The relative performance of different methods for selecting creative marketing personnel
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The relative performance of different methods for selecting creative marketing personnel Niek Althuizen
Published online: 21 July 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Abstract Despite an increasing need for creativity in all corners of business, the spotlight of most recruitment and selection procedures has not shifted accordingly. Measures of creative ability that are to be used in practice should preferably be brief and operationally valid in the small and relatively homogenous pools of subjects that companies typically have to deal with. This article examines the performance of different assessment methods of creative ability in two small-scale hiring contexts, i.e., with prospective marketing employees (marketing students) and with current employees of a creative marketing agency. With prospective marketing employees, a combination of test ratings and student CV ratings of creative ability shows high operational validity. Supervisory ratings and self-ratings of creative ability are reasonable alternatives to test ratings for senior and long-time employees, but should be used with caution when junior employees and recent recruits are concerned. Keywords Creative ability . Measurement . Recruitment . Selection . Marketing employees
1 Introduction Creativity enables organizations to develop innovative strategies, new products, and novel ways of working that are crucial for survival in highly competitive and dynamic business environments (Andrews and Smith 1996; Woodman et al. 1993). A study by IBM (2010) revealed that 60 % of the surveyed chief executive officers worldwide consider creativity as their top priority. A survey by Patterson et al. (2009) among UK businesses showed that 78 % views creativity and innovation as key to survival and future success. One would expect that organizations have shifted the spotlight of their recruitment and selection procedures accordingly. However, of the aforementioned
N. Althuizen (*) ESSEC Business School, Avenue Bernard Hirsch, 95201 Cergy-Pontoise, France e-mail: [email protected]
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Mark Lett (2012) 23:973–985
UK businesses, only 29 % listed creativity among their personnel selection criteria and most appraisal processes still favor conscientiousness over innovativeness (Patterson et al. 2009). Measures of creative ability do not enjoy the same reputation as general mental ability and personality tests or other methods to gauge an applicant’s aptitude for the job, such as the evaluation of CVs, interviews, and assessment centers (see Robertson and Smith 2001). The marketing literature has also paid scant attention to the measurement of creative ability and individual differences in creative ability are largely neglected as an explanatory variable in marketing research (e.g., Goldenberg et al. 1999; Sellier and Dahl 2011). According to a review of applied creativity research in business by Kabanoff and Rossiter (1994), however, the largest factor contributing to the creative output of the firm is the creative ability of the individual. The present arti
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