Diversity cues on recruitment websites: investigating the effects on job seekers' information processing.

Although job seekers' motivation to process the information encountered during recruitment partially influences recruitment success, little is known about what motivates more thorough information processing. To address this issue, we integrated recruitment and social information processing theories to examine the possibility that diversity cues on recruitment websites influence website viewers' processing of presented information. Utilizing a controlled experiment and a hypothetical organization, Study 1 revealed that both Blacks and Whites spent more time viewing recruitment websites and better recalled website information when the sites included racial diversity cues. These relationships were stronger for Blacks, and organizational attractiveness perceptions mediated these effects for Blacks but not for Whites. Study 2 found similar relationships for Black and White participants viewing real organizational recruitment websites after taking into account perceived organizational attributes and website design effects. Implications of these findings for recruiting organizations are discussed.

Displaying employee testimonials on recruitment web sites: effects of communication media, employee race, and job seeker race on organizational attraction and information credibility.

This study investigated participants' reactions to employee testimonials presented on recruitment Web sites. The authors manipulated the presence of employee testimonials, richness of media communicating testimonials (video with audio vs. picture with text), and representation of racial minorities in employee testimonials. Participants were more attracted to organizations and perceived information as more credible when testimonials were included on recruitment Web sites. Testimonials delivered via video with audio had higher attractiveness and information credibility ratings than those given via picture with text. Results also showed that Blacks responded more favorably, whereas Whites responded more negatively, to the recruiting organization as the proportion of minorities shown giving testimonials on the recruitment Web site increased. However, post hoc analyses revealed that use of a richer medium (video with audio vs. picture with text) to communicate employee testimonials tended to attenuate these racial effects.

Becoming team players: team members' mastery of teamwork knowledge as a predictor of team task proficiency and observed teamwork effectiveness.

The authors explored the idea that teams consisting of members who, on average, demonstrate greater mastery of relevant teamwork knowledge will demonstrate greater task proficiency and observed teamwork effectiveness. In particular, the authors posited that team members' mastery of designated teamwork knowledge predicts better team task proficiency and higher observer ratings of effective teamwork, even while controlling for team task proficiency. The authors investigated these hypotheses by developing a structural model and testing it with field data from 92 teams (1,158 team members) in a United States Air Force officer development program focusing on a transportable set of teamwork competencies. The authors obtained proficiency scores on 3 different types of team tasks as well as ratings of effective teamwork from observers. The empirical model supported the authors' hypotheses.

Assessing group change under conditions of anonymity and overlapping samples.

BACKGROUND: A commonly used research design in the social sciences involves the matching of observations over 2 time periods (i.e., Time 1 --> Time 2) to assess group change. Because coupled observations are usually correlated, a paired- or dependent-samples t test is generally recommended in such applications to determine if there has been a statistically significant change in mean scores across time. Consequently, it is typically believed that unless information for matching respondents' observations is available, researchers have no choice but to treat the observations as if they were independent. OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate alternative statistical approaches for employing the paired samples ttest when information for matching respondents' observations is unavailable and to illustrate the applicability of these alternatives to longitudinal designs in which respondents at Time 1 are partially replaced by new respondents at Time 2. METHOD: Theoretical arguments and examples are employed to achieve the specified objectives. RESULTS/DISCUSSION: Performing an independent-samples ttest when a paired-samples t test is more appropriate will lead to a loss of statistical power and, thus, increase the likelihood of a Type II statistical error. The statistical approaches that are demonstrated allow researchers to account for pair wise dependency across observations and, therefore, to obtain a fairer test of group change in means.