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This policy brief discusses validity and fairness issues that could arise when test-based information is used for making “high stakes” decisions at an individual level, such as, for the certification of teachers or other professionals, or when admitting students into higher education programs and colleges, or for making immigration-related decisions for prospective immigrants. To assist test developers, affiliated researchers and test users enhance levels of validity and fairness with these particular types of test score interpretations and uses, this policy brief summarizes an “argument-based approach” to validation given by Kane.

This policy brief is based on a synthesis of conference proceedings and review of selected pieces of extant literature. To that synthesis, the authors add practitioner-friendly examples with their own analysis of key issues. They conclude by offering recommendations for test developers and test users.

The authors conclude that validity is a complex and evolving construct, especially when considering issues of fairness in individual testing contexts. Kane's argument-based approach offers an accessible framework through which test makers can accumulate evidence to evaluate inferences and arguments related to decisions to be made with test scores. Perspectives of test makers, researchers, test takers and decision-makers must all be incorporated into constructing coherent “validity arguments” to guide the test development and validation processes.

Standardized test use for individual-level decisions is gradually spreading to various regions of the world, but understandings of validity are still uneven among key stakeholders of such testing programs. By translating complex information on test validation, validity and fairness issues with all concerned stakeholders in mind, this policy brief attempts to address the communication gaps noted to exist among these groups by Kane.

The Program Committee of the National Council on Measurement in Education requested that the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements present a special session at the NCME meeting on April 12–14, 1983, on the Institute's current activities and future plans. NCME interest was no doubt heightened by the fact that Oscar K. Buros, who had served so effectively as editor and publisher of the Mental Measurements Yearbooks for over 40 years, had passed away in March of 1978. After his death there was a great deal of conjecture about whether this important work would continue. Through the sustained efforts of his widow, Luella Buros, the Institute was eventually relocated at the University of Nebraska‐Lincoln. Now NCME was interested in how the work was progressing and what kinds of plans the new Institute was developing for the future. The material presented here is in answer to this request.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the historical development of HRD knowledge. The analysis aims to use the qualitative research technique of text deconstruction on an important management text from the human relations phase of organization theory. Deconstruction is not a common method to HRD. In this paper, HRD scholars interested in how HRD knowledge and theories are created are given this tool to expose implicit assumptions.

The article uses text deconstruction, based on Bradshaw.

The deconstruction identified several beliefs that suggest that Roethlisberger was operating from a masculine epistemological perspective. Two clusters of findings emerged: one cluster revolved around the role of the researcher, and the other cluster revolved around the role of gender.

Postpositivist perspectives on knowledge generation and theory building in HRD are limited. Post‐structural analyses need to be considered.

The article exposes how a gendered history influenced HRD scholarship and practice, and provides suggestions for future scholarship and practice.

Legitimizes text deconstruction as an integral research tool for HRD.

