Evaluating and Demonstrating the Utility of Utility Analysis

Abstract

Utility analysis by definition expounds its own worth although recent research (Latham and Whyte, 1994; Whyte and Latham, 1997) has called into question its usefulness. However, those studies were limited as they are based on a very small subset of what could be considered the domain of utility analysis. To assess the futility or utility of utility analysis an evaluation was undertaken on the key consumers of utility analysis: Developers, Practitioners, Clients, and Organisations. The research goal was to demonstrate and evaluate, both formatively and summatively the merit, worth, and significance of utility analysis. Advancements were made and can still be made by Developers although perhaps their focus needs to be on simplifying and unifying utility work. A Practitioner case study was undertaken of recruitment and selection processes of the New Zealand Police which clearly identified the worth of utility analysis practice. The persuasiveness and belief by Clients in utility analysis appears to be neither positive nor negative while aspects related to persuasion appear to be very important. In many situations utility analysis is the only tool with which Organisations can assess the worth of various human resource aspects but the ability of organisations to apply the technique may be currently limited. Utility analysis offers great potential in the analysis of human resources but currently appears to lack the appropriate implementation.