HR 4th Edition DeNisi Solutions Manual

Visit to download the full and correct content document:

https://testbankdeal.com/download/hr-4th-edition-denisi-solutions-manual/
 1
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

Chapter 7
Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing
Employees

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, students should be able to accomplish the following objectives.
1. Describe the recruiting process, including internal and external recruiting and the
importance of realistic job previews
2. Discuss the steps in the selection process and the basic selection criteria used by most
organizations
3. Identify and discuss popular selection techniques that organizations use to hire new
employees
4. Describe the selection decision, including potential selection errors and reliability and
validity
5. Discuss how organizations train and develop new employees to better enable them to
perform effectively

Chapter Outline

Introduction

This chapter examines the processes used by organizations to attract, hire, and develop new
employees.

I. Recruiting Employees

The processes of recruitment and selection are the means whereby organizations acquire new
human resources. Recruiting is the process of developing a pool of qualified applicants who are
interested in working for the organization and from which the organization might reasonably
select the best individual or individuals to hire for employment. However, and as illustrated in
Figure 7.1, recruiting is a two-way street; that is, just as the organization is looking for qualified
job applicants, those applicants are also likely to be looking at various potential employment
opportunities.

Both parties in the recruiting process—the organization and the prospective employee—have
goals they are trying to accomplish in the recruiting process. The most basic and fundamental

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 2
Chapter Outline

goal of an organization’s recruiting effort is essentially to fulfill the definition of recruiting: to

develop a pool of qualified applicants. This overriding goal, however, also suggests three
specific related goals that are important to the recruiting process.
• The organization wants to optimize the size of the pool of qualified applicants; that is, have
enough candidates to be able to have choices but not so many that processing would
become overwhelming.
• The recruiting process should generate a pool of applicants that is both qualified and
interested in working for the organization.
• The process should give prospective applicants an honest and candid assessment of the
kinds of jobs and opportunities that the organization can potentially make available to
them.

In many cases, a prospective employee’s goals are relatively straightforward. Individuals work
for several reasons, but the most common are financial income, job security, opportunity for
promotion, benefits, and challenging work assignments.

In addition to these goals, however, individuals can also have idiosyncratic goals. One
fundamental decision that an organization must make as part of its recruiting strategy is whether
to focus recruiting efforts internally or externally. As summarized in Table 7.1, both internal
recruiting and external recruiting have unique advantages and disadvantages.

A. Internal Recruiting

Internal recruiting is the process of looking inside the organization for existing qualified
employees who might be promoted to higher-level positions. In any event, it is generally
important that an organization use internal recruiting as part of its overall planning process
because, as noted in Table 7.1, internal recruiting has several advantages over external
recruiting. Perhaps the most important of these advantages is employees can see that there is
really an opportunity for advancement when a firm relies on internal recruiting. This is likely
to serve as a major source of motivation for those employees who perform their jobs as best as
they can. Employees recruited internally also bring the advantage of familiarity with the
company—its heritage, culture, policies and procedures, strategies, and ways of doing
business, making transitions to new positions easier.

Yet, as shown in Table 7.1, there are also disadvantages when internal recruiting is the only
type a firm uses. This can result in stagnation and stifle creativity. It is unlikely that new ideas
will be proposed for how to deal with challenges if everyone in the firm has only been
familiar with one way of doing things. Finally, internal recruiting creates a ripple effect in the
organization. Every time a person is promoted a new opening must be filled, and a relatively
few promotions can sometimes result in a large-scale set of transfers and movements from

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 3
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

position to position within the organization. The two most common methods used for internal
recruiting are job posting and supervisory recommendations.

Job Posting

Perhaps the most common method that organizations use for internal recruiting is a process
called job posting. This is a relatively simple procedure. Vacancies in the organization are
publicized through various media such as the company intranet, newsletters, bulletin
boards, and/or internal memos. Some organizations that rely heavily on internal recruiting
go so far as to require that jobs be posted internally before any external recruiting is
undertaken. Note that a candidate hired through a job posting could be applying for a
promotion or merely for a lateral transfer.

Supervisory Recommendations

Another method of internal recruiting is supervisory recommendations. In this case,

when a new position needs to be filled, a manager solicits nominations or
recommendations for the position from supervisors in the organization. It is important,
however, that supervisors give equal consideration to all potential candidates in these
cases.

Given the large numbers of layoffs and workforce reductions (from downsizing) in recent
years, some potential applicants are somewhere between the classifications of internal and
external candidates. Individuals who have been laid-off (as opposed to terminated) are
usually considered first when openings occur in the organization.

B. External Recruiting

External recruiting involves looking to sources outside the organization for prospective
employees. As noted in Table 7.1, external recruiting has advantages and disadvantages that
are directly counter to those of internal recruiting. In some cases, no internal employees may
be able to fill new positions, thereby making external recruiting the only option.

On the other hand, external recruiting may result in motivational problems in the organization.
Current employees to feel that they have been denied opportunities and that outsiders who are
brought into the organization at higher levels may be less qualified than the current employees
themselves. External recruiting also tends to be more expensive than internal recruiting
because of the advertising and other search processes that must be undertaken.

Many organizations prefer to rely on both internal and external recruiting strategies. This

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 4
Chapter Outline

combined approach allows an organization to match the advantages and disadvantages of each
particular recruiting effort to its own unique context.

C. Methods for External Recruiting

Word-of-Mouth Recruiting

Referrals come to an organization via word-of-mouth recruiting. In most cases, the

organization simply informs current employees that positions are available and encourages
them to refer friends, family members, or neighbors for those jobs. From the organization’s
perspective, this method is an inexpensive way to generate a large number of applicants. In
addition, if one assumes that the current employees are satisfactory and that people
generally associate with people who are similar to them, then the organization should have
a reasonable chance of generating high-quality applicants with this method.

Advertisements

Advertisements on websites and in newspapers and related publications are also popular
methods for external recruiting. Some professional periodicals and publications also have
space set aside for help-wanted recruiting ads. This form of advertising tends to be
relatively expensive and, perhaps surprisingly, attracts somewhat fewer qualified
applicants than do some other recruiting methods. It does enable the organization to cast a
wide net, however, in its efforts to publicize its affirmative action programs to reach every
sector of the labor market.

Employment Agencies

Public employment agencies became a formal part of the recruiting process with the
passage of the Social Security Act of 1935. This law requires that anyone who is paid
unemployment compensation must register that fact with a local state employment office.
These state agencies work closely with the U.S. Employment Service to get unemployed
individuals off state aid as quickly as possible and back in permanent jobs. Employers
register their job openings with the local state employment agency, and the agency collects
data from unemployed persons and uses this data to match qualified individuals with
available jobs.

Private employment agencies are more likely to serve the white-collar labor market, and
they charge a fee for their services. Sometimes this fee is paid by the individual;
sometimes it is paid by the organization if it hires an individual referred to it. Because
private employment agencies are supported by the firms and individuals that use their

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 5
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

services, however, they may be able to devote more resources to performing their function.

Finally, executive search firms specialize in applicants for high-level positions. An

individual working for an executive search firm is also known as a headhunter. Typically,
the search firm screens potential candidates and then presents the organization with a small
number of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified and interested.

Regardless of the type of employment agency involved, if an organization engages the

services of an agency that discriminates, it’s also the case that the organization will be held
responsible for the discrimination, so it is important to make sure that any employment
agency truly offers equal opportunity to all.

College Placement Offices

Most large organizations visit college campuses every year to interview graduates for jobs
within the organization. An advantage of this method for the organization is that it can
specify qualifications such as major, grade point average, work experience, and so forth. It
is also a relatively inexpensive method of recruiting because colleges and universities
typically provide the facilities, schedule the appointments, and so forth. For students, this
job search method is also quite efficient.