The Dominion of New Zealand is not, at present, an exporter of canned fruits. The canned fruits which are made are made for home consumption. So far as the export trade of fruit is concerned the New Zealand growers have mainly concerned themselves with raw apples and to a smaller extent with pears. Everyone knows that the Dominion extends over a small range of low southern latitude; that it has a sunny and equable climate; a rainfall well distributed over the year; a variety of excellent soils. It will, in a word, grow almost anything, a fact that has not altogether proved to be an unmixed blessing. Up to 1876 its hundred thousand square miles of area was divided into nine provinces; after that date by the Provinces Act, 1876, the country was divided for administrative purposes into counties with powers of local self‐government. The central government, at Wellington, is responsible for the Acts referred to in this article, these Acts being applicable to the whole of the Dominion. Such legislative measures as have been passed in relation to the fruit industry have for their main object the development of fruit orchards, chiefly those of apples at present. In the year 1930–1, 3,539 tons of fruit were used in the making of jams, jellies, canned or bottled fruits and “other products.” The value of the fruit canned or bottled was £45,763, as against £165,655 for jams and jellies, and £119,104 for “other products” in the same period. This works out roughly to about 14 per cent. The Orchard Tax Act† (No. 25, 1927) provides for special taxation for the development of the fruit‐growing industry and the protection of orchards from fireblight.‡ Under Section 3 of the Act any fruit grower with 120 or more trees in his orchard shall pay one shilling for every acre or part of an acre. The minimum yearly tax under this section shall be five shillings. The term “fruit” includes apples, pears, quinces, oranges, lemons, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums and cherries, and any other kind of fruit which may subsequently be declared by the Governor‐General in the Gazette. This is a good list of fruits and illustrates as well as anything of the kind can the great possibilities of New Zealand as a fruit‐growing country. Lemons are an important crop in North Island. Much of the lemons consumed in New Zealand are home grown, but it is desired to make the Dominion self‐supporting in this respect. The Poorman Orange, according to the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, is becoming popular as a substitute for imported grape fruit. Oranges it seems have been cultivated with success since about 1875, as well as citron, lime and lemon in the neighbourhood of Auckland. Thompson (Naturalisation of Animals and Plants in New Zealand, 1922) quotes a remark by an officer of the brig “Hawes” in December, 1928, that he saw a few orange trees that had been introduced with success. The same author remarks that apples, pears, and, according to Major Cruise (1820), peaches had been introduced by the missionaries. It was about this time that missionary enterprise, which would appear to have been somewhat badly needed, made its appearance.

The purpose of this study was to design and iteratively improve the quality of survey-based measures of three non-cognitive constructs for Grade 5-6 students, keeping in mind information needs of users in education reform contexts. The constructs are: Mathematics-related Self-Efficacy, Self-Concept, and Anxiety (M-SE, M-SC, and M-ANX).

The authors applied a multi-stage, iterative and user-centered approach to design and validate the measures, using several psychometric techniques and three data samples. They evaluated the utility of student-level scores and aggregated, classroom-level means.

At both student and classroom levels, replicated evidence supported theoretically-grounded validity arguments on information produced by four of five scales tapping M-SC, M-ANX and M-SE. The evidence confirmed a second order, two-factor structure for M-SC, representing positive math affect and perceived competence, and a one factor structure for M-ANX representing negative math affect. Consistent with the literature, these served as precursors to a perceived confidence factor of M-SE which, in turn, positively influenced mathematics achievement scores, off-setting negative effects of M-ANX. Research is continuing on a self-regulatory efficacy factor of M-SE, which yielded mixed results.

The survey scales are in line with current reform policies in the United States calling for schools to monitor changes in cognitive and non-cognitive domains of student development. Validated scales could be useful in serving information needs of teachers, decision-makers and researchers in similar school-based contexts.

This study demonstrates a comprehensive, user-centered methodology for designing and validating construct measures, departing from purely psychometric traditions of scale development.

Many examinations of police misconduct involve case study methodologies applied to a single agency, or a handful of agencies. Consequently, there is little evidence regarding the types of misconduct across agencies, or the impact of department-level characteristics on the nature and prevalence of officer deviance. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap using statewide data of over 1,500 charges of police misconduct filed with the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) from 2000 to 2011.

This study examines variation in the prevalence and forms of misconduct across 100+ agencies based on agency type and size. Difference scores were calculated for every agency in the state to determine whether an agency’s level of misconduct was proportionate to the number of officers employed by that agency. AZPOST data were supplemented with Law Enforcement Management and Statistics data to identify organizational correlates of misconduct in agencies generating disproportionately low and high levels of misconduct.

Results identify variation in officer misconduct across different types of agencies. Tribal agencies generally experience higher rates of domestic violence and drug/alcohol-related incidents. Smaller agencies have more misconduct allegations involving supervisors. Organizational characteristics including pre-hiring screening, accountability mechanisms and community relationships are associated with lower levels of agency misconduct.

The use of AZPOST data enables a statewide examination of misconduct while accounting for organizational context. This study identifies organizational features that might serve to protect agencies against disproportionate rates of officer misbehavior.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has fundamentally changed the competitive dynamics of the logistics service industry and forced incumbent logistics service providers (LSPs) to digitalize. As many LSPs still struggle in advancing their digital transformation (DT), the purpose of this study is to discover barriers and identify organizational elements and associated leading practices for DT success at LSPs.

