Vocal-Stress Diary: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Association of Everyday Work Stressors and Human Voice Features.

The human voice conveys plenty of information about the speaker. A prevalent assumption is that stress-related changes in the human body affect speech production, thus affecting voice features. This suggests that voice data may be an easy-to-capture measure of everyday stress levels and can thus serve as a warning signal of stress-related health consequences. However, previous research is limited (i.e., has induced stress only through artificial tasks or has investigated only short-term or extreme stressors), leaving it open whether everyday work stressors are associated with voice features. Thus, our participants (111 adult working individuals) took part in a 1-week diary study (Sunday until Sunday), in which they provided voice messages and self-report data on daily work stressors. Results showed that work stressors were associated with voice features such as increased speech rate and voice intensity. We discuss theoretical, practical, and ethical implications regarding the voice as an indicator of psychological states.

Is use of the general system justification scale across countries justified? Testing its measurement equivalence.

System justification is a widely researched topic in social and political psychology. One major measurement instrument in system justification research is the General System Justification Scale (G-SJS). This scale has been used, among others, for comparisons across social groups in different countries. Such comparisons rely on the assumption that the scale is measurement equivalent. However, this assumption has never been comprehensively tested. Thus, the present two studies assessed the measurement equivalence of the G-SJS following classic measurement equivalence guidelines (i.e., multigroup confirmatory factor analyses) in Study 1 and using a new method for comparing larger numbers of groups in Study 2 (i.e., alignment optimization). In Study 1, we analysed the measurement equivalence in Great Britain (n = 444), Germany (n = 454), and France (n = 463). In Study 2, we used a publicly available dataset consisting of 66 samples from 30 countries (N = 13,495) to again assess the measurement equivalence of the scale. Results indicated (partial) metric equivalence, but not scalar equivalence in both studies. Overall, the studies indicate that mean comparisons across the examined countries are not warranted with the current form of the G-SJS. The scale needs to be revised for valid cross-country comparisons of means.

Positive Psychological Attributes and Entrepreneurial Intention and Action: The Moderating Role of Perceived Family Support.

Recent research illustrates substantial gaps between entrepreneurial intentions and behavior. This is a challenge for entrepreneurship promotion interventions that have primarily focused on stimulating entrepreneurial intentions. However, extant literature suggests that implementation intentions enhance the likelihood of acting congruently to the behavioral intention. Furthermore, theory also suggests the condition effects of situations and the perceived control over them. We therefore hypothesized that implementation intentions mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and action, while perceived family support moderates the movement from implementation intention to entrepreneurial action. Using two-wave survey data from a sample of students at an African university, we measured two psychological attributes (proactive personality and psychological capital) as important precursors of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions present before undertaking an innovations and entrepreneurship course. Implementation intentions regarding entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial actions, and perceived parental support for entrepreneurial activities were also measured 2 weeks after completion of the course. Our results demonstrate support for the proposed moderated double mediation model in which the effects of the two psychological attributes on entrepreneurial actions are explained via entrepreneurial intentions and implementation intentions. We further find moderation effects of perceived family support indicating that implementation intentions more likely predicted entrepreneurial actions in cases of higher family support.

Executive Search Consultants' Biases Against Women (or Men?).

Women remain under-represented in leadership positions in many countries. Since executive search consultants (also known as headhunters) act as gatekeepers in the hiring process, headhunters' biases might influence the female under-representation. There is preliminary evidence that suggests headhunters favor men, but direct evidence is missing. Thus, this study directly tested this assumption using implicit and explicit measures (an implicit association test and a gender role attitudes survey), completed by 123 German executive search consultants. Although neither measure showed an anti-women bias (with the explicit measure being compared to a match sample from a representative survey using propensity score matching), the implicit association test showed an in-group bias (i.e., male headhunter had a stronger association of men and competence than of women and competence). The latter is worrisome because the majority of consultants in this business are men. Thus, organizations interested in more female managers need to carefully consider who they hire as their executive search consultants.

The role of Situations in Situational Judgment Tests: Effects on construct saturation, predictive validity, and applicant perceptions.

