Low-complexity Jobs Research Articles

The wage effects of offshoring to the East and West: evidence from the German labor market

This paper analyzes the labor market effects of offshoring in a high-wage home country and how these effects crucially depend on (1) Job complexity and (2) The characteristics of the destination country. It thereby links several sources: rich administrative data on individuals and plants in the German manufacturing industries, information on a job's task bundle, and the evolution of imported inputs from low- or high-wage destinations, which are represented by Eastern and Western Europe, respectively. Offshoring to these origins has opposing effects on German wages with respect to the relative task complexity of jobs: While offshoring to the West puts pressure on the wages of complex jobs and increases the wages of simple jobs, offshoring to the East entails the opposite effect. The overall effect adds up to a 4.2 percent increase in wages for jobs with high complexity, while low-complexity jobs see a 3.9 percent decrease in wages.

Alternative Retirement Paths and Cognitive Performance: Exploring the Role of Preretirement Job Complexity.

Recent research suggests that working longer may be protective of cognitive functioning in later life, especially for workers in low complexity jobs. As postretirement work becomes increasingly popular, it is important to understand how various retirement pathways influence cognitive function. The present study examines cognitive changes as a function of job complexity in the context of different types of retirement transitions. We use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to examine change in cognitive function for workers who have held low, moderate, and high complexity jobs and move through distinct retirement pathways-retiring and returning to work, partial retirement-compared with those who fully retire or remain full-time workers. Inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (a propensity score method) is used to adjust for selection effects. There are systematic variations in the relationships between work and cognitive performance as a function of job complexity and retirement pathways. All retirement pathways were associated with accelerated cognitive decline for workers in low complexity jobs. In contrast, for high complexity workers retirement was not associated with accelerated cognitive decline and retiring and returning to work was associated with modest improvement in cognitive functioning. Both policy makers and individuals are beginning to embrace longer working lives which offer variety of potential benefits. Our findings suggest that continued full-time work also may be protective for cognitive health in workers who hold low complexity jobs.

The Five-Factor model and job performance in low complexity jobs: A quantitative synthesis

This article presents the results of four primary studies that investigated the degree to which the Big Five personality dimensions predict job performance in occupations with a low level of job complexity. Job performance was assessed as overall job performance (OJP), task performance (TP), and contextual performance (CP). The results showed that conscientiousness and emotional stability proved to be predictors of the three performance measures. In addition, extroversion was a relevant predictor of OJP and TP, and agreeableness was a predictor of CP. Implications for the theory and practice of job performance and personnel selection are discussed.

Differential Effects of Task Performance, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Job Complexity on Voluntary Turnover

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance–turnover relationship by considering the effects of task performance and OCBs simultaneously while also examining the moderating effect job complexity has on the relationship between voluntary turnover and each type of performance. Data were obtained as part of a larger study to validate an employment test, in which actual turnover data and supervisory ratings of job performance were collected for employees in two hospitals (n = 782). Task performance exhibited a curvilinear relationship with turnover, while OCB exhibited a negative linear relationship with turnover. Job complexity moderated both of these relationships. For task performance, turnover in high-complexity jobs was greater for low performers but lower for high performers relative to that of employees in low-complexity jobs. For OCB, the negative relationship with turnover was more pronounced in high-complexity jobs. Both low- and high-task performers are more likely to turnover, while employees exhibiting high OCBs are less likely to turnover. These results imply that retention strategies are critical for top performers, but especially in high-complexity jobs. Organizations may be able to discourage voluntary turnover by creating conditions that stimulate OCB, particularly in highly complex jobs. Most prior performance–turnover relationship research used unidimensional measures of performance, whereas this study included two dimensions of performance and examined this relationship while controlling for one-performance dimension when predicting the other. Furthermore, this study is one of the first studies to suggest that job complexity moderates the performance–turnover relationship.

Job performance ratings: The relative importance of mental ability, conscientiousness, and career adaptability

According to career construction theory, continuous adaptation to the work environment is crucial to achieve work and career success. In this study, we examined the relative importance of career adaptability for job performance ratings using an experimental policy-capturing design. Employees (N=135) from different vocational backgrounds rated the overall job performance of fictitious employees in 40 scenarios based on information about their career adaptability, mental ability, conscientiousness, and job complexity. We used multilevel modeling to investigate the relative importance of each factor. Consistent with expectations, career adaptability positively predicted job performance ratings, and this effect was relatively smaller than the effects of conscientiousness and mental ability. Job complexity did not moderate the effect of career adaptability on job performance ratings, suggesting that career adaptability predicts job performance ratings in high-, medium-, and low-complexity jobs. Consistent with previous research, the effect of mental ability on job performance ratings was stronger in high- compared to low-complexity jobs. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence for the predictive validity of employees' career adaptability with regard to other people's ratings of job performance.

Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance.

The relationships between personality traits and performance are often assumed to be linear. This assumption has been challenged conceptually and empirically, but results to date have been inconclusive. In the current study, we took a theory-driven approach in systematically addressing this issue. Results based on two different samples generally supported our expectations of the curvilinear relationships between personality traits, including Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability, and job performance dimensions, including task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behaviors. We also hypothesized and found that job complexity moderated the curvilinear personality–performance relationships such that the inflection points after which the relationships disappear were lower for low-complexity jobs than they were for high-complexity jobs. This finding suggests that high levels of the two personality traits examined are more beneficial for performance in high- than low-complexity jobs. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the use of personality in personnel selection.

