levels for Each Compensable Factor
Determining the Factor Weights
Based on the research results as shown in table ., an organization can determine where it wants to stand compared to the remuneration policies of other organizations (often called market position). Keep in mind that job evaluation refers to the value of the job itself, not the value of anyone in the job.
Conducting a Sex and Race Equity Study
Which of the following is the most common cause of maxillary sinusitis in the horse? In 1973, the nation's top CEOs earned about 45 times the salary of the average worker.
Legal Issues in Employee Selection
The first step in the legal process is for some legislative body, such as the USA. If you feel you have been discriminated against or harassed in the workplace, consider the following advice provided by human resources (HR) consultant Bobbie Raynes:.
Charge Does Not Have Merit
An EEOC complaint must be filed within days of the discriminatory act, but within days if the complainant has already filed a complaint with a state or local fair employment practices agency. The public authority will attempt to notify the employer within days of the complaint, obtain additional information from both parties if necessary, and review the charge to determine if it is justified.
Charge Has Merit
If a party disagrees with a lower court's ruling, it may refer the case to one of the circuit courts of appeal. In Canada, there are no federally protected classes; each province makes its own labor law.
Race
Unlike the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Acts do not require that the employment practice be intentionally discriminatory to be considered potentially illegal. Instead, proof of discrimination is determined by statistical analysis of selection rates and by the presence or absence of adverse impact, which will be discussed in detail later in the chapter.
Color
National Origin
A good example of an illegal “English only” language requirement was in the case that resulted in a $. million settlement between the EEOC and Colorado Central Station Casino in . The casino required employees to always speak English, even during private conversations between two employees.
Religion
As a labor and employment attorney, I perform many of the tasks that people usually think of when they think of attorneys. For example, because Jehovah's Witnesses cannot celebrate birthdays or non-religious holidays, their lack of participation in an office birthday party or celebration is often seen as an "attitude problem" by uninformed colleagues. The traditional office Christmas party in which Christmas decorations are hung, a tree is decorated, inexpensive gifts are exchanged between employees, and alcohol and food are served is a good example of potential religious diversity issues.
Disability
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a man missing teeth had standing to file an ADA lawsuit on the grounds that he was considered disabled. Additionally, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that an organization is not required to make significant changes to the essential functions of a job to accommodate an employee with a disability (Ammons v. Aramark Uniform Services,
Pregnancy
Because this syndrome made it difficult for Martin to walk the golf course, he requested an accommodation where he could use a golf cart. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Martin's claim that walking was not an essential function of golf and that allowing Martin to use a cart was not an unreasonable accommodation.
Vietnam Veteran Status
If the percentage of employed applicants in the disadvantaged group is less than % of the percentage for the advantaged group, a negative impact is said to have occurred. If ten women apply, at least four will need to be hired to avoid negative impact.
Valid Testing Procedures
If there is adverse impact, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to demonstrate that the employment practice is either work-related or exempt from adverse impact. Almost any employment test is going to have an adverse impact on some protected class, although some may have less adverse impact than others.
Exceptions
Supervisors and other employees commonly referred to seven Afghan Muslim employees as "the bin Laden gang."
Quid Pro Quo
Hostile Environment
Members of a police department who consistently refer to female officers as "babes" or "honey" would be an example of sexual harassment because the comments are based on gender and are demeaning to the female officers. A male officer calling a female officer "stupid" would be an example of rude behavior but not sexual harassment because the nature of the comment was not based on gender.
Preventing Sexual Harassment
That is, if a man makes sexual comments or inappropriately touches another man, it is a case of sexual harassment. Any pattern of behavior based on gender that causes an employee discomfort can constitute sexual harassment (Egler,.
Correcting Sexually Harassing Behavior
Authorization Act that amended the FMLA to provide weeks of unpaid leave to a spouse, son, daughter, parent, or relative to care for a member of the military. The extent of family leave in the United States is similar to that in many countries.
Monitoring Hiring and Promotion Statistics
For example, laws in other countries require unpaid leave of weeks in Belgium, days in Brazil and, depending on the province, to weeks in Canada. Although most people associate affirmative action with adopting targets or quotas, there are actually four major affirmative action strategies.
Intentional Recruitment of Minority Applicants
If employees take advantage of family or medical leave, the organization must continue the employees' health care coverage and guarantee them that they will have either the same or an equivalent position when they return. A related technique is to establish training programs designed to teach minorities the skills needed to obtain employment with the organization.
