R0007/2026-03-20/C001/SRC02/E01¶
Beck et al. critique acknowledges departures from normality while challenging interpretation
URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/peps.12060
Extract¶
Beck, Beatty, and Sackett (2014) argued that the extreme departures from normality observed by O'Boyle and Aguinis may have been due to characteristics of performance measures used (output-based vs. behavior-based). They identified 7 measurement criteria for valid inferences about performance distribution. When using behavior-based measures, they found performance was more normally distributed. However, they explicitly stated: "To be clear, we do not disagree that the variables studied by O'Boyle and Aguinis (2012) had distributions with vast departures from normality."
Relevance to Hypotheses¶
| Hypothesis | Relationship | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | Contradicts | Suggests the finding may be measurement-dependent |
| H2 | Supports | Confirms departure from normality while adding nuance about measurement type |
| H3 | Contradicts | Even this critique confirms the basic finding for the measures O'Boyle & Aguinis used |
Context¶
This is the most prominent scholarly challenge to the O'Boyle & Aguinis (2012) findings. The debate centers on whether the observed distributions reflect true performance variation or are artifacts of certain measurement approaches. Both sides agree the data show substantial departures from normality.