Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

Occupational Psychology > Personnel Selection > Flashcards

Personnel Selection Flashcards

1
Q

What are the costs of poor recruitment?

A

Difference in productivity between below & above average worker is 80% of their salary
Average cost of employee turnover is £30,614 (earning £25,000)
Loss in productivity, advertising, recruiting, assessing, selecting, onboarding etc
2 in 5 organisations expecting reductions in recruitment budgets

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the benefits of good recruitment?

A

Better matched workers = better performance, tenure, worker wellbeing etc
Benefits to organisation & worker

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What are some theories for recruitment & selection?

A

Attraction-selection-attrition (Schneider, 1987)
Person environment fit

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are the 4 types of environment fit?

A

Person-organisation (values, goals)
Person-job fit (job requirements & individuals abilities)
Person-group fit (individuals & group styles, personality etc)
Person-supervisor fit (personality, life-style etc)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What are outcomes of a good fit?

A

Job & task performance
Job satisfaction
Turnover intention & decisions
Organisational citizenship behaviour (discretionary performance behaviour)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

How do we ensure effective recruitment & selection?

A

Evidence based - evidence informs process of recruitment
Systematic - follow logical pathway and decisions made sequentially based on analysis
Strategic - in line with organisation needs & demands

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is the difference between work and the worker?

A

Work - tasks, activities & elements of the job
Worker - knowledge, skills, abilities & other characteristics (KSAOs)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Explain each aspect of KSAO

A

Knowledge - theoretical/ practical understanding of a subject
Skills - capabilities to carry out tasks relating to use of equipment/ application of abilities to specific job task
Abilities - physical/ mental/ social capabilities that can be applied in a variety of contexts
Others - personality traits, values, motivation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is job analysis?

A

Gain specific information about the role & associated tasks
Inform specification of KSAOs required to perform the role - inform person & performance criteria
Help guide selection techniques
Increase defensibility

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What are the typical 6 stages of job analysis?

A

Identify how JA info will be used
Review background information
Select job to analyse
Job data collection
Job data review & analysis
Reporting

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Evaluate observations to collect data?

A

First hand information
Time consuming, not for possible new roles

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Evaluate interviews for collecting data

A

Direct input from relevant individuals, future focused
Time consuming, requires interviewer to be skilled

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q
A
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Evaluate generic questionnaires for collecting data

A

Applicable to most roles & easy to administer
Can lack level of detail needed for comprehensive job analysis

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Evaluate bespoke questionnaires for data collection

A

Comprehensive & highly relevant to target role
Expensive & labour intensive, requires expertise to create

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Evaluate critical incident technique for data collection

A

Flexible, relatively inexpensive & can feed into situational interview questions, assessment centre situations & situational judgement tests
Relies on respondents providing accurate information (memories can be distorted)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the types of reliability needed for job assessment?

A

Internal consistency of selection assessment (measure attribute of interest (test-retest), used for self-report scales/ tests
Inter-rater (2 different assessors agree on assessment of candidate, evidence assessment reflects competence)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What are the types of validity for job assessment?

A

Face (assessment appropriate for candidate)
Content (assessment relevant to experts)
Convergent (correlate with relevant measures)
Divergent (uncorrelated with non-relevant measures)
Criterion (correlate to future job performance)
Predictive (link to future performance)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What are the types of biases for job assessment?

A

Halo effect - perceiving person as only positive
Horns effect - perceiving person as only negative
Similar to me - holding oneself as gold-standard & comparing others to ones own attributes
Stereotyping - prejudice assumptions
Self-delusion - believing oneself to be immune from bias

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

How can we work out predictive validity?

A

Satisfactory - reject = false negative
Unsatisfactory - reject = good reject
Satisfactory - hire = good hire
Unsatisfactory - hire = false positive

21
Q

How can we assess fairness in evaluation?

A

Candidate reaction
Company reputation
Face validity
Accepting job offer

22
Q

What are CVs/ application forms?

A

Usually 1st contact with organisation - high potential to affect selection
Applications can be based on job analysis
Very popular

23
Q

Evaluate CVs

A

Good summary of relevant biographies, unique, high candidate acceptance & effective for shortlisting obvious unsuitable candidates
Unstandardised, hard to compare, susceptible to bias, halo & horns effect

24
Q

Evaluate application forms?

