CHAPTER 7: GENERAL PRACTICES IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

     Personnel management's critical function is making decisions about assigning individuals to specific jobs or positions or a bout training individuals for specific jobs. This function is "matching" individuals to jobs, considering on the one hand the actual or potential qualifications of individuals and on the other hand the requirements of jobs.

TYPES OF PERSONNEL ACTIONS

     Personnel selection refers to choosing, from a number of available candidates, who are to be employed.

• Placement - focuses on choosing from a number of possible jobs the one presumable best suited to a given candidate.
• Classification - applies to a situation in which there is a pool of individuals and a pool of jobs and refers to the assignment of the individuals to the jobs in order to optimize, collectively, the matches between the two.
• Promotions - advancement of individuals to higher-level jobs.

PERSONNEL SPECIFICATIONS

     The objective of setting up personnel specifications is to state those items of personal data that are "valid" for selecting individuals for the job.

 TWO CLASSES:

1. Specifications that are reasonably intrinsic to the job (aptitudes and sensory and physical abilities)
2. Other specific requirements associated with labor market conditions

TYPES:

1. Work experience
2. Education
3. Training
4. Biographical data
5. Physical data
6. Information on various abilities, personality, interests, and other characteristics

SPECIFICATIONS FOR TRAINED VS UNTRAINED PERSONNEL

     Trained personnel's focus of specifications is on the nature, length, and quality of any relevant training, education, or experience required for the job. On the other hand, untrained personnel's focus of specifications is on those qualities presumed to reflect their potentialities for the job.

SOURCES OF RELEVANT PERSONNEL DATA

1. Personnel tests and inventories
2. Application forms and other personal data questionnaires
3. Physical examinations
4. Interviews
5. Letters of reference

TYPES OF RELIABILITY COEFFICIENTS

1. Coefficient of Stability - based on the use of the same type of measurement instrument administered at two points in time to a sample of people, the results of these two administrations usually being correlated.
2. Coefficient of Equivalence - based on data from two samples of the "universe" of the behaviors or events being measured.
3. Coefficient of Internal Consistency - various parts or items of a test of some behavior or attribute all should measure essentially the same thing.

VALIDITY

     Validity is the appropriateness of inferences from test scores or other forms of assessment.

TYPES:

1. Criterion Related Validity - determined by comparing test scores with one or more independent criteria.
2. Construct Validity - evaluated by investigating what psychological qualities a test measures.
3. Content Validity - applies to various types of achievement tests, job knowledge tests or job performance tests
4. Job Component Validity - predicated on the assumption that the human requirements of any given job activity or "component" would be comparable in any job in which that activity or component occurred in equal degree.

     In personnel selection, the most approved validity is criterion-related validity.

JOB STATUS METHOD OF TEST VALIDATION

     When this method is used, the test scores of employees on each of two or several jobs are compared to ascertain whether there are significant differences.

FACTORS DETERMINING THE FUNCTIONAL VALUE OF PERSONNEL TESTS

1. Reliability
2. Validity
3. Percentage of present employees who are "satisfactory" on the job

CHAPTER 6: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE (Topic Facilitation Summary)

     People work for many reasons, and to understand this, we must know why people are motivated to work.

     Motivation is the individual's desire to show the behavior and might be thought of as the "will do" factors influencing the display of work-related behaviors. Work motivation is define as the conditions which influence the arousal, direction, and maintenance of behaviors relevant in work settings.

     There are four problems facing the understanding of behavior:

1. Diversity of reasons
2. Stereotypes

• internal state (motivation as a personal trait)
• external state (conditions of the work environment and the job)

     3.  Different reasons for behaviors at different times

     4.  Different behaviors in the work setting that are of interest

THEORIES OF WORK MOTIVATION

1. Need Theories

• Need Hierarchy Theory (Maslow) - as lower needs were satisfied, the individual shifted his or her concern to higher order needs.

