Human Resource Selection - Personality Assessments and Selection Interviews - Literature review Example

Human Resource Selection Personality Assessments and Selection Interviews Introduction Societal dynamism has brought about new dispensation in every sphere of life including organization’s management which with stiff competition it has viewed its success on the scale of employee work performance (Gatewood et al. 2010). Human resource has proved to be a quintessential aspect in an organizations performance and success. The resources involved in an organization ought to be utilized effectively and efficiently in order to produce the targeted outcome and/or performance. To enhance the organization’s performance, it would be prudent for the human resource management docket to come up with a framework design that will embrace all the essential factors such as the humans, finance, machines and material. However more focus must be objectively be entailed in the humans who are perceived as the driving force in an organization. The role played by the humans being vital include such roles as experience, expertise, good decisions making and favorable competitive advantage embraced by employees and management as propounded by Mathis and Jackson (2011). To get a grip of what is required in this paper work, the responsibility of the line manager must be highlighted in which case it involves providing expertise on the technical dimensions which includes controlling the relevant resources attached to his docket such as appointing qualified staff (Kerzner 2009). Therefore to be able to capture the talented, skillful, knowledgeable and experienced staff for the job performance certain factors must be assessed by the line manager and which may include personality assessment which is a typical job performance predictors (Schmitt 2012) as well as the selection interview. With the above exposition, this paper will endeavor to examine the practicability of the above mentioned job performance predictors in line with the line manager’s mandate. Personality Assessment In order for the line manager to come up with a viable human resource, then it would be advisable to embrace employee selection mechanisms such as personality assessment. This will enable the organization to come up with the selection of a qualified workman force that is up to task and would facilitate excellent job performance. Selection must be understood to form a device that allows a good work force with motivational tendencies (Gatewood et al. 2010). Therefore to address the expectation of the organization the line manager must flow swiftly in identifying the potential candidate by use of the personality assessment tool which though is used probably at a later stage after the employee’s aptitudes or abilities have been identified (Tsui and Lai 2009). The selected employee must be qualified and competent in order to deliver. The recent popularity of this mode of selection with 75% of organization utilizing it has shown a positive result for it (Anderson). The essence of this tremendous growth can be attributed to its efficiency and thus it is defined by (Anderson) in the sense that it is “those thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, and action tendencies that contribute to important aspects of individuality.” According to Sarkar-Barney (2012), personality entails “the set of characteristics that cause individuals to respond in a consistent manner across situations.”To realize these aspects the line manager has to realign his questionnaires to reflect the above such that a good personality assessment and/or test is to conform to psychometric principles which will ultimately produce a formidable evidence of validity and value that aids the organization’s success (Tsui and Lai, 2009). The personality framework commonly used is that of the Big Five which is characterized by the five factors such as Openness to experience, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Agreeableness which have been found to be compatible across the board and utilized by across different cultures (Sarkar-Barney 2012). These five factors can be envisaged as seen in the following table. Table 1: Details on the Big Five (courtesy of Sarkar-Barney 2012): Factors Descriptors Behaviors predicted by the factors Openness to experience Unconventional, open to new ideas and experiences, enjoys thinking of new ideas, curious and imaginative Sale potential Sale effectiveness Conscientiousness Focus on thoroughness at work and attention to detail; a strict adherence to work ethics, following instructions, working hard and being loyal; as well as engaging in behaviors that leads one to be trusted by others. Counter-productive behavior Law abiding behavior Extraversion Active and energetic at work, talkative and asserting ones opinions, comfortable in social situations Customer service-orientation Agreeableness Cooperative and concerned of other’s welfare, helpful and trustworthy Customer service-orientation Neuroticism (also known as Emotional Stability) Taking a calm and relaxed approach to different situations, being emotionally controlled and demonstrating maturity in considering advice or criticisms. Customer service orientation Research indicates that tools of assessment proves to be of essence when utilizes effectively since it will be able to predict future performance (Tsui and Lai 2009) or rather to predict contextual performance as opposed to cognitive ability that deals with task performance (Sarkar-Barney 2012). Therefore according to Robert and Kinder (Tsui and Lai 2009) “when well-constructed personality questionnaires are used responsibly in a standardized process by properly trained and knowledgeable users” then the personality assessment tool can be of paramount importance in enhancing the organization’s recruitment and selection process. In order for the personality assessment to be a valuable tool for selection, the line manager ought not to propagate any form of poor standard questionnaires. The use of non-psychometric are relatively cheap but a long term detrimental effect will be envisaged therefore it will be prudent to put an halt to the exercise when no particular evidence of psychometric properties is present (Tsui and Lai 2009). There is need to always using well designed and properly executed personality questionnaire in the selection process since it has shown its significant predictive value to many organizations throughout the world. For instance research indicates individuals who are customer service oriented are perceived