Psychological Assessment in the Workplace: A Manager's Guide

355 Pages·2005·3.923 MB·English

by  Mark Cook, Barry Cripps

Psychological Assessment in the Workplace
Psychological Assessment in the
Workplace
A Manager’s Guide
Mark Cook and Barry Cripps
Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cook, Mark, 1942–
Psychological assessment in the workplace:a manager’s guide/Mark Cook and Barry Cripps.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-470-86159-2 (hbk.:acid-free paper) — ISBN 0-470-86163-0 (pbk.:acid-free paper)
1. Employees—Psychological testing. I. Cripps, Barry, 1938– II. Title.
HF5548.8.C596 2005
658.3′001′ 9—dc22
2004018409
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-470-86159-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-470-86163-0 (pbk)
Typeset in 10/12pt Times by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry
in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.
Contents
About the Authors vii
Preface ix
Chapter 1 Assessment in the Workplace 1
Chapter 2 Using Psychometric Tests 25
Chapter 3 Tests of Mental Ability 47
Chapter 4 Personality Tests 67
Chapter 5 Sifting and Screening 99
Chapter 6 References and Ratings 121
Chapter 7 Competence Analysis 139
Chapter 8 Assessment and Development Centres 159
Chapter 9 The Interview 185
Chapter 10 Structured Interviews 205
Chapter 11 Other Special Assessment Methods 223
Chapter 12 Using Assessment to Arrive at a Decision 245
Chapter 13 Workplace Counselling 271
Chapter 14 Performance Appraisal 281
Chapter 15 Training for Testing and Assessment 311
Chapter 16 Professional and Ethical Issues 319
Chapter 17 The Future of Assessment 329
References 341
Index 349
About the Authors
Mark Cook is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. He completed his first
degree and D.Phil. at Oxford University and has been a practitioner in occupational
psychology and psychological assessment in the workplace since 1968. He directed
the standardization of three important personality tests—California Psychological
Inventory, Myers Briggs Type Indicator and FIRO-B—in the UK, and is a former
Director of Oxford Psychologists Press, a leading UK test publisher. He has
researched extensively on personnel selection and psychological testing, including
psychological profiles of managers in formerly communist countries and health care
workers, and is the author of Personnel Selection, 4th edn, published by John Wiley &
Sons in 2003. Mark Cook teaches psychology of work at Swansea University.
Barry Cripps is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist consulting independently
in industry, business, Higher Education and sport. His interests are in organisational
learning and development, assessment and coaching. Having served as a main board
Director of Training, External Examiner in HR to top ranking Business Schools, and
verifier of test competence in the British Psychological Society, Barry Cripps brings
his extensive experience of people assessment in the workplace to this book. Barry
Cripps’ practice is in Dartington, Devon.
Preface
We have both been engaged in psychological assessment in the workplace for some
years, in a variety of sectors, and also have extensive experience of using psychological
tests. We perceived a need for a book that would describe the best techniques for
psychological assessment, in a form accessible to managers.
Our account is intended to be research based and critical. There are some good
techniques for psychological assessment available; unfortunately there is also quite
a lot that is not really worth using. We aim to sort the wheat from the chaff, for the
guidance of line and HR managers. Our style of writing is intended to move away
from academic language to explain concepts in a language comprehensible to
managers.
In selecting research to describe, we have focused on ‘real’ workers and ‘real’
managers, and have avoided citing research that uses college students to simulate
managers or other workers, or uses laboratory simulations of work.
We would like to thank the many people who have helped us prepare this book.
First, we would like to thank the many researchers in the selection area who have
generously sent us accounts of research in press or in progress. Second, we would
like to thank the managers and students on training courses whose questions and
comments have helped us write this book. Third, we would like to thank Karen
Howard for her help with the illustrations used. Finally, we would like to thank the
Psychology team at John Wiley & Sons for their support and help.
Mark Cook
Barry Cripps
Psychological Assessment in the Workplact
Mark Cook and Barry Cripp:
Cowright 0 2005 John Wilev & Sons Ltc
CHAPTER 1
Assessment in the Workplace
OVERVIEW
• Nine general headings in what is assessed.
• A preliminary list of ways of assessing people.
• An overview of what is assessed, and how.
• How assessments should themselves be assessed.
• The concepts of consistency (or reliability) and accuracy (or validity) in
assessment.
• The correlation and what it means.
• Outlining some reasons why validity of assessment is sometimes low.
• The concepts of fairness and adverse impact in assessment.
• How to identify good work performance.
• How selection is currently practised in the UK, the USA and Europe.
INTRODUCTION
Consider the ideal employee, from the employer’s point of view. Mr/Ms Ideal is never
late, never ill, never argues, never refuses to undertake an assigned task, doesn’t join
a union, so doesn’t ‘go slow’ or ‘work to rule’ and certainly never goes on strike.
Mr/Ms Ideal works 100% of the time, always does every thing exactly right, but also
does everything very quickly. Where will the employer find such a paragon? In the
showroom of the nearest industrial robot supplier. But suppose we need a human
Mr/Ms Ideal. How do we set about finding him/her?
Think of someone in your organisation whom you consider is a real liability and
ask yourself:
• Why is he/she a liability?
• What does he/she do to make you think that?