A

Good summary of relevant info, organisation led, high candidate acceptance, effective for shortlisting out unsuitable candidates, standardised
Typical factors (education) poor at predicting job performance & susceptible for bias

25
What are references?
From current/ previous employer (or teacher) Final stage of selection General/ open-ended questions
26
Evaluate references
Medium-high candidate acceptance, popular with recruiters, can be useful to verify CV Unlikely to provide accurate representations (candidate chooses), poor predictive validity of performance, slow & difficult to obtain
27
What is psychometric testing?
Sift out unsuitable individuals Gain detailed assessment 2 forms - test of maximum performance (ability & aptitude, linked to general intelligence) & tests of typical performance (personality trait performance)
28
Evaluate psychometric tests
Easy to use, cost effective, logistically many can complete at same time, minimal supervision & completed anywhere May have others complete test for them, quality of product & need someone qualified to interpret
29
What are ability & aptitude tests?
Ability - acquired skill, aptitude - innate Tests designed to measure overall ability or narrow ability Assess candidate potential to learn High validity in predicting job performance Tests vary in difficulty - consider target population to avoid skewed scores
30
Evaluate ability & aptitude tests
High predictive validity, lots of supportive evidence, not subject to assessor bias, often computer marked Remote completion means no control who takes it, select wrong test leads to skewed scores, adverse impacts to ethnic minorities, not relevant to all jobs, low candidate acceptance, older workers score lower on general ability test & gender differences (women high on verbal, men higher in numerical)
31
What are personality assessments?
Traits representing patterns of behaviour, thoughts/ emotions - relate to preferences Assessed via self-report Measure traits (either broad or narrow) of individual and match to inventory to create ideal profile Never be used in isolation
32
What are some niche traits relating to the big 5?
Openness - actions, ideas Conscientiousness - competence, self-disciplined Extraversion - assertiveness, positive emotions Agreeableness - trust, compliance Neuroticism - impulsive, anxiety
33
What are the ideal levels of the big 5?
Low neuroticism - higher job & life satisfaction, low negative thinking High extraversion - better interpersonal skills & job performance High openness - increased learning & enhanced leadership High agreeableness - better liked & less deviant behaviour High conscientiousness - greater organised & greater longevity
34
What are some advantages of personality assessments?
Conscientiousness strongly & consistently linked to job performance Results can inform interview questions Create good job-organisation fit from matching profiles In reality, faking good is unlikely to influence predictive validity Well matched traits to roles can lead to worker satisfaction
35
What are disadvantages of personality assessments?
Personality may not be stable Some measures aren’t valid Gimmicks - various commercial companies exploit personality for profit & poor validity Evidence women score higher on agreeableness & traits related to affiliation & dependability Some evidence of faking & social desirability
36
What are unstructured interviews?
Less formal, outperformed by structured in validity & reliability
37
What are advantages of instructed interviews?
High candidate acceptability Liked by assessors, can exert control & choose topics Give good indication of person-organisation fit Popular among HR professionals
38
What are disadvantages of unstructured interviews?
Unreliable, succeptible to legal action Poor predictive validity Highly susceptible to bias & impression management Content may be more about what interviewer think is importantly than based on job analysis
39
What are structured & semi-structured interviews?
Predetermined questions Behavioural - based on key job requirements, concept of past behaviour predicting future behavior Situational - based on theory intention predicts behaviour
40
What are advantages of structured interviews?
High candidate acceptability More reliable & valid than unstructured Good quality research evidence (inc MAs) Usually more job-relevant (construct validity) as questions based on job analysis
41
What are disadvantages of structured interviews?
Can be influenced by initial impressions and bias Structured can be rigid & conversation less free-flowing Requires trained interviewers, increasing cost
42
What are assessment centres?
KSAOs assessed multiple times by multiple methods Each method designed to assess multiple competencies Exercises often referred to as work samples as they simulate job tasks
43
What are advantages of assessment centres?
Multi-trait, multi-method approach gives good indication of ‘all-round’ performance Generally high face validity & well recieved by candidates Video ACs increasingly an option Provides rich amount of data
44
What are disadvantages of assessment centres?
Much more expensive (doesn’t mean not cost effective) Subject to assessor bias & differences in marking - training required Logistically complex to organise Concerns around content/ construct validity Often scores more consistent within exercise than within competencies (low convergent & discriminant validity.
45
What are situational judgement tests?
Make judgement about role-relevant scenario Text or video based
46
What are advantages of situational judgement tests?
Moderate-high candidate acceptance Can provide realistic job preview Machine marked so reduce assessor bias, error & time & more cost-effective
47
What are disadvantages of situational judgement tests?
Usually bespoke so time-consuming & require expertise to design Require subject matter expert input - difficult & time consuming Concerns about construct validity
48
What method is best and worst based on criterion validity?
Tests of general cog ability & structured interview or work samples test = 0.63 Test of general cog ability = 0.51/ 0.5-0.6 Structured interview - 0.56 Reference check = 0.26 Job experience = 0.18 Years of education = 0.1

Occupational Psychology (8 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions