International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)

ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-5, May 2014

MCDM and Its Role in Personnel Selection- A

Review
Aarushi Singh, Sanjay Kumar Malik
initial set of alternatives (options to be prioritized) and
Abstract The task of personnel selection has always showed attributes (parameters used for analyzing alternatives), at
vagueness in its process. It is not only based on ones qualitative every step we go on reducing the ambiguities among the
parameters, rather it also involves manipulative and cognitive alternatives. This paper summarizes the usefulness of MCDM
attributes of the decision maker (DM). Multiple Criteria has in personnel selection, thus making the best choice of the
evolved as a powerful tool in many complex decision making
candidate for a particular profile of the job.
tasks. This paper has discussed the effect of MCDM on the
process of personnel selection, highlighting the enhanced results
obtained. Personnel selection when implemented in conjunction II. LITERATURE REVIEW
with MCDM methodology provides the results that are more The practice of making the decisions is as old as man.
rationale and logical, hence efficient prioritization of the Knowingly or unknowingly, a person starts doing this task at
alternatives. The paper has summarized the features of the
problem domain and emphasized how and why MCDM can be
very initial stages with small choices and finally leading to the
an ideal choice for carrying out this task. important decisions including those of scientific research or
daily life complexities.
Index Terms Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM),
Decision Maker (DM), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), A. Short History- MCDM
Technique for Ordered Preference by Similarity to Ideal The earliest known references related to MCDM, takes us
Solution (TOPSIS), Promethee, Simple Additive Weighting down to 1706-1790 when Benjamin Franklin, used a simple
(SAW), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) paper system approach for decision making. He took a sheet
of paper, on one side he wrote the points in the favour of the
argument while the other side had the points against the
arguments [1]. The arguments with somewhat equal
I. INTRODUCTION importance on both the sides were striked out. Repeating this
Human Resource is an indispensible resource of any process , the points on one of the side are striked away
working organization/ institute or social group. It is a completely and the points left on the other side should be
prerequisite to any activity that an organization performs. It is supported. This was his way, which formed the basis of
actually the smart work of a team (group of individuals) in an MCDM and later gave the way for researchers to develop new
organization that takes it to the zenith of success. Therefore, techniques.
the selection of these individuals has to be done with acute Thereafter, the work on goal programming by Charles and
insight and profound analysis. Cooper came into picture in 1955. The work was carried to
Personnel Selection is the task of choosing the individuals new heights by the efforts of Stan Zionts & Bruno Contivi by
whose features or attributes match to the requirement of the making a Multiple Criteria Negotiating Model in 1968. The
profile they are being chosen for or vice-versa. This task if year 1972, marked the first conference on MCDM in
done in a systematic and planned manner, can help the Columbia which was attended by several contributors of this
organization to harness the best talent from among the present field. The proceedings of the conference was the first major
alternatives, with respect to particular profile. volume on MCDM and is still heavily cited.
There are so many ways like- meetings, telephonic or direct The outstanding work by Thomas L. Satty[17] in 1970 was a
interviews, job knowledge tests etc which help in carrying out major breakthrough in the field of MCDM. Satty introduced a
this task. But, the decision makers in the selection process are new technique AHP, based on MCDM. This technique is drag
humans, so natural errors, intentional/ unintentional biasness, them to the first column. Make the graphic wider to push out
manipulative and judgmental decisions can lead to any text that may try to fill in next to the graphic.
inconsistent selections which will ultimately hamper the widely used in many varied and original forms. In 1975, first
growth of the organization. Therefore, the task of personnel organization Special Interest Group was established on
selection urges for a systematic approach to be followed. MCDM which later evolved into International Society on
MCDM is widely accepted methodology which exists in MCDM and has an active membership worldwide [2].
many different areas of research from past 50 years. The The current trends in MCDM, have led to the evolution of
major strength of this approach is the well structured many techniques. Following are eleven MCDM approaches
formulization of the problem domain. Beginning with the which are quite popular in the recent times- (1) AHP, (2) FST,
(3) MAUT, (4) Case Based Reasoning, (5) ELECTRE, (6)
Manuscript received April 24, 2014. PROMTHEE (7) SAW, (8) TOPSIS, (9) SMART, (10) Data
Aarushi Singh, M. Tech. Student, Hindu College of Engineering, Envelopment Analysis and (11) Goal Programming. Each of
Sonepat, Deptt. of CSE, Hindu College of Engineering, Sonepat these has its own respective advantages and disadvantages, as
Sanjay Kumar Malik,M. Tech. Student, Hindu College of Engineering, summarized by Velasquez and Hester, 2013 [3].
Sonepat, Deptt. of CSE, Hindu College of Engineering, Sonepat

