Human Resource Management Gaining a Competitive Advantage

1. Human Resource ManagementGaining a Competitive Advantage • Chapter 6 Selection and Placement

2. 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.

3. Selection Method Standards for Evaluation Purposes Reliability Validity Generalizability Utility Legality

4. 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.

5. 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. Criterion-Related Validity PredictiveConcurrent Test Existing Employees Measure Performance of those Hired Measure their Performance Test Applicants TIME TIME

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Types of Selection Methods Interviews Honesty Tests and Drug Tests References and Biographical Data HR Work Samples JOBS Physical Ability Tests Personality Inventories Cognitive Ability Tests

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.