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We developed a focused, context-specific measure of sales self-efficacy and assessed its incremental validity against the broad Big 5 personality traits with department store salespersons, using (a) both a concurrent and a predictive design and (b) both objective sales measures and supervisory ratings of performance. We found that in the concurrent study, sales self-efficacy predicted objective and subjective measures of job performance more than did the Big 5 measures. Significant differences between the predictability of subjective and objective measures of performance were not observed. Predictive validity coefficients were generally lower than concurrent validity coefficients. The results suggest that there are different dynamics operating in concurrent and predictive designs and between broad and contextualized measures; they highlight the importance of distinguishing between these designs and measures in meta-analyses. The results also point to the value of focused, context-specific personality predictors in selection research.
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... With the findings of the current study in mind, we call for additional research comparing validities of self-report measures between predictive and concurrent validation designs. When using comparable designs for predictive and concurrent studies, past research tends to show slightly higher validities in concurrent samples than in predictive samples (e.g., Gupta et al., 2013;Hough, 1998;Weekley et al., 2004). van Iddekinge and Ployhart (2008, p. 890), for instance, made the following observation on Hough's (1998) report: "Across criteria, observed correlations were between .04 and .15 ...
... In contrast, applicants are much less likely to engage in IER, making IER unlikely to act as a third variable between applicants' selfreported personality and their performance. With this new knowledge, researchers can now examine IER as one of the many factors (see Gupta et al., 2013) that lead to higher validities in concurrent designs. ...
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Insufficient effort responding (IER) to surveys, which occurs when participants provide responses in a haphazard, careless, or random fashion, has been identified as a threat to data quality in survey research because it can inflate observed relationships between self-reported measures (Huang et al., 2015). Building on this discovery, we propose two mechanisms that lead to IER exerting an unexpected confounding effect between self-reported and informant-rated measures. First, IER can contaminate self-report measures when the means of attentive and inattentive responses differ (Huang et al., 2015). Second, IER may share variance with some informant-rated measures, particularly supervisor ratings of participants’ job performance. These two mechanisms operating in tandem would suggest that IER can act as a “third variable” that inflates observed relationships between self-reported predictor scores and informant-rated criteria. We tested this possibility using a multisource dataset (N = 398) that included incumbent self-reports of Five Factor Model (FFM) personality traits and supervisor-ratings of three job performance dimensions—task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We observed that the strength of the relationships between self-reported personality traits and supervisor-rated performance significantly decreased after IER was controlled: Across the five personality traits, the average reduction of magnitude from the zero-order to partial correlations was |.08| for task performance, |.07| for OCB, and |.14| for CWB. Because organizational practices are often driven by research linking incumbent-reported predictors to supervisor-rated criteria (e.g., validation of predictors used in various organizational contexts), our findings have important implications for research and practice.
... In a study involving two large samples, Weekley, Ployhart, and Harold (2004) found that applicants scored lower than incumbents on SJTs. Although this echoes research on personality inventories (Gupta, Ganster, & Kepes, 2013), researchers found that people show less faking on SJTs than on personality inventories (Kasten et al., 2020). Hooper, Cullen, and Sackett (2006) speculated that faking on SJTs may be moderated by SJT instructions, transparency of items, constructs assessed, and scoring methods. ...
Article
Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are popular assessment approaches that present scenarios describing situations that one may experience in a job. Due to its long history and cross-disciplinary nature, today's SJT literature is quite fragmented. In this integrative review, we start by systematically taking stock and synthesizing the SJT literature from the different scientific disciplines via bibliometric techniques on 524 unique documents. We identify six literature clusters (i.e., SJTs in the medical sciences, SJTs in personnel selection, methodological issues and SJTs for specific constructs , SJTs to assess emotional intelligence and related constructs, technological advances in SJTs, SJTs for teacher assessment and development) that correspond to academic disciplines and research streams within them. We also identify current trends in SJT research by examining the clusters formed by a recent subset of the SJT literature. We then build on the bibliometric analysis by categorizing the identified themes in an organizing framework with two fundamental dimensions: the main purpose of a study (i.e., conceptual understanding, prediction, other [e.g., understanding mean group differences, applicant reactions]) and its research focus (i.e., SJTs holistically, content, and design and methods). Finally, on the basis of this framework, we provide recommendations to encourage greater knowledge sharing between scientific disciplines. In addition, we outline an agenda for future research in terms of four broad directions: SJT theory, SJT constructs, SJT design and methods, and SJT application domains.
