The document summarizes a research meeting on personnel recruitment and selection focused on job knowledge. It discusses several key findings: 1) Job knowledge is a major determinant of job performance, more so than general mental ability (GMA). Tests focused on job-specific knowledge have higher validity than general off-the-shelf tests. 2) Content-related evidence for validity involves rationally examining how well a predictor samples the performance domain. Construct validation requires showing a test measures a critical construct for job performance. 3) The Center of Job Knowledge Research was presented which studies job knowledge as a key driver of economic success that is under-researched in personnel selection. The Center develops job knowledge tests and training platforms for

1. 8th Dutch-Flemish Research Meeting on Personnel
Recruitment and Selection
October 18,2013
Job Knowledge Based Personnel Selection
& The Center of Job knowledge Research
Stefan Mol

2. Criterion
Related
Validity
Content
Related
Validity
Construct
Related
Validity

3. Content
Related
Validity
Construct
Related
Validity
Criterion
Related
Validity

4. Job Knowledge
Criterion
Related
Validity
“…people who are more intelligent learn
more job knowledge and learn it faster,
the major determinant of job performance
is not GMA but job knowledge” (Schmidt
and Hunter, 2001).
GMA Job knowledge
Job
Performance

5. “Validity is nearly twice as high for job specific
tests than for of the-shelf tests. In fact, the
levels for locally developed tests appear to
rival those of general ability tests” (Dye, Reck
& McDaniel, 1993,p. 156).
ρ=.62, k =59, N=3965
Job Knowledge
Criterion
Related
Validity
GMA Job knowledge
Job
Performance

6. “Content-related evidence of validity
has traditionally involved … rational
examination of the manner in which
the performance domain is sampled by
the predictor” (Binning & Barrett, 1989,
p. 482).
Job Knowledge
Criterion
Related
Validity
Content
Related
Validity

7. Job knowledge: According to the APA
publication manual which statistics do
you need to report in a regression
analysis table?
GMA: How smart do you need to be to
publish an article?
Job Knowledge
Criterion
Related
Validity
Content
Related
Validity

8. Job Knowledge
“construct validation and theory
development imply the same basic
process….” “If it can be shown that a
test measures a specific construct …
that has been determined to be critical
for job performance…, then inferences
about job performance from test scores
are by logical implication justified”
(Binning and Barrett, 1989, p.487, p.
480
Criterion
Related
Validity
Content
Related
Validity
Construct
Related
Validity

9. Job Knowledge
Criterion
Related
Validity
Content
Related
Validity
Construct
Related
Validity
Job Performance Specificity
1 2 43 65 87 9
Substantiation
Job Knowledge Specificity
124 36 58 79

11. Unequivocally Job Specific (albeit more portable for more related occupations)
Undeniably Job General
Job Specific – Job
General
Job
Knowledge
Job
Performance
GMA
Education

12. Center of Job Knowledge Research
• Why CJKR? Because job knowledge…
• Is among the most important yet least understood
individual level drivers of the knowledge economy
• Is imperative to successfully match people to jobs but
largely neglected in personnel selection research
• Is an ultimate outcome against which both education and
training must be evaluated
• Is a means to ensure public spending on education
enhances graduates’ opportunities, fit, and
accomplishment on the labor market
www.jobknowledge.eu

13. A personnel selection and training platform that takes
an individualized approach to the assessment and
development of job knowledge of ICT Systems analysts
www.ontohr.eu

14. Transfer of innovation: Development of job knowledge
test and training platform for nurses
www.med-assess.eu

15. OntoTech
Extending portfolio of ICT Job Knowledge Tests
for purposes of curriculum diagnostics and
development

16. UvAInform
Learning analytics is “the measurement, collection,
analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their
contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing
learning and the environments in which it occurs”
(SOLAR 2012).
Internal UvA project aimed at the pan-university
development of an educational data informed goal
setting interface.

19. • GITP
• Randstad Holding
• ECORYS
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUT)
• Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI)
• Corvinus University of Budapest (CUB)
• Ericsson
• European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN)
• European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (EUROFOUND)
• Labour Asociados
• Netpositive
• University of Alicante (UAL)
• Wageindicator

20. Development of Job Knowledge Tests:
Implications
• Focus on idiosyncratic job knowledge
requirements
– Requires use of inductive, interpretive research
methods or BIG data
• Implications for status and acceptance of such
research within the personnel psychology
community

21. Job Knowledge as Matchmaker
• Connecting:
– HRM, eLearning, Knowledge Management, Labour
Economics (foster collaboration)
– Academia and industry (Science and practice)
– Employees and workplaces (Enhanced Matching)
– Policy and Education (Training)
– Government and Labor Market (Needs analysis)

22. Stakeholders
• Policy makers
• Educators
• Selection experts
• Job Applicants
• Job incumbents
• Jobless
• Immigrants
• Older workers
• Selection Theorists