1. External Selection II CHAPTER NINE Screen graphics created by:
Jana F. Kuzmicki, PhD
Troy State University-Florida and Western Region
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.

2. Staffing Organizations Model
Vision and Mission
Goals and Objectives
Organization Strategy
HR and Staffing Strategy
Staffing Policies and Programs
Support Activities
Core Staffing Activities
Legal compliance
Recruitment: External, internal
Planning
Selection: Measurement, external, internal
Job analysis
Employment: Decision making, final match
Staffing System and Retention Management

3. External Selection II Outline
Substantive Assessment Methods
Personality Tests
Ability Tests
Job Knowledge Tests
Performance Tests and Work Samples
Integrity Tests
Interest, Values, and Preference Inventories
Structured Interview
Constructing a Structured Interview
Assessment for Team and Quality Environments
Clinical Assessments
Choice of Substantive Methods
Discretionary Assessment Methods
Contingent Assessment Methods
Collection of Assessment Data
Legal Issues

4. Overview of Personality Tests
Historical role of personality tests in selection e.g., MMPI
Validity
Misuse: intended for identifying psychological disorders
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.)
Conscientiousness: persistent, planner, can be counted on
Emotional stability: hard to annoy, hard to hurt feelings
Extraversion: likes meeting new people, takes charge
Openness to experience: likes new ideas, tries new things
Agreeableness: forgives easily, sees good side of people
Which of the Big 5 most likely to predict performance?

5. Measures of Personality Tests
Surveys
Personal Characteristics Inventory (PCI)
Exh. 9.1: Sample Items for PCI
NEO Personality Inventory
Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
Projective tests
Interviews
Assessment of reliability and validity

6. Predictive Validity of Personality Tests
Big Five factors
Conscientiousness (broadly promising)
Valid across almost all occupational groups; r = .31
Emotional stability (promising)
Valid for many groups especially sales, management, & teaching
Extraversion (some promise)
Most valid for salespeople
Openness to experience (virtually no predictive ability)
Agreeableness (virtually no predictive ability)
Limitations of using personality tests to predict?

7. Exh. 9.2: Possible Factors Explaining Importance of Conscientiousness in Predicting Job Performance

8. Overview of Ability Tests
Definition -- Measures that assess an individual’s capacity to function in a certain way
Two types
Aptitude - Assess innate capacity to function
Achievement - Assess learned capacity to function
15--20% of organizations use ability tests in selection
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
Give an example where each ability might predict

9. 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

10. Limitations of Cognitive Ability Tests
Concern over adverse impact and fairness of tests
Cognitive ability tests are equally accurate predictors of job performance for various racial & ethnic groups, but blacks and Hispanics score lower than whites
Why might blacks & Hispanics score lower?
Is it OK to use cognitive ability tests if we monitor adverse impact closely?
Is it OK to use differential prediction?
Applicants’ perceptions
Reactions to concrete vs. abstract test items

11. Other Types of Ability Tests
Psychomotor ability tests
Valid predictors for jobs that require such abilities with validity coefficients as high as .50
Physical abilities tests
Valid predictors for jobs that require such abilities with validity coefficients as high as .40 to .80
Sensory/perceptual abilities tests
Valid predictors for jobs that require such abilities with validity coefficients as high as .40 but may not add to general cognitive ability prediction
Note: Increasingly, ability tests are being computer administered

12. Job Knowledge Tests Two types
Assess knowledge of duties involved in a particular job (i.e., test the knowledge level)
Level of experience with, and knowledge about, critical job tasks and tools necessary to perform a job (i.e., test the amount of experience with the knowledge areas)
Evaluation
Validity can be as much as .45
Higher validities found for complex jobs
Job knowledge measures add little to prediction beyond that provided by cognitive ability tests but can help filter out those clearly not qualified

13. 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)
Situational judgment tests (combinations of above)
All the above can have good validity (.50+) & acceptance
Discuss potential limitations of each of the above

14. Integrity Tests Two types Clear purpose / overt
General purpose / veiled purpose
Use of integrity tests in selection has grown dramatically during past decade
Construct of integrity not well understood
Validity can be useful
Clear purpose as high as .55 predicting bad behaviors
General purpose as high as .32 predicting bad behaviors
Can predict performance as well (as high as .30)
Why would these predict general performance?
Discuss limitations of integrity tests

15. 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

16. 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
Validity typically very low (.20 at best)
Discuss sources of error in unstructured interviews

17. 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 .30 or better

18. Structured Interviews (continued)
Situational - Assess applicant’s ability to project his / her behaviors to future situations. Assumes the person’s goals/intentions will predict future behavior (validity averages .35)
Experience-based - Assess past behaviors that are linked to prospective job. Assumes past performance will predict future performance (validity averages .28)
Note: Individual interviews usually more valid than panel interviews

19. Constructing a Structured Interview
Consult job requirements matrix
Develop the selection plan
Exh. 9.14: Partial Selection Plan for Job of Retail Store Sales Associate
Develop structured interview plan
Exh. 9.15: Structured Interview Questions, Benchmark Responses, Rating Scale, and Question Weights
Select and train interviewers
Evaluate effectiveness

20. Assessment for Quality Environments
Companies with TQM missions often seem to ignore selection systems
Issues to be addressed in selection process
Types of skills may differ
Specificity of skills may differ
Process of making selection decisions may differ
Lack of research on staffing in quality environments
Validation of selection process is important

21. Assessment for Team Environments
Establish steps for selection in team-based environments
Determine necessary KSAOs for teamwork
Exh. 9.17: Knowledge, Skill, and Ability (KSA) Requirements for Teamwork
Interpersonal KSAs
Self-management KSAs
Example
Exh. 9.18: Example Items Assessing Teamwork KSAs
Who should make the hiring decision?
Critical to ensure proper context is in place

22. Clinical Assessments
Psychologist makes a judgment about suitability of a candidate for a job
Typically used for selecting people for middle- and upper-level management positions
Judgments based on
Interview
Personal history form
Ability test
Personality test
Feedback to company -- Narrative description of candidate, with or without a recommendation
Can be valid but depends on the psychologist and his/her process
Discuss pros and cons of this approach

23. 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

24. 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
Degree
Valid license
Security clearance approval
Drug test results
Medical exam results

25. Drug Testing Alcohol & drug abuse costs U.S. $60 billion/year
Drug testing used by over 80% of major companies
Characteristics and effectiveness
Types of tests: body fluids, hair analysis, pupillary reaction, performance tests
U.S. Dept. of Health/Human Services sets guidelines
Drug tests can be accurate & reduction of drug use saves money and lives
Smoking may be banned at work place but 1/2 of states prohibit off-job smoking discrimination

26. Example of a Drug Testing Program

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Ethical Issues Issue 1 Issue 2
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?