Digital Recruiting

The importance of digital recruiting would be hard to overestimate. Perhaps the most
important reason for the growing reliance on digital recruiting is that it is cost-effective. It
does not cost much to post a job opening on a job board like those available at
monster.com and hotjob.com, and these websites are visited literally by millions of people
annually. In addition, many organizations that start their own websites for recruiting find
that they can reach potential applicants more easily and use these sites as marketing tools.

Not long ago, the effectiveness of digital recruiting was somewhat limited by the number
of potential job applicants who had easy access to the Internet, but data now suggests that
there are 245 million Internet users in the United States and 2.4 billion Internet users
worldwide. Finally, digital recruiting saves time. A potential applicant who sees an
interesting opening can e-mail questions and answers as well as electronically submit
résumés—all in all a matter of minutes.

Of course, there are potential problems associated with digital recruiting as well. Ease of
access also means that many people may apply for a job who are not really qualified, and
this means more time spent sifting through the résumés of unqualified applicants. Also,

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 6
Chapter Outline

although digital recruiting has the potential to generate a more diverse group of applicants,
differences in access to computers and the Internet still exist in the United States.

D. Internships: A Mixed Model

Although it is easier to think about recruiting having either an internal or external focus, it is
possible to take an approach that really combines elements of the two. Of course, an
internship is a form of temporary employee who can help respond to work demands in short
term.

The intern is hired, in essence, on approval. In other words, if the organization does not think
that the person is someone who will be able to contribute to the organization or that the person
is a good fit, then the organization simply allows the internship to end. On the other hand, if
the intern interests the organization, it can offer that person permanent employment.

E. Realistic Job Previews

A final topic for discussion concerning external recruiting is the use of the realistic job
preview (RJP). It is an effective technique for ensuring that job seekers understand the actual
nature of the jobs available to them. In the past, many recruiters were guilty of painting a
glowing picture of what a particular job might entail. They made the job sound glamorous,
exciting, fun, challenging, and rewarding in different ways. Once employees accepted the job,
however, they found just the opposite: The job they were hired to fill proved to be boring,
tedious, monotonous, and routine.

Realistic information about the job can be presented using video or film, or it can be presented
using brochures and printed materials. An applicant can also get realistic information by
observing people at work on the job in question.

How RJPs seem to work is interesting. If applicants are given realistic previews before they
make a decision, some potential applicants will be discouraged and withdraw from
consideration. At the same time, however, those who know what to expect and still choose to
join the organization are generally more successful and more likely to remain with the
company. A meta-analysis of several studies of realistic job previews reported that they are
generally associated with higher performance, higher levels of trust in the organization, and
lower turnover.

II. The Selection Process

Selection is concerned with identifying the best candidate or candidates for a job among the pool

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 7
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

of qualified applicants developed during the recruiting process.

A. Steps in Selection

At a general level, the selection process involves three distinct steps.

• The first step is gathering information about the members of the pool of qualified
recruits regarding the levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) possessed by
each applicant.
• The second step is evaluating the qualifications of each applicant from among the
recruiting pool.
• The third step is making the actual decision about which candidate or candidates will be
offered employment with the organization.

B. Basic Selection Criteria

Several possible criteria can be used in the selection decision, and these often differ in terms
of how objectively they can be assessed.

Education and Experience

In a selection context, education refers to the formal classroom training an individual has
received in public or private schools and in a college, university, or technical school. For
some jobs, the educational fields are open; in other cases, they must be within a specified
area such as mechanical engineering, French, or human resource management.

Experience refers to the amount of time the individual may have spent working in either a
general capacity or a particular field. Experience is presumably an indicator of an
individual’s familiarity with work and his or her ability to work and is a surrogate measure
of a person’s competencies as an employee. In some cases, it may be necessary that the
individual have a predetermined level of experience in a certain field of study.

Skills and Abilities

The assessment of skills and abilities, on the other hand, is rather mixed in terms of
objectivity. It is relatively straightforward to assess someone’s typing ability, and it is even
possible to measure an ability such as spatial relations objectively. But as organizations
move toward teamwork and team-based operating systems, many of them are also putting
more emphasis on hiring individuals with the skills necessary to function effectively in a
group situation.

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 8
Chapter Outline

Personal Characteristics

Some personal characteristics, which are believed to reflect the applicant’s personality, are
also difficult to assess objectively. More recently, however, a great deal of attention has
been paid to assessing applicants in terms of the big five personality traits. These traits
tend to be more behavioral than cognitive or emotional and so can be assessed in a fairly
objective manner. Furthermore, recent research has suggested that they are likely to be
more important for job performance than more traditional personality traits.

Hiring for “Fit”

When a firm decides to hire someone on the basis of fit, it hires that person not because he
or she is the most qualified for a specific job, but because she or he is a good fit for the
larger organization. In some cases, the organization might assume that the requisite KSAs
can actually be learned after the person has been hired, resulting in even more reliance on
selection based on fit.

III. Popular Selection Techniques

Most organizations rely on a comprehensive system of multiple selection techniques to ensure

that they gather all the relevant data and assess this data rigorously, objectively, and without
discrimination. Figure 7.3 illustrates one example selection sequence that an organization might
use.

A. Applications and Background Checks

An employment application asks individuals for various facts and information pertaining to
their personal background. Commonly asked questions include details such as name,
educational background, personal career goals, and experience.

All questions on an employment application must relate to an individual’s ability to perform

the job. An employment application cannot ask for a person’s gender, age, or marital status
because these questions have no bearing on that person’s ability to perform specific jobs.
Such questions could even serve as a basis for an applicant’s claim of discrimination on the
basis of age or gender. Figure 7.4 presents an example of an application blank.

Application blanks, when used in typical selection systems, provide a quick and inexpensive
mechanism for gathering several kinds of objective information about an individual and
information of a type that can be easily verified. A number of innovations have extended the
usefulness of application blanks, including the following:

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 9
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

• The so-called weighted application blank relies on statistical techniques to determine

the relative importance of various personal factors for predicting a person’s ability to
perform a job effectively.
• The biodata application blank focuses on the same type of information found in a
regular application, but it also goes into more complex and detailed assessments about
that background.

B. Employment Tests

Another popular selection technique used by many organizations is an employment test, or a

device for measuring the characteristics of an individual. These characteristics may include
personality, intelligence, or aptitude. Although employment tests are generally traditional
question-and-answer exercises that applicants complete on paper or online, the courts
consider any device used to make an employment decision, including interviews, to be a test.
Figure 7.5 shows the type of items typically found on various employment tests.

Different types of employment tests are commonly used. These terms often refer to how the
test is used rather than the nature of the test. Aptitude tests focus on predicting future
performance. Achievement tests focus on the mastery of some set of learned skills.

Cognitive ability tests measure mental skills. The applicant is not required to do anything
physical, only to demonstrate some type of knowledge. General intelligence, or g, refers to
reasoning, or problem-solving skills, but it is typically measured in terms of the information
one learns in school. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a test of general intelligence.
Scores on these tests can be expressed in terms of intelligence quotient (IQ).

Two important facts make the use of intelligence tests in selection controversial. First, IQ is
related to performance on a wide variety of jobs because more intelligent people perform
better. The second fact is that, on average, African Americans tend to score lower on these
tests than do white Americans. Therefore, using intelligence tests as selection criteria will
likely result in disparate impact. Other cognitive abilities include vocabulary and reading
comprehension and mathematics, clerical ability, and spatial relations.

Psychomotor ability tests measure physical abilities such as strength, eye-hand coordination,
and manual dexterity. These abilities can be practiced and perfected, and are usually measured
by some type of performance test. Psychomotor tests are popular because they apparently
measure what is important for performance on the job. In addition, they often measure skills
that are important for jobs and little evidence of disparate impact occurs when they are used.

