1.

0 Introduction
The aim of this essay is to analyze and comment on the selection practices based
on the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Scott (2005) states that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was filmed in 2005
based on childrens book by Roald Dahl. The movie reveals a story about poor young boy
Charlie, who lives in town, where located chocolate factory owned by famous
confectioner - Willy Wonka. Soon, Willy Wonka decides to allow 5 children to visit his
factory and distributes five Golden tickets hidden in the five chocolates bars to the
unknown locations. The one who will find golden ticket will be allowed to visit chocolate
factory. Moreover last child left will win the main prize.
Thus, five children, who found the Golden tickets are: Augustus Gloop rude and
glutton guy, who lives only for food; Veruca Salt spoilt child, who demands whatever
she wants from her parents by screaming at them; Violet Beauregarde impudent girl,
whom mind completely taken by gum chewing; Mike Teavee bot, who addicted to
television; and Charlie Bucket very polite and shy boy, who is protagonist in this movie.
Throughout all movie, Wonka applies selection processes, because he needs to
identify one child, who fits his demands and choose him as a future manager of the
factory (Billsberry and Gilbert, 2007) . Thereby, he observes each childs behavior, when
they are taking a tour through his factory and eliminate those, who failed his perceptions
about a good heritor.
Mukhtar (2010) states that selection is process of screening candidates and
choosing the most suitable one, who fit requirements of the organization. Selection of the
employees is crucial for organizations management as they directly involved in
performance and internal culture. However, selection processes must be done properly
and carefully to prevent from hiring candidates with questionable backgrounds or with
unsuitable skills (Rao, 2010).

2.0 Key selection issues

Mayhew (n.d.) suggests that selection requirements are based on the
organizations goals, strategies and plans. The most common approaches to selection and
recruitment that used in this report are psychometric, social and fit paradigms. All these
three paradigms reflect the ways in which Willy Wonka selected his future owner of the
factory.
Karim (2007) shows that one of the most dominant selection and recruitment
paradigms in organizations is psychometric paradigm.

This approach underlines

recruitment and selection based on organizations point of view and do not take into
consideration the employees personal issues towards the recruiting firm. Thereby,
psychometric paradigm emphasizes assessing applicant with the best knowledge, skills
and abilities for the particular job.
Psychometric paradigm is viewed in film, when Willy Wonka identifies the main
characteristics of his future successor, which are creativity, extraordinary and innovation
(Scott, 2005). Then he performs a test to select most suitable one. Moreover, as it shown
in film, children were interviewed before visiting the factory and this gives prior
information to Wonka how to check their characteristics. When testing the applicants,
the most crucial thing is that these children do not know that they are being tested for
selecting the leader. This allows showing their natural personality and urges without the
pressure of knowing that they are under the observation of Wonka (Beardwell, 2007).
The changes in global trends lead to changes in people mind about the
recruitment processes (Handler, 2004). Therefore, some organizations needed to adopt
more social based approach to recruitment and selection such as social paradigm.
Whereas psychometric paradigm emphasizes selection from the perspective of the
organization, social paradigm stresses the interaction between the candidate and
recruiting organization. Social paradigm suggests significance of the developing trustful
relationships between these two parties.
It can be seen that social paradigm is viewed in this film by showing the results of
failure to engage with organizational environment and culture (Billsberry and Gilbert,
2008). The environment of the factory expresses fun, creativity and magic, however it is

restrict such characteristics as greed, spoiled behavior and aggressiveness. Thus, children
that had shown such behavior were eliminated from the test, because of their
contradiction to the factorys environment. Pulakos (2005) states that social paradigm not
only help to identify suitable employees, it may also eliminate unsuitable ones.
One of the modern approaches to selection and recruitment is fit paradigm. Fit
paradigm can be defined in two distinct ways such as: PersonJob fit and PersonOrganization fit (Handler, 2004). Person-Job fit is talking about measuring candidates
skills, abilities and knowledge that will suitable to do certain tasks in the organization.
Whereas, Person-Organization fit is defined as a match between applicants workoriented values and culture of the organization. This approach shows that environment
reflects people behavior and performance .For example: employers need to check
whether the applicant is suitable for the internal environment of the organization,
because if person will not favor the environment his performance can fall.
Scott (2005) argues that from the film perspective, in the Person-Job fit Wonka
applies examines on the abilities and skills of the children and eliminates those who failed
to reach his criteria. Next is Person-Organization fit, which are shown in Wonkas ask the
kids questions to determine, whether they liked the factory. Charlie was the one who
showed positive expressions towards the environment and culture; therefore he fits with
factorys environment. But Charlie refused to become an owner of the factory, because
Wonka did not allow him to bring his family along. This shows that Charlie has fulfilled the
fit requirements, but his personal requirements were neglected and this led to the refusal
of the job offer.

3.0 Practice in the service industry

Tepeci (2010) suggest that employees play a major role in the service industry.
This shows the importance of the proper selection employees for the performance of job.

