Validity
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 January 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 January 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0029
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 January 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 January 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846740-0029
Introduction
Validity in management research often refers to the use of tests or other selection devices (e.g., interviews, simulations, background data) to make employment or promotion decisions. In this context, validity refers to the accuracy of the inferences we draw from test scores. For example, a manager might infer from a person’s undergraduate GPA of 4.0 that he or she would perform well as a new design engineer. Or, we might infer that a high score on a word-processing exam would mean that an applicant would do well in some secretarial jobs. In contexts other than selection, the degree to which a measure provides appropriate inferences about some behavior also reflects concern about the validity of a measure. For example, we may be concerned with the measurement of commitment to an organization and what implications scores on the commitment measure relate to other aspects of organizational behavior. Validity also refers to the conclusions we draw from various research designs. In this bibliography, we first treat the validity of selection decisions and then, at the end of it, discuss the broader treatment of validity in experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational social science research.
Professional and Legal Guidelines
There are three major sets of guidelines or sets of principles that purport to describe best practice in the development and validation of psychological measures. The guidelines in Equal Employment Commission, et al. 1978 provide a legal prescription for what is required in employment selection. The guidelines in American Educational Research Association, et al. 1999 provide professional or scientific standards for various applications of psychological testing. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and American Psychological Association 2003 provides professional guidelines that are more specifically applicable to employment testing.
American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, and Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 1999.
This is the sixth edition of the document that describes professional standards on the development, validation, and use of psychological measures to which professionals in the educational, organizational, clinical, and measurement communities adhere in their work. The 1999 version of this document is being revised by scientists and practitioners in these disciplines.
Equal Employment Commission, Civil Service Commission, Department of Labor, and Department of Justice. Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. Federal Register 43 (1978): 38294–38309.
This document constitutes guidelines for the development, validation, and use of employee selection procedures. While not legally binding on organizations, this document is often used by courts to determine whether an organization’s selection procedures are or are not discriminatory and whether the procedures are valid. These guidelines have been criticized by professionals since they were written, and they are now considered by many to be obsolete.
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and American Psychological Association. Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures. Bowling Green, OH: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2003.
This document was written to specify established scientific findings and generally accepted professional practice in the field of personnel selection. It describes the validation process, sources of validity evidence, operational considerations in personnel selection research, and key considerations in the implementation of selection procedures.
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Article
- Abusive Supervision
- Adverse Impact and Equal Employment Opportunity Analytics
- Alliance Portfolios
- Alternative Work Arrangements
- Applied Political Risk Analysis
- Approaches to Social Responsibility
- Assessment Centers: Theory, Practice and Research
- Attitudes
- Attributions
- Authentic Leadership
- Automation
- Bayesian Statistics
- Behavior, Organizational
- Behavioral Approach to Leadership
- Behavioral Theory of the Firm
- Benefits
- Between Organizations, Social Networks in and
- Brokerage in Networks
- Business and Human Rights
- Business Ethics
- Career Studies
- Career Transitions and Job Mobility
- Certified B Corporations and Benefit Corporations
- Charismatic and Innovative Team Leadership By and For Mill...
- Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
- Compensation, Rewards, Remuneration
- Competitive Dynamics
- Competitive Heterogeneity
- Competitive Intensity
- Computational Modeling
- Conditional Reasoning
- Conflict Management
- Considerate Leadership
- Cooperation-Competition (Coopetition)
- Corporate Philanthropy
- Corporate Social Performance
- Corporate Venture Capital
- Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB)
- Creativity
- Cross-Cultural Communication
- Cross-Cultural Management
- Cultural Intelligence
- Culture, Organization
- Data Analytic Methods
- Decision Making
- Diversity
- Diversity and Firm Performance
- Diversity and Inclusion, Global Perspective on
- Dynamic Capabilities
- Emotional Labor
- Employee Aging
- Employee Engagement
- Employee Ownership
- Employee Voice
- Empowerment, Psychological
- Entrepreneurial Firms
- Entrepreneurial Orientation
- Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship, Corporate
- Entrepreneurship, Women’s
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Ethics
- Executive Succession
- Faking in Personnel Selection
- Family Business, Managing
- Feedback
- Financial Markets in Organization Theory and Economic Soci...
