Real-Life Communication
You are an industrial psychometrist working for a medium-sized organization.
Your employer is concerned that employee theft is increasingly cutting into
profits. She has heard some good things about honesty tests from her associates,
and wants you to look into whether they could be used when hiring new people.
Dishonesty
by employees is a subtle and expensive problem for employers. It is subtle
because it can take place in occupations where one would not expect it to
take place. For example, one unpublished study indicates that 50 percent of
police officer applicants lied when taking a personality test for employment
purposes.
It is an expensive problem as well. One form of dishonesty
-- theft -- can result in large losses to employers. This is true even if
relatively inexpensive items (like pencils) are frequently stolen by a large
number of people.
Not all theft, however, leads to large expenses for
employers. In some cases, the cost of testing may outweigh the cost of theft.
A
polygraph test is an electronic device used to detect lying. It is also often
illegal for purposes of selecting employees. As a result, most integrity tests
are of a pencil-and-paper variety.
At least one testing group now has
an interview format that assesses verbal and non-verbal indications of dishonesty.
Honesty
tests are not without problems. Almost everyone has been dishonest on some
of the items mentioned on the test some of the time. The issue then becomes:
how dishonest must one be before being rejected from a job?
Another
issue is faking. Who would admit to stealing on an honesty test? Even people
who are trying to fake it may be screened out due to inconsistencies in their
responses from item to item.
Another issue that pertains to honesty
tests is the questionable sales techniques used to market them. In one review
of the literature, the test publishers overstated the value of their test
and the qualifications of those who developed the test.
Another issue
to consider is the reactions of job applicants to honesty tests. Some job
applicants, even qualified ones, may simply refuse to take such a test.
You
decide to make a list of pros and cons of using integrity tests in hiring
before proceeding further. What does your list look like?