The Selection Process: Choosing Leaders Who Fit

The Selection Process: Choosing Leaders Who Fit

Sherita Smith | 2020

Abstract

A troubling reality exists in organizational environments today in that many companies take for granted the seriousness of hiring the right leaders. To fillpositions quickly, organizations often hire leaders in haste. They hire leaders based on a resume, a brief telephone conversation, or following a one-hour face-to-face interview with limited team or organizational exposure. These practices only scratch the surface and fail to assess candidates on their suitability within an organization or its culture. Often, it is through painful situations that they find out that the wrong leader was hired.

Organizations should desire good leaders who fit within their roles, align with the organization’s culture, and bring value to their companies. Therefore, a more in-depth evaluation of leaders for organizational fit is necessary if companies want to hire the right leaders who get results and change the game. This manuscript encourages organizations to take a deeper look at the overall qualifications of leaders. As the way forward, organizations should spend time developing hiring processes that better enable them to choose the right leaders. This occurs by viewing leader qualifications from the perspective of fit.

Several fit theories, such as person-environment fit, person-organization fit, person-job fit, and person-group fit, are explored in this manuscript and are proven to have relevance in human resource practices. Each fit uses a distinct level of analysis and impacts organizational effectiveness in different ways. The use of each fit in the hiring process will help organizations think deeply about their methods of execution and how they bring leaders into their organizations. This manuscript helps organizations to uncover what it takes to hire the right leaders.