Separating Law and Professional Practice From Politics

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X0102100301
• Published date: 01 September 2001
• Date: 01 September 2001
• Subject Matter: Articles

REVIEWOFPUBLICPERSONNELADMINISTRATION / Fall 2001

Daniel/UNIFORMGUIDELINESTHENAND NOW

Separating Law and Professional

Practice From Politics

The Uniform Guidelines Then and Now

CHRISTOPHER DANIEL

Kentucky State University

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures have not

changed since being promulgated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission and three other agencies in 1978, even though assessment psychol-

ogy and adverse impact law have evolved. Introducing the symposium, this arti-

cle suggests that political conflict prevented the Guidelines from being revised in

the 1980s and 1990s and could prevent modification from occurring in the

future. Insteadof relying exclusively on the Guidelines, managers directing selec-

tion processes should periodically monitor legal developments and researchtrends

that are reshaping assessment practice.

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978) were

designed to help employers pursue professionally acceptable practices

while complying with disparate impact law. Since 1978, the Guidelines have

remained unchanged, failing to acknowledge important judicial and techni-

cal developments. This article briefly summarizes the Guidelines’ history,

explaining how political conflicts prevented revision from occurring during

the 1980s and 1990s. Then, several post-1978 legal changes that were not

anticipated by the Guidelines are considered, followed by discussion of two

important technical issues: test fairness/differential prediction and validity

generalization.

BACKGROUND

Never simple, employee selection became considerably more complex

on March 8, 1971, when the Supreme Court issued its Griggsdecision, pro-

hibiting the Duke Power Company from using either general intelligence

tests or high school graduation requirements to determine hiring or promo-

175

ARTICLES

Review of Public Personnel Administration,Vol. 21, No. 3 Fall 2001 175-184

© 2001 Sage Publications

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