U9A1-24 - Contrast equity theory with expectancy theory and apply these concepts to your own organization. See Details Below.

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CHAPTER 8

Recruitment, Selection, and Promotion The public sector is faced with many responsibilities that distinguish it from the private sector. Insuring public safety, justice, and environmental quality are just a few areas that go beyond the demands placed on private organizations. Recruiting and retaining highly qualified employees to provide the services citizens take for granted is becoming increasingly difficult in a competitive labor market because even though the responsibilities may differ, the private and public sectors are in direct competition for the same scarce qualified applicants. Even when the economy starts to weaken and the unemployment rate increases, the demand for labor in skilled and knowledge- based professions will remain.

Dynamism in the economy has forced many adaptations in the recruitment, selection, and retention of public employees. Nevertheless, much remains the same, anchored by conflicts that frequently characterize debate over the appropriate criteria to use in the recruitment and selection of job applicants and the promotion of employees. In addition to describing some of the technical aspects of recruitment and selection, this chapter reviews the value conflicts and the compromises that take place over the criteria used in the acquisition and planning functions. It discusses how the contemporary labor market affects the view of work and how organizations of the future affect the acquisition function.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: Define the acquisition function. Describe the influence different values have on the objectives of the acquisition function. Describe how characteristics of the workforce and the nature of contemporary work influence the acquisition function.

4. Describe ten steps in the recruitment and selection process.

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Identify six practices that are likely to produce timely and valid hiring processes. Discuss the comparative characteristics of centralized, decentralized, and electronic staffing techniques, and outsourcing. Describe the concept of test validation and validation strategies.

THE ACQUISITION FUNCTION The second of the four functions every comprehensive personnel system must fulfill, the acquisition function, involves the acquisition of competencies that will enable an organization to fulfill its mission. It may seem impersonal to talk about the recruitment and hiring of people in terms of acquisition. Traditionally, the impersonality of merit systems—the most comprehensive and pervasive personnel systems in government—has been a virtue. In merit systems, personnel decisions are supposed to be made based on an applicant’s competencies and the performance that results from the employee’s application of his or her competencies to the agency’s work, not based on whom an applicant or employee knows. Competencies traditionally have been seen in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs. The knowledge portion deals with the information that allows a person to perform from an informed perspective, for example, theories, facts, and principles. The skills piece addresses the demonstrated abilities or proficiencies, which are developed and learned from past work and life experience. This concept has also been expanded to include personal attributes reflected in a person’s past effectiveness, for example, attitudes, habits, traits, behaviors, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence.

VALUE CONFLICTS AND THE ACQUISITION FUNCTION Most recruitment, selection, and promotion decisions are not made within a politicized environment. Yet, it would be naive to argue that all are conducted according to routine procedures designed only to reward competence. Tension occurs when the elected leadership believes it could accomplish more to advance its political platform—legitimized through an election—if it had more influence over top-level classified positions. In these cases, partisan pressures crop up either formally or informally to influence career appointments. Over time, if these attempts are successful, the response is that the competencies necessary for informed public policy formulation and

implementation are eroded. If the inroads result in notoriety or scandal involving political appointees, counter pressure is felt to strengthen the merit system. A recent example of these conflicting values was brought to light in the summer of 2008 when it was revealed that senior political appointees in the U.S. Department of Justice had systematically attempted to hire new career civil service attorneys based on political affiliation. Shocking to many merit system advocates was the extent to which the appointees examined the political background of applicants when it was clear that selection decisions were legally mandated to be made based on merit.1

Not only must merit systems respond to political pressures to accommodate the value of responsiveness, they also must adapt to public policy initiatives and political pressure stemming from the values of social equity and individual rights.2 Arvey and Sackett write, “Most organizations value productivity; a great many also value cultural diversity. Conflict arises when selection systems known to contribute to the first detract from the second, as in the case of valid selection systems with negative impact on protected groups. No clear solution has emerged, although what is surfacing is a clear sense that fairness is a social issue rather than a scientific one [emphasis added].”3 As discussed in Chapter 7, the most direct way of realizing social equity in the acquisition process is through targeted recruitment and the establishment of hiring goals—for veterans, women, or racial and ethnic minorities.

So far, we have talked about issues of political responsiveness and representation, efficiency, and social equity in the staffing process. The value of individual rights enters as protection from partisan political influence. Thus, acquisition routines that include open access and selection criteria based on competencies derived from the job to be performed have the effect of protecting the rights of individual job applicants to fair treatment.

The value of individual rights is also expressed significantly in the promotion process where upward mobility is allocated, or in layoffs, where jobs themselves are allocated through the planning and sanction functions. Collective bargaining systems, seeking to protect the rights and treatment of their members, are particularly oriented toward these kinds of allocation decisions rather than acquisition—recruitment and selection—decisions.

Even though a union may not seek to influence recruitment and selection decisions in nonapprenticeship positions, it will make every effort to convince newly appointed employees to join the union if the job falls within

the union’s bargaining unit. In Kansas City, Missouri, every newly appointed firefighter joins the union, even though Missouri is a right-to-work state. During the initial training period, peer pressure is applied to accomplish this goal.

One of the ways unions protect their members from management favoritism is by insisting that seniority play a major role in allocation decisions like promotion and layoffs. Similarly, they argue against contracting out of city services if unionized city employees currently perform those services. Again, where merit systems exist alongside collective bargaining systems, compromises are commonly reached. For example, promotion scores are often calculated according to a formula that includes credit for an examination score and for years of service.

A major thesis of this book is that these value conflicts, whether between responsiveness/ representation and efficiency, efficiency and equity, or responsiveness/representation and individual rights, cannot be avoided because the values themselves are fundamental to the political culture. As long as public jobs are considered scarce resources, these values will be brought to bear on acquisition and planning or allocation in personnel decisions. This results in merit systems under continual pressure from advocates of values other than efficiency and public policy compromises that eventually are reflected in personnel routines, techniques, and regulations.

What complicates human resource management tremendously is that advocates of individual rights rely on legislation, civil service review boards, and judicial tools to constrain managers, while civil service reformers, organization theorists, and commentators are arguing for flexibility, consideration of contextual factors, and personal attributes in selection decisions. Advocates of these two views may confront each other in legislative arenas. Reconciliation of these perspectives, often determined politically, requires changes in HRM systems and practices with supervisors and managers expected to work out the details.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES AND CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES In addition to the conflict over values in the allocation of public jobs as scarce resources, other factors like demographics of the workforce and the nature of contemporary work also influence the acquisition function.