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 MCDM and Its Role in Personnel Selection- A Review

B. Problem of Personnel Selection eligible candidates. These techniques are based upon certain
Personnel Selection is one of the important tasks of the common principles or features, since the selection process is a
Human Resource Department of any organization. It is the complex task and involves a significant amount of vagueness
selection of appropriate person for a particular profile of the and subjectivity [4].
job, be it a software developer, or a marketing analyst or any The modern selection technique, avoids the judgment of the
teaching job. Therefore, it is a mapping of a set of candidates candidates on the voluntary psychological basis. These
to the set of the job profile they match. In other words, techniques have tried to minimize this effect and avoid the
personnel selection is an association between the eligible biased selection. The approach undertakes, the individuals
candidates and the requirements of the job profile, done with attributes into account as the parameters for the judgment,
the assistance of human resource department of the thus giving a common platform to judge the potential of a
organization. This association can be either positive or person with respect to a particular job/ task. The attributes can
negative. The association is positive if the features of the be broadly classified into- Subjective Attributes and
job/task are completely satisfied by the qualities possessed by Objective Attributes [7].
the candidate. On the contrary the association turns out to be Subjective Attributes:- These are the qualitative attributes or
negative if there is a mismatch between the requirements of
in other words, the attributes such as leadership quality,
the job profile and the qualities possessed by an individual.
confidence, communications etc. which have qualitative
Human resource is the most crucial resource for growth and
definition are said to be Subjective Attributes. A definite
success, hence, positive association is extremely important to
trace out the best in all the spheres. value and voluntary perspective generally fail to consider
The selection process is usually carried out using written them in the way they should be given importance.
tests and interviews and is basically based on the personal Objective Attributes:- The attributes for which a quantified
beliefs, ideas and judgment power of the selector. The results value is present can be categorized as Objective Attributes.
given by the selection team without using any common Example, General aptitude, knowledge about the subject.
platform or a mathematical and organized approach, are There exists some ways to measure them and an
expected to be biased or inconsistent. Sometimes, personal approximately correct value is expected to be obtained
relations between the interviewer and the candidate can result without the interference of psychological perspective of the
in inconsistency, since there can be the other one who is more DM to some extent.
deserving yet he/she is probable to be ignored. Therefore, the The newly developed techniques which are quite organized
selection process is not only statistical based but also based and systematic in nature, take into account the type of the job
on the psychology of the selecting team. With the time, the for which the candidate is being hired. These techniques have
term Personnel Selection has become broader, it doesnt a profound analysis of all the features of the job which
merely sticks to the selection of academically eligible includes- the tasks to be performed, the qualities required to
individuals rather it determines the input quality of the person perform the task efficiently and constraints involved. Now,
and matches it with the needs of the task/ job [6]. depending on the features of the job, the candidate possessing
To assure the selection of right person in the right job, a shift
such features is/are to be selected. Despite, the eligibility
from the traditional technique to the modern mathematical
fulfillment, both objective and subjective attributes with
and organized approach has been seen. Among the other
respect to the job/task must be present in the candidate(s)
decision making problems, the Personnel Selection Problem
has been a part of research in the recent years [4]. selected. For example- Selecting lecturers for a college/
A dynamic drift is being witnessed in the developing institute should consider the following features in the
countries, that the job seekers doesnt merely need a job to candidate, since these are the demand of the profession:-
earn money rather they need a job that could help them fulfill
their talent and explore out their best in the area of the interest. 1) Knowledge of the subject matter
This phenomenon was usual in the developed nations initially 2) Pedagogical knowledge of teaching the subject in the
but with the advent of globalisation the mind set of the youth appropriate manner
of developing nations is also changing. 3) Ability to Access students learning
The same phenomenon can be observed on the other side too, 4) Proper expression of speech
i.e. of hiring companies/ organizations. They need individuals 5) Good communication
who can lay their best in the job profile they are being selected 6) Ability to foster students responsibility for their own
for and promote healthy team environment. Hence, the learning.
traditional process of hiring has to be replaced with modern
organized approaches that considers ones talents and
personality traits [5]. IV. ROLE OF MCDM IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

