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What Else Are We Missing? Additional Issues Associated With Sample Misrepresentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2016

Justin A. DeSimone*
Affiliation:
Organizational Leadership and Human Resources, University of Cincinnati
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Justin A. DeSimone, University of Cincinnati, Organizational Leadership and Human Resources, Edwards ONE, ML0376, Room 4130G, Cincinnati, OH 45221. E-mail: [email protected]

Extract

Two recent focal articles in this journal have addressed issues related to sample selection and generalizability of results (Bergman & Jean, 2016; Landers & Behrend, 2015). If Bergman and Jean are correct, gone are the days of the Hawthorne studies in which research focused on the majority of the human workforce: the working class. Instead, researchers are allegedly two to three times as likely to exclusively sample managers as they are to exclusively sample workers. Assuming this is true, Bergman and Jean are correct to address why this occurs and how it may impact the field. However, there are two critical issues that must be considered alongside these questions: ongoing changes in how work is conducted and temporal trends in work. A consideration of these issues should yield additional insights that may supplement the recommendations made by Bergman and Jean.

Type
Commentaries
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2016 

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