Human Resource Management

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Sociology - Work Education Organisation grade: Grade A University of Manchester (Institute for Development Policy and Management) language: English abstract: Two simple facts force any organisation to carefully select the people it employs. Firstly people differ widely in their abilities knowledge interests and personality. Secondly the jobs provided by the organisation vary in their demands. Thus choosing the 'right' person for a job becomes a crucial factor in ensuring an effective workforce and competitive advantages. The objective of selection processes is finding the most capable and suitable candidate i.e. that candidate who is most likely to deliver the best performance on the job. To achieve this objective a wide range of selection methods has been developed. But despite a variety of methods many organisations if not the majority of organisations stick to the 'classic trio' of selection and rely on application forms references and unstructured interviews only. Certainly there is every reason to believe that there are some undeniable advantages in making the 'classic trio' attractive to many organisations. But at the same time the 'classic trio' is criticised for a number of considerable shortcomings and a low efficiency compared to other selection methods. In the following the advantages and disadvantages of the 'classic trio' will be briefly sketched. The main criteria guiding the analysis will be reliability validity practicality generality fairness and costs of the selection methods. Afterwards some alternative selection methods will be reviewed and their competitive advantages over the 'classic trio' will be outlined. We will analyse how job analysis data can help organisations to choose appropriate selection methods. Finally a number of possible reasons for resistance to the implementation of alternative selection methods will be considered and an approach to overcome this resistance