Application: Organizational Fit

Selecting and hiring a new employee involves comparing many candidates' skills and experience. However, the candidate with the strongest abilities and credentials is not always the best person for the job; a candidate's personality and character traits are also very important to job success. A candidate might look great on paper, but once you meet him or her you might notice personal habits or traits and other characteristics that significantly detract from the candidate's suitability for the job. Assessing a candidate's organizational fit, or how well the candidate matches an organization's work environment and dynamics, can be a useful technique in hiring new employees.

In this week's Application, you will examine the use of organizational fit in selecting candidates to fill open job positions. You will explore the costs and benefits of this selection strategy as well as the associated legal and regulatory concerns.

To prepare for this Application Assignment:

• Review Chapter 11 in the course text and identify how HR personnel can use the information that department managers can provide to determine organizational culture and organizational fit.

• Read Chapter 13 in the course text, focusing on the legal issues interviewers must consider when asking questions and selecting candidates.

• Read the articles "Organizational Fit Is Key to Job Success" and "Performance Management for Inclusion." How is organizational fit relevant to a candidate's potential success with an organization? How do the principles of organizational fit relate to inclusion and diversity?

• Review the websites for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). How do government regulations affect the interviewing and selection process?

To complete this Application Assignment, write a 2- to 3-page paper analyzing the concept of organizational fit as it applies to the job interviewer and interviewee. Address the following:

• Describe two potential advantages and disadvantages to recruiting and selecting applicants based on organizational fit and organizational culture.

• Discuss scenarios in which you think this type of recruitment and selection is appropriate and/or inappropriate. Defend your position with support from the article and other resources from the Walden library.

• Comment on how you might determine the organizational fit of a candidate just from a resume and/or portfolio. Consider how a candidate's personality could be evident in such documents. What are potential problems with making character judgments based only on a piece of paper?

• Explain how government regulations might affect the ways an interviewer could use the principle of organizational fit in the selection process.

Support your work with specific citations from this week's Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure that your in-text citations and reference list are correct.

Learning Resources

Required Resources

Media

• Interactive Media: Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive producer). (2011). Good Samaritan Hospital Organizational Chart-Week 3: Getting What You Need: Recruitment, Interviewing, and Selection Process. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Readings

• Course Text: Human Resource Management in Health Care: Principles and Practice

o Chapter 11, "Department Managers and the Recruiting Process" (Review)

o Chapter 13, "Conducting a Successful and Legal Selection Interview"

o PowerPoint: Chapter 11, "Department Managers and the Recruiting Process" (Review)

o PowerPoint: Chapter 13, "Conducting a Successful and Legal Selection Interview"

• Article: Coutu, D., Palfrey, Jr., J. G., Joerres, J. A., Boyd, D. M., & Fertik, M. (2007). We Googled you. Harvard Business Review, 85(6), 37-47.

Retrieved from the Walden library using the Business Source Complete database:

http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=24997947&site=ehost-live&scope=site

• Article: Montgomery, C. E. (1996). Organizational fit is key to job success. HR Magazine, 41(1), 94-97.

Retrieved from the Walden library using the Business Source Complete database:

http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=9602130966&site=ehost-live&scope=site

• Article: Philippe, M. Y. (2010). Performance management for inclusion. Profiles in Diversity Journal, 12(4), 80.

Retrieved from the Walden library using the Business Source Complete database:

http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=52909529&site=ehost-live&scope=site

• Article: Tyler, L. (2009). Hiring right. Healthcare Executive, 24(4), 64-68.

Retrieved from the Walden library using the Business Source Complete database:

http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=42873067&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Websites

• U. S. Department of Justice. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).(2011). Retrieved fromhttp://www.ada.gov/

• U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). (2011). Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/

Optional Resources

Website

• Walden University Career Services Center. (2011). Retrieved from http://careercenter.waldenu.edu/