Kevin P. Nolan, PhD
I/O Psychology
Teacher, Practitioner, Scholar
Kevin P. Nolan, PhD - Bio
Kevin P. Nolan is an Associate Professor of Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology at Hofstra University and Managing Partner of Employee Insights LLC.
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He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Organizational Development, Applied Statistics, Survey Methodology, and Organizational Psychology.
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His scholarly research provides unique insight into work-related judgment and decision making and has been published in a variety of outlets including: Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Corporate Reputation Review, Human Performance, Public Personnel Management, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
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As a consultant, his applied work focuses on improving organizational effectiveness and worker well-being through application of best-practice principles in the areas of organizational change and development. Areas of expertise include:
Employee engagement and retention
Survey design
Program evaluation
Organizational culture
Performance management
Job analysis
Succession planning
Personnel assessment & selection
Dr. Nolan is also a certified practitioner of Hogan Assessments' Leadership Forecast Series, which gives leaders an in-depth understanding of their performance capabilities, challenges, and underlying motivators. When partnered with professional feedback and development, these insights help equip leaders to build high-performing teams and thriving organizations. For more info on the Leadership Forecast series, please visit the Hogan website: https://www.hoganassessments.com/products/leadership-forecast-series/
Published Work
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Understanding the role of organizational personality and social identity concerns on initial recruitment outcomes.
Zhu, X.S., Dalal, D.K., Nolan, K.P., & Barnes-Farrell (2021). Journal of Vocational Behavior.
This research advances understanding of how job seekers' social identity needs interact with organizational personality to influence attraction and pursuit intentions. A new theoretically-derived taxonomy of organizational personality traits is first created and validated, and then this taxonomy is used to examine how job seekers with varying social identity needs are differentially attracted to employing organizations based on their employer brand image perceptions.
Threat of Technological Unemployment, use intentions, and the promotion of structured interviews in personnel selection.
Nolan, K.P., Dalal, D.K., & Carter, N.T. (2020). Personnel Assessment and Decisions
This research provides further insight into the factors that contribute to hiring managers' resistance to adopt the technically meritorious standardized assessment practices that have been developed for personnel selection. Results suggest that hiring managers believe using these practices will reduce the credit they receive for making successful hiring decisions, and that attempting to promote the use of these practices by communicating the gains in predictive validity they afford over subject judgment only exacerbates perceptions of threat.
Family Responsibilities Discrimination: Does using LinkedIn to screen job candidates bias hiring decisions?
Nolan, K.P. (2020). Hofstra Horizons.
Three experimental research studies were conducted with heatmap software to examine the extent to which using LinkedIn profiles to screen external job candidates exposes personnel selection to family responsibilities discrimination. Practitioners from both the USA and Brazil were found to openly cite using information from LinkedIn profiles that is indicative of family responsibilities (e.g., membership the in New York State Parent Teacher Association) to evaluate male and female job candidates, with upwards of 33% of the total information identified coming from these zones of the heatmap. More information indicative of family responsibilities was cited when the hiring context emphasized a fast-paced/competitive organizational culture and, contrary to expectation, practitioners were female rather than male. Across all three studies, practitioners’ use of family responsibilities information to evaluate job candidates was negatively related to their ratings of the candidates’ suitability for a position.
Hiring POTUS: Examining the 2016 presidential election through the lens of I-O psychology.
Farid, M. & Nolan, K.P. (2018)
Research has consistently demonstrated that traditional hiring decisions are influenced by evaluations of person-job (PJ) and person-organization (PO) fit. Whereas PJ fit concerns the match between candidates' abilities and job demands, PO fit refers to the match between candidates' personality traits/ values and those attributes that define organizational culture. This study is among the first to examine the extent to which the factors that are known to influence traditional hiring decisions also influence decision making for elected positions. Results support that the methods and paradigms employed in the organizational sciences are also applicable to political science.
From analysis to evaluation: Brand management and the future of I-O psychology.
Nolan, K.P. (2017). Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Building on work examining how the field of Industrial-Organizational Psychology is presented in introductory psychology textbooks, this article offers an approach to program evaluation that utilizes the principles of brand management to better understand how the messages communicated to students via these sources shape their beliefs about the field.
