Technical Report - International Military Testing Association

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Parronality Tooting md Job Proficiency
.?OHH D. RJtAFT
US Amy Enlirted Bvaluatim Center \,
Chairman Bridgeo, yellow’-‘Confetee.8,
It ir a privilege to lead thir dirwrrion on perrmality teeting
and Job perfomanca,
A8 a point of departure in exploring waya of iacruring the prediction
of roldiere’ performance, I vi11 give a goneral di8cuorion of
the rarurch vhich Rayumd B. Cattell and hi8 u8ociatr8 at the Univorrlty
of Illiaoir have conducted for mumming motlvetional rtrangth. Aleo, I
will dircu88 8-e of the u8ea which wo might put Cattell’a re8march. and
relrtod motivatimal ramarch, to in evaluating tho total percent of
variance in the Job perbormanc~ of the individual rerviceman.
Currently, the Army u8es A fob “aa8tary” teat to measure what the
� oldler “can do.” It *JUU a rating rcrle to measure vhrt the roldier
“vi11 do.” Unfortunately, even though years of hard lrr&or have barn
attended by indurtriel prychologirtr in crying to refir.,+ the rating recli
and to minimire it8 error8. it rtill ir a veak evalu8tfng iustrumnt.
Individual8 differ in their ability to accur8tely parcaiw the cheractsrirticr
of otherr. Sane of the factor8 relevant to thla differential
perception are in the age, 8az, end prrronality of the parcaiver, la
there charreteri8tic8 of the percoivad, and in the content erer8 in which
the prrdic t ion8 are madu.
Thr rating 8~~10’8 %ill do” � reee � re csotivetionol in content. They
rhw the “drive” or “atntiment” f8ctorr o f t h e roldler’r performance. Hr,
Shirkey, who rpoke before you A fw chute8 ago, recently did A factor
analyrir 03 the Army’8 new CER (rating rcale). He found five factor@
which can tentatively be celled: Militery Bearing I and II, Xilitaxy
Laaderrhip Potential, Initiative, end T88k Uotivation. Hr. Shirkey wa8
8urprired to find that the rupervirory portion of the trot correleted
rather poorly vith the Leaderrhip Potential Pector of the CER. Although
it io porrible that there rcrultr ‘Are partielly A condition of the prrtitular
HOS analytad, it la evident th8t the CER la mesrurlng the mot;-vational
arue concerned with vhat the coldior “will do.”
Since mo8t ratiaga are rpurlour and do vary with thr rater, conrider
how much better it would br if predictive mea8ure8 of tha motivational
rtrength in there ereee could be nwde in order to give more
objectivity and exactnerr. An cz8mple of the porrrble work that can
be done along there line8 18 th8t of the rsrs8rch currently being
conducted by the US Army Perronnel Rersarch Office on thr valtler a$aoelated
with military cereer motiv8tion. Tlw rarearcher there heve
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