HRM Chapter 8
inductive reasoning
ability to draw general conclusions on the basis of specific facts
compared with other types of work samples, SJTs are
are inexpensive to develop, administer, and score
just as organizations choose people, people
choose jobs and organizations that fit their personalities and career objectives and in which they can satisfy needs that are important to them
although EI does seem to predict organizational citizenship behaviors, researchers have
defined and measured it in several different ways, so the jury is still out regarding the incremental value of using it as a basis for hiring or promotional decisions
bad workplace culture can
derail an organization, leaving employees frustrated and creating material bottom-line impact- recent large-scale research by the Society for Human Resource Management quantified some of these consequences: while 76% of employees say their manager sets the culture of their workplace, fully 1/5 of workers left a job due to workplace culture, and 58% of those individuals say that their managers were the main reason they ultimately left, costing a staggering $223 billion over the past 5 years
useful guidelines for what you should do if you are asked to provide reference information
develop a written policy outlining procedures for checking references, and then follow it; only one person, usually a trained HR professional, should be permitted to provide references, and that person should be familiar with state laws where the employee resides and where the employer is located; ask each applicant to provide at least three professional references; obtain the applicant's written consent to contact former employers; try to contact at least two of the references via telephone or e-mail; document attempts to contact references, and note their responses; provide only factual information and avoid giving opinions about the employee's suitability for a new job
the best companies often create
distinctive cultures
the assessment-center method offers
great flexibility, and is also being used to train and upgrade management skills, to encourage creativity among research and engineering professionals, to resolve interpersonal and interdepartmental conflicts, to assist individuals in career planning, to train managers in performance management, and to provide information for workforce planning and organization design
extroversion
gregariousness, assertiveness, and sociability in an individual, as opposed to reservation, timidness, and quietness
inconsistency is present to some degree
in all measurement situations
tests are standardized
measures of behavior
major types of cognitive-ability tests used in business today include
measures of general intelligence, verbal nonverbal and numerical skills, spatial relations ability, motor functions, mechanical information reasoning and comprehension, clerical aptitudes, inductive reasoning
to the extent that job performance is multidimensional (as indicated in job-analysis results), use
multiple predictors, each focused on critical competencies; other things being equal, use predictors with the highest estimated validities, they will tend to minimize the number of erroneous acceptances and rejections, and they will tend to maximize workforce productivity
successful executives have a pattern
of attributes that an organization needs at the time of selection, which form a unique profile, including some forms of intelligence (e.g., crystallized intelligence—knowledge of facts at lower levels; fluid intelligence—creativity—at executive levels); personality characteristics (extroversion, conscientiousness), values, and experience, knowledge, and effective interpersonal skills
sweetening of résumés and previous work history is common
one study of 2.6 million résumés found that 44% contained exaggerations or outright fabrications about work experience, 23% listed bogus credentials, and 41% boasted fictional degrees, the lesson is always verify key aspects of previous history
in-basket test
situational test in which an individual is presented with items that might appear in the in-basket of an administrative officer, is given appropriate background information, and then is directed to deal with the material as though he or she were actually on the job; assesses an individual's ability to work independently
today, about 22% of organizations assess senior- and midlevel managers on three broad dimensions:
the ability to innovate, manage change and complexity, and demonstrate global competency
emotional intelligence (EQ)
the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emotion; includes four domains, each with associated competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management; a well-established component of successful leadership
spatial relations ability
the ability to visualize the effects of manipulating or changing the position of objects
reliability
the consistency or stability of a measurement procedure
neuroticism
the degree to which an individual is insecure, anxious, depressed, and emotional; is the opposite of emotional stability—calm, self-confident, and cool
with respect to SJT validity, a meta-analysis, based on 134 validity coefficients and 28,494 individuals, found
the following average levels of validity for various types of skills: teamwork (0.38), leadership (0.28), interpersonal skills (0.25), and job knowledge and skills (0.19); in each of these skill domains, video-based SJTs had stronger relationships with job performance than paper-and-pencil SJTs
validities for both types of interviews
vary from about 0.22 to 0.28
average validity of integrity tests
when used to predict supervisory ratings of performance and counterproductive work behaviors was 0.21 and 0.33; results for overt integrity and personality-based tests were similar (0.23 and 0.30), but the average validity of overt tests for predicting theft per se was much lower, 0.13; for personality-based tests, there were no validity estimates available for the prediction of theft alone, so theft appears to be less predictable than broadly counterproductive behaviors, at least by overt integrity tests; validity of integrity tests for predicting drug and alcohol abuse per se is about 0.30 and it is 0.25 for predicting absenteeism; because there is no correlation between gender or race and integrity-test scores, such tests might well be used in combination with general mental-ability test scores to improve validity even further
when courts receive negligent-hiring claims, they consider the following:
would the risk have been discovered through a thorough background check? did the nature of the job cause greater risk? did the employer have a greater responsibility to conduct a thorough background investigation because of the nature of the job? was the action intentional?
four assessment trends are unmistakable
1. assessment must be accessible (roughly half of job applicants now apply on mobile devices), 2. assessment must be engaging and job-related (60% of mobile users won't complete it if it is too lengthy or complex), 3. assessment must support brand identity and promises (candidates demand to know your brand and what it means to them and to others with whom they share connections), 4. feedback about the hiring process and related assessments is becoming a critical part of the hiring process itself
sleuthing out the culture at many other companies is more difficult, yet no less important- here are five strategies for doing that:
1. identify who and what count, employees look for signals in who gets rewarded, promoted, and let go., applicants should ask if rules are consistent across departments or if stars operate under looser standards; 2. grill recruiters and interviewers about suitability- ask recruiters why the five previous people they placed were successful, ask interviewers why other individuals left the role you are applying for; 3. make sure that actions match promises- if a recruiter or an interviewer is not forthcoming about the good, the bad, and the ugly of a job, press until you get answers; 4. seek a temporary consulting assignment.- just as internships are great ways for interns and employers to get to know each other, so also are temporary "gigs."; 5. walk the halls-look for unspoken cues, do employees smile at you or avoid eye contact? trust your instincts- how would you feel about working with these people?