as being balanced in temper as well as resilient in character (Sarkar-Barney 2012). To realize this, line manager must be adequately informed and well acquainted with the various varying models, tools and theories which might pose challenges in it wide range of options. According to Tsui and Lai (2009) some of the Hong Kong finest personality questionnaires are; NEO personality Instrument, 16PF, Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-2), Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), Fifteen Factor Plus Questionnaire (15FQ+) and Hogan Assement among others. However note that some personality assessment questionnaires are not viable such as Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation (FIRO) and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which are not advisable for use in the recruitment and selection exercise since they are perceived to be applicable specifically as coaching tools (Tsui and Lai 2009). The line manager should not foment any form of controversy in his questionnaire such as those construed from question raised in the questionnaires as indicated in NEO-PI, CPI and MMPI which are seen as intrusive in their wording, for instance aspects such as the person’s attitude towards “morality of permissiveness” do not serve any meaningful purpose on the employee’s ability to perform the task (Tsui and Lai 2009). It is vital to appreciate the vast attributes and models available for the personality assessment exercise upon which the choice will highly depend on the choice preferred. Therefore the line manager should take into consideration whether the fundamental psychometric properties are present in any personality questionnaire. As a human resource professional, the line manager should also take into consideration matters such as motivational distortion or rather candidate manipulation when dealing with personality assessments. Studies have indicated that such are what portray problems in many organizations and therefore the line manager should be keen in selecting personality assessment that can be efficiently and effectively utilized from the methodology used in trying to control such problems. In doing so it is advisable that the employee’s response should be validated by way of a subsequent interview in a later stage (Tsui and Lai 2009). In utilizing this mode of selection method, the line manager must be aware of the pointers that provide a quality standard of assessment. Therefore the test should be subjected to the evaluation of reliability in the industry as would be proffered by the test-retest indicator. On this premise where the employee has undergone the initial test and subsequently subjected to the same test again and a different result is achieved then the test is unreliable (Tsui and Lai 2009). On the other hand the Validity of the exercise will play a very significant role in the sense that being in line with the test of reliability it might be found not to be valid for the specific role intended which for instance can be enunciated by resort to a computer aptitude test which though reliable in the first instance would not have validity when dealing with selection of insurance agents (Tsui and Lai 2009). Therefore in order for the organization to select employees who are qualified which are valid for the job specification then the test for validity must be facilitated. This can be done through the statistical mode of the exercise when employing personality questionnaire. In essence validity is perceived as the most dominant factor of a psychometric questionnaire therefore to obtain the most accurate interpretation of the score then the issue of norms must be enhanced. The line manger should therefore use or apply the norms which involves comparing similar employees or sampling employees of the same gender, age, experience, language and cultural background among others (Tsiu and Lai 2009). In doing so the use of past groups that applied should be utilized to represent the norm sample which can be done in the scale of one hundred plus candidates which is the minimum sample for a norm group (Tsui and Lai 2009). At this juncture it will be advisable that the line manager should be knowledgeable and well informed on the pertinent issues so as to be able to distill the controversies commonly associated with the aspect of norms. On issue on cultural and language the test should be typically framed professionally. Certain factors must be taken into consideration such as the test on language, background and culture. The candidate should be tested based on their own language (Tsui and Lai 2009). On the same breath the candidates should be afforded an objective and fair test which is based on equal opportunities. The line manager being a HR professional should therefore utilize and ensure equal opportunity has been embedded. On the other hand, the test should also focus on the Return on Investment (R.O.I), which based on a true measure of value; the personality assessment tool should embrace its validity and effectiveness in qualifying the best job performance (Tsui and Lai 2009). Selection Interviews Selection Interview is according to Farrington (2008) “a situation in which a personnel selector, through personal contact provides him with behavior to observe – in order to assess the candidate’s suitability for a post.”This kind of selection affords the opportunity to come up with a one to one interaction between the interviewee and the interviewer. Therefore it is an opportunity that affords the interview to be a unique selection tool (Gatewood et al. 2010). Many organizations today have embraced this system of selection as a device that will enhance the quality of employees to be absorbed in an organization. It is imminent that any organization will task its human resource professionals in coming up with viable and qualified employees who will endeavor to deliver the best according to their abilities, capabilities, skills and knowledge in putting the organization to the pinnacle. To achieve this, objective selection exercise should be the way to go and this can be achieved verily through the use of selection interview. Its objective based on the candidate’s behavior in a specific job criterion (Farrington 2008). However the line manager must realize that the major problems faced in the practical aspect of this mechanism can be captured in the short duration characterized with the interview and therefore what can be displayed by the interviewee cannot reflect the real dynamism (Farrington 2008). What the candidate can say or promise