2 PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
• How did we come to employ him/her in the first place?
• What selection assessments did we make?
Now let us take a more positive slant. Think of someone who is a real asset, the sort
of person you would definitely like more of, and ask yourself:
• Why is he/she an asset?
• What does he/she do to make you think that?
• How did we come to employ him/her in the first place?
• What selection assessments did we make?
Helping you get these decisions right is what the rest of this book is about. There are
four main issues:
• Why we assess.
• What to assess.
• How to assess it.
• How to assess the assessment.
WHY WE ASSESS
We can distinguish four main reasons for assessing people in the workplace:
• selection
• promotion
• downsizing
• formal appraisal.
Selection is difficult. We are trying to predict how well someone will work, over a
period of perhaps 10 years, on the basis of the information we can collect in a period
lasting from 30 minutes to at most 3 days. We are limited by ethics, the law and the
natural desire of applicants to present themselves in the best light.
Promotion and downsizing are logically the same as selection: we compare
what we need with what people have to offer. The main difference is we have—
or should have—much more, and much better, information. If someone has been
doing the job for 5 years, we should have a pretty clear idea of what they are like
and what they can do. Downsizing can be trickier than promotion for obvious
reasons.
These days most organisations in North America and the UK have performance
appraisal systems. Employees are formally assessed at regular intervals, and the
assessments used either to plan their training and development, or to determine their
pay and promotion.
ASSESSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE 3
WHAT TO ASSESS
The short answer to this is: ability to do the job. A more detailed answer is provided
by a competence analysis, which will list the main competencies that successful
employees need (see Chapter 7). We give here a general list of the main headings for
assessing staff:
• knowledge
• work skills
• social skills
• organisational fit
• required work behaviours
• physical characteristics
• mental ability
• personality
• interests and values.
Assessing Staff: General Attributes
Knowledge
Every job requires some knowledge. It may be high-level expertise, such as know-
ledge of current employment law, of human anatomy and physiology, or of aerody-
namics and materials science. Or it may be something very limited and basic that can be
acquired in a few minutes: where to find the broom and what to do with the rubbish
when you have swept it up. Sometimes the knowledge element is implicit: employers
tend to assume applicants can read and write, use telephones, give change etc. Know-
ledge can be acquired by training; so need not necessarily be a selection requirement.
Mastery of higher level knowledge may require higher level mental ability.
Work Skills
A skill is the ability to do something quickly and efficiently: bricklaying, heart sur-
gery, driving a vehicle, valuing a property etc. Skills can mostly only be acquired by
practice. Reading a book on driving does not enable you to drive, nor does watching
someone else drive. Employers sometimes select for skills, and sometimes train for
them. Mastery of some skills may require levels of mental or physical ability not
everyone has.
Some approaches to selection aim to assess only knowledge and skill(s), because they
are very specific, fairly easy to assess and generally uncontroversial. Some psycholo-
gists and some managers see limitations in this, because some jobs change so fast
that specific knowledge and skills may soon become out of date.
4 PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
Social Skills
Social skills are important for many jobs, and essential for some. Here is a selection
of words and phrases from job adverts: good communicator, gets on well with others,
persuasive, able to control or influence people, teamwork, leadership. These skills
are also sometimes called social intelligence, or currently emotional intelligence.
Organisational Fit
The term ‘organisational fit’ refers to whether the applicant’s outlook or behaviour
matches the organisation’s requirements. These can be explicit: soldiers are expected
to obey orders instantly and without question. Fit is often implicit: the applicant
does not sound or look ‘right for us’, but there is no written list of requirements, or
even a list that selectors can explain to you.
Required Work Behaviours
Examples of such behaviours are punctuality, health (avoiding) absence, theft, dis-
order, and drink and drug abuse. These are often overlooked by psychologists and
competence analysts, but all employers need people who come to work on time, and
who do not steal, start fights etc. Most organisations also want people who believe that
what the organisation does is useful and important, or who at least behave as if they do.
Physical Characteristics
Some jobs need specific physical abilities: strength, endurance, dexterity. Others
have more implicit requirements for height or appearance.
Managers are sometimes suspicious of formal competence or job analyses, because
they seem to leave important things out. Formal qualification in HRM, they argue, is
not the whole picture when selecting a good HR manager. Psychologists like to think
that what is left out is ability, personality, interest and values, which psychological
tests can assess. We should always be careful that ‘what’s left out’ does not turn out to
be ‘people like me’ or ‘white males like me’. There is always the risk that something
you cannot articulate very clearly might be something you are not allowed to select
for, for example, gender.
Mental Ability
Mental ability divides into general mental ability (or ‘intelligence’), and more specific
applied mental skills, for example problem solving, practical judgement, clerical
ability, mechanical comprehension etc.