Part 4

Staffing Activities:
Selection
Chapter 9:
External Selection II
 Staffing Organizations Model
Organization
Mission
Goals and Objectives

Organization Strategy HR and Staffing Strategy

Staffing Policies and Programs

Support Activities Core Staffing Activities
Legal compliance Recruitment: External, internal
Selection:
Planning Measurement, external, internal
Employment:
Job analysis Decision making, final match
Staffing System and Retention Management
9-2
 External Selection II Outline

• Substantive Assessment Methods • Discretionary Assessment

• Personality Tests Methods

• Ability Tests • Contingent Assessment Methods

• Emotional Intelligence Tests • Drug testing

• Performance Tests and Work • Medical exams

Samples • Legal Issues
• Situational Judgment Tests • Uniform Guidelines on
• Integrity Tests Employee Selection
Procedures
• Interest, Values, and • Selection Under the
Preference Inventories Americans With Disabilities
• Structured Interview Act (ADA)
• Choice of Substantive • Drug Testing
Assessment Methods
9-3
Learning Objectives for This Chapter
• Distinguish among initial, substantive, and contingent
selection
• Review the advantages and disadvantages of personality
and cognitive ability tests
• Compare and contrast work sample and situational
judgment tests
• Understand the advantages of structured interviews and
how interviews can be structured
• Review the logic behind contingent assessment methods
and how they are administrated
• Understand the ways in which substantive and
contingent assessment methods are subject to various
legal rules and restrictions
9-4
 Ex. 8.3 Assessment
Methods by Applicant
Flow Stage

•Substantive
assessment methods
•Determining who
among the minimally
qualified will likely be
the best performers
on the job

9-5
 Overview of Personality Tests
• Current role of personality tests e.g., role of Big Five
• Describe behavioral, not emotional or cognitive traits
• May capture up to 75% of an individual’s personality
• Big Five factors (Personality Characteristics Inventory etc.)
• Emotional stability-calm, optimistic, and well adjusted
• Extraversion-sociable, assertive, active, upbeat, and talkative
• Openness to experience-imaginative, attentive to inner feelings,
have intellectual curiosity and independence of judgment
• Agreeableness-altruistic, trusting, sympathetic, and cooperative
• Conscientiousness-purposeful, determined, dependable, and
attentive to detail
• Roughly 50% of the variance in the Big Five traits appears to be inherited

9-6
 Ex. 9.1 Sample Items from the
Personal Characteristics Inventory

• Conscientiousness
• I can always be counted on to get the job done.
• I am a very persistent worker.
• I almost always plan things in advance of work.
• Extraversion
• Meeting new people is enjoyable to me.
• I like to stir up excitement if things get boring.
• I am a “take-charge” type of person.
9-7
 Ex. 9.1 Sample Items from the
Personal Characteristics Inventory
• Agreeableness
• I like to help others who are down on their luck.
• I usually see the good side of people.
• I forgive others easily.
• Emotional Stability
• I can become annoyed at people quite easily (reverse-scored).
• At times I don’t care about much of anything (reverse-scored).
• My feelings tend to be easily hurt (reverse-scored).
• Openness to Experience
• I like to work with difficult concepts and ideas.
• I enjoy trying new and different things.
• I tend to enjoy art, music, or literature. 9-8
Ex. 9.2 Implications of Big Five
Personality Traits at Work

9-9
 Criticisms of Personality Tests
• Trivial validities
• Correlations for any individual trait with job performance are
typically low (around r=.23)
• However, when all traits are used simultaneously, correlations
are higher
• Faking
• Individuals answer in a dishonest way
• However, tests still have some validity, and it may be that being
able to “act” conscientiously may be related to real job
performance
• Negative applicant reactions
• Applicants, in general, believe personality tests are less valid
predictors of job performance
9-10
Exhibit 9.3 The Core Self-
Evaluations Scale

9-11
 Overview of Ability Tests

• Definition -- Measures that assess an individual’s capacity

to function in a certain way
• 15 to 20% of organizations use ability tests in selection
• Two types
• Aptitude - Assess innate capacity to function
• Achievement - Assess learned capacity to function

9-12
 Overview of Ability Tests
• Four classes of ability tests
• Cognitive: perception, memory, reasoning,
verbal, math, expression
• Psychomotor: thought/body movement
coordination
• Physical: strength, endurance, movement
quality
• Sensory/perceptual: detection & recognition
of stimuli 9-13
Exhibit 9.4 Sample Cognitive
Ability Test Items

