The Effects of Social Desirability on Situational Judgment Tests in Organizational Selection

Abstract

Organizational contexts use Situational judgment tests (SJTs) to assess and select individuals for competitive positions. As with other standardized assessments, threats to validity must be identified, examined, and communicated. As such, this research aims to identify the effects of socially desirable responding on the validity of an SJT used in a competitive selection process, and to identify if response latency provides insight into the identification of socially desirable responding. Participants in a competitive organizational selection process were administered an online assessment and the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). No significant correlations were identified between social desirability and the online assessment; however, this research provides evidence to suggest that participants who had shorter response latencies were less likely to participate in social desirability responding.