Cover 1
Half-title 3
Title 5
Copyright 6
Dedication 7
Contents 9
Boxes 10
Figures 11
Tables 15
Prologue and acknowledgements 17
Part 1 Methods of personnel selection 19
1 Early, unscientific methods 21
1.1 Introduction 21
1.2 Graphology 22
1.2.1 Scientific evidence for graphology 25
1.2.2 Graphology and job performance 27
1.3 Physiognomy and body build 29
1.4 Assessing physiognomy 32
1.5 Phrenology 35
1.5.1 Appraising phrenology 36
1.6 Psychognomy, characterology and chiromancy 37
1.7 Astrology 37
1.8 Other projective tests 40
1.9 The Barnum effect 42
1.10 Accepting feedback 45
1.11 Summary and conclusion 46
2 The interview 48
2.1 Introduction 48
2.2 Basic guidelines for a good selection interview 49
2.3 Description, types and functions of the interview 51
2.4 Structured vs unstructured interviews 54
2.5 The cognitive basis of interviews 55
2.6 The psychometrics of interviews 59
2.7 The 'acceptability of interviews\u2019 63
2.8 Fairness, bias and the law 64
2.9 Interviewing skills 65
2.10 Summary and conclusion 68
3 Letters of recommendation 70
3.1 Introduction 70
3.2 Structured vs unstructured references 70
3.3 Reliability of references 72
3.4 Validity of references 74
3.5 How to improve the validity of references 76
3.6 Popularity of references: an evolutionary perspective 77
3.7 Conclusion 79
4 Biodata 80
4.1 Introduction 80
4.2 Scoring of biodata 81
4.3 Verifiability of biodata and faking 83
4.4 Validity of biodata 86
4.5 Structure of biodata 88
4.6 Summary and conclusions 91
5 Situational judgement tests and GPA 93
5.1 Situational judgement tests 93
5.2 Validity of SJTs 95
5.3 What do SJTs actually measure? 99
5.4 Academic performance and general grade-point average (GPA) 100
5.5 GPA: a poor predictor of success in the real world? 101
5.6 Why does GPA predict occupational outcomes? 106
5.7 Summary and conclusions 109
Part 2 Constructs for personnel selection 111
6 General mental ability 113
6.1 Introduction: what is intelligence? 113
6.2 A brief history of GMA and Raven's Progressive Matrices 115
6.3 A brief history of IQ and the Wonderlic Personnel Test 117
6.4 Like no other: the predictive power of GMA 120
6.5 GMA in the UK 124
6.6 GMA in Europe 126
6.7 Longitudinal evidence 129
6.8 Why, then, is IQ so unpopular? 130
6.9 The inconvenient effects of the 'triple g\u2019: general, genetic and group differences 132
6.10 Searching for mediators: GMA predicts job performance and training, but why? 135
6.11 GMA and counterproductive work behaviours 137
6.12 Retesting, practice and coaching effects 138
6.13 Summary and conclusions 140
Notes 141
7 Personality traits 142
7.1 Introduction 142
7.2 What are personality traits? 147
7.3 The Big Five: emergence of the five-factor model 150
7.4 Validity of personality traits as predictors of job and training performance 152
7.5 Personality in the European Community 156
7.6 Conscientiousness: the most important personality predictor of work outcomes 157
7.7 Neuroticism: it helps if you are calm 160
7.8 Extraversion: positive, sociable people-people 163
7.9 Agreeableness: getting along, caring and sharing 165
7.10 Openness: intellectual, imaginative, artistic jobs 166
7.11 It's not all about performance: validity of the Big Five as predictors of job satisfaction 167
7.12 Criticisms to the Big Five (and personality inventories in general) 170
7.13 Faking 170
7.14 How to overcome the problem of faking 173
7.15 Low validity 174
7.16 Specific criteria 176
7.17 Integrity inventories 177
7.18 Criticisms of integrity inventories 181
7.19 Emotional intelligence (EI) 182
7.20 What is EI? 183
7.21 EI: the personality construct 183
7.22 Reliability of EI 184
7.23 Validity of EI 185
7.24 Self-efficacy 187
7.25 Core self-evaluations 187
7.26 Moving beyond traits: the person--environment fit 188
7.27 Summary and conclusions 190
Notes 192
8 Creativity 193
8.1 Introduction 193
8.2 Definitions and conceptualisations of creativity 194
8.3 Creative people 195
8.4 Creative processes 201
8.5 Creative work environments: the press approach to creativity 202
8.6 Creative products 203
8.7 Assessing and measuring creativity 204
8.8 Summary and conclusions 207
Note 208
9 Leadership 209
9.1 Introduction 209
9.2 The trait approach to leadership 210
9.3 Perceptions of leadership 213
9.4 Contingency and the situational determinants of leadership 214
9.5 Rebirth of the trait approach 215
9.6 Leadership styles: behavioural approaches to leadership 220
9.7 Charismatic leadership 221
9.8 Transformational leadership: leaders as mentors 223
9.9 Personality of transformational leaders 226
9.10 Transactional leadership: controlling rather than inspiring 227
9.11 Leadership and gender 229
9.12 Summary and conclusions 232
10 Talent 234
10.1 Introduction 234
10.2 Business reports 236
10.3 The psychology of giftedness 238
10.4 The psychology of high-flyers 240
10.5 The Icarus syndrome and talent derailment 248
10.6 Practical implications 250
10.7 Summary and conclusions 252
References 253
Index 296