Question:
Discuss about the Job Analysis Recruitment and Selection.
The spread of globalisation has greatly affected the competition between business organisations. Processes and operations can now be easily replicated using reverse engineering and it has become very difficult for business organisations to attain market competencies. In such a scenario, business organisations are highly relying upon their human resources to help them achieve an advantage over their competitors.
A talented pool of human resources, which is committed to their jobs and their organisations, can prove to be a great plus and the need to recruit the right people for the right type of job has also increased. Thus, business organisations are using all the strategies that they can to strengthen their recruitment process and hire the best candidates available in the market. To achieve this, business organisations design recruitment processes that can include a number of tests, such as personality test, aptitude test, psychometric test, ability tests, psychological tests, etc. All these tests are aimed at assessing the ability of a candidate to adjust in the workplace environment that the company has to offer and also to predict his or her performance is he or she is recruited to work at a particular job position.
Most of the business organisations follow traditional models of personality and ability assessment, such as the big five personality traits, Myer-Brigg’s type indicator, Personality inventory model, etc. but some research in the field have concluded that these tests have become obsolete and there are that the business organisations should modify these tests to a certain degree to solve a greater purpose. In this report, a detailed account of the past research has been reviewed to understand the importance that personality assessments and ability tests can have on the hiring process and their credibility in predicting the performance of a candidate. Further, relying upon the literature reviews, certain ethical issues related to personality assessment and ability testing have also been discussed.
A personality of a person is defined a set of characteristics, though process, thinking pattern, etc. that governs his or her behaviour in a social setup. The personality traits of an individual can be greatly helpful in predicting his or behaviour in the future and how he or she might perform in a particular job role under a given set of conditions (Huang, et al., 2014). As a result, the personality traits of an individual can be really helpful to recruiters in different industries in making the right selection choice so that they can hire the right candidate for the right job and can avoid situations of high employee turnover. Therefore, recruiters and selectors in the business world have been relying upon personality traits as a great predictor of performance of an individual. According to Philip E. Vernon, the process of assessing the personality traits of an individual, in order to predict his or her suitability for a job, is known as personality assessment (Vernon, 2014).
Personality assessment tests have been used as one of the most important tests during recruitment and selection processes to predict the performance and suitability of a candidate in a particular job role. There have been a number of personality assessment tests that have been used in the past, such as the big five personality traits, Myer-Brigg’s type indicator, personality inventory, etc. and all of them have their own unique method of judging the personality traits of an individual. Due to the rapidly changing environment, there are new researches being conducted every day and new ideas have been evolving regarding the use of personality assessment as a key performance indicator.
In a recent research carried out by William Fleeson and Eranda Jayawickreme, it was concluded that the people, who carry out research in the field of personality or are using personality assessments in the hiring process, should modify the existing models and should include a mechanism of differential reactions to situations in the all the models that they use. They also stressed upon the Whole Trait Model and its effectiveness in helping recruiters in assessing the personality trait of an induvial even more accurately (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015). The crux of their work was divided into five main points i.e. 1) the descriptive side of the traits should be conceptualised as density distributions of states 2) whenever using the big five traits for personality assessment, an explanatory account should be provided for it 3) the whole traits can then be prepared by joining the two parts formed out of the big five traits – the descriptive part and the explanatory part 4) the whole trait theory ultimately proposes that the explanatory part of the traits identified in the big five are comprised of social cognitive mechanisms and 5) the social cognitive mechanism that are the attributes of the big five personality traits should then be identified to maximise the efficiency of personality assessments.
Even though a number of organisations have been relying upon the personality assessment tests from the past, such as the Myer-Brigg and the big five personality traits, the changing business environment and the new trends in the field of human resource management have been making them outdates and ineffective. According to Barbara Ehrenreich (2006), a number of tests, even the Myer-Briggs test, have no scientific credibility or predictive value. Further, Anny Murphy (2005) wrote in her book that using Myer-Briggs test to assess the personality of an individual at different point of time can render different results altogether.
