Integrity Inventory

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The Integrity Inventory (stylized as I2), is a nationally normed entry-level personnel selection tool that incorporates employment integrity testing. It was developed by industrial organizational psychologist Mark Tawney, Ph.D., Principal and Vice President of IOS, Inc., or Industrial/Organizational Solutions Inc, referred to as IOS in the 2009 United States Supreme Court case, Ricci v. DeStefano. In the United States, vocations within the public safety sector, (i.e., firefighter, sheriff and police officer, correctional officer, emergency medical services including emergency medical technician); and employment in for-profit retail and wholesale business, and nonprofit sectors often require Industrial and Organizational Psychology employment testing, for initial employment and advancement throughout the ranks. [1]

Contents

Overview

The Integrity Inventory, when used as a pre-employment screening tool, predicts individuals’ likelihood of engaging in Counterproductive work behaviors including assessing: ethics and moral character, work attitudes, theft attitudes, potential for substance abuse (i.e., alcohol or drug use), emotional stability, turnover intentions, and/or behaviors that are hazardous and place the civilian population and coworkers at heightened risks. [2]

Qualified individuals with a reduced risk of such counterproductive workplace behaviors are selected for employment, leading to a more productive workforce.

Counterproductive workplace behaviors lead to real financial losses for business; in the public safety and private sector, such behaviors are hazardous and place the civilian population and coworkers at heightened risk. [3] [4] [5] As such, the prediction of counterproductive workplace behaviors constitutes a business necessity as outlined in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. [6] Psychological testing is a standard and growing practice for human resources departments throughout the United States who seek high integrity employees.

This exam has the sensitivity needed to accurately assess the individuals that will be charged with protecting our lives, families, property, and businesses. The Integrity Inventory displays no adverse impact against protected classes and allows you to select and rank-order candidates most likely to succeed based on their integrity and honesty.

Related Research Articles

Industrial and organizational psychology "focuses the lens of psychological science on a key aspect of human life, namely, their work lives. In general, the goals of I-O psychology are to better understand and optimize the effectiveness, health, and well-being of both individuals and organizations." It is an applied discipline within psychology and is an international profession. I-O psychology is also known as occupational psychology in the United Kingdom, organisational psychology in Australia and New Zealand, and work and organizational (WO) psychology throughout Europe and Brazil. Industrial, work, and organizational (IWO) psychology is the broader, more global term for the science and profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual harassment</span> Unwanted sexual attention or advances

Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually colored remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</span> United States government agency enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, genetic information, and retaliation for participating in a discrimination complaint proceeding and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Recruitment</span> Process of attracting, selecting and appointing candidates to a job or other organization

Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs within an organization. Recruitment also is the process involved in choosing people for unpaid roles. Managers, human resource generalists, and recruitment specialists may be tasked with carrying out recruitment, but in some cases, public-sector employment, commercial recruitment agencies, or specialist search consultancies such as Executive search in the case of more senior roles, are used to undertake parts of the process. Internet-based recruitment is now widespread, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Work behavior is the behavior one uses in employment and is normally more formal than other types of human behavior. This varies from profession to profession, as some are far more casual than others. For example, a computer programmer would usually have far more leeway in their work behavior than a lawyer.

Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation. This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult because, unlike the typical school bully, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society. In the majority of cases, bullying in the workplace is reported as having been done by someone who has authority over the victim. However, bullies can also be peers, and subordinates. When subordinates participate in bullying this phenomenon is known as upwards bullying. The least visible segment of workplace bullying involves upwards bullying where bullying tactics are manipulated and applied against "the boss," usually for strategically designed outcomes.

A workplace is a location where someone works, for their employer or themselves, a place of employment. Such a place can range from a home office to a large office building or factory. For industrialized societies, the workplace is one of the most important social spaces other than the home, constituting "a central concept for several entities: the worker and [their] family, the employing organization, the customers of the organization, and the society as a whole". The development of new communication technologies has led to the development of the virtual workplace and remote work.

Occupational health psychology (OHP) is an interdisciplinary area of psychology that is concerned with the health and safety of workers. OHP addresses a number of major topic areas including the impact of occupational stressors on physical and mental health, the impact of involuntary unemployment on physical and mental health, work-family balance, workplace violence and other forms of mistreatment, psychosocial workplace factors that affect accident risk and safety, and interventions designed to improve and/or protect worker health. Although OHP emerged from two distinct disciplines within applied psychology, namely, health psychology and industrial and organizational psychology, for a long time the psychology establishment, including leaders of industrial/organizational psychology, rarely dealt with occupational stress and employee health, creating a need for the emergence of OHP. OHP has also been informed by other disciplines, including occupational medicine, sociology, industrial engineering, and economics, as well as preventive medicine and public health. OHP is thus concerned with the relationship of psychosocial workplace factors to the development, maintenance, and promotion of workers' health and that of their families. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that exposure to long working hours causes an estimated 745,000 workers to die from ischemic heart disease and stroke in 2016, mediated by occupational stress.