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Workforce Demographics Without a doubt, demographic shifts taking place within the American workforce represent some of the most critical challenges for public employers seeking to maintain a stable employment base. In Chapter 7, we discussed the rapid growth of women and minorities within the U.S. labor force; however, equally important is the fact that the labor force is becoming tighter and more competitive at a time when the number of employees eligible for retirement is rapidly increasing due to the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Some have referred to these trends as the basis for a “crisis” in human capital if public sector employers are not able to recruit new talent into the public labor force to replace those who intend to retire in the near future.4 This “crisis” is especially evident at the federal level. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit research organization, recently reported the following statistics:

Approximately one third of the federal government’s Senior Executive Service is projected to retire by 2012. Approximately 27 percent of all federal supervisors will retire by 2012. Within key agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Social Security Administration, 26 to 23 percent of all employees are projected to retire by 2012.5

To address this growing challenge, the Partnership has proposed that agencies:

Develop and implement workforce plans that identify and meet future talent needs Modify recruiting strategies to attract new talent, including at the mid- and senior-levels Streamline hiring processes, and make greater use of recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives, including student loan repayments Focus on retention, including taking steps to improve employee satisfaction, and strategically using workforce flexibilities to help retain experienced talent.6

Nature of Work In addition to strategic considerations resulting from workforce composition, the way work is performed requires rethinking of recruitment and selection

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functions as well. Most prominently, the increasing reliance on teams and teamwork emphasizes what traditionally are seen as important but nontask- related factors connected to productivity in the work environment. Borman and Motowidlo call them contextual factors, which include:

Volunteering to carry out task activities that are not formally a part of the job Persisting with extra enthusiasm or effort when necessary to complete task activities successfully Helping and cooperating with others Following organizational rules and procedures even when personally inconvenient Endorsing, supporting, and defending organizational objectives7

To these factors one might add conflict resolution skills and working within a demographically diverse environment. According to Borman and Motowidlo, these activities “do not support the technical core itself as much as they support the organizational, social, and psychological environment in which the technical core must function.”8 Their research shows that the contextual parts of management jobs are substantial, and they should be considered in recruitment and selection processes. Along this line, Guion’s literature review shows that social skills and motivation are as important as knowledge in predicting job performance.9 The challenge is that these and other contextual factors relate to personal attributes, complicating recruitment and selection processes, which in the last few decades have increasingly become more formalized and impersonal in order to avoid the risk of civil rights violations in employment decisions. Guion asks, “What are decision makers to do if the people predicted to perform tasks well are not predicted to do very well contextually—or vice versa?”10

It seems reasonable to conclude that some of these contextual factors may be more important than others in some situations. In his discussion of privatization of government services, Mintzberg has identified five models for managing government.11 Each has implications for recruitment and selection. In the normative-control model, attitudes, values, and beliefs significantly influence task accomplishment, and he argues that they should be considered as part of the recruitment and selection process. This is probably truer with regard to social service delivery than other government work, but traditionally the virtue of public service has been found in the

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dedication of public servants to the collective good. In their edited volume, Hesselbein, Goldsmith, and Beckhard describe

leadership and organizations of the future. The essence of their message is that traditional hierarchical structures will have limited utility because they are best suited to operating in stable environments. In dynamic environments, more loosely structured organizations, composed of individuals with the capacity and willingness to learn continually, are more effective.12

Competencies Of the many changes in HRM that have occurred in the last several years is the addition of the term competencies to our vocabulary. A review will find few common definitions of the term and few common lists of what is included as a competency, thus complicating a discussion of the concept. Nevertheless, the thrust is clear. The emphasis on strategic thinking has produced a direct emphasis in selection processes to determine what exactly should a job applicant be able to do and has the job applicant demonstrated that he or she is competent to do what is required. Interviewing has become more interactive as employers probe to identify candidates who have demonstrated valued competencies in the past. Training, the development function, is becoming more targeted toward competencies, and the performance appraisal process is being geared in that direction as well. What is not clear in this movement is whether something truly new in human resources management is emerging and if the use of competencies in selection processes results in the selection of individuals who otherwise would not be selected if traditional criteria were used. Further, does their selection make an appreciable difference in productivity?

STEPS IN THE STAFFING PROCESS Before proceeding with a discussion of recruitment and selection methods, it will be useful to identify various steps and responsibilities in the staffing process, which includes both planning and acquisition functions:

Identify human resource needs as part of the strategic planning process Seek budgetary approval to hire employees Develop valid selection criteria Select a method of recruitment

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Recruit Test or otherwise screen applicants with methods unique to each position Prepare a list of qualified applicants Interview the most highly qualified applicants Conduct background and reference checks where appropriate Select the most qualified applicant available for the position Extensive new hire orientation and training

Different jurisdictions or agencies will carry out these steps in different ways. The important point to be made here is that the line manager—the person the potential hire will actually be working for—is most heavily involved in steps 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, and 11. The personnel department’s job is to assist the line manager in finding and hiring the best applicant (a staffing role) and to ensure that the staffing process takes place without the undue influence of politics or favoritism (a regulatory role).

Every step in this process is important, but in many cases, the first step has become undervalued. It is easy to overlook this step when faced with the replacement of many positions that are embedded in organizational routines and services that go unquestioned. For example, replacing a secretary rarely triggers an examination of unit goals.

Consider a different situation. Those of you reading this book probably are taking a university level course in human resources management. Let’s say the department offering the course has a faculty vacancy. Here are some of the questions the department will ask itself:

What will student demand be in the future and in what kinds of areas? How are present faculty members prepared to meet future demands? Does the department possess the faculty competencies to teach in technology-supported formats that contemporary students expect? To give it flexibility, should the department hire one full-time replacement or one or more part-time faculty as needs arise?

These questions require the strategic thinking outlined in Chapter 3. Without answering these questions, the remaining steps in the staffing process are tools with narrow purpose.

In past labor markets with an ample supply of workers, public agencies had little trouble attracting a qualified applicant pool for vacant positions, but, as the U.S. labor market has tightened, personnel professionals and

managers are finding it a growing challenge to attract the applicant pools of the past. This challenge has forced personnel departments to focus more of their efforts on strategic recruitment initiatives, and the growth of Web-based employment search engines has only intensified the need for public agencies to be up-to-date in their efforts. As recent as the early 1990s, it was common for public agencies to post their job announcements on bulletin boards in public buildings or in local print media. However, if agencies were to take this same approach in 2008, they would almost be guaranteed an insufficient applicant pool. Most new entries in today’s labor market turn to Web-based job postings as their primary source of employment information, and those public agencies that have not invested in their Web-based presence are surely to operate at a competitive disadvantage. Recognizing the importance of Web-based recruitment in its efforts to fill vacancies, the federal government has gone so far as to contract out the design and management of its employment website, www.USAJobs.gov, to Monster.com, a leading private sector employment website.13

Along with selecting a recruitment method, agencies must establish the minimum qualifications for a position through job analysis. Then, the hiring authority must determine the appropriate method(s to measure the extent to which applicants or employees possess these qualifications. In a tight labor market, standard qualifications may be called into question. For example, should elimination from the applicant pool of those with criminal records be revisited when public services cannot be adequately provided because of labor shortages?