Recent theorizing and empirical evidence suggesting that Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) are more context-independent than previously thought has sparked a debate about the role of situation descriptions in SJTs. To contribute to this debate and add to our understanding of how SJTs work, this article conceptually embeds SJT performance in a situation construal model and examines the effects of situation descriptions on the construct saturation and predictive validity of SJT scores, as well as on applicant perceptions. Across two studies (N = 1,092 and 578) and different SJTs, personality and cognitive ability were equally important determinants of SJT performance regardless of whether situation descriptions were presented or omitted. The effects of removing situation descriptions on the criterion-related validity of SJT scores differed depending on the breadth of the criteria. For predicting global job performance criteria (in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior), SJT validity was not significantly affected, whereas it decreased for predicting more specific criteria (interpersonal adaptability, efficacy for teamwork). Finally, the effects of omitting situation descriptions in SJTs on applicant perceptions were either negligible or small. Implications for SJT theory, research, and design are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Are country level prevalences of rule violations associated with knowledge overclaiming among students?

Cultural norms of behaviour influence desirable and problematic behaviours of individuals. In particular, cultural norms should influence individuals' dishonesty. In a recent Nature study, prevalence of rule violations was introduced as a new country-level measure of behavioural norms. However, information on individuals' actual honesty was not available due to characteristics of the experimental design. Overcoming this limitation, we show that country-level behavioural norms are related to individual-level knowledge overclaiming behaviour (i.e., claiming to know concepts that do not exist, a measure of individuals' actual behavioural dishonesty) among 290,954 students from 57 countries (from the 2012 PISA study). Our study represents a crucial test of the argument that cultural norms influence individual's behaviour and of the validity of the measurement of countries' prevalences of rule violations. These results imply that shaping the behaviour of today's students may result in new behavioural norms that emphasise honesty and rule adherence more strongly.

Introducing and Testing the Creepiness of Situation Scale (CRoSS).

When people interact with novel technologies (e.g., robots, novel technological tools), the word "creepy" regularly pops up. We define creepy situations as eliciting uneasy feelings and involving ambiguity (e.g., on how the behave or how to judge the situation). A common metric for creepiness would help evaluating creepiness of situations and developing adequate interventions against creepiness. Following psychometrical guidelines, we developed the Creepiness of Situation Scale (CRoSS) across four studies with a total of N = 882 American and German participants. In Studies 1-3, participants watched a video of a creepy situation involving technology. Study 1 used exploratory factor analysis in an American sample and showed that creepiness consists of emotional creepiness and creepy ambiguity. In a German sample, Study 2 confirmed these subdimensions. Study 3 supported validity of the CRoSS as creepiness correlated positively with privacy concerns and computer anxiety, but negatively with controllability and transparency. Study 4 used the scale in a 2 (male vs. female experimenter) × 2 (male vs. female participant) × 2 (day vs. night) field study to demonstrate its usefulness for non-technological settings and its sensitivity to theory-based predictions. Results indicate that participants contacted by an experimenter at night-time reported higher feelings of creepiness. Overall, these studies suggest that the CRoSS is a psychometrically sound measure for research and practice.

Knowledge of Previous Tasks: Task Similarity Influences Bias in Task Duration Predictions.

Bias in predictions of task duration has been attributed to misremembering previous task duration and using previous task duration as a basis for predictions. This research sought to further examine how previous task information affects prediction bias by manipulating task similarity and assessing the role of previous task duration feedback. Task similarity was examined through participants performing two tasks 1 week apart that were the same or different. Duration feedback was provided to all participants (Experiment 1), its recall was manipulated (Experiment 2), and its provision was manipulated (Experiment 3). In all experiments, task similarity influenced bias on the second task, with predictions being less biased when the first task was the same task. However, duration feedback did not influence bias. The findings highlight the pivotal role of knowledge about previous tasks in task duration prediction and are discussed in relation to the theoretical accounts of task duration prediction bias.

Displaying fairness while delivering bad news: Testing the effectiveness of organizational bad news training in the layoff context.