This study utilizes a two-stage approach. Stage 1 is devoted to a literature review. Stage 2, based on multiple case studies, analyzes information collected across nine international and global LSPs.

This research derives a practice-based definition of DT in the logistics service industry, and it has identified five barriers, eight success factors and associated leading practices for DT. The main obstacles LSPs struggle with, are the complexity of the logistics network and lack of resources, while the main success factor is a leader having and executing a DT vision, and creating a supportive organizational culture.

The results contribute to the emerging field of DT within the logistics and supply chain management literature and provide insights for practitioners regarding how to effectively implement it in a complex industry.

The authors analyze DT from the perspective of LSPs, traditionally not viewed as innovative companies. This study compares their DT with that of other companies.

The purpose of this study is to outline components of a proposed screen-in (not out) hiring process for police.

This study uses survey data collected from police officers of all ranks (n = 166) in one Arizona police department, exploring officer perceptions of the most important qualities necessary to be an exceptional police officer, as well as the optimal processes for finding people with those traits.

Results build on prior studies that have begun to identify sought-after traits including honesty, integrity, ethics, compassion, empathy, as well as communication and listening skills. Findings also suggest preliminary steps for finding good cops through expansion of existing screen-out processes to also screen-in desirable prospects, application of some academy training processes to the hiring pool, and more proactive recruitment efforts.

This study adds value to the extant literature on the characteristics of good policing and on identifying the qualities by which to “screen-in” officers during the hiring and recruitment process. Further, the authors expand this understanding by capturing perceptions of the best processes to identify individuals with desirable qualities during the hiring and recruitment process. The implications of these findings are used to initiate a discussion of foundational components of a screening-in hiring process for police, informed by both empirical research and community perspectives.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a system for computer generation of linked HTML documents to support information retrieval and hypertext applications on the World Wide Web. The approach is based on work by Salton and others, but extends the concept to be compatible with the World Wide Web browser environment by adding an interactive indexing technique that is well suited to the mouse‐based point‐and‐shoot input common to windowed browsers. The system does not require text query input, nor any client or host processing other than hypertext linkage. The goal of this work is to construct a fully automatic system in which original text documents are read and processed by a computer program that generates HTML files, which can be used immediately by Web browsers to search and retrieve the original documents. Thus, a user with a large collection of information — for instance, newspaper articles — can feed these documents to the program described here and produce directly, without further human intervention, the necessary files to establish World Wide Web home and related pages, to support interactive retrieval and distribution of the original documents.

Even with the recognized impact organizational leaders have on the outcome of digital transformation (DT), a comprehensive scholarly understanding of the competencies that leaders must possess to lead a DT to success is lacking.

To derive and list the competencies considered by experts as necessary for managing DT, the authors recruited 18 international senior managers with relevant experience and applied the Delphi method to survey the managers. Upon the completion of three survey rounds and the authors modifying the response list until consensus was reached, 39 items were shortlisted as constituting key competencies for managing DT. Furthermore, the authors engaged in inductive theorizing to derive propositional statements using these findings.

The practitioners agreed on visionary thinking, agility, understanding the value of data, data-driven decision-making, knowledge of strategy and accepting change as the most important requirements for managing DT. Through inductive theorizing, the authors further derived that the seven discovered clusters fell into two broader competencies – behavioral and strategic – and that each behavioral competency would have varying importance depending on the country and industry that the organization operates in.

As is typical for Delphi studies that involve multiple survey rounds, the study participant response rate was moderate. The implications of this study, in finding that a variety of leadership competencies are needed to ensure successful DT, validate prior research that people, not technology, drive DT.

This study helps mitigate assumptions that successful DT processes are only possible by hiring technological experts, as doing so highlights the importance of behavioral leadership competencies.

The study is one of the first to interlink digital leadership with DT by inductively theorizing behavioral and strategic competencies. The authors also establish that contexts are vital in determining which aspects of leadership competencies are deemed most important in driving DT.