Brent W. Roberts (2009) in his paper, performed an efficient research on the personality assessment and personality development concepts. He used a number of resources from the past to find out whether personality tests can actually have an impact on the performance levels of an individual or if they can actually be used to predict the performance levels of an individual. In his paper, Brent W. Roberts talks about the work done by Mischel (1968) in personality and assessment and how the personality traits were criticised. Mischel (1968) basically used four key points to develop a negative view point towards the usage of personality traits as a mean to determine the performance of an individual in a particular job role. These four points are listed below:
A number of future researches proved that the first three arguments made in personality and assessment (1968) were not valid while the credibility of the fourth argument paved the way for future researches in the field of personality and assessment. In conclusion, Brent W. Roberts took a different way to define personality assessment or personality traits. He said that personality assessment should be used to identify personality traits, which are the relatively enduring patterns of though, feeling and behaviour that reflect the tendency of an individual to respond in a certain way under a given circumstance. Thus, the research clearly indicates that the personality assessment models being used in the past were never able to lay a stress on the effect of a situation on the personality traits shown by an individual.
Further, another research was conducted by John J. Donovan, Stephen A. Dwight and Dan Schneider (2013) to study the impact of applicants faking on selection measures on the hiring decisions and employee performance predictions (Donovan, et al., 2014). To conduct the study, the researchers took a sample of 162 candidates who had applied for a sales position in a pharmaceutical company. A self-report measure was obtained from each of the candidate before and after they had appeared for the selection process. Further, training performance data was also collected at the completion of their training program while the sales data was collected five months later. With such credible data at hand and in use, the researchers were able to find that applicant faking was a common occurrence and almost half of the candidates that had appeared in the selection process had faked on at least one of the dimension contained in the self-report measure. In the conclusion, it was also identified that applicant faking had a negative impact on the psychometric properties of the selection measure and on the hiring decisions. Further, it was also concluded that fakers exhibited lower levels of performance at the end as compared to the performance levels demonstrated by the applicants that did not fake.
From the information collected above, it can be believed to a certain extent that the pioneers of the subject and their theories have been helpful for the business organisations only up to a certain extent. The researches carried out in the past few years have been successful in redefining the process of personality assessment and the meaning of personality traits. It can be seen from the above information that the behaviour demonstrated by an individual, when going through a personality assessment test, can be influenced by the situation that he or she is put through. As a result, individuals are likely to demonstrate different personality traits and behavioural patterns when they are subjected to different situations. The researches being carried out in the past few years also raise an ethical issue in the field of personality assessment. As seen above, out of 162 candidates, more than half of the candidates have been found to demonstrate a fake behaviour that could make their selection easier and their act of faking their behaviour also had an impact on the decisions taken by the selectors. Therefore, an ethical question that rises after going through all these research models is, that under such circumstances and after such fruitful researches, is is ethical for the employers to continue with the personality assessment tests as they were designed by the pioneers of the subject, such as the Myer-Brigg type indicator, the big five personality traits, etc. If some candidates are able to demonstrate certain personality traits that they are not otherwise capable of, just in order to grab a job opportunity, while the other candidates are not able to pass the personality assessment tests due to a difference in the situations, no matter how capable they are, then it is unethical for the recruiters to use the personality assessment tests as an indicator of an induvial performance in the long run. Thus, the concept of applicant faking their behaviour and the impact of a situation on the personality traits demonstrated by an individual should definitely be taken into consideration in the future researches and better models to assess the personality of the candidates should be devices.
According to psychology and in a human resource management context, ability of a person is defined as the talents or skills that he possessed, which are necessary to perform a task or a duty (Nugent, 2013). A lot of times, skills, abilities and aptitudes are used interchangeably but all the three terms are distinct. Skills are used to define the things that a person has learned in the past. Abilities are used to defined the things that a person can do in the present while aptitude defines the things that a person is capable of doing in the future.