recommendations, along with reference and background checks, are used by ____ and can provide ____
95% of employers to screen outside job applicants; four kinds of information about a job applicant: education and employment history, character and interpersonal competence, ability to perform the job, and willingness of the past or current employer to rehire the applicant
scientific standards for validation are described in greater detail in
Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures and Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, legal standards for validation are contained in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures
situational interviews can be considered a special case of
SJTs in which interviewers present the scenarios verbally and job applicants respond verbally
the cost of selection is
a consideration, but not a major one- if two predictors are roughly equal in estimated validity, then use the less costly procedure, but the trade-off between cost and validity should almost always be resolved in favor of validity, choose the more valid procedure because the major concern is not the cost of the procedure, but rather the cost of a mistake if the wrong candidate is selected or promoted; in management jobs, such mistakes are likely to be particularly costly
reliability is typically expressed in terms of
a correlation coefficient (e.g., between scores on Form A of a test and scores on Form B)
quantitative evidence of validity is often expressed in terms of
a correlation coefficient between scores on a predictor of job performance (e.g., a test or an interview) and a criterion that reflects actual job performance (e.g., supervisory ratings, dollar volume of sales), and the greater the absolute value of r, the better the prediction of criterion performance- the square of r indicates the percentage of variability in the criterion that is explained or accounted for, given a knowledge of the predictor, assuming a predictor-criterion correlation of 0.40, r^2 = 0.16 indicates that 16% of the variance in the criterion (job performance) can be explained, given a knowledge of the predictor, in employment contexts, predictor validities typically vary between about 0.20 and 0.50
under the Americans with Disabilities Act, an employer may not ask
a general question about disabilities on an application form or whether an applicant has ever filed a workers' compensation claim, but at a pre-employment interview, after describing the essential functions of a job, an employer may ask if there is any physical or mental reason the candidate cannot perform the essential functions
the ability to articulate a company's culture, to live it every day, and to make it real for applicants and for current employees is
a key feature of the decisions of successful applicants to join, and for seasoned veterans to stay and to compete for promotions
assessment-center method
a process that evaluates a candidate's potential for management on the basis of multiple assessment techniques, standardized methods of making inferences from such techniques, and pooled judgments from multiple assessors
situational-judgment tests (SJTs) consist of
a series of job-related situations presented in written, verbal, or visual form, in many SJTs, job applicants are asked to choose best and worst options among several choices available
impairment testing may involve
a software-based test of mental alertness, monitoring the ability of a worker's eyes to smoothly track an object moving horizontally, or monitoring his or her eyes' involuntary responses to light stimuli
contrast effects
a tendency among interviewers to evaluate a current candidate's interview performance relative to the performances of immediately preceding candidates (if a first candidate received a very positive evaluation and a second candidate is just average, interviewers tend to evaluate the second candidate more negatively than is deserved; the second candidate's performance is contrasted with that of the first)
impairment may be due to ____, while drug screening ____
a variety of sources, such as fatigue or illness, not just from illegal drug use; attempts to determine which workers have used specific substances known to cause impairment in the relatively recent past
video interviewing usage, pros, and cons
according to a recent poll of 700 executives, nearly 75% of their companies are using real-time video platforms, like Skype or Zoom, to interview leading candidates, and 50% use these to reduce the pool of candidates; firms such as Goldman Sachs and Novartis Pharmaceuticals use them to open up national and international talent pools that were inaccessible even several years ago; job seekers increasingly incorporate video into their online portfolios and LinkedIn profiles as a way to stand out from their peers; these could cause legal problems for employers who reject candidates from protected groups, but they also expedite the hiring process, ease the time impact on hiring managers, reduce costs, and improve the candidate experience; at Novartis, there was some initial hesitation from hiring managers, but it tended to disappear after they had the opportunity to try it- managers conducted 2,700 video interviews in 1 year, saving $475,000 and cutting travel by 220 trips, and candidates felt their use demonstrated that Novartis was a progressive company in the use of technology
legality of drug screening
according to the Supreme Court, is in the case of railroad crews involved in accidents and for U.S. Customs Service employees seeking drug-enforcement posts; federal or state laws require that more than 10 million civilian workers, mostly in law enforcement or in industries regulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation, be tested
potential disadvantages of the use of assessment centers
adoption of the method without carefully analyzing the need for it and without adequate preparations to use it wisely, blind acceptance of assessment data without considering other information on candidates, such as past and current performance, the tendency to rate only general exercise effectiveness, rather than performance relative to each behavioral dimension (e.g., by using a behavioral checklist), lack of control over assessment information (eg, "leaking" assessment ratings to operating managers), failure to evaluate the dollar benefits of the program, relative to costs, inadequate feedback to participants, not every competency can be simulated, especially those requiring long-term, cumulative actions, such as networking
often, boards of directors, senior executives, and the public pay attention to organizational culture only
after a scandal exposes the toxic atmosphere that results in wrongdoing (in recent years, scandals at such well-known companies as Volkswagen, Uber, Wells Fargo, Wynn Resorts, and KPMG have led to serious legal and personal consequences for companies as well as individual executives)
research shows clearly that as jobs become more complex, individual differences in output
also increase- if there were 10 job openings available and only 10 qualified candidates, selection again would not be a significant issue because all 10 candidates would have to be hired
the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI 360)
an instrument designed to measure EI; a 72-item, multi-rater assessment that includes input from self, manager, direct reports, peers, customers/clients, and others; based on Goleman's Emotional Competence Framework, is composed of four domains, each with associated competencies: (1) self-awareness (emotional self-awareness, accurate self-assessment, and self-confidence—i.e., personal competence), (2) self-management (emotional self-control, transparency, adaptability, achievement, initiative, and optimism—i.e., social competence), (3) social awareness (empathy, organizational awareness, and service), and (4) relationship management (inspirational leadership, influence, developing others, change catalyst, conflict management, teamwork, and collaboration)
