The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings

This article summarizes the practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research in personnel selection. On the basis of meta-analytic f ndings, this article presents the validity of 19 selection procedures for predicting job performance and training performance and the validity of paired combinations of general mental ability (GMA) and the 18 other selection procedures. Overall, the 3 combinations with the highest multivariate validity and utility for job performance were GMA plus a work sample test (mean validity of.63), GMA plus an integrity test (mean validity of.65), and GMA plus a structured interview (mean validity of.63). A further advantage of the latter 2 combinations i that they can be used for both entry level selection and selection of experienced employees. The practical utility implications of these summary findings are substantial. The implica-tions of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance are discussed. From the point of view of practical value, the most important property of a personnel assessment method is predictive validity: the ability to predict future job performance, job-related learning (such as amount of learning in training and development pro-grams), and other criteria. The predictive validity coefficient i