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Psychometric Tests

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Behavioural Studies Assignment 1: Psychometric Tests; a critical evaluation "Evaluate the uses and limitations of psychometric assessment tests and questionnaires for organisational decision-making" Introduction Psychometric tests developed quickly during the 1980s and 1990s and nowadays, it is very commonly used by many organisations for making decisions on selection and promotion. "In the UK, about 75% of medium to large sized organizations use them as part of their selection procedure alongside interviews or other face-to-face assessment techniques." (Website: http://www.morrisby.com/faq/faq_answer.asp?ID=11 Accessed 30/11/2005) The psychometric tests are a useful tool for understanding more about the candidates, and finding out their aptitude and personality to support the organisation making prediction about the person's behaviour or work performance in the future. Types of psychometric tests "A key feature of all psychometric tests is that they have to fulfil two principal criteria in use: reliability, ie, tests must provide consistent results when measuring the same characteristics, or factors, on two or more occasions, usually on a test-retest basis; validity, i.e they must be able to measure what they claim to measure." (G A Cole, Organisational Behaviour, 1995, Continuum) The psychometric tests fall into two types: * Aptitude tests - Measure a person's potential rather than knowledge and how well they can learn new skills to cope with the job. ...read more.


"Recent meta-analysis studies have consistently demonstrated that cognitive ability testing accurately predicts future job performance across almost all operational areas." (John Arnold, Work Psychology, 4th edition, 2005, Pearson Education Limited) An example of the use of a psychometric test during the selection process could involve a potential sales manager, and possibly testing them for their numerical ability, verbal reasoning powers and for analysing their personality, enabling the company to see how he/she deals things, behaves towards the staff or reacts in different situations. Using a psychometric test during the selection process would also help an organisation to give feedback to those who failed to get the job; the feedback is accurate and straight forward, helping the applicants to identify their strengths and weaknesses, so they know what kind of job is suitable for them and to help self-development. During the training and promotion processes, the tests are also useful as they help to identify whether the employees need training and assistance in improving their skills in specific areas. During the promotion process, the organisation might use the personality questionnaires to find out which candidate's personality is most suitable to promote to a higher level. Some organisations might even use the results of a psychometric test to make someone redundant. ...read more.


vocabulary, but also it would be unfair to applicants who have different cultures, or come from a different background, because they might have different beliefs, opinions and values on different things or react differently to similar situations. Conclusion I personally think that the aptitude and ability tests are really useful for organisations, as it helps them to make decisions during their selection and promotion stages. It is reliable and accurate, helps to identify the ability of the applicants and predicts their performance. However, there are lots of factors that could create an influence on the individuals' life, which would directly or indirectly affect their performance. The personality questionnaire can be accurate if the person answers honestly to the questions, it can help them to know more about themselves and find out what type of person they are. However, I suggest that the personality questionnaire should not be used within workplace because I strongly believe that personality does not reflect the productivity of the person. Finally, I think it is important for organisations not to rely on these tests because they cannot be 100% accurate, and that they should set out a good selection procedure, making sure they are providing a good feedback system to the applicants, and make sure discriminations do not take place during the selection process. ...read more.

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