Gatewood0728x 032420728x 02.01 Chapter01

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Human Resource Selection, Sixth Edition Robert D. Gatewood, Hubert S. Feild, Murray Barrick
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CHAPTER
AN INTRODUCTION TO SELECTION
DEFINITION
OF
SELECTION
n a time of increasing global competition, every organization is concerned about the level of work performance of its employees. This is because the performance of employees is a major determinant of how successful an organization is in reaching its strategic goals and developing a competitive advantage over rival rms.1 Therefore, inuencing the work performance of employees is a major objective of organizations. Fortunately, there is agreement about how this can be accomplished. Organizational specialists have determined that an individual employees work performance is made up of two factors: the ability of the individual and the effort that the individual puts forth.2 Both of these factors can be inuenced by the organization. Ability is a function of two organizational practices, selection and training. An organization either finds individuals with the abilities to do the work or it teaches those abilities to existing employees. Effort is a function of the organizations numerous practices for motivating employees. These practices include every topic found in an introductory management course, such as compensation, goal setting, job design, and communication between managers and subordinates. However, all of these motivation practices assume that the employee has the abilities to perform the job. Motivation practices are intended to get the employee to use these abilities in a concerted and continuous manner. Selection, in our unbiased view, is critical for an organization. It is one of only two ways of ensuring that employees have the abilities to do work, and it helps provide the base for effective motivational practices. In this text we will use the following denition of human resource (HR) selection:
Selection is the process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment. Such employment could be either a rst position for a new employee or a different position for a current employee. The selection process is performed under legal and environmental constraints and addresses the future interests of the organization and of the individual.
This is a long denition. To make it more understandable, we will break down this denition and discuss what it means.
COLLECTING
AND
EVALUATING INFORMATION
A basic objective of selection is to separate from a pool of applicants for a job those that have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform well on the job. We cannot assume that everyone who applies for a job is qualied to actually perform it. Therefore, to separate the qualied applicants from those who are not, the selection specialist must systematically collect information from the applicants about how much of the necessary knowledge/ skills/abilities (KSAs) each possesses. (The term KSA is shorthand for the factual information about how to do the job and the necessary skills and abilities an individual must possess in order to perform the job. If we said all that 3
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CHAPTER 1 A N I NTRODUCTION TO S ELECTION
each time we used the term KSA, this book would be about 50 pages longer. How bad would that be?) This systematic collection of information from applicants can range from being fairly simple to being very complex. For some jobs, a brief interview may provide all the data necessary to evaluate the applicant. However, for complex jobs such as managerial ones, it may be necessary to use interviews, tests, job simulations, or other measures to properly assess job candidates. A major purpose of this book is to discuss the various devices that are used to evaluate applicants. Our use of the term selection does not include all offerings of employment that may occur within a rm. We make a distinction between selection and hiring. Selection, as we have just said, occurs when job-related information is collected from applicants and offers of employment are given to those who apparently possess the necessary KSAs to do well on the job. Often, however, offers of employment are given with no evaluation of the applicants job-related qualications. We refer to this type of employment as hiring. One example of hiring is when family members, friends, or relatives of customers are given jobs. In these cases, employment is based primarily on ones relationship to a member of the organization, not on the possession of job-related qualications. Such hiring is not necessarily inappropriate nor does it always lead to employing incompetents. It is simply not selection as discussed in this text. Hiring also often occurs when a company desperately needs individuals to ll unskilled or semiskilled positions within a very short period of time. As a result, the organization does little or no evaluation of the applicants KSAs. Availability is the critical variable.
INITIAL JOB
AND
ALL INTERNAL MOVEMENT
You may think that selection only refers to choosing people for their rst jobs with the organization, and not to the promotion or transfer of existing employees. We dont think that way. A distinction between the initial job and internal movement is usually made for two reasons: The applicant pools are different and so is the nature of the information collected from candidates. For the initial job, all applicants are external to the organization. Very little is known about them. In internal movement situations, applicants are current employees and a great deal is known about them. Thus evaluation of external applicants is done through application forms, interviews, and tests. Evaluation of internal employees may be accomplished via conversations among higher-level managers who have worked with the applicants and a review of the performance records of the candidates. Our view is that this distinction between initial employment and internal movement decisions is not appropriate. The task is the same in both of these types of employment decisions. There are more applicants than positions available. Therefore, it is necessary to collect information about the job-related skills of the applicants and identify those individuals with the best skills. In addition, basing promotion and transfer decisions on such variables as seniority, nonsystematic opinions of others in the organization, and the ill-dened reputations of candidates is similar to what we described earlier as hiring. Thus, selection in this book applies to all evaluation decisions that place individuals in jobs. Matching the KSAs of individuals with the demands of the job is desirable, fair, and should lead to a stronger economy. What more could you want out of life or a textbook?

S ELECTION AND S TRATEGIC H UMAN R ESOURCE M ANAGEMENT
CONSTRAINTS
AND
FUTURE INTERESTS
From an organizations viewpoint, the selection decision is ideally made in circumstances in which the organization has a great deal of control over the number of applicants that seek the job, the information that can be gathered from these applicants, and the decision rules used by the organization in evaluating this information. However, the world is not perfect for selection. For example, there are great uctuations in the number of applicants, frequently due to general economic or educational conditions over which the organization has little control. Also, numerous federal and state laws and administrative rulings restrict both the information that can be gathered from applicants and the way this information can be evaluated. Equal Employment Opportunity laws and guidelines regarding discrimination in selection are a good example. There is also a growing realization that the usefulness of the selection decision should be viewed in terms of its effects over time. The interests of both parties must be thought of in the selection process or the result will be less than optimal. Rapid and costly turnover, lower performance levels, and friction between an employee and the organization are among the results of a mismatch of interests.3 Now that you have a better understanding of what is meant by selection, our next task is to provide a clear overview of the various parts of this subject. To do this the rst chapter of a textbook frequently follows one of two paths: It either traces the history of the subject matter back to the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, or it goes into detail about how the subject relates to all that is important in the universe. We could only trace selection back to the Chinese, somewhere around 200 B.C. That reached only the Romans. Falling short of the Greeks and Egyptians, we had to adopt the second path for this chapter. The following section therefore describes how selection relates to other human resource management (HRM) activities, what HRM specialists must do to develop an effective selection program, and, nally, the problems inherent in the selection process. We know you will be amazed. We hope you will gain a better understanding of the complexity of this eld and the technical knowledge it requires. Our goal for the rst chapter of the next edition of this book is to follow both pathsjust to make the book longer, and, undoubtably, more interesting. So please buy that edition too, just to read what Plato thought about selection when he wrote The Republic.
SELECTION
AND
STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Firms regularly set goals for their future performance and develop plans to reach those goals. For example, a medium-sized software development rm in Texas may set the goal of increasing its sales by 50 percent over the next three years. To reach this goal, the rm, which specializes in health care, plans to develop software for a new market (gerontology institutions) and expand its sales ofces into Tampa, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Obviously, to implement these plans the rm is going to rely on its three types of resources: nancial, physical, and human. It needs to obtain more money to secure additional sales locations and to pay the other costs necessary for increasing sales (nancial resources). It also needs to obtain more computers, ofce furnishings, transportation, storage facilities, and ofce supplies (physical resources). Finally, it needs to both add additional employees and retrain many of the existing ones (human resources).