An SK BARS system: Ongoing performance management with municipal police.
Gillespie, M., Gillespie, J., Sliter, K., Colatat, M., Nolan, K.P., & Guion, R. (2017). Public Personnel Management.
This article details the approaches used to design, implement, and evaluate a performance management system for a municipal police department that utilizes Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales to appraise multiple dimensions of officer job performance.
Are pre-assembly shared work experiences useful for temporary-team assembly decisions? A study of Olympic ice hockey team composition.
Dalal, D.K., & Nolan, K.P. (2016). Journal of Business and Psychology.
Using social network analysis and Olympic hockey data, this study examined how temporary team members pre-assembly shared work experiences affected their individual and team performance. Results suggest that player closeness and team centrality significantly influenced these outcomes. As such, this research is among the first to identify aspects of shared experience that should be considered when assembling temporary teams and offers a methodology for how to do so effectively.
Evaluating fit in employee selection: Beliefs about how, when, and why.
Nolan, K.P., Langhammer, K., & Salter, N. (2016). Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research.
Personnel selection decisions are influenced by hiring managers' evaluations of both candidates' fit with jobs (person-job fit) and their fit with organizational cultures (person-organization fit). This study examined how the context of employment decisions affects the weight hiring managers assigned to these dimensions of fit, and the techniques that they believe are most useful for assessing them. Results suggest that hiring managers are significantly more concerned with person-organization fit when they expect to work together on a daily basis with the candidates they hire, and that this dimension of fit is best evaluated using subjective judgment/ intuition.
Threat of technological unemployment: Are hiring managers discounted for using standardized employee selection practices?
Nolan, K.P., Carter, N.T., & Dalal, D.K. (2016). Personnel Assessment and Decisions.
Via two experimental studies, this research demonstrates that (a) people attribute less credit to hiring managers for successful personnel selection decisions when structured rather than unstructured employment interviews are used to evaluate job candidates, and (b) hiring managers are aware of this effect and it is one reason why they are reluctant to adopt the technically meritorious assessment practices. These findings provide insight into the reasons why hiring managers continue to prefer subjective practices that expose personnel selection to idiosyncratic beliefs and biases.
The influence of vocational training on the brand images of organizational consultants.
Nolan, K.P., Islam, S., & Quartarone, M. (2014). The Psychologist-Manager Journal.
Working from the tenets of consumer-based brand equity, this research examined differences in peoples' perceptions of organizational consultants who have masters degrees in business administration (MBA), human resource management (MHRM), and industrial-organizational psychology (MAIO). Results identified significant differences in terms of perceived capabilities, professional values, and employment decisions. These findings serve to help practitioners understand how to position their professional brand images in the marketplace.
Need for autonomy and resistance to standardized employee selection practices.
Nolan, K.P., & Highhouse, S. (2014). Human Performance.
Why do hiring managers continue to resist using technically meritorious structured employment interviews in favor of unstructured approaches that expose personnel selection to idiosyncratic beliefs and biases? Working from the tenets of self-determination theory, this research suggests that hiring managers' need for autonomy is a determining factor, with hiring managers feeling overly constrained by requirements to ask candidates the same questions and score their responses using standardized rubrics. Suggestions for how to build autonomy fulfillment into structured interview formats in ways that minimize reliability and predictive validity are offered.
Are common language effect sizes easier to understand than traditional effect sizes?
Brooks, M.E., Dalal, D.K., & Nolan, K.P. (2014). Journal of Applied Psychology.
People often lack understanding of how to interpret the results of empirical research. The inability to comprehend statistical findings is often credited for gaps that exist between science and practice. This study examined how communicating effect size information using traditional (r, R2) and non-traditional (CLES, BESD) indicators affected people's beliefs about the usefulness of products and their willingness to purchase them. Results suggest that people generally preferred the non-traditional indicators and perceived effects to be larger when reported using these metrics.
Examining how corporations use online job ads to communicate employer brand image information.
Nolan, K.P., Gohlke, M., Gilmore, J, & Rosiello, R. (2013). Corporate Reputation Review.
