A SIMPLIFIED APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF FAIRNESS IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCEDURES

Employers who defend the use of selection tests by a criterion-related validity analysis are required by the Federal Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures to conduct studies on "unfairness" when technically feasible. While application of the classical Cleary model totally satisfies the guideline definition of unfairness, difficulties arise when practitioners need to explain the mathematical procedures to attorneys, judges, and others without statistical backgrounds. These difficulties can be minimized or avoided by utilizing the simplified procedures demonstrated.     

THE EFFECTS OF ITEM CONTEXT IN FAKING PERSONNEL SELECTION INVENTORIES1

Little is known about the fakability of empirically developed measures when such measures are removed from their original instrument or battery for use in selection decisions. A research design was created that experimentally induced motivation similar to that in employment settings. Experimental group subjects were randomly assigned to two conditions. One condition required S's to complete the entire Strong Vocational Interest Blank while the other condition required subjects to complete only those items which are scored on the psychologist's scale. When results of the two conditions were compared for the “motivated” subjects, those presented with the psychologist scale items only obtained significantly higher scale scores than those who completed the entire SVIB. Although additional research on other instruments should be conducted, these results indicate caution in the practice of retaining only the valid scale items for instruments used in employment settings. While maintaining the original context does not totally eliminate the problem of response distortion it makes the problem much less pronounced.     

EXPANDING THE CONTEXT OF UTILITY: THE STRATEGIC IMPACT OF PERSONNEL SELECTION

Others have demonstrated that traditional applications of the Brogden-Cronbach-Gleser (BCG) selection utility formula are deficient in responding to the financial context of managerial decisions (Boudreau, 1983a, 1983b; Cronshaw & Alexander, 1985, 1991). We demonstrate that traditional estimates of selection utility also fail to reflect the strategic context faced by managerial decision makers. We modify the traditional BCG model to yield an estimate of total utility derived from human resources ( U_total ) that can be directly compared to firms' strategic need at a particular point in time ( U^target )-Further, we demonstrate that, while strategic need is rarely constant over time, the capacity of a selection system to meet that need is also likely to change as r_xy and SD_y change over time. Re-examination of what is important to strategic human resource decision makers (selection utility vs. total utility and strategic need) and changing selection system contributions over time yields a more realistic view of how firms benefit from personnel selection.     

APPLICANT AGE AND SELECTION INTERVIEW DECISIONS: EFFECT OF INFORMATION EXPOSURE ON AGE DISCRIMINATION IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

Two research questions pertaining to the applicant age bias effect were addressed in this study: the effect of age-related information exposure on selection decisions and the issue of between-sample generalizability with reference to the age bias effect. Manager and student selectors made selection decisions after viewing one videotape of a simulated selection interview of either an old or a young job applicant. Before viewing the interview tape, half of each subject group was given an item of age-related information and the other half was given neutral information. The results showed that, under the neutral information condition, managers preferred hiring the young applicant for the low-status job, and students favored the old candidate for the high-status position. Under the age-related information condition, managers shifted to favoring the old candidate for the low-status job, and students preferred the young applicant for both the low- and high-status positions. Age discrimination in selection decisions and the lack of external validity of student results in selection research are then discussed.     

A WARNING REGARDING THE SIMPLIFIED APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF TEST FAIRNESS IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCEDURES

In evaluating the fairness of personnel selection tests, the Ceary model (Cleary, 1968) is the most widely used and accepted method. Recently, a simplified approach to applying the Cleary model has been recommended (Lawshe, 1983; Reynolds, 1980, 1982). Analysis of this new method revealed that under certain circumstances it can produce misleading results. Recommendations were made for avoiding this problem.     

