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Critical Evaluation Of Selection Assessment Methods In Organisations

Introduction

Types of assessment methods differ from one organisation to another. Choice depends on the nature of work, number of persons to be recruited, availability of assessors, time available among many other factors. The two types of assessment methods that will receive emphasis in this essay include Assessment centres and psychological tests of personality and cognitive ability. Achenbach, T. & Rescorla, L. (2001)

Assessment centres are somewhat similar to an interview in that a number of candidates are required to perform certain tasks that emulate the workplace scenario they are applying for. They normally do the test in teams ranging from six to even larger numbers. Persons conducting the evaluation may consist of the human resource manager or other managers within the Company. Such supervisors usually look out for performance of the candidate and the nature of candidate’s behaviour in relation to established norms within the Company. Assessment centres are usually done after candidates have already succeeded in their first interview since it is usually done after zeroing in on the right candidates. These centres may be located somewhere within an organisation’s premises or it could also be done at another location like a hotel. (Beck, 1996)

Psychological tests of is the incorporation of behaviour of a given candidate’s sample behaviour in order to come up with a general behavioural trend. This is normally done through comparison of a candidates behaviour when the have been asked to perform a given task then this is compared to behaviour of norm groups. One should be aware that psychological tests are not the same as psychological assessments. The latter is normally conducted by a combination of various sources of information about the subject or individual under study. Psychological tests are only one of the sources f information that will aid in the process of psychological assessment. (Bretherton, 1990)

Why organisations use assessment centres and what it involves

Normally Companies employ this method of assessment when they are dealing with graduate recruitment exercises. This is because the assessment method involves creation of a workplace scenario. It will therefore enable assessors to judge how well a candidate can fit into their organisational culture. This is also topped up by the fact that the Company can predict candidates’ performance within the organisation if accepted in the future.

Assessment centres normally involve the use of Creative skills, problem solving skills, application of strategy and debating skills. Normally, these skills are presented in a variety of formats. For example, one may be require to read instructions thoroughly or to concur with team members. This may be topped up by one’s ability to listen to group members and to deduce a way forward. Perhaps one of the reasons why this form of assessment has gained a lot of fame could be that the organisation can incorporate some controversy in the subject matter thus requiring members of the group to act accordingly in the situation. (Cramer, 2002)

Presentations may sometimes be required within this form of assessment. Successful candidates are those who are bale to stick to the matter at hand without deviation. Candidates are also expected to employ both non-verbal and verbal communication skills to woo the assessors. Simple gestures like maintaining eye contact and not being to uptight (smiling appropriately) can earn candidates lucrative marks. Successful candidates are mostly the ones with the ability to summarise information provided in visual aids and extra notes provided. Such candidates can sharpen their skills in this area by preparing before hand. They can come up with likely topics that may be requested during the interview and then they could make presentations around those areas.

Problem solving abilities may be tested through the provision of a workplace scenario. For example, when one is applying for a job at a bank, they may be presented with a scenario where a customer is disgruntled about missing out his salary in his bank account. The candidate is required to give assistance to this customer. Effective communication and ability to save customers well will be tested here. (Exner & Erdberg, 2005)

Sometimes, candidates may be presented with tray exercises. Here, a number of office document are placed on a tray for example memos, phone messages and emails. Then candidates are expected to pick out the most essential of these documents through a thorough understanding of the content. They may also be required to prioritise the most important issues. This should then be backed up by due correspondence to the urgent massages. They may also be required to write reports to those documents within a short time span.

There are numerous behavioural end character traits that assessors and organisations may be looking for when conducting assessment centres. These may depend on the organisation but most of them usually look out for the following;

Technical skills

Flexibility

Lateral thinking

Intellectual ability

Time management skills and Motivation

Goal setting skills

Stress management

Ability to deal with ambiguity and conflict

Social skills and emotional intelligence

Team wok and leadership

Customer service skills and communication skills (Holigrocki, 1999)

Candidates are usually advised to have enough rest prior to that day because assessment centres may take several hours of the day. This should also be topped up with adequate preparation of time necessary for travel. Successful candidates normally take note of minor but very important information. For example, investigating names of assessors or remembering them when they introduce themselves at the onset of the assessment process. They are also the ones who find out additional information about the organisation they intend on joining.

