To write this essay you can use the macro or micro approach. If you are using a macro approach you can write more generally, but if you use a micro approach you should focus on a specific part of the process. I would prefer you use a micro approach and focus on some specific areas like cognitive ability testing or personality testing. For instance, in the course, we covered a couple of articles that are attached here that talk about how minorities don’t perform as well on cognitive ability testing as white people. So you can use that and unpack that a bit further (see 2 PDFs with the title “week 4”). BUT – please don’t make it a racial and racial only type of essay.
You are welcome to use headings as you see fit, but this is not compulsory. Some guiding questions to help you unpack the question and structure the essay: • What is the mainstream ‘best practice, evidence-based’ approach to designing a selection process? Describe the key steps in the selection process, paying particular attention to the mainstream literature on assessment methods and how choices should be made in relation to which methods to include in a selection process. (I suggest using Plint & Patterson selection process). See PDF document attached here. The name of the file is “IMPORTANT 1”. Please read that PDF entirely. It’s only 5 pages. • Consider the extent to which a ‘best practice, evidence-based’ selection process can be considered to be ‘fair’. You should aim to demonstrate an understanding of how ‘fairness’ is discussed and debated within a) the mainstream literature and b) the critical literature. Is fairness about neutrality and objectivity and if so, then how can this be achieved and what are the limitations to this approach? What assumptions does the mainstream approach to selection and assessment make about ‘selecting the right person for the right job’? Or is fairness about social justice and therefore relates to tackling social inequalities? To what extent does the mainstream selection process, with its different assessment methods, help advance this aim of challenging social inequalities in organisations?
• Critically evaluate a variety of commonly used techniques for selecting and assessing people. Some assessment techniques we covered in our lectures include 1) Cognitive ability testing and 2) Personality testing. Methods of selections we covered include CV, Application forms, References, Interviews (Structured and Unstructured).
• Critically evaluate the concepts and approaches to selection and assessment
• Understand the psychological, social, relational, and political processes in the research and practice of selection and assessment
• Critically evaluate the extent to which selection and assessment research and practice can be considered inclusive and fair
• The module made a case from a critical perspective that an understanding of diversity in the workplace is incomplete without taking into account: 1) Unequal power relations between workers and employers, 2) Issues of power, control, and politics come into play in selection and assessment (including in decision-making), 3) Workers’ unequal access to resources due to structural inequalities (maintained by social hierarchy and domination – racialized, gendered, nationalist, ableist, ageist), rather than due to ‘deficits’ or ‘shortcomings’ of the individual workers. Two principles underpinning selection and assessment in organisations:
• Principle 1: There are individual differences between people (aptitude, skills, and other personal qualities). Therefore, people are not equally suited to all jobs. Procedures for matching people to jobs could have important organisational benefits.
• Principle 2: Future behavior is (at least partly) predictable. The goal is then to match people to jobs and use procedures to provide means of estimating the likely future job performance of candidates. The belief that future job performance can be estimated is an important facet of this principle.
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