The political skill inventory (PSI) assesses social effectiveness in organizations by self-reports and has demonstrated strong evidence of validity. It was the purpose of this experimental field study to investigate construct and criterion-related validity of the PSI when used under conditions of personnel selection. In the experimental group (n ¼ 102), the instructions asked job incumbents to work on the PSI, a social desirability scale, and a Big-Five personality inventory as if they took part in a personnel selection procedure for a personally very attractive position. Additionally, they were asked to report yearly income. In the control group (n ¼ 110), job incumbents were asked to answer the items honestly. As expected, in both conditions, the PSI did not correlate with social desirability, but it correlated positively with extraversion, conscientiousness, and income, and negatively with neuroticism, thus demonstrating construct and incremental criterion-related validity under both conditions. Implications and limitations are discussed.
In Germany, the dual system of vocational education and training is an attractive alternative to tertiary programmes for school leavers with a higher education entrance certificate (HEEC). Most adolescents with this qualification opt for training occupations where the majority of apprentices hold an HEEC (e.g., bank clerk). This decision seems sensible considering that such training occupations are difficult for people with lower school‐leaving certificates to access and promise better career outcomes. Nevertheless, some adolescents with an HEEC enter occupations that are not typical of their school‐leaving qualification. This article examines under which circumstances adolescents with an HEEC aspire to training occupations atypical of their level of education and thus accept lower career outcomes. Following the rational choice paradigm, we expect differences in perceived benefit and probability of success between school leavers with an HEEC opting for HEEC occupations as opposed to non‐HEEC occupations. Using data from the 2018 DZHW Panel Study of German School Leavers With an HEEC, our logistic regression models show that the individuals’ self‐assessed strengths and their occupational goals explain why they aspire to training occupations atypical of their qualification. Contrary to our assumption, adolescents from academic families are not less likely to aspire to non‐HEEC occupations.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.