... Self-efficacy has a stronger relationship to previous behavior or past work experience than future behavior or current performance (Judge et al., 2007;Richard et al., 2006;Sitzmann & Yeo, 2013). In addition, Gupta et al. (2013) found that the self-efficacy-to-sales performance relationship was higher for concurrent studies than for predictive studies. Thus, we offer the following hypotheses: ...
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Several studies show that while collegiate sales programs effectively prepare students for sales careers, there are various opportunities to improve. In this research, we look at how sales education impacts the career preparedness of recent 4-year college graduates. We focus specifically on the development of self-leadership and sales-related self-efficacy to explore how sales programs can better prepare undergraduates for successful careers in sales. This study uses a multistage process to consider key latent constructs that positively influence sales performance and intention to stay with current employers among recent college graduates. Results reveal how experiential education methods and college experiences positively influence early-stage sales performance and intent to stay and reduce employee turnover. Findings provide insights into recent graduates’ perceptions of preparedness for critical sales tasks provided by their college education and provide practical guidelines to university and business sales educators to enhance the sales education of university sales graduates.
... Following this letter, which included the ethical leadership manipulation, we presented participants with questions and statements about sales to help contextualize the study and reduce concerns of demand characteristics that may be introduced by asking participants directly about ethical behaviors and trust. That is, we asked all participants (regardless of condition) to indicate how excited they were about their new role and to indicate their sales self-efficacy using a six-item scale from Gupta et al., (2013;e.g., "I can easily talk a reluctant customer into buying something"). We then asked participants to indicate the extent to which they would engage in various sales behaviors described below, and finally trust, demographic questions, and our manipulation check. ...
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Extending ethical leadership theory and research beyond the walls of the organization, we propose a spillover model wherein ethical leaders impact customer loyalty (i.e., repeat purchase amount) by first establishing trusting relations with employees, who in turn emulate their leaders’ ethical behavior. In Study 1, we examined how this initial trust (i.e., trust primacy) facilitates new employees’ moral imprinting in a controlled experiment. In Study 2, with a field design, we tested our model among new employees and their respective customers over a 6-month timespan. Results indicate that perceptions of ethical leadership operate through trust primacy to affect customer repeat purchase, with accelerated growth over time. We conclude by considering theoretical and practical implications as they relate to ethical leadership and trust primacy, as well as marketing and salesforce management.
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Personality assessments are commonly used in hiring, but concerns about faking have raised doubts about their effectiveness. Qualitative reviews show mixed and inconsistent impacts of faking on criterion‐related validity. To address this, a series of meta‐analyses were conducted using matched samples of honest and motivated respondents (i.e., instructed to fake, applicants). In 80 paired samples, the average difference in validity coefficients between honest and motivated samples across five‐factor model traits ranged from 0.05 to 0.08 (largest for conscientiousness and emotional stability), with the validity ratio ranging from 64% to 72%. Validity was attenuated when candidates faked regardless of sample type, trait relevance, or the importance of impression management, though variation existed across criterion types. Both real applicant samples ( k = 25) and instructed response conditions ( k = 55) showed a reduction in validity across honest and motivated conditions, including when managerial ratings of job performance were the criterion. Thus, faking impacted the validity in operational samples. This suggests that practitioners should be cautious relying upon concurrent validation evidence (for personality inventories) and expect attenuated validity in operational applicant settings, particularly for conscientiousness and emotional stability scales. That said, it is important to highlight that personality assessments generally maintained useful validity even under‐motivated conditions.
