Abstract In this chapter, we provide a selective review of the employee recruitment literature, concentrating on the areas that are most germane to personnel assessment and selection. We discuss three theories in which propositions are particularly relevant to the intersection of recruitment and selection: the attraction-selection-attrition framework, signaling theory, and human capital resource emergence. We then review research that corresponds to the three stages of recruitment: influencing applicants to apply, maintaining applicant status, and influencing job choice. In the first stage, we review research on the various methods used to source applicants (e.g., referrals, job boards, college campus recruitment, social media); targeted recruitment of women and racial minorities; and employer branding efforts. In the second stage, we focus on applicant reactions to selection and recruitment practices. Finally, in the third stage, we note that research on predictors of ultimate job choice exists but is sparse and fragmented. Throughout our review, we provide suggestions for future research at the intersection of recruitment and selection.

Coping with work-related stress is a key component of several theories that focus on employee well-being and performance. Yet, despite the myriad of ways that employees can cope, little is known about the complexities surrounding how employees may deploy multiple coping strategies in conjunction, particularly during unprecedented, uncontrollable, and novel socio-environmental events that disrupt work life, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from the cybernetic theory of stress, we posit that taking a person-centered approach to coping may uncover the complex ways that employees cope with stress simultaneously, generating distinct profiles of coping. To illustrate this, we focus on employee coping within a context that has served as a significant socio-environmental jolt—working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across two studies, we first consider distinct profiles of coping that may emerge (Study 1). We then consider antecedents related to the pandemic (i.e., work uncertainty, work location, and work arrangement autonomy) as well as outcomes of profile membership, including somatic complaints, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and job performance (Study 2). Combined, our research contributes to the coping and stress literatures by adopting a person-centered approach that identifies how profiles of coping—rather than any one particular strategy in isolation—may facilitate employee well-being, work attitudes, and performance during periods of heightened work stress and uncertainty.

Curiosity is a topic of great interest for both scholars and practitioners. It has been associated with numerous positive outcomes in the workplace including job performance (Reio & Callahan, 2004), organizational commitment (Mussel & Spengler, 2015), proactive behaviors (Wang & Li, 2015), and work engagement (Kashdan et al., 2020). However, there remain key unanswered questions about the effects of curiosity in the workplace. The four papers in this symposium each address an important unanswered question about the effects of curiosity in the workplace, providing both scholars and practitioners will a more comprehensive understanding of how curiosity can be used to help individuals and organizations attain their goals. These papers examine both the positive and negative aspects of curiosity in the workplace and explore how the curiosity of one individual can affect those around them. A Curious Case of Curiosity: An Integrative Review of Recent and Seemingly Contradictory Findings Presenter: Bowen Ruan; Tippie College of Business, U. of Iowa Presenter: Christopher Hsee; U. Of Chicago Curious at the Top: How the Drive to Explore Shapes Top Executives’ Leadership and Careers Presenter: Karyn Dossinger; Loyola U. Chicago Presenter: Spencer Harrison; INSEAD Curiosity Led the Cat: The Impact of Leader Curiosity and Gender on Team Performance Presenter: Jonathan Evans; U. of British Columbia Presenter: Jerel Slaughter; U. of Arizona Presenter: Stephanie Jingxian Yu; - The role of showcasing curiosity in information-gathering Presenter: Bushra Sarah Guenoun; Harvard Business School Presenter: Francesca Gino; Harvard U. Presenter: Spencer Harrison; INSEAD

This paper introduces an active–passive framework to the conceptualization and measurement of counterproductive work behavior (CWB), in order to establish a dimension that categorizes the content of behaviors within the existing interpersonally directed (CWBI) and organizationally directed (CWBO) framework. Doing so provides new insights into the relationship between workplace counterproductivity and sleep. Stressor-emotion models of CWB predict that employees engage in counterproductivity in response to workplace stressors, but extant research suggests that counterproductive behavior increases strain, including reduced sleep quality. We develop a new scale for measuring CWB that differentiates active and passive behaviors and demonstrates the potential for positive intrapsychic consequences for passive CWBI. In Study 1, using five samples, we demonstrate the convergent and discriminant validity, reliability, and acceptable psychometric properties of a 19-item scale that reconceptualizes CWB into four dimensions: active CWBI, passive CWBI, active CWBO, and passive CWBO. In Study 2, using experience-sampling methodology, we found that when employees engage in active CWBO at work in the afternoon they experience reduced sleep quality that evening, whereas engaging in passive CWBI was related to increased sleep quality.

