Staffing

1. Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Chapter Staffing 4
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. SSttaaggeess ooff DDeevveellooppmmeenntt
 Characteristics of a business – such as its growth rate, product lines,
market share, entry opportunity, and technology – change with the
organization’s stage of development
 Four major stages of development:
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Embryonic (new organizations)
 High growth
 Mature
 Aging

4. The Link Between DDeevveellooppmmeenntt SSttaaggeess
&& SSttaaffffiinngg SSttrraatteeggiieess
 Embryonic Stage (new organizations)
 High growth rates, basic product lines, heavy emphasis on product
engineering, and little or no customer loyalty
 Management selection strategy:
 Entrepreneurs who thrive in high-risk environments
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

5. The Link Between DDeevveellooppmmeenntt SSttaaggeess
&& SSttaaffffiinngg SSttrraatteeggiieess
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 High-Growth Stage
 Refine and extend product lines; build customer loyalty
 Concerns: fighting for market share and building excellence in the
management team
 Management selection strategy
 Entrepreneurs for growth
 Growth directors to build stable management systems

6. The Link Between DDeevveellooppmmeenntt SSttaaggeess
&& SSttaaffffiinngg SSttrraatteeggiieess
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Mature
 Maintenance of market share, cost reductions through economies of
scale, more rigid management controls over workers’ actions, and the
generation of cash to develop new product lines
 Less flexibility and variability
 Management selection strategy
 Bureaucrats who are comfortable with repetition and can develop
economies of scale

7. The Link Between DDeevveellooppmmeenntt SSttaaggeess
&& SSttaaffffiinngg SSttrraatteeggiieess
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Aging
 Struggle to hold market share in a declining market, and extreme cost
control obtained through consistency and centralized procedures;
economic survival becomes the primary motivation
 Management selection strategy
 Entrepreneurs who will cut, reorganize, and survive

8. OOrrggaanniizzaattiioonnaall CCuullttuurree
 Culture is the pattern of basic assumptions a given group has
invented, discovered, or developed in learning to adapt both to its
external and internal environments
 Organizational culture is embedded and transmitted through
mechanisms such as the following:
 Formal statements of organizational philosophy and materials used for
recruitment, selection, and socialization of new employees
 Promotion criteria
 Stories, legends, and myths about key people and events
 What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control
 Implicit, and possibly unconscious, criteria that leaders use to
determine who fits key slots
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

9. The Implications ooff OOrrggaanniizzaattiioonnaall
CCuullttuurree ffoorr SSttaaffffiinngg DDeecciissiioonnss
 Cultures vary across organizations; individuals will consider this
information if it is available to them in their job-search process
 Recruiters assess person-job fit by focusing on specific knowledge,
skills, and abilities; they assess person-organization fit by focusing
more on values and personality characteristics
 Linking staffing decisions to cultural factors may ensure employees
have internalized the strategic intent and core values of the enterprise,
making it more likely that they will act in the interest of the company
and as dedicated team members, regardless of their formal job duties
 Individuals who choose jobs and organizations that are consistent
with their own values, beliefs, and attitudes are more likely to be
productive, satisfied employees
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10. Screening && SSeelleeccttiioonn MMeetthhooddss::
EEmmppllooyymmeenntt AApppplliiccaattiioonn FFoorrmmss
 Statistics show a relationship between applicant responses to
specific questions and later measures of job performance; these
weighted application blanks (WABs) are highly predictive
 High rate of accuracy for determining those who will stay on the job
longer
 Research has found that items “conventional wisdom” might suggest,
or those used by interviewers, did not predict employee turnover
accurately
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. Screening && SSeelleeccttiioonn MMeetthhooddss::
RReeccoommmmeennddaattiioonnss
 Evidence shows, unfortunately, that there is little candor, and
therefore, little value, in written recommendations and referrals,
especially those that must, by law, be revealed to applicants if they
petition to see them
 Meaningful recommendations include four major characteristics:
 Degree of writer familiarity with the candidate
 Degree of writer familiarity with the job in question
 Specific examples of performance
 Individuals or groups to whom the candidate is compared
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Screening && SSeelleeccttiioonn MMeetthhooddss::
RReeffeerreennccee CChheecckkss
 Request job-related information only
 Obtain written permission from the job candidate
 Stay away from subjective areas
When possible, use public records to evaluate on-the-job behavior
or personal conduct
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

