behavior in the form of sending postcards to congressional representatives espousing
their view of aYrmative action. While attitudes toward aYrmative action do not
change the composition of the workforce themselves, they are critically important
for the societal acceptance of such remedies and for determining the degree to
which organizations can form fully functioning and collaborative work teams
when aYrmative action programs are used.
One area about which we have seen very little information is comparative
international data. At least among Americans, there appears to be little information
as to how other societies resolve diversity dilemmas or if they even perceive a
problem. Cross-cultural studies of these issues might reveal data and solutions that
could be more widely applied.
- 4 Team-based Performance and Multilevel Issues
Ideally, it would be simplest for organizations to conduct selection at the highest
possible level. Organizations would scour the world for the best intact department
or team rather than try and assemble one with a random collection of individuals.
In reality, organizations add individuals (i.e. line workers, team members, execu-
tives, etc.) to their existing system structures (i.e. positions or roles) that are
presumably designed in such a way as to enable individuals to fulWll organizational
needs optimally at multiple levels (Ployhart and Schneider 2002 a; also see
Kozlowski and Klein 2000 , for an overview of general multilevel issues). Today, a
large number of employees must not only perform their own job, but also assist
team members, endorse management practices, and represent their organization
within the community. At best, a failure to consider the multilevel nature of work
phenomena in selection decisions will reduce organizational eVectiveness. At
worst, employees will be devoting their energy towards tasks that are useless or
even harmful towards the organization.
The principle underlying typical selection practices is that individual diVerence
characteristics will determine who will be of greatest value to the organization
based on their job performance (cf. Motowidlo 2003 ). Inappropriately designed
jobs that take organizational needs into consideration, employees will improve
organizational eVectiveness simply by performing their duties well, where duties
might include citizenship performance and other supportive behaviors, as well as
task performance. Alas, many jobs are designed imperfectly. Consequently,
Ployhart and Schneider ( 2002 a) emphasize the potential need to conduct team-
work analyses or organizational needs assessments, in addition to traditional job
analyses, to ensure that individuals’ performance will be adding value to an
organization.
From a multilevel perspective, individual work behaviors can then be divided
into those that accomplish individual job tasks and those that lead to the
selection decision-making 309