Nine methods are commonly used to assess qualifications: review of biographical data, aptitude tests, ability tests, performance exams, references, performance evaluation (for promotional assessment of current employees only, interviews, assessment centers, and a probationary period. Four types of written tests are commonly used for selection purposes although the use of written tests has decreased significantly in the past decade: aptitude, characteristics or traits, ability, and performance. Aptitude tests measure general intelligence or cognitive ability (e.g., the federal government’s now- discontinued Professional, Administrative Career Entrance (PACE examination, or the Otis-Lennon. Aptitude tests are both relatively inexpensive to administer and score, and highly reliable. Some commentators are wary of the ease with which responses to psychological tests can be “faked” to match the presumed desired responses to the set of test scores.

However, interim reliability checks can reduce the likelihood of this happening. The validity of such tests, however, can range from minimal to moderate, depending on the quality of the job analysis and the resulting construct validation of the aptitude as a predictor.

A second type of paper-and-pencil test measures personality traits or characteristics. The resulting personality profiles are then compared against profiles of current employees considered successful in the position or against traits judged as job related through construct validation. Examples are the Edwards Personality Preference Scale (EPPS and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI.

Ability tests measure the extent to which applicants possess generalized abilities or skills related to job performance through empirical or construct validation. Examples would be verbal or mathematical ability, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT or the Graduate Record Examination (GRE. The more closely an ability test simulates actual job tasks and context, the more it becomes a performance test. A realistic typing or word processing test would be a good example. A performance test would be position-specific in that it would measure an applicant’s ability to type a given kind of material on the specific machine used on the job. Research studies generally confirm that ability tests, which result from job analysis, are logically related to subsequent job performance.14

Interviews are a popular selection or promotion method.15 Most organizations will not hire an employee without one because they believe the interview gives them the opportunity to observe an applicant’s appearance and interpersonal skills and to ask questions about subjects not adequately covered on the application form. However, interviews are not recommended as a primary selection method. Not only do they take a good deal of the supervisor’s time, but they also require interviewing skills on the part of the supervisor or interviewing panel. Since interviews are a prime method of rejecting candidates who look good on paper but might not fit into an organization, they are subject to scrutiny as potentially invalid selection criteria.

What, then, are some good guidelines to follow concerning interviews? Behavioral interviewing is a method that has become popular in achieving the desire to understand an applicant’s competencies including personal attributes. Interview questions are open-ended and the applicant is requested to provide actual occurrences of past employment that address the topic of

the question. As an example, “provide a time when you found yourself confronted with an angry customer and explain how you handled this situation.” These types of questions allow the reviewer to see how the applicant views a situation, what priorities were held, and what they consider effective actions. Behavioral interviewing relies on predefined questions but is less structured in that questions may be expanded upon based on the response given by the applicant. Panel interviews (those involving more than one interviewer are more reliable than individual interviews, and can use either style, structured or less structured, though they also increase the cost of this already expensive selection method.

Rodger M. Matthews, Kansas Division of Personnel Services states, “The State of Kansas has improved its recruitment and selection process by eliminating testing and enhancing the registration process with a qualitative approach to measuring competencies. The emphasis has shifted to assessing the level, quality, complexity, and behavioral descriptors performed rather than on the amount of time spent performing a skill or the testing ability of applicants. The qualitative approach allows the state to de-emphasize ‘minimum qualifications’ and concentrate on the ‘competencies’ of an outstanding employee throughout the applicant process” (February 2001. In essence, the goal is to identify well-rounded applicants who posses the competencies needed to be successful. Let’s say an engineer has outstanding competencies within the field of engineering but is unable to personally interact, contribute, and cooperate with others. This person may be viewed as a liability rather than an asset in an organization needing projects completed under a team approach versus individually. Organizations bear responsibility in becoming familiar with their own work culture, workflow structures, and demands before recruiting, to ensure a proper match and to allow success to both the new employee and organization.

The open-ended and probing nature of some interviewing has replaced the strict, by the book, stick to a specific list of questions approach that prevailed a decade ago. In part, the reason has to do with increased emphasis on finding the right candidate, more acceptability of practices that promote fairness in selection processes, and less prominence of the law as the dominating force in human resources management. However, this more subjective approach to interviewing also necessitates interviewer training to ensure a consistent and reliable approach across the organization.

References are another selection tool. They are usually used to verify

educational and employment records or to obtain information about the applicant’s skills or personality. Their validity depends upon the opportunity that the writer has had to observe the applicant and upon the relatedness of this relationship to the prospective job. Because recommendation letters are overwhelmingly positive, readers frequently fall into the trap of looking for the smallest of differences as they attempt to distinguish one applicant from another. A better use of reference letters is to stimulate questions that can be asked in an interview. However, reference checks also pose challenging legal questions in today’s society. As described in detail in Chapter 12, if past employers fail to reveal damaging yet relevant information about a former employee or if they give out the damaging information but it unfairly harms the employee’s chances of obtaining employment, they may become involved in litigation.

Previous performance evaluations are often used to assess potential for reassignment or promotion. They are valid to the extent that the ratings are based on job performance and this performance involves the same skills or abilities required in the prospective job. Their reliability is based on the extent of inter-rater agreement among previous supervisory evaluations.

Assessment centers may be used to stress performance on job-related tasks. They are used in both the public and the private sectors; in the public sector, their use is most prevalent among law enforcement organizations. If performance criteria are validated, they can be useful in selection, promotion, and career development. Candidates may be given an “in-basket” full of documents that an employee might confront in a typical day and be asked how the various items should be dealt with. A panel would then judge the candidates’ responses.

The last selection or promotion method is the probationary appointment. This technique possesses the highest possible validity and reliability factors because it measures actual performance on the job. However, it also carries the highest cost and greatest risk to the organization, because a potentially unqualified employee may occupy a critical position until he or she makes enough serious mistakes to be considered unfit. The use of the probationary period places upon supervisors the responsibility of weeding out unsatisfactory or marginal employees before they attain career status (and hence the right to grievance hearings to protest a discharge after they have attained a “property interest” in their jobs; it places upon personnel managers the responsibility of developing valid probationary period

evaluation systems. After an employee is no longer on probationary status, their “property right” makes it extremely difficult to dismiss the employee. The “property right” representing individual rights appears to have greater value than efficiency. An employer must show that an employee has been given substantial “due process” before a permanent employee may be dismissed.

