[IPAC-List] Use of integrity assessments in public sector

[Dennis Doverspike]

Reid, (and others)

Interesting question - because Saul Fine just had an article in PPM on
Practical Guidelines for Implementing Preemployment Integrity Tests. 42(2)
281-292. He notes the same paradox - the lack of use in the public sector.
He offers explanatory factors, which I will not repeat here.

I am not an attorney.We probably need an attorney here - someone like Ines
or Jeff - but without being an attorney, I think the difference relates to
privacy laws and the 4th Amendement.

Part of the issue may be that all errors are not created equal.Winfred
points out an obvious flaw in the DOL argument, in that integrity tests
probably result in far fewer errors than other tests.  However, the error
with an integrity test is that you are saying a person is dishonest. Saying
someone is dishonest in the private sector is one thing, but it can be
trickier in the public sector where a person has wider privacy protections
than you do with the private sector. Yes, the same argument can be made
about personality tests, but can probably be made even more directly about
integrity tests, even if the questions on the two tests are almost
identical (there is still a difference between saying someone is not hard
working enough and saying there is dishonest, regardless of the questions).
 But this is just a guess. I remember from teaching forensic psychology
that there have been a number of cases where public sector employees have
argued for privacy rights that do not apply to the private sector, which
could easily be extended to integrity tests. (Note, I am not agreeing or
disagreeing with this argument, I am just offering the hypothesis that one
of the reasons for not adopting integrity tests related to the differences
in privacy protection in the public and private sector).


I believe IO solutions also has some material on integrity tests and the
public sector on their website.





On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 6:47 PM, Winfred Arthur, Jr <w-arthur at neo.tamu.edu>wrote:


>  Jim, i cannot help but note that my reading and understanding of the

> extant literature is quite at odds w/ the broad sweeping stmt that is

> represented by the 1st sentence of the DoL text.  and whereas there are

> aspects of this work that one could quibble about, for instance, as a

> starting point, see Table 1 and Table 2 of Schmidt and Hunter (1998; this

> the Psych Bull "validity and utility of selection methods in personnel

> selection" paper).  the respective "integrity tests" criterion-related

> validities for "overall job performance" and "overall performance in job

> training programs" are .41 and .38.

>

> and concerning the subsequent sentences/advice . . . would that not be the

> case for any predictor?  is this inherently peculiar to integrity tests?

>

> - winfred

>

>

>

> On 1/2/2014 5:27 PM, Jim Kuthy wrote:

>

>  According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s publication, “Testing and

> Assessment: An Employer’s Guide to Good Practices,” (2000)(see

> http://www.onetcenter.org/dl_files/empTestAsse.pdf) …

>

>

>

> “All honesty and integrity measures have appreciable prediction errors. To

> minimize prediction

>

> errors, thoroughly follow up on poor-scoring individuals with retesting,

> interviews, or reference

>

> checks. In general, integrity measures should not be used as the sole

> source of information for

>

> making employment decisions about individuals.”

>

>

>

> I couldn’t have said it better.

>

>

>

> Jim

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> *Jim Kuthy, Ph.D.*

>

> *Principal Consultant* | Biddle Consulting Group, Inc.

> 193 Blue Ravine Road, Suite 270 | Folsom, CA 95630

> (916) 294-4250 ext. 239 | Fax: (916) 294-4255

> www.biddle.com | www.criticall911.com | www.opac.com |

> www.affirmativeaction.com

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> *From:* Reid Klion [mailto:RKlion at panpowered.com <RKlion at panpowered.com>]

> *Sent:* Thursday, January 02, 2014 2:38 PM

> *To:* ipac-list at ipacweb.org

> *Subject:* [IPAC-List] Use of integrity assessments in public sector

>

>

>

> Happy 2014 to all!

>

>

>

> I am curious about the group’s thoughts about a question that was recently

> posed by a colleague regarding the use of integrity tests in the public

> sector. Integrity tests are used fairly broadly in the private sector for

> individuals applying for “positions of trust.” However, neither of us were

> aware of their usage in the public sector (setting aside the use of

> psychological assessments for the selection of public safety officers which

> uses a different set of assessments much broader in scope ).  Anyone have

> any thoughts or anecdata? Thanks-

>

>

>

> Reid

>

>

>

>

>

> Reid E. Klion, Ph.D.

>

> Chief Science Officer

>

> *pan** -  *Performance Assessment Network, Inc.

>

> 11590 North Meridian St.

>

> Suite 200

>

> Carmel, IN 46032 USA

>

> 317.814.8808  Office

>

> 317.908.4312  Mobile

>

> 317.814.8888  Fax

>

> rklion at panpowered.com

>

> www.panpowered.com

>

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________________

> IPAC-ListIPAC-List at ipacweb.orghttp://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/ipac-list

>

>

>

> _______________________________________________________

> IPAC-List

> IPAC-List at ipacweb.org

> http://nine.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/ipac-list

>

>



-- 
Dennis Doverspike, PhD., ABPP
Licensed Psychologist, #3539 (OHIO)
Independent Consultant
Professor of Psychology, University of Akron
dennisdoverspike at gmail.com

The information is intended only for the person or entity to which it is
addressed and may contain confidential, privileged and/or a work product
for the sole use of the intended recipient. No confidentiality or privilege
is waived or lost by any errant transmission. If you receive this message
in error, please destroy all copies of it and notify the sender. If the
reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby
notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited. In the case of E-mail or electronic
transmission, immediately delete it and all copies of it from your system
and notify the sender. E-mail and fax transmission cannot be guaranteed to
be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted,
lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://nine.pairlist.net/pipermail/ipac-list/attachments/20140102/37941b00/attachment.html