Although giving bad news at work is a stressful experience, managers are often underprepared for this challenging task. As a solution, we introduce organizational bad news training that integrates (a) principles of delivering bad news from the context of health care (i.e., bad news delivery component), and (b) principles of organizational justice theory (i.e., fairness component). We argue that both the formal and fair delivery of bad news at work can be enhanced with the help of training to mitigate distress both for the messenger and the recipient. We tested the effectiveness of training for the delivery of a layoff as a typical bad news event at work. In 2 studies, we compared the performance of a training group (receiving both components of training) with that of a control group (Study 1, Study 2) and a basics group (receiving the bad news delivery component only; Study 2) during a simulated dismissal notification meeting. In general, the results supported our hypotheses: Training improved the formal delivery of bad news and predicted indicators of procedural fairness during the conversation in both studies. In Study 2, we also considered layoff victims' negativity after the layoff and found that training significantly reduced negative responses. This relationship was fully mediated by layoff victims' fairness perceptions. Despite preparation, however, giving bad news remained a challenging task in both studies. In summary, we recommend that organizations provide managers with organizational bad news training in order to promote professional and fair bad news conversations at work. (PsycINFO Database Record

How and why do interviewers try to make impressions on applicants? A qualitative study.

To remain viable in today's highly competitive business environments, it is crucial for organizations to attract and retain top candidates. Hence, interviewers have the goal not only of identifying promising applicants but also of representing their organization. Although it has been proposed that interviewers' deliberate signaling behaviors are a key factor for attracting applicants and thus for ensuring organizations' success, no conceptual model about impression management (IM) exists from the viewpoint of the interviewer as separate from the applicant. To develop such a conceptual model on how and why interviewers use IM, our qualitative study elaborates signaling theory in the interview context by identifying the broad range of impressions that interviewers intend to create on applicants, what kinds of signals interviewers deliberately use to create their intended impressions, and what outcomes they pursue. Following a grounded theory approach, multiple raters analyzed in-depth interviews with interviewers and applicants. We also observed actual employment interviews and analyzed memos and image brochures to generate a conceptual model of interviewer IM. Results showed that the spectrum of interviewers' IM intentions goes well beyond what has been proposed in past research. Furthermore, interviewers apply a broad range of IM behaviors, including verbal and nonverbal as well as paraverbal, artifactual, and administrative behaviors. An extensive taxonomy of interviewer IM intentions, behaviors, and intended outcomes is developed, interrelationships between these elements are presented, and avenues for future research are derived.

APPLICANTS' STRATEGIC USE OF EXTREME OR MIDPOINT RESPONSES WHEN FAKING PERSONALITY TESTS.

Faking, the intentional distortion of answers to personality tests, is likely a complex process. In particular, participants in previous research have mentioned that they used different kind of strategies to appear more hirable, including systematically more extreme or more midpoint responses. However, quantitative evidence is still lacking. An experiment was conducted in which 327 students (173 women, 153 men, 1 not indicated; M age = 22.1 yr., SD = 2.8) were randomly assigned to two groups. Hypothetical job advertisements primed the participants into believing that the hiring company preferred a person with either a "strong" (Strong Character group) or a "well-balanced" character (Well-balanced Character group). The participants filled out 40 items that were chosen from four established questionnaires as neither socially desirable nor undesirable. The responses to these items were used to calculate two extreme response measures and one midpoint response measure. The Strong Character group used extreme scores more often than the Well-balanced Character group (and the midpoint scores less often), independently of mean differences. This suggests that fakers use more sophisticated strategies than is often assumed.

Situation assessment as an ignored factor in the behavioral consistency paradigm underlying the validity of personnel selection procedures.

This study contributes to the literature on why selection procedures that are based on the behavioral consistency logic (e.g., structured interviews and assessment centers) are valid predictors of job performance. We rely on interactionist theories to propose that individual differences in assessing situational demands explain true variance in performance in selection procedures and on the job. Results from 124 individuals in a simulated selection process showed that the assessment of situational demands was related to both selection and job performance. Individual differences in assessing situational demands also contributed to the criterion-related validity of assessment center and structured interview ratings, offering a complementary explanation as to why selection procedures based on the notion of behavioral consistency predict job performance.

