Search results

This paper considers the nature of “best practice” recruitment and selection in the hotel sector. Data from a sample of Scottish hotels indicate a reliance on informal methods, particularly in smaller hotels. In larger and chain hotels, structured procedures, including references, application forms and panel interviews, are evident, but, here too, these methods seem inadequate for dealing with recruitment and quality problems, especially in meeting temporary staffing needs. Case study evidence contrasts two alternative strategies: a successful holistic strategy based on management of social processes important for selection, and a more conventional bureaucratic strategy. Each strategy depends on a complex interrelationship between business and labour market considerations, the ownership and management structure of the hotel, and the tenure and experience of those responsible for selection. This evidence indicates that, for the hotel industry, the holistic strategy is an alternative to conventional notions

This purpose of this paper is to present a tool for facilitating personnel selection when multiple heterogeneous human resource managers use multiple criteria. Two problems result from such a situation. First, when multiple criteria are applied, it is unusual for one candidate to dominate the other candidates in all areas, which requires assigning weights to the different criteria to be able to rank the candidates. Second, in a heterogeneous selection committee, finding weights that accurately reflect the individual preferences of all members is difficult.

To deal with the multidimensional setting of selecting personnel, this paper introduces data envelopment analysis with assurance region (DEA-AR) to determine individually optimal weights for each applicant.

DEA-AR leads to a score for each applicant that can serve as a signal for productivity and, thus, for evaluating the candidate. Based on linear programming, DEA-AR not only aggregates multiple dimensions into a single score but also incorporates managers’ preferences. In addition, the procedure is transparent and fair. It seems to be highly appropriate for selecting personnel. Based on a simulated dataset of applicants, the use of DEA-AR for selecting personnel is illustrated and discussed.

DEA-AR provides a tool for supporting personnel selection or pre-selection. This model is based on a mechanical procedure and considers managers’ ideas about weights.

I begin by examining some ways in which organisations have attempted to improve their recruitment and selection procedures to minimise bias and unfair discrimination, and focus on the assessment centre as a potentially useful technique in this respect, especially for managerial selection. I go on to examine the assessment centre in more detail, including its origins, construction and uses, before discussing the strong evidence for its validity as a selection and assessment procedure. I then describe some recent British innovations in assessment centre design and practice, especially in its use for management and organisation development purposes, before discussing some of my own recent research, in collaboration with Ivan Robertson and Usha Rout, on participants' attitudes towards the use of assessment centres for selection and development purposes, including gender differences in attitudes.

Differs from previous studies of managerial selection methods. Focuses wholly on the activities of external executive recruitment consultancies. Results are presented from two major surveys on the use of selection methods by such consultancies: in general they use low validity techniques, primarily unstructured interviews and references. Low validity selection methods may be used because validity is not the primary “evaluative standard”. Suggests five alternative “evaluative standards”.

HRM in Greece is in a state of rapid development, as well as fundamental change. With the end of 1992, and the Single European Market approaching, larger firms are upgrading their personnel practices, and personnel managers currently enjoy an increasingly high status. More sophistication is being added to recruitment and selection methods; training is being offered to a considerable number of employees; employee relations are improving and moving towards a stage of consensus and co‐operation. Meanwhile, smaller companies, realizing the importance of HRM, are turning to consultancy firms for advice. Efforts are also being made in the public sector to introduce measures for improving productivity and employee morale. The overall picture appears very favourable for an increase in the significance of HRM in Greece and for the strengthening of its practice.

A “critical case” approach is used to examine whether the recruitment practices and procedures advocated by social scientists within the personnel field are realised in practice. The “critical case” selected is the graduate recruitment known as the “milkround”, where “scientific techniques” in theory stand the best chance of being used. In practice a major discrepancy between theory and practice was found, which is explained in terms of the preoccupation with material and symbolic security that conditions the actions of personnel managers in competitively co‐ordinated employment establishments.

The impetus for this paper was the recognition, based on recent surveys and our own experiences, that organizations face special challenges when designing and validating selection procedures for information technology (IT) workers. The history of the IT industry, the nature of IT work, and characteristics of IT workers converge to make the selection of IT workers uniquely challenging. In this paper, we identify these challenges and suggest means of addressing them. We show the advantages offered by the modern view of validation that endorses a wide spectrum of probative information relevant to establishing the job relatedness and business necessity of IT selection procedures. Finally, we identify the implications of these issues for industrial/organizational psychologists, human resource managers, and managers of IT workers.

This paper presents the case for personnel systems based on maximizing the differential information gathered about individual abilities and their match to jobs. In the context of assignment to multiple jobs, such systems are shown to be more effective than those based on the currently dominant paradigm of maximizing predictive validity. The latter paradigm favours the measurement of general cognitive ability over multiple specific aptitudes. Recent differential approaches use computer simulation modelling of alternative hypothetical systems to evaluate potential efficiency. The paper reviews the theoretical background on the structure of human abilities which has led to these contrasting approaches to personnel system design, and presents evidence, based on the US Army selection and classification system, in support of the alternative approach. Individual test/aptitude profiles improve the efficiency of personnel selection and classification as well as academic, vocational and career counselling. They also provide a broader, potentially fairer definition of talent than a unidimensional indicator of cognitive ability, and a foundation for the design of learning and decision environments around learner and user profiles.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Personnel Review is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Career/Manpower Planning and Recruitment; Health and Safety; Industrial Relations and Participation; Pay, Incentives and Pensions; Performance, Productivity and Motivation; Work Patterns.