Biographical Data in Employment Selection: Can Validities Be Made Generalizable?

The hypothesis was examined that organizational specificity of biodata validity results from the methods typically used to select and key items. In this study, items were initially screened for job relevance, keying was based on large samples from multiple organizations, and items were retained only...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 1990-04, Vol.75 (2), p.175-184
Main Authors: Rothstein, Hannah R, Schmidt, Frank L, Erwin, Frank W, Owens, William A, Sparks, C. Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applicants
Biographical Data
Biological and medical sciences
Data collection
Employment
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hiring
Human
Hypotheses
Management Personnel
Occupational psychology
Personnel Selection
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Selection
Statistical Validity
Tests
Validity
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Summary:The hypothesis was examined that organizational specificity of biodata validity results from the methods typically used to select and key items. In this study, items were initially screened for job relevance, keying was based on large samples from multiple organizations, and items were retained only if they showed validity across organizations. Cross-validation was performed on approximately 11,000 first-line supervisors in 79 organizations. The resulting validities were meta-analyzed across organizations, age levels, sex, and levels of education, supervisory experience, and company tenure. In all cases, validities were generalizable. Validities were also stable across time and did not appear to stem from measurement of knowledge, skills, or abilities acquired through job experience. Finally, these results provide additional evidence against the hypothesis of situational specificity of validities, the first large-sample evidence in a noncognitive domain.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/0021-9010.75.2.175