Most important attributes for the people in service industry are: people orientation,
valuing customers, attention to details and physical abilities.
From the movie we can see that in selecting the best child Wonka used very
unusual approach, because none of the candidates know about their roles. Moreover,
Wonka treated each child by different test in different locations. In this case, using
psychometric paradigm to assess applicants skills, knowledge and abilities in real
organization will be effective to reveal a true nature of each applicant. Morrisby (2014)
describes that this test can be applied in service industry as ability test, which refers how
people perform on different situations
Apart of that, social paradigm shown in the movie can be a good example of the
failure to engage in the environment. Pinilla (2002) explains that in the service industry
having a good skills, knowledge and abilities is necessary to perform a tasks, however if
the employee is not able to understand the value and culture inside the organization he
will not be able to show whole organization idea to customers. Thus, it is necessary to
check whether applicant favors and understands the environment in which he will work
(Handler, 2004).
Osoian, Zaharie, Lazar (2011) claims that in hospitality industry labor is very
diversified, because it hire people from different countries and cultures. It can take time
to understand candidates from different cultures and assess how their personality fits
with the organizations environment. Thus, fit paradigm is very suitable in recruiting and
selecting as it allows selecting candidate by assessing his skills, knowledge and observes
how they fit in that particular organizations culture. For example: employers assess not
only skills, abilities and knowledge of candidate, but also they observe his suitability with
the culture of organization. This will allow selecting the most suitable employee, who will
fit both Person-Job and Person-Organization fit paradigm.

4.0 Challenges of Practice

Osoian, Zaharie, Lazar (2011) suggests that in order to select most suitable
employee, companies uses various practices, which can help to predict persons future
performance.

Using psychometric, social and fit paradigms are helpful practice in

recruitment and selection (Beardwell, 2007).

Psychometric paradigm is most visible practice, which is used by Wonka. However,
psychometric testing, which he implemented is not applicable for the service industries.
This test is conducted in such way, when candidates are not aware of their participation
in the test. Thus, it may lead to complaints from applicants, because such treatment
might be offensive for them and high costs will be incurred of performing testing
(Nickson, 2007).
Handler (2004) suggests that social paradigm is based on interaction between
candidate and the recruiting organization. It can be seen from the film that only one child
had positive attitude towards factorys environment. Although, social paradigm approach
very helpful in order to develop trustful relationships between applicant and organization,
it can face difficulties for the service industry. The main challenge for this paradigm is
diversified labor workforce (Pinilla, 2002). It is possible to see that candidates with diverse
cultural background may face the problem of favoritism. For example: some employers
can select candidates based on ethnic issue and discriminate those ethnic groups, whom
he dislikes.
Pulakos (2005) states that fit-paradigm very efficient approach in order to
select most suitable candidate. By using fit-paradigm candidates are assessing from both
perspective: how they fulfill job requirements and how their personality engages with
organizations culture. However, such approach can be costly and time-consuming for the
service industry. Nickson (2007) states that service industry has many departments, which
require a lot of employees to work in it. So recruiting managers need to be time-efficient
in selecting candidates. As fit-paradigm assesses not only one criteria of the candidate it
consumes more time compare to basic practice of selecting by interview or simple test.
Richards (2014) states that poor managerial training can lead to challenge in
recruiting and selecting employees. Therefore, to overcome these challenges it is vital to

provide training for managers, who are responsible in recruiting and selecting candidates.
Fail to do so lead in choosing not suitable candidate and ignoring the suitable one. Thus, it
is important to teach managers in basic skills of assessing, interviewing and selecting
candidates (Pinilla, 2002).

5.0 Conclusion

Rao (2010) explains that selecting and recruiting of the right employees are highly
contributing to the performance of the organizations. Choosing candidates, who are not
willing to work or understanding the value of organization leads to customers complaints
and internal arguments. Thus, organizations establish approaches and practices, which it
follows in order to select suitable ones.
In the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory mostly dominates
psychometric approach (Scott, 2005). This approach stresses on selection techniques,
which are perspective for the organizations and assess candidates skills, knowledge and
abilities required by the organization. From the film it can be seen, that Wonka mainly
based in testing children to observe their abilities. However he did not mention to
children that they are in process of testing. This test helped to him in selecting Charlie as
candidate, who has most suitable skills for the managing of factory. But in service such
practice will face challenges, because of unfair treatment.
Social paradigm is not dominant in the film and using by Wonka to assess
children. Pinilla (2002) suggests that mailnly this approach shows failure of engagement in
the factorys environment by those children who were eliminated. This selection
approach is applicable in service industry, because it is important to understand the main
value of the organization to deliver it in right form for the customers. However, due to
diversity of workforce such issues as unfair selection process can arise. Some managers

may practice hiring employees on principle of favorability based on ethnic group, culture,
religion and so on.
Lastly, fit paradigm assesses not only from organizations perspective, but also
looks into the interaction between employee and organization. Fit paradigm has two
practices, which are Person-Job and Person-Organization (Handler, 2004). Pesron-Job
related to Wonkas observation of childrens interview and conduction of test for them,
based on information, which they told about their selves. Whereas, Person-Organization
is more viewed in film by Wonkas questions and warnings to children. Those, who
disobey his warnings are failed to understand value and environment of the factory and
eliminate from the factory. Fit-paradigm is applicable for the service industry, because it
can measure not only candidates skills and knowledge, but show his engagement to the
organization as well. But, such approach may be not time-efficient, because it requires
many tests and interviews to be conducted in order to indicate most suitable one.
In conclusion, all three paradigms are applicable for the service industry, but it
needed to be accurately developed in order to use it in a right way. As organizations
performance more or less depends on its employees, they must to be selected carefully
and precisely.

6.0 References

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