Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Integrity Testing and Deviance: Construct Validity Issues and the Role of Situational Factors

  • Published:
Journal of Business and Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to investigate relationships among several types of preemployment integrity tests and situational factors which could play a role in employee deviance. In one study, three integrity measures were administered to subjects who were told to assume the role of job applicant for a position in either a large, small, or unspecified organization. Moral development stage, social desirability, and demographic data were collected. While there was some construct consistency across the different integrity measures, the expected relation between honesty and moral development was not found. There was also no difference in integrity test scores as a function of the organizational size manipulation. In a second laboratory study in which subjects were asked to play the role of job incumbents, both size and perceived equity of organizational climate were experimentally manipulated. The dependent measure was a scale of likelihood of engaging in organizationally proscribed behaviors. While again no effect was found for organizational size, those individuals who perceived themselves as employed in an organization in which employees are mistreated tended to report greater likelihood of engaging in organizational deviance. Implications for integrity testing in personnel selection are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.). Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2), pp. 267-299. San Diego: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association & National Council on Measurement in Education (1985). Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC.

  • American Psychological Association (1991). Questionnaires used in the prediction of trustworthiness in preemployment selection decisions: An APA task force report. Washington, DC.

  • Ash, P. (1986). Determination of norms for occupational groups. Research Memorandum Number 7, Chicago: Reid Psychological Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ash, P. (1991). The construct of employee theft proneness. Park Ridge, IL: SRA/London House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbash, J. (1983). Which work ethic? In J. Barbash et al. (Eds.). The work ethic: A critical analysis. Madison, WI: Industrial Relations Research Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bean, E. (1987, Feb., 27) More firms use ‘attitude tests’ to keep thieves off the payroll. The Wall Street Journal, p. 33.

  • Brown, T. S., Jones, J. W., Terris, W., & Steffy, B. (1987). The impact of preemployment integrity testing on employee turnover and inventory shrinkage rates. Journal of Business and Psychology, 2, 136-149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buys, C. J. (1978). Humans would do better without groups. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 123-125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattell, R. B. Eber, H. W. & Tatsuoka, M. M. (1970). Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Questionnaire (16-PF). Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, M. R. (1989). Test-taking motivations and outcomes on a standardized measure of on-the-job integrity. Journal of Business and Psychology, 4, 119-127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, M. R., Wong, D. T., Barbee, A. P., & Turcott, M. (1989). Self-presentational dynamics on preemployment integrity tests: Experimental studies of the Reid Report Inventory. Paper presented at the Convention of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.

  • Davison, M. L. & Robbins, S. (1978). The reliability and validity of objective indices of moral development. Applied Psychological Measurement, 2, 89-401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Dineen, J., Endresen, K., Beaman, A. L., & Fraser, S. C. (1975). Effects of altered responsibility, cognitive set, and modeling on physical aggression and deindividuation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 328-337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dipboye, R. L. (1977). Alternative approaches to deindividuation. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 1057-1075.

    Google Scholar 

  • Effmeyer, E. S. (1984). Rule-violating behavior on the golf course. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 59, 591-596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Festinger, L. Pepitone, A., & Newcomb, T. (1952). Some consequences of deindividuation in a group. Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology, 47, 382-389.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, J. C. & Widaman, K. F. (1982). Social intelligence: Measuring the development of sociomoral reflection. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall

    Google Scholar 

  • Goode, E. (1978). Property crimes. In E. Goode (Ed.) Deviant behavior: An interactionist approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, J. (1990). Employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: The hidden costs of pay cuts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 561-568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, J. (1991). Stealing in the name of justice: Informational and interpersonal moderators of theft reactions to underpayment inequity. Unpublished manuscript. The Ohio State University.

  • Guastello, S. J. & Rieke, M. L. (1991). A review and critique of honesty test research. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 9, 501-523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harlton, M. A. (1986, Sept. 15). Instant honesty. Datamation, p. 150.