The rst step in addressing the human resource issues necessary for reaching the goal of this software rm is to make two forecasts about employees. One of these is to forecast the rms future demand for labor. That is, how many employees in what jobs will be needed to increase sales by 50 percent, develop software for a new market, and open the two new sales ofces? Moreover, the rm must forecast when, over the next three years, these people should be employed. The second forecast is the labor supply forecastthe number of individuals that the organization will have in each of its jobs if the rm continues its present human resource programs. In other words, if employees enter, leave, and are transferred at the present rate over the next three years, how many will there be in each of the necessary jobs? As you can probably guess, the last step in this analysis is to compare the results of the demand forecast with the labor supply forecast. As you can also probably guess, with the goal of a 50 percent increase in sales and plans to open new locations, the rm will probably have to employ a signicant additional number of people and make sure that the current employees successfully move into new positions. Whereas this example is about expansion, you know that rms sometimes plan to downsize. In such cases, the two forecasts will most likely indicate that the labor supply forecast is larger than the labor demand forecast. The rm then must develop activities to reduce the number of employees but have enough individuals in each job category to still meet its goals. The activities that are used to align the number of employees and their performance with the goals of the rm constitute Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM).4 Ultimately, employees have to perform the work that is necessary for reaching the goals of the rm.5 In most cases, the rms nancial and physical resources enable the workers to work better. SHRM requires that the human resource (HR) systems of the rm are coordinated and interact smoothly with one another.6 We have already discussed how selection affects employee performance. Besides selection, the other main HR systems that are the most important for employee performance are recruitment, training, compensation, and job performance review. The relationships among these human resource systems are shown in Figure 1.1. To get the maximum benets from the HR systems shown in this gure, rms must design these systems so that they greatly enhance employees work performance.7 Therefore, selection should be coordinated with the activities that the rm carries out under recruitment, training, compensation, and job performance review. For example, training is designed to teach necessary job skills and abilities to those individuals who have accepted a job offer as a result of the selection process. The content, length, and nature of training are affected by the level of the skills and abilities of the individuals selected. If these skills and abilities are well developed for the job, then minimal training should sufce. If the new employees job skills and abilities are low, then training should be more extensive. Compensation and selection interact because, on the one hand, the specic qualications possessed by the individual who is selected may affect the amount that he or she is paid. On the other hand, the salary offer that is determined through the organizations recruitment and selection activities affects the applicants decision to accept the offer or not. As we will frequently point out, selection and work performance measurement are also linked. The purpose of selection is to identify those individuals who will perform well on the job. Work performance data are used to examine the effectiveness of the selection program. This topic is discussed in both Chapter 5, Validity of Selection Measures, and Chapter 16, Measures of Job Performance.

FIGURE 1.1
INTERACTION OF SELECTION AND OTHER HRM SYSTEMS
Strategic Human Resource Management
Recruitment
Selection
Initial Training
Compensation
Job Performance Measurement
SELECTION
AND
RECRUITMENT
Selection is more closely related to recruitment than it is to the other HRM programs, because both recruitment and selection are concerned with placing individuals into jobs. Therefore, both concern individuals who are not working for the rm. Other HRM activities deal with individuals after they are employed. We will dene recruitment as those organizational activities (such as choosing recruiting sources, developing what will be stated in recruitment ads, and deciding how much money will be spent) that inuence the number and types of individuals who apply for a positionand that also affect applicants decisions about whether or not to accept a job offer.8 We use this denition because it is important to think not only about attracting people, but also about increasing the probability that those people will accept a position if it is offered. It is senseless to get people to apply and then turn them off when they dobut we all know that this happens. Sara Rynes, in an extensive review of recruitment, points out the relationship between selection and recruitment.9 At the very least, the selection requirements of a rm affect both the recruitment sources used and some of the specic information about the job that is included in the recruitment message. For example, an entry-level HR managers position in a unionized manufacturing plant may require applicants to know about Equal Opportunity Employment laws, the interpretation of union contracts, and employee benet plans. These requirements could limit recruitment sources to targeting only the graduates of law schools, industrial relations programs, and human resource programs. In a reverse example, the applicant pool serves as the limiting factor in selection. If this pool is inappropriate for the position, the probability that selection will identify superior workers is low. Although a complete treatment of recruitment is beyond the scope of this book, we summarize some of its major characteristics to indicate its critical importance to selection.

Purposes of Recruitment Recruitment has three major purposes: 1. 2. To develop an appropriate number of applicants (e.g., ten for each open position) while keeping costs reasonable. To meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the demographic composition of its workforce.
3. To help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the percentage of applicants who are either poorly qualied or have the wrong skills. Refering to the rst purpose, it has been demonstrated that the value of selection to an organization increases as the pool of qualied applicants grows. Essentially, a larger pool means that there are more very well qualied applicants for the same number of positions. A selection program, therefore, has an excellent probability of identifying only well-qualied individuals. On the other hand, if the recruitment program produces a small number of applicants relative to the number of available positions, then rather than selection, the situation approaches what we have referred to as hiring. Later in this text, we discuss the various laws and directives that are part of the second purpose of recruitment. As we shall see, an organizations compliance with such laws and directives has often been judged by the demographic characteristics of those selected. The demographic characteristics of those selected are directly related to the characteristics of the applicant pool. If the recruitment program does not provide a demographically balanced set of applicants, it is unlikely that the selection program will produce a demographically balanced set of selectees. The third purpose of recruitment refers to the costs of selection. Processing applicants can be very expensive. Such processing requires staff time, materials, and physical facilities. If the recruitment program produces applicants who do not match the requirements of the open positions, the result can be disastrous. The money spent on evaluating unsuitable candidates is wasted. Moreover, the extra time needed for looking further is an added cost to the organization. Given this close interrelationship between recruitment and selection, you are probably ready to ask us, What is the best way to carry out recruiting so that it meets these objectives and helps selection? In response, we say to you, Thats a difcult question, so, why dont you ask your instructor? The reality is that the processes of recruitment are only partially understood. There are no denite research ndings about many of the actions that organizations must take. We will summarize much of what is known in the following pages. Planning and Execution of Recruitment by the Organization James Breaugh and Mary Starke have described the model of recruitment presented in Figure 12.10 First, an organization should start its recruitment efforts by specifying its objectives: How many individuals does it want to attract? With what KSAs? What demographic diversity? When? Answers to these questions should control the actions taken by the rm. Often recruitment starts with the general objective of attracting with as little cost as possible as many people as possible. Such a general objective doesnt provide much guidance for implementing recruitment, and can lead to increased costs during selection and even discourage some highly talented people. The second part of recruiting is deciding on a strategy for reaching these objectives. A strategy is the plan for choosing which activities (e.g., using the Internet, visiting college campuses, and writing recruitment ads)

FIGURE 1.2
THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Recruitment Strategy
What will be done When How
Recruitment Objectives
Number Skills
Management of Recruitment
Sources Personnel Administration Content
Results of Recruitment
Number who apply Skills of applicants Diversity of applicants Number who join organization
Demographics
the organization will use, when these activities will be done, and how they will be done. The third part of recruiting, management, uses the four components of recruiting that the rm implements: recruitment sources (ways to reach people), recruitment personnel (who does the recruiting), recruitment content (what information is presented), and recruitment administration (when activities are done). The last part of recruiting is to determine the results of recruiting: the number of people who applied, their skill levels, their diversity, and how many actually became employed by the rm. By reviewing these results the rm can determine if its recruitment strategy and execution were appropriate. If they werent, adjustments could be made for future recruiting. In the following pages we will discuss what is known about how the sources, personnel, content, and administration of recruitment affect potential recruits. In this discussion we rely on three reviews of the research literature on recruitment.11 If you want more information, please read these reviews.
Sources. The major sources of recruitment are presented in Table 1.1. These vary
by a number of important characteristics that affect how organizations use these sources. One characteristic is cost of use. Generally speaking, advertising, especially when only local media are used, and employee referral sources are relatively inexpensive, meaning that cost per each person contacted is usually low. Sources that require a good deal of travel and personnel time, such as college recruiting, are much more expensive. Another important characteristic is the amount of information that can be given to potential applicants. The cost of television and newspapers is a direct function of the timing and length of the recruitment message. Therefore, most companies restrict the amount of information that is provided in these sources, even though it is possible to provide much more. College recruitment is usually quite expensivebecause of the recruiters travel expenses, and because each recruiter usually contacts only 8 to 12 applicants each day. A third factor is the predictability of the number of applicants. It is commonly thought that advertising and employment agencies are less consistent in both the numbers and qualications of applicants generated than are sources more directly under the control of the organization, such as school recruiting and employee referral. Variability in the number recruital can be caused by factors such as time of year, general economic and employment factors, amount and intensity of competitors recruiting efforts, and applicants perceptions about the specic media or agencies used. A major part of the design of recruitment programs is deciding which combination of recruiting sources to use for specic jobs.

TABLE 1.1
RECRUITMENT SOURCES
Advertising
A message containing general information about the job and the organization is placed in various media, such as newspapers, radio, and television. These media can have either a local, regional, or national audience and can serve the general public or a specic segment of population.
Associations and Unions

Many occupations have state, regional, or national associations that hold meetings, publish newsletters, and represent the interests of the occupation. Such associations frequently have job placement units.
Colleges and Secondary Schools

Organization members are sent to schools to meet with individuals or groups of students to provide specic information about the organization or the job and to answer any questions. They may also perform the rst review of applicants.
Employee Referral Programs

When using this word-of-mouth technique, employees are provided with information about job openings and asked to refer individuals to the company. Often the employee is given a bonus if the individual whom he referred is employed. Should the applicant be rejected, the employee is given a brief explanation.
Employment Agencies
The rm contacts an organization whose main purpose is to locate job seekers. The company provides the agency with information about the job, which the agency then passes along to its clients. Clients can be either employed or unemployed. Agencies can be either public or private. Fees may be charged to either or both the client seeking a job and the company seeking applicants.
Walk-Ins
Unsolicited individuals initiate contact with the organization. The number depends on such factors as the level of the positions open, the image of the company, the frequency of job openings, and the physical proximity of the labor market.
Internet
The rm can either post information about open positions on its own home page, or it can contract with an Internet recruiting service. This service participates in an online job center that is a site for listing jobs across many organizations. Job seekers can access the job center and view job postings according to job title, company name, geographical location, etc. Some centers will perform an initial match between characteristics of the applicant and job requirements specied by the company. Resumes of applicants who are well matched to the job requirements are forwarded to the company for future contact.
Job Posting
Current employees are notied about job openings, required skills, and how to apply. This notication can consist of printed brochures, notices on bulletin boards, or e-mail messages.
Review of Employee Files

Either managers or HR specialists review the employment records of current employees in order to identify those who have the necessary KSAs to perform the open position. Those identied are encouraged to apply.

11
One obvious question about recruitment sources that we know you are thinking about is, What are the differences in results among recruitment sources? Much research has been done to investigate differences and differences have been found.12 However, the results have not been very consistent across studies. Partially, this lack of consistent ndings has been due to the fact that rms often use more than one recruitment source and it is not possible to identify the effects of any single source. More important than tracing the effectiveness of separate sources of recruitment is understanding how individuals process information from recruitment sources. Christopher Collins and Cynthia Stevens found that recruitment sources interacted with one another.13 These sources affected two perceptions of potential applicants: general company image and specic job attributes. These perceptions, in turn, were related to an applicants intention to apply for the job. One conclusion that may be drawn is that recruitment sources should complement one another. For example, if a company wishes to emphasize in its recruitment process its goal of furthering the career development of employees, then all of its recruitment sources should include this topic (using different examples and wording, as appropriate). The Internet is the source of recruiting that has become the most dominant in recent years. It is relatively inexpensive, allows for the presentation of large amounts of information, and can be accessed by individuals at any time and in almost any place. Companies use the Internet in three ways for recruiting: by posting jobs on the companys home page, by posting jobs on websites devoted to job announcements (e.g., Monster.com), and by searching for candidates in materials posted on websites (other companies employee listings, member lists of associations, and online news articles). Popular press writings about using the Internet for recruiting discuss the following as being important for getting the best results.14 1. Use Individuals Who Know Your FirmAll rms have both current employees and individuals who have left the rm but are still positive toward it. These individuals can be sources of referrals of new employees. Keeping current with ex-employees e-mail addresses is the biggest challenge for this activity. Develop a Recruiting WebsiteMost companies have home websites. However, few have effective recruiting or career center links to this. A recruiting website that is properly constructed and easy to access could provide many well-qualied applicants. Such a website should display much more than minimal information about open positions. For example, a description of company culture, statements by existing workers at all levels, success stories of individual workers or teams, a discussion of advancement/career development opportunities, a philosophy of employee rights and treatment, and a demographic summary of employees can all be used to present an inviting message to those that inquire. Find Best Active CandidatesThere are well over 40,000 active job boards. These range from very large boards that have several hundred thousand applicants at any one time to niche boards that specialize in particular industries, occupations, or jobs. Although time consuming, it is benecial to learn about the various boards, and especially to learn about the proles of the typical applicants appearing on these boards, as well as these applicants general skill levels. This knowledge can be used for targeting the employee search to those job boards that are the best matches for nding the desired employees.
2.
3.

4. Find Passive CandidatesThere is much electronic information about individuals who are employed by other rms. These people are not actively seeking another position. However, they may respond positively to being approached for new employment. This is the tactic that executive search rms have traditionally used. Many search rms build listings of individuals in particular positions throughout the world and use these listings when the search rm is employed to nd executives for open positions. Lists of potential applicants (passive candidates) can be built by using information found on companies websites, in news stories, on professional association membership rolls, and on meeting or convention registration and speaker lists. Nike has reported a great deal of success in recruiting its European sales force, both in terms of attracting qualied applicants, as well as in reducing its recruiting costs by approximately 50 percent by using some of these e-recruiting steps.15 Similarly, Xerox has also developed an e-recruiting vehicle for its European sales force. Reportedly, the website annually receives over 100,000 contacts for 2000 open positions. Applicants are supplied job and organization information; applications are sourced to appropriate administrative units; and some initial evaluation of applicant KSAs is done.16 Very little research has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of e-recruiting. One study developed a website for a ctitious company that contained information about the company, the companys open positions, and company values. The website also provided feedback to some applicants about their t with the organization. (One of the proposed advantages of e-recruiting is the low cost of providing such information.) Results of this study indicated that generally the feedback information about an applicants t with the organization inuenced his or her attraction to the rm.17 Another study also developed a website for a ctitious company and manipulated the demographic diversity shown in various scenes on the site. White viewers were not affected by the diversity shown in the ad. Black viewers were attracted by ad diversity but only when it included supervisory level positions. Viewer reactions were also related to viewers openness to racial diversity.18 We conclude that e-recruiting can be a more effective and less costly recruiting source than almost all others. Four important factors to consider when determining what sources to use are the nature of the job being recruited, the image of the company in the external labor market, the attitudes of current employees, and the demographic mix of applicants being sought. For example, recruiting for complex jobs would seem to require sources that allow detailed information to be given about the job, company, and selection qualications; the kind of information given by recruiters or the Internet. Company image is another factor to keep in mind when choosing a source, because a strong, positive image of the organization is related to individuals willingness to apply for employment. Image can be strengthened by written and graphic brochures, or by television, newspaper, and Internet advertisements. The third factor to consider is worker attitudes, which controls the extent to which an organization can rely on worker referrals. Referrals can be an important recruitment sourcebut, obviously, only if the employees are positive about their jobs and the company. The fourth factor, demographic groups that are sought by the organization, is also important to keep in mind when considering what sources to use. Often there are organizations (e.g., the Hispanic Chamber