Workplace aggression is a specific type of aggression which occurs in the workplace. Workplace aggression is any type of hostile behavior that occurs in the workplace. It can range from verbal insults and threats to physical violence, and it can occur between coworkers, supervisors, and subordinates. Common examples of workplace aggression include gossiping, bullying, intimidation, sabotage, sexual harassment, and physical violence. These behaviors can have serious consequences, including reduced productivity, increased stress, and decreased morale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occupational stress</span> Tensions related to work

Occupational stress is psychological stress related to one's job. Occupational stress refers to a chronic condition. Occupational stress can be managed by understanding what the stressful conditions at work are and taking steps to remediate those conditions. Occupational stress can occur when workers do not feel supported by supervisors or coworkers, feel as if they have little control over the work they perform, or find that their efforts on the job are incommensurate with the job's rewards. Occupational stress is a concern for both employees and employers because stressful job conditions are related to employees' emotional well-being, physical health, and job performance. The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization conducted a study. The results showed that exposure to long working hours, operates through increased psycho-social occupational stress. It is the occupational risk factor with the largest attributable burden of disease, according to these official estimates causing an estimated 745,000 workers to die from ischemic heart disease and stroke events in 2016.

The honesty or integrity of individuals can be tested via pre-employment screening from employers. Employers may administer personnel selection tests within the scope of background checks that are used to assess the likelihood that behavior. Integrity tests are administered to assess whether the honesty of the potential candidate is acceptable in respect to theft and counterproductive work behavior. These tests may weigh in on the final personnel decisions.

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is employee's behavior that goes against the legitimate interests of an organization. This behavior can harm the organization, other people within it, and other people and organizations outside it, including employers, other employees, suppliers, clients, patients and citizens. It has been proposed that a person-by-environment interaction (the relationship between a person's psychological and physical capacities and the demands placed on those capacities by the person's social and physical environment.) can be utilized to explain a variety of counterproductive behaviors. For instance, an employee who is high on trait anger is more likely to respond to a stressful incident at work with CWB.

Workplace incivility has been defined as low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target. Uncivil behaviors are characteristically rude and discourteous, displaying a lack of regard for others. The authors hypothesize there is an "incivility spiral" in the workplace made worse by "asymmetric global interaction".

Personnel psychology is a subfield of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. Personnel psychology is the area of I-O psychology that primarily deals with the recruitment, selection and evaluation of personnel, and with other job aspects such as morale, job satisfaction, and relationships between managers and workers in the workplace. It is the field of study that concentrates on the selection and evaluation of employees; this area of psychology deals with job analysis and defines and measures job performance, performance appraisal, employment testing, employment interviews, personnel selection and employee training, and human factors and ergonomics.

In the United States, vocations within the public safety sector,, often require Industrial and Organizational Psychology employment testing for initial employment and advancement throughout the ranks. The National Firefighter Selection Inventory - NFSI, is a national entry-level examination that was developed as an alternative to conventional firefighter written entrance examinations. It was developed by IOS, Inc. or Industrial/Organizational Solutions Inc, referred to as IOS in the 2009 United States Supreme Court case, Ricci v. DeStefano. Psychological testing is a standard practice done by many fire departments throughout the United States.

In the United States, vocations within the public safety sector, often require Industrial and Organizational Psychology employment testing for initial employment and advancement throughout the ranks. The National Criminal Justice Officer Selection Inventory – NCJOSI, is a national entry-level examination that was developed as an alternative to conventional criminal justice written entrance examinations. It was developed by IOS, Inc. or Industrial/Organizational Solutions Inc, referred to as IOS in the 2009 United States Supreme Court case, Ricci v. DeStefano. Psychological testing is a standard practice done by many criminal justice agencies throughout the United States.

A “toxic workplace” is a colloquial metaphor used to describe a place of work, usually an office environment, that is marked by significant personal conflicts between those who work there. A toxic work environment has a negative impact on an organization's productivity and viability. This type of environment can be detrimental to both the effectiveness of the workplace and the well-being of its employees.

A pre-hire assessment is a test or questionnaire that candidates complete as part of the job application process. The use of a valid and expert assessment is an effective way to determine which applicants are the most qualified for a specific job based on their strengths and preferences. Employers typically use the results to determine how well each candidate's strengths and preferences match the job requirements.

A psychosocial hazard or work stressor is any occupational hazard related to the way work is designed, organized and managed, as well as the economic and social contexts of work. Unlike the other three categories of occupational hazard, they do not arise from a physical substance, object, or hazardous energy.

The Swedish psychologist and university professor Heinz Leymann developed the LIPT questionnaire. LIPT stands for Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror.

References

  1. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychologists, Visibility Brochure, www.siop.org/visibilitybrochure/memberbrochure.aspx
  2. Integrity Inventory Technical Report, 2011, I/O Solutions, Inc., Westchester, Illinois 60154
  3. Barry, C.M., Sackett, P. S., & Wiemann, S. (2007). A review of recent developments in integrity test research. Personnel Psychology, 60, 271-301.
  4. Hough, L. M., & Schneider, R. J. (1996). Personality traits, taxonomies, and applications in organizations. In Murphy KR (ed.), Individual difference and behavior in organizations (pp. 31-88). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  5. National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA InfoFacts: Nationwide Trends, accessed May 25, 2011, http://www.drugabuse.gov/Infofacts/nationtrends.html Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine
  6. EEOC's Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures document, accessed May 25, 2011, http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/factemployment_procedures.html