- Findings, Reporting Research
- Firm Bribery
- First-Mover Advantage
- Fit, Person-Environment
- Forecasting
- Founding Teams
- Global Leadership
- Global Talent Management
- Goal Setting
- Grounded Theory
- Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
- Human Capital Resource Pipelines
- Human Resource Management
- Human Resource Management, Strategic
- Human Resources, Global
- Human Rights
- Humanitarian Work Psychology
- Humility in Management
- Impression Management at Work
- Imprinting
- Influence Strategies/Tactics in the Workplace
- Information Economics
- Innovative Behavior
- Intelligence, Emotional
- International Economic Development and SMEs
- International Economic Systems
- International Strategic Alliances
- Job Analysis and Competency Modeling
- Job Crafting
- Job Design
- Job Satisfaction
- Judgment and Decision Making in Teams
- Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration within and across Firm...
- Leader-Member Exchange
- Leadership Development
- Leadership Development and Organizational Change, Coaching...
- Leadership, Ethical
- Leadership, Global and Comparative
- Leadership, Strategic
- Learning by Doing in Organizational Activities
- Licensing
- Management History
- Management In Antiquity
- Managerial and Organizational Cognition
- Managerial Discretion
- Meaningful Work
- Mentoring
- Multinational Corporations and Emerging Markets
- Multiteam Systems
- Neo-institutional Theory
- Neuroscience, Organizational
- New Ventures
- Organization Design, Global
- Organization Development and Change
- Organization Research, Ethnography in
- Organization Theory
- Organizational Adaptation
- Organizational Ambidexterity
- Organizational Behavior, Emotions in
- Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs)
- Organizational Climate
- Organizational Control
- Organizational Corruption
- Organizational Hybridity
- Organizational Identity
- Organizational Justice
- Organizational Legitimacy
- Organizational Networks
- Organizational Paradox
- Organizational Performance, Personality Theory and
- Organizational Responsibility
- Organizational Surveys, Driving Change Through
- Organizations, Big Data in
- Organizations, Gender in
- Organizations, Identity Work in
- Organizations, Political Ideology in
- Organizations, Social Identity Processes in
- Overqualification
- Passion
- Paternalistic Leadership
- Pay for Skills, Knowledge, and Competencies
- People Analytics
- Performance Appraisal
- Performance Feedback Theory
- Planning And Goal Setting
- Proactive Work Behavior
- Psychological Contracts
- Psychological Safety
- Real Options Theory
- Recruitment
- Regional Entrepreneurship
- Reputation, Organizational Image and
- Research, Ethics in
- Research, Longitudinal
- Research Methods
- Research Methods, Qualitative
- Resource Redeployment
- Resource-Dependence Theory
- Resources
- Response Surface Analysis, Polynomial Regression and
- Role of Time in Organizational Studies
- Safety, Work Place
- Selection
- Selection, Applicant Reactions to
- Self-Determination Theory for Work Motivation
- Self-Efficacy
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy In Management
- Self-Management and Personal Agency
- Sensemaking in and around Organizations
- Service Management
- Shared Team Leadership
- Social Cognitive Theory
- Social Evaluation: Status and Reputation
- Social Movement Theory
- Social Ties and Network Structure
- Socialization
- Spin-Outs
- Sports Settings in Management Research
- Stakeholder Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and
- Stakeholders
- Status in Organizations
- Strategic Alliances
- Strategic Human Capital
- Strategy
- Strategy and Cognition
- Strategy Implementation
- Stress
- Structural Contingency Theory/Information Processing Theor...
- Team Composition
- Team Conflict
- Team Design Characteristics
- Team Learning
- Team Mental Models
- Team Newcomers
- Team Performance
- Team Processes
- Teams, Global
- Technology and Innovation Management
- Technology, Organizational Assessment and
- the Workplace, Millennials in
- Theory X and Theory Y
- Time and Motion Studies
- Training and Development
- Training Evaluation
- Trust in Organizational Contexts
- Turnover
- Unobtrusive Measures
- Validity
- Virtual Teams
- Whistle-Blowing
- Work and Family: An Organizational Science Overview
- Work Contexts, Nonverbal Communication in
- Work, Mindfulness at
- Workplace Aggression and Violence
- Workplace Coaching
- Workplace Commitment
- Workplace Gossip
- Workplace Meetings
- Workplace, Spiritual Leadership in the
- World War II, Management Research during