Recruitment and Selection in the Public and Nonprofi t Sectors 199oral interview before the decision to hire is made. Positions that encompass
a lot of responsibility, require time - consuming and expensive training, or
in which risk to the organization or public is great typically have more
demanding screening procedures.Testing Issues
Employment tests that measure cognitive ability skills are controversial
because they often result in adverse impact on protected - class mem-
bers. Arvey and Faley (1988) report that African Americans score one to
one-and-a-half standard deviations lower than whites. Not only have state,
local, and private sector employers found themselves facing litigation, but
so has the federal government. In 1979 the Department of Justice signed
a consent decree in which it agreed that the Professional and Adminis-
trative Career Examination for entry into federal employment would be
eliminated. African Americans and Hispanics as groups did not score as
high on the exam as white candidates. A class action suit asking for an
injunction and a declaratory judgment was fi led against the director of
the Offi ce of Personnel Management. The plaintiffs alleged that the exam
was in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because the
test had a disproportionately adverse effect on African Americans and
Hispanics and was not validated in accordance with the Uniform Guide-
lines on Employee Selection (Nelson, 1982). An outcome of the consent
decree was the establishment of a variety of selection avenues, such as
the outstanding - scholar and cooperative education programs used to hire
entry - level federal employees, in addition to the more recent Administra-
tive Careers with America written examination.
State and local governments have found themselves mired in contro-
versy over paper - and - pencil tests and adverse impact. Most large urban
police and fi re departments have ended up in federal court or having to
negotiate consent decrees with the Department of Justice in efforts to rem-
edy the effects of either purposeful discriminatory practices or neutral
employment practices such as paper - and - pencil tests, which resulted in
adverse impacts against protected class members.
Why are tests used? Organizations that need to distinguish among
a large pool of applicants must develop formal, objective methods of
screening, grouping, and selecting applicants. Testing is a way to do that.
Research on testing has established that cognitive ability tests are equally
valid for virtually all jobs and that failure to use them in selection would
typically result in substantial economic loss to individual organizations