Adverse Impact ─ Implications for Organizational Staffing and High Stakes Selection

This text is the best single repository for a comprehensive examination of the scientific research and practical issues associated with adverse impact. Adverse impact occurs when there is a significant difference in organizational outcomes to the disadvantage of one or more groups defined on the basis of demographic characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, etc.

This book shows, based on scientific research, how to design selection systems that minimize subgroup differences. The primary object of this volume in the SIOP series is to bring together renowned experts in this field to present their viewpoints and perspectives on what underlies adverse impact, where we are in terms of assessing it and what we may have learned (or not learned) about minimizing it.

James L. Outtz obtained his Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow in the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the American Psychological Association. He is President of Outtz and Associates a consulting firm in Washington DC that specializes in personnel selection and human resources management. His professional service in the field of industrial and organizational psychology includes membership on SIOP’s Ad Hoc Committee on Revision of the "Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures" which addresses best practices in the development and use of such procedures. In addition, he served as consulting editor to the Journal of Applied Psychology. He is recognized internationally for his work in the areas of adverse impact and alternative selection procedures, subjects about which he has written extensively. He routinely develops selection procedures for public and private sector employers in complex situations where litigation is, has been or might become a factor. His interests include selection, training, performance management, job analysis and work design, workforce diversity and equal employment opportunity.

Dr. Outtz is highly sought after as an expert for plaintiffs and defendants in major litigation involving the analysis of work, hiring, promotion, performance management, compensation and reductions in force.