Matthew S. O'Connell

• Ph.D.
• Retired

A growing body of applied research has identified certain psychological traits that are predictive of worker safety. However, most of these studies suffer from an overreliance on common method bias caused by self-report measures of both: (a) personal factors such as personality traits; and (b) outcomes such as safety behaviors and injuries. This s...

Introduction: A growing body of applied research has identified certain psychological traits that are predictive of worker safety. However, most of these studies suffer from an overreliance on common method bias caused by self-report measures of both: (a) personal factors such as personality traits; and (b) outcomes such as safety behaviors and in...

This study examined a conditional reasoning measure of integrity (CRT-I) and its relationship to job performance. Results showed support for CRT-I as a significant predictor over and above a traditional conscientiousness measure in an applicant sample. This study provides additional evidence for CRT-I as a predictor of important organizational outc...

While not all personnel psychologists agree that employment tests should be administered without supervision (Tippins, 2009; Tippins, Beaty, Drasgow, Gibson, Pearlman, Segall, & Shepherd, 2006), unproctored internet testing (UIT) has become a common method of administration among employers. Allowing candidates to complete phases of the selection pr...

Predicting counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in the selection process can be difficult because the behaviors of interest are transparently negative. The current study tried to combat this by applying a non-transparent, implicit measurement method, conditional reasoning. The results indicated that conditional reasoning accurately predicted CWBs...

What does it take to be a successful global consultant, and how can we develop successful global consultants? This chapter attempts to answer these two questions by drawing upon our personal experiences of global consulting in industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology as well as relevant research on this topic. Although an I/O consultant may provi...

The personality trait of conscientiousness has seen considerable attention from applied psychologists due to its efficacy for predicting job performance across performance dimensions and occupations. However, recent theoretical and empirical developments have questioned the assumption that more conscientiousness always results in better job perform...

Manufacturing organizations use a broad range of multimedia simulations to help them screen candidates and hire the best employees for their plants. These range from low fidelity, computer-based interactive simulations to high fidelity, and automated reproductions of actual manufacturing tasks. Organizations use simulations primarily because they w...

Workplace safety research has an overreliance on common method bias caused by self-report measures of personality and other personal factors as well as criteria such as safety performance, and injuries. This study utilized a pre-employment assessment, SecureFit® to predict objective measures of workers’ compensation claims and corrective actions.

This study summarizes the development and validation of a multi-method integrity measure. The results provide insight into the underlying measurement model of integrity, the role that overt and covert measures play in predicting multiple counterproductive criteria and the value of situational judgment testing for integrity purposes. Estimates of th...

This study examined the construct and criterion-related validity of a psychomotor work sample in predicting safety incidents in addition to job performance for entry-level manufacturing jobs. Results shed light to the underlying constructs measured in the work sample and demonstrated usefulness of a pre-employment work sample in improving workplace...

This study examined the construct and criterion-related validity of a psychomotor work sample in predicting safety incidents in addition to job performance for entry-level manufacturing jobs. Results shed light to the underlying constructs measured in the work sample and demonstrated usefulness of a pre-employment work sample in improving workplace...

Three measures of response distortion (i.e., social desirability, covariance index, and implausible answers) were examined in both applicant and incumbent samples. Performance data, including supervisor ratings of task and contextual performance as well as objective performance criteria such as tardiness, work‐related accidents, and a customized wo...

Recent studies have pointed to within-subjects designs as an especially effective tool for gauging the occurrence of faking behavior in applicant samples. The current study utilized a within-subjects design and data from a sample of job applicants to compare estimates of faking via within-subjects score change to estimates based on a social desirab...

Applicant faking behavior remains a major concern associated with using non This study investigated whether a bogus item faking measure (Implausible Answers Scale; IAS) identified objective applicant deception more effectively than a social desirability measure. Results indicated that the IAS successfully identified applicants who: 1) falsified the...

We examined score differences on various measures, as well the correlations with work simulation performance, among groups with different endorsement rates to bogus items in a manufacturing applicant sample. We found that fakers score lower in ability and higher on personality and biodata measures, which also affects validity. While the predictive...

This study established a short form measure of aberrant self-promotion and examined the relationship between aberrant self-promotion and safety incidents, absenteeism and turnover. Two applicant samples were used to test the hypotheses. Although mixed results were found, results indicate that aberrant self-promoters were more likely to be unsafe, t...

