diff --git a/pkg/resource/resource.go b/pkg/resource/resource.go
index 6bf9eed..102eabd 100644
--- a/pkg/resource/resource.go
+++ b/pkg/resource/resource.go
@@ -20,6 +20,18 @@ type Signature struct {
 	Kind, Version, Namespace, Name string
 }
 
+// GroupVersionKind returns a string with the GVK encoding of a resource signature.
+// This encoding slightly differs from the Kubernetes upstream implementation
+// in order to be suitable for being used in the kubeconform command-line arguments.
+func (sig *Signature) GroupVersionKind() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", sig.Version, sig.Kind)
+}
+
+// QualifiedName returns a string for a signature in the format version/kind/namespace/name
+func (sig *Signature) QualifiedName() string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s/%s/%s", sig.Version, sig.Kind, sig.Namespace, sig.Name)
+}
+
 // Signature computes a signature for a resource, based on its Kind, Version, Namespace & Name
 func (res *Resource) Signature() (*Signature, error) {
 	if res.sig != nil {
@@ -119,8 +131,3 @@ func (res *Resource) Resources() []Resource {
 
 	return []Resource{*res}
 }
-
-// QualifiedName returns a string for a signature in the format version/kind/namespace/name
-func (sig *Signature) QualifiedName() string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s/%s/%s", sig.Version, sig.Kind, sig.Namespace, sig.Name)
-}
diff --git a/pkg/validator/validator.go b/pkg/validator/validator.go
index f1ae723..09eeb53 100644
--- a/pkg/validator/validator.go
+++ b/pkg/validator/validator.go
@@ -98,12 +98,23 @@ type v struct {
 // ValidateResource validates a single resource. This allows to validate
 // large resource streams using multiple Go Routines.
 func (val *v) ValidateResource(res resource.Resource) Result {
+	// For backward compatibility reasons when determining whether
+	// a resource should be skipped or rejected we use both
+	// the GVK encoding of the resource signatures (the recommended method
+	// for skipping/rejecting resources) and the raw Kind.
+
 	skip := func(signature resource.Signature) bool {
+		if _, ok := val.opts.SkipKinds[signature.GroupVersionKind()]; ok {
+			return ok
+		}
 		_, ok := val.opts.SkipKinds[signature.Kind]
 		return ok
 	}
 
 	reject := func(signature resource.Signature) bool {
+		if _, ok := val.opts.RejectKinds[signature.GroupVersionKind()]; ok {
+			return ok
+		}
 		_, ok := val.opts.RejectKinds[signature.Kind]
 		return ok
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/validator/validator_test.go b/pkg/validator/validator_test.go
index f78548a..f6fcd15 100644
--- a/pkg/validator/validator_test.go
+++ b/pkg/validator/validator_test.go
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 package validator
 
 import (
-	"github.com/yannh/kubeconform/pkg/registry"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/yannh/kubeconform/pkg/registry"
+
 	"github.com/yannh/kubeconform/pkg/resource"
 )