Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Search Committees: When Members Disagree On The Relative Importance Of Candidate Qualifications, Robert P. Holley

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

A factor not often mentioned in advice to job hunters is that members of search committees may be looking for different types of candidates even with an agreed upon job description and may also have dissimilar views on the importance of the search. This article describes a role playing exercise that I devised to demonstrate this point in my management class. The five members of the search committee, each representing a librarian stereotype, must decide between two candidates with diametrically opposed skills. Candidates will learn that this factor means that no one set of qualifications may satisfy everyone on the …