Question

About a year ago Smith Printing was looking for a new managing editor of a specialty line of magazines. Smith Printing needed someone who could start quickly and didn’t need to be trained. The editors and the HRM department debated about what were the key characteristics needed in the new managing editor. Some felt it was knowledge of the business. Others thought it was interpersonal skills to get along with the staff. A few others believed it was the ability to solicit writing talent and subscribers. No final agreement was ever reached, but they nevertheless went ahead with the search.


HRM did the initial screening of candidates, but the editors and HRM would jointly interview the remaining candidates to determine the finalists. Then, the HRM director would make the final choice alone to avoid competition among the editors. Advertisements were placed nationally. A number of candidates were interviewed informally, with each interviewer asking his or her own questions. The final step was for references to be checked for the finalists.


After a long search, a new managing editor was hired and he was a disaster. Although he was technically competent as an editor, he tended to be very autocratic with the staff. As a result, he drove away two talented editors who left for jobs with competitors. In addition, the new managing editor did not want to perform specific job duties, such as soliciting writers and developing ideas about how to increase circulation. After 10 months, the publisher fired him and began looking for a new managing editor. Smith Printing wants to be certain it doesn’t make the same mistakes a second time.

Referring to Case 1, the first thing that HRM did not do well when selecting the editor who failed was

determining the most important KSAO's required to be a successful editor.

attracting an adequate pool of qualified applicants.

forecasting the labor pool from which to draw applicants.

deciding who would make the final selection decision.

Answer 1

Question:- Referring to Case 1, the first thing that HRM did not do well when selecting the editor who failed was

Answer:- determining the most important KSAO's required to be a successful editor.

Reason:- KSAO are the Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other characteristics of a certain job which must be possessed by the employee in order to perform all the required responsibilities and expectations from a certain job.

As in the given case, no exercise was done to find out the KSAO for the post of editor thus the selection panel or HR department was not able to pinpoint on what characteristics a candidate must be selected in order to be successful in that job