One of the most important yet difficult decisions that an
organization has to make is whether or not to hire an individual that has submitted
an application for a particular position.
Job applications and resumes’ can give the hiring manager a preliminary
assessment of an individual’s skills and qualifications based on their previous
experience however many organizations prefer to assess the skills and
qualifications of an applicant based on the necessity of their organization.
A variety of psychological test have been developed to assist
organizations with their hiring process.
Psychological testing varies from the type of test to the types of
questions, but the main objective is to help an organization assess the
applicant in relation to the functions of the jobs that are available in the
organization. Aside from assessing the
ability, knowledge and skills of individuals, organizations, especially those
where employees handle currency, seek to assess the integrity of all
applicants. The purpose of an integrity
test is to help employers identify “whether or not an employee will engage in
counterproductive or dishonest behavior on the job” (Spector, 2012 p.
117). The questions on the integrity
test will revolve around situations that include dishonesty, workplace
disruption, stealing and dishonorable behavior.
Test administers tend to mix up the questions in order to detect certain
answers involving workplace theft, drug abuse, harassment and unethical
behavior. Just like with any test there are pros and cons that come with the
results. The advantages of conducting
integrity test will help organizations identify applicants that are more likely
to engage in unethical behavior that could save the organization on cost due to
those questionable behaviors.
Administering integrity test also sends a message about the values of
the organization to the individuals taking the test. With advantages also come disadvantages with
an integrity test. Test takers may
disapprove of the integrity test because they do not see the relevance to the
job and decline to take the test which could mean that they are no longer
interested in obtaining the job. The
disadvantage of an individual declining to take the test could be the
organization losing out on a perfectly good candidate for the position and that
individual losing out on the position.
Another disadvantage of the integrity test is individual’s manipulating
the test results by answering in a false positive way to all questions. Ethical issues can arise when administering
psychological test such as an integrity test because the hiring agent can use
the results of the test to pass judgment on the applicant deeming them
incompetent to perform the functions of the job whereas they could have
misunderstood the questions on the test.
Another issue that involves ethics when administering psychological
tests is the right to protect an individual from humiliation. When the individual who administered the test
is revealing the results to the applicant because of their right to know they
have to be careful to not use any shameful labels as well as the applicants
right to privacy.
In conclusion, psychological testing is used to assist
organization with the hiring process as well as assessing current
employees. An integrity test assesses an
individual’s honesty and their trustworthiness based on current, past and
potential future behavior, therefore assisting an organization in making the
decision of whether or not to hire that individual.
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