The Impact of Job Complexity and Performance Measurement on the Temporal Consistency, Stability, and Test-Retest Reliability of Employee Job Performance Ratings.

Although research has shown that individual job performance changes over time, the extent of such changes is unknown. In this article, the authors define and distinguish between the concepts of temporal consistency, stability, and test-retest reliability when considering individual job performance ratings over time. Furthermore, the authors examine measurement type (i.e., subjective and objective measures) and job complexity in relation to temporal consistency, stability, and test-retest reliability. On the basis of meta-analytic results, the authors found that the test-retest reliability of these ratings ranged from .83 for subjective measures in low-complexity jobs to .50 for objective measures in high-complexity jobs. The stability of these ratings over a 1-year time lag ranged from .85 to .67. The analyses also reveal that correlations between performance measures decreased as the time interval between performance measurements increased, but the estimates approached values greater than zero.

Personal need for structure and occupational strain: An investigation of structural models and interaction with job complexity

We explored the relation between personal need for structure (PNS), as a global construct and as divided into two components, and occupational strain. Analyses of questionnaire data from two independent samples of Finnish social and health care personnel ( n = 3015 and n = 1840) suggest that a high personal desire for structure (DS-component) decreases the risk of psychological strain symptoms, whereas a personal tendency to express negative reactions when one is confronted with a lack of structure (RLS-component) increases this risk. The moderated effect of job context was then tested in a third sample of social and health care personnel ( n = 734). The elevated risk of strain in high-RLS employees was found only in high complexity jobs, as indicated by D.O.T. scores ( Roos and Treiman, 1980), but not in low complexity jobs. In conclusion, the relationship between PNS and strain may vary across different components of PNS and seems to be dependent on job context.

A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive ability in employment interview evaluations: Moderating characteristics and implications for incremental validity.

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the extent to which employment interview evaluations reflect cognitive ability. A meta-analysis of 49 studies found a corrected mean correlation of .40 between interview ratings and ability test scores, suggesting that on average about 16% of the variance in interview constructs represents cognitive ability. Analysis of several design characteristics that could moderate the relationship between interview scores and ability suggested that (a) the correlation with ability tends to decrease as the level of structure increases; (b) the type of questions asked can have considerable influence on the magnitude of the correlation with ability; (c) the reflection of ability in the ratings tends to increase when ability test scores are made available to interviewers; and (d) the correlation with ability generally is higher for low-complexity jobs. Moreover, results suggest that interview ratings that correlate higher with cognitive ability tend to be better predictors of job performance. Implications for incremental validity are discussed, and recommendations for selection strategies are outlined. Understanding of the validity of the employment interview has increased considerably in recent years. In particular, a series of meta-analyses has affirmed that the interview is generally a much better predictor of performance than previously thought and is comparable with many other selection techniques (Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994; Marchese & Muchinsky, 1993; McDaniel, Whetzel, Schmidt, & Maurer, 1994; Wiesner & Cronshaw, 1988; Wright, Lichtenfels, & Pursell, 1989). Moreover, these studies have identified several key design characteristics that can improve substantially the validity of the interview (e.g., structure).

Social stratification and socioeconomic inequality. Vol. 2. Reproductive and interpersonal aspects of dominance and status

According to career construction theory, continuous adaptation to the work environment is crucial to achieve work and career success. In this study, we examined the relative importance of career adaptability for job performance ratings using an experimental policy-capturing design. Employees (N = 135) from different vocational backgrounds rated the overall job performance of fictitious employees in 40 scenarios based on information about their career adaptability, mental ability, conscientiousness, and job complexity. We used multilevel modeling to investigate the relative importance of each factor. Consistent with expectations, career adaptability positively predicted job performance ratings, and this effect was relatively smaller than the effects of conscientiousness and mental ability. Job complexity did not moderate the effect of career adaptability on job performance ratings, suggesting that career adaptability predicts job performance ratings in high-, medium-, and low-complexity jobs. Consistent with previous research, the effect of mental ability on job performance ratings was stronger in high- compared to low-complexity jobs. Overall, our findings provide initial evidence for the predictive validity of employees' career adaptability with regard to other people's ratings of job performance.

Job-specific applicant pools and national norms for cognitive ability tests: implications for range restriction corrections in validation research.

Correcting validity coefficients for range restriction requires the applicant pool predictor standard deviation (SD). As this is frequently unknown, some researchers use national norm SDs as estimates of the applicant pool SD. To test the proposition that job-specific applicant pools are markedly more homogeneous than broad samples of applicants for many jobs, job-specific applicant pool SDs on the Wonderlic Personnel Test for 80 jobs were compared with a large multijob applicant sample. For jobs at other than the lowest level of complexity, job-specific applicant pool SDs average 10% lower than the broad norm group SDs. Ninety percent of the job-specific applicant pool SDs lie within 20% of the norm group SD, suggesting that reducing a norm group SD by 20% provides a conservative estimate of the applicant pool SD for use in range restriction corrections for other than low-complexity jobs.