Job search scholarship has established the job search as a self-regulatory, within-individual process that individuals engage in as they pursue new employment opportunities. Traditional scholarship has focused on job search quantity –the degree of effort exerted–and offers received as a result of job search efforts potentially at the neglect of understanding factors that impact job search quality. Therefore, recent job search scholarship has begun to shift away from this conventional paradigm to instead focus on the quality of job seekers job search experiences and different factors that impact job seeker well-being and perceptions. This symposium includes four papers that address job seeker well-being (e.g., psychological resources) and job search quality (e.g., types of search effort) as well as investigating psychosocial aspects of job seekers search experiences (e.g., degree of network centrality, volunteer work while unemployed). These papers are indicative of current trends in the job search literature and represent promising new streams for future research areas. The symposium also platforms preeminent job search scholar, Dr. Connie Wanberg, as the discussant of these works in progress. THE ROLE OF JOB SEARCH EXPERIENCE IN THE EMERGENCE OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT ATTITUDES Presenter: Serge P. Da Motta Veiga; EDHEC Business School Presenter: Shuhua Sun; Tulane U. Presenter: Ray Fang; Boise State U. VOLUNTEER WORK DURING UNEMPLOYMENT: DOES IT PAY OFF? A 5-WAVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY Presenter: Sarah Van Den Hee; U. of Amsterdam Presenter: Edwin A.J. Van Hooft; U. of Amsterdam OPPOSING EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL ON JOB SEARCH SELF-REGULATION Presenter: Jomel Wei Xuan Ng; National U. of Singapore THE INFLUENCE OF CHALLENGE AND HINDRANCE APPRAISALS ON SEARCH BEHAVIOR AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Presenter: Rebecca MacGowan; U. of Arkansas Presenter: Mahira Ganster; U. of Arizona Presenter: Nitya Chawla; Texas A&M U. Presenter: Jerel Slaughter; U. of Arizona

Applied to COVID-19, individuals could recognize that negative emotions (e g , frustration) indicate that their current state (e g , working from home with kids) is discrepant from their ideal state (e g , being able to hold a call or Zoom meeting without interruption), signaling that added effort is needed to resolve this issue Fredrickson (2003) also offers sentiments in her broaden-and-build theory, suggesting that positive emotions can help employees foster the resilience they need to make progress during a crisis (Fredrickson etal , 2003) [ ]people may feel calm and happy that they are able to work from home and maintain employment, spurring productivity [ ]healthcare workers who face challenging job demands and conditions (e g , lack of personal protective equipment or working in hospitals where crisis care has been evoked) are likely to feel heightened fear as they expose themselves to the people with the virus, yetalso feel gratitude for their coworkers who are with them and community members who are celebrating them [ ]capturing how emotions are jointly experienced is a crucial means to understanding how working during COVID-19 affects employee health, motivation, and performance

While some organizations are thriving during the COVID-19 pandemic, many are experiencing a crisis-a threat to organizational longevity, time pressure, and inadequate resources. Building on prior work examining emotions during times of crisis and changes that people undergo during major life transitions, as well as media accounts suggesting that employees have had positive and negative emotions tied to aspects of working during COVID-19, we adopt a person-centric view to examine profiles of monthly emotions regarding organizational reopening. Additionally, we consider how employees transition from one profile of emotions to another across months. In so doing, we consider whether feelings of hope, gratitude, fear, and resentment co-occur for employees; how employees transition across profiles from one month to the next as a function of perceptions of organizational leaders' trustworthiness and their handling of the COVID-19 crisis; and how changes in profile membership relate to employee well-being, work outcomes, and prevention behaviors to avoid contracting COVID-19. Using 1,422 total measurements from August 2020 to November 2020 from employees at a single university during two monthly transitions with significant crisis-related events (i.e., return to in-person teaching, students living on campus, announcement of pay cuts and furloughs, and the subsequent announcement that some of those conditions would change), we identified four profiles of monthly emotions, with perceived leader trustworthiness and handling of the pandemic being critical features of why employees belonged to different profiles between August-September and October-November. Further, we found implications of monthly transitions for work and COVID-related outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

