Realistic Job Previews within Recruitment and Selection - Term Paper Example

Realistic Job Previews within Recruitment and Selection Name Institution Realistic Job Previews within Recruitment and Selection Realistic job previews refer to methods that organizations and career agencies apply to communicate to prospective employees the details of the job in question. The idea also gives advice to the candidates relating to the type of organization they are engaging in - work ethics, work processes and procedures. The rationale is to feed the applicants with wealth of information on what to expect from the job they will be required to do and the organizational culture of the entity in general. These previews are important particularly in industries whose tasks are widely unclear and aspiring employees may not have enough information on the responsibilities that are likely to fall under their dockets should they hired in these industries (Premack & Wanous 1985). A well formulated realistic job preview yields benefits both to the employee and the company. In essence, it helps to match the employees’ competencies and preferences with the organization’s requirements. When people have little or no information about the jobs they are applying for or the nature of organization offering the job, they are likely to hold the wrong perception on either of the two or both. When such individuals take up the job and realize that what they expected is far from what is on offer, frustration takes toil resulting to labour turnover (Meglino et al. 1988). In this regard, realistic job preview can be described as the first step towards checking the problem of turnover especially that which occurs within the first twelve months of the worker’s engagement. Commitment can be improved when there is high correlation between what the applicant thought and what turns out to be the case at the work place. Industrial psychologists have made advanced attempts to study the impact of realistic job previews on the perceptions held by the employee after getting hired. Based on their study they argue that the utmost goal that should be met is that of ensuring that there is a proper match of wants between the organization’s requirements and the applicant’s qualifications and human needs. The match plays a central role on both the performance of the employee and goes a long way to determining his/her tenure in that particular entity (Wanous 1977). Further research studies have also been conducted by specialists to determine the factors that determine turnover. It has been found that turnover rates are highest during the first six or so months of engagement into a new organization. The major driving force for this behavior is the gross mismatch between employees’ expectations from their new jobs or employer and the requirement of the employer, organizational culture and the internal environment that subsists within the entity. This suggests that probably organizations send exaggerated or dishonest information when seeking new recruits. This behavior is largely perpetrated by the desire to entice the most qualified personnel in the field. However, highly skilled personnel are highly ambitious as well, and will be sensitive to what their new employer has on offer. Once they realize that their demands may not be met in their new job assignments, they walk out in frustration and protest (Harvey 1990). This is the havoc that results from misrepresentations regarding the nature of work being advertised or organization itself. Critiques have, however, argued that turnover is not the most viable technique of measuring the effectiveness of realistic job previews. This is despite their agreement to the assertion that turnover is more objective and realistic to measure compared to other human resource attributes such as attitude and level of motivation. They argue that it is possible for an employee to continue hanging on to a job position he/she is unhappy with due to other inherent factors that are outside the control of the worker. Most notable of such factors is limited options for shifting. On the same note, it is possible for satisfied workers to leave jobs for other reasons not cognate to the job itself. Even in light of such propositions these personalities do not refute the high correlation between realistic job preview and job survival (Breaugh 1983). Further research works have found out that realistic job preview guides the decision of the applicant on whether or not to accept the job offer. This result from the belief they hold regarding the job being capable of meeting their career and personal needs. Exposure to such previews minimizes if not eliminating chances of negative surprises on the job. The information contained therein can be used by the employee to evaluate the employer’s honesty to meet their advances even in the actual employment contract (Popovich & Wanous 1982). Going by these assertions, it would be expected then that candidates who have prior exposure to realistic job previews will have lower levels of turnover since they made their decision upon truthful information of what they will be required to offer to the employer and what they will receive as compensation. Other scholars have come to the conclusion that realist job previews are most vital and yield more fruits in cases where the job in question is a complex one; has a history of high turnover; or carries certain technical attributes that are largely unknown to the applicant. Analysts advise that if a job falls under any of the said categories then it would be prudent to take the initiative of designing objective previews (Martin 1996). Realistic job previews have a strong influence on job acceptance as well. Many scholars agree that acceptance or non acceptance to a job position largely depends on the availability of alternative vacancies. This implies that a person will take up an unsatisfying job knowingly simply because the freedom of choice is limited by the squeezed job market. However, the effect of prior information regarding a job position, in making the final decision cannot be slighted. Recommendations on negative attributes of a job position suggest that negative information be included at least disproportionately just to make the applicants aware of some of the challenges they are likely to deal with once they take up the position. It is widely argued that an employee will be psychologically prepared for take up a job that does not fit and that way there is a higher possibility of tenure as opposed to a scenario where information was initially withheld (Meglino, Ravlin, & DeNisi 1997). Modern studies on the subject area have been directed at assessing the impact of realistic