1. Managing People in Organisations
Lecture 4 - Selection

2. Learning Objectives for this Lecture
Analyse and evaluate the procedure for the recruitment of new entrants to an organisation
Understand and explain the key concepts of reliability and validity in selection
Evaluate the most commonly used techniques for making selection decisions

3. The Concerns of Selection
The strategic aim of recruiting people with long term potential for the organisation
The desire to avoid hiring employees with inadequate skills or experience and those with undesirable attitudes or behaviours

4. Criteria for Assessing the Value of Selection Techniques
Practicability
Sensitivity
Reliability
Validity
Smith (1991)Selection in Organisations in Analysing Organisational Behaviour McMillan

5. Reliability in Selection
The consistency with which a test or other technique provides results
Getting the selection method right
Validity in Selection
Measuring the characteristic which it purports to measure and predicting future behaviour or performance that is required
Getting the right selection method

6. Validity in Selection CONTENT FAITH CRITERION FACE CONSTRUCT VALIDITY
RATIONAL E M P I R C A L O T N
THEORETICAL
VALIDITY
CONTENT
FAITH
FACE
CRITERION
CONSTRUCT

7. Research Evidence on Criterion Related Predictive Validity
JOB ANALYSIS
PREDICTOR
SELECTION TECHNIQUES
CRITERION WORK PERFORMANCE
correlation
Validity range
Selection methods
Rating
0.4 to 0.5+
Work sample tests
Ability tests
Good to excellent
0.3 to 0.39
Biodata
Assessment centres
Structured interviews
Acceptable
Less than 0.3
Personality tests,
Unstructured interviews,
References, Graphology
Poor
0 (pure chance)
Astrology
Meta analysis

8. CIPD 2005 Annual Survey Methods Used to Select Applicants (%)
Manufacturing and Production
Voluntary Not-for-Profit
Private Sector Services
Public Services
Interviews following content of CV and application form 80 56 73 38
Competency based interviews 40 61 59
Structured interviews (panel) 45 84 87
Tests for specific skills 39 65 49
Structured interviews (one to one and critical incident/behavioural) 31 50 25
General ability tests 41 51 33 48
Literacy and/or numeracy tests 35 42
Personality questionnaires 37
Employment reference (pre interview) 30 55
Assessment centres
Telephone interviews 16 13
Academic references (pre interview) 10 7 9 29
Online tests 5 4 2

9. Interview Objectives Predict future job performance and behaviour
Focus on aspects of behaviour and performance that cannot easily be addressed by other methods
To supply information to the candidate
To persuade candidates to accept the job offered
To create good-will for the organisation

10. Varieties of Interview Format
1. One-to-one
Less formal, but can be biased
Problems of information retrieval
2. Panel
Information overload potential
Artificial and formal, but reduces bias
Difficult to arrange, can be poorly organised
3. Sequential interview
Candidate interviewed by several people over period
Can cause duplication of question

11. Problems with Reliability in Selection Interviews
Expectancy effect – positive / negative expectations from CV
Self-fulfilling prophecy effect – confirm initial impressions
Primacy effect – early impressions influence judgement
Stereotyping effect – characteristics lead to assumptions
Prototyping effect – personality influences
Halo/horns effect – ‘good’ / ‘bad’ perception

12. Improving the Interview
Structured interviews
Behaviourally anchored interviews

13. Examples of Behaviourally Anchored Interview Questions
Customer Focus
Responds to internal and external customer's needs in a manner that provides added value and generates significant satisfaction. 
Overall Rating 1 - 5
 Behaviours:
Demonstrates a sense of urgency when responding to market/customer needs.
Ensures that customer requirements are
incorporated into day-to-day tasks and activities.
Develops strategies/tactics to anticipate and respond to customer's key needs
(internal and external).
Planned Behavioural Questions:
• Tell me about a time when you assessed the needs of another person or group, such as customers. (What did you do?)
• Describe a situation in which you were involved when a product or service did not match someone's needs. (What was the outcome?)
• Working closely with others to adapt project, products and services to their requirements is very important for success in today's business climate. When have you had to collaborate closely with someone to tailor or customize your approach? (What was the situation?)
• Describe a situation when your level of knowledge or expertise about a particular product or service was key to helping someone.(e.g., partner, customer)
• Tell me about a situation when you had to prioritise the needs of a particular person or group.
• Tell me about a circumstance in which you had to repair a damaged relationship with someone. (What did you do?)