SOCIAL COMMUNICATIVE ANXIETY AND THE PERSONNEL SELECTION PROCESS: TESTING THE SIMILARITY EFFECT IN SELECTION DECISIONS

Three studies tested competing predictions about the role of similarity in personnel selection decisions. Previous research suggests a significant role for applicant-selector similarity in the determination of selection decisions. Applicants who are similar to selectors are evaluated, by selectors, more positively than dissimilar applicants. The current investigations found that when the object of similarity is the applicant's and selector's level of anxiety, this relationship fails to appear. Regardless of the selector's own level of anxiety, the high anxious applicant is less positively evaluated than the low anxious one. This effect appears even when the communication demands of the position are specified.     

VALIDITY AND FAIRNESS OF SOME ALTERNATIVE EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCEDURES1

Despite extensive evidence that tests are valid for employee selection, Federal Guidelines have urged employers to seek alternative selection procedures that are equally valid but have less adverse impact on minorities. Research on the validity, adverse impact and fairness of eight categories of alternatives was reviewed. Feasibility of operational use of each type of alternative in an employment setting was also discussed. Only biodata and peer evaluation were supported as having validities substantially equal to those for standardized tests. Previous reviews and more recent research indicated that interviews, self-assessments, reference checks, academic achievement, expert judgment and projective techniques had levels of validity generally below those reported for tests. Data, where available, offered no clear indication that any of the alternatives met the criterion of having equal validity with less adverse impact. Results are discussed and several additional promising alternatives are described.     

SOME NEW FRONTIERS IN PERSONNEL SELECTION RESEARCH

Current research developments in several areas of personnel selection methodology are reviewed. The areas reviewed represent attempts to develop alternatives to traditional paper-and-pencil methods of test development. These areas include computer-interactive tests in the employment situation, new ways of using life-history information, the use of physical tests in selecting individuals for physically demanding jobs, and the development of job-related medical standards for job assignment.     

MODELING THE EFFECTS OF BANDING IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

Selection outcomes under banding are affected by characteristics of the selection system and the applicant pool. This study examined the effects of eight parameters on the proportions hired from higher- and lower-scoring groups: (a) selection ratio; (b) reliability; (b) fixed vs. sliding bands; (d) top-down vs. random within-band selection; (e) preferential vs. nonpreferential selection; (f) mean differences; (g) standard deviation differences; and (h) proportion of applicants from the lower-scoring group. Simulation results were analyzed in a fully-crossed eight-way ANOVA. Higher-order interactions among selection system and applicant pool characteristics had virtually no effect on selection outcomes; the proportion of the applicant pool from the lower-scoring group accounted for nearly half the variance in out-comes. Other important effects are, in order, the effects of standard deviation differences, mean differences, preferential hiring, and the selection ratio. Applicant pool characteristics have considerably more influence on selection outcomes than do selection system characteristics.     

THE IMPACT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING ON EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONNEL SELECTION IN AFRICA

Psychological testing for Education and Personnel selection is of great importance in the efforts by many African countries to ensure that suitable candidates are selected for education beyond the primary school level and for training for different employment. Major investigations directed to this need have been in the area of adapting tests already available in Western countries and determining the reliability and predictive validity of battery of tests so adapted and their tryout in African schools to determine their efficiency as tools for selection.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF DISCIPLINARY DECISIONS: THE CASE OF EMPLOYEE DRUG USE

This study examined the disciplinary decision rules that managers employ when responding to substance abuse violations. We suggested that because of competing perspectives about the role and purpose of disciplinary systems, substantial inconsistency is likely to exist across managers in how they respond to violations. Using policy capturing techniques, we found substantial diversity across the 93 managers studied in how they respond to violations. Further, cluster analysis indicated that we could group the 93 managers into retributive, corrective, individual rights, and mixed clusters. The results also suggest that the type of decision rule that a manager employs is influenced by his/her attitude toward punishment and toward drug use. The implications of these findings for disciplinary programs in general and substance abuse policies in particular are discussed as well.     

