K-Mart Company’s Human Resource Selection Process Research Paper

Introduction

The different factors of the selection processes that we aim to discuss in this paper are value of interview, personality assessment, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, and induction process. All these processes are an integral part of the interview process as they help in shaping the candidate’s perspective about the company. In this paper, we will discuss each in detail drawing relevance from theory, current research and the interviews we conducted at K-Mart of managers and employees. The flow of the paper will be based on discussion of value of interview, personality assessment, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, and induction process in the same given order discussion g the above mention points.

Value of Interview

The process of interviewing candidates is a device which assess person organization fitment (Chatman, 1991; Judge & Ferris, 1992). Interviews enables organizations and job applicants to interact through an organizational representative, i.e. the recruiter, and allows each party to determine if the other demonstrates fitting values and interests (Bowen, Ledford, & Nathan, 1991). Interviews also readily declare the goal of locating and hiring applicants who fit (Rynes & Gerhart, 1990).

The objective of any selection interview is to predict the candidate’s probable behaviour in a particular job situation. The only way this can be done with any accuracy is by obtaining a sample of his behaviour sufficiently typical to act as a basis for forecasting what he or she will do in the future. A major problem is that the behaviour we observe during the short period of the interview may be uncharacteristic. An experienced individual, for instance, may well be able to give the impression of being quite dynamic if he/she has only to keep it up for half an hour. Thus it is necessary to supplement the behaviour which can be observed directly in face-to-face contact.

Ellis, West, Ryan, and DeShon (2002, p. 1200) have shown there doubts regarding the validity of traditional interview process and say that the effectiveness of interviews have been developed and become more successful after the evolution of structured interviews.

Personality Assessment

Personality refers to the relatively stable patterns of behaviours and consistent internal states that explain a person’s behavioural tendencies (McShane, S. & Travaglione, T. 2007). Personality has both internal and external elements. External traits are the observable behaviours that we rely on to identify some ones personality. For example we can see that a person is extroverted by the way he or she interacts with other people. The internal states represent the thoughts, values and genetic characteristics that we infer from the observable behaviour. Experts continue to debate the extent to which the personality is genetically coded through evolution or shaped from childhood and other early life experiences. Personality is said to explain behavioural tendencies, because individual’s actions are not perfectly consistent with their personality profile in every situation. Personality traits are less evident in situations where social norms, reward system and other conditions restrict people’s behaviour. For example, talkative people remain relatively quiet in a library where ‘no talking’ rules are explicit and strictly enforced.

Personality tests are important for the process of selection as they provide employers the valid fit of the candidate with the organizational requirements. Interviewers usually use the Big Five model of personality to categorize candidates in certain personality trait and then analyze his/her fitment in the organization. Interviewers’ prevalent beliefs that they can accurately assess personality characteristics have been called the interview illusion and have been interpreted as evidence of the fundamental attribution error (Gilovich, 1991).

IQ Test

An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence. According to Schmidt and Hunter, “for hiring employees without previous experience in the job the most valid predictor of future performance is general mental ability.” (Schmidt and Hunter 1998) IQ mostly correlates with cognitive ability only if IQ scores are below average and this rule has many (about 30 %) exceptions for people with average and higher IQ scores (Diaz-Asper, Schretlen and Pearlson 2004). Also, IQ is related to the “academic tasks” (auditory and linguistic measures, memory tasks, academic achievement levels) and much less related to tasks where even precise motor functions are required (Warner, Ernst, Townes, Peel, and Preston, 1987).

Induction

Induction is the process through which a new employee is integrated into the organisation, learning about its corporate culture, policies and procedures, and the specifics of their new job. Induction should not be viewed in isolation but should be treated as an extension of the selection process and the beginning of a continuing staff development programme. Rather than a mere one day introduction, induction should be planned and paced over several days or weeks, marking the beginning of the new employee’s personal and professional development within the organisation, and allowing the employees to integrate into the organisation.

K-Mart and Selection Processes

K-Mart was opened in Australia in 1969. The first Australian discount department store was opened in Burwood, Victoria. The store was a huge success. K-Mart was developed as Cole’s variety before 1969 and then in 1969 K-Mart was formed. It offers products in various areas, including home entertainment, ring tones, toys and sporting, camping and fishing, home-wares, automotive, do it yourself, outdoor living, stationery and home office, everyday needs, health and beauty, women’s wear, menswear, and footwear. There are currently around 180 stores throughout Australia.

