Decision Making at Work

Between-interviewer factors influencing the decision making time of interviewers are the interview structure, such as the questions' consistency or rapport building (question consistency is significantly associated with longer decisions, while rapport building is associated with shorter decision time), as well as the individual differences of the interviewers, such as their experience and training (negeative relationship between interviewing efficacy and decision making time; interviewers with more experience tend to make quicker decisions).

As to the within-interviewer factors, one significant one was the interview order, for instance the order in which interviewers interview a slate of applicants. 

The relationship between the interview order and the decision-making time is curvilinear.
Early on, there is a positive relationship between the two variables, in a way that decision time increases as interviewers progress through the first few applicants. After about four applicants, decision time reaches an asymptote and then begins to decrease as interviewers evaluate additional applicants. This occurs due to the interviewer’s transition from effortful to automatic information processing strategies.

Based on the findings, scheduling breaks between interviews might reduce the extent to which interviewers rely on cognitive schemas for reducing the (cognitive) demand of applicant evaluation. 
Furthermore, "refresher trainings" for experienced interviewes might help reframing the evaluation process as a toughtfulness-demanding and important task. 
The process can also be improved by training interviewers to use structured procedures that focus on job-relevant questions and information, as well as emphasizing deliberate information processing strategies that may help to reduce interviewers’ tendencies to make quick decision. 

Adverse impact describes a disparity in selection for hiring or promotion, that disadvantages individuals of a particular race, ethnicity or sex.
The dilemma situation relies on the fact that cost-effective procedures with high criterion-related validity (e.g. cognitive ability tests) exhibit high level of adverse impact. On the other hand, alternatives that also exhibit high level of validity but less adverse impact (e.g. structured interviews or assessment centers) are too costly to administer to a large number of candidates.

The effect of adverse impact might be reduced by using computer scoring techniques for applicant's essays, since they showed no gender or ethnicity differences.
The scores generated by the computer show a similar reliability as human rater scores. Convergent and divergent validity are also given, since the correlation between the computer scores and human scores for the same competency are larger than with other competencies.
Additionall, cmputer scores can substantially reduce costs.
Finally, computer scores can identify applicants, who would have otherwise not been recognized, since not only keyword-programs are used.

There are three main steps in a computer modeling analysis process.
The first step is text mining, where the meaningful information of an unstructured text-based data is extracted. In the second step, a predictive model is generated via regression. This model is used to predict rater's scores. In the third an final step, the predictive model is applied to new data. This produces the computer scores. 

There are several possible ways to use computer scores such as replacing one rater or eliminating the lowest scoring candidates. Five AR questions are reliable enough in case one AR is revised. The minimum sample size to use computer scoring is not excessively high, such as about 500 in this setting.
Practitioners interested in trying out the computer scoring apporach might start to use existing datasets within the organization that contain constructed response data (e.g. applications). Here, only criterion data would be necessary to allow the creation of a computer scoring model, such as job performance, turnover, or ratings by subject matter experts.

Company-backed expatriates are employees who are supported by a company to undertake an international assignment. 
Self-initiated expatriates, on the other hand, are employees who themselves want to take on an international working opportunity without the support or sponsoship of an organization. 

Company-backed expatriates might be motivated by the prospect of professional development, career opportunities, monetary considerations, international experience and/ or the location. 
Self-initiated expatriates might be motivated by the prospects to explore, escape their current situation, financial opportunities, build their career, adventure and/ or family reasons. 

Four factors influencing the decision to go abroad are the location, home-host relations, foreign experience and personal relationships. (furthermore: host (good reputation), career, family benefits, push factors)

Dependend on what motivates the company-backed vs. self-initiated expatriates, different incentives should be used for applicants. To ensure an optimal fit, a clear distinction of the two groups is needed, to ensure interest match between the individual and the company.
It has been suggested that self-initiated individuals usually lack any organisation specific track record which increases the need for sophisticated selection, induction and knowledge management approaches. For the self-initiated, attraction and retention processes need to take account of the particular nature of this population, including their approach to choice of destination and their protean attitude towards career. Research suggests the need for a more holistic approach to recruitment incorporating realistic job previews and realistic living conditions previews.

