Seven common misconceptions about human resource practices: Research findings versus practitioner beliefs

Academy of Management Executive

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 92-102

  Rynes, Sara L ^a   Brown, Kenneth G ^b   Colbert, Amy E ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF IOWA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF IOWA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 14244272585     PISSN: 10795545     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5465/ame.2002.8540341     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (82)

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8. For a good overview of this research, see the 1996 special issue of Academy of Management Journal edited by Becker & Gerhart, op. cit.
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13. The original questionnaire had 39 items, but four items were later eliminated due to ambiguous wording or new research findings.
14. Validities are higher than .51 for more complex jobs (e.g., .58 for professional and managerial jobs) and lower for less complex jobs (e.g., .40 for semi-skilled jobs). Schmidt, F.L., & Hunter, J.E. 1998. The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2): 262-274.
15. Ibid., 264-266.
16. These figures are in 1980 dollars and thus would be considerably larger now. See Schmidt, F.L., & Hunter, J.E. 1981. Employment testing: Old theories and new research findings. The American Psychologist, 36(Special Issue): 1128-1137.
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19. An example can be seen in this quote from 120 years ago: "A great many of the most 'Precocious' youths have dropped out of memory, while some of the plodding, but untiring and persevering ones, are holding the reins of government or guiding the counsels of school and senate." Thayer, 1882, quoted in Stross, R.E. 1997. The Microsoft way. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley: 32.
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24. See also Behling, O. 1998. Employee selection: Will intelligence and conscientiousness cio the job? The Academy of Management Executive, 12(1): 77-85.
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28. These factors, in combination with the complexity of legal requirements, suggest that most if not all companies should get legal advice about the defensibility of their overall selection systems.
29. For example, John Hunter found job knowledge to be correlated .80 with GMA and .80 with job performance as assessed by the highly valid method of work sampling. See Hunter, J.E. 1986. Cognitive ability, cognitive aptitudes, job knowledge, and job performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 29(3): 340-362.
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41. Integrity tests (sometimes called "honesty tests") were initially designed to predict applicant propensities to steal. Over time, they have been used to predict an increasingly broader range of behaviors, including counterproductive behaviors (e.g., absenteeism, tardiness, or violence) and even general job performance. Evidence suggests that integrity tests tap three of the "big five" personality dimensions-mostly Conscientiousness, but also Agreeableness and Emotional Stability.
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