Measuring Individual Differences

An Overview of Measuring Individual Differences in Organizations: Future of Assessing Individuals at Work Submitted by Huda Masood Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL

1. Abstract

Measuring Individual Differences

This paper presents a brief account of the intermittent themes emerging in the evolution of Industrial Organizational Psychology1. A significant text of this paper transcribes several core issues in organizational research regarding individual differences and proposes suggestions for future assessments of individual differences. 2. Introduction Personnel psychology involves the study of human behavior at workplace. Since work is one of the fundamental attributes of humans, work psychology deals with a diverse population across the globe. Work is an essential element of what it means to be human in the same way that loving is or playing is (Weiss & Rupp). People have an innate need of social security and tend to derive meaning and identity from work (Weiss & Rupp, 2011). The discipline of work psychology has achieved great deal in short space of time and thriving and has undoubtedly emerged to perform a valuable role in society to promote the welfare of employees at work (Patterson, 2001). Personality is a particularly valuable pre-employment assessment tool when one matches personality traits to job requirements (Goffin & Boyd, 2011). There has been a consistency in the research findings of the effects of job conditions on personality. Jobs that facilitate occupational self-direction increase mens ideational flexibility, and promote a self directed orientation to self and to society (Furnham, 2008). Consequently, jobs that confine occupational self-direction decrease mens conceptual flexibility and facilitate conformation to both self and society. The empirical findings strongly reinforce the inference that class- associated conditions of work evidently affect personality. In short, occupational self direction, ideational flexibility,
1 Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I-O) is also referred as work psychology in this paper for simplicity purpose.

Measuring Individual Differences

and a self directed orientation, are intertwined in a dynamic process through which the individuals place in the stratification system both affects and is affected by his personality (Furnham, 2008). Cooper (2002) identified at least two distinct origins of work psychology; fitting the man to the job (FMJ) and fitting the job to the man (FJM). The FMJ approach is demonstrated in methods of employee selection, training, and vocational guidance (Cooper, 2002). These endeavors have in common an attempt to achieve an effective match between job and person by concentrating on the latter (Cooper, 2002). The FJM trend, on the other hand, takes into account the design, equipment, and work conditions offered by a job that may suit workers physical and psychological qualities. The FMJ and FJM traditions essentially concern the relationship between the individuals and their work (Cooper, 2002). 3. Measuring Individual Differences in Organizations Psychologists and I-O practitioners have made a genuine contribution toward perfecting the individual differences assessments which are valid, predictive, and largely objective. There are several areas in which individual differences can be attributed and measured in organizations. Selection and Assessment: Individual differences need to be measured at this level to hire a potentially competent and suitable candidate for the organization. Training: Both FMJ and FJM traditions require some kind of trainings for individuals to either know the stuff they need to know for their job or mould the job in a way that allows the employees to put in their best. The design, delivery, and evaluation of training altogether help the practitioners screen the differences in competencies and other skills of the employees.

Measuring Individual Differences

Performance Appraisal gives researchers an idea about the performance of employees as a team and on individual levels. Organizational Change and Development: Analysis of organizational culture to implement inherent changes in the work force or organization itself requires a precise measure of individual differences. Interpersonal Skills: Recognition and development of necessary skills like leadership, teamwork, negotiation, assertiveness, and maintenance of relationship with others require an understanding of individual differences. Equal opportunities can only be truly adopted at a workplace once the culture has an understanding of its diverse body. Well Being at Work: Studying and understanding individual differences can help the management reduce the stress on the employees by addressing the right person for a given task. 4. Issues with Measuring Individual Differences One of the core issues with assessing and measuring individuals behavior is the fact that participants responses get affected by the mere idea of participating in an experiment. Such phenomenon is named as the Hawthorne Effect and some of the ways to avoid it are explained by Adair (1984) as cited by Cooper (2002).
It is difficult to conduct an experiment without altering any conditions other than

intended.

Measuring Individual Differences Peoples responses are profoundly influenced by their interpretation of reality around

them.
Individual attributes such as values, integrity, and other soft skills are often largely

shadowed by basic dominant key requirements of the organizations. Weiss and Rupp (2011) stated the problem they see in contemporary set up of undertaking individual differences; It turns the people into objects with the intent of identifying, measuring, or changing their dimensions, ignoring both the integrity of the person and the personal perspective of working (Weiss & Rupp, 2011). 5. Individual Differences in Regulation of Professional Satisfaction There is a significant role of self-evaluation processes in predicting satisfaction at various domains of life. Theories of self evaluations posit that individuals process self relevant information in a manner that is conductive to maintaining and conducting a positive view of the self (Heidemeir & Goritz, 2013). Satisfaction within certain domains of work life serves as pyramidal or bottom up information that participants use in evaluating their job satisfaction. Therefore, self evaluation processes play an important role in assessing individual differences. Individuals are driven to portray their self relevant information in a way that protects their dignity and maintains their positive view of self.

Measuring Individual Differences

Job Satisfaction

Perceived Equity

Rewards

Fig. 1: Satisfaction Performance Relationship (Information extracted from McGraw Hills, 2010) 6. Future Directions and Proposed Steps Some of the important key areas recognized in this paper are: 6.1. The transformation of organizational context The commencement of technical evolution has instituted some dramatic changes in employee work patterns, reintroducing the options of career break, job sharing, and work hours flexibility. Many employees now telecommute to work from home which has drastically altered the work space issues. In tandem, work psychology has responded to this challenge and shifted focus from more physical and mechanistic skills, to those about the social context of work and the assessment of cognitive demands brought about by increased use of information technology(Patterson, 2001). The working week is now displaced by the waking week (Patterson, 2001).

