Take a stand on whether banding is effective, ethical, and/or useful for organization or not and present some evidence to back your stance.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

This volume clearly shows that HR researchers and practitioners in favor of and against the use of banding to interpret test scores hold very strong opinions. For example, Schmidt and Hunter (2004) argued that banding is internally logically contradictory and thus scientifically unacceptable. Guion (2004) offered reasons why the topic of banding is controversial (e.g., the emotionally charged topic of affirmative action, potential conflict between research and organizational goals), and Cascio, Goldstein, Outtz, and Zedeck (2004) offered counterarguments addressing 18 objections raised against the use of banding, including objections regarding measurement, scientific validity, statistical, and legal issues, among others. Laczo and Sackett (2004) studied expected outcomes (e.g., utility, diversity considerations) resulting from the adoption of different selection rules including eight selection strategies (i.e., top–down and various forms of banding). On a related issue, Schmitt and Oswald (2004) addressed the question of how much importance is being placed on (1) the construct underlying test scores (e.g., general cognitive ability) and on (2) secondary criteria used in banding (e.g., ethnicity) in the selection decision, and examined the outcomes of such decisions.
In the end, as noted by Murphy (2004), whether an organization or individual supports the use of banding is likely to reflect broader conflicts in interests, values, and assumptions about human resource selection. For example, self-interest (i.e., the link between banding and affirmative action and whether the use of banding is likely to improve or diminish one’s chances of being selected for a job) has been found to be related to reactions to banding (Truxillo & Bauer, 1999). Another consideration is that, ironically, implementing banding can lead to negative consequences precisely for the individuals that banding is intending to benefit the most (i.e., women, members of ethnic minority groups). For example, Heilman, Simon, and Repper (1987) found that women who believed they were selected for a leadership position primarily on the basis of their gender rather than merit reported negative self-perceptions. More recent research has shown that these deleterious effects may be weakening and may also not apply to members of ethnic minorities (Stewart & Shapiro, 2000).