Despite continuing efforts to improve safety climate and greater sophistication in ergonomic engineering, the fact is that approximately 40% of work-related accidents can be attributable to a failure to use the protective gear provided at the workplace. This statistic has not significantly decreased over the past twenty years. What are the reasons...

Use of targeted selection systems can enhance the effectiveness of organizational safety initiatives by selecting, at the individual level, employees who are more likely to behave in a safe manner. Such targeting also helps select leaders who are better suited to promote a safe organizational climate.

In recent years the popularity of unproctored internet testing (UIT) has skyrocketed. However, questions regarding the appropriateness of UIT remain a great concern to both practitioners and researchers alike. This study addressed some of those concerns by specifically examining the extent to which perceptions and performance would vary based on en...

Organizations interested in improving productivity and quality are increasingly looking to environmental health and safety practices and performance. Studies that examine safety performance show that organizations that perform well in safety tend to perform well across the board. Conversely, evidence points to a predictive relationship between spec...

For practitioners, the possibility of faking on personality tests has potential implications that are much broader than those captured by current theoretical debates over criterion-related validity, factor structure, or psychological processes. One unexplored potential impact of response distortion involves the pass rates associated with applying c...

This paper has three goals. First, it responds to calls for additional research on subgroup differences in situational judgment tests. Second, it expands the cumulative knowledge on the incremental validity of situational judgment tests beyond cognitive ability and personality. Third, it examines the validity and incremental validity of various pre...

Employee turnover is costly. In addition to replacement fees, there are hidden costs such as productivity loss, workplace safety issues, and morale damage. an improved selection process that assesses candidates' turnover risk and motivational fit early in the hiring process helps reduce turnover that translates into organization profitability. [ABS...

Organizations have searched for ways to increase employee retention through a variety of methods. The current study focuses on the relationship between the level of motivational fit, or person-job fit, with turnover status and job performance. A predictive designed study was conducted to investigate if a standardized forced-choice person-job fit me...

This research examined the criterion-related validity of work-specific locus of control in predicting job performance, including incremental validity after controlling for cognitive ability and conscientiousness. Data from a student sample and from a large employee sample were used to evaluate the scale properties of measures of locus of control, c...

This research investigated an objective approach to the measurement of person-job fit and also tested Barrett's (1978) theory that congruence between job preference and characteristics will lead to higher satisfaction and retention. The results of the study partially supported Barrett's theory. Additionally, the findings provided evidence for signi...

The application of computer technology to personnel selection has been increasing in recent years. This has raised the issue of the potential effect of computer-related anxiety on employment test performance, a concern for both organizations and applicants. The primary focus of the current study is the relationship between computer anxiety and emp...

The use of mini role play simulations was proposed as a means of collecting predictor data in a low-cost, time-efficient, and reliable manner. Mini role play simulations were developed for the purpose of measuring sales ability. In order to evaluate the efficacy of using the mini role play simulations, a concurrent validation study was conducted wi...

The impact of leadership on group performance was investigated in the context of a semiautonomous work team environment. The relationship between group performance and team leadership, as exhibited by the designated, internal leader, was moderated by team size. Team leadership, as rated by team members, was related to the managers’ ratings of quali...

The present study examined multiple antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) in a Mexican sample of retail salespeople. Although a quota based measure of sales performance was correlated with OCB, the correlation was relatively low. However, personality and attitude measures, with conscientiousness having the cleanest relationship,...

The relationship between team cognitive ability and team performance was studied in a real-world, semi- autonomous work team environment. Four models (i.e., additive, conjunctive, disjunctive, and heterogeneity of variance) of the relationship between team member cognitive ability and performance were investigated. Group leaders provided performanc...

This study reports the results of a concurrent validation designed to test recent multidimensional theories of job performance. Drawing on Borman and Motowidlo's (1993, 1997) distinctions between task and contextual performance, several alternative measures of performance were examined to assess their unique relations with alternative predictor mea...

This paper provides a discussion of Bayesian statistics and their use in OD evaluation. Bayesian statistics are hypothesized to provide a better means of evaluating OD interventions than do current statistics. Bayesian statistics allow for the explicit quantification of prior probabilities and thus are a more flexible tool for investigating dynamic...