Research Article
Hamming Distance Method with Subjective and
Objective Weights for Personnel Selection
R. Md Saad,
1
M. Z. Ahmad,
1
M. S. Abu,
1
and M. S. Jusoh
2
1
Institute of Engineering Mathematics, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Pauh Putra Main Campus, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
2
School of Business Innovation and Technopreneurship, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Jalan Kangar-Alor Setar,
01000 Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia
Correspondence should be addressed to M. Z. Ahmad; mzaini@unimap.edu.my
Received 31 August 2013; Accepted 11 November 2013; Published 17 March 2014
Academic Editors: R.-M. Chen and H. Wu
Copyright © 2014 R. Md Saad et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) is one of the methods that popularly has been used in solving personnel selection problem.
Alternatives, criteria, and weights are some of the fundamental aspects in MCDM that need to be defned clearly in order to
achieve a good result. Apart from these aspects, fuzzy data has to take into consideration that it may arise from unobtainable
and incomplete information. In this paper, we propose a new approach for personnel selection problem. Te proposed approach
is based on Hamming distance method with subjective and objective weights (HDMSOW’s). In case of vagueness situation, fuzzy
set theory is then incorporated onto the HDMSOW’s. To determine the objective weight for each attribute, the fuzzy Shannon’s
entropy is considered. While for the subjective weight, it is aggregated into a comparable scale. A numerical example is presented
to illustrate the HDMSOW’s.
1. Introduction
Te rapid growth in globalization had created an intense
competition between modern frms in global markets. Tese
situations had urged the organization and frms to estab-
lish a comprehensive procedure during personnel selection
process. Te personnel selection can be defned as a process
of selecting the individuals who match the requirement and
qualifcation to perform a particular job in an excellent way
[1]. Te main objective of this process is to assess the diversity
among the alternatives that could pave a way of predicting
the future performance [2]. Knowing the fact that personnel
selection is not an easy task to be solved has awakened
the conscience of decision makers to make decisive action
to solve. Te decision makers have to consider all aspects
that are needed in this process. Hence, some of the decision
makers try to solve this problem by using any kind of methods
that are available and suitable for them to use.
Despite restructuring and reorganizing the personnel
selection process, some of the frms had performed a so-
called “strategic decision” to choose the best candidate
during the selection process. Some decision makers try to
utilize rigorous and costly selection procedure and some
even used the traditional method which depends on only
information stated on the application forms that turn out
to be quickest and inexpensive methods [1]. However, these
methods actually never bring satisfaction and their fnal
results are sometimes deniable. Tus, when multicriteria
decision making (MCDM) was introduced in the early 1970’s,
it had become one of favorable and important methods in this
area. Some of the decision makers took a chance and grabed
this opportunity to apply this method in solving personnel
selection problem [3]. MCDM is known for its capabilities
in evaluating, electing, or ranking a fnite set of available
alternatives with respect to multiple and conficting criteria
[4]. A number of methods and theories had been introduced
and extended based on the utilization of this approach and
the continuing study of this feld had extended in a fxed
rate. Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrich-
ment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) [5], linear programming
techniques [6], Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) [7], Simple
Additive Weighting (SAW) [8], and Technique for Order
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
e Scientific World Journal
Volume 2014, Article ID 865495, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/865495