Candidate Persistence and Personality Test Practice Effects: Implications for Staffing System Management

Abstract

Candidates persist in selection settings for numerous reasons, prompting several concerns regarding staffing system management. Predictors of the propensity to retest and personality test practice effects were investigated among a sample of 15,338 candidates who applied for supervisory positions (and 357 who repeated the selection process) over a four-year period with a large organization in the service industry. Results reveal greater likelihood of retesting among internal candidates and overall evidence of small to moderate personality test practice effects. Compared to passing candidates who retested for various reasons, failing candidates pursued alternative response strategies upon retesting and generated dimension-level practice effects that reached .40 to .60, whereas passing candidates generally replicated their initial profiles. For several subscales, low initial scores were associated with practice effects that exceeded a full standard deviation. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.