Personality tests measure traits, or tendencies to act, that are relatively unchanging in a

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 10
Chapter Outline

person. Personality can be measured in two ways: self-report inventories and projective
techniques.
• A self-report inventory is a paper-and-pencil measure in which an applicant responds
to a series of statements that might or might not apply to that applicant. Some of these
inventories such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) focus on
“abnormal” personality traits such as schizophrenia, paranoia, and psychopathology.
Others such as the California Personality Index (CPI) focus on “normal” personality
traits such as introversion versus extraversion, dominance, and masculinity versus
femininity.
• The other type of personality measure is known as a projective technique. This
approach involves showing an individual an ambiguous stimulus, such as an inkblot or a
fuzzy picture and then asking what he or she “sees.” Because there is nothing
representative to see, whatever the applicant reports is presumed to reflect his or her
personality.

Personality tests are somewhat controversial. Some critics believe they can lead to legal
problems, whereas others disagree whether cognitive ability tests (especially intelligence
tests) or personality tests provide the most useful information for selection decisions.
Regardless of the merits of these arguments, however, both personality and cognitive ability
remain popular criteria in selection techniques, as do all employment tests in general.

Integrity tests attempt to assess an applicant’s moral character and honesty. Most of these
tests are straightforward and include questions such as “Do you think most people would
cheat if they thought they could get away with it?” and “Have you ever taken anything that
didn’t belong to you at work?” Other tests are based more on personality measures. The use of
integrity tests is growing dramatically, with several million administered annually in the
United States.

Despite their popularity, however, there are important issues involved with their use in
selection settings. First, most of the evidence about their accuracy has been supplied by the
publishers of the test, which raises the possibility of a conflict of interest. Second, these tests
may do a good job of identifying potential “thieves,” but many others individuals not
identified by the tests steal and simply do not get caught. Finally, some applicants find these
tests invasive and respond negatively to them.

C. Work Simulations

Work simulations (sometimes referred to as work samples) require an applicant to perform

tasks or job-related activities that simulate or represent the actual work for which the person is
being considered. In-basket exercises, which consist of collections of hypothetical memos,

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 11
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

letters, and notes that require prioritization and responses, are sometimes used in management
simulations.

D. Personal Interviews

Although tests are popular, the most widely used selection technique in most organizations is
the employment interview. Interviews have traditionally been defined as face-to-face
conversations between prospective job applicants and representatives of the organization.

In any case, three different types of interviews are commonly encountered.

• In a structured employment interview, the interviewer works from a list of standard
questions that are presented to every candidate, by every interviewer.
• In the semistructured employment interview, major or key questions are decided in
advance and provided for each interviewer, but the interviewer is also given the
prerogative to ask follow-up questions to probe the interviewee’s specific answers.
• There are no predetermined questions in the unstructured employment interview.

In addition to these basic types, another form of interview has been gaining popularity. A
situational interview asks the applicant questions about a specific situation to see how he or
she would react. In other cases, rather than ask about something that has already happened,
the interviewer might ask the applicant to imagine a situation that has not yet occurred.

Interviewers generally prefer unstructured interviews because they believe these interviews
allow them to get richer information and provide the freedom to make employment decisions
on their own. But evidence suggests that structured interviews are much better predictors of
subsequent job performance than are unstructured interviews, and situational interviews are
even better at predicting future job performance.

However, it is more difficult to establish the job relatedness of interviews, partly because of
the prevalence of interview errors.
• Interviewers make the first-impression error tend to make a decision early in the
interview process.
• The contrast error occurs when the interviewer is unduly influenced by other people
who have been interviewed.
• Similarity errors, on the other hand, occur when the interviewer is unduly influenced
by the fact that the interviewee is similar to the interviewer in one or more important
ways.
• Another type of error interviewers make is that of nonrelevancy.
• A final type of error that is common in interview situations has to do with the
interviewer’s knowledge of the job.

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 12
Chapter Outline

E. Other Selection Techniques

References and Recommendations

The job applicant is usually asked to provide either letters of recommendation or the names
and addresses of individuals who may be contacted to write such letters. References and
recommendations are often of little real value. There is also a growing concern for legal
liability in the preparation of recommendation letters. Job applicants have sued people who
wrote negative letters of recommendation that were, in turn, the bases for the individuals
not being offered employment.

Assessment Centers

Another selection technique that is used widely, but only for the selection of managers, is
the assessment center. An assessment center is not a physical location but is instead an
approach to selecting managers based on measuring and evaluating their ability to perform
critical work behaviors.

The individuals to be assessed are brought together in a single place such as the company’s
training headquarters or perhaps a conference facility at a hotel. While there, they undergo
a series of tests, exercises, and feedback sessions. A normal assessment-center schedule
lasts two to three days and involves ten to fifteen individuals at any one time. During the
assessment center these individuals may undergo experiential exercises; group decision-
making tasks; case analyses; individual employment tests, such as personality inventories
and so forth; role-playing exercises; and other methods for assessing their potential skills
and abilities. Current managers oversee the assessment and serve as evaluators.

This suggests that assessment centers may be quite useful, but there are some
disadvantages as well. The most critical is that assessment centers are rather expensive to
run, especially when considering the lost productivity of both the candidates and the
assessors.

IV. The Selection Decision

The final step in the selection process is deciding whom to hire.

A. Multiple Indicators

By using multiple approaches, the organization is able to counterbalance the measurement

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 13
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

error in one selection technique against another, and it is also able to base decisions on the
basis of more complete information. The organization must decide if a candidate must pass
some minimum requirement on every selection technique, or if a high score in one area can
compensate for a lower score somewhere else.

By using multiple approaches, the organization is able to counterbalance the measurement

error in one selection technique against another, and it is also able to base decisions on the
basis of more complete information. The hiring decision may also be complicated by the fact
that the person hired may not be the one who is ranked first on the selection criteria. An
organization might select a person who has “acceptable” levels of the requisite KSAs but who
is a better “fit” with the culture and style of the organization. Furthermore, it is fairly common
for organizations to cluster applicants who differ somewhat in terms of KSAs but not enough
to be critical. Thus, the organization could use any decision rules it wished to select among
the people in such a cluster without sacrificing performance on the job. This procedure,
known as banding, allows an organization to select an applicant, for example, from some
underrepresented group in the organization while still ensuring high performance standards.

Contemporary Challenges in HR: The Converse of In-Person Communication

A job interview is a job interview, and interviews conducted on the phone pose all the
challenges of a face-to-face interview—and then some. One needs to take telephone
interviewing seriously because many corporations now use them to prescreen applicants,
and more importantly, because some HR departments rely on phone interviews
exclusively.

If one gets invited to a telephone interview, here are a few tips to remember: be flexible;
prepare for the interview; be positive; know what one’s talking about and be specific; refer
to one’s notes; take the initiative; and know when a topic’s been covered (and when the
conversation’s over).

Microsoft’s Matt Aberham offers five ways to avoid failing at a telephone interview: keep
track of the time; answer the question instead of trying to sell yourself; talk about “me,”
not “we”; be concrete instead of abstract; and don’t ask “How’d I do?”

B. Selection Errors

No selection system is perfect, and an organization will always make at least an occasional
selection error and hire the wrong person. Actually, two basic types of selection errors can be
made: false positives and false negatives. In each case, the decision maker examines the
information available, predicts whether the applicant will ultimately succeed or fail on the job,

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 14
Chapter Outline

and then decides to hire or reject the person on that basis. In each case, some of the
predictions are correct and others are incorrect; these situations are illustrated in Figure 7.6.

