Aljhon M. Carambias Sept.

18, 2019

BSBA-3 Business Psychology

Chapter 3: Employees Selection 1 (Principles and Techniques)

In everyday life situations, selection is usually based on subjective factors-

the way a person looks, acts or dressed without any attempt to make systematic and
through evaluation of qualifications and abilities of the person being selected. The study
of these highly influential pre-selection factors is a new and growing area of industrial
psychology and may best be described as problems of organizational entry.

Organizational Entry:

Finding the right degree of challenge then, is a major aspect of your own
organizational entry. It is vital that the amount of challenge offered by your first job live
up to your expectations and preferences.

Employee Preferences:

Where your expectancies begin to meet the realities of an organization, when

you first meet a potential employer, is in your initial meeting with a company recruiter,
this mark the first opportunity for each to size up the other, an extremely important place
in the pre-selection processes of organizational entry.

The recruitment Process:

The number of recruiting sources available to organizations is limited. For

many lower level jobs, most companies rely on people who visit the personnel office or
are referred by current employees. If the need is great, they may place an
advertisement in a newspaper or turn the problem over to an employment agency. Of
these traditional methods, referrals by present employees are consistently the most
effective, probably because employees supply potential candidates with realistic
information about the job and the organization. Some organizations have recognized
this problem and are striving to present applicants with a realistic preview of the job as
part of their organizational entry procedures.

Realistic Job Previews:

After the recruiting process, when applicants and organizations have each
decided that the other seems to match their expectancies, the actual selection process
begins.
An Overview of the selection process:

A proper selection program involves a number of additional steps between

company and applicant. First, the nature of the job for which employees are being
sought must be thoroughly investigated. The actual selection from among the job
applicants classifying them as suitable or unsuitable can be accomplished by a variety
of techniques. As a rule, hiring decisions are not based on a single technique but on a
combination of methods. For example, a large computer firm uses the following
sequence of six steps to determine if an applicant should be offered a position.

1. Preliminary Interview 2. Application blank

3. Employment Test 4. Final Interview

5. Reference 6. Physical examinations

These selection procedures are complex and costly, but, in the long run, they
are less complex and costly than selecting the wrong person for the job.

Job Analysis:

The purpose of job analysis is to describe in specific terms, the precise

nature of the component tasks performed by the workers on a particular job. It includes
information on the kind of equipment or tool used, the operations performed, unique
aspects of the job such as safety hazards, education or training required, pay scale, and
so on. Job analysis has other important uses in organizational life, to establish a training
program for a particular job. And also can aid in efforts to design a job so that it can be
performed more efficiently.

1. A more commonly used technique of job analysis involves extensive interviewing

of those directly connected with the job.
2. Questionnaires: Unstructured or open approach, the workers or the supervisors
described in their own words the details of the job and the tasks performed, while
in the structured questionnaires approach, workers or supervisors are provided
with specific and detailed descriptions of a variety of tasks, working conditions,
and the like.
3. Direct observation: Involves simply watching the workers perform their various
tasks, but occasionally sophisticated methods of observation such as filming are
used.
4. Systematic Activity: Fourth technique of job analysis involves having the workers
maintain.
5. Critical Incidents technique: records those behaviors that are vital to be
successful performance of the job.
 6. Job element method: Used extensively to develop selection procedures,
performance appraisal techniques, and curricula for training programs.

Methods of Selection: Biographical Information

The collection of biographical information on the background of the job applicants

is a common method of selection. Biographical information has been shown to be great
value in predicting performance in a variety of jobs. Collected through standard
application blanks and derivatives such as weighted application blanks biographical
inventories, interviews, letter of recommendation, assessment centers, job samples and
miniature-training and evaluation techniques.

1. Application blanks: Can provide much useful information about job candidates
that can be directly related to the probability of success on the job.
2. Interview: As a selection device, despite consistently unfavorable research
findings, continues to be relied on by employing organizations.
3. Letter of Recommendation: despite the recognized tendency of letter writers to
be overly kind, are part of selection programs.
4. Assessment Center: A selection technique used primarily for selecting managers
and excutives.
5. Job samples and miniature training and evaluation: Both of which provide a
sample of the job for which the person is applying. Job samples are used for
applicants who have had some experience with the job in question, while,
miniature training, and evaluation, is used for those who have no experience in
miniature training and evaluation.

No matter which selection technique or criterion is preferred, it should not be

relied on exclusively. No technique is infallible; a selection program should include a
combination of techniques to maximize the chances of matching the right person with
the right job.

Polygraphs and voices stress analyzers (so-called lie detectors) are widely used
in selection. However, neither device is an accurate measure of deception.