Reference no: EM133095486

Company A wants to hire mechanical engineers -- many skills and abilities of the new hires are listed. However, you are asked to assess one criterion -- " "creativity" -- in your firm's current process.

Currently, your firm will make a first cut of potential hires. At this stage, candidates are primarily assessed in terms of academic background, technical skills and relevant work experience. For your company, this position is typically viewed as an entry-level position. However, you will consider candidates with a few years of prior, relevant work experience.

After the first cut, candidates are interviewed in local offices. Subsequently, if there is a third round, candidates are interviewed at the corporate headquarter.

In local offices, creativity is examined using the following "test" which is conducted by an interview panel (preferably three interviewers):

Approximately half-way into the interview, the interviewer hands the candidate a pencil and informs the candidate "In one minute, please list (and demonstrate if necessary) all of the possible uses of this pencil -- at home, at work or in any other situation."

One of the interviewers will then record the items listed. When the interview is complete, the panel will assess the quality of the answer on a scale from 1-5.

So, the goal is to identify creative engineers and hire more creative engineers. The criterion is creativity. The assessment is "identifying creative uses of a pencil" Is this a valid assessment. What are the potential dangers in interpreting the validity of this assessment in terms of the reliability of the assessment.

So, what do you think about the criterion, the validity of the assessment and its reliability. You are not expected to compute reliability coefficients. But, let's discuss how to assess and if necessary improve upon this process.