When I consider the article Those Low Grades in College May Haunt Your Job Search, I wonder if the same issue occurs as in Stasser's experiment. Essentially, this article states that many employers will not hire an applicant with a GPA below 3.0, even though the applicant may have noble reasons for having lower grades, such as astounding extra-curricular activities or working through college. Could it be that more people in groups responsible for hiring are informed of the applicants' GPAs whereas only one or two members of the group are informed of the applicants' extra-curricular activities, but does not share the information with other people involved in the hiring process?
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sharing Information in Groups
In the Wisdom of Crowds, a social psychology experiment performed by Garold Stasser is mentioned. In his experiment, small groups are formed to determine the performance of psychology students. Two members of the group would be given information such as the student's grades and test scores, one member would be given two additional pieces of information, and another member would be given two different pieces of information. Even though the additional information may have been a better indicator of a student's performance, the groups would typically base their decisions on grades and test scores, the information that was given to more people. The other information was often disregarded or viewed as unusual since it was not made readily available to all members of the group.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
As I was reading this article I had the same thought in my head. I know a students GPA is a good factor to look at how well they are retaining the information they are learning. But, I know plenty of people that could recite everything that is on the exam but when they get it their mind goes blank, causing them to get low exam grades. In the hiring process I think it is better for employers to focus more on extra-curricular activities rather then GPA's
ReplyDeleteI agree as I also believe that this article can be directly related to the GPA article we previously read. I experienced the whole GPA issue first hand this past week at the Public Accounting Night that was held at the university. Several accounting firms came to campus, looking to recruit students for spring and summer internships. A few days after the event, I talked to a few of my friends who informed me that they were not chosen to interview for a position because their GPA was not high enough for their requirements. I felt terribly sorry for these individuals because they are definitely worthy of the position, but informed them that this is how people are selected anymore, making references to the GPA article we read a few weeks ago.
ReplyDelete