IS UTILITY REALLY FUTILE - A FAILURE TO REPLICATE AND AN EXTENSION

G. P. Latham and G. Whyte (1994) found that managers gave less positiv e evaluations to a proposal to implement a valid selection procedure w hen information about the utility of that procedure was also given. Th e authors hypothesized that the manner in which the utility informatio n was presented might explain this result. Two empirical studies (Ns = 145 and 186) were conducted. Results of mean contrast analyses show t hat the effect found by Latham and Whyte was not replicated, that revi sed scenarios including utility information are more understandable to managers, and that utility information presented in a revised manner has a low-to-moderate positive effect on the acceptability ratings tha t managers give to these selection proposals. However, acceptability r atings remain disappointingly low no matter which scenario is presente d. Future study is encouraged to examine managerial reactions to innov ations suggested by psychological research.