Self-presentation in personnel selection from the perspective of applicants and organizations

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Positive self-presentation of job applicants has long been viewed as a serious problem in personnel selection. As a consequence, use of selection instruments susceptible to such tendencies (e.g., personality tests) has sometimes been abandoned. However, there is no consistent empirical evidence that susceptibility to positive self-presentation does systematically impair the predictive validity of selection instruments. The author of the present proposal recently presented a theory attempting to explain this apparent contradiction (Marcus, 2009). In this theory, the success of self-presentation (in terms of receiving a job offer) is described as an outcome of a complex set of applicants' skills and motivational characteristics, and of properties of the selection instrumentsemployed. These variables affect predictive validity in part positively and in part negatively, such that effects can compensate for each other and even positive net effects may emerge. In the present research, a series of empirical studies are outlined, which are aimed at testing propositions of the theory and at deriving practical solutions that improve personnel selection. Hypothesized effects are to be established first in simulated selection settings with job-experienced students. Subsequently, it will be examined to what extent findings generalize to actual selection settings in the field. In case hypotheses derived from the theory could be confirmed, this proposal may lead to a paradigmatic shift in the way self-presentation of job applicants is generally viewed. Namely, self-presentation may then be regarded as a potential resource, rather than a threat, in personnel selection.