Vocational interests predict relevant outcomes in individuals’ lives, but most evidence comes from youth. It remains unexplored whether interests continue to predict outcomes across mid- and late-adulthood, and whether their predictive power varies with age. Drawing on life course and motivational lifespan theories, we hypothesized that the relations of interests with life outcomes depend on structural opportunities and constraints that vary across age. We used large-scale, population-representative data (N = 3,596–8,904) to examine whether vocational interests predict work (e.g., income, unemployment, leadership), relationship (e.g., marriage, divorce), and communal (e.g., civic engagement, cultural participation) outcomes assessed eleven years later. Across adulthood (ages 25–67 at interest assessment), interests significantly contributed to all twelve outcomes, demonstrating that interests are predictive of life outcomes after adolescence and young adulthood. Age-moderation analyses using local structural equation modeling and age-group specific analyses indicated that many interest–outcome links remained stable throughout adulthood but revealed some differentiated patterns consistent with age-graded opportunities and constraints. Specifically, links between interests and work outcomes were often strongest in mid-career and largely remained stable thereafter. For relationship outcomes, the predictive strength of interests peaked in early adulthood and weakened over midlife. For communal outcomes, most age variation in the predictive strength of interests occurred in later adulthood. Overall, results add a lifespan perspective to interest theory and suggest that age can provide a relevant context to realize interests through life choices, which should be considered in theory and practice.

Attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) theory proposes that “the people make the place” and has served as a foundation for many areas of organizational research. In this review, we take stock of the ASA literature to identify what we know and what we need to know about ASA processes and their effects on organizations. Based on a review of over 6,000 articles that cited ASA, we identified 321 studies that used the theory as a basis for their hypotheses. However, only 77 (24%) of those studies actually tested an aspect of the theory. For example, although ASA is an organizational-level theory, most studies used the theory to test phenomena at other levels, such as individuals, teams, or occupations. Among studies that did test the theory, very few directly assessed its core hypotheses. For instance, only one published study directly tested the central hypothesis that ASA processes lead to homogeneity. Moreover, some parts of the theory were not supported. As an example, although the theory suggests that ASA processes will reduce organizational effectiveness, several studies found that homogeneity was associated with better performance. Although the amount of empirical support for ASA theory was uneven, we believe it still has the potential to help understand organizations and the people that make them. To that end, we provide an agenda for future research that prioritizes how to best test ASA’s core hypotheses. We also highlight connections between ASA and other theories and literatures that examine similar phenomena to inspire future research opportunities.

Vocational interest research has seen a resurgence in the applied psychology literature, given evidence showing its predictive validity for key work outcomes. There is a need for integrative, reliable, and valid measures to advance research in this space. While the RIASEC model of vocational interests (Holland, 1997) has been the most widely used and studied typology for the assessment of six broad interest types, more recent work with the SETPOINT model (Su et al., 2019) suggests that eight interest dimensions provide better fit to interest data and demonstrates stronger criterion-related validity evidence. However, to date, no short scales are available for measuring the broad SETPOINT dimensions. We developed three short scales with 8, 24, and 41 items, respectively, that capture the eight dimensions of the SETPOINT model in an integrative manner. Using a sample of 972 full-time working adults assessed across two-time points over five weeks, we validated these three short scales following robust psychometric analyses. These scales are shown to have good psychometric properties. The development and validation of the three short scales help close the operational gap for the SETPOINT model and further facilitate the study of interests and use of interest measures in academic and applied settings.

We discuss how using vocational interests in the selection process can help address the diversity-validity dilemma. First, we point out how incorporating vocational interests as predictors in selection could help to reduce adverse impact. We further suggest that by using optimal predictor weights, one could simultaneously improve validity while enhancing organisational diversity. Finally, the predictive validity of vocational interests arises from their ability to capture the congruence between individuals and occupations, which is a cross-level phenomenon. Thus, when gathering validity evidence for vocational interests, multi-occupation samples should be incorporated into validation efforts.

The article presents a personal historical review of the person-organization fit (PO) literature by Amy Kristof-Brown, Benjamin Schneider and Rong Su. We present six conundrums and research evidence about each that we've encountered while studying fit during our careers: (1) What exactly is PO fit?-the term can be narrowly or broadly defined, but must be distinguished from other forms of Person-Environment (PE) fit; (2) What is the best way to measure PO fit?-there are a variety of ways, each with strengths and liabilities and the measure of P and O can vary across a variety of attributes; (3) At what level of analysis is PO fit?-although conceptually cross-level, it has been studied most frequently as an individual-level variable; (4) To what extent does PO fit actually matter?-quite a bit, especially with regard to individual attitudes and turnover, but there are many caveats including measures and national culture; (5) Is PO fit always desirable?-for individuals generally yes, but there can be benefits of misfit; for organizations the answer is still unknown, particularly with regard to diversity; and (6) What are the implications of PO fit change over time?-it is clear that people engage in purposeful activity toward establishing fit in their lives, and purposeful organizational tactics toward accomplishing productive fit is recommended. Addressing these conundrums, we provide thoughts on future directions for research on PO fit and practical implications for managers who want to maximize the benefits of PO fit.

