The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 29

Selecting Resident Assistants

actions" (Salovey & Mayer, 1990, p. 189), as it
related to job performance (Jaeger & Caison,
2006; O'Boyle, Humphrey, Pollack, Hawver, &
Story, 2011; Wu & Stemler, 2009). While these
studies recommended using emotional intelligence as a selection metric, no literature has
been produced using this as a selection criterion within RA hiring processes.

Too much time and too many
resources are spent hiring
RAs for such rich data to be
minimized to a simple list of
names and a final score.

The wide array of responsibilities associated with the RA position (Brecheisen, 2015;
Elleven et al., 2001), which have become increasingly complex (Deluga & Winters, 1991;
Everett & Loftus, 2011; Jaeger & Caison, 2006;
Paladino, Murray, Newgent, & Gohn, 2005),
can lead to negative job performance through
role ambiguity and role conflict (Deluga &
Winters, 1990). RA burnout, based on depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and personal accomplishment, also leads to lower job
performance (Hardy & Dodd, 1998). The multitude of job responsibilities and the associated
complexities make it challenging to identify
traits predicting performance, which underscores the importance of further research exploring RA job performance. One area of RA

job performance scarcely addressed in the literature is the predictability of RA job performance based on RA candidate performance
during the application and interview process.

METHODOLOGY
This study was conducted at a large research
institution in Texas, in a housing department
which employed 81 resident assistants. Data
were collected in a two-step process. First, candidate assessment scores were collected over
the course of two years (2013 and 2014) during
the large annual spring semester RA selection
processes. During the second step, new RAs'
performance evaluations (completed by the
RAs' supervisor) were collected at the end of
the fall semesters during the same time period.
Only RAs who participated in a spring selection process and had their performance evaluated the following semester were included in
the data analysis, which left a usable dataset of
73 participants.

RA Selection Data Collection
The main selection process for new RAs took
place at the beginning of the spring semester.
Candidates who met the minimum job requirements (minimum GPA, not on probation
or suspension, and no outstanding debts to the
university) were initially evaluated based on
their applications, which included responses
to short-answer questions in order to narrow
the candidate pool for interviewing. Candidates who proceeded to the next phase of the
process participated in two individual interviews and multiple group interviews, consisting of group problem-solving activities with
facilitated discussion.
Evaluators in the individual interviews assigned scores in predefined categories (underV O L U M E 4 2 , NO. 3 * 2 0 1 6

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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