Reclaiming Personality Traits for Personnel Selection: Self-Esteem as an Illustrative Case

Abstract

Previous reviews documenting the low validity and utility associ-ated with personality measures should not lead researchers in the area of personnel selection to abandon the use of such variables. The lack offindings in past research can be explained by (a) misspecification of the model by anticipating direct effects; (b) inadequate statistical power; and (c) contamination of measures by relying on self-report or observational methods. An alternative model in which personality measures have interactive effects with ability tests in predicting per-formance provides a stronger theoretical rationale to support a rela-tionship between personality variables and performance. Sample sizes also need to be increased significantly in order to provide adequate tests of the validity of personality measures in personnel selection. Measures of personality traits based on perception and judgment pro-vide a more promising approach to obtaining less contaminated in-dices. Future research that avoids the problems of the past may pro-vide a more positive picture of the utility of personality traits as screening devices.

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