Page 308 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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11. PERSONALITY-BASED UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION
ideals. Finally, there is often no sound theory linking many personality
measures to job performance. Thus, it appears unwise to use such measures
for personnel selection and most other decision-making purposes.
Stigmas based upon personality can lead to unfair discrimination
against both job applicants and incumbents. This flies in the face of widely
expressed beliefs about the importance of treating job applicants and in­
cumbents in a fair and ethical manner. For this and other reasons, orga­
nizations must take steps to reduce (or eliminate) the unfair treatment of
job applicants and incumbents stemming from the use of personality mea­
sures. Among these are (a) developing and using selection systems that
have maximum criterion-related validity and minimum bias, (b) devel­
oping and using criterion measures that are highly valid and minimally
biased, (c) affording legal remedies to individuals who have been discrim­
inated against unfairly on the basis of selection systems that use predictor
measures that are biased or have low criterion-related validity, and (d)
training organizational decision makers to minimize the degree to which
personnel decisions are affected by impressionistic data about the person­
ality of job applicants or job incumbents.
Eliminating biases against those who fail to conform to extant person­
ality standards is likely to involve more than simply educating personnel
decision makers on the biasing effects of personality measures. More specif­
ically, it will often require changing organizational norms about the types
of individuals who are most likely to fit with given roles. In addition, it
may require that organizational members modify patterns of behavior that
perpetuate personality-based biases. These efforts will not be easy. One rea­
son for this is that personality biases in interactions with others frequently
emerge in the form of psychological processes that are effortless, uncon­
scious, and uncontrolled (Hamilton & Sherman, 1994). Another reason is
that because of the drive to maximize P-O fit and the effects of similarity
on interpersonal attraction, individuals who have personality profiles that
differ from extant standards will continue to face unfair discrimination in
organizational contexts. Nevertheless, it is critical that personnel decisions
be based upon valid data about individuals. As such, it appears quite im­
prudent to use personality measures for personnel selection and a host of
other purposes.

AUTHOR NOTES

I thank Robert L. Dipboye for very helpful comments on an earlier ver­
sion of this chapter. Correspondence concerning this chapter should be
addressed to Eugene F. Stone, Department of Psychology, University of