The term "self-concept clarity" describes a personality trait-like construct. It is the extent of the sense of how a person is, their strengths and weeknesses, the nature of their personality and their standpoint in life.
The content of this construct refers to the contents of the self-concept in the form of self-representations, while the structure of self-concept clarity connects and organizes these self-representations into a meta-perspective of the self. 

Due to the confrontation with an unfamiliar environment containing different norms, values and behaviors, the personal beliefs of an individiual are questioned and as a result strengthened or discarded. This process is mediated by self-discerning reflections on whether parts of the person's identity are truly theirs or only reflect their cultural upbringing. 

According to the study, the depth of living abroad experiences (length of a stay) predicts self-concept clarity, not the breadth (how many countries). The same goes for career-decision making clarity, where self-concept clarity functions as a mediator. 
It is implicit in this argument that the clearer one’s understanding of the self, the higher the likelihood of making effective career choices. Indeed, having relevant information about the self, such as one’s skills, abilities, vocational interests, aspirations, and career goals, significantly reduces career indecision.

Kempen:
The underlying process is explained by self-discerning reflections. According to the authors, living abroad leads to self-discerning reflections on whether parts of an identity truly define who a person is or merely represent their cultural upbringing. They also mention that cultural values are put to the test while living abroad.
Specifically, a cultural shock may occur when own cultural values are questioned which in turn leads to self discerning reflections (and more self concept clarity).

The challenges in researching expatriate's motifs are for one a lack of insight into the expatriate's thoughts and feelings, as well as the danger of social desirability (motives externally not intrinsic) which could lead to falsifications.

The three groups of nudges proposed by Hollands and colleagues are altering properties (labelling, sizing, functional design), altering placement (availability, proximity) or altering both (priming and combined nudging).
One example for placement would be placing healthier food on easily reachable shelfs in the supermarket to promote healthy eating, while putting unhealthy foods in the lowest or highest shelfs.

One example for nudging people in the direction of sustainable consumption decisions is the "choose your favourite football player" box system in London, aiming at reducing cigarette litter in the streets. People can vote for their favourite player (player A vs. B) by putting the used cigarette end in the respective box. That way, the streets are less dirty and people are nudged towards less littering. This method focuses on altering properties and placement. 
Another example would be smaller plates for reducing food waste at buffets, which would fall under the category of altering properties. If the plates provided for the buffet guests are smaller, people do not tend to overload their plates with food that they will probably not finished and which will be thrown away. With smaller plates, such waste can be reduced. 

(Prompts, Social modelling, Cognitive dissonance (e.g. foot in the door technique), goal-setting)

Independent individuals will put their own features and goals in the centre of their attention. Interdependent individuals will set their focus on their social context and pursue collective goals, before focussing on personal goals.
In individualistic cultures, independence is valued higher, therefore it is more likely, that this norm is internalized, whereas in collectivist culture interdependence plays a more important role and is more likely to be internalized.

The CDMP (=career decision-making profile) scale can be structured into three groups: self-oriented strategies, such as aspiration for an ideal occupation or internal locus of control, other-oriented strategies, such as the desire to please others or dependence on others, and information processing strategies, such as information gathering and speed of making the final decision. 

• Self-oriented strategies (aspiration for an ideal occupation, internal locus of control, effort invested)
• Other-oriented strategies (Consulting with others, Desire to please others, Willingness to compromise, Dependence on others, Procrastination)
• Information-processing strategies (Information gathering, Information processing, Speed of making the final decision)

The American participants

The personality traits moderating the relationship between turnover intentions and turnover behavior are for one self-monitoring or self-intention, which strengthen turnover intentions and -behavior when they are higher in individuals. Secondly, an internal locus of control seems to strengthen turnover intentions, but findings were a bit inconsistent on this point. Finally, risk-averse individuals have a stronger relationship between turnover intentions and turnover behavior. 