New labor market entrants face significant hurdles when searching for a job, with these stressors likely amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we consider how COVID-induced job search anxiety-feeling anxious about one's job search due to issues imposed by the pandemic-has the potential to affect adaptive, goal-directed efforts, and maladaptive, goal-avoidant reactions. We theorize that this anxiety can prompt job seekers to engage in problem-solving pondering and affect-focused rumination, with these experiences relating to whether job seekers engage in various forms of search-related efforts the following week. In particular, we consider whether job seekers are engaging in dream job search effort (i.e., effort toward pursuing one's dream job), as well as focused (i.e., effort toward a selection of carefully screened jobs), exploratory (i.e., effort toward a wide swath of jobs in a broad manner), and haphazard (i.e., effort toward applying for any job without a clear plan) job search effort. Further, we consider how stable beliefs relevant to the pandemic (i.e., belief in conspiracy theories; belief in COVID-19 being a public health crisis) affect the aforementioned relationships. Using a weekly study of 162 new labor market entrants, results indicated that COVID-induced job search anxiety positively related to problem-solving pondering and affect-focused rumination; problem-solving pondering promoted dream, focused, and exploratory job search effort the following week, whereas affect-focused rumination hindered dream job search effort. Finally, the detrimental effects of COVID-induced job search anxiety via affect-focused rumination were amplified for those who held higher levels of conspiracy theory beliefs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

New labor market entrants (i.e., first-time job seekers) face significant hurdles when searching for a job for the first time, with these stressors likely amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the current investigation, we consider the maladaptive and adaptive consequences of COVID-induced job search anxiety, defined as feeling anxious and tense in one’s job search due to issues imposed by the pandemic. We theorize that this state of anxiety can prompt job seekers to engage in affect-focused rumination (maladaptive) and problem-solving pondering (adaptive) week-to-week. We further argue that COVID-induced job search anxiety will affect job seekers’ subsequent striving for their dream job and insomnia (i.e., both performance and well being implications). Finally, we consider how stable beliefs relevant to life in the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., beliefs in conspiracy theories; beliefs in COVID-19 being a public health crisis) have the potential to affect the aforementioned within-person relationships. Using a sample of 162 new labor market entrants who provided 816 weekly data points, results indicated that COVID-induced job search anxiety positively related to affect-focused rumination and problem-solving pondering; affect-focused rumination hindered striving for one’s dream job and promoted insomnia the next week, whereas problem-solving pondering helped encourage striving for one’s dream job. Further, the detrimental effects of COVID-induced job search anxiety via affect focused rumination were amplified for those who held higher levels of conspiracy theory beliefs.

Meta-analytic findings suggest that strongly enforcing ethical codes of conduct reduces unethical behaviour. However, this conclusion is based on a limited number of studies, leading ethics scholars to suggest that we need to know more about the effects of codes. Furthermore, the importance of understanding how individual differences may interact with situational characteristics to influence unethical behaviour has long been recognized, but few studies have examined both personal and situational variables. Using norm focus theory as an organizing framework, the authors argue that enforcement of an ethical code of conduct and individual-level conscientiousness interacts to influence unethical behaviour. In Study 1, participants attended a laboratory session in which a code of conduct was presented and the participants had the opportunity to earn additional compensation if they acted unethically. Participants engaged in less unethical behaviour after they observed strict enforcement, but this was qualified by an enforcement x conscientiousness interaction: Strict enforcement led to lower unethical behaviour only among those who were more conscientious. In Study 2, a survey of working adults showed that the relation between code enforcement and unethical behaviour was mediated by a focus on injunctive norms, but only among those who were more conscientious. The findings therefore indicate that there are important boundary conditions on the effects of codes of conduct.

Workers’ compensation costs are a substantial expense for employers. Given mixed results of training and job redesign interventions designed to reduce accidents leading to claims, organizations may wish to reduce these costs by screening job applicants with integrity tests. Building on theories of workplace safety and malingering (i.e., faking or exaggerating injuries for personal gain), we argue that overt integrity tests predict workers’ compensation claims through both workplace injuries and malingering. Analyses of archival data from three organizations (study 1) found screening job applicants reduced workers’ compensation claim rates and related costs, demonstrating a return on investment of 734% in one sample and 866% in another. In a three-wave survey of working adults (study 2), integrity test scores related directly to malingering, and indirectly to workplace injuries through motivation to work safely and compliance with safety rules. Analyses of three common dimensions of overt integrity tests (substance abuse, aggression, and theft) found theft scores directly related to malingering, and indirectly related to injuries through lower safety compliance. Substance abuse scores were related to higher rates of injury through lower safety motivation and compliance. Aggression scores were not related to malingering or injuries. We conclude that screening job applicants with overt integrity tests can be a cost-effective way to reduce unnecessary workplace injuries, malingering, and the related workers’ compensation claims.

