Response distortion (RD), or faking, among job applicants completing personality inventories has been a concern for selection specialists. In a field study using the NEO Personality Inventory, Revised, the authors show that RD is significantly greater among job applicants than among job incumbents, that there are significant individual differences in RD, and that RD among job applicants can have a significant effect on who is hired. These results are discussed in the context of recent studies suggesting that RD has little effect on the predictive validity of personality inventories. The authors conclude that future research, rather than focusing on predictive validity, should focus instead on the effect of RD on construct validity and hiring decisions. has on the validity, utility, and fairness of preemployment personality assessments. The purpose of this article is to explore the extent of response distortion on personality inventory scores in an actual applicant-testing environment and its potential effect on which applicants get hired.

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The progression of withdrawal hypothesis predicts a hierarchy among withdrawal behaviors, with lateness being followed by absence, which in turn results in quitting. This paper presents longitudinal attendance data from a sample of 63 hospital employees. Analyses of conditional probabilities revealed progressions from lateness to absence, from multiple (but not single) absences to quitting, and tentative evidence of a lateness-quitting progression. Initial lateness was also found to result in increased subsequent lateness, and likewise for absence.

Recent studies have suggested that self-esteem may be an important variable in employee burnout, although questions remain as to how it affects burnout. Using separate, large samples of police officers (N = 1,163) and hospital workers (N = 494), self-esteem was investigated as an antecedent, moderator, or consequence of employee burnout. Self-esteem was clearly related to burnout, probably as both cause and consequence. However, we did not find that self-esteem acts as a "buffer" to protect individuals from becoming burned out or from experiencing health disorders once they have become burned out. These results indicate that self-esteem may be an important factor in predicting who will be more likely to develop burnout, and they also suggest the importance of rebuilding self-esteem as part of the rehabilitation of burned-out employees.