Sour Grapes While You're Down and Out: Self-Serving Bias and Applicant Attributions for Test Performance

• Main Author: Mack, Kyle Garret
• Format: Others
• Published: PDXScholar 2010
• Subjects: Employment tests > Psychological aspects; Organizational justice; Achievement motivation; Experimental Analysis of Behavior; Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3433; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4448&context=open_access_etds

Recent research has shown that outcome favorability (Ryan & Ployhart, 2000) and perceived performance (Chan, Schmitt, Jennings, Clause, & Delbridge, 1998a) are key determinates of justice judgments, suggesting that self-serving bias is a critical mechanism in the formation of applicant reactions. However, organizational justice theory continues to be the dominant paradigm for understanding applicant reactions. Chan and Schmitt (2004) have suggested a far ranging agenda for research into reactions, which includes considering reactions in a longitudinal framework and considering the natural effect of time on reactions. The current study incorporates these theoretical approaches and addresses these gaps in the research by examining applicant reactions at four time points during and after a selection procedure. This study also uses a multi-dimensional measure of test taking motivation (TTM) based on expectancy theory which enables me to explicate the effect of test performance, expectations, and outcome feedback on each motivational component. Using a sample of 227 student participants, this study provides evidence that an applicant's expectations regarding the selection outcome and the selection outcome itself have strong effects on fairness perceptions and TTM. Some key findings are the following: I) negative selection decisions and negative expectations tend to reduce fairness perceptions and TTM in applicants, while for the most part, positive expectations and positive selection decisions do little to increase these reactions and 2) valence, or the desire for the job, seems to be the motivational component most affected by the selection procedure. These findings have important implications for future research into applicant reactions.