Developments in Personnel Selection Methodology

Abstract

Personnel selection constitutes a well-known example of the application of measurement theory and methods to practical problems. For a long time, “applied measurement” was synonymous with personnel selection. Even today there is a profitable cross-fertilization between psychometrics and personnel selection. In the past, personnel selection has benefited several times—and with encouraging results—from various psychometric concepts and procedures, such as the development of paper-and-pencil tests and everything associated, reliability and validity concepts, application of decision theory, and operations research. Another recent example is validity generalization (see chapter 6 in this book). It can be noted, too, that several subjects have drawn the attention of psychometricians after they were discovered in the application field of personnel selection. Examples such as restriction of range, stability of regression parameters, utility analysis, and the definition of criteria are just a few of these subjects. The relationship between personnel selection and measurement theory has been fruitful and will continue to be so, as we will hope to show in this chapter.