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We tested Becker's (1960) side-bet conceptualization of commitment within the context of Meyer and Allen's (1991) three-component model of organizational commitment. Employees (N=202) from various organizations completed a survey including measures of (a) seven categories of side bets (b) affective, normative, and continuance commitment, and (c) turnover intention. The findings provided strong support for Becker's theory. All seven side-bet categories correlated significantly with a revised measure of high-sacrifice continuance commitment, and structural equation modeling analyses revealed that the relations between the side bets and turnover intention were fully mediated by commitment. The findings also address issues pertaining to the dimensionality and measurement of continuance commitment, and help to explain relations among the three components of commitment.

Interviewers regularly make personality-related attributions in interviews, whether purposefully or not. In this study, we examined whether changing a contextual cue in a videoconference interview (the cleanliness of the room where the interviewee is located) influenced interviewers' ratings of interviewee conscientiousness and interview performance ratings. We conducted a between-subjects experiment (N = 389) and manipulated three factors: background cleanliness (clean vs. messy) x location (office vs. home) x gender of job candidate (man vs. woman). The dependent variables were conscientiousness ratings and interview performance ratings. There was a main effect of cleanliness on conscientiousness and on interview performance ratings; these results were consistent in both the office and the home setting. The findings may inform best practices for participants in videoconference interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments explored the role of information-processing capacity and strategies in regulating attitude-congruent selective exposure. In Experiment 1, participants were placed under time pressure and randomly assigned to conditions in which either an attitude-expressive or no-information processing goal was made salient. Analyses revealed an attitude-congruent selective exposure effect and indicated that this effect was stronger when an attitude-expressive goal was made salient than when no goal was made salient. In Experiment 2, information-processing goals and time pressure were factorially manipulated. Analyses revealed an attitude-congruent selective exposure effect and indicated that this effect was especially strong when time pressure was high and an attitude-expressive goal was made salient. In both experiments, bias at exposure was found to predict bias at later stages of information processing (attention and memory). Supplementary analyses and data confirmed that the attitude-expressive goal manipulation activated its intended motivational processing strategy. Keywords: selective exposure; attitudes; information processing; bias

We investigated the consequences of interview and social‐evaluative workplace anxiety on job performance, and whether these two anxieties share a common antecedent–fear of negative evaluation. Job applicants (n = 128) completed a survey following their interview and halfway through their work term; supervisory performance ratings were collected at the end of the work term. Fear of negative evaluation was positively correlated with both interview anxiety and social‐evaluative workplace anxiety. The correlation between interview anxiety and job performance was near zero, as was the correlation between social‐evaluative workplace anxiety and job performance; these relations were not moderated by the social‐evaluative nature of the job. This study suggests that anxious interviewees and employees perform as well as their less anxious counterparts, even in social‐evaluative jobs. Key points: Anxiety about employment interviews and anxiety in the workplace are common experiences for many people.Both types of anxiety are related to a trait called fear of negative evaluation.Although commonly experienced, neither interview anxiety nor workplace. anxiety are predictors of later job performance.Managers are encouraged not to overlook anxious interviewees during hiring or anxious employees during promotions because anxiety does not hinder job performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job applicants vary in the extent to which they fake or stay honest in employment interviews, yet the contextual and demographic factors underlying these behaviors are unclear. To help answer this question, we drew on Ellingson and McFarland's (2011) framework of faking based in valence-instrumentality-expectancy theory. Study 1 collected normative data and established baseline distributions for instrumentality-expectancy beliefs from a Canadian municipality. Results indicated that most respondents had low levels of instrumentality-expectancy beliefs for faking, but high levels for honesty. Moreover, income, education, and age were antecedents of instrumentality-expectancy beliefs. Study 2 extended these findings with a United States sample and sought to determine if they could be explained by individual differences. Results demonstrated that financial insecurity predicted instrumentality of faking, whereas age predicted expectancy of faking. Finally, valence-instrumentality-expectancy beliefs were all predictors of self-reported faking in a past interview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on signalling theory, we propose that use of deceptive impression management (IM) in the employment interview could produce false signals, and individuals hired based on such signals may incur consequences once they are on the job--such as poor perceived fit. We surveyed job applicants who recently interviewed and received a job to investigate the relationship between use of deceptive IM in the interview and subsequent perceived personjob and person-organization fit, stress, well-being, and employee engagement. In a twophase study, 206 job applicants self-reported their use of deceptive IM in their interviews at Time 1, and their perceived person-job and person-organization fit, job stress, affective well-being, and employee engagement at Time 2. Deceptive IM had a negative relationship with perceived person-job and person-organization fit. As well, perceived fit accounted for the relationship between deceptive IM and well-being, employee engagement, and job stress. The findings indicate that using deceptive IM in the interview may come at a cost to employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) implies that it may be more efficacious for job performance raters to compare an employee to other employees rather than to use typical “absolute” rating standards. We assessed whether the incorporation of social comparisons into performance appraisals, using the relative percentile method (RPM), would predict criterion variance beyond that predicted by more traditional absolute ratings of performance. A sample (N=170) of managers involved in an assessment center was used, and the center provided criteria by which the relative criterion-related validity of social-comparative versus noncomparative (absolute) appraisals could be assessed. Overall, in consonance with a preponderance of earlier research, social-comparative (RPM) performance appraisals showed incremental criterion-related validity over traditional absolute performance appraisal methods. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]