The "exit route" described by Rubenstein's findings starts with antecedents triggering withdrawal cognitions which in turn lead to the actual turnover or retirement. 

The most important predictors for voluntary turnover are age, marital status, tenure and pay. 

1. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment = most robust negative relationship with turnovers
2. Job search, job embeddedness and absenteeism = stronger predictors
3. Emotional stability, organizational support, rewards offered by organization, fit (all negative relationships)
4. Socialization, climate, work-life conflict, citizenship behaviors
5. Withdrawal cognitions and behaviors significant positive relationship

Each country has an individual pension system, cultural norms and social system. Therefore, generalizability of the retirement construct is almost impossible across cultures. 
(Problems with studies on such subjects can be that personality traits are not considered sufficiently for the turnover decision. Additionally, studies should seperate voluntary and involuntary turnovers for better accuracy. Furthermore, retirement as a construct is different in every country.)

1. Economic models of retirement
   people don’t want to work, but need to, to earn money survive
   when they have enough money to survive for the rest of the life, person will retire
   > focuses on the benefits of earning money
2. Continuity theory
   if people work for pay after they retire (bridge employment): they are more likely to work in a job like their former one if they liked that job
   > retired employees have the same interest as they had, when they were still working
   people
3. Identity theory
   focuses on psychology (feelings about oneself in the workcontext)
   an older worker identifying himself as a productive worker, so he/she continues to work at older ages
4. Role theory
   > people’s roles in their lives are defined by the expectation that other people related to that role have for them (people may expect person to retire at a certain age, which could affect the person’s retirement decision)

Bridge employment is described as the phenomenon of an older person working for pay after retiring. Those individuals usually consider themselves as being partially retired, for instance continue working their job, but part-time. 
However, the definition is necessarily ambiguous, since older workers can change careers and not be retired. Also,  some people do not have a typical career job, for example they have worked many different part-time jobs in their lifetime. it can be unclear at what point a new part‐time job would be considered a bridge employment job—unless the person self‐defines as being retired. 

Kempen: Employment of any sort (part-time, temporary, full-time, or selfemployment) after retirement from a career job - the ‘‘bridge’’ from pre-retirement employment to full retirement via an extension of one’s work-life 

1. Types:
   1. Career vs. noncareer jobs
   2. Immediate vs. delayed
   3. Steady vs. intermitted
   4. Self-employed vs. other-employed
2. Problems:
   1. the types have not been fully developed and accepted (just the career vs. noncareer jobs have been studied so far)
   2. ambiguous definition:
      - older worker can change the work and are not fully retired
      - some workers have no typical career job (e.g. many part-time jobs, which opens the question, when a job counts as a bridge job)

Retirement decision can be roughly divided into three phases. The first phase consists of imagining the possibility of one' future life during retirement. In the second phase, the individual assesses their past to help to decide when to retire. The third and final stage is the actual transition into retirement and acting on the previously thought of retirement plans. 

1. Phase 1: Imaging the possibility of one’s future life during retirement
   no concrete plans about future retirement
   employees’ gender affect the way that they imagine their future retired life
2. Phase 2: assessing the past to help decide when to retire
   start of planning, when they want to retire
   during the work circle: the characteristics of an employee’s career job might change so that it no longer fits him as well as it once did
3. Phase 3: the transition to retirement or acting on one’s retirement plans
   announcement of the retirement, finances are important etc.
   if retirement is affordable, there are other actors that influence the decision to retire
   • Social needs: Friends and relatives
   • Activities to fill the time
   • Being identified with the status of retiree
   • Achieving the desired growth

The theory of planned behavior states, that an individual's intention influences their behavior. In this case, attitudes towards retirement, subjective retirement norms and the perceived control over the retirement influence the individual's retirement intention, which in turn leads to a retirement decision or beavior, either in the form of full retirement or bridge employment, also called partial retirement.

The specific job crafting dimensions are increasing challenging job demands, decreasing hindering job demands, increasing structural job ressources and increasing social job ressources.