Development and validation of the SDR-O: A new measure of socially desirable responding in organizations

Abstract

Organizational respondents often provide misleading or patently false information on job applications, personality tests, and other self-reports. Nevertheless, the degree to which socially desirable responding (SDR) threatens the validity of organizational self-reports remains controversial in academic research. The present research contends that the true level of SDR in organizational measures has often been underestimated because the SDR scales used to detect this bias (i.e., the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding and the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale) were never intended for use in organizational settings. We therefore develop and validate the SDR-O, which is a short, unidimensional scale designed to measure the impression management component of socially desirable responding in the workplace and other organizational contexts. We demonstrate that the SDR-O is a valid measure of the conscious tendency of organizational respondents to create an overly positive (i.e., inauthentic) impression via their answers to questions. Our research has important implications for academic and managerial research on the wide array of organizational topics that have a desirability component, including employee personality traits, performance, ethics, citizenship, and deviance.