Identifi cation and Removal of Employment Practices Working against Minority Applicants and Employees
Preferential Hiring and Promotion of Minorities
Involuntary: Government Regulation
Involuntary: Court Order
Voluntary: Consent Decree
Voluntary: Desire to Be a Good Citizen
The courts consider five criteria when assessing an affirmative action plan: the history of the organization, the beneficiaries of the plan, the population to be considered, the impact on the non-minority group, and the end point of the plan.
A History of Discrimination
Board of Education of the Township of Piscataway (), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against using race as a factor in breaking a tie between two equally qualified applicants. This case was settled in , a few days before it was scheduled to be tried by the U.S.
Benefi ciaries of the Plan
Sharon Taxman, a white teacher, and Debra Williams, an African-American teacher, were tied for tenure. When the Piscataway school board decided to fire the teacher, they kept Williams because she was African-American.
Population Used to Set Goals
The appeals court ruled that the decision was unconstitutional because there was no racial disparity between the faculty and the skilled workforce. The Supreme Court found Richmond's plan illegal because the % target was based on the area's population rather than the percentage of relevant qualified minority-owned businesses (less than.
Impact on Nonminorities
In the Gratz case, however, the Court held that automatically giving points to an applicant because of his or her race was not narrowly tailored and was therefore illegal. Taken together, the two cases reinforce prior case law that the legality of preferential hiring will be decided on a case-by-case basis and that the plan must be narrowly tailored and not infringe on the rights of non-minorities.
Endpoint of the Plan
Origin/place of origin yes yes yes yes no no no yes no no yes yes. Source of income No no no no no no no no yes no no no.
Employee Selection: Recruiting and Interviewing
Therefore, the methods used to select employees should be directly related to the results of the job analysis. In other words, every essential knowledge, skill, and ability identified in the job analysis that is needed on the first day of the job should be tested, and each test must relate in some way to the job analysis.
Newspaper Ads
Second, the company might be afraid that people would not apply if they knew the name of the company. As you can imagine, placing an ad with the company's name wouldn't be smart if the current employee didn't know he or she was about to be fired.
LEGAL ASSISTANT
Eg. an ad for sales positions probably wouldn't get much of a response if applicants were asked to send their resumes to a funeral home (although selling grave sites can be a lucrative job). Advice on how to respond to different types of ads appears in the Career Workshop box.
HOTEL DESK CLERK
Although there is little research available, there is plenty of expert advice on the best way for an employer to write recruitment ads.
Engineering Manager
Complete Exercise . in your workbook to help you identify the types of help-seeking ads. Complete Exercise . in your workbook to practice what you have learned about writing help wanted ads.
Electronic Media
Thus, the same techniques and imagination used in product ads can increase the recruitment yield from help-wanted ads. In an innovative use of the media, Prudential Insurance advertised its job openings in film clips that ran in local theaters before the start of major films (Fernandez,.
Campus Recruiters
Wendy's has printed job openings on its checkout receipts ("Now hiring smiling faces"), as have Target and Home Depot; Domino's Pizza placed help wanted ads on its pizza boxes; and Kentucky Fried Chicken posted signs on vans that stopped at student gathering spots to hand out free sodas and application materials. Other examples of innovative recruiting methods include Lauriat's Books putting a job posting and mini-resume on a bookmark; clothing store Rugged Warehouse putting up help signs in changing rooms; and SmithKline and Prudential Insurance posting help wanted ads on billboards in the Philadelphia area.
Outside Recruiters
Employment Agencies
Executive Search Firms
But applicants are under no obligation to take a job and should not be intimidated by turning down a position that appears to be a poor match.
Public Employment Agencies
As with most organizations, an important part of the selection process is the job interview. So if the majority of employees in an organization are white, so will the majority of employee referrals.
Employer-Based Websites
Internet Recruiters
But looking only at the number of applicants does not take into account the cost of the recruitment campaign. The meta-analysis also suggested that RJPs will be most effective if given in an oral rather than a written format and if given to the applicant at the time of the job offer rather than earlier in the recruitment process or after the job offer has been accepted.
Structure
Style
Medium
Two, structured interviews result in significantly lower negative impact than unstructured interviews (Huffcutt & Roth, 2011). Although structured interviews result in less negative impact, they are not completely immune from potential discrimination.
