Organizational Psychology - Section 1: Selection Iii: Criterion Measurement (Professor Dr. Gibson)

Front 1

What is Criterion Measurement?

Back 1

A principle or standard that a task or job is judged by.

Front 2

How many types of criterion are there?

Back 2

"There are two kinds of criterion. One is the ultimate, or conceptual. The other is the actual." - pg. 11

Front 3

What is the Ultimate (Conceptual) Criterion?

Back 3

The ultimate criterion includes all and any aspect of performance that defines job success. Included in this definition is job success. Hence, the ultimate criterion is an abstraction, an ideal. It is conceptual rather than real or actual. It is very complex and never completely accessible. All we can do is approach the ultimate criterion. - pg. 11

Front 4

What is the Actual Criterion?

Back 4

"The actual criterion is our reality. It is what we do measure, what we do understand, what we do know, and so on." - pg. 11

Front 5

What is Relevance?

Back 5

"Relevance is the extent to which the actual criterion overlaps with the ultimate criterion." - pg. 12

Front 6

What are the two aspects of Relevance?

Back 6

"Criterion Deficiency is when we have failed to consider or measure enough of the ultimate criterion.

Criterion Contamination is when we have considered or measured an actual criterion that is not part of the ultimate criteria.

Measurement error and biases are often the culprit of criterion contamination." - pg. 12

Front 7

What are some steps that can be taken to reduce criterion deficiency or contamination?

Back 7

Some steps that can be taken to reduce criterion deficiency or contamination are the "reliability, sensitivity, practicality, and fairness." - pg. 12

Front 8

Why is Reliability important to Criterion Measurement?

Back 8

"As with any methodological endeavour, the more reliable any measure, the better the outcome. The same principle applies to criteria. If a particular criterion is constantly changing, then it fails to be useful. The expression here is “moving the goal posts.”" - pg. 12

Front 9

Why is Sensitivity important to Criterion Measurement?

Back 9

Whether a criterion is meaningless, or not, relates to sensitivity. - pg. 12

Front 10

Why is Practicality important to Criterion Measurement?

Back 10

Practicality applies to both reliability and sensitivity. If a criterion is too difficult, expensive, or time consuming to measure, then for all intents and purposes, it is not practical. If a criterion is not practical, then it will be dropped from the process. - pg. 13

Front 11

Why is Fairness important to Criterion Measurement?

Back 11

"Criteria must be fair or, at minimum, perceived to be fair by employees. As fairness is a cornerstone for all employee-employer relations." - pg. 13

Front 12

What is a Multiple Criterion?

Back 12

Multiple Criterion refers to a situation where measures of clearly different variables are used to describe an individual's performance.

However, advocates say combining unrelated measures that are still useful in predicting criterion performance can lead to an ambiguous composite that is nonsensical in a psychological and psychometric way.

Front 13

What is a Composite Criterion?

Back 13

Composite Criterion is a combination of different sub-criteria which are based on certain standards used to assess a person's performance, attitudes, motivations, etc. This is usually done by estimating weights for each of the sub-criteria and then combining them in an additive fashion.

"However, varied slight differences in weights and combinations of elements [...] resulted in dramatic differences in predictive ability." - pg. 14

Front 14

What is Objective Performance Criteria?

Back 14

Objective Performance Criteria or "hard, non-judgmental evaluations such as employment records, absenteeism, turnover, and productivity. They may be relatively easy to count or measure, but may only be suitable for relatively simple jobs." - pg. 14

Front 15

What is Subjective Performance Criteria?

Back 15

Common Subjective Performance Criteria include personality, attitude, appearance, demeanor and social interaction. The evaluator might rate the employee on each subjective criteria using a scale that ranges from poor to excellent.

Front 16

What are Contextual Behaviours?

Back 16

Contextual Behaviours "are behaviours that are not necessarily listed in a job description or specification, but which enhance the quality of the work environment. Contextual Behaviours are also referred to in the literature as organizational citizenship behaviours, pro-social behaviours and extra-role behaviours." - pg. 15