Appalachian State had a large following at RCIO in Chattanooga, TN this year, with over 30 undergraduate and graduate students at the conference. The theme was "Performance (Good, bad, & ugly)", and included social events, a keynote speaker, a substantial poster session, multiple presentation sessions, and a panel discussion. Under the leadership of Dr. Shawn Bergman, several IOHRM graduate students participated in the proceedings.
Emily Mazza and her team presented a poster titled "What's Behind the Veil of Performance Evaluation Ambiguity? Format, Input and Evaluations of Satisfaction and Effectiveness". They are looking at the relationship between performance evaluation formats, perceptions of overall satisfaction, and perceptions of performance evaluation effectiveness.
Kate Lesniak's team also presented a poster titled "To Have or Not To Have: How the Presence of Social Media Profiles Affects Recruiters Impressions of Applicants". They proposed a study looking at the differences between individuals with varying degrees of social networking site use, and the connection to recruiters perceived hirability of the individuals.
Casher Belinda presented a poster with his team titled "Share at Your Own Risk: Social Media Persona and Hiring Decisions". Their study will be looking at the overt and covert indications of individuals belonging to protected classes on social networking sites, and they will specifically be using Facebook profiles as part of their study methodology.
Jon Powers along with his team had a poster at the conference titled "Validating Text Analytic Predictors of Job Performance in Social Media". They are examining the process of scraping text from social media profiles and whether the analysis of that text can predict job performance. This has obvious implications in the hiring process, though may be extended beyond recruiting and staffing.
Lastly, Dr. Bergman, Jon Powers, Dea Kamberaj, and James Westwood gave a presentation on "Using Analytics to Predict and Measure Performance" to an audience of students, professors, and professionals. They provided insights into big data, analytics, text analytics, and the legal and ethical implications of using big data and analytics in organizations.
All posters and the presentation were well received, ideas were generated, and some professional relationship were developed and strengthened. The conference was a great success, and teams are preparing to take the prize for best poster next year. 'Till next year!
RCIO Group Picture
