The incremental validity of a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) relative to personality and cognitive ability to predict managerial performance

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The last two decades have witnessed an upsurge in the research and use ofpsychometric tests to aid in the prediction of managerial performance. Currently themost prevailing predictor constructs of managerial performance are cognitive ability,personality, and experience. However, researchers and practitioners are still lookingfor ways in which to maximise the prediction of managerial performance. In recentyears, Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) have become an increasingly popularselection tool. SJTs are multidimensional psychometric instruments designed to assessan individual's judgement concerning work-related situations. Evidence to dateindicates that SJTs are valid predictors of performance, especially for managerialpositions in which interpersonal interactions are important. The main objective of thisstudy was to examine whether SJTs significantly add to the prediction of managerialperformance over other measures used for managerial selection, such as measures ofcognitive ability and personality. Measures of specific cognitive abilities, personalityand a SJT were administered to branch managers in a South African retail bank(N = 124) to investigate the ability of the measures to predict managerial performance.Managerial performance was measured using three measures; Performance Ranking, aBehavioural Observation Scale (BOS) and an Overall Performance Rating.Hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate the relationship between thepredictor composites and the managerial performance measures. Findings revealdifferent prediction patterns for the three criteria. A multiple correlation coefficient of.442 (p > .05) was obtained when predicting Performance Ranking measures, .308(p < .05) was obtained for predicting the Behavioural Observation Scale (BOS)measure, and .318 (p > .05) was obtained when predicting the Overall PerformanceRating measure. Therefore, only when predicting the BOS measure, the SJT providedincremental validity over cognitive ability and personality measures. Consequently,the average of the scores of the three criterion measures, i.e., the ManagerialPerformance Composite, was used to evaluate the a priori hypotheses. A multiplecorrelation of .366 (p > .05) was obtained for predicting the Managerial PerformanceComposite criterion. Results therefore indicate that the SJT did not exhibit meaningfulor statistically significant incremental prediction over cognitive ability and personalityto predict the composite managerial performance measure.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University