We Are Sorry, You Are Not Suited For The Job
Francisco was a brilliant young man. His dream was to become an entrepreneur and to start his own marketing firm. He just graduated from university with an undergraduate degree in management. He was extremely excited about finally being able to find a job and to start making money. He was planning on saving some money while he prepares for starting his own firm. He applied to numerous management jobs and went to 5 job interviews. On 3 out of these 5 job interviews, he was surprised to be asked to fill out a personality assessment.
Unfortunately for Francisco, he seemed not to have the personality profile these employers were looking for. On these 3 interviews, where he had to fill a personality assessment, he received similar rejection speeches on how he was not the “extraverted” type they were looking for. This led Francisco to feel that he was being discriminated against based on something that he could not really change. The only solution he saw was that he had to fake being extraverted in the future.
Although Francisco’s story is pure fiction, it illustrates what could happen to someone because of personality tests used in personnel selection. The use of Personality tests in personnel selection is increasing dramatically. It is now a business that is growing at an average of 10% each year (Rothstein & Goffin, 2006). The question is, does the benefits of personality tests in personnel selection outweigh the costs?
There is actually little evidence that personality tests used in personnel selection are actually valid (Rothstein & Goffin, 2006). A meta-analysis showed that personality tests have less predictive validity compared to other measures used to predict job performance (Rothstein & Goffin, 2006).
One of the major problem in using personality tests for personnel selection is faking. Applicants might decide to fake results by enhancing their ranking on questions regarding qualities they judge important for the job. This is the only solution Francisco saw to increase his chances of getting a job. Francisco knows because of the received feedbacks that it would be desirable for him to appear more extraverted. It is going to be fairly easy for him to fake the results of future personality tests.
Techniques have been developed to try to detect faking, but none of these techniques adequately solves this important problem (Frederick et al., 2007). This results in validity problems of these tests.
Furthermore, it is important to note that personality tests have quite low validity for predicting job performance (Frederick et al., 2007). Maybe Francisco would have excelled if he had been employed by one of the companies that rejected him. There is evidence that personality tests have almost zero predictive validity when administered in actual job applicants (Frederick et al., 2007). The employers may be rejecting people who could have contributed greatly to their company.
To conclude, Francisco’s fiction story shows that personality assessments for personnel selection might not have enough predictive validity to adequately predict job performance. It might also lead applicants to fake results because they feel forced to fit into a certain mold for a certain job. It does not seem like the benefits outweigh the costs in this situation.
References
Frederick, M. P., Campion, M. A., Dipboye, R. L., Hollenbeck, J. R., Murphy, K., & Schmitt, N. (2007). Are we getting fooled again? Coming to terms with limitations in the use of personality tests for personnel selection. Personnel Psychology, 60(4), 1029–1049.
Frederick, M. P., Campion, M. A., Dipboye, R. L., Hollenbeck, J. R., Murphy, K., & Schmitt, N. (2007). Reconsidering the use of personality tests in personnel selection contexts. Personnel Psychology, 60 (3), 683–729.
Rothstein, M. G., & Goffin, R. D. (2006). The use of personality measures in personnel selection: What does current research support? Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 155–180.
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