Selection criteria and the impact of personality on getting hired

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Based on an earlier policy-capturing study of the Big Five personality traits and general mental ability, this paper explores and analyzes the hiring preference of Hong Kong employers across five important personal attributes, including not only personality but also practical skill dimensions. The preferences and trade-offs of 300 experienced recruiters were obtained via conjoint analysis, a theoretically grounded statistical tool that is used to discompose and analyze decisions, for assessing the hiring decisions for entry-level professional positions. Among knowledge, skills, abilities, and personality, the personality of a candidate has a relatively greater impact on the hiring decision. Three of the Big Five personality traits were elected from among five major hiring attributes for effective performance, with conscientiousness being the most dominant attribute across all eight major industries. The other attributes, in order of importance, include English communication skills, openness to new experiences, academic performance, and agreeableness. Discrepancies between intended and actual decisions were also addressed by comparing the results with self-reported ratings.Sun Tzu's Art of War argues that if you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you know neither others nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every battle. For recent graduates, getting hired can mean winning the first important battle in their career. To win, a graduate needs to know what employers demand and what he/she can supply in return. With business downsizing, today's leaner organizations need to hire "high-value" individuals to maximize the contribution of their human assets. Despite the current uncertain employment market, there are still many excellent opportunities for qualified university graduates who possess the skills and traits for which employers are searching.A great deal of published research on selection has been geared towards understanding the relationship between personality constructs and job performance (Barrick and Mount, 1991;Goldberg, 1990;Hough et al., 1990). Certain ...

Relative Importance of False Positives in the Selection Process

“…Similar to previous findings, Moy & Lam (2004) report decision-makers only have a moderate degree of understanding regarding their own decisions. Results showed discrepancies between what recruiters said was important in making decisions and the way in which they actually weighed them in their assessment of the candidates (Moy & Lam, 2004).…”

“…In other words, how raters felt they made decisions was not how they actually made them. Moy & Lam (2004) conducted a similar study in Hong Kong and somewhat replicated these results. First, like the policy capturing study by Dunn et al (1995), conscientiousness of applicants was a very important criteria for hirability.…”

“…Results showed discrepancies between what recruiters said was important in making decisions and the way in which they actually weighed them in their assessment of the candidates (Moy & Lam, 2004). In the self-reported results, agreeableness ranked as the second most important attribute used in making judgments.…”

Chapter 4 Personality, affect, and organizational change: a qualitative study

“…The most widely accepted model of personality is the Big Five (Digman, 1990;McCrae & Costa, 1987;McCrae & John, 1992) which includes all traits in one of five broad categories: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The Big Five model has been used in various organizational applications, such as performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991), selection (Moy & Lam, 2004), emotional intelligence (Vakola, Tsaoussis & Nikolaou, 2004) and leadership (Judge, Bono, Ilies & Gerhardt, 2002).…”

A cross-sectional investigation of the relationships education, certification, and experience have with knowledge, skills, and abilities among aviation professionals

“…Employees currently occupying a position can assist in the identification of important KSAs for that position (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2011). The match of an employee's KSAs has been used as a major hiring criterion for the past three decades (Kristof-Brown, 2000;Moy & Lam, 2004). A mismatch occurs from incorrect coupling of a person's needs, interests, abilities, personality, and expectations with a job's characteristics, rewards, and the organization (Mathis et al, 2011).…”