The figure shows that some of the people predicted to be successful and who are hired will in
fact succeed. Quadrant I represents the false positives: the applicants who are predicted to be
successful and who are therefore hired, but who ultimately fail. Quadrant IV represents the
false negatives: the applicants who are predicted to fail and so are not hired. If they had been
hired, however, they would have been successful.

It would seem obvious that selection systems that minimize selection errors will be more
effective for the organization, but it is not possible to minimize both types of errors at the
same time, and so decisions must be made concerning which type of decision is more costly
for the organization. Specifically, it is possible to minimize the number of poor performers
that are hired by using more rigorous tests or more challenging interviews to make selection
decisions. The information in Figure 7.6 also provides some insight into the issue of test
validity. If a test is valid, then there should be many more “hits” than errors.

C. Reliability and Validity

Reliability and validity are important concepts for any psychological type of measurement
and are especially important for establishing the “job relatedness” of a selection technique.

Reliability

Reliability refers to the consistency of a particular selection device. Specifically, it means

that the selection device measures whatever it is supposed to measure, without random
error. The fact that a test is relatively free of random error should also indicate that the test
can produce consistent scores.

Validity

Validity refers to the extent to which a measure or indicator is in fact a real reflection of
what it is assumed to be. Criterion-related validity refers to the extent to which a
particular selection technique can accurately predict one or more elements of performance.
Criterion-related validity is most typically demonstrated by establishing a correlation
between a test or measured performance in a simulated work environment with measures
of actual on-the-job performance.

Different relationships, or correlations, are illustrated in Figure 7.7.

• It is important that both the test and other selection devices be reliable and that the

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 15
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

measure of performance or success be reliable.

• Correlations between predictor scores and job performance will also be maximized if
we have the complete range of both, scores on the predictor (selection technique),
and scores on the criterion (job performance).

D. Legal and Effectiveness Issues in Recruiting and Selection

Two final issues of importance for selection decisions, as well as recruiting, are an awareness
of legal issues and the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of these activities.

Legal Issues in Recruiting and Selection

The Civil Rights Act (and other nondiscrimination legislation) applies to all employment
decisions, but this legislation is clearly most critical for selection decisions. An
organization faced with a prima facie case of discrimination must prove that the basis for
the selection decision was job related, and this is demonstrated by establishing the validity
of a selection instrument as described above.

Evaluating Recruiting and Selection

Because recruiting and selection are such vital parts of the HRM process for most
organizations, it stands to reason that the organization will periodically evaluate their
effectiveness. Utility analysis is an attempt to determine the extent to which a selection
system provides real benefit to the organization. This method assesses the practical payoff
for any selection system in terms of the percentage of selection decisions that are correct
(or the “hit rate”; see earlier discussion about selection errors). The actual formulas for
assessing utility are beyond the scope of the current discussion, but it is worth noting that
an assessment of utility requires calculating the costs involved in improving the hit rate,
and the benefit of that improved hit rate, as well as the costs of making selection errors.

V. Training and Development

Once new employees have been hired, HR managers must take steps to ensure that they can
perform to their full potential as soon as possible. This generally involves training and
development.

Employee training can be defined as a planned attempt by an organization to facilitate employee

learning of job-related knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Development, on the other hand,
usually refers to teaching managers and professionals the skills needed for both present and
future jobs.

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 16
Chapter Outline

Training usually involves teaching operational or technical employees how to do their jobs more
effectively and/or more efficiently. Rather than focusing on specific job-related skills,
development is more generally aimed at helping managers better understand and solve problems,
make decisions, and capitalize on opportunities.

Several basic steps in the design of any training or development program are illustrated in Figure
7.8. The process should begin with a needs analysis where human resource managers responsible
for training and development determine the organization’s true needs vis-à-vis training. This
analysis generally focuses on two issues: the organization’s job-related needs and the capabilities
of the current workforce.

As part of this analysis, the manager must carefully assess the company’s strategy, the resources
it has available for training, and its general philosophy regarding employee training and
development. Furthermore, it is important for the organization to decide whether it wishes to
train employees for the present or more proactively train them for what is expected to come in
the future. Once these needs are assessed, whether through direct observation, or some type of
survey or interview process, the organization must determine its goals for training and
development. The next step in the process is to decide between in-house versus outsourced
training.

Finally, once the organization has decided on whether to conduct training and development in-
house or through outsourcing, it must decide upon the specific techniques to be used. For some
situations, organizations might prefer to rely upon various work-based programs. Work-based
programs tie the training and development activities directly to performance of the tasks. The
most common method of work-based training is on-the-job training. Two other types of work-
based training are apprenticeship programs and vestibule training. Apprenticeships involve a
combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction. Vestibule training involves a
work-simulation situation in which the job is performed under a condition that closely simulates
the real work environment.

Instructional-based programs are also quite common, especially the lecture or discussion
approach. In these situations, a trainer presents the material to those attending the program in a
lecture format; although lectures continue to play a role in most training programs, there is
evidence that their use has been declining, and they are being replaced with training outside the
classroom, primarily using electronic technologies.

Another instructional-based program for training and development is computer-assisted

instruction. In this situation, a trainee sits at a personal computer and operates software that has
been developed specifically to impart certain material to the individual. Additionally, another
method that involves basic instruction as a training device is programmed instruction.

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 17
Chapter 7: Recruiting, Selecting, Training, and Developing Employees

A. Management Development

The training and development issues are applicable to both standard training programs and
development programs. This process involves more generalized training for future managerial
roles and positions rather than training that is specific to an immediately relevant task. As a
result, managerial training usually involves attending a series of training programs over a
period of time rather than attending a single program.

B. Organizational Development

Organizational development (OD) is a system-wide effort, managed from the top of the
organization, to increase the organization’s overall performance through planned
interventions. The technique relies heavily upon behavioral science technology, and although
the development activities target the individual, the purpose is to ultimately change the way
the entire organization operates.

Different OD techniques are widely used. Survey feedback involves having employees
respond to questionnaires about attitudes and perceptions of leadership styles, then sharing the
results of the survey with everyone involved, including managers and supervisors. When OD
is undertaken to solve a specific problem, such as interpersonal conflict, techniques such as
third-party peacemaking may be used. Here a neutral third party, often an OD consultant from
outside the organization, hears both sides in a conflict. He or she then helps the parties
develop satisfactory solutions or compromises so that everyone can win.

Finally, in process consultation the OD consultant observes managers in the organization to

develop an understanding of their communication patterns, decision-making and leadership
processes, and methods of cooperation and conflict resolution. The consultant then provides
feedback and recommendations to the managers about how to improve these procedures.

At some point, when change begins to spread throughout the organization, one can actually
talk about “organizational learning” taking place. It refers to the process by which an
organization “learns” from past mistakes and adapts to its environment.

C. Evaluating Training and Development

The purpose of training and development is to enact fundamental change in individual

performance behavior (or other outcomes), and it is relatively easy to quantify such changes,
making evaluation more straightforward. This type of evaluation might be relatively simple,
but that doesn’t mean there are no issues to consider. The most important is to determine if

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 18
Chapter Outline

there is an actual change in the behavior being targeted.

Evaluating management development programs is a bit more problematic because the training
is really geared at helping managers to prepare for future jobs. Therefore, it may require a
longer period of time and outcome measurement to evaluate these programs.