          *Physiological Needs (basic needs)

          *Safety Needs (protection)

          *Social Needs (needs for belonging)

          *Ego Needs (self-esteem)

          *Self-Actualization (need for realizing one's own potentialities)

• ERG Theory (Alderfer) - more than one need may operate at one time and satisfaction of a need may or may not lead to a progression to the next higher need.

          *Existence Needs (physical existence)

          *Relatedness Needs (interpersonal needs)

          *Growth Needs (needs for personal development and improvement)

• Need for Achievement (McClelland and Atkinson) - addressed achievement-oriented activity.  This is influenced by the result of a conflict between two opposing tendencies, the tendency to achieve success (n-Ach) and the tendency to avoid failure (n-AF).

2. Balance Theories

• Equity Theory (J. Stacy Adams) - if a comparison is equitable, no tension exists; the individual is satisfied and should have little desire to change the outcome/input ratio. Inequity creates tension and, with it, a desire by the individual to reduce the tension by altering one or more elements of the ratios to bring the comparison back to equality. Examples of inequality are underpayment and overpayment.
• Consistency Theory (Korman)

        *Balance Notion (states that individuals will engage in and find satisfying those behaviors which  maximize their sense of cognitive balance or consistency. They will be motivated to perform in a manner consistent with their self-image).

          *Consistency Notion (predicts that high self-esteem people tend to perform better than those with low self-esteem which prefer to behave in a manner consistent with their low self-image).

3. Two-Factor Theory (Herzberg) - proposed a theory of job satisfaction. Motivator factors that are associated with high job attitudes and Hygiene factors that are associated with low job attitudes.

4. Behavior Modification (Skinner) - behavior is controlled by its consequences. The consequences of interest are reinforcers (anything that follows a behavior and influences the probability that behavior will be repeated in the future).

5. Expectancy Theory (Vroom) - based upon a rational-economic view of people. It is assumed that people are decision makers who choose among alternative courses of actions by selecting the action that appears most advantageous.

6. Intrinsic Motivation (Deci)

• White's Notion of Competence Motivation - assumes that in performance settings, people are motivated to do well in order to experience a sense of competence.
• Notion of Personal Causation - assumes that people need to feel responsible for their own actions. Responsibility for action is the freedom to choose among alternative courses of action.

LEVELS OF CONSIDERATION FOR WORK BEHAVIOR

1. Motivational Theories of Work Behavior
2. General Practices for Influencing Behavior in Organization

• Goal Setting - goals provide as a basis for motivation and they guide behaviors
• Participatory Decision Making - employees who participate in making decisions will be more committed to their decisions and will work harder to accomplish them
• Incentive Systems - items given to individuals that are designed to influence future behavior
• Job Design

     3. Specific Practices (MBO, Pay Schedules, Leadership Styles)

CHAPTER 5: BEHAVIORAL MEASUREMENT: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

     There are six classes of criteria that need to be considered in measuring the job-related behavior. The following are:

1. Performance Criteria - this is concern in the job performance that has two dimension: Quantity dimension, based on the number of "units" produced; Quality dimension which is difficult to measure because of the human error that is typical to happen.
2. Job Attendance Criteria - this is measured in three aspects, job tenure (how long people remain on their jobs), absenteeism, and tardiness.
3. Accident and Injury Criteria - it is used if it is concerned with matters of safety.
4. Physiological Criteria - used in studying the effects of environmental variables, physical work load, work periods, methods of work, and so forth.
5. Status Criteria - refers to individual's occupation, education, or position.
6. Subjective Criteria - examples of this are the opinions obtained by questionnaires, attitudes, and ratings of jobs.

     In selecting criteria, three considerations must be taken, the relevance (objectives for which measures are derived), the freedom from contamination (individual differences), and reliability (stability or consistency). There are certain problems in obtaining criterion, one of these is keeping it confidential.

     Criterion Dimensions can be multiple, but it must be used independently and should not be combined.