Ch 7: Selection Decisions and Personnel Law

Question 1

Selection Battery

Answer 1

A set of predictors, or tests, that are used to make employee hiring decisions.

• using a test battery results in a better prediction than using any single test in isolation.

Question 2

Recruitment

Answer 2

The process of encouraging potentially qualified applicants to seek employment with a particular company.

Question 3

Person-Environment Fit

PE

Answer 3

The agreement or match between an individual’s KSAOs and values and the demands of a job and characteristics of an organization.

Question 4

Cybervetting

Answer 4

The use of social media as part of background investigations used to make employee selection decisions.

Question 5

Validity Shrinkage

Answer 5

A statistical phenomenon reflecting the likelihood that a given selection battery will demonstrate lower validity when employed with a different sample.

Question 6

Validity Generalization

Answer 6

A statistical approach used to demonstrate that test validities do not vary across situations.

Question 7

Situational Specificity

Answer 7

The belief that test validities are specific to particular situations.

Question 8

Synthetic Validity

Answer 8

Validity that is inferred based on the links between job components and KSAOs.

Question 9

Multiple Cutoff Approach

Answer 9

A non-compensatory model of employee selection in which “passing scores,” or cutoffs, are set on each predictor.

Question 10

Multiple Hurdle Approach

Answer 10

A rendition of the multiple cutoff approach in which the predictors are administered in a predetermined order and applicants are measured on the next predictor only if they scored above the cutoff on the previous predictor.

Question 11

Multiple Regression

Answer 11

A statistical technique that, when used in the selection context, allows us to estimate how well a series of predictors forecasts a performance criterion.

Question 12

Utility

Answer 12

The degree to which a selection battery is useful and cost-efficient.

Utility factors:

1. Validity
2. Base Rate
3. Selection ratio
4. Cost!

Question 13

Decision Accuracy

Answer 13

Two ways in which decision accuracy can be operationalized:

1. Decision accuracy for hires
2. Overall decision accuracy.

Utility factors:
Validity
Base Rate 
Selection ratio
Cost!

Hits and correct rejections = good
Misses and false alarms = bad

*even spread is no validity case

Question 14

Base Rate

Answer 14

The percentage of current employees who are successful on the job.

Question 15

Selection Ratio

Answer 15

The number of job openings divided by the number of applicants.

Typically, the smaller the selection ratio, the greater the potential utility of the selection battery.

Question 16

Employment At-Will

Answer 16

A common law doctrine stating that employers and employees have the right to initiate and terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all.

Question 17

Adverse Impact

Answer 17

The most accepted operationalization of discrimination, defined in the EEOC Guidelines as the “80% rule of thumb.” A selection battery exhibits adverse impact (ie, it discriminates) against a group if the selection rate for that group is less than 80% of the selection rate for the group with the highest selection rate.

Question 18

Affirmative Action

AA

Answer 18

A practice employed in many organizations to increase the number of minorities or protected class members in targeted jobs.

Question 19

Disparate Impact Cases

Answer 19

Cases involving employment procedures that apparently unintentionally discriminate against or unfairly affect a minority group.

Question 20

Disparate Treatment Cases

Answer 20

Cases involving discrimination that results from intentional differential treatment or behavior.

Question 21

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

BFOQ

Answer 21

A characteristic, such as one’s gender, religion, or national origin, that is required or necessary to effectively do the job.

eg: wet nurse

Question 22

Sexual Harassment

Answer 22

Behaviors such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual nature, submission to or rejection of which affects one’s job or creates an offensive work environment.

Question 23

ADA: Essential Functions

Answer 23

Tasks that are significant and meaningful aspects of the job.

Question 24

ADA: Reasonable Accommodations

Answer 24

Changes or exceptions made by an employer that allow qualified disabled individuals to successfully do a job.

Question 25

ADA: Undue Hardship

Answer 25

An accommodation for the disabled that would result in significant difficulty or expense given the employer’s size and financial resources.