Because each of these methods differs in value orientation, cost validity, and reliability, organizations must compare them.16 Table 8-1 summarizes their comparative advantages.

In this section, we have described steps involved in the staffing process. We have made it sound logical, rational, and uniform. The fact of the matter is that in today’s competitive labor market, the most rational and valid recruitment and selection procedures may take the longest time to implement. In a competitive environment, this may mean the loss of good candidates to other employers. Government can no more afford the loss of qualified candidates than can the private sector.

TABLE 8-1 Comparison of Selection Methods Method Validity Reliability Cost 1. Biodata moderate high low 2. References (letters of recommendation)

low low low

3. Aptitude tests moderate moderate low 4. Characteristics of trait tests moderate moderate low 5. Ability tests moderate moderate moderate 6. Performance tests high moderate moderate 7. Interviews low low high 8. Assessment centers moderate high high 9. Probationary appointment very high very high very high

TIMELY HIRING PRACTICES Acknowledging tight labor markets, the International Personnel Management Association and NAPSE Human Resources Benchmarking Project asked

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human resources professionals about their hiring habits.17 Several best or promising practices were identified to foster timely yet valid hiring:

Decentralization that gives more latitude, authority, and responsibility to hiring managers Flexibility, for example, in the number of applicants that must be interviewed Technology, especially in the submission of applications and development of databases to select list of qualified applicants Tracking and monitoring practices to determine if they are meeting the dual criteria of timeliness and validity Use of alternatives to written exams such as skill inventories and résumé screens Continuously recruiting for hard-to-fill and high volume job classifications

While these steps will increase the timeliness of the hiring process, Kellough raises the possibility that decentralization and flexibility could undermine merit principles.18 The fundamental question here is whether merit values and operating principles have anchored themselves strongly enough in human resources management’s thinking that decentralization and flexibility pose minor risk.

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION MODELS Because both the number of positions agencies need to fill and the conditions under which staffing is conducted may vary, staffing models differ with circumstances. Generally, four types are possible: centralized, decentralized, electronic models, and outsourcing.

Centralized Recruitment If the agency has several thousand employees, and if different departments recruit large numbers of clerical or technical employees for the same types of positions, centralized recruitment and selection may be used based on efficiency.

If recruitment is centralized, the central personnel agency will be responsible for requesting from agency personnel managers periodic

estimates of the number and type of new employees needed in the future (the next quarter or fiscal year. The staffing needs of all agencies are entered into a computer, after being classified by occupational code and salary level, and a summary listing of all projected new hiring needs is produced.

In reality, producing an accurate projection of new hiring needs is rarely this simple. To begin with, it is not always possible for agencies to predict their needs a year ahead of time. A political crisis or budget cut can drastically affect recruitment needs, and hence the quality of the estimate. Central personnel agency recruiters also realize that agency personnel managers will tend to overestimate the number of employees they require, just because from their point of view it is better to have too many applicants than too few. Naturally, this conflicts with the need of the central personnel agency to reduce selection costs by reducing the number of applicants to the minimum number needed to ensure that all available positions are filled with qualified applicants. In addition, specialized positions require a greater ratio of applicants to projected vacancies, because a higher percentage of applicants are likely to be rejected by the selecting agency as not meeting the specialized requirements of the position.

While there are many drawbacks to centralized human resources management, two factors argue in its favor. First, the amount of variation in the recruitment and selection process in individual agencies is reduced, thus benefiting the values of social equity and individual rights. Second, it may be easier to advance systemwide human resources management policy—like emphasizing the recruitment and selection of minorities.

Decentralized Recruitment Decentralized recruitment and selection is traditionally likely to occur in agencies that are relatively small, for which recruitment needs are limited, and where each agency employs different types of workers. Increasingly, it is used in larger units.19 It is usually used for professional, scientific, or administrative positions peculiar to a particular agency. For example, smaller municipalities may not have enough vacancies to utilize the services of a central personnel department. Alternatively, the department heads may have successfully argued that their particular employees are unique and that it is more appropriate to handle recruitment and selection on a departmental level. Police and fire departments are likely to make this argument at the municipal

level. If recruitment is decentralized, individual public agencies will go

through essentially the same steps required for centralized recruitment, except that dealings with the central personnel agency are limited. Agency personnel managers will work directly with the supervisors in their agencies to make periodic estimates of hiring needs. Then agency recruiters will meet with agency affirmative action specialists to determine whether recruitment efforts should be targeted toward specific minority groups. After evaluating both the need for new employees and the diversity goals of the agency, the agency personnel director will determine what recruitment efforts are required. The job announcement process is the same as that of a central personnel agency, except that applicants are requested to send their applications to the specific agency.

The trend in human resources management is toward decentralization.20 In response to criticisms that personnel practices are burdensome, time- consuming, and unresponsive to sister agencies, the federal government has increasingly decentralized recruitment and selection over the past decade, but Kellough has expressed concern that decentralized personnel processes could lead to more violations of the merit principles.21 On the other hand, a recent U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board report concluded that the decentralization has occurred with no corruption linked to “spoils,” no decline in the quality of federal employees, and increases in diversity.22

“I have authority now that I only dreamed of five years ago” is a comment by John Martello, Human Resources Director at the Kansas State School for the Blind, about the decentralization underway within the State of Kansas. He gives the following example of how “Classification Authority” was issued to the agency by the central Division of Personnel Services for the first time in its history. This allows the Kansas State School for the Blind to directly administer FTE and position management in a more responsive manner, with regular audits by the central Division of Personnel Services for compliance within established classification standards.

Some agencies utilize a combination of centralized and decentralized recruitment. For example, a central personnel agency may authorize individual agencies to recruit and test applicants independently, subject to audit by the central personnel agency once they have been hired. This compromise will provide for a greater degree of centralized control than is possible with a decentralized system, while simultaneously providing

agencies with timelier and more flexible recruitment available from a central personnel agency.

Electronic (web-based Recruitment Until the mid-1990s, touch-tone dedicated phone lines and job posting bulletins allowed agencies to advertise vacancies and to refer applicants to agencies with hiring needs. The contemporary recruitment environment, however, is characterized by an increasing reliance on agency and third-party recruitment websites that permit employers to reach a much larger applicant base. Additionally, these websites allow applicants to search for vacancies, post résumés, apply for positions, and have their qualifications evaluated through the establishment of a “virtual” electronic “hiring hall.”23 Three of the more prominent websites include the federal government’s www.USAJobs.gov, www.publicservicecareers.org, and www.monster.com, a leading private sector website that also posts positions for public agencies willing to purchase their services.

In recent years, one of the key questions for human resources professionals has been whether to develop their own recruitment websites, purchase the services of third-party sites, or to do both. Each option has its own set of costs and benefits depending on the size of the agency and type of positions to be filled. For instance, a large agency, such as the U.S. Department of Defense, would likely benefit from using all three options since cost is generally not a concern. However, a smaller agency or locality might want to consider developing their own website if they generally have few vacant positions or need a tailored approach to recruitment. Still, some agencies might find it hard to maintain the internal skills necessary to maintain a website. In these cases, it would likely be prudent to purchase services from a third-party provider.

Additionally, the use of electronic recruitment methods also raises questions of equity and fairness in the application process. For those applicants skilled in information technology, searching and applying for positions electronically will not be a major challenge, but for those potential applicants that do not have access to computers or are not skilled in their operation, electronic recruitment can pose a challenge. Ultimately, employers must be aware of these challenges and, where possible, take steps to ensure that all applicants are able to successfully seek employment. These steps may

include the availability of public computers for application purposes or the maintenance of paper-based application procedures.

Outsourcing Outsourcing and the elimination of personnel services historically provided by government have increased over the last decade.24 This increased use of contracting to achieve economies of scale without sacrificing core organizational competencies has meant that agencies are increasingly choosing to use outsourcing as a recruitment device. In particular, they are likely to use employment services for hiring temporary employees, or executive search firms (“headhunters” for professional and managerial recruitment.

The efficiency in time of outsourcing for temporary workers is evident. The process is shortened noticeably with responsibility for recruitment and selection resting with the temporary employment agency. While this type of outsourcing seems to make sense, it raises a larger issue: Is it necessary for a government jurisdiction itself to recruit and select for other positions or can these activities be performed just as effectively by private employment agencies under contract? Searches for chief administrative officers and some department heads are now conducted by executive search firms. Why not other positions?

Initially the goal of outsourcing was to save money. Temporary employment agencies are used to aid in locating qualified candidates in a tight labor market to augment the recruitment efforts of the agency. It also allows an organization to concentrate on its mission, that which it can do uniquely. Why not contract with a private employment agency for recruitment and selection with the stipulation that all applicant pools will contain individuals with required competencies and will reflect demographically the appropriate labor market?

In some ways, the challenge here is first to identify what the agency or government jurisdiction considers its core mission and values. Tom Lewinsohn, former personnel director in Kansas City, Missouri, and past president of the International Personnel Management Association, suggests that recruitment and selection are so integrally connected to the concept of merit, a core governmental value, that outsourcing these activities undermines the concept of the public service.25

Recruitment and Selection Models The availability of centralized, decentralized, electronic recruitment methods, and outsourcing means that the actual staffing process followed by public agencies is complex and varies with the nature and context of the agency. Table 8-2 depicts recruitment and selection routines that take place in Lawrence, Kansas, a council-manager city with a permanent population of some 90,000. By reviewing the information, one can find a number of the steps and methods already discussed as well as the influence of the values of efficiency, social equity, responsiveness, and individual rights. Knowledge, skills/ abilities, and personal attributes are weighted very heavily in each of the selection processes. For both the nonpublic-safety and public-safety entry-level positions, usually the city administers a test of knowledge or skill supplemented by interviews and reference checks. For all positions in the city, a preemployment physical includes a drug-screening test. Oral interview boards have replaced interviews with individual supervisors, in order to get a broader range of opinion on the suitability of applicants. Interview boards also protect the individual rights of applicants to fair and equal treatment. A review of licenses and certificates is particularly important in screening applicants for technical positions. In the last few years, electronic mail bulletin boards and a dedicated information phone line have expanded recruitment efforts.

No paper-and-pencil testing takes place for department heads or for the city manager, but the national recruitment procedure indicates a desire to secure professionally trained talent. In addition, the interview board usually includes a professional in a related field, one who is not a member of the city staff. For example, selection of a new finance director might include a banker or the city’s auditor as a member of the interview board.

Social equity is particularly noticeable in the public-safety positions, where special efforts are made in the recruitment process. Recent recruitment efforts for police and firefighters featured a poster advertising the positions and showing minority and female officers and firefighters; special booths at a shopping mall in the metropolitan Kansas City area with concentrations of minority populations; special visits to a junior college with a large minority population; and special outreach in the Topeka, Kansas, area working with the YWCA to identify female candidates. No special efforts were made to show preference to women and minorities in any of the four selection

processes.

TABLE 8-2 Recruitment and Selection Process in Lawrence, Kansas

The value of responsiveness is apparent only in the selection for city

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manager. The manager serves at the pleasure of the governing body, and elected officials are heavily involved in all phases of the selection process, whether they hire an executive search consultant or handle the process through their own personnel department. They employ criteria designed to determine whether the manager will work well with the governing body and will fit in with the political and social culture of the city.

While Table 8-2 shows the value of responsiveness isolated to selection of the city manager that is not an entirely accurate portrayal. In many jurisdictions, even though the chief administrative officer legally can hire and fire department heads, it is often wise to consult with the governing body or mayor before doing so. For example, hiring and firing a police chief in most communities is fraught with potential political problems; the same often is true of the planning director.

Finally, the table shows that recruitment for temporary and part-time positions is not nearly as time consuming when compared to other categories of employees. Efficiency is the dominant value with little attention paid to individual rights.

Table 8-2 was developed in 1997. In 2001, we asked the director of administrative services for the City of Lawrence to review the table for accuracy. His comments are entirely consistent with other comments in this chapter that staffing has become a more challenging management function as the supply of labor has shrunk. He said, “I found little has changed from the basic processes found in the table. However, because of the extremely tight labor market and with rapid changes in technology, I found several elements within the model have changed.”26

These changes include:

Speeding up the hiring process so as not to lose good applicants to competing employers Becoming more aggressive in retention of current employees Conducting special recruitment to hire experienced police officers with special rate of pay as opposed to everyone starting at the bottom Coordinating with the state employment office Enhancing our presence on the Internet including online applications Expanding outreach for recruitment with an additional recruiter position.

TEST VALIDATION AND THE ACQUISITION FUNCTION

A test is any device used to separate qualified from unqualified applicants for selection or promotion. Included are written examinations as well as selection methods not normally thought of as tests, including interviews, medical examinations, drug tests, background investigations, and physical requirements.

To be valid, a test must separate more-qualified from less-qualified applicants on the basis of job-related competencies or performance.

Social equity advocates are often associated with promoting preferential treatment of minorities and women. However, their greatest and most lasting contribution to personnel management may prove to be in the area of test validation. For in seeking to remove barriers to equal opportunity based on discriminatory hiring criteria (those based on race, religion, or other nonmerit factors), social equity advocates have been responsible for general acceptance of the merit system principle that job applicants are to be chosen on the basis of job-related criteria.