Advancements in theories of self-control have called into question several decades’ worth of management research (Kotabe & Hofmann, 2015; Lian, Yam, Ferris, & Brown, 2017). Central to these theories is the tenet that self-control is a process with multiple, interdependent points of potential failure. This puts organizational scholars in a difficult position, as most management research treats self-control as a single variable. We address this shortcoming by conceptualizing the multicomponent self-control process that culminates in unethical behavior. Our studies illustrate how an individual’s moral identity constitutes a higher-order goal that motivates them to utilize state mindfulness (a form of self-control capacity) to override the desire to cheat. Further, we illustrate how sleep—a naturally-occurring antecedent of state mindfulness—jump-starts the self-control process. In Study 1, we examine the mediating role of state mindfulness in the relationship between sleep quantity and cheating. In Study 2, we manipulate sleep quantity and introduce moral identity as a higher-order goal that directs state mindfulness—and thus self-control capacity—toward resisting the desire to cheat. Lastly, in Study 3, we manipulate state mindfulness and again demonstrate how moral identity operates as a higher-order goal that determines whether individuals utilize state mindfulness to restrain from cheating.

Meta‐analytic findings suggest that strongly enforcing ethical codes of conduct reduces unethical behaviour. However, this conclusion is based on a limited number of studies, leading ethics scholars to suggest that we need to know more about the effects of codes. Furthermore, the importance of understanding how individual differences may interact with situational characteristics to influence unethical behaviour has long been recognized, but few studies have examined both personal and situational variables. Using norm focus theory as an organizing framework, the authors argue that enforcement of an ethical code of conduct and individual‐level conscientiousness interacts to influence unethical behaviour. In Study 1, participants attended a laboratory session in which a code of conduct was presented and the participants had the opportunity to earn additional compensation if they acted unethically. Participants engaged in less unethical behaviour after they observed strict enforcement, but this was qualified by an enforcement x conscientiousness interaction: Strict enforcement led to lower unethical behaviour only among those who were more conscientious. In Study 2, a survey of working adults showed that the relation between code enforcement and unethical behaviour was mediated by a focus on injunctive norms, but only among those who were more conscientious. The findings therefore indicate that there are important boundary conditions on the effects of codes of conduct.Practitioner points When people are aware of a code of conduct, but have no information about how strongly the code of conduct is enforced, they view enforcement as similar to a situation wherein they witness weak enforcement. Strongly enforced codes of conduct serve to (1) increase the importance of avoiding unethical behaviour, and (2) reduce the magnitude of unethical behaviour, but only among those who are more conscientiousness. To ensure reduction of unethical behaviour, organizations must strongly enforce codes and select employees who are highly conscientious. Alternatively, organizations may test different methods of enforcement to identify those that are effective in reducing unethical behaviour regardless of how conscientious employees are.

Although research has added to our understanding of the positive and negative effects of the use of humor at work, scholars have paid little attention to characteristics of the humor source. We argue that this is an important oversight, particularly in terms of gender. Guided by parallel-constraint-satisfaction theory (PCST), we propose that gender plays an important role in understanding when using humor at work can have costs for the humor source. Humor has the potential to be interpreted as either a functional or disruptive work behavior. Based on PCST, we argue that gender stereotypes constrain the interpretation of observed humor such that humor expressed by males is likely to be interpreted as more functional and less disruptive compared with humor expressed by females. As a result, humorous males are ascribed higher status compared with nonhumorous males, while humorous females are ascribed lower status compared with nonhumorous females. These differences have implications for subsequent performance evaluations and assessments of leadership capability. Results from an experiment with 216 participants provides support for the moderated mediation model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This investigation examined whether previous findings in preferential selection using laboratory simulations, which have used leadership tasks and perceived performance, generalize to cognitively oriented tasks and actual performance. We tested competing perspectives derived from two theoretical accounts of stereotype threat theory: regulatory focus and executive control interference. Non-stigmatized (Whites and Asians) and stigmatized (Hispanics and Blacks; total n = 513) individuals first took a cognitive ability test to be selected for a subsequent task and a chance to win a cash prize. They were then randomly assigned to an explanation concerning selection for a proofreading task based on merit, gender, or race. Results tended to support the regulatory focus view. The main study showed there were no significant differences in performance quantity or quality among participants who were selected based on merit or gender. Among those selected on race, stigmatized participants had lower performance quantity but higher performance quality (i.e., they were slower but more accurate) than non-stigmatized participants. A follow-up study (n = 252) found that stigmatized people selected based on race had more prevention concerns than non-stigmatized people. We discuss previous findings in preferential selection research utilizing experiments and conclude that the regulatory focus perspective can account for these results. Our research also shows that by using different outcomes, it is possible to qualify the allegedly harmful effects of preferential selection. This study is the first to experimentally examine the effects of preferential selection on actual task performance in cognitively oriented tasks.