Interview Process at K-Mart

In understanding the process of interviewing at K-Mart and analyzing it critically we first need to understand what the organizational requirements for the process are. K-Mart requires employees have the basic skills for employees to do their jobs , while advanced skills include how to use technology to share information with other employees , have an understanding of the customer or manufacturing system and self motivated creativity. At K-Mart, cognitive ability is mainly looked upon, cognitive ability is basically the ability to understand, use written and spoken language and these employees should have a decent level of cognitive ability, which on the other hand concerns mainly the speed one can solve an mathematics problems of all kinds.

Problem

But in the K-Mart interview process we observed that having a good personality and a decent level of common sense and initiative was necessary.The organisation depended mainly on their training programs such as the “manager in training program sand store manager in training programs”. It also shows if the employee is capable of completing the job both effectively and efficiently. But this interview process brought in some problems. The problems that evolved due to this are K-Mart currently has the problem that employees are completing an effective interview but when they start the job they are not capable and do not have the abilities.

Recommendation

K-Mart needs to implement a process that allows employee to be assessed out properly so that it can be determine whether the employee is suitable for the job. This can be done through the implementation of structured interview processes wherein the candidate does not have a scope for impression management. Researchers have suggested that structured interviews show marked improvement over traditional interview formats because they are able to reduce contamination from variables such as impression management. For one thing, the content of structured interviews (e.g., using the same set of questions) may offer the applicant less of an opportunity to use certain impression management techniques (Campion, Palmer, & Campion, 1997; Dipboye & Gaugler, 1993). Even if impression management tactics are used, the evaluation process of structured interviews (e.g., using behaviourally anchored rating scales) could reduce the impact of such tactics on who is hired (Campion et al., 1997). Though it is unanimously believed that structured interviews are more useful than traditional interview methods, but there exists extensive debate regarding which questions are to be asked (Ellis, et al. 2002, p. 1207).

Though there exists debate regarding the kind of questions to be asked, there exists agreement on the skeletal of the interview which must cover the following aspects:

• To assess the candidates suitability for the position.
• To give information to the candidate.
• To present the company in a good light to the applicant.

Further the organization needs to concentrate not only on the interview process but also on the evaluation of the interviews. So we recommend five standards for an effective evaluation process, which are 1) reliability 2) validity 3) Generalisability 4) utility and 5) legality. If the firm requires reliability in the job the new recruits perfrom, time scores and the reliability of measurement are best used in dealing with difficult characteristics such as intelligence, integrity and the ability to lead (Kramar, 2008, p. 275). Validity, implying “the extent to which a performance measure assesses all the relevant and only the relevant aspects of a job performance”, is a useful to understand if the candidate’s previous experience is useful for the job specifications of our current requirement (Kramar, 2008, p279). Generalisability, meaning “Validity generalisation is best done in a 3 step procedure; first the company provides evidence from previous job tests that a certain predictor is valid. Then, the firm gives evidence from a job analysis that is similar to how job analysis is given elsewhere at other firms. Lastly, a validate setting can assist in the form of putting the current context measured against the other context.” (Kramar, 2008) Utility is based upon how reliable, valid and generalisable during the selection process, the more the better. Legality , it must abide by the law.

Personality Assessment at K-Mart

The management of K-Mart believes that personality is not an effective measure in determining the right person for the job because everyone is different. At one time, scholars often explained employee behaviour in terms of personality traits and companies regularly administered personality tests to the job applicants. This changed in 1960 when researchers reported that the relationship between personality and job performance was very weak. The management at K-Mart has cited problems with measuring personality traits and explained that the connection between personality and performance exists only under very narrowly defined conditions. Company stopped using personality tests because of concerns that the tests might unfairly discriminate against visible minorities and other identifiable groups. But over the years personality has gained some of its credibility in organisational setting. Recent studies have reported that specific personality traits predict specific work related behaviours, stress reactions and emotions fairly well under specific conditions. Experts have reinforced the idea that effective leaders have identifiable personality traits and that personality explains some of a persons positive attitudes and life happiness. Research has shown that “you can account for 99 percent of the differences in human behavior with five words: stress, stimulation, novelty, dominance, achievement,” says Pierce Howard, a director at the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies (CentACS) in Charlotte, N.C. (SHRM, February 2002 Vol. 47, No. 2, Steve Bates). Personality traits also seem to help people find the jobs that best suit their needs.

