Self-Presentation in Selection Settings: the Case of Personality Tests
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Self-Presentation in Selection Settings: the Case of Personality Tests Bernd Marcus 1
&
Judy Goldenberg 2 & Saul Fine 2 & Henning Hummert 1 & Anne Traum 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Based on theoretical views that applicants express meaningful skills and motivation when presenting themselves in personnel selection settings, we challenge conventional wisdom that self-presentation necessarily impairs the diagnostic value of “fakable” selection devices. Instead, we propose to supplement the traditional psychometric approach to personnel selection with a social perspective that leverages the competitive nature of selection. In order to capture an outcome of self-presentation, we introduce the Ideal Employee Coefficient (IEC) as a supplement to traditional scoring of responses to personality items. Construct and criterion-related validity evidence using the IEC was collected in two studies covering three samples from diverse settings, populations, and measures. The IEC consistently showed incremental criterion-related validity beyond the same tests’ traditional scores, as well as construct-related evidence in line with theoretical underpinnings. Findings imply that traditional personality constructs can be meaningfully aggregated with measures of self-presentation that are cost-effectively derived from the same data sources. Keywords Personnel selection . Self-presentation . Faking . Personality assessment
A very common concern in the practice of personnel selection is that job applicants may distort the information they are willing to convey about themselves in order to receive a job offer. In fact, research appears to corroborate such concerns. For example, it is well established empirically that workrelated settings affect how test takers respond to personality items. Setting effects on mean scores, in the socially desirable direction, have been shown in laboratory faking experiments
* Bernd Marcus [email protected] Judy Goldenberg [email protected] Saul Fine [email protected] Henning Hummert [email protected] Anne Traum [email protected] 1
Institute of Business Administration, University of Rostock, Ulmenstr. 69, 18057 Rostock, Germany
2
Behavioral Sciences Department, Israel Defense Forces, Tel HaShomer, Israel
(Viswesvaran & Ones, 1999), in real-world applicant settings (Birkeland, Manson, Kisamore, Brannick, & Smith, 2006), and even in low-stakes situations where work-related framing was added to standard personality items (Schmit, Ryan, Stierwalt, & Powell, 1995). Yet, the consequences of such setting effects, for instance for predictive validity, remain subject to controversial debates. Whereas some scholars have argued that setting effects on personality scores could be largely ignored for practical purposes (e.g., Ones, Viswesvaran, & Reiss, 1996), others (e.g., Morgeson et al., 2007; Tett & Christiansen, 2007) remain concerned about detrimental setting effects and may even abandon the use of instrume
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