In recent years, a rapidly growing literature has shed light on important costs and benefits of prosocial motivation in the workplace. However, researchers have studied prosocial motivation using various labels, conceptualizations, and operationalizations, leaving this body of knowledge fragmented. In this study, we contribute to the literature by providing an integrated framework that organizes extant constructs and measures of prosocial motives along two dimensions: level of autonomy (discretionary/obligatory) and level of generality (global/contextual/positional). Drawing upon this framework, we conducted a meta-analysis with 252 samples and 666 effect sizes to examine the effects of prosocial motivation on workplace outcomes. Moderator analyses were performed to resolve inconsistencies in the empirical literature and understand the context under which prosocial motivation had the strongest or weakest effect. We found that prosocial motivation, in general, was beneficial for employee well-being (𝜌̅ = .23), prosocial behavior (𝜌̅ = .35), job performance (𝜌̅ = .20), and career success (𝜌̅ = .06). The direction and magnitude of these effects depended on the autonomy, generality, and measurement of prosocial motivation, the nature of the outcome (i.e., type of prosocial behavior, subjectivity of performance measures, and forms of career success), as well as the cultural context. Importantly, prosocial motivation had incremental validity above and beyond general cognitive ability and Big Five personality traits for predicting all four outcomes. We discuss the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications from these findings and offer a guiding framework for future research efforts.

Summary The number of empirical studies on contemporary career attitudes (e.g., protean and boundaryless career orientation) has grown in volume, and yet our understanding of how these attitudes relate to career and job outcomes is rather limited. There are inconsistent findings on these career attitudes and their outcomes. The purpose of this review is to integrate the two core arguments that explain this inconsistency: (1) there is a need for greater construct clarity in the attitudes, and (2) the current career environment has not seen a complete dissolution of the conditions underlying traditional, employer‐centric careers. We begin to develop an integrative conceptual framework to explain the effects of contemporary career attitudes and conducted a comprehensive meta‐analysis of these attitude constructs with their outcomes and correlates. Results of the meta‐analysis generally provided support for the explanation that the current career environment is a blend of employer‐ and employee‐centric elements, and the greater conceptual distance a contemporary career attitude dimension has from this blended environment and is towards a more purely employee‐centric environment, the less beneficial it will be to outcomes. Drawing from our findings, we provide a systematic guide highlighting the areas where additional research is needed on the study of contemporary career attitudes.

The current research proposes to incorporate vocational interests into the study of adverse impact (i.e., differential hiring/selection rates between minority and majority groups in employment settings). In the context of high stakes testing (e.g., using cognitive and personality tests), we show how race gaps in vocational interests would correspond to differential rates of job attraction (the attraction process) and various personnel selection outcomes (the selection process), in patterns that are not always intuitive. Using findings from various meta-analyses, we construct a combined correlation matrix of race, vocational interests, cognitive ability, and Conscientiousness; and provide mathematical formulas to assess the role of vocational interests in determining subgroup differences on predictors in applicant pools. Results and empirical examples suggest: (a) applicant attraction based on vocational interests can reduce adverse impact potential when the interest favors the minority [majority] group and is negatively [positively] related to the predictor; (b) attraction effects of vocational interests on adverse impact potential are modest; (c) if the vocational interest subgroup mean difference is small relative to other predictors in use, personnel selection on the interest will reduce adverse impact potential; (d) attraction effects tend to dampen or remove the selection effects of vocational interests on adverse impact potential, due to variance restriction on interests in the applicant pool; and (e) selection effects tend to be much stronger than attraction effects. These findings have implications for how adverse impact might differ systematically across job types, partly due to attraction and selection effects involving race differences in vocational interests. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study investigated whether Black and White Americans differed on the dimensions of Holland’s RIASEC model of vocational interests. Theoretical explanations of why racial differences in interests may occur are advanced drawing on Gottfredson’s ( 1981 ) theory of circumscription and compromise, and social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). A meta-analysis of 54 studies was conducted that included 926,462 participants and 306 effect sizes. Our results showed that, on average, Black Americans have stronger Social, Enterprising, and Conventional interests than White Americans; and White Americans have stronger Realistic and Investigative interests than Black Americans (no differences found on Artistic interests). Further, moderator analyses revealed that: (a) the Black-White gaps in Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional interests all increase with education (in particular, with the onset of college), (b) the gaps in Social, Enterprising, and Conventional interests favoring Black Americans increase with age, and the gap in Realistic interests favoring White Americans decreases with age (although age and education effects tend to be confounded), (c) race gaps in Realistic and Social interests are larger in male samples, and (d) race gaps in Social, Enterprising, and Conventional interests may have decreased (but not disappeared) in more recent birth cohorts. We discuss these findings highlighting the roles of access to opportunity and of social identity in potentially giving rise to racial differences in interests. This research helps us discern factors that may contribute to diversity recruiting and the building of diverse talent pipelines in various careers.