Measuring Individual Differences

Consequences: As a result, there has been a striking demographic shift in labor force. There has been increased cultural, age, disability, and gender based diversity now reported to be a part of organizational work force. Reduced work space, flexible work/paid hours, and outsourcing have theoretically reduced the organizational head count costs but have largely led to decreased organizational commitment. It has also reduced the managerial repercussions on the employees by subtracting the direct and face-to-face interaction. At micro level, I-O practitioners need to be wary of the increasing skills gap particularly in correspondence to basic skills. On macro level, the work psychologists and practitioners now need to focus the issues on global level with the dawn of globalization of industry. The evidence suggests that although globalization has offered unique opportunities to create wealth in the world, it may also accelerate inequalities (Patterson, 2001). 6.2. The emotional bond between the employer and the employee Management strategies of 80s have elevated employees rank from a pair of hands to a source of ideas. More recently, the balance of power between employer and employee has shifted in favor of employees (Patterson, 2001). To excel, the organizations need to have a capacity to attract and retain their best employees and provide employees with the greater opportunity professional development and job satisfaction. Clearly, the idea of work for living is not on younger workers career schemata and with the flattening of organizational structure, the employers need to determine greater tolerance of ambiguity and embrace, change more readily. Consequences Consideration of employer demands and introduction of employee choice has originated a new research area, highlighting the psychological contract. Some of the research literature

Measuring Individual Differences

stresses on the importance of the violation of psychological contract. There needs to be a prosperity in the given research field to study the forces that promote mutuality and agreement, facilitating the environment of cooperation, favorable employment conditions, and core Adlerian values. 6.3. Theoretical and methodological advances in the discipline The statistical and methodological advances have given rise to meta-analysis technique in personnel selection. Techniques like Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Multi-level modeling are proven useful not just to find the causal pathways and meditational effects but also to examine the effect on individual, group, and organizational levels. Growing trends of Dynamic Time Series Analysis are also prevalent in many organizations that investigate the effect of temporal sequencing on individuals (Patterson, 2001). The rapid shift to Information Technology has revolutionized personnel assessment methods. The e-based psychological testing is taking over conventional paper and pencil tests. Such tests have better and easier accessibility and hence do not allow the researchers to control the administration. Consequences Instead of viewing each other suspicion the work psychologists need to create a synergy between both quantitative and qualitative techniques more than anything else. As psychological research moves increasingly from laboratory based studies into real world applications, the methods and analytical tools employed must reflect this increased level of complexity (Patterson, 2001). 6.4. General Advancements of Our Profession

Measuring Individual Differences

One of the most significant achievements that work psychology has gathered during the past few decades is acceptance and recognition among some major organizations. The dramatic spread of the assessment centre approach, designed by work psychologists is a remarkable illustration (Patterson, 2001). However the expansion and diversity in the literature of work psychology has fabricated a chasm between academics and practitioners which can in turn threaten and weaken the discipline itself. Consequences There is a need to find more effective ways to manage the non-linear relation between academics and practitioners. The role of both academics and practitioners is to influence both sets of stakeholders to recognize that pragmatic science is best for all parties, in an effort to create a constructive dialogue (Patterson, 2001).

7. Conclusion Without a doubt, the application of work psychology to organizational world has brought encouraging results in promoting social justice and adorning the employees lives with stressfree work environment. The discipline of measuring individual differences has been a prospered and celebrated landmark in the field of work psychology. For future years, the recent economic and social changes, the organizational landscape has been revolutionized (Patterson, 2001). Anticipated changes are expected to offer a remote area for work psychologists to serve an opportunity for academics and practitioners. However, there is a need for psychological techniques that prioritize workers as humans and not ensemble an employee out of organizationally relevant characteristics of a person. Weiss and Rupp (2011) redefine the

Measuring Individual Differences

purpose of measuring individual differences by stating work psychology as a study of individuals within systems of collective purpose with the focus on what psychology can contribute to aligning individual behavior with that collective purpose (Weiss & Rupp, 2011). To conclude, organizations are habitats for the employees to accomplish a collective goal and the future of work psychology is headed toward endeavors to connect individuals to the institutional objectives to identify and commemorate common goals.

8. References Heidermeir , H., & Goritz, A. (2013). Individual differences in how work and non work life domains contribute to life satisfaction: Using factor mixture modeling for classification. Springer Science Business Media Dordrecht , 12(42).

Measuring Individual Differences

Weiss, H.M. & Rupp, D.E. (2011). Experiencing work: An essay on a person-centric work psychology. Industrial and organizational psychology 4, 83-97.
Huy, L. Robins, I-S, Ilies, S.B., Remus-Holland, E. & Weswick, P. (2011). Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 96(1), Jan 2011, 113-133.

Ivancevich, J. M., Konoposke, R., & Matteson, M. T. (2010). Organizational behavior and management. (7th ed., Vol. 01, p. ch.3). New York, NY: The Mc-Graw Hills Companies. Goffin, R.D.& Boyd, A.C.. (2009). Faking and personality assessment in personnel selection: Advancing models of faking. Canadian Psychology, 50, 151-160. Furnham, A. (2008). Personality and intelligence at work: Exploring and explaining individual differences at work. Routledge. Cooper, C. (2002). Individual differences. Hodder Arnold. Patterson, F. (2001). Developments in work psychology: Emerging issues and future trends. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology , 74(01), 384-390. Retrieved from http://www.geocities.ws/lazaridous/DevelopmentsINworkPsychology.pdf