Evaluating rater training with double-pretest one-posttest designs: an analysis of testing effects and the moderating role of rater self-efficacy

Abstract

Previous research on performance appraisal in Human Resource Management has found that frame-of-reference (FOR) training can improve rating accuracy. However, both the time-consuming development of training materials and the almost exclusive use of experimental evaluation designs limit the dissemination of FOR training as well as a better understanding of how and when it works. Therefore, unlike past research, the present studies used more general rater training materials and examined improvements in rater accuracy by means of a double-pretest one-posttest design. Study 1, using a student sample (the majority being part-time employees; N = 58), demonstrated the effectiveness of the rater training over and above a testing effect. Study 2 with participants from the workforce population (N = 45) replicated these results. In addition, in Study 2, pre-training rater self-efficacy moderated rater training effectiveness such that the rating accuracy of trainees with low self-efficacy improved more than did accuracy scores of trainees high in rater self-efficacy. We conclude that an effective FOR training can be conducted with less organization-specific materials, though both testing effects must be controlled for and individual differences (i.e. rater self-efficacy) between trainees have to be taken into account.     

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes

Abstract

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.     

The macroeconomic determinants of private equity investment: a European comparison

A strong private equity (PE) market is a cornerstone for commercialization and innovation in modern economies. However, substantial differences exist in the relative amounts raised and invested in PE across European countries. We investigate the macroeconomic determinants of PE investment in Europe, focusing on the comparison between Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Western European countries. Our estimations are based on a data set running from 2001 to 2011 that covers 16 countries. Applying robust estimation techniques, we identify a ‘robust’ set of determinants of PE activity in both regions. We find similarities as well as differences in the driving forces of PE investments in Western European and CEE countries. Our results suggest that economic activity, the inflation rate, equity market capitalization, unit labour costs, the unemployment rate as well the the institutional and legal environment are significant determinants of PE activity.     

Material Distortion of Economic Behaviour and Everyday Decision Quality

Misleading information and unfair commercial practices have to be viewed against the background of what consumers otherwise do, i.e., what their purchase decisions look like when no misleading information or no unfair commercial practices are in place. This article provides some of this background by studying how consumers sample information when making an in-store purchase decision. This was done by an eye-tracking study which reveals to what extent consumers succeed in purchasing the products that best meet their purchase intentions when only a representative amount of misleading information is present. The study shows that decisions were suboptimal in relation to what the consumers claimed they wanted to purchase. Only in one product category did consumers in this study actually look at products that were slightly better than average, and as a result, they mainly selected products that were just as often poor as good. If the proportion of bad purchase decisions based on misleading information is small enough, perhaps it might be better to direct the authors’ attention to other ways of improving the decision environments that consumers encounter. In addition, the eye-tracking study provides some insight into how consumers sample information when making an in-store purchase decision. The present data show that consumers invested on average of less than 1 s to look at products.     

The Domestic Sources of Differences in Labour Market Policies

In this article we analyse what drives both the specific choices and the relative amount of change in labour market policies in two countries, Britain and Spain, in the 1990s. Although we find more substantial and radical labour market reform in Britain, Spain experienced greater union inclusion in policy‐making. We examine the roles of economic institutions and the ideology of the governing party and find that neither accounts satisfactorily for the labour market changes in our cases. Domestic political variables, especially electoral factors and the power and autonomy of government, give more insight into the similarities and differences between the two countries.     

Incentives to Participate in an International Environmental Agreement

For international environmental problems involving many countries, such as, e.g., the climate problem, it is unlikely that all countries will participate in an international environmental agreement. If some countries commit themselves to cooperate, while the remaining countries act independently and in pure self-interest, it appears to be possible to achieve a Pareto improvement if the non-signatory countries reduce their emissions, in exchange for transfers from the countries which sign an agreement. However, the paper shows that the prospect of receiving a transfer for reducing one's emissions provided the country does not commit itself to cooperation, tends to reduce the incentive a country might have to commit itself to cooperation. Moreover, if the disincentive effect of such side payments is strong, total emissions will be higher in a situation with side payments than in a situation in which the signatory countries commit themselves to not give transfers to free riding countries.     

Energy taxation: Reasons for discriminating in favor of the production sector

If a small open economy wishes to restrict it's greenhouse gas emissions, it has to decide whether to impose uniform taxes on all polluters or to resort to a discriminatory policy. In practice, countries tend to impose higher taxes on households and to tax the industrial sector more leniently. This paper identifies conditions under which this is efficient. It is shown that an efficiency maximizing tax planner discriminates in favor of the production sector if (i) there are restrictions on the taxation of lump-sum income or if (ii) labor supply exerts market power.     

Self-Enforcing Intergenerational Social Contracts for Pareto Improving Pollution Mitigation

We consider, in an overlapping generations model with an environmental externality, a scheme of contracts between any two successive generations. Under each contract, agents of the young generation invest a share of their labor income in pollution mitigation in exchange for a transfer in the second period of their lives. The transfer is financed in a pay-as-you-go manner by the next young generation. Different from previous work we assume that the transfer is granted as a subsidy to capital income rather than lump sum. We show that the existence of a contract which is Pareto improving over the situation without contract for any two generations requires a sufficiently high level of income. In a steady state with social contracts in each period, the pollution stock is lower compared to a steady state without contracts. Analytical and numerical analysis of the dynamics under Nash bargaining suggests that under reasonable conditions, also steady state income and welfare are higher. Delaying the implementation of a social contract for too long or imposing a contract with too low mitigation can be costly: Net income may inevitably fall below the threshold in finite time so that Pareto improving mitigation is no longer possible and the economy converges to a steady state with high pollution stock and low income and welfare. In the second part of the paper, we study a game theoretic setup, taking into account that credibly committing to a contract might not be possible. We show that with transfers granted as a subsidy to capital income, there exist mitigation transfer schemes which are both Pareto improving and give no generation an incentive to deviate from any of its contracts even in a dynamically efficient economy. Social contracts coexist with private savings.     

Managers’ use of language in corrupt firms’ financial disclosures: Evidence from FCPA violators

This paper explores management’s use of language in financial disclosures of corrupt firms by looking at a sample of firms that have been prosecuted for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). We find that the management of FCPA violators use more negative, less litigious, more complex and less conservative language when disclosing financials than non‐violators. The language effect prior to an FCPA prosecution is driven by firms with low corporate governance performance. By contrast, firms with high corporate governance use less complex and more conservative language before an FCPA prosecution than firms with low corporate governance performance. Furthermore, we find that after an FCPA prosecution the language becomes less litigious and complex than before the FCPA litigation.     

A multilevel examination of the relationship between role overload and employee subjective health: The buffering effect of support climates

Although the belief that support alleviates the detrimental effect of job demands on employee health is intuitive, past research has produced an equivocal picture, requiring a renewed evaluation of this relationship. In the present study, we examine three sources of support (from the organization, leader, and team) that employees may draw from to reduce the negative effect of a specific job demand, that is, role overload. Unlike most prior research, we focus on these sources of support at the group level of analysis to determine the relative effectiveness of organizational support climate, leadership climate, and team climate as moderators of the role overload–subjective health relationship. Hierarchical linear modeling of data from 2,288 employees nested in 132 workgroups in a state administration of Switzerland revealed that, after controlling for individual perceptions of support, team climate weakened the negative relationship between role overload and health. We did not find support for the buffering effect of organizational support or leadership climates. The article provides a nuanced test of the support‐buffering hypothesis by simultaneously exploring individual and group‐level sources of support and by demonstrating that some sources of support matter more than others in ameliorating the negative outcomes of role overload.