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Organization Studies
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Paradigms and their Development: The Psychometric Paradigm of Personnel Selection as a Case Study of Paradigm Diversity and Consensus

Willy McCourt

Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, UK

An examination of the psychometric paradigm of personnel selection is offered as a case study of the relative merits of paradigm diversity and consensus in organization studies. The achievements of work done within the paradigm are contrasted with the low take-up for the paradigm methods. The paradigm's historical development reveals four central assumptions: that good practice is universal and impersonal, that organizational performance is the sum of individual performances, and that research should be based on psychometric procedures. Analysis suggests that those assumptions have become flaws which are detrimental to research. Their increasingly inappropriate persistence is exacerbated by the exercise of a professional jurisdiction which has favoured narrow research requirements over organizational needs. The case study suggests that the alternatives of diversity and imposed consensus are both unsatisfactory, and that professional jurisdiction might be used to stimulate research partnerships promoting integration and possible consensus.

Key Words: personnel selection • paradigms • industrial/organizational psychology • professions • history of organization studies

Organization Studies, Vol. 20, No. 6, 1011-1033 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840699206005
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