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Preprint
A key finding in personnel selection is the positive correlation between conscientiousness and job performance. Evidence predominantly stems from concurrent validation studies with incumbent samples but is readily generalized to predictive settings with job applicants. This is problematic because the extent to which faking and changes in personality affect the measurement likely vary across samples and study designs. We meta-analytically investigated the relation between conscientiousness and job performance, examining the moderating effects of sample type (incumbent vs. applicant) and validation design (concurrent vs. predictive). Our review of the published literature reveals that only a small minority of studies were conducted with real applicants in predictive designs, which questions the generalizability of the findings to real selection processes. However, the overall correlation of conscientiousness and job performance was in line with previous meta-analyses (𝑟̅ = .17, k = 102, n = 23,305) and this effect was not moderated by either validation design (concurrent: 𝑟̅ = .18, k = 78, n = 19,132; predictive: 𝑟̅ = .15, k = 24, n = 4,173), sample type (incumbents: 𝑟̅ = .18, k = 92, n = 20,808; applicants: 𝑟̅ = .14, k = 10, n = 2,497), or the interaction thereof. We discuss how these results are limited by a potentially large file drawer problem in the industry and conclude with a call for more multivariate research on the validity of selection procedures in predictive settings with actual applicants.
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This article meta-analytically summarizes the literature on training motivation, its antecedents, and its relationships with training outcomes such as declarative knowledge, skill acquisition, and transfer. Significant predictors of training motivation and outcomes included individual characteristics (e.g., locus of control, conscientiousness, anxiety, age, cognitive ability, self-efficacy, valence, job involvement) and situational characteristics (e.g., climate). Moreover, training motivation explained incremental variance in training outcomes beyond the effects of cognitive ability. Meta-analytic path analyses further showed that the effects of personality, climate, and age on training outcomes were only partially mediated by self-efficacy, valence, and job involvement. These findings are discussed in terms of their practical significance and their implications for an integrative theory of training motivation.
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This article reports on meta-analyses of the relations of self-efficacy beliefs to academic performance and persistence. Results revealed positive and statistically significant relationships between self-efficacy beliefs and academic performance and persistence outcomes across a wide variety of subjects, experimental designs, and assessment methods. The relationships were found to be heterogeneous across studies, and the variance in reported effect sizes was partially explained by certain study characteristics. Implications for further research and for intervention are discussed.
Book
Foreword by Tim Judge. Preface. Individual Differences at Work. Methods to Assess Work Behaviour and Potential. Personality Testing in the Work Place. Types and Temperaments at Work. Personality Disorders at Work. Cognitive Ability at Work. Social and Emotional Intelligences at Work. Creativity at Work. Attitudes, Beliefs, Styles and Values at Work. Integrity and Honesty at Work. Competency at Work. Conclusion.
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The research objective was to examine the relative impact of "organizational citizenship behaviors" (OCBs) and objective sales productivity on sales managers' evaluations of the performance of their sales personnel. Objective measures of sales productivity were obtained for three diverse sales samples: (1) 261 multiline insurance agents, (2) 204 petrochemical sales representatives, and (3) 108 district sales managers working for a large pharmaceutical company. Managerial evaluations of organizational citizenship behavior and overall performance were also obtained for each of these people. The results indicate that (1) managers do recognize several different dimensions of "citizenship" behavior, and these OCBs are distinct from objective sales productivity, (2) the combination of OCBs and objective sales productivity accounts for substantially more variance in managers' overall evaluations than typically is accounted for by sales productivity alone, and (3) the OCBs (taken as a group) consistently account for a larger portion of the variance in managerial evaluations than does sales productivity. The implications of these findings for salesforce motivation and evaluation are discussed.