The divergence between research and practice in management sciences and its impact on employee selection methods in South African technology firms

Abstract

The dawn of the knowledge era has brought with it increasing competition for highcalibre knowledge workers, making employee selection one of the most important decisions a firm can make. Research indicates that firms making use of effective employee selection methods with increased predictive validity of future job performance have a higher probability of employing employees that will have higher job performance and a superior ability to adapt to this changing environment. Comprehensive research has highlighted that some employee selection methods are more accurate at predicting future job performance than others. Similar studies conducted in the field of management sciences have indicated that practitioners are not heeding what academics are advising, resulting in a research-practice gap. This quantitative study, by way of online surveys, gained access to line managers and HCM practitioners in five South African technology firms. This study set out to investigate the possible existence of a divergence between research and practice in the use of employee selection methods in these firms. The results of this study indicate that a divergence does exist between the perceived validity respondents place on employee selection methods and those that are researchproven. Respondents might be suffering from the Òbounded rationalityÓ model of decision making. This study offers evidence-based-management as a possible solution to address this divergence.