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Previous research has found that the structural makeup of the face influences the manner by which individuals perceive others and attribute characteristics to them. In addition, support has been provided for the hypothesis that nonverbal cues significantly influence an interviewer's perception of a job candidate and the pending hiring decision. Taken together, this study hypothesized that the nonverbal cues emitted from the structural makeup of the face would impact the decision to hire and the perceptions of the job applicant's personality. It was also expected that variations in facial structure would influence an employer's decision in hiring the applicant for a high visibility position versus a low visibility position. The analysis failed to provide support for the hypothesis. Specifically, manipulated changes in eye shape, lip shape and job type failed to significantly effect hiring decisions. The personality ratings, as measured by the four 7-point behaviorally anchored ratings scales, additionally failed to significantly correlate with eye shape and lip shape. The personality ratings, however, were significantly correlated with the decision to hire. Regression analyses performed for each of the job type groups indicated that interviewers have preconceived notions as to the personality of the applicant.

Beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress and the courts have legislated and adjudicated laws in an effort to eliminate discrimination in employment opportunities on the grounds of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. In 1978, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures were jointly issued by several federal administrative agencies and have included within their framework the types of employment selection practices operating in many contemporary college and university placement offices. These regulations have serious implications for college placement offices in which interview selection and referral practices fail to assist all students in fair and equitable ways. This study investigated from two perspectives the problems for college placement personnel that are associated with these guidelines. First, legal research methodology was implemented to trace the historical and topical development of relevant legislative and case law. The findings of the legal research indicated that the federal government and the courts had mandated, rather consistently, two controlling standards that pertain to individual and class civil rights. Those standards are equality and neutrality. Failure of an entity to comply with either of these standards, except in listed instances, had been judged discriminatory under civil rights law. Based on existing litigations, judgments against college placement offices could be proscriptive, corrective, and/or compensatory in effect. Furthermore, there exists the potential for loss of governmental funding, the extent of which remains undetermined. Secondly, the findings of the survey research indicated that a majority of college placement offices sampled (60.9%) were operating student interview selection and referral systems within the compliance standards of the Uniform Guidelines. Almost categorically, placement officers supported student interview systems that were void of prohibitive selection criteria (sex, race, color, or national origin). On the other hand, the Uniform officers void of religion, placement officers indicated more discriminatory trends where neutral selection criteria (academic majors, grade point averages, or degree levels) were concerned. Additionally 25.93 of the respondent institutions indicated that they had either changed, or were planning to change their interview selection procedures to be more in compliance with the law. The survey research also led to significant findings among several demographic characteristics related to college placement offices, their personnel, and the Uniform Guidelines. Those characteristics included: college placement officers’ familiarity with and primary sources of information about the regulations; certain perceived resource needs; the adequacy of placement office staffing; and, governmental auditing of interview selection and referral procedures. In combination these research findings indicated several factors which college placement personnel need to be aware of in order to bring their operations into legal compliance. / Ed. D.

The present research is concerned with the cognitive dimensions of procedures for estimating the standard deviation of job performance (SDy) in utility analysis. The overall goal was to integrate SDy estimation with advances in the area of decision making, and with advances in the social psychological study of person perception. Three variables were considered: problem frame, that is, whether the estimation task is posed in terms of the gain or loss of employees, stimulus salience, that is, the level of detail regarding the employee whose worth is being evaluated, and anchor values from previous estimates provided to judges as the starting point in forming their judgments. In previous research by Shetzer & Bobko (1987), estimates of overall worth obtained under negative frames were significantly greater than estimates obtained under positive frames. Experiment 1 tested whether the effect of frame would be as evident with high salience stimuli as with the traditional low salience scenario. A significant effect due to salience was found and the study concluded that salience is a primary variable. Experiment 2 examined the relation between the effect of framing and anchor values provided to subjects as the starting point in estimation. Experiment 2 found a significant effect for anchoring but no effect due to frame, suggesting that subjects' estimates are anchored on initial values. Anchoring was also found to reduce the variability of estimation. The reduction in the variability of negatively framed estimates appears to be relatively greater when anchors are provided than is the reduction in the variability of positively framed estimates. These findings confirm earlier research concerning the efficacy of the sequential feedback procedure for reducing within-cell variance. The results of the two experiments suggest that the effect of the problem frame is not as important a variable in SDy estimation as are salience and anchoring. This conclusion should be welcomed by utility analysts, since it suggests that the estimation procedure can be made more precise by providing judges with the maximum amount of relevant information thus mitigating the impact of more peripheral variables, such as how the problem is framed. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.App.Psy.)--University of Waikato, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-51) Also available via the World Wide Web.

