Resizing The Organization 39. This book seeks to provide executives with useful insights, tools, guidelines, principles, and lessons learned about organizational transition and change. | Organizational Adaptability 361 other factors in adaptability are well established and in use by many organizational psychologists. More complex selection tools such as the Birkman and the Life Orientations instruments purport to measure people s temperament under normal and high-stress situations. In addition surveys such as the one developed by De Meuse and McDaris 1994 assess an individual s reaction to change. Adaptable companies make use of such instruments and personality tests not only for purposes of hiring but also for subsequent reselection and placement when it comes to job rotation promotion and development and reassignment following organizational changes. Two instruments that are useful to an organization during resizing were developed by pulakos Arad Donovan and Plamondon 2000 and Ployhart Saltz and Mayer 2001 . Pulakos and her colleagues developed a taxonomy of adaptive performance that identifies aspects of adaptable behavior that different jobs require. For example a particular position might be described as requiring employees who can learn new work tasks and technologies or are able to cope with uncertainty. Ployhart Saltz and Mayer 2001 took this a step further by developing a self-report scale called ADAPT that measures an employee s strength on each of the aspects in Pulakos et al. s taxonomy 2000 . During resizing efforts organizations can use this taxonomy to identify the skills and abilities that an employee will need. An organization that includes an instrument such as ADAPT as part of its selection system will be able to match adaptable employees to the jobs that demand those skills. Besides personality tests assessment centers simulations and other means of quantifying adaptability firms also rely on managerial and peer judgment in placing employees following a resizing effort. For example in its acquisitions General Electric often brings executives from the two sides together to review the resumes of managers and key staff rank them .
