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Oxford Handbook of Personnel Assessment and Selection (Schmitt, Neal
A comprehensive scholarly handbook synthesizing a century of science and practice in how organizations identify, measure, and choose the people most likely to perform effectively in their jobs.
This is a step-by-step procedural book — we're building it into Stepcode, with a profile to follow.
What it’s about
This handbook is the definitive reference for anyone who wants to understand the full landscape of personnel assessment and selection. Edited by Neal Schmitt and written by leading industrial-organizational psychologists, it traces the field from its origins around 1900 through modern web-based, global, and team-based selection challenges. It systematically covers the individual-difference constructs that predict performance (cognitive ability, personality, interests, physical ability, self-evaluations), the methods used to measure them (interviews, biodata, simulations, self-reports, individual assessment), the multidimensional criteria that define job performance (task, contextual, counterproductive, turnover, adaptability, safety), and the societal and organizational constraints (legal, cultural, strategic, diversity, applicant reactions) that shape what selection systems can and should do. Combining rigorous validation theory (validity generalization, meta-analysis, job analysis) with practical guidance on implementing and sustaining selection programs, it equips researchers and practitioners to build defensible, valid, and context-sensitive selection systems.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An I-O psychologist, HR professional, or selection researcher who wants to build scientifically sound, valid, and defensible systems for choosing the right people for jobs.
- The problem
- Organizations must accurately predict which applicants will perform well while navigating legal, cultural, and strategic constraints. The reader feels overwhelmed by fragmented literatures, contradictory findings, and the fear of building a system that is invalid, biased, or legally indefensible.
- The plan
- Understand the historical and social context of selection and the nature of individual differences.
- Master research strategies: validity, job analysis, staffing strategy, and meta-analysis.
- Learn the individual-difference constructs that underlie performance.
- Choose appropriate methods to measure predictor constructs.
- Conceptualize and measure multidimensional performance and outcomes.
- The payoff
- Selection systems that reliably predict job performance and other valued outcomes. · Legally defensible, fair, and context-appropriate hiring decisions. · Balanced achievement of organizational performance and workforce diversity goals.
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Additional reading
- Design, Implementation and Evaluation of Assessment and Development Centres; Best practice guidelines · British Psychological Society (BPS)
Cited by the author as an authoritative source for best practice, covering key issues like fairness, design, and evaluation that are central to the book's guidance.
- Assessment Centres (3rd edn) · C Woodruffe
Recommended for readers seeking a broader overview and history of the assessment centre method.
- The big five personality dimensions and job-performance; a meta-analysis · Barrick, M R and Mount, K M
Provides the empirical support for the book's caution against over-relying on personality tests in selection, a key topic in Chapter 5.
- A theory of the validity of predictors in selection · M Smith
Offers a theoretical framework for understanding why different selection tools have varying levels of effectiveness, underpinning the book's core argument.
- Competence at Work · Spencer, L M and Spencer, S M
A foundational text on the concept of competence, relevant to Chapter 2 on developing a competence framework.
- Development and Assessment Centres · Charles Woodruffe
Cited as a key text for readers wanting a more recent and in-depth exposition of assessment centre work, a core topic of the book.
- Performance Management: The new realities · Michael Armstrong and Angela Baron
The book uses Armstrong and Baron's definition of performance management as its foundation, making their work a primary source for understanding this core concept.
- The Competent Manager: A model for effective performance · R. F. Boyatzis
The author attributes the current usage and definition of 'competency' to Boyatzis, making this a foundational text for a central theme of the book.
- Appraisal and Feedback: Making performance review work · Clive Fletcher
Fletcher is cited as an authority on appraisals, a key one-to-one interaction within performance management, providing deeper insight into this specific practice.
- The Easy Guide to Repertory Grids · D. Jankowicz
The book presents the repertory grid as a powerful technique for developing interview models; this book is recommended as a highly accessible introduction to the method.