Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine affective events theory (AET) by testing the mediating effect of employees’ positive affect at work in the relationships of leaders’ use of positive humor with employees’ work engagement, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs); and the moderating effect of transformational leadership style on the relationship between leaders’ use of positive humor and subordinate’s positive affect at work. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained from 235 full-time employees working for a large information technology and business consulting corporation. Moderated mediation (Hayes, 2013) was performed to test the proposed model. Findings Leaders’ positive humor was related to creation of subordinates’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Positive emotions at work did not mediate between leaders’ humor and performance or OCBs. In addition, leaders’ use of transformational leadership style made the relationship between leaders’ positive humor and employees’ positive emotions at work stronger. Research limitations/implications This study provides evidence of the positive relationship of leaders’ positive humor with employees’ positive emotions at work and work engagement. Such knowledge may help to inform the training workshops in humor employed by practitioners and potentially create a more enjoyable and fun workplace, which can lead to greater employee engagement. Originality/value AET helps explain effects of leader humor, but the effects of are complex. Leader’s use of even positive humor is most likely to have favorable effects mainly depending on their leadership style (transformational) and if their humor successfully leads to positive emotions among employees.

As technology continues to evolve, organizations seek to use personal electronics like smartphones for selection and assessment. While this promises to increase access to a more diverse applicant pool, research is needed to examine whether commonly used assessments function similarly on these devices as on a conventional computer. Contrary to past research, we did not find meaningful differences in general mental ability (GMA) test scores between device groups. We also observed few differences in item functioning between devices. Screen size had a positive, but marginal effect on test scores. These results are optimistic for the use of mobile devices in GMA testing, but additional research is needed to examine the functioning of alternative GMA tests administered on mobile devices.There is an increasing demand for the application of new technologies for the assessment of potential job applicants. As consumer adoption of computers and smartphones increases, companies seek to modify and develop assessments that make the best use of these technologies.According to a recent survey, roughly 81% of organizations reported using online assessments in 2014 (Kantrowitz, 2014). Although the current adoption of mobile assessments is less prevalent (Arthur, Doverspike, Munoz, Taylor, & Carr, 2014), 43% of HR professionals indicate that they would use assessments that were available for use on mobile devices (Kantrowitz, 2014). The demand among organizations for mobile testing has continued to increase, with one consulting firm estimating that use of mobile tests have increased by 44% in the customer service industry over the past 2 years (LaPort, Huynh, Stemer, Ryer, & Int J Select Assess. 2017;25:61-71 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ijsa

Our goal in the present study is to challenge prior assumptions about virtual teamwork by examining the emergence of perceived team virtuality and observing how it relates to teamwork processes and behaviors within project teams across 2 studies. Individualand team-level data were collected from one sample of 94 collocated project teams (Study 1) and a second sample of 68 teams (30 collocated and 38 dispersed teams; Study 2). Members completed our perceived team virtuality scales along with measures of teamwork processes and emergent states. Additional peer-rated behavioral measures and objective dispersion measures were obtained in Study 2. Perceived virtuality was positively related to effective teamwork processes in teams, regardless of dispersion. These effects also largely overshadowed the negative effects of geographic dispersion in Study 2 (⌬R 2 Ͼ .25). We also observed modest within-team agreement (rwg Ͼ .80) for each virtuality dimension in both studies, suggesting that common experiences lead to emergent, shared perceptions of virtuality within teams. We recommend that perceptual measures of virtuality can be a useful for understanding how individuals and teams utilize technology in order to perform effectively. Moreover, perceived virtuality measure is more flexible to changing trends and adoption of new tools than objective methods and can be used in a variety of lab or field settings.

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Abstract. This study investigated how the length of preemployment assessments affects applicant reactions to the testing process and organization. Using a between-subjects design, participants took one of four assessments (short personality, long personality, short cognitive, long cognitive) where they were incentivized to perform well, followed by a survey assessing perceptions of procedural justice, organizational attractiveness, and likelihood of accepting a job offer. Longer tests did not worsen applicant reactions for either personality or cognitive tests, and in fact individuals taking a longer cognitive assessment reported more favorable applicant reactions. Implications are discussed.