A 30‐year follow‐up of the CSSB procedure, with lessons for the future

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Abstract
The Civil Service Selection Board (CSSB) was introduced in 1945 and used during the ‘Reconstruction’ period until 1948 as the main instrument for filling vacancies which had accumulated during the war in the Home Civil Service and the Foreign Service. Using rank attained 30 years later as the criterion, a follow‐up of the 301 entrants remaining in post has shown high predictive validity for the CSSB/Final Selection Board procedure. Nearly all these entrants did well, but there was a high correlation between initial selection marks and rank attained.Combining these with other follow‐up results, certain broad conclusions emerge, namely, interviews have greater predictive validity at the higher end of the scale and written tests at the lower end of the scale; it is better for an elaborate selection procedure to be integrative rather than additive; there is advantage in combining a personal interview with a Board interview. Increasing recognition needs to be paid to managerial qualities, and it is to improvements in career planning and development, rather than selection, that occupational psychologists could make their greatest contribution during the coming years.

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