Is it also time to revisit situational specificity?

Sackett et al.’s (2023) focal article asserts that the predictors with the highest criterion-related validity in selection settings are specific to individual jobs and emphasizes the importance of adjusting for range restriction (and attenuation) using study-specific artifact estimates. These positions, along with other recent perspectives on meta-analysis, lead us to reassess the extent to which situational specificity (SS) is worth consideration in organizational selection contexts. In this commentary, we will (a) examine the historical context of both the SS and validity generalization (VG) perspectives, (b) evaluate evidence pertaining to these perspectives, and (c) consider whether it is possible for both perspectives to coexist.