Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive emotion, understand emotion, facilitate thought with emotion, and regulate emotion. Considerable debate exists as to whether emotional intelligence adds incremental validity above more wellknown predictors of performance, namely the Big Five personality traits and cognitive ability. Furthermore, no theory directly specifies the roles of separate emotional intelligence (EI) dimensions in relationship to job performance. This paper offers several contributions: (a) a summary of theoretical links between EI and job performance, (b) meta-analytic incremental validity estimation for two different conceptualizations of emotional intelligence – labeled ability EI and mixed EI – over and above cognitive ability and Big Five personality composites, (c) estimation of Black-White and femalemale adverse impact attributable to the use of EI for selection purposes, and (d) a theoretical model of EI subdimensions, demonstrating that emotion regulation mediates the effects of emotion perception and emotion understanding on job performance, and that emotional competencies serve as partial mechanisms for the effects of Conscientiousness and cognitive ability on performance.

Selection research often examines whether adverse impact can be reduced/eliminated from employment practices. Such research, however, largely ignores the influence of minority availability issues (i.e., the number of minorities who apply and the number of minorities who accept a job offer); three general factors comprise minority availability: the missing applicant problem, targeted recruitment and job refusal rates. As minority availability issues have not been systematically addressed in the broader literature, the purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to highlight the importance of and explicate a comprehensive description of their potential effects on adverse impact and 2) to demonstrate such effects through monte carlo simulations. Specifically, simulations were used to examine issues related to the level effects and covariance effects of minority availability on adverse impact. Therefore, an iterative process was used whereby minority availability factors were manipulated to produce combinations that meaningfully affect adverse impact; the goal was to conduct as many simulations as necessary to establish a reliable pattern of the effects of minority availability on adverse impact. Simulation results suggest minority availability issues can influence the detection of adverse impact. In fact, minority availability issues may hinder efforts to reduce adverse impact in some selection contexts. Implications of these results are discussed. / Ph. D.

A national sample of attorneys (N = 134) was surveyed to investigate how characteristics of a rejected applicant’s claim would affect subsequent claimant outcomes and appraisals. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) merit determinations positively influenced attorney representation decisions and confidence in favorable claimant outcomes. Attorneys found rejected applicant claims more credible when the claimant perceived the selection procedure to be unrelated to the target position and when the applicant was a racial minority. Attorney course of legal action was dependent on the interaction of both EEOC decision and applicant perceptions of job relatedness, such that more claimant supportive actions were observed when the EEOC found merit and the applicant perceived the selection procedures to be job unrelated. The impact of organizational efforts in validation, scoring procedures, and adverse impact reduction were explored in regard to settlement and litigation outcomes. Exploratory analyses identified best practices in regard to these issues.

The current study applies a newly proposed mechanical combination method along with four traditional mechanical combination methods to assessment center scoring. These comparisons were made for two job levels (Fire Lieutenant and Fire Captain). The study further assesses the level of adverse impact for the various methods at three cut-off scores. Results indicated that the new contingency-based scoring method was successfully implemented in the assessment center. Results were mixed regarding whether the contingencies developed for the two job levels were different. Further, results indicated that although the various combination methods were highly correlated as expected, there were clear distinctions in the decisions made based on the different combination methods. Specifically, the various combination methods resulted in different candidates comprising the qualifying cut-off ranks. Finally, results showed that the contingency-based method had less adverse impact overall when compared to the other four methods. Future research is proposed in addition to a discussion of the limitations of the study. The main limitation was a lack of criterion data.

The current study examines the behaviors of four adverse impact measurements: the 4/5ths rule, two tests of significance (ZD and ZIR), and a newly developed AI measurement (Lnadj). Upon the suggestion of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program Manual about the sensitivity of the assessment of AI when the sample size is very large (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, 2002), Lnadj is a new statistic that has been developed and proposed as an alternative practical significance test to the 4/5ths rule. The results indicated that, unlike the 4/5ths rule and other tests for adverse impact, Lnadj is an index of practical significance that is less sensitive to differences across selection conditions that are not supposed to affect tests of adverse impact. Furthermore, Lnadj decreases Type I error rates when there is a small d value and Type II error rates when there is moderate to large d value.

No description available.

No description available.

The objective of this thesis research is to improve our understanding of the flow obstacle effect on heat transfer at supercritical and high subcritical pressures by experimentally studying the effect of different obstacles on heat transfer in two vertical upward-flow test sections: a 3-rod bundle and an 8 mm ID tube. The heat transfer measurements cover the region of interest of the Canadian Super-critical Water Cooled Reactor (SCWR). A thorough analysis of the obstacle effect on supercritical heat transfer (SCHT) was performed. In the 3-rod bundle, two types of obstacles were employed: wire wraps and low-impact grid spacers. Wire wraps were found to be more effective than grid spacers to enhance the SCHT. In the tubular test section, obstacles appeared to suppress the heat transfer deterioration (HTD) or decrease its severity; obstacles also generally enhanced the SCHT both in the liquid-like and the gas- like region. The experiment in the tubular test section revealed that, at certain flow conditions (low mass flux, low inlet subcooling), flow obstacles can have an adverse impact on the SCHT. A criterion to predict the onset of this adverse effect was developed. At high subcritical pressures, obstacles increased the CHF and reduced the maximum post-CHF temperature. A comparison of the experimental data with prediction methods for the SCHT, single phase heat transfer, CHF and post-dryout heat transfer was performed. Lastly, a new correlation to predict the enhancement in SCHT due to obstacles was developed for heat transfer in the liquid-like and gas-like regions.