HRM Selection 02

Selection
Types of Tests
Chapter 04
o We gather objective data through one or more employment tests. These
tests fall into two broad categories:
Selection:
― Aptitude tests assess how well a person can learn or acquire skills and
Types of Tests abilities. For example, US Employment Service uses General Aptitude
Types of Interview Test Battery (GATB).
Interview Errors ― Achievement tests measure a person’s existing knowledge and skills. For
Reliability and Validity example, government agencies conduct civil service examinations to see
whether applicants are qualified to perform certain jobs.
Human o Before using any test, organizations should investigate the test’s validity
and reliability.
Resource
Management
M. Moinul Haque, Premier University HRM 2
Selection Selection
Types of Tests Types of Tests
Physical Ability Tests Cognitive Ability Tests

― Physical strength and endurance play less of a role in the modern ― Cognitive ability tests —sometimes called ‘intelligence tests’— are
workplace than in the past, because of the use of automation and designed to measure such mental abilities as
modern technology. ― verbal skills (skill in using written and spoken language),
― Even so, many jobs still require certain physical abilities or psychomotor ― quantitative skills (skill in working with numbers), and
abilities (those connecting brain and body, as in the case of eye-hand
― reasoning ability (skill in thinking through the answer to a problem).
coordination). When these abilities are essential to job performance or
avoidance of injury, the organization may use physical ability tests. ― Many jobs require all of these cognitive skills, so employers often get
valid information from general tests.
― These evaluate one or more of the following areas of physical ability:
muscular tension, muscular power, muscular endurance, cardiovascular ― Many reliable tests are commercially available.
endurance, flexibility, balance, and coordination. ― The tests are especially valid for complex jobs and for those requiring
― Although these tests can accurately predict success at certain kinds of adaptability in changing circumstances.
jobs, they also tend to exclude women and people with disabilities.
M. Moinul Haque, Premier University HRM 3 M. Moinul Haque, Premier University HRM 4
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Selection Selection
Cognitive Ability Tests Job Performance Tests

 Specific Cognitive Abilities: ― Many kinds of jobs require candidates who excel at performing
o There are measures of specific mental abilities: specialized tasks, such as operating a certain machine, handling phone
 Inductive and deductive reasoning, Verbal comprehension, calls from customers, or designing advertising materials.
memory, and numerical ability ― To evaluate candidates for such jobs, the organization may administer
o Psychologists often call such tests as Aptitude Tests. tests of the necessary skills.
 The following Picture Test ― Job Performance Test Examples : keyboarding speed and in-basket tests.
measures basic mechanical Work Samples
principles. ― Sometimes the candidates take tests that involve a sample of work, or
 This may reflect a person’s they may show existing samples of their work. Testing may involve a
aptitude for jobs like machinist simulated work setting, perhaps in a testing center or in a computerized
or engineer. ‘virtual environment’.
― Examples of jobs for which candidates provide work samples include
graphic designers and writers.
Selection Selection
Job Performance Tests and Work Samples Job Performance Tests and Work Samples
― Assessment Center — Tests for selecting managers ― Assessment Center — Tests for selecting managers
― A wide variety of specific selection programs that use multiple ―Management Games – Participants solve realistic problems as
selection methods to rate applicants or job incumbents on their members of the simulated companies competing in a marketplace.
management potential. They may have to decide, for instance, how to advertise, and how
― An assessment center typically includes in-basket tests, tests of more much inventory to stock.
general abilities, and personality tests. ― The interview – Most also require an interview between at least one
― Combining several assessment methods increases the validity of this trainer and each participant to assess the participant’s interests, past
approach. performance, and motivation.
 Employers use assessment centers for selection, promotion, and
development. Supervisor recommendations usually play a big role in
choosing participants. Line managers usually act as assessors and
typically arrive at their ratings through consensus.
 Centers are expensive to set up but are usually worth the cost.
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Selection Selection
Personality Inventories Personality Inventories

