Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

SELECT ON CONSCIENTIOUSNESS AND EMOTIONAL STABILITY
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EXERCISES
Selecting applicants for entry level bank teller positions
You are the human resource manager for a large financial institution. You have been
asked to recommend methods for selecting applicants for entry level bank teller positions.
It is especially important that tellers have a strong work ethic, display integrity, interact
well with others and are accurate in their work. Consequently, you recommend that the
foundation of the selection program should be the personality traits of conscientiousness
and emotional stability. List and discuss five desirable employee behaviors that will likely
result from selecting employees on conscientiousness and emotional stability. Here are
some questions you may want to address in your answer:
(a) What skills do all new entrants to the workforce need in order to be successful in the
workplace?
(b) Which of these skills are especially important for bank tellers to be successful?
(c) How do conscientiousness and emotional stability infl uence these critical behaviors?
(d) Are there personality traits other than conscientiousness and emotional stability (e.g.,
agreeableness, extraversion or openness) that may be useful when selecting for the
entry level bank teller positions?
Convincing a high level executive
You are the human resources director at a large firm and you have been asked to design
a system for selecting managers. An integral part of your recommended hiring plan is
the use of personality tests. A high level executive in the firm hears about your plan and
expresses concerns about the use of personality tests. He took a personality test once and
he believes it did not accurately describe his personality. He also says that personality tests
can’t be accurate because “ everybody knows you can fake these things. ” What would you
tell him? What is the basis for your answer?
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