to do and what can actually be realized is very different (Catano 2009). This method though is a very powerful tool to obtain the accurate information of the candidate. Therefore the selection interview can be analyzed in three ways namely by assessing the candidates’ suitability for the job, providing a good image of the company to the candidate and providing information (Farrington 2008). In conducting the interview the line manager should endeavor to obtain maximum amount of information from the candidate with regard to his suitability for the specific job under consideration. This will be in terms of scrutinizing the candidate’s educational qualification, previous work experiences, conversational ability and appearances among other qualities. Selection interview is commonly utilized by human resource professionals as well as the line managers either singly or in relation with other modes of selection (SHL 2001). Selection interviews proffer an opportunity to personally scrutinize the applicant and pose questioning in a unique interactive manner as opposed to other modes of tests (Calhoon 2011). The selection interview may take varying form depending on the choice of an organization which might be either be a panel interview or one on one (SHL 2001). In all, the purpose of the interview is to enable the manager to probe on the candidate’s information on qualification and therefore be able to establish whether swift working relationship with the organization can be established (McGladrey 2007). Research that has been carried out is based on soliciting information from the candidate so as to assess their fitness or qualification for the specific job. Candidate’s personality and qualities are analyzed by the interviewer whereas the same candidate also gets to inquire and learn more about the organization (Joshi 2010). But practical aspects dictate that a balance in objectives during the interview is essential since there will always be competing variations between the organization and the candidate. The type of interview selection procedure to be embraced will therefore be based on objective’s variation. Therefore in the selection interview process, the following objectives can be a guide: 1. Verify the credibility and authenticity in the details provides in the application documents. . 2. Endeavour to elicit and/or get additional details that the candidate can give. 3. Provide the applicant with any relevant idea on the image as well as the culture of the organization. 4. Create or establish a mutual tie between the organization and the applicant. According to Calhoon (2011), interview serves the following three objectives: 1. Through the interview the line manager can be able to perceive the candidate on how he behaves, look and/or his beaming during the interview process. 2. It also provides the best mechanism on analyzing the manner in which the candidate is responding and interacting with the panel or the interviewer. 3. Finally, it provides the best tool so far in predicting job performance of the candidate such as motivation, perseverance and initiative. On the other hand in carrying out the selection interview, the line manager must be aware of the various types of the interviews available for enhancing quality information obtained from the exercise. Six types of selection interviews do exist namely; behavioral description, situational, structured, stress, nondirective and panel (McGlarey 2007). However a viable grouping can be categorized as follows; 1. Stress Interview: According to (McGlarey 2007) those candidates that are projected to work under harsh or rather stressful working surroundings are to be subjected to this kind of an interview. The aim of this kind of an interview is to induce a simulation condition that will actually reflect the real situational conditions that subjects the applicant to harsh conditions so as to analyze their reactions. A wide range of techniques in carrying out the said tests can be such modes as attacking the interviewee with demeaning remarks and putting the candidate under the pressure in answering certain “silly” question. However, stress-inducing must be done very carefully by trained and skilled interviewers otherwise it may be dangerous. Emotionally charged candidates must not be subjected to further stressful conditions. The candidate should be given sufficient chance to cope with such induced stress before he leaves. 2. Preliminary Interview: According to (Fear and Chiron 2002) the exercise involved in hiring interviews is normally time consuming and expensive. Therefore to satisfy minimum requirements, the interviews should be conducted in such a manner that sufficient pre-qualification standards are met and these are what are called preliminary interviews. The applicant will be afforded freedom to tell is qualifications such that if it is compatible with the job specification the he would not be disadvantaged at all. Based on the exposition, one of the negative attributes associated with the preliminary interview is that it might lead to the elimination of many desirable candidates in case interviewers do not have much and proper experience in evaluating candidates. The positive argument, if any, for this method is that it utilizes and save resources for the company. 3. Patterned Interview: According to (Condrey 2010) the aim of this interview is to put all the candidates at par by asking them the same question in the same order. This kind of an interview will always be planned way before hand and the candidate is cautioned on the same early enough. The arrangements to be carried out in advance will highly depend on the information required as well as the time to be consumed. The applicant will always be afforded good opportunity and will be guided through every step in the interview and questions not related to the job or that tend to touch on outside topics such as race is prohibited. Such interviews are also called standardized interviews and are objectively reliable. 4. Depth Interview: According to (Saiyadain 2009) the aim of this mechanism is to elicit total information on the applicant. Though it is a time consuming exercise it is still worth since detailed personality information will be obtained. As the term itself implies, depth interview intends to bring out clear and detailed information from the candidate such that all the relevant information as well as appurtenant issues to the same will be elicited for the sake of the interviewer in making a viable decision. Expectedly, depth interview involves more time and money in conducting it. From the above exposition the line manager should be able to appreciate some major research findings on interviews which entails; 1. Structured interview have been proved to be efficient and effective. 