Revolutionary Selection Procedures for High Technology, Communication-intensive Environments

Both military and civilian work environments are changing drastically. Globalization, new technology, and other advances dictate the need for people with new skills and abilities. The Army, in the process of transforming to the Objective Force, will havea new organization, new training techniques, new combat systems, and new ways of conducting warfare. New selection criteria and procedures, therefore, are required to identify people who can succeed in the future work environment. In Phase I weidentified the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes (KSAs) that will be critical for success in the future, developed an understanding of how cutting-edge scenario-based simulation can be used as an integral part of a selection battery, and developed aproof-of-concept selection test battery that incorporates cutting-edge, scenario-based computer-simulations to measure some of the KSAs needed for future successful performance. In Phase II we will develop a fully functional, innovative selection batteryfor selecting entry-level Army recruits that is tested and validated. The Aptima-Visual Purple project team is especially well suited to perform the proposed work because of its unique inter-disciplinary combination of expertise in cognitive andorganizational psychology, advanced simulation development, simulation-based performance measurement, as well as its extensive experience in military command and control.The proposed work will allow the Army to more effectively select recruits for the Armyof the Future. The innovative, simulation-based selection procedures that are developed for this program will go through a rigorous validation process and can be applied to selection of recruits for other military services and to other civilian andcommercial domains that are revolutionizing their ways of doing business and therefore require different and innovative procedures for selecting new employees. Simulation-based environments are advantageous for measuring potential job performance becausethey are flexible and can test different aspects of job performance using differing combinations of task demands. A simulation-based selection testbed will provide personnel managers with a strategic method for both selection and job placement. Accurateselection methodologies will be beneficial to any organization because they allow the organization to expend its training resources on individuals who have the qualities necessary to succeed in the organization.