Discuss how OR can affect decisions regarding using cognitive ability tests and banding solutions (and/or other selection issues pertaining to diversity).

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Varies. For example, consider the areas of test-score banding discussed in Chapter 8. The traditional approach to staffing decision-making is to use a strict top–down procedure in which selection is made based on who obtained the highest test score(s). However, those involved in staffing decisions face a paradoxical situation because using general cognitive abilities and other valid predictors of job performance leads to adverse impact (Aguinis & Smith, 2007). Consequently, users of selection instruments face what seems to be a catch-22: choosing to use general cognitive abilities tests and risk decreasing the diversity of an organization’s workforce, or choosing to use predictors that will not diminish diversity, but are not as valid as cognitive abilities tests. Based on this description, the situation seems the classical “win–lose” scenario of pitting social versus economic performance in a mutually exclusive manner. As discussed in Chapter 8, test-score banding was proposed as a method to solve this apparent dilemma because it is an alternative to the strict top–down selection strategy that often leads to adverse impact. Banding is based on the premise that an observed difference in the scores of two job applicants may be the result of measurement error instead of actual differences in the construct that is measured. Consequently, if it cannot be determined with a reasonable amount of certainty that two applicants differ on the construct underlying a predictor or criterion score, then there may be little reason to believe that they differ with respect to job performance. In other words, banding groups applicants who have “indistinguishable” scores. Consequently, job applicants who fall within the same band are considered equally qualified for the job in question. Therefore, choices can then be made among these “equivalent” applicants based on criteria other than test scores, such as diversity considerations. The case of test-score banding, although not labeled as such in the HRM literature, is an example of SRM in which the organization considers both economic and social interests.