Management Selection by Multiple-Domain Assessment: I. Concurrent Validity

Abstract

A large-scale concurrent validity study is described in which 321 first-level management employees in a Canadian provincial telephone company were given a comprehensive assessment battery and were rated on their work performance. Measures from five assessment domains-cognitive abilities, personality/motivational traits, administrative skills, biodata, and supervisory judgment were administered in one-day assessment sessions. Independent assessments of 12 work-performance appraisal dimensions were provided by 165 higher-level supervisors of the 321 participants, using a combination of behaviorally anchored rating scales and behavioral observation scales. The assessment domains were examined individually as to their predictive efficacy, and simple composites of measures from several domains were correlated with the criterion appraisal dimension scores. Concurrent validity coefficients obtained for all 12 criterion dimensions and for an overall management performance criterion ranged from .36 to .56 for women and from .33 to .51 for men.

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