This is a fully updated edition of Personnel Selection, a seminal text on the psychometric approach to personnel selection by a noted expert in the field.

• Focuses on cutting-edge topics including the influence of social networking sites, adverse impact, age differences and stereotypes, distribution of work performance, and the problems of selecting new employees using research based on incumbent employees
• Questions established beliefs in the field, especially issues that have been characterized as “not a problem,” such as differential validity, over-reliance on self-report, and “faking good”
• Contains expanded discussion of research and practice in the US and internationally, while maintaining the definitive coverage of UK and European selection approaches
• Provides comprehensive yet accessible information for professionals and students, as well as helpful pedagogical tools (technical and statistical boxes, simplified figures and tables, research agenda boxes, key point summaries, and key references)

Preface to the sixth edition vii

Preface to the first edition ix

1 Old and new selection methods 1

We’ve always done it this way

2 Validity of selection methods 25

How do you know it works?

3 Job description, work analysis and competences 55

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else

4 The interview 71

‘I know one when I see one’

5 References and ratings 94

The eye of the beholder

6 Tests of mental ability 110

‘a … man of paralysing stupidity’

7 Assessing personality by questionnaire 138

Do you worry about awful things that might happen?

8 Alternative ways of assessing personality 173

What year was the Bataan death march?

9 Biodata and weighted application blanks 192

How old were you when you learned to swim?

10 Assessment centres 207

Does your face fit?

11 Emotional intelligence and other methods 227

‘Success in work is 80% dependent on emotional intelligence’

12 Criteria of work performance 246

‘the successful employee… does more work, does it better, with less supervision’

13 Minorities, fairness and the law 268

Getting the numbers right

14 The value of good employees 289

The best is twice as good as the worst

15 Conclusions 307

Calculating the cost of smugness

References 319

Index 348

MARK COOK is Honorary Lecturer in Psychology at Swansea University, UK, and founder of the Centre for Occupational Research, an occupational psychology consultancy based in Swansea and London, UK. He has more than 30 years' experience as an occupational psychologist and is widely recognized as an expert in selection. He teaches courses in occupational psychology and personnel selection; his other research interests include personality and personality assessment. He has published widely in the field and is the author of many books, including Levels of Personality (3rd edition, 2013) and Psychological Assessment in the Workplace: A Manager's Guide (Wiley, 2005).

" Long before the term "evidence-based" became trendy, Mark Cook's classic Personnel Selection: Adding Value Through People had already set the standard. This sixth edition lives up to its reputation. Don't look any further if you want an up-to-date, comprehensive, accessible, international, critical, and most of all research-based discussion of the most common talent selection and assessment approaches in twenty-first-century organizations."

Filip Lievens, Ghent University, Belgium

A seminal text on the psychometric approach to personnel selection, the sixth edition of Personnel Selection has been fully updated and expanded to address the challenges and changes in today's workplace. Written by a noted expert with more than 30 years' experience in the field, this edition focuses on cutting-edge topics and new areas of research while also providing a complete introduction to theoretical principles and practical advice.

New topics in the sixth edition include the influence of social networking sites, new research in adverse impact, age differences and stereotypes, distribution of work performance, and the problems of selecting new employees using research based on incumbent employees. The book also questions established truths and beliefs, re-examining issues that have been characterized historically as 'not a problem', including differential validity, over-reliance on self-report, and 'faking good'. It contains expanded discussion of research and practice in the United States and internationally while maintaining the definitive coverage of British and European selection approaches. The text includes a variety of helpful pedagogical tools, such as technical and statistical boxes, simplified figures and tables, research agenda boxes, key point summaries, and key references. Comprehensive yet accessible, this text arms professionals, trainees, and students with the skills and information they need to navigate the complexities of personnel selection today.