Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

2-2020

Abstract

Recent research challenges the importance of situation descriptions for situational judgment test (SJT) performance. This study contributes to resolving the ongoing debate on whether SJTs are situational measures, by incorporating findings on person x situation interactions into SJT research. Specifically, across three studies (N-Total = 1,239), we first tested whether situation construal (i.e., the individual perception of situations in SJTs) predicts responses to SJT items. Second, we assessed whether the relevance of situation construal for SJT performance depends on test elements (i.e., situation descriptions and response options) and item features (i.e., description-dependent vs. description-independent SJT items). Lastly, we determined whether situation construal has incremental validity for job-related criteria over and above SJT performance. The results showed that, for most SJT items, situation construal significantly contributed to SJT performance, even if only response options were available. This was also true for SJT items that are significantly more difficult to solve when situation descriptions are omitted (i.e., description-dependent SJT items). Finally, situation construal explained variance in relevant criteria over and above SJT performance. Despite recent efforts to reconceptualize SJTs, our results suggest that they can still be viewed as situational measures. However, situation descriptions may be less crucial for these underlying situational processes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

person x situation interaction, situation construal, situational judgment test, validity

Discipline

Industrial and Organizational Psychology | Organizational Behavior and Theory

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Personnel Psychology

Volume

73

Issue

4

First Page

669

Last Page

700

ISSN

0031-5826

Identifier

10.1111/peps.12385

Publisher

Wiley: 24 months

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12385

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