Dear colleagues,
Our apologies for (potential) cross-posting.
We, Anna Godollei, Yannick Griep and Gary Latham, are contacting you to invite you to contribute your relevant work to a symposium we are organizing for the 2017 Academy of Management Meeting titled, "Theory and New Approaches to Tackling the Performance Gap" We are also very pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Latham will serve as a discussant in this symposium.
For many years, practitioners and researches alike have struggled with the diversity-validity dilemma in the context of selection. That is, pre-employment assessments which offer the greatest predictive validity for job performance are also ones that result in the greatest adverse impact against protected groups (Pyburn, Ployhart & Kravitz, 2008). Specifically, although cognitive ability assessments are strongly predictive of job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 2004), cognitive assessments and cognitively loaded work samples exhibit significant racial, gender, and minority subgroup mean differences in performance (Roth, Bevier, Bobko, Switzer & Tyler, 2001; Roth, Bobko, McFarland, & Buster, 2008). Mean performance differences on cognitive ability tests coupled with small selection ratios adversely affect the selection of minorities into organizations (Berry, 2015).
Although several attempts have been made to understand this performance gap, including research on test perceptions, test-taking motivation and stereotype threat, there has been very little integration of the research. We believe that a clear theoretical integration of these literatures which explain the causal pathways leading to the performance gap are necessary for further advancement of research, and for the successful implementation of interventions that may address this important issue.
To stimulate scholarly thought on this exciting line of research, we are considering organizing a symposium on "Theory and New Approaches to Tackling the Performance Gap".
Possible topics (non-exhaustive list) that can be addressed in these presentations include:
- Develop and investigate integrative models and interventions that explicate the relationships between test perceptions, test-taking motivation and stereotype threat in order to gain a better understanding of the causal explanations for the performance gap.
- Determine whether pre-test differences in test-perceptions and test-taking motivation exist between subgroups and whether these contribute to the performance gap.
- Explore how stealth assessments which hide the diagnosticity of tests (including games and simulation) may prevent the activation of stereotype threat.
- Examine the relationship between stereotype threat and performance approach and performance avoid goals and what individual differences may determine the adoption of each achievement goal.
- Examine the relationship between performance avoid goals and self-handicapping.
- Develop and test models that take into account the role of time, and the residual effects of stereotype threat on future testing situations.
- Directly examine whether decreases in working memory capacity explain the performance gap, as has been suggested by Schmader, Johns, and Forbes (2008)
If you have research that fits any of the abovementioned topics and if you are interested in participating in this AoM symposium, please inform Anna Godollei (agodolle@ucalgary.ca) before December 21st, 2017. In your email, please provide a very brief description of the research (e.g., purpose, method, analytic approach, results) and specify how you believe it is a good fit for this symposium. We will inform potential contributors as to whether their proposed presentation will be incorporated into the symposium by December 22nd; this will provide scholars the time to find an alternate session for their paper should we not have enough space to include the work of all interested scholars.
For confirmed contributors, we ask that the *required* 2-5 page presentation synopsis be submitted to Anna Godollei (agodolle@ucalgary.ca) no later than January 3rd, 2017. This will allow us time to compose a strong symposium proposal, incorporating ideas from all presentations, and submit it to AOM by the deadline on January 10th, 2017. Each presentation synopsis must use 12pt Times New Roman font, be double-spaced on 8.5" x 11" pages with 1" margins all around and may include a maximum of two additional pages of tables and figures, which must be clear and legible (10pt font or larger).
Regards,
Anna Godollei, University of Calgary
Yannick Griep, University of Calgary
Gary Latham, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto