Lecture 7: Selection Flashcards
(32 cards)
Why is selection important?
Because it’s expensive to replace workers
Unfair selection can also result in lawsuits, bad publicity and loss of revenue
What is job analysis?
A job analysis produces systematic information about jobs,
including the nature of work performed, position within the
organisation, and relations the job holder may have with others
What are the 4 most common ways to perform a job analysis?
◦ Written material
◦ E.g., contracts, manuals
◦ Rarer these days
◦ Job holders’ reports
◦ Current employees interviewed, describe main tasks in detail
◦ Very common
◦ Colleagues’ reports
◦ Interview peers for information similar to the above
◦ Direct observation
◦ Watch employees and note down behaviours/tasks
What are the two different types of task analysis?
Hierarchial task analysis:
* Divide jobs or job components into
tasks and subtasks, forming a hierarchy
* Best suited for tasks with stable, clear,
and observable components
* Less suited for capturing cognitive tasks
Cognitive task analysis:
* Examine mental activities necessary to
perform a role
* Use methods including interviews, focus
groups, and simulations where the subjectmatter expert details how they analyse
information, make decisions, and cope
with unexpected problems
* Best suited for jobs with predominantly
cognitive tasks
What is a competency analysis?
“A cluster or specific characteristics and behaviour patterns a
job holder is required to demonstrate in order to perform the
relevant job’s tasks with competence”
- Used to identify knowledge, skills, and behaviours, which
forms a competency model
“A comprehensive list of all the relevant competencies
associated with a job role”
What is a job analysis?
✓Provides clear idea of what is expected of employees
✓Outlines skills, traits, characteristics necessary for job success
✓Documents other important things:
✓Work hours
✓Title
✓Hierarchy
✓Pay
What is a person specificaation?
With information from job analysis, a person
specification can be written.
- A person specification is a statement in which job demands are translated into human terms
- Lists essential and desirable characteristics
How to ensure reliability in selection assessment?
Internal consistency reliability
* Whether tests and assessments are
consistently or accurately measuring the
attribute of interest
- Interrater reliability
- The extent to which different assessors
agree in their assessments of a particular job
candidate
What is graphology?
The study of personality via handwriting analysis
How reliable, valid and fair is graphology?
◦ Reliability: Very low (Keinan, Barak, & Tramati, 1984)
◦Validity: Horrible, r = 0.02 (Hunter & Schmidt, 1998; Rafaeli
& Klimoski, 1983)
◦ Fairness: No real research, but probably not fair at all
What are the classic trio in selection and recruitment?
1) Applications/CVs (94%)
2) References (88%)
3) Interviews (72%)
What are the benefits and disadvantages of applicaions and cvs?
Benefits: Ease of use,
ease of comparison, can
be used again and again
(CVs)
Disadvantages: Timely,
biased, may not be
accurate, may not
predict job success
What are the benefits and disadvantages of references?
Usually obtained from current or past employers
Benefits: Participants react positively to them, very popular method
Disadvantages: full of bias, creates expectations of
candidate if read before meeting
What is the reliability, validity and fairness of references?
◦ Reliability: Poor (Mosel & Goheen, 1959)
◦ People rarely say the same thing or agree!
◦Validity: Poor (Hunter & Hunter, 1984)
◦ Fairness: Very poor!
What are the two main types of interviews?
1) Unstructured interviews
2) Structured interviews
◦ Situational
◦ Behavioural
What are the benefits and disadvantages of interviews?
Benefits: Widely accepted by candidates, able to extract large
amounts of information, can possibly be good predictor of
performance/success
Disadvantages: Prone bias, participants can lie, may induce
stress (especially if it is a panel interview), costly
What is the reliability, validity and fairness or unstructured interviews?
◦ Reliability: Rather poor (Dipboye, 1994)
◦Validity: Middling (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998)
◦ Fairness: Poor!
What are structured interviews?
Interviews with standardised questions, trained interviewers, evaluation
Two types:
* Situational: “Verbal work samples”
* Applicant given work situation. Asked what they would do.
* Behavioural: Describing past behaviours
* “Think of a time when you successfully handled an angry client” etc.
How to improve structured interviews?
- Use multiple interviewers
- Improves reliability
- May reduce bias
- Same interviewer for all candidates
- Increases standardisation
- Train interviewers
- Increases standardisation, awareness of biases & tricks
- Take notes during interview
- Increase memory retention?
- Increase inter-rater reliability
What is the reliability, reliability and validity of structured interviews?
◦Reliability: Standardisation improves reliability
◦Validity: Much better!! (Dipboye, 1994)
◦ 0.62 vs. 0.20!!
◦Fairness: Better
◦ Standardisation evens out playing field somewhat
What is psychometric testing?
Standardised tests, designed to ensure reliability
and validity, aimed to measure underlying cognitive abilities or
personality traits in a quantifiable, fair, and consistent manner
In the UK, psychometric testing requires certification (BPS or test
maker)
Usually measures personality and/or intelligence (cognitive ability)
Cognitive ability tests is the strongest predictor of future job
performance across almost all occupations and organisations
What is personality assessment?
Self-report Questionnaires:
I see myself as someone who
What are issues in using personlity for personnel selection?
Reducing faking in personality assessment:
- Build in social desirability scales
- Warning candidates that faking will be detected
- Ipsative measures (forced-choice response format)
What are the benefits and disadvantages of psychometric tests?
Benefits: Standardised, easy to access, flexible, easy data generation
Disadvantages: Costly, negative candidate reaction, issues
inherent in process
◦ Candidates may not like being tested
◦ Self-awareness or social desirability may lead to inaccurate results