some guidelines that will suggest which questions to delete on job applications:
any question that might lead to an adverse impact on the employment of members of groups protected under civil rights law, any question that cannot be demonstrated to be job-related or that does not concern a bona fide occupational qualification, any question that could constitute an invasion of privacy
for administrative convenience and for reasons of efficiency, many tests today
are administered via computer, either at a dedicated physical location (such as a company office) or using web-based assessments, available anytime
in strong workplace cultures, leaders
are trusted and admired- they build organizations that excel at results and at taking excellent care of their people and their customers, their vision, mission, and strategy are clear- core values drive the culture and are used in decision making, roles, responsibilities, and criteria of success are unambiguous and communication is candid and straightforward (the world's most admired companies, eg, Apple, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Walt Disney, Starbucks, Microsoft, Alphabet, Netflix, JPMorgan Chase, and FedEx score high on these indicators)
management style during the maturity stage
as an organization matures, there is a need to select the kind of manager who does not need lots of variety in her or his work, who can oversee repetitive daily operations, and who can search continually for economies of scale; individuals who fit best into mature organizations have a bureaucratic style of management
assessor training is another feature of the assessment-center method
assessors are either line managers two or more levels above the candidates or professional psychologists; they are trained (usually for several days) in interviewing techniques, behavior observation, and the development of a common frame of reference with which to assess candidates; assessors usually go through the exercises as participants before rating others; this experience, plus the development of a consensus by assessors on effective versus ineffective responses by candidates to the situations presented, enables the assessors to standardize their interpretations of each candidate's behavior, standardization ensures that each candidate will be assessed fairly—that is, in terms of the same yardstick
reviews of the state of the art of interviewing research and practice lead to the following recommendations:
base interview questions on a job analysis, ask the same general questions of each candidate (use a structured interview), use detailed rating scales (with behavioral descriptions to illustrate scale points), take detailed notes that focus on behavioral information about candidates, use multiple interviewers, provide extensive training on interviewing, do not discuss candidates or answers between interviews, use statistical weights for each dimension and an overall judgment of suitability to combine information
situational interviews
based on the assumption that a person's expressed behavioral intentions are related to subsequent behavior; candidates are asked to describe how they think they would respond in certain job-related situations, or if they have prior experience, they are asked to provide detailed accounts of actual situations (wg, "You're a project manager? Tell me about a time you had a delayed project."); answers provide insight into the candidate's level of critical thinking, adaptability, awareness of his or her impact, and creativity and tend to be remarkably consistent with actual (subsequent) job behavior
a major distinction in SJT response instructions is
behavioral tendency ("what would you do?") versus knowledge ("what should you do?" or "rate the best/worst option"); "What would you do?" elicits responses that more closely resemble future behavior on a job, rather than mere knowledge of the best response, and more importantly, SJTs make the prediction of job performance more accurate above and beyond cognitive ability, job experience, and conscientiousness while showing less adverse impact based on ethnicity, as compared with general cognitive-ability tests
based on the assumption that one of the best predictors of what a person will do in the future is what he or she has done in the past,
biographical information has been used widely and successfully as one basis for staffing decisions, with an average validity of 0.35, but as with any other method, careful, competent research is necessary if biodata are to prove genuinely useful as predictors of job success (eg, items that are more objective and verifiable are less likely to be faked, although faking can be reduced by asking applicants to describe incidents to illustrate and support their answers)
in the assessment center method, aach candidate is usually evaluated
by a different assessor on each exercise- although assessors make their judgments independently, the judgments are combined into an overall rating on each dimension of interest, a summary report is then prepared and shared with each candidate
in recent years, EI has received
considerable attention in practitioner as well as academic literature- although some claims of its validity and ability to predict job performance over and above other, more traditional measures (cognitive ability, personality characteristics) have been viewed skeptically in the academic community, a review of three meta-analyses found average validities of 0.16, 0.21, and 0.17 with measures of performance
assessment-center method validity
consistently demonstrated high validity, with correlations between assessment-center performance and later job performance as a manager sometimes reaching the 0.50s and 0.60s; ratings also predict long-term career success (i.e., corrected correlation of 0.39 between such ratings and average salary growth 7 years later); both minorities and non-minorities and men and women acknowledge that the method provides them a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they are capable of doing in a management job
organizational culture has two implications for staffing decisions:
cultures vary across organizations- individuals will consider this information if it is available to them in their job-search process, and other things being equal, individuals who choose jobs with organizations that are consistent with their own values, beliefs, and attitudes are more likely to be productive, satisfied employees
research suggests that if letters of recommendation are to be meaningful, they should contain the following information:
degree of writer familiarity with the candidate (time known and time observed per week), degree of writer familiarity with the job in question (to help the writer make this judgment, the reader should supply the writer with a description of the job in question), specific examples of performance (goals, task difficulty, work environment, extent of cooperation from coworkers), individuals or groups to whom the candidate is compared
particularly when unemployment is high, organizations find themselves
deluged with applications for employment for only a small number of available jobs-many large companies, especially companies with solid reputations and strong company cultures, receive more than 1 million applications per year, some receive many more
impairment testing is used to
determine which workers in safety-sensitive jobs put themselves and others at risk by directly measuring the workers' current fitness for duty
assessment centers have received much attention in the research literature
