Industrial Psych

Core Focus Areas

  1. Two Primary Outcomes:

    • Job Performance: Goal-directed behaviors under individual control

    • Job Satisfaction: Affective/cognitive evaluation of one's job

  2. Key Determinants:

    • Individual Characteristics (traits, abilities)

    • Organizational Characteristics (structure, policies)

Personnel Selection Fundamentals

Performance Prediction Model (Campbell, 1990):

  • Declarative Knowledge × Procedural Knowledge × Motivation → Performance

  • Predictors can be:

    • Signs: Indicators of relevant traits (e.g., cognitive tests)

    • Samples: Direct demonstrations of skills (e.g., work simulations)

Key Findings:

  • Cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of job performance (r ≈ 0.5)

    • Especially important for complex jobs and training success

    • Predicts leadership and creative performance too (Kuncel & Hezlett, 2010)

  • Meta-analysis of 21,942 work samples (5M+ people) confirms robust relationships

Personality at Work

Measurement Approaches:

  • Self-reports, interviews, biodata (e.g., work history), references

  • Example: Paper route success → persistence/organizational skills (biodata)

Big Five Traits Impact:

  • Conscientiousness strongly predicts occupational attainment and longevity

  • Low agreeableness linked to higher divorce rates (Roberts et al., 2007)

  • Leadership correlates: Extraversion (r=0.31), Conscientiousness (r=0.28) (Judge et al., 2002)

Decision-Making in Hiring

Expert vs. Statistical Prediction:

  • Experts are inconsistent and biased (e.g., anchoring effects)

  • Simple equations outperform holistic judgments:

    • Student GPA prediction: HS rank + test scores (r=.45) vs. counselor judgment (r=.35)

    • Meta-analysis shows 10-15% accuracy gain with formulas (Kuncel et al., 2013)

Organizational Factors

  1. Organizational Justice (Greenberg, 1990):

    • Distributive (fair outcomes)

    • Procedural (fair processes)

    • Interactional (respectful treatment)

  2. Team Composition:

    • Agreeableness matters most at minimum level (Bell, 2007)

    • High mean agreeableness + low variability → best performance (Peeters et al., 2006)