Stubborn Reliance on Intuition and Subjectivity in Employee Selection

Highhouse, Scott

doi:10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.00058.x

Cited by 400 publications

(416 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…By extension, these professionals would not necessarily conclude that applicants who self-report satisfying these qualifications are particularly deserving, unlike our yoked observers who had only the applicants' statements to rely on. On the other hand, managers who are incentivized to make a hire, or have invested effort developing an employee, might actually be motivated to justify a candidate's deservingness, and many prefer to use subjective measures for selection (Highhouse, 2008). When evaluations are being conducted by similarly-motivated evaluators, clear specific past action qualifications might help mitigate judgmental biases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

Kappes¹,

Balcetis²,

Cremer³

2018

Journal of Applied Psychology

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This research shows how job postings can lead job candidates to see themselves as particularly deserving of hiring and high salary. We propose that these entitlement beliefs entail both personal motivations to see oneself as deserving and the ability to justify those motivated judgments. Accordingly, we predict that people feel more deserving when qualifications for a job are vague and thus amenable to motivated reasoning, whereby people use information selectively to reach a desired conclusion. We tested this hypothesis with a two-phase experiment (N = 892) using materials drawn from real online job postings. In the first phase of the experiment, participants believed themselves to be more deserving of hiring and deserving of higher pay after reading postings composed of vaguer types of qualifications. In the second phase, yoked observers believed that participants were less entitled overall, but did not selectively discount endorsement of vaguer qualifications, suggesting they were unaware of this effect. A follow-up pre-registered experiment (N = 905) using postings with mixed qualification types replicated the effect of including more vague qualifications on participants' entitlement beliefs. Entitlement beliefs are widely seen as problematic for recruitment and retention, and these results suggest that reducing the inclusion of vague qualifications in job postings would dampen the emergence of these beliefs in applicants, albeit at the cost of decreasing application rates and lowering applicants' confidence.Keywords: Entitlement; deservingness; motivated reasoning; recruitment practice; selection 3 Motivated Reasoning during RecruitmentTo build a strong workforce, companies must recruit and retain qualified employees.Researchers note that these tasks are difficult given increasing concerns about entitlement beliefs; workers see themselves as deserving unrealistically high pay or other resources (Harvey & Dasborough, 2015;Jordan, Ramsay, & Westerlaken, 2016;Twenge, 2006). Such concerns have also garnered attention in the popular press. As a post in The New York Times "You're the Boss" blog noted, "The notion that some employees seem to think they are owed something just for showing up is a difficult pill to swallow…" (Mueller, 2012). These beliefs would be consistent with the legal understanding of entitlement, whereby outcomes are prescribed by formal or normative rights and are not contingent on one's actions. However, they are not consistent with typical hiring and compensation practices, usually featuring outcomes contingent on contributions and achievements. Employees' entitlement beliefs thus pose major problems for managers (Fisk, 2010) and warrant investigation of the sources of these beliefs.Although discussions of entitlement beliefs often center on millennials (Bisceglia, 2014;Twenge, 2006), some managers report equal or greater problems with entitlement beliefs in older employees (Mueller, 2012). Indeed, data suggest that millennials' sense of entitlement may not differ substantially ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

Kappes¹,

Balcetis²,

Cremer³

2018

Journal of Applied Psychology

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show abstract

“…Thus, assuming motivation exists to resolve the tension, Festinger (1957) Between a combination of the limited time frame of the hiring process (Pager, Western, & Sugie, 2009), the reliance on a "gut feeling" to assess applicants (Moss & Tilly, 2001, p. 209), and the general lack of assessments during the hiring process (Highhouse, 2008), this solution may be out of reach for many hiring managers. Unlike the prior two strategies, trivializing a conflicting form of capital may relieve hiring managers of their discomfort without requiring a significant investment.…”

Section: Applicants' Forms Of Capital Alignmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These tools not only provide insight into an applicant's values and abilities, but can also provide organizations with a way to standardize their hiring process and objectively assess applicants (e.g., Bowen et al, 1991;Highhouse, 2008). As such, the screening stage provides hiring managers with access to applicant materials (i.e., resume) that may emphasize information representative of all forms of capital.…”

Section: Hypothesis 2d and 2e: During The Acquiring Phase Applicantmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rivera (2012) suggested that hiring managers prefer to engage in an exercise of "cultural matching" whereby they seek applicants who share similarity related to leisure activities, experiences, and self-presentation styles. As such, use of assessments, such as personality testing, are often suggested as a way for organizations to more effectively select candidates (Highhouse, 2008). Taken together, hiring managers are likely to rely on a combination of surface-and deep-level characteristics to evaluate applicants and their potential fit with organizations.…”

Section: Social Class and Perceptions Of P-o Fitmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Social Class in the Hiring Process

Young

Reilly

2016

AMPROC

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Social class describes individuals' possession of economic, social, and cultural capital, and their subjective social rankings relative to others (Bourdieu, 1984). As social class can be easily detected, it is quite likely that it plays a significant role in many workplace processes, such as selection. By considering the context of the hiring process, my dissertation explores the impact of social class from the perspective of hiring managers. First, I conducted a construct clarity study to clarify the multidimensional nature of the construct of social class. Second, using the factors found from my construct clarity study, I developed applicant stimulus materials (e.g., referral email, resume, video interviews) representative of three stages of the hiring process (e.g., acquiring, screening, and interviewing). Stimulus materials were presented to 78 participants in the acquiring stage, 105 participants in the screening stage, and 220 participants in the interviewing stage. Results of this dissertation find that hiring managers' perceptions of applicant P-O fit are influenced by applicants' social class. These effects are found during the acquiring stage and decrease in significance and prevalence as the hiring process progresses. Implications to research and practice as well as future directions for continued research on social class in the management literature are presented.ii The Impact of Social Class in the Hiring Process

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“…Highhouse, 2008;Silzer & Jeanneret, 2011). Decades of research have demonstrated that a simple weighted average of test scores is generally as accurate, and sometimes more accurate, than clinical predictions (AEgisdóttir et al, 2006;Grove, Zald, Lebow, Snitz, & Nelson, 2000;Kuncel, Klieger, Connelly, & Ones, 2013).…”

Section: Personnel Assessment and Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Validity of Individual Psychological Assessments for Entry-Level Police and Firefighter Positions

Kwaske¹

2015

PAD

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Stubborn Reliance on Intuition and Subjectivity in Employee Selection

Cited by 400 publications

References 51 publications

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

Motivated reasoning during recruitment.

The Impact of Social Class in the Hiring Process

The Validity of Individual Psychological Assessments for Entry-Level Police and Firefighter Positions

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