MGTO 231
Human Resources
Management
Personnel selection II
Dr. Kin Fai Ellick WONG
Outline
• In Personnel selection II
– Validity
– Selection tools
• Letter of recommendation, ability tests,
personality tests, interviews, handwriting
analysis, etc.
Outline
• In Personnel selection II
– Validity
– Selection tools
• Letter of recommendation, Ability tests,
personality tests, interviews, handwriting
analysis, etc.
The concepts of validity
Target
Length
Health
Intelligence
Academic Performance
Social Status
Instrument
Income
Ruler
GPA
Blood Pressure
IQ test
• We have the sense of the match-up
between the targets and the instruments
measuring them.
• How can we know we are in fact measuring
something we want to measure?
• What do we need to demonstrate other
than our subjective feelings so that we can
claim a measurement really measures what
it is supposed to measure?
Defining validity
• The agreement between a test score
or measure and the quality it is
believed to measure
• In the selection context, validity is the
extent to which a selection tool
measures the intended knowledge,
skill or ability it is purported to
measure.
• Validity is the evidence for inferences
made about a test score
• Three types of evidence
– Content-related
– Criterion-related
– Construct-related
Validation
• Establishment of the validity
• Process examining the extent to which
a test is valid
• May or may not be statistical,
depending on which types of evidence
being examined
Face validity
Type of Validity
Face Validity
Content-related
Validity
Criterion-related
Validity
Construct-related
Validity
• Definition: appearance that a measure
has validity
– A subjective validity
– It “looks like” valid
Type of Validity
Face Validity
Content-related
Validity
Criterion-related
Validity
Construct-related
Validity
Content-related validity
• The extent to which a test provides
adequate representation of the
conceptual domain it is intended to
measure
• The degree to which the items of a
test is a representative sample of the
domain
• Used frequently in educational testing
• Knowledge of HRM
– Items 1：Discuss the importance of validity
in personnel selection
– Items 2：Discuss the importance of validity
in psychological testing
– Items 3：Discuss the importance of
psychological testing in psychological
therapy
Type of Validity
Face Validity
Content-related
Validity
Criterion-related
Validity
Construct-related
Validity
Criterion-related validity
• How well a test corresponds with a welldefined criterion
• A valid test of marital success should
correspond with whether a couple will have
successful marriage (yes or no, the criterion)
• The appropriateness of using a test to
predict another behavior (i.e., the criterion)
Predictive validity
• Present test scores are used to
predict future performance or
behaviors
– A-level results  university final GPA
(Present)
(Future)
Type of Validity
Face Validity
Content-related
Validity
Criterion-related
Validity
Construct-related
Validity
Construct validity
• Construct
– Something constructed by mental
synthesis
– Does not exist as a separate thing we
can touch or feel
– Cannot be used as an objective criterion
– Intelligence, love, curiosity, mental health
• Construct validity
– The extent to which a test measures a
theoretical concept/construct
– What does it mean?
– What are the relationships with other
constructs?
• Convergent evidence
– Different tests measuring same construct
should correlate with each other
• Aggressiveness and Need for Power
• Discriminant (divergent) evidence
– Tests measuring different constructs
should not correlate with each other
• Good example of convergent and
divergent evidence
– Target Construct: Aggressiveness
• Correlation:
– Convergent Evidence
» .5 with Need for Power
» .3 with Conscientiousness
– Divergent Evidence
» .01 with Openness to Experience
» -.03 with Neuroticism
• I will not discuss in details about the
methods, however the following terms
may be useful
– Factor analysis, multi-trait multi-method
analysis
Outline
• In Personnel selection II
– Validity
– Selection tools
• Letter of recommendation, ability tests,
personality tests, interviews, handwriting
analysis, etc.
Selection tools
• Ability test
• Personality test
• Interview
– Structured vs. unstructured
Selection Tools
Ability Test
Personality Test
Interview
Cognitive ability
• General cognitive ability
– G factor vs. S factor
– The commander of all domains
– High in G tends to be high in many Ss
• The strongest and reliable predictor of
job performance
Some components of GCA
• Several specific factors (S)
– Memory Span
– Verbal reasoning
– Visual-spatial
– Common Senses
Selection Tools
Ability Test
Personality Test
Interview
Personality test
• Big-five model of personality
– Openness to experience
– Conscientiousness
– Extroversion
– Agreeableness
– Neuroticism
Conscientiousness
• Highly motivated persons
• Dependency
– Planful, organized
• Volition
– Achievement oriented, persistent and
persevering
• Positively correlated with job
performance in various kinds of work
Selection Tools
Ability Test
Personality Test
Interview
Interviews
• Unstructured interviews
– Low in validity and reliability, why?
– No standard for the interviewees, they
may disagree with each other (low
reliability)
– The questions are not so relevant to the
job (“Tell me about yourself”, “Why did
you quit from the previous job?”,
“Introduce yourself to me”)
• Structured interviews
– Questions based on job analysis, thus
they are job-related
– The answers of the questions have been
predetermined (based on job analysis), a
minimum disagreement is expected
– Same basis and so it is consistent across
all interviewees and interviewers (much
more reliable)
Cortina, et al. (2000). The incremental validity of interview scores over and
above cognitive ability and conscientiousness scores. Personnel Psychology
Combined predictors
• Job performance =
– Motivation x ability
• O’Reilly & Chatman (1994)
– Job performance (current salary, salary
increment, and promotion) =
GMAT total x conscientiousness
Conclusion
• I’ve asked:
– A more realistic objective for selection seems to
be:
• Minimizing the probability of making an incorrect
selection
• How?
– Last lesson, we have discussed how we can
reduce the probability of making incorrect
selection by considering the reliability of a test
Conclusion
• Considering reliability alone is not
enough:
– You still have a very high probability of
making incorrect selections if you just
consider the reliability of a test
– in addition to reliability, you need to
consider the test’s validity
Conclusion
• 樂壇孖寶 (Twins in pop-music)
– 左麟右李 (Alan Tam, Hacken Lee)
– Sa + Gil
• Test 壇孖寶 (Twins in testing)
– Reliability + Validity