Many countries throughout the industrialized world have discrimination laws similar to those in the United States. Some countries are as vigorous as the United States in enforcing antidiscrimination laws (e.g., Canada and South Africa), whereas others are more lax (e.g., Australia and England). Although the United States may have taken the lead, other countries give employees even more protection and extend protection to additional groups not specifically mentioned in U.S. law. How different countries approach their discrimination problems depends on the nature of those problems and their societies. In 1995, the United Kingdom instituted the Disability Discrimination Act, which is much like the ADA in the United States. As in the United States, there is resistance by employers, especially those who have negative attitudes about persons with disabilities and who have little knowledge of what the law actually requires (Jackson, Furnham, & Willen, 2000).
Canada is much like the United States in terms of laws and vigor of enforcement, although Canada also disallows discrimination based on sexual preference, which the United States does not. To avoid legal problems, organizations in Canada need to follow practices to those they would follow in the United States. Ireland is a more homogeneous society than Canada or the United States, having fewer minority groups of sufficient size to push for legal protection. In Ireland, discrimination on the basis of gender or marital status is illegal, but the law is silent about Blacks or other minority groups (Federation of Irish Employers, 1991).
The countries mentioned here, as well as the remainder of at least the industrialized world, have endorsed the idea that employee selection should be based on the job-relevant attributes of people. With this approach, the person hired is the person who can best do the job. This will eliminate unfairness in selection that results from discriminatory practices. It should also help organizations enhance their effectiveness by hiring the best-qualified people, regardless of age, color, disability, gender, national origin, race, religion, sexual preference, or other personal characteristic that is irrelevant for job success.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
One of the most important functions of an organization is the recruitment and selection of new employees. To remain effective, an organization must have a supply of skilled people with the necessary attributes or KSAOs to do the job. Acquiring such people involves a four-step procedure:
Planning the need for new employees
Getting appropriate people to apply for positions (recruitment) Deciding who to hire (selection)
Getting the selected people to take the jobs
Planning the need for new employees requires the use of forecasting methods. This involves comparing the need for people with particular KSAOs with the number of such people who might be available in the area. Future planning for organizational changes and expansions must consider the availability of people to fill the necessary positions. Failure to consider these issues can result in the inability to find the people necessary to carry out an important organizational function.
Chapter Summary " 165
Getting people to apply for jobs can be a difficult task if there is a shortage of qualified people. The problem is more often one of getting the right people to apply, because there can be a surplus of people with certain skills and a shortage of people with others. There are a number of ways that organizations acquire applicants, including advertising, using recruiters, and using web-based services.
Scientific selection involves the use of selection devices that have been shown to predict job performance. To develop a system of effective or valid selection devices involves a five-step procedure: The KSAOs are identified with a job analysis, the criteria are chosen, the potential predictors are chosen, the predictors are validated with a research study, and finally, the predictors are cross-validated with a second sample or study.
Once an organization has decided whom to hire, it must convince the person to take the job. To do so, an organization must be sure that it offers rewards that are equivalent to those offered by other organizations. One procedure that has been used to ensure a better match between a person and a job is the realistic job preview (RJP), which provides accurate information about the job that allows an applicant to make an informed decision about accepting a job offer.
Utility analysis is used to determine the benefits of using a predictor to hire people. These analyses are based on mathematical formulas that require an estimate of the mon- etary value of good job performance. There have been disagreements among researchers about the best way to conduct utility analysis. Nevertheless, the results of utility analyses have shown that scientific selection can have substantial benefits for organizations.
Employee selection is not only a scientific process; it is also a legal process. Most industrialized countries have laws against discriminatory selection practices. In the United States, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, national origin, race, or religion. To avoid legal problems, an organization must base selection decisions on job-relevant factors.
I/O PSYCHOLOGY IN PRACTICE
(Courtesy Anna Erickson)
This case concerns the development of an un- usual assessment device to measure the artistic ability of employees. It was carried out by Dr. Anna Erickson, who was an I/O psychologist for SBC Communications Inc., which owns several telephone companies, in- cluding Pacific Bell and Southwestern Bell Inc. Dr. Erickson received her Ph.D. in I/O psychology in 1995 from Iowa State University. At the time of this project, her role in the company
was to do selection research, although she also has done projects in the areas of job analysis, performance appraisal, planning for future employee needs, and sur- veys of employee opinions. At the present time, she is Director of Marketing Research and is responsible for conducting studies of customer preferences for and reactions to telephone company products and services, such as call waiting and caller ID. This is not an unusual job for an I/O psychologist, for the methods and tech- niques are much the same as those for more traditional I/O work discussed in this book.
One type of employee hired by the telephone com- pany is a yellow page artist who sketches ads for company customers. The company decided to expand the advertising services, which requires a higher level
of artistic talent than is necessary for ad sketches. Supervisors of the ad artists were asked to recom- mend individuals for the more artistic jobs, but this procedure led to widespread controversy and a union grievance over favoritism. Clearly a new procedure had to be found that would be seen as fair to the employees, while providing a valid means of choosing good artists.
Dr. Erickson was asked to solve this problem, but unfortunately no existing assessments for artists could be found. She would have to invent a new assessment device, while at the same time gaining the support of the employees. To accomplish this objective, she put together a task force of employees and managers. At the same time, she studied the research literature on creativity and discovered that, despite the seemingly subjective nature of art, experts show a high degree of interrater agreement when evaluating it. This gave her the idea of developing an assessment center in which raters would be faculty members from a well-known university art department.
The first step in developing the center was to con- duct a job analysis to identify KSAOs for the job. Results showed that there were two important com- ponents to assess. First, the artist had to deal with customers, and second, he or she had to do the creative work. The customer service part was assessed with a
structured interview. The creative part was assessed by having experts rate the quality of a portfolio the person submitted and the performance of the person in a simulation. All ratings were done blind, with the rater not knowing whose work was being assessed.
The task force was unanimous in approving this assessment procedure. It accomplished the goal of set- tling the union grievance. Dr. Erickson conducted a validation study of the assessment center and found it predicted very well professor ratings of their art stu- dents’ employability. Those students who were rated most capable and employable did best in the assess- ment center. It is now being used for placement and selection in the company. This case illustrates how often employees perceive effective selection as fair selection.
Discussion Questions
1. Why was it important to have employee acceptance of the new assessment center?
2. Do you think supervisor nomination was an unfair way to decide who got the jobs?
3. How else could this assessment center be validated other than with the procedure used?
4. Can you think of other ways to measure artistic creativity?