13
of Commerce newsletters, or electronic resources) that focus on a specic demographic group. Usually these contact vehicles will distribute information about job openings.
Personnel. Logically, recruiters should have an important inuence on the atti-
tudes and behavior of applicants because recruiters are usually the rst real people that the applicants encounter after they get through the Internet, brochures, and media ads and broadcasts. Much research has been conducted on the effects recruiters have and how strong these effects are. The general conclusion is that recruiters do inuence applicants, both positively and negatively, but that (surprise!) it is not crystal clear how this inuence works.19 Research has examined the demographic characteristics, behaviors, personality, and training of recruiters to determine if these characteristics may affect the attitudes and behaviors of recruits (e.g., their interest in the rm, whether they apply to the rm, or whether they accept job offers). The following is a brief summary of what has been concluded.20 Recruiters usually inuence the early opinions and behaviors of recruits. That is, recruiters affect the applicants decision about whether to nd out more information or continue with recruitment. Recruiters have little effect upon a recruits actual decision about whether to accept the job or not. Job and organization characteristics have a stronger inuence on recruits than recruiters. Recruiters who have race and gender in common with applicants may have some inuence on those applicants, but such inuence is neither consistent nor strong. The training of recruiters in interviewing and in the management of the social interaction of recruitment interviews is important. Often recruiters are seen as less trustworthy and credible than members of the intended work group, perhaps because they have less knowledge about work operations. Recruiters perceived as warm, enthusiastic, personable, and concerned are regarded favorably. Recruiters can have a strong, negative inuence on applicants. This can cause applicants to discontinue pursuit of the rm. Recruiters vary in the way they mix the recruitment (selling of the rm) and selection (evaluation of the applicant) components of their applicant interviews. The best mix seems to be a combination. Heavy emphasis on recruitment is negatively regarded. Derek Chapman and his fellow researchers have concluded that rms should select recruiters on the basis of personableness and other positive interpersonal behaviors, and train them in interviewing and interpersonal conduct.21 In the actual recruitment interview, recruiters should combine the process of describing the job and organization with a preliminary screening of the applicants characteristics. In addition, they should explain the recruitment and selection process and address any questions or concerns that the applicant has.

Administration of Recruitment. The small amount of research on administration
denitely indicates that the promptness of follow-up contacts with applicants between the various stages of recruitment is positively related to whether the applicants stay in the recruitment pool.22 Prompt responses by the company may indicate to the applicant that the company is efcient and, therefore, a desirable place to workor that the applicant has very favorably impressed the company and has a good chance of getting a job offer. It is important to note that highly qualied applicants who have multiple job alternatives are most strongly affected by delays. No relationship between expenditures on recruiting (in the form of dinners, receptions, gifts, hotels, and so forth) and applicant response has been found.23 However, ignoring such a strategy when competing rms in the same industry are doing it (as large accounting and consulting rms do) would probably not be a wise decision. The applicants visit to the physical site of the organization is also an important component of recruiting effectiveness. Applicants note the importance of the people they meet, how they are treated by the people they meet, and the organizations professionalism.24 Reactions to the site visit have been found to be related to the applicants ultimate decision to accept the job.25 Finally, some preliminary data suggest that increasing the information that an applicant must supplyfor example, transcripts, more letters of reference, certicates, or writing samplesreduces the number of applicants.26 Such demands, however, have not produced any noticeable changes in the quality of applicants.
Content of the Message. An obvious question when designing recruitment programs is the effect on recruits of various kinds of information. Traditionally, the message in recruitment programs has been regarded as an opportunity to sell the organization as a favorable place to work, and the message has, therefore, been universally positive. Pay excellence, coworkers, physical facilities, advancement, benets, and job challenge have been stressed. Because no work situation is without negative aspects, such traditional messages can instill false expectations in recruits that cannot be fullled in actual employment. This happens to some degree in most recruitment. Many now think that it is unproductive to create expectations in the applicant that cannot be fullled. Once employed, some individuals nd the differences between their expectations and the actual job to be unpleasantly large. Such discrepancies can cause both dissatisfaction with the organization and rapid job turnover. Obviously, in such cases the whole cost of recruitment and selection must be repeated as other applicants are processed. In place of such unrealistic recruitment messages, John Wanous has recommended a Realistic Job Preview (RJP).27 In realistic job previews, the applicants are given the negative aspects of the job as well as the positive. For example, Southern New England Telephone made a lm for potential operators that made clear that the work was closely supervised, repetitive, and sometimes required dealing with rude or unpleasant customers. Such information led to a self-selection process whereby those candidates who regarded these job aspects negatively removed themselves from further consideration. Those that remained made up a recruitment pool of individuals with fairly accurate expectations of job demands and characteristics.28 Although several studies have shown that a reduction in subsequent employee turnover is associated with the use of RJPs, the size of the reduction has usually been fairly small. Recently, the argument has been made that RJPs should be included in various parts of the recruitment processrecruiters, company visits,

15
discussions with employeesrather than through a designated lm or brochure.29 Applicants may often think that such distinct, separate presentations mean that the company or job has major deciencies, and therefore may withdraw from the application process. In fact, it has been found that applicants with job choices are inuenced by the negative information of an RJP and choose instead the company with traditional recruitment messages.30 All in all, RJPs seem to have a slightly positive relationship to job satisfaction and a slightly negative one to turnover. However, the relationships are not strong and a rm should not view RJPs as more important than job characteristics or supervisory behavior in reducing turnover. Perhaps it is more appropriate to view RJPs as a right thing to do.31 In other words, providing somewhat balanced information about the job and organization should be the correct way of treating applicants. Another important factor in the content of recruitment messages is the amount of specicity and detail in the message. Two factors are important, especially very early in the recruitment process: A potential applicants decision about whether to maintain interest in the rm is based upon both his perception of the rms image and his familiarity with the rm.32 This should not be surprising because during the early stage of recruitment the applicant has very little specic information about the job, salary, benets, working conditions, or organizational characteristics. Therefore, an applicant choosing the one that he will pursue from among many possible rms must make this choice based upon general information and perceptions. A specic organizational image can favorably inuence an applicants perception of the position he is applying for, and help him imagine the pride he would feel in becoming a member of the organization. Even at later stages of recruitment, research has shown that specic, detailed information about an organization is viewed positively by applicants.33 There is some evidence that applicants regard the amount and specicity of information to be a signal of the companys regard for employees. It has also been found that applicants, when presented with inadequate information, make inferences about the company from the companys statements about its size and industryand transfer those inferences to other characteristics of the company and job.34 However, the consequences (with regard to subsequent applicant behavior) stemming from such inferences are not consistent across individuals. These general principles for the presentation of information at various stages in the recruitment process have traditionally been used for recruitment messages displayed in costly printed media. The use of the Internet permits the inexpensive display of large quantities of information about the company and the job. No one really knows what applicants reactions to the presentation of such detailed information early in the recruitment process will be. Logical arguments can be made that such a presentation will enhance the image of the company, which, in turn, will inuence many individuals to become applicants.
How Do Firms Plan and Carry Out Recruitment? In this section we discuss the results of a survey, conducted by Sara Rynes and John Boudreau, of the college recruiting practices carried out by Fortune 1000 companies.35 We present only part of their extensive ndings. One somewhat surprising result was that college recruitment was not treated as a major HRM activity in most companies. Although approximately 16 percent of both the HRMs budget and time were spent on this, little was done in either planning or evaluating effectiveness. For example, only one-third of the respondents reported having regular meetings to discuss college recruiting. Another third met whenever it was necessary; and the remaining

