Page 306 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

11. PERSONALITY-BASED UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION
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and managerial potential, (b) Hispanics had lower scores on measures of
dependability, agreeableness, and openness to experience, (c) American
Indians had lower scores on measures of extraversion, surgency, depend­
ability, and agreeableness, and (d) Asian Americans had lower scores on
measures of extraversion, dependability, and openness to experience. It
deserves adding that in highly competitive hiring situations, even small
differences on personality measures can have a large impact on the likeli­
hood of an offer being made to a job applicant.
Note moreover that Hough et al.'s (2001) results for measures of adjust­
ment are inconsistent with a great deal of research on race-psychological
strain relations. Thus, the same results may be a function of the samples
that were included in their study. More specifically, individuals with high
levels of strain may have self-selected out of applicant pools or have been
screened out through organizational selection practices. Both such pro­
cesses would serve to decrease the difference between Blacks and Whites
on adjustment measures.

Unfair Discrimination on the Basis of Other Measures of Personality

Although the foregoing discussion focused on problems with NA mea­
sures, problems also may stem from the use of other measures of personal­
ity for selection and most other personnel purposes. Consider, for example,
the Big Five dimension of extroversion. The major problem associated with
the use of extraversion in selection is that there are well-established cultural
differences in this variable among members of several ethnic groups. More
specifically, because of socialization, Asians and Native Americans typi­
cally have lower levels of extroversion than do Anglo Americans (Iwawaki,
Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1980; Leighton & Kluckholn, 1947; Loo & Shiomi,
1982). Thus, to the degree that personnel decisions are based on measures
of extroversion, there may very well be unfair discrimination against such
groups as Native Americans and Asian Americans.

General Conclusion

Overall, therefore, consistent with earlier admonitions (e.g., Guion, 1991;
Stone-Romero, 1994), the findings of the above-noted studies suggest that
personality measures should not be used for selection and many other per­
sonnel purposes unless there is (a) a sound theory tying a personality trait
to one or more important criterion measures, and (b) convincing evidence
that the supposed trait measure does not correlate with such characteristics
of individuals as their race, sex, and age.