Synopses & Reviews
Popular with students, academics and professionals alike, this is the fourth edition of
Personnel Selection. A thoughtful, entertaining and comprehensive text, this edition has been thoroughly revised to focus on the key issues and the latest research in this rapidly developing field.
Features of the fourth edition include:
- The use of the internet in job application, recruitment and assessment.
- How job analysis is changing to meet changing concepts of the nature of work, leading to an increasing emphasis on broader abilities and dispositions.
- The big five model in personality: new measures, new reviews of selection research, links to job analysis, the use of broad factors vs. more specific facets.
- The problem of faking in personality questionnaires: its extent and its impact on selection decisions.
- The effectiveness of teams (as opposed to individuals) in terms of personality and ability.
- Adverse impact in selection, especially education, interview, biodata, assessment centres, personality tests, honesty tests.
This book is essential reading for students and professionals in occupational psychology and HR who are interested in relating research to the real world practice of personnel selection.
Comments on the third edition:
"Easy to read, a comprehensive and unmissable guide for students of Occupational Psychology."
—Melanie Mitchell, Department of Psychology, Sunderland Business School
"This book can be confidently recommended as up to date, clear and engagingly written."
—Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
About the Author
Mark Cook is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist at the Centre for Occupational Research, in Swansea and London. He has 25 years of experience in selection, appraisal and related training
Table of Contents
Preface to the first edition.
Preface to the fourth edition.
1. Old and new selection methods
We’ve always done it this way.
2. Job description and job analysis
If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.
3. The interview
I know one when I see one.
4. References and ratings
The eye of the beholder.
5. Weighted application blanks and biodata
How old were you when you learned to swim?
6. Tests of mental ability
‘a. . .man of paralysing stupidity. . .’
7. Personality tests
Total awareness of bottom-line vitality.
8. Assessment centers
Does your face fit?
9. Work samples and other methods
Education, work samples, physique, in trays, T & E ratings, drug use testing and self-ratings.
10. Validity
How do you know it works?
11. Criteria of productivity
We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re doing it very carefully.
12. Minorities, fairness and the law
Getting the numbers right.
13. The value of good employees
The best is twice as good as the worst.
14. Conclusions
Calculating the cost of smugness.
References.
Index.