third did not hold formal planning meetings. Evaluation was most often based on the extent to which recruiting deadlines were met and recruiter feedback of applicant quality was given to others in the organization. Very few rms collected data about future work performance or how long the recruits stayed in the organization. On the positive side, many of the recruitment practices examined in the previously discussed studies were part of the regular programs of these companies. In general, recruiter respondents said that recruitment messages were accurate rather than favorable in their descriptions. In addition, the most important criteria used in selecting recruiters were strong interpersonal skills, enthusiasm for the company, and credibility with students and coworkers. However, most recruiters were given little or no training, with less than half of the companies offering standardized training programs. In those training programs that were given, an average of 30 percent of training time was devoted to interpersonal skill training, 20 percent focused on traits to look for in applicants, and 10 percent was given to designing interview content. Recruiters were evaluated primarily on procedural grounds such as keeping appointments, submitting reports on time, and taking notes.
Recruitment and the Attraction of Potential Employees. We have discussed that se-
lection and recruitment are interrelated, and that there are four parts of recruitment that organizations can structure to help them meet their needs for new employees. However, recruitment is not the only activity that affects an organizations ability to attract potential employees. Sara Rynes and Alison Barber have pointed out some other important factors.36 Among these are the inducements offered by the rm (e.g., salary, benets, child care, exible work schedules, and career paths), the rms targeted applicant pools (e.g., education level, experience level, and the demographics of age, gender, race, and ethnicity), external labor market conditions, and job and organizational characteristics. These authors clearly indicate that a rms ability to attract candidates for employment depends on all of these factors rather than on recruitment practices alone. For example, a small business that pays approximately minimum wage, has no benets or child care arrangements, and does not offer training or a career path may have great difculty attracting the candidates it desires. In the face of these other characteristics, changing only its recruitment practices may not alter the companys success in attracting desirable applicants.
DEVELOPING
SELECTION PROGRAM
We turn now to the way that effective selection programs should be developed. A good deal of work must be completed by human resource specialists before the selection process is applied to those who are being recruited. We contend that the adequacy of these developmental steps, illustrated in Figure 1.3, strongly inuences the adequacy of the selection process. If little attention and effort are devoted to developing the selection program, then its usefulness will be limited. If these developmental steps are seriously addressed, the usefulness of the selection program is enhanced. Another way of viewing this issue is that a selection process itself can be implemented quite readily. An application form can quite easily be printed or purchased; interviews can be conducted without too much prior work; employment tests (with descriptions indicating that they should produce useful information for selection) can be purchased and administered to applicants. The

D EVELOPING A S ELECTION P ROGRAM
17
FIGURE 1.3
STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SELECTION PROGRAM
Job Analysis
Identification of Relevant Job Performance Dimensions
Identification of Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs) Necessary for Job
Development of Assessment Devices to Measure KSAs
Validation of Assessment Devices 1. Content 2. Criterion
Use of Assessment Devices in the Processing of Applicants

crucial issue, however, is not whether an organization can collect information from applicants and then decide which are to be given employment offers. Obviously this is possible. Rather, the issue is whether the organization can collect information from applicants that is closely related to job performance and effectively use this information to identify the best applicants. It is the developmental steps of the selection program that make selection useful. The following paragraphs briey describe these steps.
JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION

If the purpose of the selection program is to identify the best individuals for a job within the organization, then information about the job should be the starting point in the development of this program. Job analysis is the gathering of information about a job in an organization. This information includes the tasks, results (products or services) equipment, material used, and environment (working conditions, hazards, work schedule, etc.) that characterize the job. This information serves two main purposes. The rst is to convey to potential applicants information about the nature and demands of the job. This helps minimize inappropriate expectations. The second purpose is actually the more critical for the development of selection programs: The job analysis information provides a database for the other steps in the developmental process.
IDENTIFYING RELEVANT JOB PERFORMANCE MEASURES

A second type of information important for developing the selection program is determining how job performance is measured and what level of performance is regarded as successful. The main purpose of selection is to identify those applicants who will be successful on the job. In order to build such a program, selection specialists must know what constitutes success. In many jobs in which individuals produce an object or meet customers, nding what should be measured and how much of this equals success is relatively straightforward. The objects can be counted and inspected for quality or the customers who receive a service (e.g., from a teller) can be counted and surveyed about their satisfaction with the service. However, there are other jobs in which measurement of job performance is not as direct. For example, in team-based jobs, it is difcult to determine how much any one individual has accomplished. And in research and development work it may take an extended time to translate an idea into a product. In situations such as these, the best source of information about job performance is usually the judgment of the supervisor or the other work team members. Whatever its source or nature, the information as to what constitutes successful job performance is used in the next step of the developmental process.
IDENTIFICATION
OF
WORKER CHARACTERISTICS
Using both the job analysis information and the job performance data, the HR specialist must identify the KSAs and other employee characteristics that a worker should possess in order to perform the job successfully. These KSAs become the basic pool of characteristics to be evaluated in applicants. This identication is an extremely difcult task. As we discuss in Chapter 8, a few job analysis methods attempt to identify these KSAs. In most cases, however, HR specialists rely on their

D EVELOPING A S ELECTION P ROGRAM
19
own judgments. Work requirements, worker attributes, worker characteristics, and job requirements are all terms that are frequently used in the same context that we have used the term KSAs.
DEVELOPMENT
OF
ASSESSMENT DEVICES
After the KSAs have been identied, it becomes necessary to either nd or construct the appropriate selection devices. These instruments can be classied into the following groups: application blanks, biographical data forms, and reference checks; the selection interview; mental and special abilities tests; personality assessment inventories; and simulation and performance measures. There are two principles for choosing the selection device(s) to be used. The rst is that the device must measure the KSAs that the selection specialist has identied as needed for the job. Duhhh!!! you say. The problem is that many selection devices that can be purchased or have been developed by companies measure very broad KSAs rather than the specic KSAs for a particular job. For example, application forms usually ask for brief information about previous job titles and job duties but do not collect enough detailed information to clearly determine whether the previous work experience matches the present job. Similarly, interviews frequently attempt to measure general skills such as leadership, attitude, motivation, or personal interaction. These skills are very difcult to measure and often are not closely related to the specic skills that are necessary for doing the job, such as the verbal ability to discuss computer hardware and software topics in a way that will be understandable to employees. Selection specialists use test construction principles, which we will discuss in later chapters, to determine the matching of KSAs with the selection device. The second principle is that the assessment device should be able to differentiate among applicants. The assumption in selection is that applicants possess different amounts of the KSAs necessary for job performance. The purpose of the assessment device is to measure these differences (usually by means of differences in numerical scores). It is in this way that promising applicants can be distinguished from unpromising applicants. If nearly all applicants perform about the same on these assessment devices, the selection decisions are very difcult because the applicants would appear to be equal. Choosing a few applicants from a large group of equals is complicated. The problem of lack of applicant differentiation often occurs when interviews emphasize general questions about career goals and self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses; personality inventories are transparent in purpose (for example, scales measuring the amount of social interaction preferred, or attitudes toward stealing or dishonesty); or simple math or clerical tests are used. Knowing how tests are constructed will help the professional developor choose amongtests. Let us briey summarize the steps completed by an organization at this point in the selection program development process. Information has been collected describing important aspects of both job activities and outcomes. This information has been used to identify a set of KSAs that a worker needs to succeed on the job. A set of selection instruments has been identied that will measure the amount of the KSAs possessed by applicants. If these steps are performed with care, an organization should reasonably expect to obtain the information needed for choosing the right applicants. Frequently, however, the developmental work of the selection program stops at this point. When this happens, there is very little direct evidence available for verifying the accuracy of the above steps. Robert Guion likens these

rst steps to the development of hypotheses.37 That is, the HR specialist has formulated testable statements as to the worker characteristics that should be related to successful job performance. The last steps in the development of a selection program can be viewed as a testing of these hypotheses. Technically referred to as validation, these steps focus on the collection and evaluation of information to determine whether the worker characteristics thought to be important are, in fact, related to successful job performance. If they are related, then the selection program should be useful to the organization. If, on the other hand, it turns out that the identied worker characteristics are not related to job performance, it is better to learn this as early as possible so that alternatives can be developed.
VALIDATION PROCEDURES
There are several ways to validate the selection process. In empirical validation, for example, two types of data are collected: (a) the scores on the selection devices from a representative sample of individuals and (b) measures of how well each of these individuals is performing in important parts of the job. The purpose of validation is to provide evidence that data from the selection instruments are related to job performance. Statistical data analysis, usually correlational analysis (which measures how closely related two different sets of scores are), is the most straightforward manner of producing this evidence. Empirical validation involves calculating correlation coefcients between scores on the selection instruments and on the job performance measure. In addition to empirical validation, other validation procedures, such as content validation, can be used. Content validation systematically takes the data produced by the judgments of workers and managers, and uses them to determine the relationship between the selection test and job performance. We will discuss validation in much more detail in Chapter 5. No matter which type is employed, it is really only after the validation phase has been completed that one has evidence that the information collected by the selection devices is indicative of job performance and, therefore, useful for choosing among applicants. It is these steps from job analysis to validation that we are referring to when we say that much developmental work must precede the installation of the selection program. If all these steps are not completed, then, in Guions terms, the organization is using a set of selection instruments that are thought to be useful for the identication of potentially successful workersbut without proper evidence to support this belief. If the instruments are not related to job performance, their use can be costly because a less than optimum group of workers is being selected for employment. However, organizations often choose not to fully carry out these steps in the development of their selection programs. Less time-consuming and less rigorous procedures are adopted. In such cases, long-term consequences and costs are downplayed or ignored.
CONSTRAINTS
IN
DEVELOPING
SELECTION PROGRAM
The essence of selection is prediction or forecasting. Specically, we wish to use the information gathered from the selection devices to determine differences among applicants with regard to job-related KSAs and then choose those applicants that we predict will do well in the future in the job under consideration. In HR selection as in medicine, stock market analysis, meteorology, and economicsprediction is an uncertain activity. Even with a well-developed selection program, not all of the

