Previous Article Organizational Behavior Student’s Name Institution Date   Organizational Behavior Part One: Selecting Applicants The organization’s flagship executive fellows program seeks to hire 10 participants for the year to implement the organization’s objectives in various programs. The hiring and selection process needs to be a fair process considering the participants selected are more than willing to engage in the program within the public institution. As such, and also as required by law, it is crucial to apply objectivity and fairness in the hiring process so that the most qualified are given the chance to join the fellowship program. The first strategy in selecting the participants should be checking their organizational-fit. The person-organization fit concept refers to the match between an individual’s values and those of the organization. For instance, if the projects within the program require a high level of integrity and honesty, the hiring panel should check for participants who possess such values as they will be a good fit for the organization. Scandura (2019) adds that employees who have a high organizational fit are less likely to quit their jobs. Another strategy for selecting the participants should be checking for the person-job fit. The hired participants should demonstrate a good person-job fit, which means that the various job characteristics align with the employees’ motivation, abilities, and personality, according to Scandura (2019). In his study, Grant (2008) concluded that intrinsic forms of motivation are critical in strengthening an employee’s persistence at the workplace. As such, the hiring panel should check for applicants who are intrinsically motivated by factors such as achieving their goals and objectives on the job. Additionally, the hiring panel should check for applicants who would be intrinsically motivated by the forms of rewards that the organization would provide. It is essential that the employees remain motivated throughout their working period for optimal performance. It is also important to check for applicants who are intrinsically motivated by public services considering the organization is a public one. According to Rainey and Bozman (2000), public sector employees tend to place a higher value on public service. Therefore, the hiring team should check if the applicants have interests and value public service. The organization should hire a diverse group of fellows to join the program for purposes of equality. While there are chances the applicants may not be from diverse racial backgrounds, the diversity should then be considered in terms of job skills and personalities. A diverse workforce encourages creativity, which would be crucial in implementing the organization’s projects (Bharadwaj & Menon, 2000; Woodman, Sawyer & Griffin, 1993). Hiring employees with diverse skill sets and personalities produces high energy, autonomy, and abilities to contribute to different ideas when undertaking projects. Lastly, a critical factor to consider when hiring the employees would be their personalities. While people exhibit different and varied personality traits, it is essential to consider the personality traits that fit the organization’s culture and job demands. Considering that the fellows are joining a public organization, it remains essential that they exhibit personality traits listed among the Big Five traits that include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. Working for a public organization would require that the employees are extraverted as they will interact with members of the public, are emotionally stable to handle the work pressure, and cooperative enough to work on the projects, are reliable and prompt, and are open to learning and new experiences. To determine if the fellows possess these critical personality traits, the hiring panel should administer the Big Five Personality Test to evaluate the applicant’s personalities. Part Two: Selecting the Projects While selecting the projects for this public organization, it is necessary to take into consideration the fact that the funds used are public funds, and therefore the projects should be beneficial to the public. Additionally, having selected the 10 fellows for the year, it is critical that the projects in which they are involved are fully utilizing their skills and abilities, as they expand their knowledge and experience on the job. To systematize this process will mean to consider important factors such as the resources available, the project objective, and the returns available. A project selection strategy that the organization should consider is the cost-benefit ratio. This strategy entails checking if the costs of running the project and the value of the return are worth the investment. The return should be more than the cost incurred. The costs for the project would include training the 10 applicants, purchasing materials required, and hiring other contractual personnel such as contractors depending on the project, among other costs. It is also critical to ensure that the kind of project selected aligns with the government’s mission and objectives for its citizens considering the organization is public. The projects must be sensible and necessary in the fulfillment of the government’s obligations. According to Rainey and Bozman (2000), public organizations are under government ownership, and this fact means that the government exercises its formal authority over agencies and imposes its rules that include functions such as the selection of projects. Therefore, for the government to approve the projects selected, the selection committee should consider projects that align with the government’s mission. Another strategy to consider when selecting the projects is the fellows’ professional skill sets and abilities. The employees selected possess different professional skills such as accounting, purchasing, and supplies, management, or engineering. The diverse skill sets, as noted before, encourage creativity within the organization. For instance, it would be remiss of the public organization to select engineering projects when the fellows selected are management professionals. Therefore, when selecting the projects, it is critical to consider projects that will require the fellow’s input so as to also maximize the output, given the costs incurred (for instance, employee training). It is imperative to remember that the costs of running a project should be lower than the value created for it to be profitable to the public. The project selection committee should also ensure that the higher management within the government approves of the projects selected to avoid any form of friction that may stall the progress of the projects. Lastly, the projects selected, considering they would impact the public, should have the approval of the stakeholders involved. The stakeholders, in this case, would be the government and the members of the public. It is obvious that for the projects to start running they must have government approval, and in most cases, funding. If the committee selects projects that directly impact the members of the public, the project must entail public participation to evaluate the effectiveness of the project to the public. Therefore, it is important to only select projects that the public members approve to ensure that the costs incurred are worth the investment and will fully utilize the 10 fellows’ skills and professional knowledge.   References Bharadwaj, S., & Menon, A. (2000). Making Innovation Happen in Organizations: Individual Creativity Mechanisms, Organizational Creativity Mechanisms or Both?. Journal Of Product Innovation Management, 17(6), 424-434. doi: 10.1111/1540-5885.1760424 Grant, A. (2008). Does intrinsic motivation fuel the prosocial fire? Motivational synergy in predicting persistence, performance, and productivity. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 48-58. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.93.1.48 Rainey, H., & Bozeman, B. (2000). Comparing Public and Private Organizations: Empirical Research and the Power of the A Priori. Journal Of Public Administration Research And Theory, 10(2), 447-470. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024276 Scandura, T. (2019). Essentials of organizational behavior (2nd Ed.). Los Angeles: Sage Publishing. Woodman, R., Sawyer, J., & Griffin, R. (1993). Toward a Theory of Organizational Creativity. The Academy Of Management Review, 18(2), 293. doi: 10.2307/258761