The need to recruit the right candidate for the right job and at the right point of time is haunting the recruiters throughout the world. Employers from all industries are eyeing upon the perfect talent suited for the vacant jobs as a right selection can help them in increasing employee retention rates and in increasing the overall performance of their companies. To increase the efficiency of the recruitment process, employers are using a number of ability test in the selection process to check the abilities of an individual in performing a certain kind of job. Some common types of tests covered in ability test are problem solving tests, mental ability, reasoning ability, general intelligence and so on.
According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015), more than 76% of the business organisation, that have a workforce in excess of 100 employees, rely upon aptitude and personality tests for external hiring. The figure is expected to climb up to 88% in the coming few years. The tests are not just used to assess the personality traits of the candidates belonging to the lower part of the hierarchy. The senior the role, more is the likelihood of the employers to use ability assessments to identify the skills possessed by a candidate. It has also been found that aptitude tests are used for 72% of the mid-managerial positions and 80% for the senior level positions whereas such tests are used for only 59% of the entry level position. According to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015), there are three main reasons for attributes and business organisations use ability tests to assess these attributes. These three attributes are emotional intelligence, competence and work ethics.
Another area of assessment, related with ability testing, is the cognitive ability test. According to David W. Arnold, cognitive ability tests are designed to measure attributes like induvial reason, problem solving capability, learning ability, abstract thinking, etc. in a candidate. According to him, employers throughout the world have used cognitive ability testing as a tool to predict the performance of a candidate in a particular job and these tests have been the best predictors of job performance. Using cognitive ability testing as an assessment tool has certain evidences from the past that have concluded its effectiveness in predicting the job performance of a candidate during recruitment. According to an article published in the Psychological Bulletin (1998), a research conducted by taking 19 different types of employee selection techniques, such as reference check, experience, cognitive ability testing, interviews, etc. into account, concluded that tests like the Wonderlic Classic Cognitive Ability Test, also known as WPT, have the highest validity and credibility when it comes to predicting the job performance of a candidate, as compared to another method (Arnold, n.d.).
Another research carried out by Peter A. Hausdorf, Manon Mireille LeBlanc and Anuradha Chawla (2003) points at an important issue that arises as a result of ability testing. The research says that an important issue that rises due to the impact of cognitive ability testing on the hiring process is that the minority loses a lot of jobs, while the majority is able to score more jobs. It has been found that there is a huge variation in the score of majority and minority groups when they take a cognitive ability test. For example, General Aptitude Test Battery, also known as GATB, is one of the most widely used ability test that helps in the measurement of a candidate’s cognitive ability. Even though the test has a high credibility in predicting the job performance of a candidate, it has found to have a differential prediction and adverse impact on the job performance of African Americans in the United States (Hausdorf, et al., 2003). As a result, to overcome the biasness that is related with the cognitive ability tests, researches have suggested the use of culture-fair tests for the minority groups which can strengthen the hiring process even more. The basic idea behind the usage of culture fair test is to remove the impact of differences in languages, literacy level and the value that is attached with the rapid performance between cultural groups by minimising the the emphasis on verbal tests, reading tests or language tests.
John E Hunter (1986) prepared another paper in which he studied hundreds of studies that had been conducted in the past that were aimed at studying the effect of a candidate’s ability on his job performance. In his study, he concluded that the abilities of a person can actually have an impact on his or her job performance. He also suggested that importance played by the abilities of a person in his or her day to day job activities (Hunter, 1986). After researching so many papers from the past, John E Hunter (1986) came to a conclusion that it is the general cognitive ability of a person that can predict his or her performance levels while working at a particular job position and not his or her specific cognitive aptitudes.
Cristina Bertua, Neil Anderson, Jesús F. Salgado (2005) conducted another research by taking a sample of 283. The primary objective of the study was to predict the validity of ability testing in predicting the job performance and training success of a candidate. The results found that general mental ability and specific abilities of a candidate are actually valid predictors of his or her performance on a job and training success. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that testing the abilities of a candidate during the hiring process can actually help recruiters in predicting his or her job performance in a particular job profile and the training success.
