Analyzing Judgments of Ethnically Diverse Applicants During Personnel Selection: A study at the Dutch police

Abstract

A judgment-analysis study was used to investigate assessors' judgment processes, evaluating ethnic minority vs ethnic majority applicants. Sixteen ethnic majority assessors judged 5089 applicants during the Dutch police officer selection procedure, with each assessor judging 30 ethnic minority applicants minimally. Information from an employment interview, an assessment center, and a Big Five personality test were combined into a final selection advice. Results showed that as much as or more information sources were used to judge ethnic minority than ethnic majority applicants. Furthermore, a larger number of irrelevant cues were used for the judgment of ethnic minority applicants. Finally, when judging ethnic minority applicants, assessors based their decision to a lesser extent on their own ratings than on ratings of others.

Criterion‐Related Validity of Dutch Police‐Selection Measures and Differences Between Ethnic Groups

“…These scores are integrated into an employment recommendation. The dimensions in the final recommendation are: Communication Skills, Social Skills, Empathy, Initiative, Flexibility, Stress Tolerance, Authority, Decisiveness, Tolerance Towards Others, Integrity, and Self-Understanding (for definitions, see De Meijer, Van Zielst, and Van der Molen, 2007). A seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (extremely weak) to 7 (excellent) is used to evaluate the behavior on the 11 dimensions.…”

Managers’ Evaluations of Immigrant Job Applicants

“…Several recent studies have shown evidence of unfavorable employment decisions based on subtle forms of discrimination (Regmi, Naidoo, & Regmi, 2009) and negative stereotypic attitudes held against immigrant job applicants (Agerström & Rooth, 2008;Cotton, O'Neill, & Griffin, 2007). de Meier, Born, Zielst, and van der Molen (2007) argue that interviewers' unfamiliarity with foreign-born applicants' culture and traditions, as well as lack of experience with interviewing foreign-born applicants, increase the risk of stereotypic activation and biased employment decisions. They found that even highly experienced recruiters were less secure of their own judgments, used more sources of information, and relied on a larger number of irrelevant cues when evaluating ethnic minority applicants compared to ethnic majority applicants.…”

When your resume is (not) turning you down: Modelling ethnic bias in resume screening

“…Predominantly discussed in interviewing studies, some show more experienced recruiters to be less biased towards stigmatised applicants, whereas others show more bias. De Meijer, Born, van Zielst, and van der Molen (), for instance, found that experienced recruiters used more irrelevant information when judging ethnic minorities, perhaps because they feel overconfident and hence, engage in Type 1 processing.…”

“…There is, nevertheless, an ongoing debate about the validity of implicit attitude measures and whether any relation with behaviour can be expected and established outside the lab(Oswald, Mitchell, Blanton, Jaccard, & Tetlock, 2015).Finally, there is also a debate about the role of decision-makers' expertise. Predominantly discussed in interviewing studies, some show more experienced recruiters to be less biased towards stigmatised applicants, whereas others show more bias De Meijer, Born, van Zielst, and van der Molen (2007),. for instance, found that experienced recruiters used more irrelevant information when judging ethnic minorities, perhaps because they feel overconfident and hence, engage in Type 1 processing.…”