Selection I MANA 4328 Dennis C. Veit

Selection Bias White Sounding Names  The professors at U. of Chicago and MIT sent about 5,000 resumes in response to want ads in The Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune.  “White" names received 1 response for every 10 resumes mailed, while "black" applicants with equal credentials received 1 response for every 15. Texas Accents Y’all  Study by U. of North Texas researchers has found that Texas hiring managers look favorably on applicants with pronounced Texas accents.  Speakers from California and Minnesota, whose regional accents are less distinguishable, generally do better with managers all across the country.

Selection Tests and Litigation  Unstructured interviews  Cognitive ability tests  Physical ability tests  Structured interviews  Work sample tests  Assessment Centers More likely to be challenged in court.

 How can organizations encourage honesty in applications and resumes?  Training and Experience Evaluations (Checklists)  Weighted Applications Methods to Improve Initial Selection

Developing WAB’s 1. Choose criterion  Performance characteristics of the job 2. Identify groups  Typically high performers and low performers 3. Select application items and response categories  Things that are likely relevant to performance 4. Determine weights based on group differences 5. Validate weights using a holdout sample 6. Set cutoff scores based on validation results

Biodata Inventories  Reliable – Valid (r =.32 to.37)  Series of questions on a wide variety of subjects  Background (e.g. hobbies, jobs, and education)  Situational questions  Personality and Values  Compared to a profile generated from successful employees or database for occupations.

Examples of Biographical Questions  How many jobs have you held in the last five years?  Were you ever class president?  Have you ever repaired a broken radio so that it later worked?  While growing up, did you collect coins?  When you were a teenager, how often did your father help you with schoolwork?  About how many fiction books have you read in the past year?  How many hours a week do you spend studying?  By the time you were 18 had you traveled at least 500 miles from home by yourself?

 Training and Experience Checklists  Weighted Application Blanks (WAB’s)  Biodata  Ability Tests  Proficiency Tests  Assessment Centers  Personality Tests  Integrity Tests  Interviews Substantive Methods

Ability Tests  Most valid / useful types of test  Physical  Reaction time, mechanical ability, strength, stamina etc.  Remember: pre-offer medical exams prohibited  Adverse impact must be justified  “Preventing injury” is not the same as “job performance”  Cognitive  Verbal, mathematical, and reason skills  Valid predictors / May have adverse impact  “Differential validity” does not exist

Physical Ability and Adverse Impact  Cooper Fitness Test (named for the institution in Dallas) test includes a 1.5-mile run and timed sit-ups and push-ups, with standards that varied based on gender and age.  These kinds of fitness tests have been challenged in court as discriminatory when used as mandatory standards.  In general standards should be the same and not have adverse impact. To justify adverse impact, the physical test should be strongly linked to job performance.  Provide training before the test  Be explicit about how the test relates to the job  Make no assumptions about physical ability

Different Standards for Genders? A federal district court in Iowa has ruled that a pre-employment strength test used at an Armour meat packing plant Iowa, has a disparate impact against women. Dial's "work tolerance test" (WTS) was passed by 97% of male applicants and less than 40% of female applicants. Although women had been successfully performing the job for years, Dial argued that the test was necessary to reduce injuries in the job which requires lifting 35 pound sausage rods to a height of 65 inches. Paula Liles and other unsuccessful female applicants testified at trial that they had performed heavy physical work, including lifting, in the past, and that they had met all the other job requirements. Ms. Liles completed the seven-minute test, but was graded as failing because of her height, which required her to go on her toes to complete the lifts to 65 inches

Cognitive Ability Tests  Measure multiple dimensions of “ability”  Verbal  Mathematical  Memory  Reasoning  General “IQ tests”  “Wonderlic Personnel Test”  What about “Emotional Intelligence”?

1938 Wonderlic Sample Questions 1.Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next? ½ ¼ ? 2. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one: 1. true,2. false, 3. not certain? The boy plays baseball. All baseball players wear hats. The boy wears a hat. 3. Paper sells for 21 cents per pad. What will four pads cost? 4. A boy is 17 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 23 years old, what will be the age of his sister?

1938 Wonderlic Sample Questions 1.Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next? ½ ¼ ? ANSWER 1/8 2. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one: 1. TRUE2. false, 3. not certain? 3. Paper sells for 21 cents per pad. What will four pads cost? ANSWER 84 cents 4. A boy is 17 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 23 years old, what will be the age of his sister? ANSWER 40 years old

Wonderlic in the NFL Wall Street Journal :  The teams with the top-five average scores were the Rams, Raiders, Titans, Bucs and Chargers  The bottom-five scores came from the Bengals, Redskins, Chiefs, Cardinals and Packers.  Four of the top five have made a recent Super Bowl appearance.  Stanford, Purdue, BYU and Cal had higher average scores than the highest-scoring NFL team, St. Louis.

Proficiency Tests  Knowledge Tests  High validity / reliability  Licensing tests – Content Knowledge Tests  Work Sample Tests  Very high validity / reliability  Assembly-line simulations  Assessment Centers / In-boxes/ Role plays

Assessment Centers  Typically a combination of several tests  In-basket exercises  “Leaderless Group Discussion”  Role plays  Work-sample tests  Group interviewing  Must be carefully designed to be reliable and valid  Assessors must be trained if they are rating behavior.  Valid and reliable if done well.  Often used for managerial development / promotion rather than new hire selection.  Expensive to develop and maintain

Personality Inventories  Personality is a set of very specific measurable traits  NOT – how well you get along with someone  NOT – an “outgoing” or interesting person  Never use a personality test as the sole criteria  Should be job related like other KSA’s  Use only validated instruments and trained testers  Choose a vendor and instrument carefully (1000’s available)  Better for comparing applicants than assessing a single candidate

Strong vs. Weak Situations  Person x Situation Interaction  How an individual’s personality impacts job person is dependent on both the person and the situation.  Strong vs. Weak situations  Field sales vs. call center

Personality Inventories  The “Big 5”:  Emotional stability  Extraversion  Openness to experience  Agreeableness  Conscientiousness  Conscientiousness best predictor of performance for most jobs: r =.31  Emotional stability predicts for managers.  Extraversion predicts for sales.

Potential Problems  In 1993, Target stores agreed to pay more than $1 million to about 2,500 prospective security guards.  At issue was a lengthy employment screening test that included deeply personal questions and that some experts say was designed to be administered to mental patients.  Among questions on the true-false test were: “I never indulge in unusual sex practices” and “I feel sure there is only one true religion.”  In 2000, a similar case was settled by Rent-A-Center, a Texas- based appliance rental company that had been using a psychological test.

Four Main things to keep in mind when making a final hiring decision:  Use a systematic approach  Keep decisions makers to a minimum  Don’t delay  Don’t over select

Three general approaches to selection decisions.  “Gut Instinct”  Highly Quantitive  Combination of both  (See pages )

3 C’s of notifying applicants!  Consistency  Courtesy  Candor