― In some situations, employers may also want to know about candidates’ ― The usual way to identify a candidate’s personality traits is to administer
personalities. one of the personality tests that are commercially available.
― For example, one way that psychologists think about personality is in ― The employer pays for the use of the test, and the organization that
terms of the ‘Big Five’ traits: extroversion, adjustment, agreeableness, owns the test then scores the responses and provides a report about the
conscientiousness, and inquisitiveness test taker’s personality.
― There is evidence that people who score high on conscientiousness tend ― Advantages – Administering commercially available personality tests is
to excel at work, especially when they also have high cognitive ability. simple, and these tests have generally not violated equal opportunity
― For people-related jobs like sales and management, extroversion and employment requirements.
agreeableness also seem to be associated with success. ― Disadvantage – Compared with intelligence tests, people are better at
― Strong social skills help conscientious people ensure that they get faking their answers to a personality test to score higher on desirable
positive recognition for their hard work. traits. For example, people tend to score higher on conscientiousness
when filling out job-related personality tests than when participating in
research projects.
Selection Selection
Situational Testing Situational Testing

 It requires examinees to respond to situations representatives of the job. (2) Miniature Job Training and Evaluation:
 Work sampling and some assessment center tasks like in-baskets can be o It means training candidates to perform several of the job’s tasks, and
example. then evaluating the candidates’ performance prior to hire.
o It is assumed the candidate who can learn and perform the sample
(1) Video Based Simulation: task, will also be able to learn and perform the job itself.
o It presents candidate with several online or PC based video situations, o It tests candidates with actual samples of the job, so it is inherently
which is followed by MCQ questions. content relevant and valid.
o A video may show that an employee is handling a situation. At a o The problem is expense involve in the individual instruction and
critical moment, the scenario may end and the video may ask the training.
candidate what to do.
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Selection Selection
Types of Interview Types of Interview
Interview TYPES
― A procedure designed to solicit information from a person’s oral ― A structured interview establishes a set of questions for the interviewer
responses to oral inquiries. to ask. Ideally, the questions are related to job requirements and cover
relevant knowledge, skills, and experiences.
TYPES ― The interviewer is supposed to avoid asking questions that are not on
the list. Although interviewers may object to being restricted, the
― In a unstructured or nondirective interview, the interviewer has
results may be more valid and reliable than with a nondirective
great discretion in choosing questions. The candidate’s reply to one
interview.
question may suggest other questions to ask. Nondirective interviews
typically include open-ended questions about the candidate’s ― A situational interview is a structured interview in which the
strengths, weaknesses, career goals, and work experience. interviewer describes a situation likely to arise on the job and asks the
candidate what he or she would do in that situation. This type of
― Because these interviews give the interviewer wide latitude, their
interview may have high validity in predicting job performance.
reliability is not great, and some interviewers ask questions that are
not valid or even legal. ― A candidate may be asked what he would do if a subordinate come to
work late for three days.
Selection Selection
TYPES TYPES
― A Behavior Interview is a situational interview in which the interviewer ― In a Job-related interview, the interviewer tries to deduce what the
asks the candidate to describe how he or she handled a type of situation applicant’s on-the-job performance will be based on his or her answers to
in the past. Sometimes, candidates are presented with a situation and questions about relevant past experience.
asked to deal the situation. Questions about candidates’ actual ― The questions don’t revolve around hypothetical or actual situations
experiences tend to have the highest validity. or scenarios rather they are related to job.
― Candidates are observed not only for what they say, but how they ― Realistic Job Preview
behave.
― Its objective is to reduce voluntary turnover and its associated costs.
― ‘Suppose you were speaking with an irate customer, how you
― RJP’s present unfavorable as well as favorable information about the
turned the situation around?
job to applicants.
― Role playing is often used: TV program Apprentice.
― May include brochures, films, tours, work sampling, or verbal
― 8 times more effective statements that realistically portray the job.
― It is done to reduce the gap between candidates expectation from job
and what is given in the job.
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Selection Selection
TYPES TYPES
― In a Stress Interview, the interviewer seeks to make the applicant ― In a Sequential Interview, several persons interview the applicant, in
uncomfortable with occasionally rude questions. The aim is to spot sequence, one-on-one, before final decision is made.
sensitive applicants and those with low or high stress tolerance ― Unstructured Sequential Interview: An interview in which each
― Interviewer first probe for weaknesses in applicant’s background and interviewer forms an independent opinion after asking different
zeros in on those weaknesses. questions.
― A candidate for customer relation manager might have changed his ― Structured Sequential Interview: An interview in which the applicant
job six times in two years, may be told that changing job too quickly is interviewed sequentially by several persons, each rates the
reflects irresponsible an immature behavior, and may be observed applicant on a standard form using standardized questions.
what answer he comes up with. ― The hiring manager reviews and compares the evaluations before
― If reasonable answer is given, interviewer may go for another one. deciding who to hire.
Selection Selection
Types of Interview How to avoid common mistakes in Interview
TYPES SNAP JUDGMENTS

― In a Panel Interview, an interview is conducted by a team of o Interviewers tend to jump to conclusions—make snap judgments—about
interviewers, who together interview each candidate, and then combine candidates during the first few minutes of the interview.
their ratings to a final panel score. o In fact, this often occurs before the interview begins, based on test scores
― In a Mass Interview, an interview is conducted by a team of interviewers, or résumés.
who together interview several candidates simultaneously. The panel ― So, for the interviewee, it’s imperative to start off right.
poses a problems and then sit back and see which candidate takes the ― So, for interviewers, the findings highlight the importance of keeping an
lead in formulating an answer. open mind until the interview is over.
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Selection Selection
How to avoid common mistakes in Interview How to avoid common mistakes in Interview
NEGATIVE EMPHASIS NOT KNOWING THE JOB

o Jumping to conclusions is especially troublesome given three o Interviewers who don’t really know what the job entails and what sort of
interviewing facts: candidate is best suited for it usually enter the interview with incorrect
(1) Interviews are often mostly searches for negative information; stereotypes about the ideal applicant.
(2) Interviewers tend to be more influenced by unfavorable than o They then erroneously match interviewees against these incorrect
favorable information; and stereotypes.
(3) Interviewers’ impressions are more likely to change from favorable to o Studies therefore have long shown that more interviewer knowledge
unfavorable than from unfavorable to favorable. about the job translates into better interviews.
― As an interviewee, remember that you only have one chance to make a
good first impression.
― As an interviewer, the implication is, keep an open mind and consciously
guard against unwarranted negative impressions.
Selection Selection
PRESSURE TO HIRE o INFLUENCE OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR

o Being under pressure to hire undermines interview validity. o Interviewers rate applicants who demonstrate more eye contact, head
o In one study, managers were told that they were behind their recruiting moving, smiling, and similar nonverbal behaviors higher; such behavior
quota. A second group was told they were ahead. Those behind evaluated can account for over 80% of the applicant’s rating.
the same recruits much more highly than did those ahead. ― In one study, vocal cues (such as the interviewee’s pitch, speech rates, and
pauses) and visual cues (such as physical attractiveness, smile, and body
CANDIDATE ORDER (CONTRAST) ERROR orientation) correlated with evaluators’ judgments of interviewee
credibility.
o Candidate order (or contrast) error means that the order in which you see
applicants affects how you rate them. ― Similarly, candidate self-promotion is strongly related to the interviewer’s
perceptions of candidate-job fit.
o In one study, researchers asked managers to evaluate a candidate who
was “just average” after first evaluating several “unfavorable” candidates.
The average candidate was evaluated more favorably than he might
otherwise have been, because, in contrast to the unfavorable candidates,
the average one looked better than he actually was.
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Selection Selection
ATTRACTIVENESS NONVERBAL IMPLICATIONS

o In general, individuals ascribe more favorable traits and more successful o The bottom line is that otherwise inferior candidates who “act right” in
life outcomes to attractive people. interviews often get higher ratings than do more competent applicants
o In one study, researchers asked subjects to evaluate candidates for who lack such skills.
promotability based on photographs. More attractive candidates, o Interviewers should thus look beyond the interviewee’s behavior. Focus
especially men, were preferred over less attractive ones. on what the interviewee says.
INGRATIATION
o Interviewees can boost their chances for job offers through self-promotion
and ingratiation.
― Ingratiation means agreeing with the recruiter’s opinions and thus
signaling that they share similar beliefs.
― Self-promotion means promoting one’s own skills and abilities to create the
impression of competence. Self-promotion is the most effective tactic, but
faking or lying generally backfires.
Selection Selection
Reliability and Validity Reliability and Validity
Reliability Reliability
o The reliability of a type of measurement indicates how free that o Usually, this information involves statistics such as correlation coefficients.
measurement is from random error. These statistics measure the degree to which two sets of numbers are
― A reliable measurement therefore generates consistent results. related. A higher correlation coefficient signifies a stronger relationship.
― Assuming that a person’s intelligence is fairly stable over time, a reliable
test of intelligence should generate consistent results if the same person o Measuring Reliability
takes the test several times. 1) One is to administer a test to a group of people one day, re-administer the
― Organizations that construct intelligence tests should be able to provide same test several days later to the same group, and then correlate the first
(and explain) information about the reliability of their tests. 1.0. set of scores with the second (test-retest reliability estimates).
2) Administer a test and then administer what experts believe to be an
equivalent test later; this would be an equivalent or alternate form estimate.
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Selection Selection
Reliability Validity
o Measuring Reliability o For a selection measure, validity describes the extent to which
3) Compare the test taker’s answers to multiple questions on the same test performance on the measure (such as a test score) is related to what the
aimed at measuring the same thing. measure is designed to assess (such as job performance).
― For example, a psychologist includes 10 items on a test believing that they o Although we can reliably measure such characteristics as weight and
all measure interest in working outdoors. height, these measurements do not provide much information about how
― You administer the test and then statistically analyze the degree to which
a person will perform most kinds of jobs. Thus, for most jobs height and
responses to these 10 items vary together. This is an internal comparison weight provide little validity as selection criteria.
estimate. ― One way to determine whether a measure is valid is to compare many
people’s scores on that measure with their job performance.
― For example, suppose people who score above 60 words per minute on a
keyboarding test consistently get high marks for their performance in
data-entry jobs. This observation suggests the keyboarding test is valid
for predicting success in that job.
Selection Selection
Validity Validity
o Criterion-Related Validity o Criterion-Related Validity: Two Types
o The first category, criterion-related validity, is a measure of validity 1. Predictive validation —This research uses the test scores of all
based on showing a substantial correlation between test scores and job applicants and looks for a relationship between the scores and future
performance scores. performance. The researcher administers the tests, waits a set period of
o A company compares two measures—an intelligence test and college time, and then measures the performance of the applicants who were
grade point average—with performance as sales representative. hired.
2. Concurrent validation —This type of research administers a test to
people who currently hold a job, then compares their scores to existing
measures of job performance. If the people who score highest on the test
also do better on the job, the test is assumed to be valid
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Selection Selection
Validity Validity
o Content validity o Construct Validity
o Consistency between the test items or problems and the kinds of ― For tests that measure abstract qualities such as intelligence or leadership
situations or problems that occur on the job. ability, establishment of validity may have to rely on construct validity.
o A test that is content valid exposes the job applicant to situations that are ― This involves establishing that tests really do measure intelligence,
likely to occur on the job. leadership ability, or other such constructs, as well as showing that
o It tests whether the applicant has the knowledge, skills, or ability to mastery of this construct is associated with successful performance of the
handle such situations. job.
― For example, if you could show that a test measures something called
‘mechanical ability,’ and that people with superior mechanical ability
perform well as assemblers, then the test has construct validity for the
assembler job. Tests that measure a construct usually measure a
combination of behaviors thought to be associated with the construct.

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Selection

M. Moinul Haque, Premier University HRM 2

Physical Ability Tests Cognitive Ability Tests

Cognitive Ability Tests Job Performance Tests

Personality Inventories Personality Inventories

Situational Testing Situational Testing

TYPES SNAP JUDGMENTS

NEGATIVE EMPHASIS NOT KNOWING THE JOB

PRESSURE TO HIRE o INFLUENCE OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR

ATTRACTIVENESS NONVERBAL IMPLICATIONS

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