Using Personality Testing for Personnel Selection: Faking and Test-Taking Inductions

This research assessed whether warning subjects that faked responses could be detected would reduce the amount of faking that might occur when using a personality test for selection of police officers. Also, personality test subscales which best differentiated honest from dissimulated responses were determined. Subjects (N=120) were randomly assigned to a straight-take (that is, respond honestly), fake good, or modified fake good group. Both fake good groups were instructed to respond to the test so as to appear favourably for the job; additionally, the modified fake good group was warned that faking could be detected and could reduce hiring chances. Multivariate analyses revealed significant differences on the Denial and Deviation subscales between the three conditions (p <0.01). The pattern of differences suggested that the threat of faking detection reduced faking. Potential application of these findings in personnel selection was discussed.     

The Effects of Social Desirability and Faking on Personality and Integrity Assessment for Personnel Selection

A review of the extant literature and new empirical research suggests that social desirability is not much of a concern in personality and integrity testing for personnel selection. In particular, based on meta-analytically derived evidence, it appears that social desirability influences do not destroy the convergent and discriminant validity of the Big Five dimensions of personality (Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). We also present new empirical evidence regarding gender and age differences in socially desirable re- sponding. Although social desirability predicts a number of important work variables such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and supervisor ratings of training success, social desirability does not seem to be a predictor of overall job performance and is only very weakly related to specific dimensions of job performance such as technical proficiency (r = -.07) and personal discipline ( r = .05). Large sample investigations of the moderating influences of social desirability in actual work settings indicate that social desirability does not moderate the criterion-related validities of personality variables or integrity tests. The criterion-related validity of integrity tests for overall job performance with applicant samples in predictive studies is .41. Controlling for social desirability in integrity or personality test scores leaves the operational validities intact, thereby suggesting that social desirability functions neither as a mediator nor as a suppressor variable in personality-performance.     

Integrity Testing, Personality, and Design: Interpreting the Personnel Reaction Blank

Companies and organizations use integrity tests to screen job applicants, and the fakability of these tests remains a concern. The present study uses two separate designs to analyze the fakability of the Personnel Reaction Blank (PRB) and the personality constructs related to integrity test scores. The results demonstrate that the PRB can be successfully faked. Moreover, a within-participants design resulted in significantly greater faking than the between-participants design. The personality constructs conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism were significantly correlated with honest scores on the PRB, and there was a significant negative correlation between conscientiousness and magnitude of faking.

Personality Testing in Personnel Selection: Adverse impact and differential hiring rates

Personality tests are often used in selection and have demonstrated predictive validity across a variety of occupational groups and performance criteria. Although different selection decision methods can be used to make selection decisions (e.g., compensatory top down, compensatory with sliding bands, noncompensatory) from personality test results, there is a paucity of research addressing the influence of these different selection decision methods on issues such as, adverse impact and differential hiring rates. This gap in the literature is redressed in the current study. Results from 398 bus operator candidates indicated that there may be adverse impact and differential hiring rate issues depending on the selection decision method used and the designated group being assessed. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Hope in Personnel Selection

This study examined the potential role of hope as a personality trait in performance in personnel selection batteries. We hypothesized that hope would be associated with overall success in the selection process, mediated by coping. One hundred twenty job applicants who went through a full day of individual psychological assessment also filled out measures of hope and coping style. Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for a partial mediation model, with problem‐solving‐oriented coping mediating the association between hope and the psychologists’ general recommendation based on various psychological measures (though hope and coping were not included in the psychologists’ considerations). The model remained significant after controlling for general mental ability, personality, interview, and group simulation measures used in the assessment. The potential implications and limitations of the study are discussed in light of existing research on hope and performance.     