developing and running a high-fidelity assessment center are complex and expensive, even if run many times, which has limited their use to large organizations and to positions where the risk is high of selecting the wrong person for a mission-critical job; smaller organizations may use a less costly, hybrid approach that combines an online, vendor-provided simulation, followed by an in-person presentation on that simulation to an assessor or a hiring manager- the approach Advance Auto Parts took to find leaders for its 3,900 stores and 55,000 employees, by relating each candidate's overall performance on the assessment-center exercises to such indicators as the management level subsequently achieved 2 (or more) years later or current salary, researchers have shown that the predictions for each candidate are very accurate
because work samples are miniature replicas of actual job requirements, they are
difficult to fake and are unlikely to lead to charges of discrimination or invasion of privacy, produce small minority/nonminority group differences in performance, a lack of bias by race or gender, and only modest losses in predictive validity, compared with traditional tests, but because the content of the test reflects the essential content of the job, the tests do have content-oriented evidence of validity- their use in one study of 263 applicants for city-government jobs led to a reduction of turnover from 40% to less than 3% in the 9-26 months following their introduction, nevertheless, because of time and equipment constraints, are probably not cost effective when large numbers of people must be evaluated, and because they measure "can-do" (ability, skill) but not "will-do" (motivation, person-organization fit), they should not be used as the sole method to hire people
the in-basket test generates
documented output (eg, written recommendations, market analysis, meeting agendas, reply memos), and assessors then score the test by describing (if the purpose is development) or evaluating (if the purpose is selection for promotion) what the candidate did in terms of such dimensions as self-confidence, abilities to organize, plan, and set priorities, written communications, and decision making, risk taking, and coordination with key resources, the dimensions to be evaluated are identified through job analysis prior to designing or selecting the exercise
in every state is that an employer has a legal right to ensure that
employees perform their jobs competently and that no employee endangers the safety of other workers, so if illegal drug use may reduce job performance and endanger coworkers, the employer has adequate legal grounds for conducting drug tests
by linking staffing decisions to cultural factors, companies try to
ensure that their employees have internalized the strategic intent and core values of the enterprise, in this way, they will be more likely to act in the interest of the company and as dedicated team members, regardless of their formal job duties
selection errors are of two types:
erroneous acceptance and erroneous rejection
shrinkage statistics
estimated to make up about 2% of annual sales in the retail industry; employee theft alone is estimated to cause up to 30% of all business failures; costs the nation's retailers $50 billion per year and the average family of four an extra $450 a year in higher prices; with statistics like these, it should come as no surprise that employers representing retail stores, nuclear plants, law enforcement agencies, and child-care facilities regularly use integrity tests
it's important to take into account the selection ratio (the percentage of applicants hired) in
evaluating the overall usefulness of any predictor- low ratios mean that more applicants must be evaluated but only the "cream" of the applicant crop will be selected, predictors with lower validity may be used when the selection ratio is low because it is necessary only to distinguish the very best qualified from everyone else
validity
evidence regarding the appropriateness or meaningfulness of inferences about scores from a measurement procedure; defined as the degree to which the inferences decision-makers make about job performance from predictor measures (e.g., tests, interviews) are accurate
personality measures add significant _____ and are used primarily ____
explanatory and predictive power beyond other predictors, such as cognitive ability, educational credentials, and work experience; in the hiring or promotion of executives and middle managers (32% and 28% of organizations, respectively), and, to a lesser extent (17%) for entry-level, hourly-paid jobs
although the situation in the in-basket test is relatively unstructured, each candidate
faces the same complex set of materials, so activities can therefore be considered a multidimensional work-sample test
recruiters assess person/organization fit by
focusing more on values and personality characteristics
recruiters assess person/job fit by
focusing on specific knowledge, skills, and abilities
organizational culture is embedded and transmitted through mechanisms such as
formal statements of organizational philosophy and materials used for recruitment, selection, and socialization of new employees; promotion criteria; stories, legends, and myths about key people and events; what leaders pay attention to, measure, and control; implicit and possibly unconscious criteria that leaders use to determine who fits key slots in the organization
what kind of information will employers release and not release
fully 98% will verify dates of employment for current or former employees, but 68% will not discuss work performance, 87% will not discuss a disciplinary action, and 82% will not discuss character or personality
average validities of alternative predictors of job performance
general mental-ability tests-0.51; work-sample tests-0.54; integrity tests-0.41; conscientiousness tests-0.31; employment interviews (structured)-0.51; employment interviews (unstructured)-0.38; job-knowledge tests-0.48; job-tryout procedure-0.44; peer ratings-0.49; ratings of training and experience-0.45; reference checks-0.26; job experience (years)-0.18; biographical data-0.35; assessment centers-0.37; points assigned to training and experience-0.11; years of education- 0.10; interests-0.10; graphology-0.02; age−0.01
in the course of leaderless group discussion (LGD), participants ____; assessors ____
gravitate to roles in which they are comfortable- usually, someone structures the meeting, someone keeps notes, some brainstorm well, some show skill at developing others' ideas, and some participate little; can see a whole range of competencies related to communication, influence, collaboration, resolution of disagreements, problem-solving, and relationship management- evidence indicates that it's not how much you communicate that matters. It's how well you communicate, the best leaders find common ground and ways to connect with followers
two types of situational tests are used to evaluate and select managers
group exercises, in which participants are placed in a situation where the successful completion of a task requires interaction among the participants, and individual exercises, in which participants complete a task independently
although moderate distortion may reduce predictive-related validities slightly, compared with validities obtained with job incumbents, response distortion can
have a dramatic effect on who is hired, even though it has no detectable effect on predictive validity, on top of that, coaching can improve scores
many organizations are not aware of how deep a check must go to