© 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Mausoleum, unter dessen goldener Kuppel der zehnte und elfte
Imam ruhen neben Alis Schwester, Gemahlin und Mutter. Dieses
Heiligtum stammt aus neuerer Zeit. Die Kuppel wurde erst 1908
vollendet. Ihre Goldbekleidung, die schon aus weiter Ferne wie eine
kleine Sonne leuchtet, ist, wie eine Inschrift über dem Tor verrät, ein
Geschenk des Schahs Nasreddin von Persien und hat 30000
türkische Pfund, also über eine halbe Million Mark, gekostet.
Das andere Heiligtum mit einer blauen Fayencekuppel ist eine
unterirdische Krypta, in der der zwölfte Imam, der Mahdi, der
„Herrscher der Zeit“, der Messias der Schiiten, im Alter von vier
Jahren verschwand. Sie wurde vom Kalifen Nasir im Jahre 1210
gebaut. Andere Teile des Heiligengrabs stammen aber aus neuerer
Zeit.
Wir ritten auch in die kleine Stadt hinein, um uns wenigstens eine
Vorstellung von der Lage der beiden Heiligtümer zu verschaffen und
sie von außen zu betrachten. Man bewachte uns dabei scharf, damit
wir nicht etwa das verbotene Gebiet betraten. Wir konnten daher nur
von der Schwelle aus einen Blick in den Hof des Mausoleums
werfen und kehrten dann durch die ärmlichen Basare und das
Stadttor, das in einer hohen, von einer indischen Prinzessin zum
Schutz gegen raubgierige Beduinen errichteten Mauer liegt, zu
unserm Lager am Bahnhofsgebäude zurück.
 Phot.: Schölvinck.
Aufbruch aus Samarra.

Neunzehntes Kapitel.
Die Karawane des Herzogs.

A m andern Morgen verließen wir schon vor Sonnenaufgang

Samarra, um baldmöglichst Tekrit zu erreichen, wo der größte
Teil der Karawane des Herzogs auf uns wartete. Von den neun
Wagen der Kolonne waren vier bei uns, zwei Droschken, ein Jaile
und ein Kerbelawagen. Die beiden letzteren waren trotz ihrer
Gebrechlichkeit mit Gepäck so schwer befrachtet, daß ich ihnen
keine lange Laufbahn prophezeite. Doch ging bis Tekrit noch alles
gut ab, denn die Straße dorthin war so eben, als wäre sie asphaltiert,
obgleich man von einer wirklichen Straße eigentlich gar nichts sah;
der gelbgraue, dürre und harte Alluviallehm des Bodens erlaubte zu
fahren wie man wollte. So waren hier einst die Heere des Altertums
vorgerückt. Jetzt ging die türkische Etappenstraße hier durch. Aber
nur wer von Bagdad nach Mosul wollte, kam dieses Weges; in
umgekehrter Richtung benutzte man besser eines der Tigrisflöße bis
Samarra.
Den ganzen Tag über war der Tigris oder doch sein dunkler
Vegetationsgürtel in Sehweite. Schaf-, Ziegen- und Rinderherden
weideten auf der Steppe; hin und wieder kam ein Bauer mit einem
Esel daher; sonst bildeten nur Steppenhühner (Keklik auf Türkisch)
und Heuschrecken die Staffage. In ungeheuern Massen pickten die
ersteren zu beiden Seiten der Straße, in mächtigen Wolken flogen
sie auf, wenn unsre Wagen sich nahten, waren aber sonst wenig
scheu. Was sie fraßen und wovon auch die Herden der Nomaden
lebten, war nicht recht einzusehen, denn das kurze Steppengras war
von der Sonne völlig gedörrt und obendrein von Heuschrecken
verdorben. Auch bei diesen war Schmalhans Küchenmeister; mit um
so größerer Gier warfen sie sich auf den Pferdemist, und wo sie gar
den Kadaver eines Zugtiers fanden, fraßen sie sich buchstäblich zu
Tode. Die gefallenen Tiere sah man nicht vor lauter Heuschrecken,
und die Kadaver umgab jedesmal ein Wall toter oder sterbender
Fresser, die mit aufgeschwollenen Körpern dalagen und die Luft
noch mehr verpesteten. Auch wir selbst konnten uns während der
Fahrt der widerwärtigen Insekten kaum erwehren, klatschend flogen
sie uns gegen Gesicht und Hände, und als wir nördlich von der
Ruine Dur, wo unser Weg wieder unmittelbar an das Stromufer
heranführte, die Pferde tränkten und ein Bad nahmen, wimmelte
selbst das Wasser von diesen widerwärtigen Insekten; ganz wie auf
dem Euphrat hatten sich auch hier ungeheure Massen verflogen,
und unwiderstehlich riß der Strom sie mit sich, um irgendwo ihre
Gebeine in seine neuen Ablagerungen einzubetten. —
Unsere beiden Droschken sollten den Gepäckwagen
vorausfahren; die Kutscher aber hatten etwas von räuberischen
Überfällen munkeln hören und offenbar vereinbart, sich gegenseitig
nicht aus dem Gesicht zu verlieren, so daß wir alle zusammen an
dem Gasthof in Tekrit vorfuhren, wo die übrige Reisegesellschaft
bereits gestern ausgespannt hatte. Außerdem waren noch Oberarzt
Professor Reich und Major Reit, beide auf dem Wege nach
Deutschland, seit gestern hier eingekehrt.
Tekrit mit seinen engen, gewundenen Straßen, anspruchslosen
Stein- und Lehmhütten und langen grauen Mauern liegt wie Hit auf
einem Hügel, gesichert gegen alle Überschwemmungen. Mehrere
Kaffeehäuser am Tigrisufer bieten eine prächtige Aussicht auf den
Strom. Eines dieser Kavekhanes beherbergte englische Offiziere,
die wegen Übermüdung oder Krankheit ausruhen mußten. Auch
mein alter Freund Rybot war darunter, und Herzog Adolf Friedrich,
Professor Reich und ich unterhielten uns einige Zeit mit den
Gefangenen. Ihre Gefaßtheit im Unglück war bewundernswert; von
Erregung über die Kriegsereignisse merkte man ihnen nichts an. Als
ich daran erinnerte, daß der Herzog Gouverneur von Togo gewesen
sei, das englische Truppen besetzt hätten, während er an der
Westfront stand, meinten sie lächelnd, Togo werde natürlich wie alle
Kolonien bei Friedensschluß zurückgegeben; die englische Presse,
die allerdings eine andre Sprache führe, habe darüber
glücklicherweise nicht zu bestimmen. Das vornehm zurückhaltende
Wesen dieser Angelsachsen stand in so wohltuendem Gegensatz zu
dem Ton englischer Zeitungen und so mancher Bankettreden
englischer Staatsmänner, daß man sie kaum für Angehörige
desselben Volkes hätte halten mögen.
 Phot.: Schölvinck.
Ein Teil unserer Kolonne.

Mittlerweie hatte sich auf den zwei engen Höfen, die unsern Troß
beherbergten, das malerisch bunte Durcheinander einer
Karawanserei entwickelt. Unser wertvollstes Gepäck war in einem
stockfinstern Loch geborgen, vor dem Schölvincks Diener Gustav
Wache hielt, während die Ordonnanz des Herzogs und sein
afrikanischer Diener Schmitt unter Konsul Schünemanns
Oberaufsicht die Kutscher und Burschen befehligten. Der schwarze
Koch aus Togo wirtschaftete eifrig an seinen Töpfen, während sich
sein Landsmann mit Gläsern und Tellern, Messern und Gabeln
zwischen arabischen Stallknechten und Hufschmieden
hindurchschlängelte, die unsere Pferde fütterten oder beschlugen.
Auf der Terrasse an der einen Hofseite saßen etliche Perser,
Filzmützen auf dem Kopfe und gewundene Locken an den Ohren,
um einen glühenden Mangal herum und stopften mit einer
Feuerzange Holzkohlen in den Samowar, aus dem unsere Teegläser
gefüllt wurden. Ein Tekriter Bäcker kam mit einem Sack voll Brot
hereingestürmt, und Frauen brachten in Holzkummen Milch und
Joghurt. Die Flammen unserer Tischlampe und des Lagerfeuers, an
dem für uns und die Mannschaft das Abendessen bereitet wurde,
warfen unruhige Schatten in das so schon lebendige Bild, und wir
freuten uns, beizeiten auf dem Stalldach, wo unsere Betten standen,
dem Lärm dieses Feldlagerlebens entrückt zu sein.

