How Employee Selection Decisions are Made in Practice

Abstract

Existing literature on employee selection contains an abundance of knowledge of how selection should take place but almost nothing about how it occurs in practice. This paper presents an ethnomethodologicaldiscourse analytical real-time study of how selection decisions are made in situ. The main findings suggest that selection decision making is characterized by ongoing practical deliberation involving four interrelated discursive processes: assembling versions of the candidates; establishing the versions of the candidates as factual; reaching selection decisions; and using selection tools as sensemaking devices. In addition, this paper identifies two basic forms of selection decision making: one characterized by initial agreement and one characterized by initial disagreement. In each basic form of decision making, selectors reason through the four discursive processes in a methodical, situated and practical manner in order to construct local versions of the candidates and make 'reasonable' selection decisions.

Making sense of the sensemaking perspective: Its constituents, limitations, and opportunities for further development

“…Below, we discuss each one of them. Dismissal of the possibility of prospective sensemaking. One of the most common critiques, primarily raised by researchers in the area of strategy and organizational change (who explicitly focus on the future), is that current SP enables the study of retro spective sensemaking only, at the expense of studying prospective sensemaking as well (e.g., Bolander & Sandberg, ; Engwall & Westling, ; Gephart, Topal, & Zhang, ; Gioia, Corley, & Fabbri, ; Gioia & Mehra, ; Gioia, Thomas, Clark, & Chittipeddi, ; Kaplan & Orlikowski, ; Mackay, ; Stigliani & Ravasi, ). It is important to note that although Weick admits that people's actions are guided by future‐oriented thoughts, such as plans, he nonetheless claims that they are, essentially, derived from retrospective sensemaking.…”

“…In other words, adding the notion of "sensegiving" to existing SP does not seem to be enough to enable us to investigate more genuine forms of prospective sensemaking, such as strategic discussions about the future (Kaplan & Orlikowski, 2013;Stigliani & Ravasi, 2012;Tsoukas & Shepherd, 2004) or various forms of anticipation actors experience, while carrying out ongoing organizational activities (Bolander & Sandberg, 2013). For example, a crucial aspect of the "practical sense" (Bourdieu, 1990), namely the sense practitioners manifest through their engagement with the social practices they regularly take part in, is knowing how to go on (Shotter, 2006).…”

A comparative study of practitioner perceptions of selection methods in the United Kingdom

“…Effective employee selection is critical for the achievement of organizational strategic objectives (Bolander & Sandberg, ). Selection is a topic of increasing concern to organizations, particularly given recent economic volatility and the need to ensure that organizations sustain or improve their performance and reputations while remaining economical.…”

Spelling out consequences: Conditional constructions as a means to resist proposals in organisational planning process

“…Some other studies have, for their part, investigated decision making and organisational planning, concentrating on actions -such as directives -occurring regularly in workplace meeting interaction (e.g. Asmuß and Oshima, 2012;Stevanovic, 2012;Svennevig and Djordjilovic, 2015; see also Bolander and Sandberg, 2013). Nonetheless, they have largely focused on single conversations where the activities at hand are completed then and there.…”