- Is it fair for organizations to require minimum score on standardized tests such as the SAT? Why or why not?
It is not fair for the organizations to require minimum scores on standardized tests such as the SAT. SAT is not designed to measure job performance, and the kind of person who performs well on the SAT’s is not necessarily the kind of person who will perform well sitting at her desk.
As a recruiter I did not have any difficulty in giving the job to the applicant with the lower SAT score among two individuals with different SAT scores. My choice depends on model of selection process in organization. In substantive selection, I will choose the one who did best on the performance test. In performance test I will mainly see three major types of behavior that constitute performance at work: Task performance, citizenship, counter productivity. My choice will be also based on written test, interviews, drug test, and background check. Beside SAT scores, GPA, Basic literacy skills, Technical skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills will other indicators of the job performance. Basic literacy skills will be an advantage to do typical workplace tasks. Lack of basic literacy skills means there is almost no hope of competing in a global economy. By having technical skills it will be a good advantage, so that employee will have new technology and new structural designs in the organization. Without good technical skills it will be difficult to competing with others. By having interpersonal skills, employee can effectively interact with their co-workers and boss. Without interpersonal skills listening, communicating, and team building will not possible. Problem-solving will sharpen employee’s logic, reasoning, and problem defining skills as well as their abilities to assess causation, develop and analyze alternatives, and select solutions. I will try to use other measures of cognitive ability, such as college grades, which are also more recent indicators than SAT scores. I will use various types of selection method tests such as written test, performance-simulation tests, and interviews. To reduce the of performance-simulation test I will use situational judgment tests, which ask applicants how they would perform in a variety of job situations and compare their answers to those of high-performance employees. Situational judgment tests have shown impressive and may be more objective than assessment centers. The above answers of the case study “Job Candidate Without Scoring SAT – Case Solution” have been written after studying the full case study.