2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

cognitive ability. One particularly promising approach to measuring individual
differences in the interpersonal and personality areas is the situational judgment test
(SJT). These tests are based in the premise that there are important and often subtle
differences between the behavior of effective and ineffective persons as they respond to
problems or dilemmas confronted in the course of carrying out their job responsibilities
and that such differences are reflected in their responses to similar situations presented in
written form.
Research has demonstrated that short-term, technical performance criteria,
particularly overall school grades, are best predicted by general intelligence while longer
term, more differentiated criteria such as non-technical job performance criteria,
retention, and promotion rates are better predicted by other measures, including
personality, interest, and motivation instruments. In order to select and retain the best
possible applicants, it would seem critical to understand, develop, and evaluate multiple
measures of short- and long-term performance, as well as other indicators of
organizational effectiveness such as attrition/retention.
In general, then, when one considers what attributes are most relevant to perform
effectively in any given job, there are many from which to choose. The type of person
characteristic viewed as important to success in a job may vary from situation to
situation. For example, for a job or set of jobs, one may be most interested in choosing
persons that have high cognitive ability, and care much less about their personality or
interest patterns. In other situations the reverse may be true. For optimal assignment, it
is necessary to somehow link the attributes to how necessary they are for effective
performance in specific jobs or job types, and as attempts are made to expand the
predictor and criterion space, it will be important to extend one’s perspective to broader
implementation issues that involve thinking about classification and person-organization
(P-O) fit. As organizational flexibility in effectively utilizing employees increasingly
becomes an issue (e.g., workers are more often moved from job to job in the
organization), the P-O model may be more relevant in comparison with the traditional
person-job match approach.
457
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003