14. Best Practice and Principles in Interviewing
Focusing on objectively defined success behaviours (i.e. job specific competences)
Using a common tool and process(to ensure cross interviewer consistency)
Asking mostly open ended questions, followed by listening and encouraging (versus talking and telling)
Gathering evidence about performance from real ‘success stories’ (not from opinion or hearsay)
Determining what a candidate actually did personally to achieve success ( versus what they think should be done)

15. Psychological Tests
“Carefully chosen, systematic, and standardised procedures for evoking a sample of responses from a candidate, which can be used to assess one or more of their psychological characteristics by comparing the results with those of a representative sample of an appropriate population ”

16. Types of Tests Psychometric tests (measures of mental ability)
Tests of general intelligence
The capacity for abstract thinking within a range of different contexts and media
Tests of special aptitudes or abilities
Personality tests

17. Main Categories of Modern Ability Tests
Verbal Comprehension
Numerical
Diagrammatic
Mechanical
Difficulty Reasoning
Spatial
Clerical
Sensory
Dexterity Evaluative

18. Tests of Personality

19. Tests of Personality What is personality? Personality questionnaires
Characteristic patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to their environment
Personality questionnaires
The identification of a number of fairly independent and enduring characteristics of behaviour which all people display but to differing degrees

20. Sample Test Questions Personality questionnaire Career interest tests
Strongly agree = 1 Strongly disagree = 5
I like to sit in my room reading novels
I get nervous when I meet new people
I love parties
I feel enthusiastic about giving a speech
I prefer working quietly on my own
Career interest tests
Which of the following tasks would you prefer
Working with children
Using computers
Dealing with adult customers
Do you have a preference for?
Spreadsheets
Word processing
Picture scanning

21. Basic Assumptions About Personality Testing
Human personality is measurable or “mappable”
Our underlying human personality remains stable over time and across different situations
Individual jobs can be usefully analysed in term of personality traits that would be most desirable for the job holder to possess
A personality questionnaire, completed in 30 to 60 minutes, provides sufficient information about an individual’s personality to make meaningful inferences about their suitability for the job

22. Characteristics of Assessment Centres
A variety of assessment techniques
Several candidates are assessed together
Several assessors are involved
Assessments are made on several dimensions

23. Assessment Centres In-tray exercise 2 hours Group exercise 1 hour
Fact-finding exercise 1 hour
Presentation hours
Aptitude tests 1 hour
Personality interest questionnaires 1.5 hours
Background interview 1 hour
Total hours

24. Assessment Centres – Limitations 1
Some of the criterion used in validity studies such as supervisors ratings have limited reliability consequently the criterion are contaminated. In addition the criterion used such as salary growth, promotions and managerial level have more to do with managerial survival than work effectiveness. Researchers argue that assessment centres pick up the personal mannerisms that top management use in promotion which may have little to do with work effectiveness (Cook 1994 and Klimoski and Strickland 1977)
Discriminant / convergent validity: A fundamental characteristic of the assessment centre approach is that assessors should rate candidates on dimensions. There is a strong body of research to suggest that assessors often rate them on exercises (Sackett and Draher 1982 : Schneider and Schmitt 1992 : Robertson and Smith 1989)

25. Assessment Centres – Limitations 2
Ipsativity:Participant’s performance ratings in a group exercise depends on how the others behave ; candidates who performed poorly in an otherwise “good” group got lower ratings than a poor candidate in a generally “poor” group (Gaugler and Rudolph 1992)
Assessors’ ratings are more accurate when candidates differ a lot, which suggests that assessors compare candidates with one another not with an external standard (Gaugler and Rudolph 1992)

26. Guidance on the use of Selection Tests
Selection decisions should not be made using psychometric tests alone they should always form part of a wider selection process
Tests should actually measure attributes which are directly relevant to the employment context
The test should have been rigorously developed
Data should be provided on the reliability,validity and effectiveness of tests
Evidence should be supplied that the test does not disadvantage certain groups
Feedback from tests should be given to all candidates concerning their performance in tests by professionally trained people