MICROCOMPUTER USAGE AS AN OPPORTUNITY: THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT IN EMPLOYEE TRAINING

This study presents a test of the influence of social context on training outcomes. Specifically, the effects of labeling microcomputer usage as an opportunity were examined on computer anxiety, computer efficacy beliefs, and learning. Nonacademic university employees enrolled in an introductory microcomputer training class were assigned to a session in which microcomputer usage was randomly established as an opportunity or neutral. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 ( N = 84) identified the issue characteristics of opportunities and threats as a basis to establish context. Study 2 (N = 79) reported the results of the training. Results indicated that, after controlling for pretraining expectations about microcomputer usage, trainees in the opportunity condition exhibited higher computer efficacy and learning, as well as lower computer anxiety, than trainees in the neutral condition. These findings suggest that labeling the context can be a relatively powerful training intervention. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

FURTHER WITHIN-SETTING EMPIRICAL TESTS OF THE SITUATIONAL SPECIFICITY HYPOTHESIS IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

The situational specificity hypothesis in personnel selection holds that variation in observed validity coefficients across studies for the same test and job is due to subtle variations from setting to setting in what constitutes job performance. This hypothesis therefore predicts that, if the setting does not vary, validity will not vary. Using data from a single large-sample validity study ( N = 1,455), this research generated numerous small-sample studies for which the setting (organization, job, test, criterion measure, applicant pool, time period, and sample size) was held constant. It was found that even under these circumstances there was substantial variability across studies in (a) observed validity coefficients, (b) significance levels, and (c) (using traditional data analytic methods) conclusions about the presence or absence of validity. These findings disconfirm the situational specificity hypothesis and argue strongly against traditional data-analytic procedures and the practice of reliance on single small-sample studies. In contrast to the erroneous conclusions produced by traditional data-analytic procedures, meta-analytic methods correctly estimated the population observed validity at .22 and correctly indicated that all between-study variance in observed validities was due to sampling error alone.     

A WITHIN SETTING EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE SITUATIONAL SPECIFICITY HYPOTHESIS IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

The situational specificity hypothesis of selection procedure validity makes two predictions. The first is that variation in observed validities across settings is caused by real differences in what constitutes job performance. Validity generalization studies to date have provided disconfirming evidence for this prediction by showing that the observed variation is due to statistical and measurement artifacts. The second prediction is that if the situation (i.e., the organization, the setting, the job, the test and the criterion) is held constant, then validity findings will not vary from study to study. This article tests this prediction empirically using data from a unique series of studies reported by Bender and Loveless (1958). The results are contrary to the situational specificity hypothesis and consistent with the hypothesis that variation in observed validities is due to statistical and measurement artifacts that are unrelated to situations and settings. It is concluded that both major predictions of the situational specificity hypothesis have now been empirically disconfirmed.     

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION IN AN ECCLESIOLOGICAL CONTEXT

This paper will seek to explore some of the implications of the new evangelization from an ecclesiological perspective. A key question is, what is an appropriate ecclesiological context for the new evangelization? Any conclusions or recommendations about how to respond and contextualize the new evangelization need to be grounded in an appropriate ecclesiology; one that sits well with contemporary Catholic scholarship, especially in light of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Following Dulles, no single approach to ecclesiology can fully explain the complex nature of the Church. Taking the ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium as a departure point a number of perspectives will be addressed, but an argument will be made for understanding the new evangelization within an ecclesiology of communion and of discipleship.     

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE USE OF MEASURES OF HONESTY INTEGRITY, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, DEPENDABILITY TRUSTWORTHINESS, AND RELIABILITY FOR PERSONNEL SELECTION

This paper is the fourth in a series of reviews of the use of measures of honesty, integrity, conscientiousness, dependability, trustworthiness, and reliability for personnel selection (see Sackett & Decker, 1979; Sackett & Harris, 1984; Sackett, Burris, & Callahan, 1989). New developments reviewed include an examination of professional and congressional inquiry into this area of testing, rapid growth of the validity data base, new insight into similarities and differences between different tests, and links to the Big Five personality dimensions. Inquiries into relationships with other constructs, including cognitive ability, moral reasoning, and social desirability are reviewed, as are applicant reactions to these tests. The effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the Americans with Disabilities Act are considered.