<p> This study explored the impact demographic dissimilarity between an interviewer and a job candidate has on how the candidate is evaluated for a job. The interviewer's levels of race- and gender-based prejudice were examined as moderators of this relationship, while stress was examined as a mediator. Race and gender dissimilarity were manipulated by presenting participants with scripted videos of a job candidate responding to interview questions. Participants, who consisted of undergraduate students, were randomly assigned to evaluate a White male, a White female, an African-American male, or an African-American female job applicant. After a brief introductory clip of the candidate, participants reported how stressful they expected the task of evaluating the candidate to be and after watching the video of the interview evaluated the candidate for the job of Academic Advisor, and completed measures of prejudice. </p><p> While racial and gender dissimilarity to the job candidate did not directly affect how the candidate was evaluated for the job, results showed that racial and gender dissimilarity indirectly affected how the candidate was evaluated for the job through the mediator of stress and at different levels of race- and gender-based prejudice. Theoretical support for the impact of demographic dissimilarity on interview outcomes is provided and the practical implications of these findings are discussed. Suggestions for future areas of research are also presented.</p>

<p> Previous research has shown that Middle Eastern applicants' ethnic names and affiliations caused Caucasian raters to demonstrate increased discrimination during resume screening. The current study extended previous research by investigating the differences in job suitability ratings given by Middle Eastern and Caucasian raters for Middle Eastern job applicants by exploring rater ethnicity as a possible moderator in the relationship between ethnic identifiers and job suitability ratings, as well as studying the effect of acculturation on Middle Eastern raters' judgments of applicant job suitability. Contrary to the prediction, the current study found that participants gave significantly higher mean job suitability ratings to the partially identified Middle Eastern resume compared to the White resume. Furthermore, White raters did not give lower mean ratings to the partially and fully identified Middle Eastern resumes as compared to the White resume. However, Middle Eastern raters did give higher mean job suitability ratings to the partially identified Middle Eastern resume as compared to the White resume. Finally, the current study found that Middle Eastern raters with lower levels of acculturation gave higher mean job suitability scores to the fully identified Middle Eastern resume. </p>

<p> The projected increase in air traffic density has led to the development of NextGen that is expected to revolutionize the way the NAS is currently functioning. For NextGen to be implemented successfully, it is important to understand the humanautomation relationship within a complex system. Controllers will have to rely on automated tools to successfully manage aircraft in their sector. Increasing human trust in automation can lead to an increase in automation acceptance and its proper use. However, we are not aware of any research studies that have attempted to directly train individuals to trust automation. We report on an attempt to train 8 novice air traffic controllers to trust the automated NextGen tools in a radar internship course. Although the results were not statistically significant, the trend in the data suggests that it may be possible to train trust in automation.</p>

The current study investigates reactions toward pregnant women in the workplace. Participants in an online study watched a video of an applicant (depicted as either pregnant or nonpregnant) for a professional development grant. Additionally, the applicant was either portrayed as stereotypically feminine (e.g., high in communality, low in agency), or stereotypically masculine (e.g., high in agency, low in communality). Finally, the applicant was presented as being either a member of a stereotypically masculine department (e.g., Electrical Engineering), or a stereotypically feminine department (e.g., Elementary Education). Results indicate that although pregnant women do not experience more positivity in the workplace, they do experience less negativity. Specifically, pregnant applicants were recipients of less hostile sexism and benevolent sexism than the nonpregnant applicants. Further exploratory analyses indicate that the applicant's personality, and perceptions of the applicants' warmth and competence strongly predicts the level of hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, benevolence, and resource allocation directed at them. Theoretical and practical considerations of these findings are addressed.

The globalization of business has resulted in both large numbers of workers living and working abroad, as well as an increasingly multicultural domestic work environment. Organizational research has shown that cross-cultural training mitigates or proactively guards against the frustrations, misunderstandings, and culture shock often resulting from cross-cultural interactions that lead to poor adjustment and job performance (Harris & Kumra, 2000). Despite the recent surge of studies in this area, previous cross-cultural effectiveness studies have failed to take into account a number of moderating variables. Particularly, the role of the expatriate's supervisor and the personality and motivational differences of the expatriate have not yet been explored. Thus, the present study draws upon cross-cultural training theory, in addition to the leader-member exchange framework, in proposing that cross-cultural training for the supervisor of an expatriate subordinate will moderate the impact of cross-cultural training on the expatriate subordinate's adjustment and job performance. Furthermore, self-efficacy, openness to experience, and extraversion were tested as moderators of the relationship between cross-cultural training and job performance. Participants were individuals from a variety of countries who were coming to the United States for practical training. They took part in a web-based cross-cultural training study before leaving for the U.S. or shortly after they arrived. Results indicate that supervisor cross-cultural training does impact the effectiveness of cross-cultural training on job performance and work-related adjustment. Additionally, results support the predictions that self-efficacy and extraversion moderate the relationship between cross-cultural training and job performance.

The present study examines the effect of rehearsal, job interest, and self-monitoring on judges' accuracy to detect deception in selection interviews. The study also investigated the effect of those independent variables on judges' accuracy in assessing applicants' personality and self-reported qualifications. Subjects participating as applicants in mock job interviews were randomly assigned to rehearsal and interest conditions. These "applicants" were interviewed for jobs they liked or disliked and either rehearsed or filled out a distracter questionnaire. Subjects at a different university watched videotapes of applicants and rated their honesty, personality, and qualifications. As predicted, judges assigned more positive ratings to applicants who rehearsed than to applicants who did not rehearse. Contrary to predictions, applicant rehearsal tended to have a beneficial effect on judges' detection of applicant deception, personality, and qualifications. Applicant self-monitoring and judges' gender also affected judges' accuracy. Theoretical and practical implications of results are discussed.

