Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Lecture Notes
Chapter 7: Selection Processes and Procedures
Learning Objectives
7.1 Explain how job analysis and legal issues apply to recruitment and selection.
7.3 Demonstrate the strategic choice and combination of various selection procedures.
7.4 Identify the different selection procedures available for making hiring decisions and their
advantages and disadvantages.
Chapter Summary
This chapter aims to review the science of employee selection along with established data analytic
techniques for enhancing the quality of hiring decisions and to discuss the wide variety of available
selection procedures. The chapter begins with the requirements for an organization to achieve success
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. People are arguably an organization’s most precious resources.
II. Setting the Stage for Selection: Job Analysis, Recruitment, and Legal Issues: to achieve
success, an organization requires selection systems that are aligned with organizational
strategy.
A. Job Analysis
i. Involves the identification of the tasks that make up a job and the KSAOs that are
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
C. Legal and Ethical Issues in Hiring
i. Selection is possibly the area where legal issues are most evident.
a. Has the most developed history in terms of laws, court cases, and
developed legal guidelines for employers
ii. Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) from the EEOC,
Department of Justice, and the Department of Labor
a. Provide legal guidance to employers on the implementation of
iii. Professional guidelines also published by the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology (SIOP’s Principles for the Validation and Use of
Personnel Selection Procedures)
III. Data-driven Criteria for Choosing Selection Procedures: Reliability, Validity, and Utility: A
data-driven approach can result in more legally compliant selection procedures and more
predictive ones as well.
A. Ensuring the Quality of Selection Measures: Reliability and Validity
i. Psychometrics: science used to estimate the quality of the measures used in
personnel selection
ii. Reliability: consistency of measurement
iii. Validity: how accurately something is measured
a. Content validity: an approach to test development, focused on
sampling the domain
a. Typically done via job analysis and SME input
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
of view
b. Can be thought of as overarching the entire concept of validity
d. Validity best conceptualized as a single, unitary concept
e. Table 7.1 Summary of Different Validation Strategies
iv. Analytics: Showing the Importance of Validity in Hiring Decisions
a. One of the most important key metrics used in HR decision making
v. Do organizations have to do their own validity research?
a. Validity generalization: the assumption that selection procedures that
have been validated for similar jobs in similar organizations can be
B. Selection Utility
i. Utility: the degree to which selection procedures are worth the time and money
to carry them out
IV. Strategically Choosing and Combining Selection Procedures
A. Hypothetical situation: a company with 10 tests that are all valid predictors of job
performance
i. Administering all 10 tests is impractical.
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
V. Selection Procedures: the advantages and disadvantages of a wide range of selection
procedures based on the research
A. Interviews
i. Most commonly used selection procedure
iii. Structured interviews: interviews where all job applicants are asked the same,
job-related questions
a. Good predictive validity in making hiring decisions
b. Situational interview: job applicants are asked what they would do in a
hypothetical work-related situation
a. Suggested to measure cognitive ability and job knowledge
B. Personality Tests
i. Five Factor Model (FFM) or the “Big Five”: Personality is related to a number of
work performance dimensions.
a. OCEAN: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and neuroticism
C. Integrity Tests
i. Used to screen out applicants highest at risk for negative behaviors such as
stealing or counterproductive or antisocial behaviors at work
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
iv. Provide sufficient validity, can pass legal muster, and exhibit relatively low
adverse impact
D. Cognitive Ability Tests: an assessment of the ability to perceive, process, evaluate,
compare, create, understand, manipulate, or generally think about information and
ideas
i. Positive: one of the best predictors of job performance across a range of job
types, low cost, thus high utility
a. Personality variable versus cognitive ability
E. Work Samples, Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs), and Assessment Centers
i. Work sample: sample or example of the work produced by the applicant
a. Example: JetBlue Airways and a call simulation test
b. Positives: good validity, good content validity, applicants see as fair
c. Drawback: more expensive and time consuming
F. Biographical Data and Related Data Collection Methods
i. Training and experience forms
ii. Biographical data (biodata): used with the assumption that past behavior is the
best predictor of future behavior
G. Résumés
i. No set standard of format and varying levels of applicant skill
Bauer, Human Resource Management
SAGE Publishing, 2020
ii. Background checks for high-security jobs
a. “Ban the box” laws
I. Physical Ability Tests
i. Often used for physically demanding jobs
VI. Emerging Issues in Selection
A. The Use of Social Media in the Recruitment Process
i. Inconsistent information
VII. Applicant Reactions to Selection Methods and Procedures: Though most selection research
and analysis has focused on the employer’s perspective, there is a growing interest in the
job applicant perspective.
A. Applicant Perception of the Hiring Process
i. Affects important outcomes
a. Example Virgin Media and the cost of negative interviews
B. Examination of applicant desires in a selection system
i. Fair treatment