Date of Award

12-2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Patrick D. Converse

Second Advisor

Jessica L. Wildman

Third Advisor

Gary Burns

Fourth Advisor

Jonathan H. Reed

Abstract

Personnel selection is an important part of successful organizations, yet little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying selection decisions as well as the influence of external factors, such as time, on those mechanisms. Therefore, the present study aims to address these issues by integrating construal level theory of psychological distance and decision-making theories contextualized to personnel selection decisions. More specifically, the present study examined how hiring lag (i.e., hiring for an immediate start vs. for several months later) impacts the selection decision-making process by looking through the lens of two competing time-based theories: construal level theory of psychological distance and valence-dependent time discounting. Using an experimental policy-capturing design with a sample of 129 participants, the present study examined the underlying decision processes of individuals in a selection setting where participants rated various candidate profiles under two conditions of temporal psychological distance: high or low. Results from this study provided partial support for construal level theory of psychological distance and no support for valence-dependent time discounting theory. These findings shed new light on the mechanisms by which time influences personnel selection decisions and suggest that construal-level features in candidate profiles play a role in these decisions.

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