Phot.: Schölvinck.
Ein schwieriger Abhang.

Um 3 Uhr morgens, als das Dunkel der Nacht noch auf der
Steppe lag, erwachte die Unruhe des Abends bereits wieder.
Deutsche und Türken, Araber und Tataren drängten sich
durcheinander, um die Karawane zum zeitigen Aufbruch fertig zu
machen. Deichseln knarrten, Geschirre rasselten, Pferde und
Maulesel wieherten in der frischen Morgenluft. Während wir
frühstückten, wurden die Packwagen beladen, Kisten und Kasten mit
Riemen festgemacht, und sowie ein Wagen fertig war, fuhr er auf die
Straße hinaus. Dort ordnete sich die Kolonne.
Diesmal nahm ich im Automobil des Herzogs Platz. Am Steuer
saß derselbe Chauffeur Laube, der uns bei meinem Besuch an der
Westfront von Bapaume nach Metz begleitet hatte. Die Straße —
wie meist in Asien eine Menge parallel laufender Fußwege — war so
glatt, daß man bequem 40 Kilometer in der Stunde fahren konnte.
Schwierigkeiten machten nur hin und wieder einige höchstens 10
Meter tiefe Wadis durch die Steilheit ihrer Abhänge. Die Landschaft
war ziemlich die gleiche wie am Tage vorher. Nur war die Steppe
dichter mit einem Rasen bedeckt, den die Heuschrecken
verschmähen; diese fanden sich daher nur bei Tierkadavern. Um so
häufiger waren die Steppenhühner, die dicht vor unserm
heransausenden Auto in Wolken aufstiegen, mit ihren kurzen
pfeifenden Flügelschlägen uns umschwirrten und sich bald wieder
niederfallen ließen. Wenn wir anhielten, hörten wir das Gackern der
Hennen, die um ihre Küchlein bangten. Mit sicherer Hand erlegte der
Herzog neunzehn Hühner, die eine willkommene Abwechslung
unserer Speisenkarte waren, uns aber auch in den Verdacht der
Straßenräuberei brachten. Denn eben als der Herzog schoß, kam
eine unbeladene Kamelkarawane des Weges; sogleich begannen
auch deren Leute zu schießen, um uns zu zeigen, daß sie nicht
unbewaffnet seien. Als sie dann sahen, daß wir friedliche Europäer
waren, kamen sie herangeritten und grüßten „Marhabba“. Auch
graue Antilopen mit weißem Bug zeigten sich in kleinen Herden;
aber ihnen war nicht beizukommen; ehe man sich zum Schuß fertig
machen konnte, waren sie verschwunden.

Begegnung mit einer großen Kamelkarawane.

 Phot.: Schölvinck.
Beduinen am Tigris.

In zweieinhalb Stunden erreichten wir den Ort Charnine am Fuße

einiger Hügel. Hier machten wir für heute halt, um unsere Begleitung
zu erwarten. Der neuen Karawanserei auf einer steilen Anhöhe, wo
gerade eine mit Getreide beladene Rinderkarawane einzog und ein
„Seraiban“, ein Aufseher, mit vier Wachtposten sich einquartiert
hatte, statteten wir nur einen Besuch ab. Für unsere Tagesruhe
wählten wir den alten Han, eine malerische Ruine mit bedenklich
brüchigen Gewölben und Mauern. In seinem Außenschatten ließen
wir uns nieder, brieten die heutige Jagdbeute und vertrieben uns die
Zeit mit Unterhaltung, Lektüre, Rauchen und Streifereien in die
Umgebung. Im Laufe des Nachmittags kam Professor Reich in
seinem aus Bagdad stammenden, gelb angestrichenen Deckwagen,
der wie eine Postkutsche aus der Zeit Napoleons aussah, umsomehr
als an seiner Rückseite ein großes N prangte. Einige Stunden später
fanden sich auch Schölvinck und Busse ein und dann die ganze
Kolonne. Auf dem hohen Ufer eines 10 Meter breiten und 3 Meter
tiefen abgeschnürten Tigrisarmes, der von allen Seiten durch frisch
sprudelnde Quellen gespeist wurde und reich an Fischen,
Schildkröten und Fröschen war, fuhren die Wagen zu einem
reizenden Lager auf. Ringsum wimmelte es von Steppenhühnern.
Als wir uns nach einem erfrischenden Bad beim flackernden Feuer
versammelten, umsummten Myriaden Insekten die Lichter auf
unsern Tischen. Auch eine große häßliche Tarantel kletterte auf
einen unserer Zeltstühle und mußte ihre Kühnheit mit dem Tode
büßen. Die Mannschaft tötete noch vier dieser giftigen
Riesenspinnen. Im übrigen dokterten wir lange an einem Pferd und
einem Maulesel herum, mit denen es nach den Anstrengungen des
Tages zu Ende ging.

Araber vom Albu Segar-Stamm.

Am andern Morgen zogen wir in nordwestlicher Richtung weiter,
der Herzog und Busse zu Pferde, Schölvinck und ich im Auto.
Rechts erhob sich die Bergkette des Dschebel Makhul, links dehnte
sich die lautlose, jetzt fast völlig einsame Steppe. Da erschien am
Nordrand des Horizonts eine Reihe schwarzer Punkte, etwa
dreihundert Kamele, die unbelastet südwärts wanderten. Während in
Zentralasien die Karawanen in langen Reihen hintereinander
marschieren, läßt man sie in Mesopotamien gewöhnlich neben der
Straße in breiter Herde über die Steppe gehen, damit sie nicht
andere Karawanen behindern. Wir hielten und machten einige
photographische Aufnahmen von den ruhig und würdig
vorbeischreitenden Tieren, die unser Auto ganz ohne Scheu mit
offenbarem Interesse betrachteten. Die Besitzer der Karawane,
wohlhabende Kaufleute, kamen auf grauen Stuten hinterher geritten.
Als wir eine kurze Strecke weiter gefahren waren, wurde eine
unzählige Masse solcher schwarzen Punkte vor uns sichtbar. Bald
hatten wir sie eingeholt. Diesmal war es ein ganzer Araberstamm
namens Albu Segar, der in der Umgebung von Mosul neue
Weideplätze aufsuchte. Ein graubärtiger Alter berichtete uns, das
heutige Ziel sei ein niedriger Hügel rechts der Straße, und da wir den
Unsern weit voraus waren, schlossen wir uns den Nomaden an, um
eine Lagerung großen Stils mitzumachen.