identify serious problems- a casual check may reveal only that a candidate has wonderful references, no criminal record, and no liens against him or her, but a more extensive probe could uncover the fact that a candidate sued every company he ever worked for or that he mismanaged assets but his former employer decided not to prosecute
the context in which work-sample tests are administered is
important-when used as stand-alone tests, work samples are designed to simulate actual job tasks, when used in the context of managerial selection, however, there is a de-emphasis on current knowledge and skill in a specific domain and a strong focus on the assessment of future potential
individuals who choose jobs with organizations that are consistent with their own values, beliefs, and attitudes are more likely to be productive, satisfied employees, which was demonstrated
in a study of 904 college graduates hired by six public accounting firms over a 7-year period- those hired by firms that emphasized interpersonal-relationship values (team orientation, respect for people) stayed an average of 45 months, those hired by firms that emphasized work-task values (detail, stability, innovation) stayed with their firms an average of 31 months; the 14-month difference in survival rates translated into an opportunity loss of at least $12.5 million (in 2019 dollars) for each firm that emphasized work-task values
VR training is becoming more common
in a variety of industries to educate a large number of workers quickly or assess the technical ability of high-skilled workers like electricians or pilots
to avoid legal challenge, consider instituting the following commonsense procedures in drug testing
inform all employees and job applicants, in writing, of the company's policy regarding drug use; include the policy in all employment contracts; emphasize that drug screening will help ensure a safer workplace; forbid employees from reporting to work or working while under the influence of alcohol or drugs; if drug testing will be used with employees as well as job applicants, tell employees in advance that it will be a routine part of their employment; employees who are more sensitive to job-safety issues are more likely to perceive drug screening as fair; if drug testing is done, it should be uniform (should apply to managers and non-managers); continue to comply with federal regulations
integrity tests and the big five
integrity tests have been found to measure mostly conscientiousness but also some components of agreeableness and emotional stability, which is why their validities tend to be higher than those of individual Big Five characteristics alone
the validity of the pre-employment interview will be reduced to the extent that
interviewers' decisions are overly influenced by such factors as first impressions, personal feelings about the kinds of characteristics that lead to success on the job, and contrast effects, among other nonobjective factors
a meta-analysis of five studies found that the average inter-rater reliability for references
is only 0.22, research indicates that there is more agreement between recommendations written by the same person for two different applicants than between two people writing recommendations for the same person
a measurement is considered to be reliable if
it is consistent or stable (eg, over time, across different samples of items, across different raters or judges working independently)
because practical considerations (safety, time, cost) make job tryouts for all candidates infeasible in most selection situations,
it is necessary to predict the relative level of job performance of each candidate on the basis of available information
in the context of selection, it is important for an organization to describe the dimensions of
its culture—the environment within which employment decisions are made and within which employees work on a day-to-day basis, has been described as the DNA of an organization—invisible to the naked eye but critical in shaping the character of the workplace and exists at a fundamental, perhaps preconscious, level of awareness; is grounded in history and tradition; and is a source of collective identity and commitment
the major advantages of the in-basket test are
its flexibility (it can be designed to fit many different types of situations) and the fact that it permits direct observation of individual behavior within the context of a job-relevant, standardized problem situation
crystallized intelligence
knowledge of facts at lower levels; fluid intelligence—creativity—at executive levels
criminal records in hiring
little consistency among state laws, not to mention cities and counties, for their use; currently, 35 U.S. states and more than 150 cities and counties have passed "ban the box" laws that generally remove questions about criminal history from job applications and delay asking about it until after making a conditional offer of hire; Society for Human Resource Management, as well as major retailers like Target and Walmart, are supporting efforts to increase the hiring of ex-offenders and to ensure that employers do not discriminate on the basis of criminal record; employers should consider the nature of the offense, the time that has passed since the applicant committed the offense or completed sentencing, and the nature of the job sought, including its essential functions
previous LGD experience appears to have
little effect on present LGD performance, although prior training clearly does- individuals in one study who received a 15-minute briefing on the history, development, rating instruments, and research relative to the LGD were rated significantly higher than untrained individuals, to control for this, all those with prior training in LGD should be put into the same groups
shrinkage
losses due to bookkeeping errors and employee, customer, and vendor theft
LGD ratings have forecast
managerial performance accurately in virtually all the functional areas of business
for strategic reasons, it is important to consider the stage of development of a business because
many characteristics of a business (eg, its growth rate, product lines, market share, entry opportunity, technology) change as the organization changes
today, managers spend much less time handling memos in paper form and much more time in e-mail, digital media, and cellphone communication, so participants' workspace for the in-basket test
may include a computer and smartphone, through which they can communicate with others, the availability of such technology enhances the fidelity of the simulation, but it also greatly increases the workload on the assessors, who must keep track of such rapid communication via multimedia for several participants
evidence indicates that as the complexity of work increases, organizations use
more selection methods and use selection methods that capture the applicant's capability to do the work (eg, organizations frequently evaluate and select job candidates on the basis of the results of physical (e.g., drug testing) or psychological assessments (e.g., aptitude, work-sample, or personality tests))
statistics on drugs in the workplace
more than 70% of those abusing illicit drugs are employed; drug users are almost 4x as likely to be involved in a workplace accident as a sober worker and 5x as likely to file a workers' compensation claim; drug users miss more days of work, show up late, and change jobs more often; absenteeism and involuntary turnover are the outcomes that drug testing forecasts most accurately; cost of a drug test is usually less than $50.40; number of job applicants and workers who test positive has been about 4% since the mid-2000s, even as cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana have surged
work-sample tests may be
motor-skills tests, involving physical manipulation of things (e.g., trade tests for carpenters, plumbers, electricians), or verbal-skills tests, involving problem situations that are primarily language or people oriented (e.g., situational tests for supervisory jobs)