C ONSTRAINTS IN D EVELOPING A S ELECTION P ROGRAM
21
decisions about future job performance are going to be correct. A number of factors greatly affect the quality of the selection process.
LIMITED INFORMATION
ON
APPLICANTS
The quality of selection decisions depends in part on the accuracy and completeness of data gathered from the applicants. In general, the greater the amount of accurate data obtained, the higher the probability of making an accurate selection decision. However, especially early in the processing of applicants, the amount of the data collected is often severely limited by the cost of obtaining the data. The organization incurs costs for such items as materials and facilities, staff time, travel expenses for staff and applicants, and data storage and analysis. For example, a college campus interviewer frequently spends only 30 minutes with each applicant, and part of this time is devoted to presenting information about the organization. In other cases, either application forms or rsums are used extensively as major screening devices for many positions. However, campus interviewing and application and rsum forms obtain only limited, basic information about applicants. When there are many applicants for only a few positions, a great many applicants will be dropped. With the limited information gleaned from application blanks or interviews, mistakes can be made both with those selected and those rejected.
MEASUREMENT
OF JOBS, INDIVIDUALS, AND
WORK PERFORMANCE
A basic assumption of this book is that the development of a selection program requires the measurement of characteristics of jobs, individuals, and work performance. By measurement we mean quantitative descriptionthat is, the use of numbers. Numbers are used to represent information such as the amount of time an applicant has spent in a job activity, or the level of mathematical knowledge an applicant needs to perform a task, or an applicants score on a verbal skills test, or the quality of a workers performance in preparing an advertisement. Numbers are necessary because they facilitate the comparison of people: They transmit information more succinctly than words, and they permit statistical manipulation (such as the adding of scores across selection tests to get a total score for each applicant), which provides even more information about the selection program. For example, assume that there are 12 applicants for an entry-level position in the loan department of a bank. All are interviewed and complete a brief test on nancial terms and analysis. Quantifying the performance of each candidate on each of the two selection instruments is the most practical way of comparing them. If scores are not developed, the selection specialist is placed in an extremely complex situation; differences must be determined among the 12 using descriptive information such as He seemed able to express himself pretty well, or She knew most of the nancial terms but did not seem comfortable judging the risk of the loan. Obviously, when there are such statements about a number of individuals, the difculty in identifying the most promising of the applicants is enormous. The problem of measurement for the HR specialist, however, is to ensure that the numbers generated are actually accurate descriptions of the characteristics of the applicant, the job, or the job performance under study. We address specic measurement issues throughout this text, especially in Chapters 3 through 5. For now we can say that the measurement of many KSAs is difcult and not as precise as we would wish.

A comment is necessary at this point to make sure that we do not give you a false impression. We have mentioned that it is important to use selection instruments that generate scores about the characteristics of applicants in making selection decisions. That is not to say, however, that selection decisions are always made by counting the scores and offering employment only to those who score the highest, even though some maintain that the best results occur if this is done. It is common for other factors also to enter into the decisionsfor example, a desire to balance the demographic composition of the workforce, or an intuition about a specic applicant. In this type of situation, our position is that these additional factors should come into play only after the applicants have been measured on the selection devices and a group has been identied as being appropriate for the job. These other factors can then be used in choosing individuals from this group. Very different, and much less desirable, results can occur if these other factors are used early in selection, before the applicant pool has been measured. In such situations, a great number of errors can be made before the selection instruments are even used.
OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING WORK PERFORMANCE

A third issue to keep in mind regarding selection programs is that many factors affect work performance. The primary purpose of selection is to enhance the probability of making correct employment decisionsextending offers to those persons who will perform well in the organization and not extending job offers to those who will not do as well. Typically, any evaluation of the adequacy of the selection program is made in terms of job performance. However, it is apparent that the KSAs of those hired are not the sole determinants of job performance. Practitioners and researchers have identied numerous other factors in an organization that affect individual performance. Among these organizational factors are training programs for employees, appraisal and feedback methods, goal-setting procedures, nancial compensation systems, work design strategies, supervisory methods, organizational structure, decision-making techniques, and work schedules. The implication of these ndings for the evaluation of selection programs is clear. A selection program focuses on a few of the many variables that inuence performance. Often it is difcult to adequately assess its effectiveness. At times, a thoughtfully developed program might seem to have only a minimal measurable relationship to performance. It is possible in such cases that one or more of the other variables that we have mentioned is adversely affecting performance levels and negating the contribution of the selection program. The conclusion is that it is advisable in judging selection programs to examine several other organizational systems before an accurate diagnosis of the deciencies in the performance of employees can be made.
CURRENT ISSUES
IN
SELECTION
TEAM-BASED JOBS
BROADLY DEFINED
AND
The human resource selection procedures and research that we will describe in this text are a product of the steady development of this eld over the course of almost 100 years. During most of this time, the makeup of jobs in organizations

C URRENT I SSUES IN S ELECTION
23
has remained essentially the same. That is, a job has generally been composed of a small group of related activities, designed to be performed by an individual who, for the most part, works alone. An organizations product or service was developed in stages, usually by individual workers who passed the work on to other employees. Although it took a group of workers to make a product or service, this group did not function as an interactive group but rather as a collection of individuals. Most of the existing selection procedures were developed for this traditional model of work. Many jobs were composed of a small number of tasks that remained constant over time. In addition, KSAs were usually thought of in terms of technical knowledge, the application of that knowledge in problem-solving work activities, and various cognitive abilities. This is because these KSAs were the most important factors for success in these individual-oriented jobs. Recent changes in the way work is done in organizations, however, has prompted an examination of the adequacy of these traditional selection procedures for these new work methods. Many current management philosophies such as quality management, employee involvement, and autonomous work teams share the demand that the work processes within an organization be performed by individuals sharing work assignments within work teams. That is, organizations are increasingly designing work that is done interactively by groups of employees. Structuring work in this way has major implications for selection programs. The most obvious of these is that often the success of a work team depends not only on technical knowledge and ability but also on the interaction abilities of members. Selection specialists have begun to address these issues in the development of selection programs. The research on the selection of individuals into interactive work teams has mainly focused on measuring applicants on the characteristics that are related to the interaction among team members, characteristics that lead to effective team performance. These characteristics are regarded as being different from the KSAs that are necessary for doing the work tasks of the team. Michael Stevens and Michael Campion have developed a selection test that measures 14 characteristics of team-oriented work interaction, regardless of the specic team task.38 These 14 characteristics can be grouped into ve categories: conict resolution, collaborative problem solving, communication, goal setting and performance management, and planning and task coordination. The two authors refer to these characteristics as KSAs necessary for teamwork and clearly indicate that these KSAs are not personality or technical KSAs. One research study has supported the relation of these teamwork KSAs to individuals performance in team interaction. That is, three observers of interactive teams rated individuals with high scores on Stevens and Campions test as high also in how well each interacted with others in accomplishing work tasks.39 Other research on the selection of work team members starts with the assumption that contextual performance (activities that support the organizations social and psychological environment) are necessary for successful team performance.40 To study this, researchers developed an interview that measured a variety of social skills; used a personality test that measured four traits; and used Stevens and Campions Teamwork KSA Test described previously. They found that scores on all three selection devices were related to contextual work performance, which, in turn, was strongly related to team work performance. Taken together, these research studies clearly point out that overall work performance of interactive work teams is dependent on KSAs of both technical business operations and team interaction. Both should be incorporated into selection programs used for employing interactive team members.

