The Case for Offering Paid Leave: Benefits to the Employer, Employee, and Society.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted numerous problems in the labor market in the U.S., including high and low unemployment rates, burnout of employees in many industries, and inadequate time off for caregiving and medical issues. In this manuscript, we propose that employer-sponsored paid leave is increasingly important given that the U.S. lags behind most other nations in its leave policies, and many employees, particularly those in lower-wage, part-time, or front-line occupations do not have paid leave from their employers. We first discuss the common types of paid leave. Then, we make the case that paid leave is advantageous for both employees and employers, as well as society. We conclude with specific recommendations on how to implement paid leave in organizations.

In the eyes of the beholder: A non-self-report measure of workplace deviance.

Because employees may be reluctant to admit to performing deviant acts, the authors of this study reexamined the commonly used self-report measure of workplace deviance developed by R. J. Bennett and S. L. Robinson (2000). Specifically, the self-report measure was modified into a non-self-report measure based on multiple other-reported assessments to address methodological concerns with self-reported information regarding deviant workplace behaviors. The authors assessed the psychometric properties of this new measure by first conducting an exploratory factor analysis, which indicated a 3-factor structure (production deviance, property deviance, and personal aggression). Subsequent confirmatory factor analysis on a different sample verified these findings. Taken together, the results suggest that the content and psychometric qualities of this non-self-report measure of workplace deviance closely represent S. L. Robinson and R. J. Bennett's (1995) original typology of workplace deviance. The potential usefulness of this measure in organizational studies is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

An integrative typology of personality assessment for aggression: implications for predicting counterproductive workplace behavior.

This study presents an integrative typology of personality assessment for aggression. In this typology, self-report and conditional reasoning (L. R. James, 1998) methodologies are used to assess 2 separate, yet often congruent, components of aggressive personalities. Specifically, self-report is used to assess explicit components of aggressive tendencies, such as self-perceived aggression, whereas conditional reasoning is used to assess implicit components, in particular, the unconscious biases in reasoning that are used to justify aggressive acts. These 2 separate components are then integrated to form a new theoretical typology of personality assessment for aggression. Empirical tests of the typology were subsequently conducted using data gathered across 3 samples in laboratory and field settings and reveal that explicit and implicit components of aggression can interact in the prediction of counterproductive, deviant, and prosocial behaviors. These empirical tests also reveal that when either the self-report or conditional reasoning methodology is used in isolation, the resulting assessment of aggression may be incomplete. Implications for personnel selection, team composition, and executive coaching are discussed.

Private self-consciousness factors: relationships with need for cognition, locus of control, and obsessive thinking in Iran and the United States.

The authors measured Internal State Awareness (ISA) and Self-Reflectiveness (SR) factors from the Private Self-Consciousness Scale in Iranian (N = 325) and U.S. (N = 401) university students. In both societies, positive correlations with Need for Cognition and Internal Control and negative correlations with external control and obsessive thinking confirmed ISA as an adaptive form of self-consciousness. In partial correlations in which the authors controlled for ISA, SR was associated cross-culturally with greater Obsessive Thinking. This outcome conformed with the authors' expectations that SR would have negative mental health implications, but other data revealed complexities in the SR association with adjustment. Differences between samples failed to yield any simple support for F. Fukuyama's (1992) suggestion that Iranians might be more "alienated" (pp. 236-237) in their psychological functioning. The present study most importantly offered cross-cultural evidence in favor of the claim that better measures of an introspective self-awareness need to be developed.

Incremental validity of the frame-of-reference effect in personality scale scores: a replication and extension.

Context-specific personality items provide respondents with a common frame of reference unlike more traditional, noncontextual personality items. The common frame of reference standardizes item interpretation and has been shown to reduce measurement error while increasing validity in comparison to noncontextual items (M. J. Schmit, A. M. Ryan. S. L. Stierwalt. & S. L. Powell, 1995). Although the frame-of-reference effect on personality scales scores has been well investigated (e.g., M. J. Schmit et al., 1995), the ability of this innovation to obtain incremental validity above and beyond the well-established, noncontextual personality scale scores has yet to be examined. The current study replicates and extends work by M. J. Schmit et al. (1995) to determine the incremental validity of the frame-of-reference effect. The results indicate that context-specific personality items do indeed obtain incremental validity above and beyond both noncontextual items and cognitive ability, and in spite of socially desirable responding induced by applicant instructions. The implications of these findings for personnel selection are discussed.

Two facets of self-knowledge: cross-cultural development of measures in Iran and the United States.

Self-knowledge is an ideal not only within psychological theory and practice but also within the religious and philosophical foundations of many cultures. In 6 studies conducted in Iran and the United States, the authors sought to construct and to validate scales for measuring two facets of self-knowledge. Experiential self-knowledge was defined as an ongoing sensitivity to the self in the present. Reflective self-knowledge was described in terms of personal efforts to integrate experience within self-schemas developed in the past. Thirteen-item experiential self-knowledge and reflective self-knowledge scales were created by the authors using samples of Iranian and American university students. A confirmatory factor analysis verified this 2-factor structure in a second study, and these results were replicated in a 3rd study. Correlations with a broad array of self-report variables established the two scales as valid measures of adjustment. Both displayed adequate test-retest reliability. Correlations with peer reports suggested that the two factors had behavioral implications in both cultures. Reflective self-knowledge proved to be as important as educational abilities in predicting the academic performance of Americans who were motivated to attend class. Experiential self-knowledge and reflective self-knowledge also interacted to predict better grades. In short, the experiential self-knowledge and reflective self-knowledge scales operationalized cross-cultural personality processes that deserve additional research attention.