Page 51 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 4

STS560 James Houran et al.
a company culture (see Fig 1 below). Arguably, the only demonstrably
objective part of this triangulated process is the use of psychometric testing
or standardized assessment. Despite their popularity, many such tools have
been criticized on theoretical, empirical, or legal grounds. An obvious and
pervasive confound is that outcomes on many traditional psychometric
assessments can be intentionally and positively skewed by respondents via
cheating or impression management. Moreover, many tools have
questionable internal validity, legal-defensibility, and practical value given
their construction and validation with Classical Test Theory as opposed to
Modern Test Theory (Lange, 2017; Lange & Houran, 2015). Accordingly, new
assessments must be developed that transcend raw-scores based on test
content so that job-seekers cannot easily “game” the test.

Figure 1: Best-Practice Triangulated Process of Candidate Due Diligence in Screening and
Selection.

Psychometric
Assessment

Structured
Reference Behavioural
Checking
Interviewing

Decades of research have demonstrated that employment interviews
alone have limited validity in predicting job performance (Hunter & Hunter,
1984). However, researchers have noted the strong tendency for interviewers
to make decisions based on superficial observations. For example, one
simulation found interviewers rated applicants more highly if they showed
greater amounts of eye contact, head movement and smiling, as well as other
non-verbal behaviour. Such physical clues accounted for eighty percent of the
variance in candidate ratings (Tessler & Sushelsky, 1978). More recent analyses
suggest that the effectiveness for both structured and unstructured interviews
may be better than is traditionally assumed (Huffcut & Arthur, 1994). Also,
most applicants believe the interview is an essential component of the
selection process (Rynes & Gerhart, 1990), perhaps many organizations use at
least one interview in their selection process (Howell & Dipboye, 1982).
Research suggests that candidates view the employment interview as the most
suitable measure of their relevant abilities (Schuler, 1993). Smither and
colleagues (1993) also found that applicants perceived interviews as more job

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