Chapter 5: Recruitment, Selection

and Job Performance

- Possible to establish clear, simple, and generalizable links between broad
individual difference variables like general cognitive ability or personality
traits and success in a range of jobs
- General cognitive ability and conscientiousness are relevant to
performance in almost every job studied
o Usually accounts for like 20 to 30 percent of variance in job
performance, sometimes more in more complicated jobs
o People with higher cognitive ability learn quicker and are able to apply
their learning to jobs faster
- Cognitive ability tests sometimes controversial because of ethnic group
differences
Job Performance: Observable behavior that is relevant to accomplishing the goals
of an organization
Criteria: Measures of job performance that capture individual differences among
employees with respect to job related behaviors
Can break down job behavior into three subcategories
1. Task Performance
a. Duties related to the direct production of goods and services and to the
direct contribution to the efficient functioning of the organization that
form part of a job. These duties are part of the workers formal job
description.
i. Like producing goods, selling merchandise, acquiring inventory,
and managing and administering the enterprise
2. Contextual Performance
a. Activities not part of the formal job description but are important for
organizational effectiveness
i. Interpersonal job performance and dedication, contributes to the
culture of the organization
3. Counterproductive work behaviors
a. Voluntary behaviors that violate significant organizational norms and in
so doing threaten the wellbeing of the organization or the members
b. Leads to decreased performance and less productive organizations
Job Performance Domain
 - The set of job performance dimensions (behaviors) that is relevant to the
goals of the organization, or the unit in which a person works

- Performance isnt the consequence or result of action, it is the action itself

Performance Dimensions: Sets of behaviors that are derived from an
organizations goals and linked to successful job performance
8 Job Performance Dimensions
1. Job specific task proficiency: Degree to which someone performs technical
tasks that make up the content of the job.
2. Non-job-specific task proficiency: Reflects the degree to which individuals can
perform tasks or behaviors that are not specific to any one job. (Both
engineer and accountant may have to have a good understanding of the
business environment in general)
3. Written and oral communication task proficiency
4. Demonstrating effort: The level of how committed they are to performing all
job tasks. How willing to work overtime, etc.
5. Maintaining personal discipline: Extent to which negative behaviors are
avoided. Do they drink on the job?
6. Facilitating peer and team performance: Degree to which an individual
supports coworkers
7. Supervision/leadership: Includes behaviors directed at influencing
performance of subordinates
8. Management/administration: Do the engineers contact clients and schedule
appointments? Do they schedule work in the most efficient manner?
Complete all paperwork?
Job Dimensions are influenced by three factors
1. Declarative knowledge
a. Knowledge on facts, including rules, regulations and goals. Technical
knowledge
2. Procedural Knowledge and skill
a. Knowing what to do, combined with how to do it
3. Motivation
a. Choice to perform, level of effort, and persistence of effort

Contextual Performance
- Things not really a part of the formal job duties, not related to a specific job,
usually extends to all jobs in an organization
Contextual performance appears to fall into five major categories:
1. Persisting with enthusiasm and extra effort as necessary to complete ones own
task activities successfully.
2. Volunteering to carry out task activities that are not formally part of ones own
job.
3. Helping and cooperating with others.
4. Following organizational rules and procedures. 5. Endorsing, supporting, and
defending organizational objectives.
In validating selection measures, we will need to decide whether we wish to predict
one or more performance dimensions or some overall composite measure of
performance.
- Are we interested in task, contextual, or counterproductive work behaviours?
If we assess several competency or performance dimensions, then we need
to determine which aspects of performance contribute most to the success of
the organization and what weights should be given to the different
dimensions.
- If we want an overall measure of performance, then we must find a method
for combining the performance data that we obtain from different sources.
Criterion relevance: The degree to which the criterion measure captures
behaviors or competencies that constitute job performance.
Criterion deficiency: Those job performance behaviors or competencies that are
not measured by the criterion.
Criterion contamination: The degree to which the criterion measure is influenced
by, or measures, behaviors or competencies that are not part of job performance.
Ultimate criterion: The concept that a single criterion measure reflects overall job
success
Objective performance measures: Production, sales, and personnel data used in
assessing individual job performance
Subjective performance measures: Ratings or rankings made by supervisors,
peers, or others that are used in assessing individual job performance
Relative rating system: A subjective measurement system that compares the
overall performance of one employee to that of others to establish a rank order of
employee performance
Absolute rating systems: Compare the performance of one worker with an
absolute standard of performance; can be used to assess performance on one
dimension or to provide an overall assessment.