Human Resource Management Gaining a Competitive Advantage Chapter 6 Selection and Placement McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved. 1-1 Learning Objectives After 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. 6-2 Selection Method Standards for Evaluation Purposes Reliability Validity Generalizability Utility Legality 6-3 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. 6-4 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 6-5 Criterion-Related Validity Predictive Test Applicants Measure Performance of those Hired TIME Concurrent Test Existing Employees Measure their Performance TIME 6-6 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 6-7 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 6-8 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. 6-9 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 6-10 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. 6-11 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. 6-12 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. 6-13 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. 6-14 Types of Selection Methods Interviews Honesty Tests and Drug Tests Work Samples Personality Inventories References and Biographical Data HR JOBS Physical Ability Tests Cognitive Ability Tests 6-15 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. 6-16 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 6-17 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 6-18 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. 6-19 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. 6-20 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. 6-21