Staffing Measurement

Do individuals making staffing decisions have an ethical responsibility to know measurement issues? Why or why not?

I feel that individuals making staffing decisions have some ethical responsibility to know measurement issues, because they have to be able to accurately rate employees attributes and KSAO's required to do a certain job. Knowledge of measurement issues will allow an organization and its HR department to administer tests, evaluations and interviews and select their new employees by being able to measure scores and ratings without biased opinions. This would make the selection process more of a subjective or objective decision. Individuals who have ethical knowledge of staffing measurements will be able to implement standardization in staffing decisions to make an organization ethical in all of their decisions of selecting the appropriate candidate for the position.

Describe how you might go about determining scores for applicants' responses to: a. interview questions, b. letters of recommendation, and c. questions about previous work experience.

I would use a subjective measure to determine an applicant's response to interview questions. Measuring subjectively will allow you to rate and base responses to questions on a more individual basis. At my place of employment, we have standardized questions when it comes to the interview process, but it also allows the rater to put their personal perception about how the candidate answered the question. As scoring for letters of recommendation, I never really thought about having to actually score a letter of recommendation. If I had to I would probably use the nominal measurement. I choose nominal because there is not really a level that the letters have to come up to. It's basically how the rater reads the letter and what qualifications or characteristics they are looking for. In my opinion, I don't think there is a level letters have to come up to. No letter is higher or lower than the other. I would log the letters as a part of the application process, and use as back up references for the candidate during the interview process. With questions of previous work experience, I would use objective and ordinal measurements. I would definitely come up with some standardized questions for this portion of the selection process. I would make sure that the questions are ethical, as not to have legal issues, but I will also have some sort of rating system in place so that I can have measurable results on an applicant's previous work experience.

Is it unethical for an employer to use a selection measure that has high empirical validity but lacks content validity?

I do not feel that it is unethical to use a selection method that has high empirical validity but lacks content validity. On the contrary, I think that it would not be possible to have one without