  • Hollinger, R. & Clark, J. (1983). Theft by employees. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homans, G. C. (1961). Social behavior: Its elementary form. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hough, L. M., Eaton, N. K., Dunnette, M. D., Kamp, J. D., & McCloy, R. A. (1990). Criterion-related validities of personality constructs and the effect of response distortion on those validities. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 581-595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingham, G. K. (1970). Size of industrial organization and worker behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen, E. & Von Glinow, M. A. (1985). Ethical ambivalence and organizational reward systems. Academy of Management Review, 10, 814-822.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, J. W., Arnold, & Harris, W. G. (1990). Model guidelines for preemployment integrity testing programs. Washington, DC: Association of Personnel Test Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohlberg, L. (1969) Stage and sequence: the cognitive-developmental approach to socialization. In D. A. Goslin, (Ed.), Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research. (Pp. 347-480). Chicago: Rand-McNally.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kochkin, S. (1987). Personality correlates of a measure of honesty. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1, 236-247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kpo, W. (1984). Application of validity generalization to honesty testing. Unpublished master's thesis. Illinois Institute of Technology.

  • Lasson, E. D. (1992). How good are integrity tests? Personnel Journal, 71, 35-38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, S. L. & Terris, W. (1990). The four-cell classification table in personnel selection: A heuristic device gone awry. The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 27, 49-55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, S. L. & Terris, W. (1991). Predicting infrequent behavior: Clarifying the impact on false positive rates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 484-487.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Bannon, R. M., Goldinger, L. A., & Appleby, G. S. (1989). Honesty and integrity testing: A practical guide. Atlanta: Applied Information Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Outtz, J. (1991). Integrity tests: Reports from OTA and APA. Presented at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. St. Louis: April.

  • Ones, D. S., Viswesvaran, C., & Schmidt, F. L. (1992). An examination of validity generalization and moderators of integrity test validities. Presented at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Montreal: May.

  • Pondy, L. R. (1969). Effects of size, complexity, and ownership on administrative intensity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 14, 47-60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rest, J. R. (1979). Revised Manual for the Defining Issues Test. Unpublished manuscript. MMRP Technical Report. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

  • Rest, J. R. (1990). Guide for the Defining Issues Test. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, A. M. & Sackett, P. R. (1987). Pre-employment honesty testing: Fakability, reactions of test takers, and company image. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1, 248-256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sackett, P. R. (1985). Honesty research and the person-situation debate. In Employee Theft: Research, theory and applications. W. Terris, Ed. Park Ridge, IL: London House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sackett, P. R. (1994) Integrity testing for personnel selection. Curren Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 73-76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saxe, L. (1994) Detection of deception: Polygraph and integrity tests. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 69-73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shealy, A. E. (1977). Police integrity: The role of psychological screening of applicants. New York: Criminal Justice Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieh, E. W. (1987). Garment workers: Perceptions of inequity and employee theft. British Journal of Criminology, 27, 174-190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slora, K. B. (1989). An empirical approach to determining employee deviance base rates. Journal of Business and Psychology, 4, 199-219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc. (1987). Principles for the validation and use of personnel selection procedures. (Third Edition) College Park, MD: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smigel, E. O. (1970). Public attitudes toward stealing as related to the size of the victim organization. In Crimes against bureaucracy. E. O. Smigel & H. L. Ross (Eds.). New York: Reinhold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szwajkowski, E. (1989). Lessons for the consultant from research on employee misconduct. Consultation: An International Journal, 8, 181-190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thibaut, J. & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: a person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11, 601-617.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. (1992). Moral reasoning and business ethics: implications for research, education, and management. Journal of Business Ethics, 11, 445-449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trevino, L. K. & Youngblood, S. A. (1990). Bad apples in bad barrels: A causal analysis of ethical decision-making behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 378-385.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker, J. (1989). Employee theft as social control. Deviant Behavior, 10, 319-334.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1990). The use of integrity tests for preemployment screening. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasudevan, R. (1975). Attitudes against stealing from organizations: The effects of organizational size and theft size. Indian Journal of Applied Psychology, 12, 39-45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner, S. H., Jones, J. W., & Steffy, B. D. (1989). The relationship between intelligence, honesty, and theft admissions. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 49, 921-927.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Applied Psychology and Quantitative Methods, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, 21201

    Elliot D. Lasson

  2. Wayne State University, USA

    Alan R. Bass

Authors
  1. Elliot D. Lasson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alan R. Bass
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elliot D. Lasson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lasson, E.D., Bass, A.R. Integrity Testing and Deviance: Construct Validity Issues and the Role of Situational Factors. Journal of Business and Psychology 12, 121–146 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025014000393

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025014000393

Keywords

Search

Navigation