Combining Personality and Cognitive Ability Predictors for Hiring Service-Oriented Employees

Recent developments in personality theory and assessment have led to calls for inclusion of personality measures in personnel selection. A measure of service-oriented personality was used in conjunction with cognitive and perceptual ability tests in a concurrent validation study of 202 medical clerical positions. The ability tests explained 5% of criterion variance; an additional 5-8% was accounted for by the personality measures. The results were interpreted as tentative support for broadening use of personality measurement in personnel selection, although a need for greater attention to construct validation was also emphasized.