2. During the interview the interviewers are keen to hear new developments that are unique from the candiate. 3. A good outcome of the interview will majorly depend on the information availed by the candidates. 4. The unique quality that fits the job specification will always be considered by the interviewers. 5. In an interview session the chances of good presentation by the candidate might not be a reflection of the true self. 6. During the interview it will be easy to seclude those perceived as bad candidates than with dealing with a bunch of favorable candidates. 7. An interview will be carried out based on the data provides and this is what should guide the interviewers most than relying on the looks of the candidate. 8. The interview session will be attended by candidates with varying views and qualification and more often than not those who have a strong presentation and/or personality will carry the day. 9. The interview will provide an opportunity of discovering character and expectation of a candidate. 10. At the interview session the candidate being afforded the opportunity to express himself will likely makes his behaviors to be captured more. 11. The decision of the interviewer will be influenced greatly by the manner of expression presented by the candidate. 12. In an interview the interviewers who possess a good chunk of experience will likely to demonstrate more demanding stances in the manner they chose to carry out the selection criteria since they are in a position to depict the required standards than those with less experience. Research studies have firmly established that, among all selection methods, interview has been the most researched and carefully documented method. However, interview suffers from some limitations also. 1. Interviewers may not have a clearly defined technique developed. This results in lack of validity in evaluation of the candidate. 2. There is always variation in offering scoring points to the candidate by the interviewers 3. Interview can help judge the personality of the candidate but not his ability for the job. 4. A single characteristic of the candidate found out on the basis of interview, may affect the judgment of the interviewer on other qualities of the candidate. 5. The biases of interviewers may cloud the objectivity of interview. 6. Finally, interview is a time consuming and may be an expensive device of selection. Based on the above defects in interviews there underlie the need for observing certain guidelines to make interviews more effective which include such aspects as 1. Providing a framework design in which the interview should have a definite time schedule known to both the interviewers and the interviewee. 2. Supplying the guidelines and procedures to be used during the interview to the candidate. 3. Allowing the selection Interview to be carried out by the skillful and professional experts in the field. 4. Ensuring that the privacy for the interviewee is guaranteed by the interviewer. 5. Preparing in advance the all the necessary documents presented by the applicant and ensure that the interviewer has them before hand. 6. Ensure to carry out the interview in a swift manner such that the candidate will not seem prejudiced at any particular point. 7. During the interview make sure that you keep in touch and support to the candidate so as to show your consideration in everything said. 8. When carrying out the interview the interviewers must be seen to have come of age and hence possess a good composure. Conclusion Any organization has the dream and mission of being successful in every endeavor they undertake. To realize the vision, it would be advisable and prudent that the organization should embrace the up to date mechanisms the have been tried and tested in producing viable and long-lasting solutions in the human resource management. In deed the two mechanisms indicated above is of great benefit in carrying out the recruitment and selection of candidates who will realize the best job performance in the organization. Normally the personality assessment to be imposed in any selection exercise has the advantage of offering less adverse impact and aids the organization to enhance its diversity dimensions. This tool of assessment is able to portray its consistency and persistence in that the same characteristics captured in the initial selection can be the option also in the future jobs. On the other hand Selection interview has proved to be the most frequently used mode of selecting new employees in an organization. It is a mechanism that has been utilized for a very long time and has always produced good results. However based on the societal changes and entry of new tools that proffer a better option in recruiting new staff, it would be advisable for the human resource professional to engage in an up to date mechanism. To do so it will be only realized through consistent practice hence experience and searching for new knowledge and skills on the methods that have emerged. One of the great advantages of using the selection interview is that it enables the interviewer to personally attend to and scrutinize the applicant whether being fit or rather qualifies for the specified job or not. It portrays all the essential qualities of the candidate as well as the qualifications intended. Again it is only during this interactive session that the candidate will be able to get a glimpse of what king of an organization he/she is dealing with and whether he has the best chances of acquiring the job. This mechanism has been the n most favorable in most organizations since it has variety. Based on the above delineation, the line manger in hiring new employees should ensure that he/she has utilized the mode of selections already enunciated in order to facilitate a healthy, efficient and effective team that will deliver the mandates of the organization hence contributing to its success. Therefore to facilitate the best workforce in any organization, it is advisable that the human resource professional should utilize these mechanisms in order to come up with the best quality of employees. References Anderson, M., Personality Assessment in Personnel Selection, viewed on 20 May 2012, . Calhoon, R. (2011). Objectives of Interview, viewed on 20 May 2012, . Catano, V. (2009). 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