Johnson and Ash (1986) proposed a new model for developing compensation systems which is designed to systematically and simultaneously reconcile differences between internal and external pay equity criteria without necessarily including market based gender biases. Central to their model is the development of a labor market variable (LMV) which is designed to be sensitive to the dynamic affects of supply and demand on occupational wages over time, and which is to be used as a compensible factor in the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) based job component/policy capturing approach to job evaluation. The present research is designed to examine three issues regarding Johnson and Ash's (1986) model and research: (1) determine if their results can be replicated using actual organizational data regarding relatively heterogeneous sets of jobs; (2) examine the operational adequacy of their LMV; and (3) examine possible differences in outcomes between the application of their method and the more traditional PAQ points driven method. In order to investigate these issues, PAQ based job evaluation data and archival labor market data were obtained for jobs from two organizations (Organizations A and B). The results regarding Organization A tended to support the viability of Johnson and Ash's (1986) model. Regardless, of how the LMV was operationalized, its inclusion in the policy capturing equation caused a significant reduction in the discrepancies between the internal and external equity criteria. Also, the LMV was not related to a measure of the gender dominance of these jobs and the measure of gender dominance did not add, incrementally to the prediction of organizational wages in the policy capturing equations. The results obtained using this method also compared quite favorably with those obtained using the traditional PAQ points method. The results regarding Organization B were less promising. Here, regardless of how it was operationalized, the LMV failed to significantly reduce the discrepancies between the internal and external equity criteria. Further, some evidence was found indicating that the LMV is related to the gender dominance of these jobs, and only minor differences were found between the outcomes of the new method and the traditional PAQ points method.

A series of three laboratory experiments examined effects of affirmative action (AA) employment policies, decision set (in terms of accepting or rejecting applicants), and selection ratio (ratio of applicants to available positions) on amount, duration, content, and sequence of information search on job applicants, on personnel selection decisions, and on judgments of applicants. AA was investigated only in conjunction with a concern for hiring qualified applicants and only with respect to applicant gender (not race/ethnicity). The target job was a slightly male sex-typed job. A computerized information board tracked information search. When no decision set was provided, AA increased (decreased) the amount of search on female (male) applicants when considering search on females relative to males and decreased the time spent on males. More females (and fewer males) were hired in the presence than absence of an AA policy unless there was a high selection ratio with no decision set provided. More failure-relevant information about applicants was sought in a reject than accept decision set when there was not an AA policy. Amount of intradimensional search (search by attribute across applicants) was greater in a reject than accept decision set. Decision set also affected ratings of applicant qualifications. The amount and duration of search on applicants who were selected was greater for a low than high selection ratio. The same pattern held for duration per item of information on applicants who were selected if there was an accept decision set or no decision set was provided. Decision makers were more (less) accurate in identifying the best- (least-) qualified applicants when there was a low than high selection ratio. When comparing the number of females hired relative to their proportion in the applicant pool, females were either on equal footing or at an advantage (disadvantage) relative to males in the presence (absence) of an AA policy, depending on decision set and selection ratio. AA attitudes affected information search although not in a consistent manner across experiments. The multitude of effects found highlights the sensitivity of information search in the personnel selection process to person, task, and environmental characteristics.

Although existing laboratory research shows that software is often used inefficiently, relatively little is known about (a) how efficiently software is used in a real work environment and (b) the factors that influence the efficiency of individual users. The present research consists of an ethnographic investigation of software use in an office setting. The study occurred over a four-week period and consisted of observations, in-depth interviews, and an online survey of employees at a large energy company in Houston, Texas. Employees frequently used their software inefficiently and when they were efficient, were not consistent with their efficient use of software. They tended to approach using and learning software programs differently depending on whether the program was associated with their area of expertise. For those programs associated with their expertise, they were more likely to seek out learning new and more efficient methods of using the software for doing their job. However, for other software they would learn as little about it as possible, even if they spent most of their working day on the latter type of software. Furthermore, employees consistently reported that, regardless of the complexity of the program, they primarily learned to use programs by exploring the interface. Through this exploration, they would learn enough about the program (or would reach a sufficient level of knowledge) to do their job. Any knowledge of alternative features or efficient methods of using these features would subsequently be learned through peers.

Several recent findings suggest that there are racial differences in organizational attraction. This study examines these differences using a sample of 258 undergraduate and graduate students. In an Internet "virtual site visit" to a fictional company, the level of racial structural integration (SI), salary, and the presence/absence of a diversity management program (DMP) were manipulated. SI, proposed by Cox (1991), is a means of describing the racial/ethnic diversity present among the employees of a firm, whereas diversity management programs are the successors to affirmative action plans. Black participants were most attracted to the organization with the highest level of SI. Furthermore, a type of ethnic identification, other-group orientation (OGO) significantly interacted with SI and participant race to predict organizational attraction. For Whites with low OGO, SI had a negative effect on attraction. For Blacks with high OGO, organizations high and low in SI (but not moderate) were the most attractive.