an important requirement of all employment application forms is that they ask
only for information that is valid and fair with respect to the nature of the job- organizations should regularly review employment application forms to be sure that the information they require complies with equal employment opportunity guidelines and case law
in employment settings, people generally are assessed
only once- organizations give them, for example, one test of their knowledge of a job, or one application form, or one interview, the procedures through which these assessments are made must be standardized in terms of content, administration, and scoring, only then can the results of the assessments be compared meaningfully with one another
management style during the aging stage
organization needs movers and shakers to invigorate it; strategically, it becomes important to select (again) entrepreneurs capable of doing whatever is necessary to ensure the economic survival of the firm; may involve divesting unprofitable operations, firing unproductive workers, or eliminating practices that are considered extravagant
aging stage
organization struggles to hold market share in a declining market, and it demands extreme cost control obtained through consistency and centralized procedures; economic survival becomes the primary motivation
maturity stage
organizations emphasize the maintenance of market share, cost reductions through economies of scale, more rigid management controls over workers' actions, and the generation of cash to develop new product lines; in contrast to the "freewheeling" style of an embryonic organization, there is much less flexibility and variability in a mature organization
high-growth stage
organizations in this stage are concerned with two things: fighting for market share and building excellence in their management teams; they focus on refining and extending product lines and building customer loyalty
start-up stage
organizations that are just starting out are in this stage; are characterized by high growth rates, basic product lines, heavy emphasis on product engineering, and little or no customer loyalty
understanding a company's culture boils down to two dimensions:
people interactions and response to change
clerical aptitudes
perceptual speed tests
by any measure, interviews are the most ____, yet, ___
popular hiring tool across countries, jobs, and organizational levels; employment interviewing is a difficult mental and social task- managing a smooth social exchange while instantaneously processing information about a job candidate makes interviewing uniquely difficult among all managerial tasks
currently, an employer has no legal duty or obligation to provide information to ____, but ___
prospective employers; if an employer's policy is to disclose reference information, providing false or speculative information could be grounds for a lawsuit- reference checking is not an infringement on privacy, it's a sound evaluative tool that can provide objectivity for employers and fairness for job applicants
a review of 388 characteristics that were rated in 47 actual interview studies revealed that personality traits (e.g., responsibility, dependability, and persistence, which are all related to conscientiousness) and applied social skills (e.g., interpersonal relations, social skills, team focus, and ability to work with people) are
rated more often in employment interviews than any other type of construct, and interviews can contribute to the prediction of job performance over and above cognitive abilities and conscientiousness and experience
erroneous rejection
rejecting someone who should be accepted
correlation is a measure of
relationship between the two sets of scores, the magnitude of that relationship (typically expressed as r) varies from −1.0 to +1.0- when r is 1.00, the two sets of scores are related perfectly to each other, in "high-stakes" testing (e.g., licensure, certification), most tests demonstrate reliabilities that exceed 0.90
legality of marijuana
remains illegal under federal law, as of 2020, 33 states have legalized medical use and 11 states and Washington, DC, allow recreational use as well
at executive levels, general biographical data may be
replaced by critical experiences (some preset list of experiences seen as necessary for success)- many organizations are focusing on key work experiences that have developed management talent during the previous 10 years and can guide planning for the next 10-15 years
when seeking information about a candidate from references or in a background check, or when contacting individuals identified through professional networking sites like LinkedIn or Jobster, consider the following guidelines:
request job-related information only- put it in written form to prove that your hire or no-hire decision was based on relevant information; the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires third-party investigators to secure the applicant's written consent prior to doing a background check- if a decision not to hire results from negative information found through a background check, an employer is obligated to provide the applicant with the results and an opportunity to dispute them; do not reach out to anyone that the candidate has asked not to be contacted, and unless the candidate expressly gives permission, do not contact any references from a candidate's current employer; evaluate the credibility of the source of the reference material- not everything available online is factual, under most circumstances, an evaluation by a past immediate supervisor will be more credible than an evaluation by an HR representative; wherever possible, use public records to evaluate on-the-job behavior or personal conduct (e.g., records regarding criminal and civil litigation, driving, or bankruptcy)
job descriptions should be broadened into
role descriptions that reflect the broader and more changeable strategic requirements of an organization
erroneous acceptance
selecting someone who should be rejected
organizational culture
shared values, expectations, and behavior; the way that the values and actions of managers and employees create a unique business environment
reliability is certainly an important characteristic of any measurement procedure, but it is
simply a means to an end, a step along the way to a goal- unless a measure is reliable, it cannot be valid, this is so because unless a measure produces consistent, dependable, stable scores, we cannot begin to understand what implications high versus low scores have for later job performance and economic returns to the organization, and such understanding is the goal of the validation process
a traditional belief of testing experts is that validity is ____, but ____; despite this, ___
situation specific- a test with a demonstrated validity in one setting might not be valid in another, similar setting, possibly as a result of differences in specific job tasks, duties, and behaviors; decades of research have cast serious doubt on this assumption- it has been shown that the major reason for the variation in validity coefficients across settings is the too-small size of the samples, and when the effect of sampling error is removed, the validities observed for similar test/job combinations across settings do not differ significantly, so the results of a validity study conducted in one situation can be generalized, as long as it can be shown that jobs in the two situations are similar; methodological and statistical concerns remain, on balance, however, the thousands of studies that have been done on the prediction of job performance and validity generalization allow us to establish reliable values for the average validity of most predictors