Employing organizations, like products or services, have brand images. These images include beliefs about instrumental attributes (e.g., pay, benefits, job demands) and symbolic meanings (e.g., perceived values, personality, reputation). This study examined how organizations from various industries communicate their employer brand images to job seekers via online job ads. Although research has consistently demonstrated that job seekers are meaningfully influenced by symbolic information, the results of this study found that employing organizations commonly eschew this content in favor of communicating more instrumental content.
One history of the assessment center.
Highhouse, S., & Nolan, K.P. (2012). Book chapter in: The Psychology of Assessment Centers.
Assessment centers have long been used for hiring; playing critical roles throughout history in personnel selection for jobs ranging from civil servants in ancient China to clandestine spies during WWI to modern-day CEOs. This chapter details one history of assessment centers that focuses on some of its more noteworthy applications.
Fit with what? The influence of multiple self-concept images on organizational attraction.
Nolan, K.P., & Harold, C.M. (2010). Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
Research has consistently demonstrated that job seekers are attracted to organizations with cultures wherein they perceive themselves as being a good "fit."Â This study examined whether job seekers are looking for organizations that fit the type of person they are today, the type of person who they would ultimately like to become, or the type of person who they believe others (e.g., spouse, partner, parent) would like them to be. Findings advance our understanding of how and why social identity motives influence job choice.
Using dark side personality traits to identify potential failure.
Dalal, D.K., & Nolan, K.P. (2009). Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Personality is an important driver of work-related behavior. In addition to assessing traditional bright side attributes like conscientiousness and agreeableness for the prediction of job success, this manuscript argues for why it is also important to evaluate dark side personality traits like passive aggressiveness, mischievousness, and narcissism for the prediction of career derailment. Advice for how to assess these attributes and what to do when they are identified is offered.
Employer brand image: Review, strategies and future directions.
Harold, C.M., & Nolan, K.P. (2009). Book chapter in: The Encyclopedia of HRIS: Challenges in e-HRM.
This chapter in The Encyclopedia of HRIS reviews the current state of research on employer brand images (i.e., how job seekers perceive employing organizations), outlines strategies for how organizations can assess and develop their employer brand images, and highlights areas wherein researchers and practitioners could make meaningful contributions to the field.
Courses Taught
As an Associate Professor at Hofstra University, Dr. Nolan teaches a range of courses in the BA in Psychology, MA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and PhD in Applied Organizational Psychology programs.
Organizational Psychology (Undergraduate)
Spring Semester
This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to the field of industrial-organizational psychology. It highlights big picture issues on topics that include:Â work-related attitudes and behavior, motivation, leadership, decision making, occupational health, and organizational design. Students learn the fundamentals of organizational psychology and are given opportunities to develop their professional skills.
Organizational Psychology (Masters)
Fall Semester
As a survey course, students are taught the fundamentals of organizational psychology. In addition to learning key themes in the areas of attitude assessment, motivation, leadership, decision making, occupational health, organizational design, and union-management relations, students are also taught the principles of scientific research and given opportunities to develop their professional skills through presentations, case study exercises, and proposals.
Organizational Development (Masters)
Spring Semester
This course teaches students the fundamentals for how to effectively implement organizational change. In addition to presenting dialogic and systems-based perspectives of change, this course introduces a variety of individual-, team-, and organization-level interventions and teaches students best-practice principles in program evaluation.
Applied Statistics (PhD)
Fall Semester
From descriptive statistics to more advanced analyses that include: between- and within-subjects ANOVA, ANCOVA, and MANOVA, this course provides students with hands-on opportunities to learn how free, open-source software can be used to conduct some of the most important analyses in the organizational sciences. In addition to learning how to conduct analyses, students are taught how statistics should be interpreted and reported to maximize their utility for evidence-based decision making.
Survey Methodology (PhD)
Spring Semester
Survey methodology is more than a course, it's a think tank. Students are taught the fundamentals of cognitive survey methodology, best-practice principles in survey design, and how to utilize employee surveys to meet organizational objectives. However, the course is also designed to provide students with applied experience conducting survey research that advances science and practice. Many of the projects developed in this course have been presented at national conferences, including the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference and the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Convention.