The ability assessment tests that are widely used by the recruiters in the contemporary business world also have certain ethical and legal issues associated with them. As studied above, the ability tests have been found to have different results for different sections of the society. In general, the minority groups have been found to have a lower score in ability testing as compared to the majority groups. Under the legal system, it is prohibited for any business organisation to show an act of biasness in the recruitment process. In certain ability testing techniques, business organisations are questioned whether they have been carrying out the recruitment process according to the legal guidelines or has there been an act of unintentional discrimination. Therefore, using ability tests, such as the physical ability tests is a question on the ethics of an organisation as it can cause unintentional discrimination between minority and majority groups, which can also be an invitation to legal trouble.
Conclusion
The research and findings discussed above were prepared by different scholars at different points of time using different samples and data collection techniques. In the first phase, we realise that personality assessments tests have lost their credibility and validity in predicting the job performance of an individual or his training success to a certain extent. The fresh research articles suggest that using the pre-designed personality assessment tests, such as the Myer-Brigg type indicator or the big five personality model, cannot predict the actual job performance level of an individual as the results of one model can differ when a same candidate is subjected to different situations at a different point of time. Further, it has also been found that some candidates can demonstrate fake personality traits when they are aware about the traits required for the job that they are being tested for. The act of faking can create an impact on the recruiters, who can make a hiring decision on the basis of the fake personality traits demonstrated by the candidates.
On the other hand, we have also been able to find that testing the abilities of an individual can actually help in predicting the job performance of a candidate and even his or her training success. Even though some scholars have pointed out the difference in ability test results for minority and majority groups, there are other scholars that have been able to eliminate the differences using efficient tools and techniques.
The recruitment and selection process can be designed differently by the employers from one industry to another. There can be a number of tests that the employers can include in the selection process but most of the present day employers are largely relying upon personality assessments as a mean to predict the suitability and job performance of a candidate. Therefore, it is important for employers and human resource managers to review their selection processes and include new testing techniques in their process because the business world has changed to a great extent and it is not possible to achieve success by using models that were designed decades ago. One of the best ways to strengthen the hiring decision and accurately predicting the job performance of all the candidates can be to assess their personality by subjecting them to a unique job related situation and combining the personality assessment results with certain ability testing techniques.
References
Vernon, P. E., 2014. Personality Assessment (Psychology Revivals): A Critical Survey. s.l.:Routledge.
Abou-Moghli, A., 2015. Recruitment and Selection and Their Effect in Achieving the Institutional Excellence. International Business Research , 8(3).
Huang, J., Ryan, A., Zabel, K. & Palmer, A., 2014. Personality and adaptive performance at work: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1).
Fleeson, W. & Jayawickreme, E., 2015. Whole Trait Theory. Journal of Research in Personality, June, Volume 56, pp. 82-92.
Roberts, B. W., n.d. Back to the Future: Personality and Assessment and Personality Development. 43(2), pp. 137-145.
Mischel, W., 1968. Personality and assessment. s.l.:s.n.
Donovan, J. J., Dwight, S. A. & Schneider, D., 2014. The Impact of Applicant Faking on Selection Measures, Hiring Decisions, and Employee Performance. Journal of Business and Psychology , September, 29(3), pp. 479-493.
Nugent, P. M., 2013. ABILITY. [Online] Available at: https://psychologydictionary.org/ability/[Accessed 7 October 2017].
Chamorro-Premuzic, T., 2015. Ace the Assessment. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2015/07/ace-the-assessment
Arnold, D. W., n.d. Cognitive Ability Testing. [Online] Available at: https://home.ubalt.edu/tmitch/645/articles/Cognitive%20AbilityTesting%20EF%20wonderlic.pdf[Accessed 7 October 2017].
Hausdorf, P. A., LeBlanc, M. M. & Chawla, A., 2003. Cognitive Ability Testing and Employment Selection: Does Test Content Relate to Adverse Impact?. Applied H.R.M. Research, 7(2), pp. 41-48.
Hunter, J. E., 1986. Cognitive ability, cognitive aptitudes, job knowledge, and job performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior , December.29(3).
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