9-14
Evaluation of Cognitive Ability Tests
• Validity approaches .50
• Research findings
• Among the most valid methods of selection
• Often generalizes across organizations, job types, and
types of applicants
• Can produce large economic gains for organizations
and provide major competitive advantage
• Validity is particularly high for jobs of medium and
high complexity but also exists for simple jobs
• A simple explanation for validity: those with higher
cognitive ability acquire and use greater knowledge
9-15
 Limitations of Cognitive Ability
Tests
• Concern over adverse impact and fairness of tests
• Equally accurate predictors of job performance for
various racial & ethnic groups
• Blacks and Hispanics score lower than whites
• This gap is narrowing somewhat over time
• Alternative presentation formats (e.g., verbal tests)
decrease differences in scores dramatically while
producing nearly equivalent scores
• Applicants’ perceptions
• Reactions to concrete vs. abstract test items
9-16
 Other Types of Ability Tests

• Psychomotor ability tests

• Reaction time, arm-hand steadiness, control
precision, and manual and digit dexterity
• Physical abilities tests
• Muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance,
and movement quality
• Sensory/perceptual abilities tests
• Ability to detect and recognize environmental
stimuli
9-17
 Emotional Intelligence

• The ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, to

discriminate among them, and to use this information to
guide one’s thinking and action
• Self-awareness: Good at recognizing and
understanding one’s own emotions
• Other awareness: Good at recognizing and
understanding others’ emotions
• Emotion regulation: Good at making use of or
managing this awareness

9-18
 Emotional Intelligence

• A review of many studies indicated that, overall,

EI correlated poorly with job performance after
personality traits were considered
• Some critics argue that because EI is so closely
related to intelligence and personality, once you
control for these factors, EI has nothing unique to
offer

9-19
Performance Tests and Work Samples

• Definition -- Assess actual performance (e.g., fix a car,

teach a class, type a document)
• Types of tests (should focus on relevant KSAOs)
• Performance test vs. work sample (all or some)
• Motor vs verbal work samples (action or thought)
• High- vs. low-fidelity tests (level of realism)
• Computer interaction performance tests vs. paper-
and-pencil tests including simulations (e.g., The
Manager’s Workshop)
• All the above can have good validity (.50+) & acceptance
9-20
 Situational Judgment Tests

• Place applicants in hypothetical, job-related

situations.
• Applicants are then asked to choose a course of
action from several alternatives
• Capture the validity of work samples and
cognitive ability tests in a way that is cheaper
than work samples and that has less adverse
impact than cognitive ability tests

9-21
Ex. 9.7: Example of Situational
Judgment Test Item

9-22
 Integrity Tests
• Two types (Exhibit 9.8)
• Clear purpose / overt
• Do you think most people would cheat if they thought they could
get away with it?
• Do you believe a person has a right to steal from an employer if he
or she is unfairly treated?
• Personality-based/veiled purpose
• Would you rather go to a party than read a newspaper?
• How often do you blush?
• Scores appear to reflect conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional
stability

9-23
 Integrity Tests

• Validity can be useful

• Especially good at predicting counterproductive
performance, like negative work behaviors
• Generally good at predicting job performance,
although there is some controversy regarding this
issue
• Why would these tests predict general performance?

9-24
 Interest, Values, and Preference
Inventories
• Assess activities individuals prefer to do on & off the job; do not
attempt to assess ability to do these
• Not often used in selection
• Can be useful for self-selection into job types
• Types of tests
• Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB)
• Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI)
• Evaluation
• Unlikely to predict job performance directly
• May help assess person-organization fit & subsequent job
satisfaction, commitment & turnover

9-25
Typical Unstructured Interviews

• Relatively unplanned and “quick and dirty”

• Questions based on interviewer “hunches” or “pet
questions” to assess applicants
• Casual, open-ended, or subjective questions
• Often contains obtuse questions
• Often contains highly speculative questions
• Interviewer often unprepared
• More potential for discrimination and bias
• Validity typically r=.20
9-26
 Structured Interviews

• Questions based on job analysis

• Same questions asked of each candidate
• Response to each question numerically evaluated
• Detailed anchored rating scales used to score
each response
• Detailed notes taken, focusing on interviewees’
behaviors
• Validity may be r=.30 or better
• Training interviews improves validity
9-27
 Structured Interviews (continued)

• Situational - Assess • Experience-based - Assess

applicant’s ability to
past behaviors that are
project his / her behaviors
linked to prospective job.
to future situations.
Assumes past performance
Assumes the person’s
will predict future
goals/intentions will
performance
predict future behavior