Poor Intuitive Ability
From a legal point of view, structured interviews are viewed more favorably by the courts than unstructured interviews (Williamson, Campion, Malos, Roehling, and Campion, 2006). Although structured interviews are considered superior to unstructured ones, applicants perceive structured interviews as more difficult. (Gilmore,
Lack of Job Relatedness
Primacy Eff ects
To reduce potential primacy effects, interviewers are advised to make repeated judgments throughout the interview rather than one overall judgment at the end of the interview. That is, the interviewer can rate the applicant's answer after each question or series of questions rather than waiting until the end of the interview to make a single rating or judgment.
Contrast Eff ects
Negative-Information Bias
Interviewer-Interviewee Similarity
However, a study by Sacco, Scheu, Ryan, and Schmitt () found that the method used to analyze interview data is a factor in whether similarity matters.
Interviewee Appearance
Nonverbal Cues
Determining the KSAOs to Tap in the Interview
Creating Interview Questions
One customer runs to the front of the line shouting that he bounced a check and was charged $20, causing other checks to bounce. The idea behind organizational fit questions is to ensure that the applicant's personality and goals are consistent with those of the organization.
Creating a Scoring Key for Interview Answers
At the end of the interview, the scores from the questions are summed and the resulting number is the applicant's interview score. One of the most important of these steps is getting training in how to interview.
Scheduling the Interview
You may want just one person to ask all the questions, or you may want each panel member to ask a few questions. Such information may include salary and benefits, job duties, advancement opportunities, organizational history, etc.
Before the Interview
During the Interview
After the Interview
To help you prepare for the employment interview, complete the Survive the Job Interview Exercise (.) in your workbook. Cover letters tell an employer that you are attaching your resume and would like to apply for a job.
Salutation
Paragraphs
The second paragraph states that you are qualified for the job and gives about three reasons why. The third paragraph explains why you are interested in the particular company you are applying to.
Signature
If your cover letter contains errors, the employer will be concerned about the quality of your regular work. When sending a large number of cover letters, it is not uncommon to change the company name in the subject line, but forget to change it in the body of the letter.
Views of Résumés
For example, one applicant tried to describe his work productivity by saying his writings were "voluptuous" rather than "voluminous" as we think he meant to say. Companies that specialize in resume design openly brag about their ability to “make your strengths clearer and your weaknesses harder to find.” As a result, many resumes contain incorrect information.
Characteristics of Eff ective Résumés
Types of Résumé
It probably wouldn't be a good idea to list unusual information like "I've been arrested more times than anyone in my class" or "I enjoy bungee jumping without ropes." The unacceptability of these two examples is obvious, and few applicants will make the mistake of actually putting such information on their resumes; however, more subtle items can have the same effect. Defenders of the right to hire based on appearance say that physically attractive people are perceived as smarter, more successful, more sociable, more dominant and with higher self-esteem.
Employee Selection: References and Testing
A letter of recommendation is a letter that expresses an opinion about a candidate's ability, past performance, work habits, character, or potential for future success. The content and format of the letter of recommendation is determined by the writer of the letter.
Confi rming Details on a Résumé
Instead, an employer should obtain information about the quality of previous performance by relying on the applicant's references, either by calling those references directly or by asking for letters of recommendation from previous employers. Before discussing this topic further, it might be a good idea to differentiate between reference checks, references, and letters of recommendation.
Checking for Discipline Problems
The Olympic Committee, when it was discovered she had lied on her resume about having a Ph.D. As might be expected, the court found the employer guilty of negligent employment because the employer had failed to exercise "reasonable care" in ensuring the welfare of its customers.
Discovering New Information About the Applicant
In this example, a negligent hiring case could not be brought because the company had contacted the employee's previous employment references and had found no reason not to hire him. Because there was nothing to discover and because the store had taken reasonable care to screen its employees, it was not guilty of negligent employment.
Predicting Future Performance
In the first situation, all the applicant's eight colleagues have positive feelings towards the applicant. One of the most widely used cognitive ability tests in the industry is the Wonderlic Personnel Test.
DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO
Remember that the faces you are shown in the pattern must always be the outside of the folded figure. Because of the difficulty of using simulations to measure these latter types of behavior, physical ability tests are used.
Job Relatedness
Physical ability tests are often used for jobs that require physical strength and endurance, such as police officer, firefighter, and lifeguard. Physical ability is measured in one of two ways: job simulations and physical agility tests.
Passing Scores
However, proponents of physical ability testing cite studies demonstrating significant relationships between isometric strength tests and supervisor ratings of employee physical ability (Blakley, Quiñones, Crawford, & Jago,
When the Ability Must Be Present
The two most common methods of doing this are the work sample and the assessment center. The assessment center is a series of job simulations, or exercises, that require the candidate to acquire the skills required for the position.
Development and Component