This chapter begins to establish a theoretical framework of what interests are, how interests are represented and organized in the human mind, and where interests are positioned in the nomological network. It reviews that research from educational psychology and vocational psychology, in which interests are conceptualized as states and traits, respectively. The chapter discusses incorporate insights from other fields—notably, behavioral genetics, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology—to bridge the state and trait perspectives on interests and to develop theoretical propositions that establish an integrative framework. The chapter addresses some of the fundamental issues and presents an overview of new conceptualizations of interests, followed by a discussion of our proposed theoretical framework and a series of specific propositions. Studies on trait complexes and integrative frameworks of individual differences provide a new approach to understanding the nature of interests. Interests and values are similar in that they are both contextualized and involve external objects.

A growing volume of research has used polynomial regression analysis (PRA) to examine congruence effects in a broad range of organizational phenomena. However, conclusions from congruence studies, even ones using the same theoretical framework, vary substantially. We argue that conflicting findings from congruence research can be attributable to several methodological artifacts, including measurement error, collinearity among predictors, and sampling error. These methodological artifacts can significantly affect the estimation accuracy of PRA and undermine the validity of conclusions from primary studies as well as meta-analytic reviews of congruence research. We introduce two alternative methods that address this concern by modeling congruence within a latent variable framework: latent moderated structural equations (LMS) and reliability-corrected single-indicator LMS (SI-LMS). Using a large-scale simulation study with 6,322 conditions and close to 1.9 million replications, we showed how methodological artifacts affected the performance of PRA, specifically, its (un)biasedness, precision, Type I error rate, and power in estimating linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. We also demonstrated the substantial advantages of LMS and SI-LMS compared with PRA in providing accurate and precise estimates, particularly under undesirable conditions. Based on these findings, we discuss how these new methods can help researchers find more consistent effects and draw more meaningful theoretical conclusions in future research. We offer practical recommendations regarding study design, model selection, and sample size planning. In addition, we provide example syntax to facilitate the application of LMS and SI-LMS in congruence research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Although hospitality is a valued social and cultural phenomenon, it has been largely overlooked in the psychology research literature.Our studies are designed to advance the understanding of hospitality by creating a brief measure of it that can be used across cultures.In Study 1, we employed a large sample of Americans to create and begin validation of a measure of hospitality: the Brief Hospitality Scale, or BHS.In all nations and both studies, the scale had a single strong factor and high internal consistency.In Study 2, we administered the measure to respondents from 11 nations and found that people in some countries (e.g., Iran) are significantly more hospitable than people in others (e.g., Singapore).The strongest personality correlates of hospitality were those associated with social characteristics such as extraversion, agreeableness, and feelings of group belonging.The very strongest association with hospitality was the ability to see the perspective of others.Thus, hospitality represents more than simple sociability, and seems to rest on feelings of togetherness with others, concern for their wellbeing, and positive feelings toward them.We found in both studies that hospitality is associated with higher levels of wellbeing, for example, optimism, psychosocial flourishing, and positive affect.

The growing fluidity of team composition signifies new requirements for teams to survive and prosper. In order to answer whether, how, and when teams could gain rather than lose from membership flux, this study conducts a meta-analysis on team receptivity to newcomers, which captures the work teams’ responses to the newcomer. Results show that team receptivity is positively related to team performance, newcomer performance, and newcomer commitment to the focal team. Organizational socialization activities, inter-team competition, team experience in membership change, newcomer competence, and newcomer prototypicality all contribute to a team’s receptivity. In addition, the team receptivity-performance relationship is stronger when the newcomer joins as a replacement of an old-timer than as a pure addition to the team in field studies but not in lab experiments. This study contributes to team research in membership change and team receptivity, examines the relatively overlooked direction of how newcomer entry impacts work teams in the socialization literature, and provides practical guidance on teams exerting the benefits brought by newcomer entry.