Threat of Technological Unemployment, Use Intentions, and the Promotion of Structured Interviews in Personnel Selection

Abstract

Meehl (1986) proposed that an important factor underlying professional decision makers’ resistance to standardized decision aids is threat of technological unemployment – fear that using the practices would reduce the perceived value of their employment. Nolan, Carter, and Dalal (2016) provided initial support for threat of technological unemployment being a factor that contributes to practitioners’ reluctance to adopt scientifically meritorious standardized hiring practices. This study serves to further develop the theory of threat of technological unemployment in personnel selection by (a) replicating the findings of our earlier research using a within-subjects methodology that is more generalizable to the cognitive processes typically involved in decisions concerning the adoption of standardized hiring practices, and (b) examining if techniques that are commonly used to promote standardized hiring practices inadvertently exacerbate the threat. Results suggest that communicating the utility of standardization affects threat of technological unemployment but not in the ways expected.