Personnel Selection and Employee Performance

This paper is organized around a model of job performance in which personality and ability constructs (KSASOs) are seen as leading to procedural and declarative knowledge and motivation which, in turn, lead to task proficiency and contextual and adaptive behavior. These latter individual performance variables are thought to have implications for a set of distal variables, many of which can be conceptualized as organizational level constructs (e.g., social responsibility and litigation). Our sense is that job analyses are means of developing performance models. Some important and relatively new developments in this area include the job information tool known as O*NET. Adding distal variables to a performance model means that we must consider levels of analysis issues. Literature on applicant reactions to selection procedures and the implications of those reactions is discussed as is the notion that withdrawal behavior is a general concern that includes tardiness, absenteeism, counterproductive behavior, and turnover. Still other new developments include the use of technology in measurement, use of our procedures in other cultures, and the critical consideration of time in our analyses of the relationship of various variables with individual differences. Finally, the notion that performance itself is multidimensional is being addressed as a result of recent theorizing about its nature. Keywords: adaptive performance; contextual behavior; customer satisfaction; individual differences; knowledge; performance; test reactions; withdrawal behavior