leaderless group situation (LGD)
situational test in which a group of participants is given a job-related topic and is asked to carry on a discussion about it for a period of time, after which observers rate the performance of each participant; simple and has been used for decades; no one is appointed leader, nor is anyone told where to sit. Instead of using a rectangular table (with a "head" at each end), a circular table is often used, so that each position carries equal weight
impairment tests can be administered via
software downloaded onto mobile devices like smartphones or tablet computers- a study of almost every employer that has used this over the past 10 years revealed that 82% of the employers reported improvements in safety (reduced accidents) and no impact on productivity, 82% of the employees in the study preferred impairment testing to urine testing, and 88% of employers expressed similar preferences
people interactions
span the gamut from highly independent (autonomy, individual action, and competition) to interdependent (managing relationships, collaborative, coordinating group effort)
motor functions
speed, coordination
work-sample tests (situational tests)
standardized measures of behavior whose primary objective is to assess the ability to do rather than the ability to know through miniature replicas of actual job requirements
decades of research on the in-basket test indicate that it validly forecasts
subsequent job behavior and promotion- it correlates 0.30 with cognitive ability, sharing only 9% of the variance in common, moreover, because performance on the LGD is not strongly related to performance on the in-basket test, in combination they are potentially powerful predictors of managerial success
payoff of biodata is
that it can add significant explanatory power over and above Big Five personality dimensions and general mental ability
five personality characteristics particularly relevant to performance at work are known as
the "Big Five": neuroticism, extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness
there should be a fit between the intended strategy of an enterprise and
the characteristics of the people who are expected to implement it
organizarional culture sets
the context of everything a company does
the LGD is an excellent tool for assessing interpersonal skills, given
the current emphasis on teamwork, as well as the ability to collaborate and compromise
agreeableness
the degree to which an individual is cooperative, warm, and agreeable versus cold, disagreeable, and antagonistic
openness to experience
the degree to which an individual is creative, curious, and cultured versus practical with narrow interests
conscientiousness
the degree to which an individual is hard-working, organized, dependable, and persevering versus lazy, disorganized, and unreliable
although evidence of validity may be accumulated in many ways, validity always refers to
the degree to which the evidence supports inferences that are drawn from scores or ratings on a selection procedure- it is the inferences regarding the specific use of a selection procedure that are validated, not the procedure itself, so a user must first specify exactly why he or she intends to use a particular selection procedure (i.e., what inferences he or she intends to draw from it), then the user can make an informed judgment about the adequacy of the available evidence of validity in support of that particular selection procedure when used for a particular purpose
negligent hiring
the failure of an employer to check closely enough on a prospective employee, who then commits a crime in the course of performing his or her job duties; employer becomes liable if it knew, or should have known, about the applicant's unfitness to perform the job in question
three of the most popular situational tests:
the leaderless group discussion, the in-basket test, and the situational-judgment test
determining the possible predictors of future performance that might be used in the staffing process to use depends on considerations such as the following:
the nature of the job, an estimate of the validity of the predictor in terms of the strength of the relationship between applicants' scores on the predictor and their corresponding scores on some measure of performance, the selection ratio, or percentage of applicants selected, the cost of the predictor
selection ratio
the percentage of applicants hired, which is used in evaluating the usefulness of any predictor
most common method of selecting executives remains
the performance/potential review process by higher-level executives and the board of directors
with respect to a recommendation or reference check, it will be meaningful only if
the person providing it has had an adequate opportunity to observe the applicant in job-relevant situations, is competent to evaluate the applicant's job performance, can express such an evaluation in a way that is meaningful to the prospective employer, and is completely candid
personality
the set of characteristics of a person that account for the consistent way he or she responds to situations
in general, the in-basket test usually takes the following form:
the test consists of memos, reports, notes, and other communications that the incumbent of a role being assessed (e.g., a bank manager) might receive in his or her in-basket on a given day; subject who takes the test is given appropriate background information concerning the business, military unit, school, or whatever institution is involved, she is told that she is the new incumbent of the role and that she is to deal with the material in the in-basket; background information is sufficiently detailed that the subject can reasonably be expected to take action on many of the problems presented by the in-basket documents; subject is instructed that she is not to play-act or pretend to be someone else; she is to bring to the new job her own background of knowledge and experience, and her own personality, and she is to deal with the problems as though she were really the incumbent, she is not to say what she would do, she is actually to write letters and memoranda, prepare agenda for meetings, and make notes and reminders for herself, as though she were actually on the job; often, she is given a time limit—say, 1 hour—to work through the items in her in-basket
when job analysis shows that the abilities or aptitudes measured by such tests are important for successful job performance,
the tests are among the most valid predictors currently available
in short, culture is the way that
the values and actions of managers and employees create a unique business environment
among employers, the most prevalent reasons for using personality tests are
their contribution to improving employee fit with the job and organization and to reducing turnover while increasing productivity
selection becomes a relevant concern only when
there are more qualified candidates than there are positions to be filled: it implies choice, which means exclusion
management style during the start-up stage
there is a need for enterprising managers who can thrive in high-risk environments- known as entrepreneurs: decisive individuals who can respond rapidly to changing conditions
management style during the high growth stage
there is still a need for entrepreneurs, but it is also important to select the kinds of managers who can develop stable management systems to preserve the gains achieved during the embryonic stage; might call these managers "growth directors"
if variability in physical and psychological characteristics were not so prevalent,
there would be little need for the selection of people to fill various jobs- without variability among individuals in abilities, aptitudes, interests, and personality traits, we would expect all job candidates to perform comparably
