Estimates of the dollar value of employee output in utility analyses: an empirical test of two theories

Article Abstract:

This study examined distributions of estimates of the dollar value of performance in studies employing Schmidt, Hunter, McKenzie, and Muldrow's (1979) method for estimating the standard deviation of job performance (SD sub y) and found evidence that (a) the mean 50th percentile estimate is biased downward, (b) estimates of SD sub y appear to be a constant percentage of the 50th percentile estimate, and (c) estimates of SD sub y as a percentage of the 50th percentile value (SD sub p) are quite similar to empirical SD sub p values based on actual employee output. These findings suggest that the downward bias in the mean estimate of 50th percentile causes the mean estimate of Sd sub y to be similarly biased downward, but does not bias the estimates of SD sub p. Finally, an objective method for estimating the value of average employee output is described. We conclude that the product of this value and the mean supervisory estimate of SD sub p yields an unbiased estimate of SD sub y. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Labor productivity, Utility theory, Utility functions, Standard deviations, Standard deviation

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Biographical data in employment selection: can validities be made generalizable?

Article Abstract:

The hypothesis was examined that organizational specificity of biodata validity results from the methods typically used to select and key items. In this study, items were initially screened for job relevance, keying was based on large samples from multiple organizations, and items were retained only if they showed validity across organizations. Cross-validation was performed on approximately 11,00 first-line supervisors in 79 organizations. The resulting validities were meta-analyzed across organizations, age levels, sex, and levels of education, supervisory experience, and company tenure. In all cases, validities were generalizable. Validities were also stable across time and did not appear to stem from measurement of knowledge, skills, or abilities acquired through job experience. Finally, these results provide additional evidence against the hypothesis of situational specificity of validities, the first large-sample evidence in a non-cognitive domain. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Performance, Organizational research, Performance standards, Job performance standards

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A meta-analytic comparison of the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods

Article Abstract:

Meta-analysis was used to cumulate the results from 633 studies of smoking cessation, involving 71,806 subjects, that reported the proportion of successful quits. Self-care methods do not appear to be as effective as formal intervention methods. Instructional programs involving physicians were not more effective than other instructional programs. Conditioning-based techniques such as aversive methods had success rates similar to those of instructional methods, and among the instructional methods, those incorporating social norms and values were more successful than those relying solely on didactic approaches. Cumulation of quit rates from all available groups indicated that, on average, 6.4% of the smokers could be expected to quit smoking without any intervention. This figure must be substracted from the raw success rate to obtain the net success rate for each program, directions for future research are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Care and treatment, Smoking cessation programs, Smoking cessation, Tobacco habit

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