Similarly, candidates who do well in assessment centres are those ones who have the ability to work well with others. Extremes should be avoided, for example, some group members may begin dominating other team members and denying them the opportunity to express themselves. On the other hand, others may be to quiet and become very easily overlooked. Courtesy is a crucial virtue in such a scenario. Even though one may be required to work together with people he/ she is competing with, it is necessary to treat one another with dignity and respect. Candidates should also remember that time management is important here. They should ensure that they stay throughout the whole process otherwise leaving early could deny them a chance to be accepted into the organisation as most organisations are usually very keen about this issue. (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1990)

Psychological testing of cognitive ability and personality

Types of psychological tests

Some of these include;

• Norm-referenced
• IQ/ achievement tests
• Neuro-psychological tests
• Personality tests
• Direct observation tests
• Data mining (Millon, 1994)

However, this particular essay is focusing on two types i.e. cognitive ability and personality tests. The latter tests are normally conducted through the use of either projective or objective tests. Objective tests are done by asking candidates questions that require precise answers such as true or false. Most of these questions are normally rated. Objective tests use five factors that have been accepted as essential personality traits within any given workplace. These include Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness and openness. Objective tests normally come in a variety of formats and examples of well recognized ones include;

-Occupational personality

-questionnaire 16PF,

-NEO-PI

On the other hand, there are projective tests. Examples of such tests include Rorschach system where one may be expected to give their suggestions of what a series of ten dots may be. Another example is the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scales, Thematic Apperception Tests and Phoebe Cramer’s Defence Mechanism Model. These types of personality tests have highlighted a lot of concern about their validity and reliability. This is because they employ the use of clinical techniques to deduce what one individual is all about. Psychologists have suggested that it is better to use objective testing because it involves drawing inferences from statistics. Projective tests may not be a very reliable because they normally yield very different answers each time they are done on the same person thus showing very serious doubts about their accuracy. Organisations that still use this method to test personalities claim that it useful when trying to create a form of rapport between a candidate and the assessor. However, most organisations still apply these methods due to lack of knowledge and due to a myth that revolves around the method; it seems very intriguing when one has not been using it before. (Murray, 1943)

Tests for measuring ability are normally done through the use of IQ tests. They give an indication of one’s ability. What normally happens is that a candidate is given a set of questions in which he/she is supposed to give responses. The answers are then marked strictly depending on certain set criteria. After results have been obtained, they are then compared to a norm group’s responses. The latter is usually comprised of members who fall within the same grade level and age as the candidate.

These evaluations may either be verbal or non verbal tests. The first type may consist of tasks that depend upon the use of symbols or object. What normally occurs is that a candidate may be given something like a crossword puzzle or designing something out of suggestive blocks. These tests may come in the form of an individual’s tasks or team tests. Results have shown that organisations normally favour individual tests rather than group tests because the former usually give more accurate, valid and comprehensive results than the latter. However, such tests are usually more difficult to administer because an organisation has to handle one candidate at a time. They may take up a lot of finances too.

Examples of such tests include;

-WAIS-III,

-K-BIT

-WISC-IV,

-Cattell Culture Fair III,

However, most organisations these days prefer using personality tests rather than cognitive ability tests. In my opinion, the former would be more reliable when the organisation has already come up with preset personality traits relevant to the firm. On the other hand, when there are no specific measures of different traits, then results got from these tests will not be accurate indictors of individuals during work performance. (Westen, 1991)

When one examines the reliability and accuracy of cognitive tests of ability, research has shown that candidates who do well in these areas are also quite likely to do well in their jobs. Assessment centres also have their own drawbacks. Even though these forms of tests normally have set guidelines to mark candidates responses, practically speaking, a group of assessors may conduct meetings in which they will discuss candidate’s’ performance. Therefore answers that such agreements are likely to come up with may not be very predictable or reliable.

Conclusion

Assessment centres are used when organisations would like to infer the abilities of candidate in a workplace scenario. Research has shown that these predictors are quite reliable in prediction of performance when candidates are chosen. Cognitive tests for abilities are also fairly reliable in predicting how candidates will behave during workplace scenarios. Problems arise in using cognitive tests for personalities as performance of employees varies with their scores during recruitment. However, these differences normally arise out of the fact that some organisations may not choose traits that are specifically relevant to their firm. Doing this will greatly increase their chances of success. (Greenberg & Baron, 1999)

Reference

Achenbach, T. & Rescorla, L. (2001): Manual for the ASEBA School-Age Forms and Profiles, Burlington; Journal for University of Vermont Research Centre for Children, Youth, and Families, pp 2

Beck, A. et al (1996): Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory, San Antonio, TX; The Psychological Corporation, pp 53

Bretherton, I. et al (1990): MacArthur Story-Stem battery; unpublished manual, pp33

Cramer, P. (2002): Defense Mechanism Manual; a journal for Williams College, pp 12

Exner, J. & Erdberg, P. (2005): The Rorschach: A comprehensive system; Hoboken, NJ: Wiley and Sons, pp 25

Holigrocki, R. et al (1999); Introduction to the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment; Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, pp 413-428

Kaufman, A. & Kaufman, N. (1990): K-BIT: Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test manual: Circle Pines, Minnesota; Journal for American Guidance Service, pp57

Millon, T. (1994): Millon Clinical Multi-axial Inventory-III, Minneapolis MN; Journal for National Computer Systems, pp 17

Murray, H. A. (1943): Thematic Apperception Test manual, Cambridge MA; Harvard University Press, pp 257

Westen, D. (1991): Social cognition and object relations; Journal of Psychological Bulletin, pp 429-455

Greenberg J & Baron R (1999): Behaviour in Organisations, 7th Edition, New York; Prentice Hall

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