Given changes over time in the nature of work and the obvious conclusion that selection procedures are going to change to correspond to these new work designs, you may be wondering about the value of learning about selection procedures that have been developed and applied to jobs designed under the traditional philosophy. Our job is to convince you that the rest of this book is useful. Lets try these arguments. First, as in all elds based on technical knowledge, future developments in selection will be based on what is previously known about the eld. That is, no one has indicated that selection methods for interactive work teams will be so different from traditional selection methods that it will be necessary to start from ground zero. Selection in any form will use information about the characteristics of work activities and people. What we currently know about work activities and people will be the basis for the future evolution of selection. Second, it seems that many of the specic techniques and measurement instruments that have been used in selection may continue to be used in teambased selection. We have already discussed, for example, how current research into team-based selection practices has described the use of interviews, personality tests, and even paper-pencil tests. The use of these instruments for teams can be directly adapted from their traditional use in selection. Third, selection in any form will still be based on measurement principles rules about how to assign numbers to characteristics of work activities and individuals. Measurement has been central to selection throughout its development. The principles of measurement will certainly be continued in future forms of selection. Fourth, while the philosophy of work may change in organizations, the legal environment in which selection decisions are made will not change as fast or as radically. As we will discuss throughout this text, the evidence and proof that are required in legal questions about selection practices require the production of data about work activities, employee characteristics, and work performance. These measurement data will be important regardless of the future nature of work and the nature of the employee characteristics measured. All this has been a long way of saying that even though there are changes in organizations that will be reected by changes in selection, these changes will be based on what we currently know and do. Understanding the principles of selection that are currently being used is essential for developing future selection principles and techniques.
SELECTION
IN
SMALL BUSINESS
The number of open positions in large and small organizations has shifted dramatically in the recent past. That is, large organizations have been reducing their number of employees, and small businesses have been increasing their number of employees. In fact, small businesses have provided most of the recent growth in number of jobs. These employment patterns mean that a very large percentage of selection decisions are made for small businesses. However, many individuals have the opinion that formalized selection programs have been developed by large organizations and can only be used by such organizations because of the cost of development and the necessity of using selection specialists. We agree with only half of that statementfor the most part, formalized selection programs have been developed by large organizations. However, we strongly disagree with the conclusion that these selection programs can be used only by large rms.

P LAN OF T HIS B OOK
25
We think that a large portion of the knowledge that has been developed about selection can be directly applied to small organizations. Think about the steps in selection that we previously described. In these, a job analysis is completed, successful job performance is dened, and, based on this information, KSAs are identied. Finally, selection instruments are developed and validated. Nothing about these steps presupposes that they can be followed only within large organizations. Small business owners and managers usually know the activities of the jobs in their companies very well. Often the owner has performed all of these activities. Recording this information by writing task statements (doing a job analysis), using these statements to identify KSAs, and developing appropriate selection instruments to measure these KSAs can certainly be accomplished by one or two people in a small businessif they have the proper knowledge. In fact, a survey of the recruitment and selection practices of small businesses found that these companies use multiple practices that are very similar to those used by large rms.41 Many of the selection instruments that we will discuss in this book are appropriate for small businesses.42 For example, training and experience evaluation forms, and structured, behaviorally based interviews and work sample tests can quite easily be developed for small businesses. Basic information necessary for content validity can also be gathered. We know that selection in small organizations has usually consisted of informal decision making by the owner or manager. However, there is nothing inherent in small business operations or selection to indicate that this has to be the case. Knowledge about the steps and instruments of selection can be very useful to these organizations.
PLAN
OF
THIS BOOK
The major purpose of this book is to discuss each of the steps necessary for developing selection programs within organizations. We will concentrate on the characteristics of the data that should be gathered and the types of decisions the HR specialist should make at each step. We incorporate research about selection and discuss its implications for the development of HR selection programs. There is no one blueprint for the development of selection programs, and we do not wish to give that impression. The steps we refer to are different stages in the accumulation and processing of information about jobs, individuals, and job performance. At each step the HR specialist must make a number of decisions, not only about the kind of data needed, but also about the statistical analyses that should be done and what decisions can be made based upon that data. The particular selection needs of the organization will dictate the appropriate actions; we hope this book will provide information necessary for evaluating options at each stage. The book is divided into ve parts. The rst two chapters present an overview of the selection program and its legal environment. Chapters 3 through 6 are devoted to the major measurement issues in selection. These chapters provide the basic information necessary for measuring characteristics of applicants, jobs, and job performancewithin the legal direction of the courts. They also discuss how to use measurement data in selection decision making. Chapters 7 and 8 explain job analysis and the identication of KSAs. This information is the basis of selection. Chapters 9 through 15 discuss in detail the various selection

instruments. They present common forms of each instrument, indicate measurement concerns, and suggest the most appropriate use of each instrument. Chapter 16 summarizes the methods of measuring job performance for use in selection programs.
REFERENCES
1.
David E. Bowen and Cherrie Ostroff, Understanding HRMFirm Performance Linkages: The Role of the Strength of the HRM System, Academy of Management Review 29 (2004): 203221. See also Patrick M. Wright, B. B. Dunford, and S. A. Snell, Human Resources and the Resource-Based View of the Firm, Journal of Management 27 (2001): 701721. Patrick M. Wright, K. Michele Kacmar, Gary C. McMahan, and Kevin Deleeuw, P-f(MxA): Cognitive Ability as a Moderator of the Relationship between Personality and Job Performance, Journal of Management 21 (1995): 11291139. Steven L. Premack and John P. Wanous, A Meta-Analysis of Realistic Job Preview Experiments, Journal of Applied Psychology 70 (1986): 706719. Christopher J. Collins and Kevin D. Clark, Strategic Human Resource Practices, Top Management Team Social Network, and Firm Performance: The Role of Human Resource Practices in Creating Organizational Competitive Advantage, Academy of Management Journal 46 (2003): 740752. Bowen and Ostroff, Understanding HRMFirm Performance Linkages: The Role of the Strength of the HRM System. Abraham Cameli and John Schaubreck, How Leveraging Human Resource Capital with Its Competitive Distinctness Enhances the Performance of Commercial and Public Organizations, Human Resource Management 44 (2005): 391412. Collins and Clark, Strategic Human Resource Practices, Top Management Team Social Networks, and Firm Performance: The Role of Human Resource Practices in Creating Organizational Competitive Advantage. Derek S. Chapman, Krista L. Uggerslev, Sarah A. Carroll, Kelly A. Piasentin, and David A. Jones, Applicant Attraction to Organizations and Job Choice: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Correlates of Recruiting Outcomes, Journal of Applied Psychology 90 (2005): 928944. Sara L. Rynes, Recruitment, Job Choice, and Post-Hire Consequences: A Call for New Research Directions, in Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2d ed., vol. 2, ed. M. D. Dunnette and L. M. Hough (Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1991). So Many Studies, So Many Remaining Questions, Journal of Management 26 (2000): 405434.
2.
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7.
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10. James A. Breaugh and Mary Starke, Research on Employee Recruitment:
11. Chapman et al., Applicant Attraction to Organizations and Job Choice:
A Meta-Analytic Review of the Correlates of Recruiting Outcomes; Sara L. Rynes and Daniel M. Cable, Recruitment Research in the Twenty-First Century, in Handbook of Psychology: Industrial and Organizational Psychology, ed. Walter C. Borman and Daniel R. Ilgen 12(2003): 5576.

