Assessment Methods in the Workplace

Paper Summary:

In recruiting and retaining employees for any organization, it is of foremost importance to select the most qualified to enhance productivity and profit. The selection methods chosen by employers to distinguish between employees therefore need to be both valid and reliable. This essay critically evaluates three assessment methods, interviews, psychometric tests, and bio-data, with regards to their validity and reliability, highlighting common operating biases, such as impression management, social desirability, and evaluation apprehension on the part of the applicant, as well as stereotyping on the part of the employer. The three methods chosen are extensively employed by organizations to discern the best applicant; understanding their relative weaknesses and strengths should be of foremost importance for employers.

From the Paper:

"Personality assessments, alternatively, allow the employer insight into the applicant, enabling the competencies established during job analysis to be directly matched. Personality tests usually relate to trait models of personality. Trait theories assert that behaviour is consistent and determined by individual characteristics as opposed to situational factors. Costa and McCrae (1976, cited in Cooper, 2002) established five separate 'traits'; extraversion; neuroticism; openess to experience; agreeableness; and conscientiousness; and argued that personality comprises of differing poles of each trait. The model is widely accepted, representing seventy-five years of factor analytic research on observers' ratings of personality (Goldberg, 1993, cited in English and Griffith, 2004)."

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