13. Improving PPrree--EEmmppllooyymmeenntt IInntteerrvviieewwss
 Six ideas to shape interviewer behavior non-biased hiring:
 Focus only on the competencies necessary for the job, and distinguish
between entry-level and full-performance competencies
 Screen resumes and application forms by focusing on three elements:
 Key words that match job requirements
 Quantifiers and qualifiers that show whether applicants have these
requirements
 Skills that might transfer from previous jobs to the new job
 Develop interview questions that are strictly based on job analysis
results; use open-ended questions; and use questions relevant to the
individual’s ability to perform, motivation to do a good job, and
overall “fit” with the firm
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. Improving PPrree--EEmmppllooyymmeenntt IInntteerrvviieewwss
 Six ideas to shape interviewer behavior non-biased hiring
(continued)
 Consider asking “What would you do if...?” questions
 Conduct the interview in a relaxed physical setting
 Develop a form containing a list of competencies weighted for overall
importance to the job, and evaluate each applicant relative to each
competency
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

15. Work-Sample TTeessttss && SSttaaffffiinngg DDeecciissiioonnss
Work-sample tests, or situational tests, are standardized measures
of behavior whose primary objective is to assess the ability to do
rather than the ability to know
 Difficult to fake since they are miniature replicas of actual job
requirements
 Unlikely to lead to charges of discrimination or invasion of privacy
 Produce smaller minority/non-minority group differences in
performance, along with modest losses in predictive validity; however,
since the content of the test reflects the essential content of the job, the
tests demonstrate content-oriented evidence of validity
 Not cost-effective when large numbers of people must be evaluated
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

16. Most Popular SSiittuuaattiioonnaall TTeessttss
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Leaderless Group Discussion
 A group of participants is given a job-related topic and is asked simply
to carry on a discussion about it for a period of time
 No one is appointed leader; no one is told where to sit
 Observers rate the performance of each participant according to preset
characteristics
 Accurately forecasts managerial performance in virtually all the
functional areas of business

17. Most Popular SSiittuuaattiioonnaall TTeessttss
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 In-Basket Test
 A situational test designed to simulate important aspects of a position,
the “in-basket” tests an individual’s ability to work independently
 The job candidate does not say what he would do; he/she performs the
tasks as though he/she were actually on the job
 Scores are determined by describing or evaluating what the candidate did
in terms of such dimensions as self-confidence, organizational and
planning abilities, written communications, decision making, risk taking,
and administrative abilities
 Major advantages
 Flexibility to fit many types of situations and modes of administration
 Permits direct observation of individual behavior within the context of
job-relevant, standardized problem situations

18. Most Popular SSiittuuaattiioonnaall TTeessttss
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Business Game
 A living case in which candidates play themselves, not an assigned
role, and are evaluated within a group
 Major advantages
 Flexibility to fit many different types of situations
 Compressed time – events that might not actually occur for months or
years are made to occur in a matter of hours
 Interesting because of their realism, their competitive nature, and the
immediacy and objectivity of their feedback
 Increased understanding of complex interrelationships among
organizational units

19. Most Popular SSiittuuaattiioonnaall TTeessttss
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Business Game (continued)
 Drawbacks
 In the context of training, some participants may become so engrossed in
“beating the system” that they fail to grasp the underlying management
principles being taught
 Creative approaches to solving problems presented by the game may be
stifled

20. TThhee AAsssseessssmmeenntt CCeenntteerr
 A method that evaluates a candidate’s potential for management
based on three sources:
 Multiple assessment techniques
 Standardized methods of making inferences from such techniques,
because assessors are trained to distinguish between effective and
ineffective behaviors by the candidates
 Pooled judgments from multiple assessors to rate each candidate’s
behavior
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

21. AAddvvaannttaaggeess iinn tthhee
UUssee ooff AAsssseessssmmeenntt CCeenntteerrss
 May be used in a wide variety of settings and for a variety of
purposes
 May be tailored to the characteristics of a specific job
 In addition to evaluating and selecting managers, the method may be
used for other purposes
 Train and upgrade management skills
 Encourage creativity among research and engineering professionals
 Resolve interpersonal and interdepartmental conflicts
 Assist individuals in career planning
 Train managers in performance appraisal
 Provide information for workforce planning and organization design
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Cost-effective

22. Potential PPrroobblleemmss wwiitthh tthhee
UUssee ooff AAsssseessssmmeenntt CCeenntteerrss
 Adoption of the assessment center method without analyzing the
need for it and without adequate preparation to use it wisely
 Blind acceptance of assessment data without considering other
information on candidates, such as past and current performance
 The tendency to rate only general “exercise effectiveness,” rather
than performance relative to individual behavioral dimensions, as
the number of dimensions exceeds the ability of assessors to
evaluate each dimension individually
 Lack of control over the information generated during assessment.
 Failure to evaluate the utility of the program in terms of dollar
benefits relative to costs
 Inadequate feedback to participants
Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.