Selection
The second major step involved in providing human resources for the organization is selection—choosing an individual to hire from all those who have been recruited. Selection, obviously, is dependent on the first step, recruitment.
Selection is represented as a series of stages through which job applicants must pass to be hired.20 Each stage reduces the total group of prospective employees until, finally, one individual is hired. Figure 10.6 lists the specific stages of the selection process, indicates reasons for eliminating applicants at each stage, and illustrates how the group of potential employees is narrowed to the individual who ultimately is hired. Two tools often used in the selection process are testing and assessment centers.
Figure 10.6 Summary of major factors in the selection process
Testing
Testing is examining human resources for qualities relevant to performing available jobs. Although many different kinds of tests are available for organizational use, they generally can be divided into the following four categories:21
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Aptitude tests—Tests of aptitude measure the potential of an individual to perform a task. Some aptitude tests measure general intelligence, whereas others measure special abilities, such as mechanical, clerical, or visual skills.22
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Achievement tests—Tests that measure the level of skill or knowledge an individual possesses in a certain area are called achievement tests. This skill or knowledge may have been acquired through various training activities or through experience in the area. Examples of skill tests are typing and keyboarding tests.
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Vocational interest tests—Tests of vocational interest attempt to measure an individual’s interest in performing various kinds of jobs. They are administered on the assumption that certain people perform jobs well because they find the job activities stimulating. The basic purpose of this type of test is to select for an open position the individual who finds most aspects of that position interesting.
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Personality tests—Personality tests attempt to describe an individual’s personality dimensions in such areas as emotional maturity, subjectivity, honesty, and objectivity. These tests can be used advantageously if the personality characteristics needed to do a particular job properly are well defined and if individuals possessing those characteristics can be identified and selected. Managers must be careful, however, not to expose themselves to legal prosecution by basing employment decisions on personality tests that are invalid and unreliable.23
Testing Guidelines
Several guidelines should be followed when tests are part of the selection process. First, care must be taken to ensure that the test being used is both valid and reliable. A test is valid if it measures what it is designed to measure and is reliable if it measures accurately time after time.24 Second, test results should not be used as the sole basis of a hiring decision. People change over time, and someone who doesn’t score well on a particular test might still develop into a productive employee. Such factors as potential and desire to obtain a position should be assessed subjectively and considered along with test scores in the final selection decision. Third, care should be taken to ensure that tests are nondiscriminatory; many tests contain language or cultural biases that may discriminate against minorities, and the EEOC has the authority to prosecute organizations that use discriminatory testing practices. Finally, employers should acknowledge that such tests may increase applicants’ anxiety and cause them to worry about the potential effects of such testing.25
Tests of vocational interests try to measure a person’s interest in performing a variety of jobs. These applicants are testing their computer or keyboarding skills.
Monkey Business/Fotolia
Assessment Centers
Another tool often used in employee selection is the assessment center. Although the assessment center concept is discussed in this chapter primarily as an aid to selection, this concept is also used in such areas as human resource training and organization development. The first industrial use of the assessment center is usually credited to AT&T. Since AT&T’s initial efforts, the assessment center concept has expanded greatly, and today it is used not only to identify individuals from outside the organization who should be hired but also to identify individuals from inside the organization who should be promoted. Corporations that have used assessment centers extensively include J. C. Penney, Standard Oil of Ohio, and IBM.26
An assessment center is a program (not a place) in which participants engage in, and are evaluated on, a number of individual and group exercises constructed to simulate important activities at the organizational levels to which they aspire.27 These exercises can include such activities as participating in leaderless discussions, giving oral presentations, and leading a group in solving an assigned problem.28 The individuals performing the activities are observed by managers or trained observers, who evaluate the individuals’ abilities and potential. In general, participants are assessed according to job-related criteria such as oral communication, conflict resolution, leadership, persuasion, and problem solving.29
MyManagementLab : Watch It, Save the Children
If your instructor has assigned this activity, go to mymanagementlab.com to watch a video case about the development organization Save the Children and answer the questions.