Job Performance High Low

High True Positive False Positive

Test Score

Low False Negative True Negative

FIGURE 8.1 Relationships between Test Scores and Job Performance

What is a job-related test or selection device? The answer is simple to state but difficult to put into practice. It is a test that does a good job of predicting job performance. For example, an interview process is valid if those who do well on the interview do well on the job, and if those who do not do well in the interview do not do well on the job (or would not do well if hired). To simplify our discussion, we will talk in terms of valid and invalid

when in reality we are talking in degrees. No selection device can predict with 100 percent accuracy who will and will not do well on the job. Are undergraduate grades a good predictor of subsequent performance in graduate school? For those who enter graduate school right after their undergraduate education, the answer is probably yes—but it is not foolproof. For those who have been out of school for a long time, they tend to be less reliable, except at the extremes. Then, there is a subsequent question: Are good grades in graduate school a good predictor of good career performance?

Figure 8-1 shows in matrix form the possible relationships between test scores or other selection devices and job performance.

The more valid a test, the more true positives and true negatives it will produce. In other words, those who do well on the test in fact will do well on the job, and those who do poorly on the test will do poorly on the job. The less valid a selection method, the more likely it will produce false positives and false negatives. A false positive is a person who does well on the test but does not turn out to do well on the job. The test falsely predicted a good job performance. A false negative occurs where a person fails to do well on the test but does (or would do well on the job. Social equity advocates are mostly concerned with selection methods that produce false negatives when those clustered in that quadrant are members of disadvantaged classes. An example would be an arbitrary height requirement for firefighters. It is likely that women, who tend to be shorter than men, will be discriminated against with this requirement. The burden is on the employer to show that the height requirement produces a minimum number of false negatives and that those that are produced are not systematically drawn from a disadvantaged population—unless, of course, the test is valid; that is, the height requirement is indeed related to job performance.

TEST VALIDATION METHODS Three established validation strategies are acceptable: empirical, construct, and content validation. Empirical validation, also known as criterion validation, requires that a test score be significantly correlated, in a statistical sense, with important elements of job performance. The expectation is that those who perform well on the job would have done well on the preemployment test.

Construct validation involves both identifying psychological traits and

aptitudes that relate to successful job performance and devising a test that measures these traits. For example, most insurance companies give psychological tests to applicants for sales positions. These tests purport to measure the applicant’s congeniality, outgoing nature, liking for people, and other traits supposedly related to ability to sell. Police departments require a psychological profile on new recruits. In the sales example, tests have been developed by identifying the best salespeople in the organization, giving them a psychological test measuring a variety of traits, and establishing a personality profile of the “ideal salesperson.” Police professionals are trying to eliminate individuals with unacceptable traits—overly aggressive and inflexible—from the applicant pool. Profiles are then used as a yardstick against which the characteristics of applicants are measured. Those who approximate this yardstick move on in the selection process; those who do not are more carefully screened.

Content validation requires that the job be analyzed to determine its duties, the particular conditions that make work easy or difficult, realistic performance standards, the competencies required to perform these tasks up to these standards under these conditions, and the minimum qualifications required to ensure that an applicant would have these competencies. For example, it is logical to assume that a prison guard, responsible for transporting prisoners by car from one location to another, would need to know how to drive.

Content validation, therefore, links the functions of affirmative action and job analysis. In addition, it connects them with a third function, productivity. This is because the establishment of a logical relationship between duties and qualifications is not only a defense of validity, it is also a justification for discriminating between qualified and unqualified applicants based on their anticipated performance. It would follow from this that a content-valid job description (such as an ROD) could be used to assess the validity of a selection or promotion criterion by measuring the performance of an employee hired based on that criterion.

Summary The acquisition function reflects conflict among the competing values of responsiveness, efficiency, individual rights, and social equity as the basis of allocating public jobs. The goal of most public employers is to hire and

promote those with the best knowledge, skills/abilities, and personal attributes to perform the job. However, other interests—represented by politics, collective bargaining, and diversity—frequently challenge this goal. Ultimately, the differences in value and policy orientations must be transformed into workable recruitment, selection, and promotion procedures that permit routine, cost-effective application and promise fair treatment for applicants.

As the workforce continues to change and the availability of qualified labor becomes scarcer, the public sector will need to become more responsive and resilient to compete with the private sector for the same resources. The acquisition of resources will become less bureaucratic and more in-line with the private sector. The changing nature of work and organizations affects recruitment and selection processes as well. As organizations become less hierarchical, more is demanded of employees than traditional competencies connected to a narrowly defined job. As the context within which public agencies operate becomes more heterogeneous and unstable, job analyses become less dependable, and recruitment is expanded to include situational skills and personal traits, such as the ability to contribute to a work group. Selection decisions become more tentative as loyalty between employee and employer is weakened by contemporary trends toward downsizing and privatization.

While contemporary trends question traditional approaches to job analysis, recruitment, and selection, legal requirements imposed by the Civil RightsAct of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act are built on traditional assumptions about work and reinforce the status quo of personnel management.

Key Terms acquisition function 182 centralized recruitment and selection 190 competencies 185 construct validation 198 content validation 198 contextual factors 184 criterion validation 197 decentralized recruitment and selection 191 fairness is a social issue 182 personal attributes 182 test validation 196

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true and false positives and negatives 197 Web-based recruitment 186

Discussion Questions How does one’s value perspective influence the objectives of the recruitment and selection process? What does it mean to say that fairness is a social judgment rather than a scientific calculation? What are the implications for the tension between efficiency and diversity? Describe how workforce demographics and the nature of contemporary work influence the acquisition of public employees. What kind of flexible personnel policies are needed to accommodate the caregiving needs of the modern family where both mother and father work? Or where the family consists of children with a single parent? What is meant by contextual factors that influence how well a person performs as an organizational member? How easy do you think it is to recruit and select for these factors? Does an emphasis on contextual factors conflict with an emphasis on recruiting for diversity? Identify eleven steps in the recruitment and selection process. In an organization you are familiar with, which steps are the most difficult to perform? Why? Identify six timely hiring practices and describe how several might be employed to recruit and select for a job category you are familiar with where demand exceeds supply of applicants and service is suffering from staffing shortages. Compare and contrast centralized, decentralized, and Web-based recruitment techniques. Outsourcing or privatization of government services displaces value issues governments deal with in recruitment and selection processes. Which values do you think will be emphasized by private employment agencies? Can the benefits of outsourcing be realized if vendors are required to incorporate the values of responsiveness, efficiency, social equity, and individual rights into their practices? Review the recruitment and selection processes in Table 8-2 and identify the values emphasized in each model. How would you improve these processes?

11. Describe the concept and importance of test validation and three

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validation strategies. How have affirmative action and advocates of social equity and individual rights advanced the importance of test validation, and therefore the value of efficiency?

Exercise: Driving Forces of Change in Recruitment and Selection This exercise is best conducted with mid-career students in class. Depending upon the size of the class, divide into discussion groups.

Each group should make two lists. First, make a list of how recruitment and selection processes have changed over the last decade. Then, make a list of recruitment and selection processes that have remained the same. Share the lists and come up with one agreed-upon list of what has changed and one list of what has remained the same. Identify the driving forces behind the changes that have occurred. Are these forces internal organizational forces or forces external to organizations? If external, what conclusions would you draw about the relationship between internal organizational change and external organizational environments? Regarding those aspects that have remained the same, which of the four values—responsiveness/representation, efficiency, social equity, and individual rights—seems evident in them? How do the values you have identified compare to the values that underlie the merit principles listed in Chapter 1? We often talk about organizational values that provide anchors for organizations in times of change. Would you say that the values that underpin merit systems qualify as anchor values?

Case Study: Information Technology Recruitment Recruiting in information technology (IT and related fields poses a significant challenge to many public sector organizations that do not pay at market rates; and where recruitment and selection procedures take so much time in public sector organizations, qualified candidates may find jobs with other employers.

Let’s look at what it takes to recruit and hire employees skilled in IT. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once told a business audience in North Carolina, “The United States is currently confronting what

can best be described as another industrial revolution. The rapid acceleration of computer and telecommunications technologies is a major reason for the appreciable increase in our productivity in this expansion, and is likely to continue to be a significant force in expanding standards of living into the twenty-first century.”27 Groups such as the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Technology Policy have identified what they consider an inability of the United States to meet the market demand for information technology workers..28

Even when the economy starts to weaken and companies start downsizing, demand for labor in knowledge-based professions will remain. Unfortunately, an economic downturn hinders governments’ ability to attract and retain needed labor. “In a recession, taxes don’t necessarily decline, but if they stop growing and your expenses grow, you have a problem,” said Donald Boyd, Director of the Fiscal Studies Program at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York.29

When budget pressures are combined with a labor shortage, delaying IT capital projects, outsourcing and contracting out more technology is usually the solution. Some government organizations have resorted to simply hiring minimally qualified people with the aptitude and motivation to learn, or identifying motivated staff internally, and then investing in appropriate training for these select employees. Unfortunately, these newly skilled and trained employees are prime candidates for targeted recruitment efforts by the private sector, with more lucrative compensation and benefit packages. To illustrate, the president of an Arizona IT company said, “I am afraid as an employer of getting people who would require an awful lot of training. We have eight hours to learn a new system. We don’t have three months or six months.” In this environment, many companies have concluded that they cannot afford the time penalty and the uncertainty associated with “making” the employees they need (through training or retraining. Many employers are, instead, pursuing a “buy” strategy, seeking the exact skills and experience they need for a particular project and paying a premium for that.30 This lack of IT personnel could “pose problems with the increasing number of governments rolling out electronic government applications. Without adequate safeguards, the public likely won’t trust electronic government applications.”31

In response, governments have attempted to become competitive by

becoming creative in obtaining and retaining employees with coveted skills, even within the structured Civil Service System. A perfect example of this is reflected in a letter submitted to the Kansas Senate Ways and Means Committee by Charles E. Simmons, Secretary of Corrections, requesting that Senate Bill 96 remove key information technology positions from the classified Civil Service System and place them in the unclassified service. Here’s an excerpt of the letter:

By placing these positions in the unclassified service, the Department will have the flexibility to offer compensation levels needed to retain qualified personnel in these positions. The existing personnel performing these functions do so through designation as temporary project positions, while the authorized FTE are being held vacant. SB 96 would allow the Department to place these individuals into authorized FTE positions.32

Secretary Simmons is pointing out that the compensation structure of the classified Civil Service System (merit system) within the State of Kansas is inadequate to appoint needed personnel, resulting in the classified positions remaining vacant. The use of temporary project positions, with flexible compensation provisions, is the method the Department of Corrections utilized to retain these individuals. Temporary project positions are not considered by the Kansas Division of Budget under the FTE funding structure and can have an unfavorable long-term impact on the agency and incumbents, which is why Secretary Simmons is proposing counting the positions as FTE under the unclassified service. This bypass of the classified Civil Service System is an example of just one creative method used by a government organization to meet critical needs while confronted with limited options.

A number of bonuses have been devised to specifically compensate IT incumbents, beyond the rigid salary structure of a merit system. These include signing bonuses for accepting a position, project bonuses for working on a project, skill bonuses for learning new skills, referral bonuses paid to an employee when an IT applicant they referred accepts an IT position, and longevity bonuses for remaining with the agency for a set period of time.33 Additionally, some states and regions have undertaken efforts to lure people away from other regions of the country.

For example, the State of Michigan launched its “Come Home to Michigan” campaign to attract IT workers who grew up in Michigan or were educated there. The Minnesota High Technology Association, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Economic Security, conducted a five month “Upgrade to Minnesota” ad campaign in Silicon Valley to introduce workers there to the advantages of Minnesota living. The campaign reportedly generated thousands of résumés of

technical and scientific workers for the sponsoring companies. The loss of skilled IT workers to others is also a concern of economic development officials. For example, the Hudson Valley, New York area is losing IT professionals to contract work for employers in other areas. It was noted at the Hudson Valley town meeting that the northern New Jersey market pays IT professionals 10 percent more and the New York City market pays 25 percent more. Others see information technology as a tool to keep the residents from moving to other states for job opportunities. U.S. Senator Kent Conrad expressed his concern about the isolation of small towns around the country stating, “There is a need to keep the best and brightest in North Dakota. This is the biggest concern of parents. IT is an opportunity to provide these jobs.”34

In this type of aggressive environment, from both the private and public sectors, governments must be creative and resourceful to ensure that they obtain and retain the necessary skilled workforce to serve their citizens.