Phot.: Schölvinck.
Das alte und das neue Transportmittel: Kamel und Automobil.
Hier wie in Tibet bestimmen Weide, Wasser und Jahreszeiten die
Wanderungen der Nomaden. Jetzt trieb die große Hitze die Albu
Segar-Araber nordwärts; im Herbst wanderten sie wieder den Tigris
hinunter. Wo sich ergiebige Weide fand, machten sie einen oder
mehrere Tage Rast oder unternahmen wohl auch einen Abstecher
westlich in die Steppe hinein.
Ein prächtiges Bild, wie die Herrscher der Wüste durch ihr
angestammtes Reich zogen, das sie nur mit wilden Tieren teilten und
in dem sie jede Quelle und jeden Weideplatz seit den Tagen ihrer
Urväter kannten. Kamele, Pferde und Esel trugen ihre bewegliche
Habe, Männer und Knaben, teils beritten, trieben die Lasttiere an.
Auf hohen gelben oder weißen Dromedaren ritten die vornehmen
Frauen; sie saßen tiefverschleiert in einer Art Vogelbauer, das durch
Vorhänge geschlossen werden konnte, jetzt aber geöffnet war;
einige hatten ihre kleinen Kinder bei sich. Andere Frauen ritten nach
Männerart auf Pferden. Die armen Leute mußten zu Fuß gehen.
Gewaltige Schafherden überschwemmten in mehreren Abteilungen
die Steppe.
Bald war der Vortrupp an einer salzhaltigen Quelle angelangt.
Nun wurden schwarzbraune Zeltbahnen auf dem Boden
ausgebreitet, Stangen darunter aufgerichtet, die Zeltbahnen durch
Seile gespannt und diese an Pflöcken befestigt. Wände aus
Schilfmatten trennten die Räume für Frauen und Küche ab. Die
Räume der Männer wurden schnell mit Teppichen und abgenutzten
Kissen ausgestattet.
 Araber vom Albu Segar-Stamm.
Wir hatten für uns und das Automobil um Unterschlupf während
der heißen Tagesstunden gebeten. Der Wagen verschwand unter
dem äußersten rechten Flügel eines großen Zeltes, und wir
verbrachten hier den ganzen Tag. Wir beobachteten die Araber, und
sie nicht minder neugierig uns. Europäer und Autos waren ihnen
nichts Neues, aber beide zusammen in einem Zelt als Gäste hatten
sie noch nicht erlebt. Erst waren sie scheu und zurückhaltend,
allmählich aber brach das Eis. Einige besonders schöne Gestalten
mit blitzenden Augen, aristokratisch geschwungenen Nasen und
schwarzen Bärten in der kleidsamen Tracht ihrer weißen Tücher
(Keffije), deren Zipfel über Schultern und Rücken herabhingen und
auf dem Scheitel durch zwei dicke, runde Ringe aus schwarzer oder
brauner Ziegenwolle (Aggal) festgehalten wurden, versetzten
sogleich meinen Zeichenstift in Unruhe. Es war aber schwer, sie zum
Modellstehen zu bewegen, und erst als ich unsern Gendarm vor
ihren Augen porträtiert hatte, ohne daß dieser dabei einen Schaden
erlitt, und jedem einen halben Medschidije versprach, ließen sie sich
dazu herbei. Bald lockte der Klang des Silbers auch Leute aus den
Nachbarzelten heran, und alle Furcht vor den moralischen Folgen
der Prozedur schien gewichen. Die großen, starken Menschen
waren wie die Kinder und schämten sich weder ihres Geizes noch
ihres Mangels an Mut. Eine der Frauen zu zeichnen, war dagegen
unmöglich. Nicht als ob diese sich geweigert hätten, aber die
Männer duldeten das nicht. Der Häuptling des Zeltes erklärte mir,
auch für unser ganzes Gold und Silder werde keine Frau des
Stammes der Schande des Porträtiertwerdens preisgegeben.

Der hungrige Araberjunge.

 Als Dank für die Gastfreundschaft, die die Araber uns gewährten,
kauften wir für 7 Medschidije zwei Schafe und ein Lamm und luden
die ganze Gesellschaft in ihrem eigenen Zelt zu Gaste. Die Schafe
wurden geschlachtet, abgezogen, in der Küche in zwei großen
Töpfen gekocht und auf großen Metallplatten das Fleischgericht
hereingebracht. In zwei dichten Gruppen knieten die Männer zum
Mahle nieder und schlangen mit heißer Gier herunter, was sie
erwischen konnten; die abgenagten Knochen zerschlugen sie auf
dem Rücken ihrer Messer, um auch das Mark zu genießen. Für uns
wurde eine besondere Portion nicht sonderlich schmackhaft in Fett
gebräunt. In einiger Entfernung sah ein bleicher magerer Junge mit
fieberhafter Aufmerksamkeit der Fütterung zu. Er sei krank,
behaupteten die Männer, und dürfe nicht essen; ich reichte ihm ein
großes Stück, seine Augen glänzten, seine Zähne blitzten, und in
wenigen Augenblicken war seine Beute verschwunden. Seine
Krankheit war wohl nur Hunger gewesen. Aus andern Zelten stellten
sich noch mehrere Gäste ein, jeder erhielt seinen Anteil, und es blieb
sogar noch Fleisch übrig, das zu späterer Verwendung wieder in die
Küche geschafft wurde. Sehr befriedigt erhoben sich unsere
arabischen Freunde von diesem ungewöhnlichen Festschmaus.
Unser Silber hatten sie in der Tasche, das Fleisch der ihnen
abgekauften Schafe selbst aufgegessen, und die Felle bekamen sie
noch dazu geschenkt — ein feines Geschäft! Dafür bewirteten sie
uns mit Airan, saurer Milch, und dünnem Gerstenbrot, das auf einem
Kasserollendeckel gebacken war. Den Schluß machte Kaffee, der
bitter war wie Chinin.
 Einer unserer Gäste im Araberzelt.
Merkwürdigerweise war die Hitze im Zelt gar nicht drückend. Es
wehte schwacher Nordwind, aber er kam doch direkt aus der in der
Sonne glühenden Steppe, und die Zeltbahnen waren mit so weiten
Stichen zusammengenäht, daß die Sonne auf dem Boden allerhand
Lichtstreifen zog. Auch mußte die dunkelbraune oder eher schwarze
Farbe die Wärme anziehen. Und doch ist in diesen heißen
Gegenden kein Schatten wohltuender als der im Zelt der Araber. In
den Löchern der Hans oder den unterirdischen Särdab ist der
Schatten dichter und die Zahl der Wärmegrade etwas niedriger, aber
die eingeschlossene, unbewegte Luft sehr drückend. Die schwarzen
Zelte dagegen sind nach allen Seiten hin offen, die Luft kann
beständig wechseln, kein frischer Hauch geht verloren, und Licht
und freie Aussicht nach allen Seiten geben dazu ein Gefühl der
Freiheit, das man in geschlossenen Räumen sehr entbehrt.
Als der Abend dämmerte, meldeten uns die Araber, daß Wagen
und Reiter auf der Steppe in Sicht seien. Es waren unsere Leute.
Wir verabschiedeten uns also von unseren arabischen Wirten oder
vielmehr Gästen, stießen wieder zu unserer Karawane und begaben
uns zur Quelle Bilalidsch, wo diesmal unser Nachtlager sein sollte.