III. ORGANIZED APPROACHES TO PERSONNEL SELECTION The problem under study, has attracted the interest of many
researchers from the multi-criteria perspective. Though
Personnel Selection, always directly and significantly affect personnel selection can be done in several ways but most of
the quality of the output that the organization delivers. It has the newly developed techniques treat personnel selection as a
been a keen area of research in the 20th century, though the Multiple Criteria Decision Making Problem. Indeed, on
traces of such research are evident in 90th century too [8]. The observing closely it is a process of choosing the best among
research work by Hough & Oswald [8], elaborate the the present candidates (alternatives), on the basis of the
transition being taking place in this area. Various approaches criteria or attributes with respect to the particular job.
have been developed to make the best choice from among the

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 International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research (IJETR)
ISSN: 2321-0869, Volume-2, Issue-5, May 2014
The recent developed techniques or approaches subtly, treat continues attention to this field has explored out different
it as MCDM problem and finds the solution using the MCDM approaches to deal with such problems.
methodologies [7], [9], [10]. The researchers have tried the There is still a lot to discover in this area. MCDM has wide
solution of this problem using the basic MCDM techniques applicability throughout the areas of research. In addition to
and even the modified new techniques, in search of more personnel selection, the other areas of MCDM application
accurate and quick results [11], [12], [13] for the growing real [14], [15], [16], includes economics, business, production
time problems. planning, waste management, construction, teaching,
In the following section, this paper has summarized the profession etc. MCDM is used in these areas for selection,
MCDM methodologies which are best suited for the problem ranking and evaluation.
like personnel selection [3]. The following Table 1, has
enlisted MCDM techniques for this problem. In addition, it METHOD ADVANTAGES/ FEATURES
has illustrated the advantages associated with each of them in Analytic Hierarchy Easy to use.
giving the best solution to the problem of Personnel Selection. Process (AHP) Ability to handle complex
problems where data set is large.
Well structured representation
V. GENERIC MODEL FOR PERSONNEL SELECTION
helps in clear and accurate
This selection of the paper summarizes a Generic Model estimation.
for the problem of personnel selection, using MCDM METHOD ADVANTAGES/ FEATURES
methodology, irrespective of MCDM technique used. Fig. 1.
illustrates the basic series of the steps involved in choosing Data Envelopment Capability to handle multiple
Analysis (DEA) inputs and outputs.
the best candidate from among the present alternatives on the Efficiency can be analyzed and
basis of the attributes necessary to do the comparative quantified.
analysis. Fuzzy Set Theory (FST) Carefully handles linguistic
variables.
Step1: Start the process by eliciting the problem domain. Analysis real world selection
Step 2: Identify the job: Study the task/ job to the profound problem with insight.
Takes into account insufficient
depths. Here, we need to essentially find all necessary features
information.
needed to do the task in the best form. The technique can be used in
conjunction with other MCDM
Step 3: Elicit the Necessary Attributes of the job: This step techniques like Fuzzy MCDM,
involves the eliciting of all the attributes of the job and Fuzzy TOPSIS.
differentiating them as Objective and Subjective ones.
Goal Programming (GP) Capable to handle large scale
problems.
Step 4: Listing the eligible and interested candidates: Can produce infinite alternatives.
Studying the job perspective completely, the candidates
eligible, whose analysis has to be done should be selected.
ELECTRE Takes uncertainty into account.
Handles vague information
Step 5: Apply the MCDM Methodology: There are 8 efficiently.
techniques enlisted in Table 1., it is the step to choose one of Simulates the real world problems
them and apply on the data set. efficiently.

Step 6: Compute the value of each Candidate: After the PROMETHEE Easy to use.
Doesnt require any assumption
application of the desired technique on the data set, some
that criteria are proportionate.
results are obtained, which help in ranking the alternatives.
Upon the reception of the results either stop or repeat the Simple Additive Takes into account the mutual
process if results need to be refined. Weighting (SAW) importance of Criteria.
Calculation is simple
VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK Easy implementation
Best suited for simpler MCDM
MCDM is increasingly becoming a solution to many of the problem
selection problems. Personnel Selection is one of those
Technique for Ordered Logical approach for selection.
complex selection problem where there is maximum Preference by Similarity Can be combined with the
probability of inconsistent results due to the interference of to Ideal Solution methodologies like fuzzy to handle
human judgmental and cognitive nature in the selection (TOPSIS) uncertain information.
process. The best suited MCDM techniques for the solution of Scalable, both to the perspective of
selection problems, have been enlisted in this paper, to attributes and alternatives
facilitate for optimal selections. The paper has even presented
a Generic Model, showing the step by step process of
personnel selection in conjunction with MCDM. The

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 MCDM and Its Role in Personnel Selection- A Review

Fig. 1. Generic model for Personnel Selection

Science, Business and Publishing, IEEE Xplore, pp. 1-7, 2012.

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