"The purpose of this study is to compare the existing selection plans for salesmen which are being used in Dallas with the selection plans which are suggested by certain of the accepted authorities in the field of sales management..Twenty-six manufacturing firms were included in the list of firms to be visited personally. Of these twenty-six firms, only six refused to give the specific data requested...Chapter I will introduce the study...Chapter II will deal with the discussion of the tools and techniques which are generally accepted as being more desirable by the authorities in the field. Chapter III discusses the procedure used and the results of the personal survey...Chapter IV will deal with the presentation and evaluation of the selection techniques now being used in Dallas. Chapter V will present the conclusions and recommendations to be made for the improvement and suggestions for eliminating the weaknesses in those selection techniques now being used in the area around Dallas, Texas "-- leaves 2,7

Employee selection research identifies and makes use of associations between individual differences, such as those measured by psychological testing, and individual differences in job performance. Artificial neural networks are computer simulations of biological nerve systems that can be used to model unspecified relationships between sets of numbers. Thirty-five neural networks were trained to estimate normalized annual revenue produced by telephone sales agents based on personality and biographic predictors using concurrent validation data (N=1085). Accuracy of the neural estimates was compared to OLS regression and a proprietary nonlinear model used by the participating company to select agents.

This thesis is an in-depth study of the labour market in the UK publishing sector. The aim is to study the role of social ties in publishing in external recruitment and internal promotion. Conventional sociological studies on social ties and labour market outcomes either neglect the perspective of the recruiter and the referrer or fail to explore the mechanisms by which social ties bring about labour market outcomes. This thesis fills these gaps. I used qualitative research methods, i.e. semi-structured interviews and participant observation for this research. The semi-structured interviews were with 40 interviewees, who were working in different roles (e.g. editorial and design) and levels (e.g. senior and junior) in Oxford and London-based publishing houses. I also served as a committee member of a publishing association in Oxford for seven months. Participant observation serves to triangulate the information I obtained through semi-structured interviews. This thesis examines different aspects of the labour market process and mechanisms. Regarding recruitment methods, I found that whether recruiters use formal or informal (word of mouth) methods depend on the level of uncertainty of recruiting a wrong person and the cost of making such mistakes. The greater the uncertainty and the cost, the more likely recruiters are to use social ties. Social ties serve to provide information about the availability of suitable employees. With regard to selection processes, I found that professional skills are a must but not enough in themselves. Recruiters use informal method at the final stage of selection to ensure the recruits possess the relevant qualities. As for job-hunting methods, I found that most newcomers introduce themselves using formal methods to get into publishing but in fact informality is often embedded in formal methods. Interviewees at managerial level almost entirely got their job through informal channels. Social ties have different functions as people rise through the different levels: whereas first entrants use social ties to obtain information about job opportunities, senior level staff members and freelancers carry with them reputation of their fitness to fill a particular position. Finally, when it comes to internal promotion, employers in my sample promote staff from within the company who already possesses the relevant skills, so as to minimize training costs and get around the uncertainties in settling in new staff. From the employees’ point of view, so long as they perform well in the job and establish a cooperative link with their boss and team members, they would be able to be promoted.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences