Assignment:
Read the case "Selecting a Plant Manager for Dynamo Industries" case (Page 535). Also read the chapter on Employee Selection and Equal Employment Opportunity, and the lecture supplements on Equal Employment Opportunity and Employee Selection.
Answer the following questions:
(i) Based on the job description of the plant manager, what are the critical knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the job? To what extent, the various selection devices used by the company capture these KSAs?
(ii) Evaluate the various selection techniques used by the company in terms of the various types of validites discussed in the text and the lecture supplements.
Which of these selection techniques would you rely on in making your final decision? Which of these selection techniques you would not factor into in reaching your final decision? Why?
(iii) Develop a weighting scheme (e.g., I give 20% weight for the interviews with 10% for VP-Productions rating, etc.; 15% weight for cognitive abilities, etc.,) based on the KSAs you identified in question (i). Using the weighting scheme rank order the candidates in terms of most suitable to least suitable. Explain your rationale for choosing the suggested weights.
(iv) Based on a comprehensive analysis of the job requirements, information gathered during the selection procedure and your own analysis of their legal defensibilities, who would you select as the Plant Manager? Why? You can also use the weighting system developed in question (iii) for this.
(v) If you were to redo the process over again, what additional techniques would you use to ensure that your selection is fair, valid, and have utility for the company?
Which of the selection procedures you will not use again? Why? In other words, how would you improve the selection process?
Deadline: See the deadline for the assignment in the tentative schedule! I do not accept late assignments for any reason whatsoever including sickness! Period! Please follow the instructions for submitting the assignments online.
Page Limits: The total number of pages for the assignment is five-pages, double-spaced, typed! I will not read anything that you want to say on the fifth page. Therefore, please stick to this page limit. This does not include any appendixes or charts you want to attach (e.g., a chart that shows a summary of the various validities that the selection system violates; a chart that shows the rank ordering of the candidates across various selection methods). Please do not use the appendix as a way to circumvent the five page limit. An appendix is something that you create along the lines of Figure 1 of the case of Figure 2 of the case.
General Advice: In analyzing any case, please do not re-narrate the case for me. I have read the case. I am looking forward to what you would do and how you would do. You should integrate the materials discussed in the text, your own understanding of the material, and your application of the material to the specific case in question. The answer to the "Why" is more important than merely stating the "What". Originality, creative thinking, and problem solving are the ones I attempt to grade.
Writing Style: Since this is a graduate level class, I want to see you write your answers in a report form and not in a question and answer form. That is, you may format your analysis in the form of:
1. Introduction
2. Ideal Profile of Plant Manager for the Pittsburg Plant in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities
3. An Evaluation of the Selection Devices in terms of Content, Construct, and Predictive Validities and Reliabilities and the KSAs identified in #2 (e.g., the PM needs to be quite intelligent and the cognitive ability test measures this).
4. An Assessment of the Usable Selection Devices in the final decision-making with Justification (That is, although many were used, you can rule out some, for example the handwriting analysis due to low reliability and lack of validity evidence).
5. Combining the usable selection devices (e.g., I gave a weight of 20% for the IQ test and 10% for personality tests, etc.).
6. Rank Ordering and Selecting the Plant Manager
7. Recommendations for Future Selection of PM
That is, keep the discussion questions I posted as a guideline rather than as a comprehensive framework. You may want to add your own questions/thoughts in the analysis of the case. Provide clear headings, sub-headings (if needed), boldface critical arguments, and substantiate.
Attachment:- Selecting a Plant Manager for Dynamo Industries.rar