Who are these information technology applicants that everyone wishes to employ? They are mainly younger workers (nearly 75–80 percent under the age of 45 who do not remain with the same employer more than four years.35 Their educational background is much more diverse than the traditional mold of extensive preparatory training and education in a university setting.36 A growing number are not U.S. citizens. Larger numbers of foreigners with H-1B visas are employed to help supply this competitive labor market. The challenges in recruiting and employing staff with H-1B visas add to the complexity and cost for an employer, in that Immigration and Naturalization documents, timelines, and processes are jointly the responsibility of the employee with a H-1B “non-immigrant” visa and the employer. “In 1995, only about a quarter of temporary skilled foreign workers were in IT-related fields; by 1997 about half were in IT fields. Largely due to the increased use by the IT industry, the H-1B cap was reached for the first time in August 1997. In 1998, the cap was reached in May.”37 In recent years, the issue of H-1B caps has only increased in importance. In 2008, H-1B slots were filled in one day, a record, and recent proposed legislation has sought to increase the cap from 63,000 slots per year to 130,000 slots per year.38

The use of temporary workers and consultants is increasing to help fill voids in staffing, or by-pass merit systems that provide inadequate compensation. The benefit of such relationships is that an employer obtains specific skills needed for a short-term project, without the need for training or for a lengthy (time-consuming recruitment process. The trade-off is that the employer does not retain the talents and skills of temporary worker or consultant beyond the length of the project; the level of compensation paid is

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higher than that of regular staff; and the level of continuity and commitment on a project is always suspect. As a result, compensation equity among the workforce is a difficult goal to achieve when there are significant external forces requiring competitive responses on a number of fronts.

Discussion Questions What factors make recruiting of IT professionals a challenge? If your organization recruits for IT professionals, what steps has it had to take to get the best-qualified candidates? Are merit principles compromised with hiring practices that short-circuit traditional merit systems administrative routine? While the acquisition function clearly is affected by the shortage of IT professionals, what other functions are affected? How?

Notes U.S. Department of Justice (June 24, 2008). In Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring in the Department of Justice Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program. Available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0806/final.pdf (accessed on August 12, 2008). Mosher, F. C. (1982). Democracy and the public service (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Arvey, R. D., and P. R. Sackett (1993). Fairness in selection: Current developments and perspectives. In N. Schmitt, W. C. Borman, and Associates (eds.). Personnel selection in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 199–200. Voinovich, Sen. George V. (2000). Report to the President: The Crisis in Human Capital. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring, and the District of Columbia. Committee on Governmental Affairs. United States Senate. December 2000. Partnership for Public Service (2008). Issue Brief Brain Drain 2008, pp. 1|2. www.ourpublicservice.org. Ibid., p. 2. Borman, W. C., and S. J. Motowidlo (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. In N. Schmitt, W. C. Borman, and Associates (eds.). Personnel selection in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, p. 73. Ibid., p. 73. Guion, R. M. (1993). The need for change: Six persistent themes. In N. Schmitt, W. C. Borman, and Associates (eds.). Personnel selection in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, p. 491. Ibid., p. 493. Mintzberg, H. (May–June 1996). Managing government and governing management. Harvard Business Review, 74: 75–80. Hesselbein, F., M. Goldsmith, and R. Beckhard (1996). The leader of the future. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Llorens, J., and J. E. Kellough (2008). A revolution in public personnel administration: The growth

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of Web-based recruitment and selection processes in the federal service. Public Personnel Management, 36 (3); 207–221. Arvey, R. D., and R. H. Faley (1988). Fairness in selecting employees (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Dipboye, R. L., and B. B. Gaugler (1993). Cognitive and behavioral processes in the selection interview. In N. Schmitt, W. C. Borman, and Associates (eds.). Personnel selection in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 135–170; Whetzel, D. L., F. L. Schmitt, and S. D. Maurer (1994). The validity of employment interviews: A comprehensive review and meta- analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79: 599–616. Arvey and Faley, Fairness in selecting employees. Trice, E. (June 1999). Timely hiring. International Personnel Management Association News, pp. 10–11. Also see Sullivan, J. (June 1999). Gaining a competitive advantage. International Personnel Management Association News, pp. 14–15; and Greene, T. (November 1999). City of Hampton’s innovative recruitment efforts. International Personnel Management Association News, p. 19. Kellough, J. E. (1999). Reinventing public personnel management: Ethical implications for managers and public personnel systems. Public Personnel Management, 28 (4): 655–671. Kellough, J. E. (1993). Award winning programs-interviews with the winners. Public Personnel Management, 22: 1–5. Hays, S. W., and Sowa, J. E. (2006). A broader look at the “Accountability” movement: Some grim realities. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 26 (2): 102–117. Kellough, Reinventing public personnel management. United States Merit Systems Protection Board (1994). Entering professional positions in the federal government. Washington, DC: U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, p. xii. Hutchinson, B. (May 2001). Webifying the employment process. International Personnel Management Association News, pp. 12–14; Smith, M. (April 2000). Internet recruiting: The next best thing since? International Personnel Management Association News, p. 13. Rainey, G. W., Jr. (2005). Human resource consultants and outsourcing: Focusing on local government. In S. E. Condrey (ed.). Handbook of human resource management in government (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, pp. 701–734. Personal correspondence with the author, July 5, 1996. Hummert, R. (April 18, 2001). Letter to the authors. Alan Greenspan July 10, 1998. The Implications of Technological Changes, remarks at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte, North Carolina. U.S. Department of Commerce (Fall 1997). America’s new deficit: The shortage of Information Technology workers. Office of Technology Policy. Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_ 01/0000019b/80/14/ff/a4.pdf (accessed on May 4, 2009). Dizard, W., III (January 2001). Economic downturn imperils IT funding. State & Local Government Computer News, pp. 1, 6. U.S. Department of Commerce (June 1999). The digital work force: Building infotech skills at the speed of innovation. Office of Technology Policy, p. 11. Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/36/2a.pdf (accessed on May 4, 2009). Peterson, S. (February 2001). Security lapse. The Government Technology, p. 14. Simmons, C. E. (2001) Secretary of Corrections, Memorandum to Senate Ways and Means Committee. SB96, February 5, 2001. Simmons, C. E. (September 1999). Talent deficit: No relief for employers in new millennium; and recruiting techniques. International Personnel Management Association News, pp. 16–17. U.S. Department of Commerce (June 1999). The digital work force: Building infotech skills at the speed of innovation. Office of Technology Policy, p. 15. Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/

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ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/16/36/2a.pdf (accessed on May 4, 2009). Based on the Department of Labor’s Current Population Survey data, 1996. U.S. Department of Commerce (Fall 1997). America’s new deficit: The shortage of Information Technology workers. Office of Technology Policy. Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/ff/a4.pdf (accessed on May 4, 2009). U.S. Department of Commerce (June 1999). The digital work force: Building infotech skills at the speed of nnovation. Office of Technology Policy, p. 16. Available at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/ff/a4.pdf (accessed on May 4, 2009). Perelman, D. (March 14, 2008). Bills Would Double, Triple H-1B Cap. IT Management—eWeek. Available at: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Bills-Would-Double-and-Triple-H1B- Cap/ (accessed on August 14, 2008).