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Human Resource ManagementGaining a Competitive Advantage

Chapter 6

Selection and Placement

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved.

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Learning ObjectivesAfter reading this chapter, you should be able to:• Establish the basic scientific properties of personnel

selection methods, including reliability, validity, and generalizability.

• Discuss how the particular characteristics of a job, organization, or applicant affect the utility of any test.

• Describe the government’s role in personnel selection decisions, particularly in the areas of constitutional law, federal laws, executive orders, and judicial precedent.

• List the common methods used in selecting human resources.

• Describe the degree to which each of the common methods used in selecting human resources meets the demands of reliability, validity, generalizability, utility, and legality.

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Selection Method Standards for Evaluation Purposes

Reliability

Validity

Generalizability

Utility

Legality

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Reliability

• Reliability is the degree to which a measure of physical or cognitive abilities, or traits, is free from random error.

• The correlation coefficient is a measure of the degree to which two sets of numbers are related. – A perfect positive relationship equals +1.0– A perfect negative relationship equals - 1.0

• Knowing how scores on the measure at one time relate to scores on the same measure at another time refers to test-retest reliability.

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Validity

• Validity is the extent to which a performance measure assesses all the relevant—and only the relevant—aspects of job performance.

• Criterion-related validation is a method of establishing the validity of a personnel selection method by showing a substantial correlation between test scores and job-performance scores. The types include:– Predictive validation– Concurrent validation

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Criterion-Related Validity

Predictive Concurrent

TIME TIME

TestApplicants

MeasurePerformanceof those Hired

Measuretheir

Performance

TestExisting

Employees

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Content Validation

• Content validation is a test-validation strategy performed by demonstrating that the items, questions, or problems posed by a test are a representative sample of the kinds of situations or problems that occur on the job.– Best for small samples

– Content validity is achieved primarily through a process of expert judgment

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Generalizability

• Generalizability is the degree to which the validity of a selection method established in one context extends to other contexts.

• Three contexts include:– different situations

– different samples of people– different time periods

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Utility

• Utility is the degree to which the information provided by selection methods enhances the effectiveness of selecting personnel in organizations.

• It is impacted by reliability, validity, and generalizability.

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Legality

• All selection methods must conform to existing laws and legal precedents.

• Three acts have formed the basis for a majority of the suits filed by job applicants:– Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991

– Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

– Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991

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Civil Rights Act of 1991

• This act protects individuals from discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, and national origin.

• The 1991 act differs from the 1964 act in three different areas:– It establishes employers' explicit obligation to

establish neutral-appearing selection method.

– Allows a jury to decide punitive damages.– It explicitly prohibits the granting of

preferential treatment to minority groups.

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Age Discrimination in Employment Act

• Covers individuals who are over the age of 40.

• There is no protection for

younger workers.• This act outlaws almost

all “mandatory retirement” programs.

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Americans with Disabilities Act

• Protects individuals with physical or mental disabilities (or with a history of the same).

• Reasonable accommodations are required by the organization to allow the disabled to perform essential functions of the job. – An employer need not make

accommodations that cause undue hardship.

• Restrictions on preemployment inquiries.

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Executive Orders

• Executive Order 11246 parallels the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but goes beyond it by: – requiring affirmative action to hire qualified

protected group applicants, and – allowing the government to suspend all

business with a contractor while an investigation is going on.

• The Office of Federal Contract Compliance and Procedures (OFCCP) issues guidelines and helps companies comply.

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Types of Selection Methods

Honesty Testsand Drug Tests

Work Samples

PersonalityInventories Cognitive Ability Tests

Physical AbilityTests

References andBiographical Data

Interviews

JOBSHR

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Interviews

• Selection interviews are defined as a dialogue initiated by one or more persons to gather information and evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for employment.

• The utility of an interview can be increased by the following suggestions:– Interviews should be structured, standardized, and

focused on goals oriented to skills and behaviors that are observable.

– Interviewers should plan to come out of each interview with a quantitative rating.

– Interviewers should also have a structured note-taking system that will aid recall when it comes to satisfying the ratings.

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Situational Interview

• A situational interview confronts applicants on specific issues, questions, or problems that are likely to arise on the job.

• These interviews consist of:– experience-based

questions– future-oriented questions

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Other Selection Methods

• References, Biographical data, and Application Blanks gather background information on candidates.

• Physical ability tests are relevant for predicting not only job performance but occupational injuries and disabilities. Types of physical ability tests include:– muscular tension, power, and endurance

– cardiovascular endurance

– flexibility

– balance

– coordination

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Other Selection Methods

• A cognitive ability test differentiates individuals based on their mental rather than physical capacities. Abilities most commonly assessed are:– verbal comprehension– quantitative ability– reasoning ability

• Personality inventories categorize individuals by their personality characteristics.

• Work samples simulate the job in miniaturized form.

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Honesty Tests

• The Polygraph Act of 1988 banned the use of polygraph tests for private companies except pharmaceutical and security guard suppliers.

• Paper-and-pencil honesty testing attempts to assess the likelihood that employees will steal. – Since these tests are new, there

is little evidence on their effectiveness.

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Drug Tests

• Drug-use tests tend to be reliable and valid.

• The major controversies of drug tests includes:– Is it an invasion of privacy– Is it an unreasonable search and seizure– Is it a violation of due process

• Tests should be administered systematically to all applicants applying for the same job.

• Testing is likely to be more defensible when there are safety hazards associated with the failure to perform.

• Test results should be reported to the applicant, who should have an avenue to appeal.