Catch me if I fall! Enacted uncertainty avoidance and the social safety net as country-level moderators in the job insecurity-job attitudes link.

Job insecurity is related to many detrimental outcomes, with reduced job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment being the 2 most prominent reactions. Yet, effect sizes vary greatly, suggesting the presence of moderator variables. On the basis of Lazarus's cognitive appraisal theory, we assumed that country-level enacted uncertainty avoidance and a country's social safety net would affect an individual's appraisal of job insecurity. More specifically, we hypothesized that these 2 country-level variables would buffer the negative relationships between job insecurity and the 2 aforementioned job attitudes. Combining 3 different data sources, we tested the hypotheses in a sample of 15,200 employees from 24 countries by applying multilevel modeling. The results confirmed the hypotheses that both enacted uncertainty avoidance and the social safety net act as cross-level buffer variables. Furthermore, our data revealed that the 2 cross-level interactions share variance in explaining the 2 job attitudes. Our study responds to calls to look at stress processes from a multilevel perspective and highlights the potential importance of governmental regulation when it comes to individual stress processes.

Personnel selection as a signaling game.

Personnel selection involves exchanges of information between job market actors (applicants and organizations). These actors do not have an incentive to exchange accurate information about their ability and commitment to the employment relationship unless it is to their advantage. This state of affairs explains numerous phenomena in personnel selection (e.g., faking). Signaling theory describes a mechanism by which parties with partly conflicting interests (and thus an incentive for deception) can nevertheless exchange accurate information. We apply signaling theory to personnel selection, distinguishing between adaptive relationships between applicants and organizations, among applicants, and among organizations. In each case, repeated adaptations and counteradaptations between actors can lead to situations of equilibrium or escalation (arms races). We show that viewing personnel selection as a network of adaptive relationships among job market actors enables an understanding of both classic and underexplored micro- and macro-level selection phenomena and their dynamic interactions.

Time management problems and discounted utility.

The lens of behavioral decision theory offers a new perspective for research on time management. The basic idea of this approach is that people discount future consequences of their time management decisions, meaning that they work on tasks with smaller but sooner outcomes rather than on tasks with larger but later outcomes. The authors performed 2 experimental studies to test whether people are sensitive to differences in the discounted utility of time management decisions. In Experiment 1, they used vignettes of typical time management situations; Experiment 2 was a laboratory simulation (an in-basket task that was part of a training assessment). Participants in both studies were German students. As expected, manipulating the discounted utility of options resulted in different time management decisions. In Experiment 1, reactions to time management situations were judged as less likely if the reactions had lower discounted utilities. In Experiment 2, people spent less time on an interruption.

Anchors distort estimates of expected duration.

This research explored the effect of presenting participants an anchor, which is a salient standard of comparison, before asking them to estimate the amount of time they believe they will need to complete a task (expected duration estimation). Such anchors can be assumed to be common in real-life situations, e.g., duration suggestions made by work colleagues. Participants were 32 students (M age = 23.1 yr., SD = 3.2; 28 women) who received course credit for participating. In the presence or absence of one of two anchors they had to estimate how much time they would need to work on a catalogue task. Actual time needed for the task was also measured. As predicted, analysis showed that estimates of expected duration were distorted in the direction of the anchors, i.e., estimations were assimilated into the presented anchor value. The implications for time management are discussed.

Deadline rush: a time management phenomenon and its mathematical description.

A typical time management phenomenon is the rush before a deadline. Behavioral decision making research can be used to predict how behavior changes before a deadline. People are likely not to work on a project with a deadline in the far future because they generally discount future outcomes. Only when the deadline is close are people likely to work. On the basis of recent intertemporal choice experiments, the authors argue that a hyperbolic function should provide a more accurate description of the deadline rush than an exponential function predicted by an economic model of discounted utility. To show this, the fit of the hyperbolic and the exponential function were compared with data sets that describe when students study for exams. As predicted, the hyperbolic function fit the data significantly better than the exponential function. The implication for time management decisions is that they are most likely to be inconsistent over time (i.e., people make a plan how to use their time but do not follow it).