2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

simply be utilized to publicly validate a decision
already made. In other words, the traditional
measures of validity were relatively irrelevant, but
the measure still had to be made to fulfill a specific
purpose which was deemed important.
2. In like manner, an administrator recently
remarked that a certain measure needed for
accreditation was made and then filed. No one in the
organization had seen it in years, but he said that
the measure was nevertheless successful because
“it worked” in keeping the college accredited.
What is missing in the measures of validity is a
determination of purpose. Measurements are made
for a reason, and many times those purposes are
utilitarian. Traditional measures of validity may or
may not be necessary or adequate to establish a
measure as a good tool to accomplish its purpose.
An extreme example, and one hopefully not
embraced as a centerpiece of the concept, would be
a politician who tells a lie in the hope of being
elected. Irrespective of the validity of the statement,
if that statement results in the politician being
elected, it then accomplishes its purpose, and
therefore has a type of utilitarian validity.
In our discussion of the SET, the concept of
utilitarian validity actually clarifies the issue. The
important question becomes:
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Does the use of this instrument improve
instruction, evaluation, or administrative
processes of the individual or organization
that utilizes it?
This is exactly what is missing in the SET debate.
The writer knows of no published findings showing
whether the adoption of SET at an institution has
improved instruction, students are learning more,
employers are finding better prepared workers,
society has improved, or that faculty or students are
made happier. This may appear to be an unfair
standard to apply to the process, but when evaluations
are used by over 99 percent of all business
schools and constitute a major (and in some cases,
the only) measure of faculty instructional competency,
more than just arguments over extant validity
measures are warranted. Like any other standard of
validity, this question could and should be studied. It
remains the topic of another paper.
References Available on Request.