Kinaxis Case Study

Case Study 2 Page 1 of2

Case Study 2

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Read Kinaxis Chooses Sales Reps with Personality on pages 257 and 258. You need to complete questions '1 to 3. Your answers to the questions should be 2 or more pages in Word. Your paper should be in APA format. Make sure you incorporate what you have read this week and the prior weeks to help you answer

the questions. Remember, you need to support any assertions or suggestions with facts.

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job to make ends meet. When GM's fortunes turned around tn 2012, the company began hiring in many job categories, including designers. However, by that time, car design had migrated from drafting boards to more sophisticated com- putet platforms that Bricknell had never seen, and hence he rvas no longer qualified for his old job.

Second, even when the skills required for ajob have not changed. some employers seem to believe that long-term unemployment implies a lack of skills. That is, instead of testing for skills, employers just make the assumption that anyone out of work for an extended period of time must lack skills. For example, Amy Grimmer, an HR staffing special- ist for a sales company, states openly that when trying to fill sales positions, "We're not looking at the unemployment pool. We feel like the sales people who are talented enough would have already found positions."

Finally, some employers seem to believe that regard- less of one's skill level, long-term unemployment reflects a lack ofconscientiousness and ambition on the part ofajob applicant. In particular, if someone applies for a job only after their unemployment benefits expire, some enrployers believe that the person is iazy and would actually prefer to

CHAPTER 6 Selection and Placemenl 257

uot work if they could get away with it. Thus, rather than trying to directly assess conscientiousness with a personal- ity inventory or front references fi'om past employers (who become increasingly difficult to contact over extended time periods) applicants are rejected based upon a presumption ofguilt. In reality, many individuals lvho have experienced long-term unemployment want nothing more than to get back to meaningful employment, but they face a form of discrimination that is not covered by any type of law.

OUESTIONS 1. How might a systematic and comprehensive system

of testing and reference checking help eliminate some sources of long-term unemployment?

2. On the other hand, in rvhat sense does the solution to this problem go beyond hiring practices ofemployers?

SOURCES: D. A-kst, "Horv Employers See Prolonged Joblessness (And W by ) ;' Th e lYol l St rc e r J o u nnl, September 27, 20 1 2, hup://blogs.wsj. com; B. Casselman, "Time Not on the Side of the Jobless." The Wall Soeet loutnal,March26,20l2, rvww.wsj.com; S. Murray and C. McWhirtel ''Long- rerm Unemploymerit Ripples Through One Town," The Wull Sutct Jountctl, January 18,2012; D. Bennett, "Do the Unemployed Get a Second Act'l" Blootnberg Businessuzek, September 19, 201 l. pp. 6-l-70.

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Kinaxis Chooses Sales Reps with Personality

Kinaxis is a software company headquartered in Ottawa. Ontario, that sells to clients around the world. Its specialty is software for supply chain managernent*all the processes and relationships through which companies obtain supplies as needed and get their products to customers on time and ;t nrinimal cost. This is a sophisticated type of ptoduct, iailored to a company's specific needs. Therefore, Kinaxis Jepends on salespeople who understand how businesses 'rork. who iisten carefully to identity needs, and r.vho pro- r ide excellent customer service to maintain long-term busi- less relationships.

Recently, Bob Dolan. vice president for sales at Kinaxis,

'reeded to hire a sales team to serve ciients in North Amer- :;4. The company had just one salesperson serving the conti- rint. and Dolan wanted to add four more. He received about il.x) resunres ancl wanted to select from these. He started by ;i.. iew'ing the resumes against job requirements and selected ll.r candidates for a first round of interviews. The interview lrilcess helped Dolan cut the list ofcandidates in half, so he needed another way to narrow his options.

Doian decided his next step would be.personality test- ::::. He hired a firm calleci Opus Productivity Solutions i,.-, :riiniinister a test called PDP ProScan to the remaining -:.r :3r513rr"t. In arldition. Dolan hinrself took the test and ::J hir .uneni )alei rep do the same. The existing sales- :ri:illi H::ii Coing an ercelleni joNr. so the resuits of his t.-st

could help Dolan and Opus pinpoint the characteristics of someong likely to succeed in sales at Kinaxis. Based on analysis of alt ihe results, Opus created a benchmark of traits associated with success in the job.

Representatives from Opus also discussed the test results with each candidate, giving each one a chance to disagree with the scores. No one did. Dolan observed that all the candidates scored high in assertiveness and extroversion- not surprising for people in sales. In addition. two of them scored above the benchmark in confblmity and below the benchmark in dominance. Those results suggested to Dolan that these candidates might be so eager to please that they would be quick to give in to whatever customers requested- a pattern that could become costly for the company. Dolan eliminated those two candidates.

That meant Dolan still had eight candidates to fill four positions. He asked each one to give him the names of major accounts he or she had signed up in the previous two years. Four candidates were able to come up with three or four large clients. Those were the candidates Dolan hired.

Since then, Dolan says his experience with personal- ity testing has only reinforced his belief that this selection method helps Kinaxis identity the best candidates. For example, one sales rep had scored low on "pace," indicating that the individr.ral might lack the patience needed for the slolr' c-vcies required to close a sale of a complex sottware

258 CHAPTER 6 Selection and Placement

system. Dolan hoped the issue could be overcome if he pro- vided enough coaching, but in fact, the sales rep sometimes

behaved impatiently, annoying prospects. After three years

of trying to help him grow into the job, Dolan iaid him off.

The company's commitment to careful selection is expressed on its website: 'As a grou'ing and determined company. we're ahvays looking for people eager to push the

limits of each day of what's possible." Kinaxis rvas recently named one of Canada's top employers for young people.

GUESTISNS l. What selection methods did Bob Dolan use for hiring

salespeople? Did he go about using these methods in the

best order? What, if anything, would you change about the order of the methods used?

2. What were the advantages to Kinaxis of using personal- ity tests to help select sales representatives? What were the disadvantages?

3. Given the information gathered from the selection methods, what process did Dolan use to make his selec- tion decision? What improvements can you recommend to this process for decisions to hire sales reps in the future?

SOURCES: Susan Creco, "Personalily Testing tbr Sales Recruits." 1nc.,

March 1. 2009, wrvx..inc.com; and Kinaxis website, Corporate Orerview and

Carrers pages. wt\ \'.kinax i\.com. accessecl June 30. 20 I 5.

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29. 30.

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the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance." Personnel P s1. chol o g 1- 65 (20 l2). pp. 7 9-l 19. M. Mihelich, "sacred Grounds-tbr Lawsuits )' Wotkforce, April ?014. pp. l8-19. M. Trottman. "Chalges of Bias at Work Hit Record"' Time Mag'

ailne. January 29.2O12. p.7 . O. Kinnander and K. Mclaughlin. "Wal-Mart Faces the Big Box of Class Actions," Bloonberg Businessu'eek' March 28, 201 1, pp. 3 l-34. G. Stohr, "The Supreme Court Takes on Trial Larvl'ers"' Bloom-

berg Businesst;eell, June 27,2011, pp.34-35.

D. Bennett. "Deep Fried Civil War" Bloomberg Businessw'eek, August 2, 2017. pp.62-64.

R. L. Lubin, "When 'Disparate Lnpact' Bites Back." The Wall Strcet Jotntal, March 9.2014. www.wsj.com. P. Roth, P. Bobko. L. McFariand, and M. Buster, "Work Sample Tests in Personnel Selection: A Meta-analysis of Black'White Differences in Overall Exercise Scores." Personnel Psychologl' 6l (2008). pp.637*61. R. E. Ployhan and B. C. Holtz, "The Diversity-Validity Dilemma: Strategies tbr Reducing Racioethnic and Sex Croup Differences and Adverse Impact in Selection," Personnel Pst- chotogy 61 (2008), pp. 153-72. G. Flynn, "The Reverse Discriminatitrn Trap." Worffon'e' lunc 2003. pp. 106-7. J. Bravin. "supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Affirmative Action

Bani' The Wall Street Jountal, April 22,2A14. www.wsj'com. T. Lewin, "Colleges Seek New Paths to Divenity After Court Ruling." The New York Tinres, April 22,2014, wrvw.nytimes. com. E. Zlomik. 'An End Run Around Affirmative Action Bans," Bloomberg Business*'eek, April 23, 2012, p. 52. J. Bravin 'Tustices Clash on Affirmatire Action," The Wnll Street Journal Onlirre, October 10, 2012. D. A. Newman and J. S. Lyon. "Recruitment Efforts to Reduce Adverse lmpact: Talgeted Recruiting for Personality. Cogni- tive Ability and Diversity," Journal of Apptied Psychology 94 (2009). pp. 298-i17. D. M. Finch, B. D. Edwards, and J. C. Wallace. "Multistage Selection Suategies: Simulating the Effects of Adverse Impact and Expected Performance for Various Predictor Combina- tions!' Joumal of Applied Pst'chology94 (2W), pp. 318-40' F. Hanson, ''Diversity of a DitTerent Color." Worfforce Manage'

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Employment Interview Validity: A Comprehensive Narrative

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*eiiability, 225 litidity, 228 rlrterion-related validity, 228 , dictive validation, 229 {-+::current validation, 229

?r: eramined nine different rypes of selection methods in :l- chapter. Assume that you were just rejected for a job :+.erl on one of these methods. Obviously. you might be dis- ;:u:r,rinted and angry regardless of what method was used to 'rtit* rhis decision, but can you think of two or three meth- "r.:- rh::t mi_eht leave you most disnessed? In general, why rlmirii ihB acceptabiliry of the test to applicants be an impor- ':;lr-.,l *,-:nriard to add to the five we discussed in this chapter? '".(k'rE:ping applicants in interviews is becoming an increas- :ruir }-{}i.rii'll nteans of getting multiple assessments of that ,:x:,:+u.i i'rom different perspectir,es. Can you think of .r,'{1rir i.;i:ot1} \\'hy videotapi.ng interviews might also be use- r.:i i jliju:rting the interviewer? What would you look for q -r. r:i,i{-}ie\'.ri if vou *ere evaluating one on videotape?

CHAPTER 6 Selection and Placement 255

Verbal comprehension, 247

QuantltatlYe abllfiy, 14 I Reasoning abtlity,24l Assessment ceiltet,252

Distinguish between concurrent and predictive valida- tion designs, discussing rvhy the latter is prefered over the former. Examine each of the nine selection methods discussed in this chapter and determine rvhich of these would have their validity most and least affected by the type of validation design employed. Some have speculated that in addition to increasing the validity ofdecisions. employing rigorous selection methods has symbolic value for organizations. What message is sent to applicants about the organization through hiring practices, and how might this mes- sage be reinforced by recruitment programs that occur before selection and training progralns that occur after selection?

Content validation. 23 I Generulizability,232 Utility, 233 Situational interview, 241 Cognitive ability tests, 247

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