Longitudinal assessment of applicant reactions to employment testing and test outcome feedback

Following a justice framework, the present study examined actual candidates taking selection tests to gain full-time employment. The reactions of 144 applicants for an entry-level accounting job were examined in a real employment testing context at 3 time periods: before testing, after testing but before feedback on whether they passed or failed the test, and after test performance feedback. With controls for pretest perceptions, several of the 5 procedural justice measures (information known about the test, chance to perform, treatment at the test site, consistency of the test administration, and job relatedness) predicted applicant evaluations regarding the organization, perceptions of employment testing, and applicant test-taking self-efficacy. Test outcome favorability (passing or failing the employment test) predicted outcomes beyond initial reactions more consistently than procedural justice perceptions. Procedural justice perceptions explained incremental variance in some analyses after the influence of outcome favorability was controlled.