You recently lost your job as a grocery bagger for a store

down the street from your dorm room. You have been

thinking about working at the movie theater further down

the street because it is close, as was your old job, and you

get free movie tickets. One day, you get dressed and walk

down the street to enquire about the application process.

After leaving the theater, you probably didn't think any

thing of the application you filled out on the e$-$kiosk and

the personality test that you had to take to apply.

Personality tests are becoming more common in their

use for hiring in organizations. A $2014$ report by the

business advisory company CEB found that nearly two

thirds of human resources professionals are drawing on

personality tests in their hiring practices. And it makes

sense$-$"You spend so much money and investment get

ting someone up to speed and giving them resources, pay

ing them for six or seven months of investment, it's about

$$120,000$ per person if you keep them nine months and

they don't produce," Juan Navarro, an executive at SER

Solutions, says. Person$-$organization fit on the applicant's

values has become a common focus of the hiring process,

both in marketing the organization to potential applicants

and through additional tests and interviews.

But what happens when you take this same approach to

hiring but assess political ideology instead? Kyle Reyes, the

CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing based in Manches

ter, Connecticut, has taken this approach by developing

a test to weed out applicants who he believes $$will "whine

and complain and come to the table with nothing but an

entitled attitude and an inability to back their perspec

tive." He has eliminated nearly $60$ percent of applicants

through this process. The test mostly contains questions

that revolve around political issues, such as the applicant's

perspectives on the support for police, guns, and patrio

tism, as well as other political issues. On another front,

a bill was introduced to the Senate in the spring of $2017$

that would freeze state university hiring until a balance is

achieved in political ideology among the faculty profes

sors, who would be required to disclose their affiliation at

the time of application.

Even without these tests for political ideology, appli

cants can be at risk for being turned down based on

their ideologies. In one study, $1,200$ politically branded

resumes were sent to help wanted ads in a highly conser

vative U$.$S$.$ county and in a highly liberal one. $$when the

resume matched the political ideology of the county, they

were not more likely to receive a callback. However, when

the resume was at odds with the political ideology of the

county, they were less likely to obtain a callback than were

candidates with a nonpartisan resume. No matter what

Personality and Values CHAPTER $5169$

the difference in political ideologies, it seems that appli

cants will need to exercise caution and discretion in how

much of their political affiliation they disclose while on

the job market.

Questions

$5-12.$ Do you think an organization has a right to test

your political ideology as a condition of hiring?

vVhy or why not?

$5-13.$ Can we differentiate values $($such as those used

to assess person$-$organization fit$)$ from political

ideology reliably? vVhy or why not?

$5-14.$ Do you think it is important to foster political ideo

logical diversity in organizations? $\backslash \backslash$Thy or why not?