job previews on the workers’ ability to come up with challenges and stresses encountered on the new job. These studies have suggested that employees will be better equipped to negotiate such hurdles because they have due warning about their existence. This way they will be at better positions to devise mechanisms for coping with the situation. The previews train the workers ahead of time on what to expect on their new job assignments (Breaugh 1983). The rationale is that if an employee is made aware of the negative aspects of the job he/she is about to take up, then there is a possibility that the person has given due thought to the challenges and perhaps identified methods of countering the stresses. In contrast, if a worker is caught unawares by the challenges then he/she might find it difficult to adapt (Pitt & Ramaseshan 1995). Properly formulated realistic job previews improve the worker’s productivity in the long-run. This follows the commitment that the worker dedicates to his/her assignments because of having the sense of satisfaction with the job. This is achieved if and only if the worker’s expectations are reasonably met. Failure to this, the employee will be dissatisfied and will go ahead to demonstrate his/her ill feeling through lower than expected level of productivity; frequent absenteeism or if the level of disappointment is very high he/she will quit the job (Baker 1985). All these lead to lost company revenues on one side and an underutilized professional on the other. Behavioral psychologists purport that met expectations can motivate an employee to go out of his/her way to ensure that the company maximizes its gains (Wanous 1992). All this theory point to the fact that realistic job previews are essential to making a job applicant aware of what to expect out of the job and if that is met there will be mutual gain for both parties. Researchers in the field of psychology have summarized four mechanisms that extensively explain the relationship that subsists between realistic job preview and the outcome of a job. These scholars have highlighted honesty and openness effect; self selection; ability to cope and met expectation as being probably the central drivers that guide the level of new employee’s perception about the job assignment. The aspect of self selection holds that an aspiring candidate should select against a position whose specifications do not meet his/her needs and vice versa. Coping entails being resistant to inherent problems of the specific job assignment. Met expectation refers to coincidence of requirements between the employer and the employee while honesty means that the hiring agency presents information that reflects the true state of affairs (Premack & Wanous 1985). Human resource managers of modern times consider realistic job previews as the best practice in the grand scheme of staff recruitment. They are essential in establishing the expectations of the position being sought for and effectively eliminate many suitors from the pool of applicants who feel that they would not cope with the conditions of the work even if they were to apply successfully. Such persons would have otherwise formed the lot of workers who quit their position inside the first twelve months or less of hiring. The extra time saved by the organization or the recruiting agency is used to scrutinize the remaining candidates and this increases the chances of arriving at the most suitable person (Breaugh 1983). The saving of costs that accrues to the system is also massive and the whole strategy makes the recruitment and selection process much more efficient. In conclusion, it is safe to state that realistic job previews need to contain both positive and negative aspects of the position. This way the organization is not only going to attract committed workers but also enhance its core values and organizational culture. Prospective employees acting on full and consistent information will be at a better position to decide whether or not they will take up the job (Pitt & Ramaseshan 1995). This criterion can also save the organization or the recruitment agencies time, effort and money that could have been spent screening workers who will not be thrilled by the job specifications. To enhance their effectiveness, realistic job previews should be developed professionally and a combination of features be used to ensure that the candidates get the true picture of facts. Once the employees have enough information on the job position and still feel interested in taking it, then the tenure of service will be enhanced and the organization will be saved of other costs of recruitment, orientation, induction and training. A satisfied work force will subsequently translate to increased revenues and high quality products. In light of this discussion it is prudent to assert that a professionally designed realistic job preview is the way to go in modern recruitment and selection processes. References Baker, HG 1985, ‘The Unwritten Contract: Job Perceptions’, Personnel Journal, Vol. 6 no. 7, pp. 37-41. Breaugh, JA 1983, ‘Realistic Job Previews: A Critical Appraisal and Future Research Directions’, The Academy of Management Review. Vol. 4, pp. 612-619. Harvey, ME 1990, ‘The Effects of a Realistic Job Preview on the Tenure and Satisfaction of Cooperative Extension Service Field Agent’, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University. Martin, AD 1996, ‘Exploring the Upper Limits of Realistic Job Preview Effectiveness for Increasing Job Stability and Performance of New Employees’, Unpublished doctoral Dissertation, Wayne State University. Meglino, BM, Ravlin, EC & DeNisi, AS 1997, ‘When Does it Hurt to Tell the Truth? The Effect of Realistic Job Previews on Employee Recruiting’, Public Personnel Management, Fall, Vol. 26 pp. 413-422. Meglino, BM, DeNisi, AS, Youngblood, SA &. Williams, KJ 1988, ‘Effects of Realistic Job Previews: A Comparison Using an Enhancement and a Reduction Preview’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 73 no. 2, pp. 259-266. Pitt, LF & Ramaseshan, B 1995, ‘Realistic Job Information and Sales Force Turnover: An Investigative Study’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 29-34. Popovich, P & Wanous, JP 1982, ‘The Realistic Job Preview as a Persuasive Communication’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 7, pp. 570-578. Premack, SL & Wanous, JP 1985, ‘A Meta-Analysis of Realistic Job Preview Experiments’, Journal of Applied Psychology Vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 706-719. Wanous, JP 1992, Organizational Entry: Recruitment, Selection and Socialization of Newcomers, 2nd ed., Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA. Read More