well-designed interviews can be helpful because
they allow examiners to gather information on characteristics not typically assessed via other means (eg, empathy and personal initiative)
employers are likely to achieve nonbiased hiring decisions if
they concentrate on shaping interviewer behavior- one way to do that is to establish a specific system for conducting the employment interview
pre-employment background checks are an essential element of screening because _____, the process entails ____
they identify risks and validate claims made by prospective new hires; the average background check costs $90 and typically takes 24-72 hours, but in-depth screening and multiple geographical locations could take longer, for reasons of privacy and possible discrimination, HR and hiring managers should not perform online or social media candidate screen, it's better to leave it to screening professionals, such as a firm accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners
the goal of any selection program is ____, but ____
to identify applicants who score high on measures that purport to assess knowledge, skills, abilities, or other characteristics that are critical for job performance; we always run the risk of making errors in employee-selection decisions
some things to consider in setting up a specific system for conducting the employment interview
to know what to look for in applicants, focus only on the competencies necessary for the job- be sure to distinguish between entry-level and full-performance competencies; screen résumés and application forms by focusing on keywords that match job requirements, quantifiers and qualifiers that show whether applicants have these requirements, and skills that might transfer from previous jobs to the new job; use open-ended questions (those that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no response) (eg, what would you do if . . . ? questions), as these comprise a situational interview; conduct the interview in a relaxed physical setting: begin by putting the applicant at ease with simple questions and general information about the organization and the position being filled, note all nonverbal cues, such as lack of eye contact and facial expressions, as possible indicators of the candidate's interest in and ability to do the job; don't ask about previous salary history- as of 2020, 17 states and 20 cities ban the question, the assumption is that if women have been paid less in prior jobs, asking about their pay history as a means of determining future pay is not fair- price the job, not the person, by establishing a range of pay and sharing that with the candidate, then the interviewer can focus on where the candidate might fit into that range based on his or her experience, skills, and accomplishments
the most progressive companies strive to convey their cultures
to new hires as well as to current employees, and the fit of a prospective new hire with the organizational culture plays a major role in staffing decisions, there's also a constant need to align staffing decisions with business strategy
in terms of its bottom-line impact with the use of assessment centers,
two studies have shown their use to be cost-effective: both demonstrated that the method should not be measured against the cost of implementing it, but rather against the cost (in lost sales and declining productivity) of promoting the wrong person into a management job; in a first-level management job, the gain in improved job performance as a result of promoting people via the assessment-center method is about $7,400 per year (in 2019 dollars), however, if the average tenure of first-level managers is, say, 5 years, the gain per person is about $37,000 (in 2019 dollars)
integrity tests
two types: 1. overt (clear-purpose) tests that are designed to assess directly attitudes toward dishonest behaviors and 2. personality-based (disguised-purpose) tests that aim to predict a broad range of counterproductive behaviors at work (disciplinary problems, violence on the job, excessive absenteeism, and drug abuse, in addition to theft)
in high-stakes testing situations (eg, licensure, certification, university admissions) there is general agreement that
unproctored Internet testing is not acceptable and that some cheating will occur- steps can be taken to minimize test exposure and the motivation to cheat, however, such as not allowing retesting, issuing warnings about the consequences of cheating, or following unproctored testing with a proctored test
drug-screening tests, which began in the military and spread to the sports world, are now
used by 2/3 of employers with good reason
selection errors can be avoided by
using measurement procedures that are reliable and valid
research conducted over the past several decades on the Big 5 shows that these are
valid predictors of performance, but their validities differ depending on the nature of the job and the type of criteria- conscientiousness has been shown to be the most generalizable predictor across jobs, with an average validity of 0.28; personality measures predict many important criteria in addition to job performance, such as counterproductive behaviors, managerial effectiveness, entrepreneurial performance, customer service, and life satisfaction; validities tend to be highest when theory and job analysis information are used explicitly to select personality measures
response to change
varies from stability (maintaining the status quo, consistency, predictability) to flexibility (innovation, openness, diversity of ideas and actions)
to control the effects of faking, ____, a review of eight studies that investigated the effects of ____
warn job applicants in advance that distortion can and will be detected, that verification procedures exist, and that there will be a consequence for such distortion (might vary from elimination from the selection process to verification in a background check or oral interview); such warnings found that, in all eight, warnings reduced the amount of intentional distortion in self-report instruments, relative to situations where no such warnings were given
history of the assessment-center approach
was first used by German military psychologists during World War II to select officers- they felt that paper-and-pencil tests took too narrow a view of human nature; therefore, they chose to observe each candidate's behavior in a complex situation in order to develop a broader appraisal of his reactions; borrowing from this work and that of the War Office Selection Board of the British army during the early 1940s, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services used this method to select spies during World War II- each candidate had to develop a cover story that would hide her or his identity during the assessment, testing for the ability to maintain cover was crucial, and ingenious situational tests were designed to seduce candidates into breaking cover; after World War II, many military psychologists and officers joined private companies, where they started small-scale assessment centers; in 1956, AT&T was the first to use the method as the basis for a 25-year study of managerial progress and career development
evidence is beginning to show that there is little candor, and thus little value, in
written recommendations and referrals, especially those that must, by law, be revealed to applicants if they petition to see them- specifically, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 gives students the legal right to see all letters of recommendation written about them and permits release of information about a student only to people approved by the student at the time of the request