Phot.: Schölvinck.
Ein Rad ist los.
Die Karawane hatte einen neuen Unfall erlebt: einer unserer
Perser war, jedenfalls im Schlaf, von einem Wagen gestürzt und
überfahren worden. Jetzt lag er in einer Droschke, und ein Kamerad
pflegte ihn. Gebrochen hatte er nichts, wie sich bei näherer
Untersuchung zeigte, aber das Erlebnis hatte ihn doch mächtig
angegriffen.
Nach kurzer Nachtruhe waren wir früh um 4 Uhr wieder auf den
Beinen. Heute mußten der Herzog, Schölvinck, Busse und ich zu
vieren mit dem Auto vorlieb nehmen, da der Weg nach Assur für die
Gepäckwagen sehr beschwerlich war, und alle Pferde gebraucht
wurden. Er führte über die an sich unbedeutenden Hügel, die den
Dschebel Hamrin mit dem Dschebel Makhul verbinden; aber sie sind
von Wasser und Wind zu verfitzten Labyrinthen verarbeitet. Bald
boten tiefe Rinnen mit steilen Rändern lästige Hindernisse, bald war
die Straße so schmal, daß das Auto kaum vorwärts kam, bald lag sie
voller Blöcke oder war durch Erdrücken gesperrt. Unser tapferes
Auto überwand aber alle Schwierigkeiten und konnte schließlich
über ebenerem Gelände in beschleunigter Fahrt dem Tigrisstrom
und der alten Königstadt Assur zueilen.
Unsere Reisegenossen aber kamen nicht so glücklich durch. Als
wir nach Besichtigung der Ruinen von Assur ausruhten, langte des
Herzogs Ordonnanz Gustav mit der Nachricht an, ein Jaile sei auf
dem schwierigen Wege umgestürzt und zerbrochen und habe dem
Kutscher, einem alten Manne aus Bagdad, den Oberschenkel
zerschmettert. Sofort schickten wir das Auto, um den Verunglückten
zu holen. Konsul Schünemann und Wachtmeister Schmitt hatten ihn
so gut wie möglich geschient, und wir ließen ihm alle Pflege
angedeihen. Der Alte weinte über sein Mißgeschick, war aber mit
einigen Zigaretten schnell getröstet. Als dann am Abend unter
Gepolter und Hallo die übrige Kolonne mit ihren schwitzenden
Gäulen und schwer bepackten Wagen, die auch noch die Last des
verunglückten Jaile hatten übernehmen müssen, angekommen war,
übergaben wir unsere beiden Patienten dem Bahnhofsvorsteher und
ließen einen von der Mannschaft bei ihnen, um sie nach einigen
Ruhetagen auf einem Kelek nach Bagdad zu bringen.
Diese kleinen Mißgeschicke waren aber nur ein Vorspiel dessen,
was auf dem Wege von Assur nach Mosul unser wartete.
 Phot.: Schölvinck.
Assur.

Zwanzigstes Kapitel.
Die Königsstadt Assur.

I n Assur ging es uns nicht so gut wie in Babylon, wo uns der beste
aller Führer zur Seite war. Hier mußten wir uns damit begnügen,
aufs Geratewohl über Schutthügel und Fundamente von
Palastmauern zu wandern, in der glühenden Sonnenhitze die tiefen
Suchgräben und Schächte zu durchklettern, die das Ruinenfeld
rechtwinklig durchqueren, und hier und da im Schatten einer
Marmorplatte oder eines unterirdischen Gewölbes auszuruhen. Wir
fanden auch den großen, zerschlagenen Steinsarkophag, den die
deutschen Archäologen mit unendlicher Geduld wieder
zusammengefügt haben. Die Ausgrabungen begannen mit Erlaubnis
der türkischen Regierung und unter Leitung der Deutschen Orient-
Gesellschaft im September 1903 und wurden bis zum Ausbruch des
Weltkriegs fortgesetzt. Ihre Ergebnisse gliedern sich in fünf Gruppen:
A) Baudenkmäler aus assyrischer Zeit; B) Einzelfunde aus
assyrischer Zeit; C) Denkmäler aus parthischer Zeit; D)
Verschiedenes; E) Die Inschriften von Assur. Bisher sind vier
Foliobände der Gruppe A erschienen; daraus kann man sich eine
Vorstellung von dem Umfang eines Werkes machen, das nur die
Schilderung einer einzigen Stadt enthält. Aber diese Schilderung
muß in Zukunft die Ruinen ersetzen, denn diese sind, wie mir
Professor Andrae schon in Bagdad sagte, durch die Ausgrabungen
zerstört worden. Ohne letztere hätte jedoch die wissenschaftliche
Forschung niemals die Stadt erobern können, die dem assyrischen
Reich seinen Namen gegeben hat.
Nach meiner Heimkehr versuchte ich, in die Folianten von
Professor Andraes grundlegendem Werk „Der Anu-Adad-Tempel in
Assur“ (Leipzig, 1909) einzudringen. Assyrische Tempelbauten
waren vordem wenig bekannt, und man ersehnte seit langem die
Gelegenheit, über die sargonischen, also jungassyrischen Tempel in
Chorsabad (etwa 720 v. Chr.) hinaus ältere Denkmäler dieser Art zu
erforschen, um Material zum Vergleich mit den besser bekannten
babylonischen und den umstrittenen salomonischen Tempelbauten
zu gewinnen. Der Anu-Adad-Tempel am Nordtor der Stadt Assur
zwischen dem Palast Assurnasirpals im Osten und dem „neuen
Palast“ Tukulti-Ninibs im Westen erfüllte diesen Wunsch.
Anu und Adad sind zwei Götter, Anu der Himmelsgott und
Gottvater, Adad „sein tapferer Sohn“, der Gott des Blitzes und des
Wetters. Die Ruinen ihres Tempels zeigen zwei typisch assyrische
Heiligtümer; das ältere wurde Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts von
Assurrisisi begonnen und von Tiglat-Pileser I. vollendet; das jüngere
baute Salmanassar auf den geschleiften Mauern des alten in der
zweiten Hälfte des 9. Jahrhunderts.
 Beide Tempel bezeichnen zwei verschiedene Bauperioden, die in
Einzelheiten sehr voneinander abwichen, im Hauptplan aber
miteinander übereinstimmten: die eigentlichen Tempelräume lagen
jedesmal zwischen zwei mächtigen Türmen (Zikkuraten)
nebeneinander, ihre Tore gingen nach Südosten, und davor war ein
Hof, den allerhand Seitengebäude umgaben.
Von dem älteren Tempel ist nur der Unterbau erhalten, bis zu fünf
Meter hohe, dicke Mauerteile aus steinharten Ziegeln von gelbem
Lehm. Sie stehen auf felsigem Grund, der durch Erdfüllung geebnet
worden ist. Die Reste genügen, um den Grundriß mit größter
Sicherheit zu bestimmen. Rätselhaft ist nur der Überbau mit den
Toren und Türen. Auch Inschriften des Erbauers fand man an Ort
und Stelle; eine von ihnen lautet: „Assurrisisi, Priester des Gottes
Assur, Sohn des Mutakkilnusku, des Priesters des Gottes von Assur,
des Sohnes von Assurdan, dem Priester des Gottes Assur, Erbauer
des Tempels Adads und des Gottes Anu“.
Der Hof ist 50,5 Meter breit und 28 Meter tief. Seine Mitte nahm
ein Brunnen ein. Die geringfügigen Reste der umliegenden Gebäude
mit ihren Zimmern und Gängen geben viele Rätsel auf. Wer Assurs
jetzige Schuttlabyrinthe gesehen hat, muß aufs Höchste den
Scharfsinn bewundern, der diese Tempel und Mauern rekonstruiert
und sogar Detailzeichnungen von ihnen entworfen hat.
Der Grundriß der beiden Türme ist quadratisch, ihre Seitenlänge
36 Meter. Aber wie sahen sie selbst aus? Konnte man sie besteigen
und wie? Ein Vorbild aus assyrischer Zeit bietet der Tempelturm von
Chorsabad, um den sich eine einfache Rampe zur Spitze
emporwindet. Wahrscheinlich waren auch die beiden Türme des
Anu-Adad-Tempels massiv wie alle bekannten Zikkurate. Andrae
vermutet, daß ihre Höhe etwa 50 Meter betrug, und daß ein fünf
Meter breiter, langsam ansteigender Weg vom Hof aus hinaufführte.
Baudokumente auf Ziegeln und Terrakottaprismen nennen Tiglat-
Pileser I. als Vollender dieses Tempelbaues. Die im Jahre 1852 von
Rassam und Layard gefundenen, heute im Britischen Museum
befindlichen berühmten Prismen, deren achthundert Textzeilen die
Regierungstaten Tiglat-Pilesers verewigen, verschweigen, daß sein