R EFERENCES
27
and Breaugh and Starke, Research on Employee Recruitment: So Many Studies, So Many Remaining Questions.
12. Rynes and Cable, Recruitment Research in the Twenty-First Century. 13. Christopher J. Collins and Cynthia K. Stevens, The Relationship between
Early Recruitment-Related Activities and the Application Decisions of New Labor-Market Entrants: A Brand Equity Approach to Recruitment, Journal of Applied Psychology 87 (2002): 11211133.
14. Michael Foster, Recruiting on the Web: Smart Strategies for Finding the
Perfect Candidate (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003).

15. D. Pollitt, E-Recruitment Gets the Nike Tick of Approval, Human
Resource Management International Digest 13, no. 2 (2005): 3335.

16. D. Pollitt, E-Recruitment Helps Xerox to Pick Cream of the Crop,
Human Resource Management International Digest 13, no. 5 (2005): 3335.

17. Bruce R. Dineen, Steven R. Ash, and A. Raymond, A Web of Applicant
Attraction: Person-Organization Fit in the Context of Web-Based Recruitment, Journal of Applied Psychology 87 (2002): 723734. See also Derek S. Chapman and Janie Webster, The Use of Technology in the Recruiting, Screening, and Selection Processes of Job Candidates, International Journal of Selection and Assessment 11 (2003): 113120.
18. Derek R. Avery, Reactions to Diversity in Recruitment AdvertisingAre
Differences Black and White? Journal of Applied Psychology 88 (2003): 672679.

19. Breaugh and Starke, Research on Employee Recruitment: So Many
Studies, So Many Remaining Questions.

20. Rynes and Cable, Recruitment Research in the Twenty-First Century. 21. Chapman et al., Applicant Attraction to Organizations and Job Choice:
A Meta-Analytic Review of the Correlates of Recruiting Outcomes.

22. Richard D. Arvey, Michael E. Gordon, Douglas P. Massengill, and
Stephan J. Mussio, Differential Dropout Rates of Minority and Majority Job Candidates Due to Time Lags between Selection Procedures, Personnel Psychology 28 (1975): 175180; and Sara L. Rynes, Robert D. Bretz Jr., and Barry Gerhart, The Importance of Recruitment in Job Choice: A Different Way of Looking, Personnel Psychology 44 (1991) 487521.
23. M. Susan Taylor and Thomas J. Bergmann, Organizational Recruitment
Activities and Applicants Reactions at Different Stages of the Recruitment Process, Personnel Psychology 40 (1987): 261285.
24. Rynes, Bretz Jr., and Gerhart, The Importance of Recruitment in Job
Choice: A Different Way of Looking.

25. Ibid. 26. Wayne F. Gersen, The Effects of a Demanding Application Process
on the Applicant Pool for Teaching Positions, Dissertation Abstracts International 36 (1976): 7773A.
27. John P. Wanous, Organizational Entry: Recruitment, Selection, and
Socialization of Newcomers (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1980), 34.

28. Wanous, Effects of a Realistic Job Preview on Job Acceptance, Job
Attitudes, and Job Survival, 329.
28
29. Rynes and Cable, Recruitment Research in the Twenty-First Century. 30. Robert D. Bretz and Timothy A. Judge, Realistic Job Previews: A Test of
the Adverse Self-Selection Hypothesis, Journal of Applied Psychology 83 (1998): 330337.

31. Michael R. Buckley, Don B. Fedor, Sean M. Carraher, Dwight D. Frink,
and Marvin D. Dunnette, The Ethical Imperative to Provide Recruits Realistic Job Previews, Journal of Managerial Issues 9 (1997): 468484.
32. Robert D. Gatewood, Mary A. Gowan, and Gary L. Lautenschlager,
Corporate Image, Recruitment Image, and Initial Job Choice Decision, Academy of Management Journal 36 (1993): 414427.
33. Rynes and Cable, Recruitment Research in the Twenty-First Century. 34. Allison E. Barber and M. V. Roehling, Job Postings and the Decision to
Interview: A Verbal Protocol Analysis, Journal of Applied Psychology 78 (1993): 845856.

35. Sara L. Rynes and John W. Boudreau, College Recruiting in Large
Organizations: Practice, Evaluation, and Research Implications, Personnel Psychology 39 (1986): 729757. For related information, see also Recruiting and Selection Procedures, Personnel Policies Forum Survey No. 146 (Washington, DC: The Bureau of National Affairs, May 1988).
36. Sara L. Rynes and Alison E. Barber, Applicant Attraction Strategies: An
Organizational Perspective, Academy of Management Review 15 (1990): 286310.

37. Robert M. Guion, Personnel Assessment, Selection, and Placement, in
Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2d ed., vol. 2, ed. M. D. Dunnette and L. M. Hough (Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1991), 327398.
38. Michael J. Stevens and Michael A. Campion, The Knowledge, Skill, and
Ability Requirements for Teamwork: Implications for Human Resource Management, Journal of Management 20 (1994): 503530. See also Michael J. Stevens and Michael A. Campion, Stafng Work Teams: Development and Validation of a Selection Test for Teamwork Settings, Journal of Management 25 (1999): 207228.
39. A. C. McClough and S. G. Rogelberg, Selection in Teams: An Exploration
of the Teamwork Knowledge, Skills, and Ability Test, International Journal of Selection and Assessment 11, no. 1 (2003): 5666.
40. F. P. Morgeson, M. H. Reider, and M. A. Campion, Selecting Individuals
in Team Settings: The Importance of Social Skills, Personality Characteristics, and Teamwork Knowledge, Personnel Psychology 58, no. 3 (2005): 583611.
41. Herbert G. Heneman III and Robyn A. Berkley, Applicant Attraction
Practices and Outcomes among Small Businesses, Journal of Small Business Management 37 (1999): 5374.
42. Robert D. Gatewood and Hubert S. Feild, A Personnel Selection
Program, Journal of Small Business Management 25 (1987): 1625.

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Licensed to: iChapters User

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ALL INTERNAL MOVEMENT

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STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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INTERACTION OF SELECTION AND OTHER HRM SYSTEMS

Strategic Human Resource Management

Job Performance Measurement

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THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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Associations and Unions

Colleges and Secondary Schools

Employee Referral Programs

Review of Employee Files

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Administration of Recruitment. The small amount of research on administration

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STEPS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SELECTION PROGRAM

Identification of Relevant Job Performance Dimensions

Identification of Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs) Necessary for Job

Development of Assessment Devices to Measure KSAs

Validation of Assessment Devices 1. Content 2. Criterion

Use of Assessment Devices in the Processing of Applicants

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JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION

IDENTIFYING RELEVANT JOB PERFORMANCE MEASURES

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OF JOBS, INDIVIDUALS, AND

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OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING WORK PERFORMANCE

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10. James A. Breaugh and Mary Starke, Research on Employee Recruitment:

11. Chapman et al., Applicant Attraction to Organizations and Job Choice:

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Perfect Candidate (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003).

Resource Management International Digest 13, no. 2 (2005): 3335.

Human Resource Management International Digest 13, no. 5 (2005): 3335.

Differences Black and White? Journal of Applied Psychology 88 (2003): 672679.

Studies, So Many Remaining Questions.

A Meta-Analytic Review of the Correlates of Recruiting Outcomes.

Choice: A Different Way of Looking.

Socialization of Newcomers (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1980), 34.

Attitudes, and Job Survival, 329.

CHAPTER 1 A N I NTRODUCTION TO S ELECTION

the Adverse Self-Selection Hypothesis, Journal of Applied Psychology 83 (1998): 330337.

Interview: A Verbal Protocol Analysis, Journal of Applied Psychology 78 (1993): 845856.

Organizational Perspective, Academy of Management Review 15 (1990): 286310.