人事筛选和挑选决策策略的比较

本研究采用了多特征决策研究中的过程追踪技术,对人事筛选和挑选决策的策略进行了单步跳转和多步跳转分析与比较。结果发现,在人事挑选时,被试更多采用基于方案的补偿性策略,并以有关合适人选的心理映像为标准做出决策;而筛选时更多采用基于特征的非补偿策略以减少认知负荷,同时,以方案间比较为目的的补偿性策略也更多使用。这些策略变化体现了决策者的认知适应性。     

人员选拔研究的新进展

本文在大量的文献基础上,从三个方面介绍了近十余年来人员选拔的新进展：预测源内容和过程研究、新兴选拔模式和内容研究、选拔有效性研究。从中可以看到人员选拔的以下几个特点：①在选拔模式和内容上．人员选拔突破了传统的框架;②选拔有效性原因研究受到重视;⑧团队成员选拔,跨文化选拔成为选拔研究的新热点．并获得了有价值的研究成果。     

人员选择决策中的效用分析

组织为选择适当的人员加入组织,必然运用一定的人员选择方法。某一人员选择方法是否有效?国外心理学家们展开了大量的研究,提出了种种分析效用的模型,并且基本形成了几个具有不同研究重点的发展阶段。该文在对国外心理学家这方面的大量研究进行概括整理基础上,重点介绍了不同研究阶段具有代表性的效用分析模式。     

Reasons for Being Selective When Choosing Personnel Selection Procedures

The scientist–practitioner gap in personnel selection is large. Thus, it is important to gain a better understanding of the reasons that make organizations use or not use certain selection procedures. Based on institutional theory, we predicted that six variables should determine the use of selection procedures: the procedures' diffusion in the field, legal problems associated with the procedures, applicant reactions to the procedures, their usefulness for organizational self‐promotion, their predictive validity, and the costs involved. To test these predictions, 506 HR professionals from the German‐speaking part of Switzerland filled out an online survey on the selection procedures used in their organizations. Respondents also evaluated five procedures (semi‐structured interviews, ability tests, personality tests, assessment centers, and graphology) on the six predictor variables. Multilevel logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the highest odd ratios belonged to the factors applicant reactions, costs, and diffusion. Lower (but significant) odds ratios belonged to the factors predictive validity, organizational self‐promotion, and perceived legality.     

Current Directions in Personnel Selection Research

Abstract— For many decades, the focus of personnel selection research was on developing selection tests that maximized prediction of job performance; the approach was typically lacking in theoretical bases. The past two decades saw significant shifts in research to a focus on the nature of constructs and their interrelationships, characterized by an approach that emphasizes theoretical understanding of the phenomena under investigation. This article provides an overview of how a construct-oriented approach underlies major current directions in scientific research on personnel selection. Emerging trends that are likely to constitute issues of enduring importance are discussed.     

A Position Statement by the International Graphonomics Society on the Use of Graphology in Personnel Selection Testing

Among the various tests employed in personnel selection, handwriting analysis, or graphology, has enjoyed long-standing international popularity despite being highly contentious. This report contains not only an evaluation of the current published scientific reviews on the use of graphology in personnel selection, but also an evaluation of several additional studies graphologists provided that seemed to have been overlooked. The latter were obtained by contacting nine of the foremost institutes offering graphological training, consulting services, or both to ensure that the graphologists themselves would be fairly represented. Even with this additional information we found no reason to counter conclusions the scientific community has reached, namely that (a) the continued use of graphology in personnel selection could prove harmful to many individuals and firms, and (b) it fails to approach the level of criterion validity of other widely available and less expensive screening devices used for personnel selection. This article ends with a position statement about this matter, which the International Graphonomics Society1 endorsed.     

基于DS/AHP的人员选拔方法

该研究针对人员选拔方式以选拔人员的主观判断为基础的特点,介绍一种解决不确定型多属性决策问题的DS/AHP方法。据此构造人员选拔的数学模型,对人员选拔信息进行分解与合成,将非确定性的主观评价转化为对定量指标的评价,在不同程度上得到候选人员所处的各种区间范围。实证分析表明,该方法可以对人员选拔信息进行合理的分解与融合,并且能够有效地处理人员选拔过程中的模糊性与不确定性。     

Validating Personnel Selection: A Process Model for Research and Practice

This article highlights the need for a clearer conceptual appreciation of the relationships among and between predictors and criteria, and for a better understanding of measurement issues in selection. A process model of selection is outlined that includes recent research on the changing relationships of ability to performance at different stages of skill acquisition, the interaction between type of task and validity, the role of motivational constructs in the measurement and validation process, and the reciprocally interacting influences of work experience and individual characteristics. Comment is offered on issues such as general versus specific abilities, the ‘big five’in personality, aptitude by treatment or training interactions and maximal versus typical performance. Measurement issues are discussed throughout, but particularly in relation to the assessment process.