Recommendation

The personality tests should be implemented at K-Mart for they provide the following advantages and accredit the kind of people being brought in the company. So we recommend that personality assessment should be implemented due to the following reasons:

• Stress measurements look at the candidate’s need for stability and how we cope with stress. For example, some people are naturally resilient in the face of crises, moving quickly into a problem-solving mode without much inner turmoil. However, others need a long time to calm down and recover from stress, placing them near the opposite end of this spectrum. Many people fit somewhere in between; they might need a few moments to get past stressful situations but can bounce back.
• The stimulation component looks at how the candidate tolerates sensory stimulation from people and situations. On one end of the spectrum are introverts, serious people who often prefer working alone and sending e-mail instead of talking. At the other end are extraverts, social, fun-loving types who work well in noisy, busy environments.
• The novelty factor tracks how much candidates are open to new experiences and ways of doing things. Practical, efficient, down-to-earth workers represent one end of this continuum, in contrast with more creative, forward-thinking, head-in-the-clouds employees.
• The dominance component measures the degree to which candidates defer to others. At one extreme are tough-minded, sceptical, self-assured employees. At the other are more tolerant, agreeable, team players who often let others “win” a debate.
• The achievement factor examines how candidates move toward goals, how conscientious we are. The most flexible, relaxed workers, often able to juggle multiple tasks, represent one end of the continuum. In contrast are the more focused, disciplined, sometimes compulsive people with an intense will to achieve.
• Personality assessments are directly related to job fitment, culture fitment and performance of the employee.

IQ Test

In the workplace testing IQ is an essential form of evaluation for employees and managers.While assessing IQ at K-Mart, there was a realisation that it was necessary for all employees to have a level of Intellectual Capital which includes basic skills for employees to do their jobs, while advanced skills include how to use technology to share information with other employees, have an understanding of the customer or manufacturing system and self motivated creativity. But in the interview process at K-Mart we observed that having a good personality and a decent level of common sense and initiative was necessary.The organisation depended mainly on their training programs such as the “manager in training program sand store manager in training programs” During the online selection process, the grade of the applicant whether they are in high school or university or graduated are looked upon and the employees are hired upon. However, in some cases a good interview and high IQ ability is not necessary to get a job, in many cases are employees are judged on their personality and their appearance before joining K-mart. They don’t need any specific IQ abilities to be a manager because they get fully trained. It is more based on personality (whether they are a team player, work well with others, happy etc).

Recommendation

The problem that we see here is a disjoint system and process alignment. This means that though the system requires testing the IQ of the individuals who are hired, the selection process does not implement it. So we recommend that some kind of IQ test should be implemented to assess the ability of the candidates. Many people agree that there is more to intelligent performance than what is measured by a standard IQ test (Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998; Yang & Sternberg, 1997). In fact, recent theories propose broader conceptualizations of intelligence that include aspects such as interpersonal intelligence (Gardner, 1999), emotional intelligence (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2000), and creative and practical intelligence (Sternberg, 1997). Hence, this test need not be a test quantifying the academic ability of the candidate. All is required is to ascertain that the candidate is cable of logical thinking.

Induction

Inductions at K-Mart, for the last 10 years, have been conducted through an online and a store induction process. The employees get paid to complete both the online induction and the store induction. All together both inductions take about 10 hours to complete which could be a bit of a burden on their potential employees. The online induction relies on the employee have a fast internet connections to complete the induction successfully which could also be a burden on the employee. But after analysing the interview results from the sales assistants all five of them thought that both the store induction and online induction were effective. Though, the candidates preferred the store induction over the online induction. The management employee, whom we interviewed, said it was necessary to have both inductions to make sure employees are aware of store procedures and also to make sure that the employees have the ability to work at K-Mart. She also stated that the recruiting office sets up online induction for employees but the store manager sets up the store induction. The topics that are covered in both the inductions is how to handle safety situations, fires, robberies, and all the store policies including such things as dress standards. With the online induction employees get a certificate that states they have completed the induction successfully. In saying that management stated that they don’t provide support to employees that are finding it hard to complete the induction successfully and that they just encourage the employee to continue trying until successful.

Recommendation

We believe that K-Mart has an effective induction process in place covering all relevant topics. The only that we recommend that could be changed is that the process could be more efficient and also support provided to employees who are struggling to complete the online induction successfully. But a few pointers that need to be added are:

• Check the coverage of the induction programme: Does your induction cover? Provide a tour of the premises showing and describing the facilities, an explanation of the organisation chart showing where the new employee fits in, clarification of terms and conditions, health and safety information, exposure to and explanation of the organisation’s culture and values, other departments, products and services, and a brief organisational history, the strategic objectives and business planning for the next operational cycle, and a clear description of the job / role requirements.
• Appoint a mentor: Consider asking someone about the same age and grade of the newcomer to act as a friend and advisor for the first few weeks.
• Introduce the recruit to the organisation and the department.
• Emphasise the importance of organisation policies and procedures
• Consider training need identifications for the new entrants.

Conclusion

In conclusion we may say that even though the system of the selection process seems to have worked for K-Mart over the years, there exists so we suggest that K-Mart should evaluate its strategy of selection in order to induct more competitive and efficient workforce, and not only those who are effective in the interviews.

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