I__. - International Military Testing Association

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VALIDATION OF A NAVAL OFFICER SELECTION BOARD
Captain J.P. Bradley
Canadian Forces Personnel Applied Research Unit
Willowdale, Ontario, Canada M2N 6B7
Introduction
In 1976, the Canadian Navy established the Naval Off,icer __
Interview Board (NOIB) for the purpose of selecting applicants for
the Maritime Surface and Sub-surface (MARS), and Maritime Engineer
(MARE) officer occupations. There were two components to the NOIB,
a selection interview,‘ conducted by a panel of senior naval
officers, and an orientation program, consisting of tours of naval
facilities and briefings by naval officers. The purpose of the
orientation component was to ensure that candidates would be able
to make an informed decision to join the Navy if selected by the
NOIB.
By 1983, the NOIB had not reduced attrition among MARS and
MARE trainees; therefore, the Naval Officer Selection Board (NOSB)
was developed. The NOSB retained the orientation component and
interview of the former NOIB but incorporated other assessment
instruments to achieve a multi-method approach to the assessment
of naval officer potential. In 1989, the NOSB was renamed the
Naval Officer Assessment Board (NOAB).
To become qualified MARS officers, candidates must complete
four phases of training; the Basic Officer Training Course (BOTC),
required of all Canadian Forces (CF) officer applicants regardless
of military occupation, and three phases of MARS occupation
qualification training. An evaluation of the NOAB's ability to
predict success on BOTC by Okros, Johnston, and Rodgers (1988)
demonstrated that: (a) the NOAB predicted BOTC performance better
than CF recruiting centre (CFRC) measures; (b) the optimal
combination of predictors produced a multiple correlation of .40;
and (c) the file review was identified as the best single NOAB
predictor of BOTC with a correlation of .31. The present study
complements the BOTC validation study and examines the ability of
the NOAB to predict MARS occupation training success.
Subjects
Method
Of the 743 MARS candidates who have attended the NOAB, the 95
who have gone on to complete all phases of MARS training comprised
the sample for this validation study. The subjects in this study
were male. Female applicants have attended the NOAB since 1988,
but none have completed MARS occupational training to date.
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