Research is inconclusive regarding which type is best

9-28
Constructing a Structured Interview

• Consult job requirements matrix

• Develop the selection plan
• Exh. 9.10: Partial Selection Plan for Job of
Retail Store Sales Associate
• Develop structured interview plan
• Exh. 9.11: Structured Interview Questions,
Benchmark Responses, Rating Scale, and
Question Weights
• Select and train interviewers
• Evaluate effectiveness 9-29
Selection for Team Environments

• Types of teams
• Problem-solving teams
• Self-managed work teams
• Cross-functional teams
• Virtual teams
• Establish steps for selection in team-based
environments
• Who should make the hiring decision?
• Critical to ensure proper context is in place
9-30
 Selection for Team Environments

• Interpersonal KSAs
• Conflict-Resolution KSAs
• Collaborative Problem-Solving KSAs
• Communication KSAs
• Self-management KSAs
• Goal-Setting and Performance Management
KSAs
• Planning and Task-Coordination KSAs
9-31
 Exhibit 9.14 Evaluation of
Substantive Assessment Methods

9-32
 Discretionary Assessment
Methods
• Used to separate people who receive job offers
from list of finalists (assumes each finalist is considered
fully qualified for position)
• Often very subjective, relying heavily on intuition
of decision maker
• Factors other than KSAOs are evaluated
• Assess person/organization match
• Assess motivation level
• Assess people on relevant organizational
citizenship behaviors
• Should involve organization’s staffing philosophy
regarding EEO/AA commitments 9-33
Contingent Assessment Methods

• “We offer you this job contingent upon ….”

• Contingent methods not always used
• Depends on nature of job and legal mandates
• Might involve confirmation of
• Drug test results
• Medical exam results
9-34
 Drug Testing

• The average drug user

• was 3.6 times more likely to be involved in an accident
• received 3 times the average level of sick benefits
• was 5 times more likely to file a workers’
compensation claim
• missed 10 times as many work days as nonusers
• 31% of all fatal truck accidents were due to alcohol or
drugs
• Drug testing has decreased in recent years because so
few people test positive
9-35
 Ex. 9.16
Example of a Drug Testing Program

9-36
Features of an effective drug testing
program
• Emphasize drug testing in safety-sensitive jobs
• Use only reputable testing laboratories, and ensure that
strict chain of custody is maintained.
• Ask applicants for their consent, and inform them of test
results
• Use retesting to validate positive samples from the initial
screening test
• Ensure that proper procedures are followed to maintain
the applicant’s right to privacy
• Review the program and validate the results against
relevant criteria (accidents, absenteeism, turnover, job
9-37
performance); conduct a cost-benefit analysis
 Medical Exams
• Identify potential health risks in job candidates
• Must ensure medical exams are required only when a
compelling reason exists
• Ensures people with disabilities unrelated to job
performance are not screened out
• Use is strictly regulated by ADA to ensure disabilities not
job related are not screened out
• Usually lack validity as procedures vary by doctor
• Not always job related
• Often emphasize short- rather than long-term health
• New job-related medical standards are specific, job
related, and valid 9-38
 Legal Issues: Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP)

• General principles
• Technical standards
• Documentation of impact and
validity evidence
• Definitions
• Makes substantial demands of a staffing system
• Ensures awareness of possibility of adverse impact
in employment decisions
• If adverse impact is found, mechanisms provided
to cope with it
9-39
 Legal Issues: ADA and Drug Testing

• Selection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

• General principles
• Access to job application process
• Reasonable accommodation
to testing
• Medical examinations
• Drug testing
• UGESP
• Drug testing is permitted to detect illegal drug use and
discipline/termination if found is OK
9-40
 Medical Exams
• Identifies potential health risks in job candidates
• Important to ensure medical exams are required
only when a compelling reason exists
• Ensures people with disabilities unrelated to job
performance are not screened out
• Use is strictly regulated by ADA
• Lack validity as procedures vary by doctor
• Not always job related
• Often emphasizes short- rather than long-term health
• New approach -- Job-related medical standards 9-41
 Ethical Issues
• Issue 1
• Do you think it’s ethical for employers to select
applicants on the basis of questions such as, “Dislike
loud music” and “Enjoy wild flights of fantasy,” even if
the scales that such items measure have been shown
to predict job performance? Explain.
• Issue 2
• Cognitive ability tests are one of the best predictors
of job performance, yet they have substantial adverse
impact against minorities. Do you think it’s fair to use
such tests? Why or why not?
9-42