Work Samples

Abstract

The use of some form of test is a feature of many personnel selection procedures. Often these tests take the form of a pencil-and-paper psychological test (for example, general intelligence, numerical ability, aptitude or personality). To the designer of the personnel selection procedure the rationale for using the chosen tests will be perfectly clear. In a well-designed scheme job analysis and other preparatory work will have identified the psychological characteristics that are thought to be good predictors of successful job performance. Tests will then have been selected to identify the candidates who display the desired characteristics. From the point of view of the candidates, however, the justification for the chosen tests may well be less clear. This procedure of conducting a job analysis, inferring from this the desirable psychological characteristics and developing a set of predictors to identify these characteristics is probably the most common method for the initial design of selection schemes. The predictors produced in this way, whilst potentially valid, often require candidates to display behaviour that is rather different from the behaviour that they will eventually be expected to display at work.