Multisource Feedback and Leaders' Goal Performance: Moderating effects of rating purpose,rater perspective,and performance dimension

The main purposes of this study are to examine whether multisource feedback ratings predict leaders' organizational goal performance, and whether the relationships are consistent across the two rating purposes (developmental, administrative), two leadership dimensions behaviors (Consideration, Initiating Structure), and three rating perspectives (supervisor, self, and ‘other’ raters, i.e., peers and subordinates). Leaders (n=396) in a large organization in the transportation industry participated in two multisource feedback programs, the first for developmental purposes and the second 8 months later for administrative purposes. Approximately 1 month later, they were rated by their supervisor on their effectiveness in attaining five organizational performance goals (financial, safety, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, diversity). Results revealed that both developmental ratings and administrative ratings uniquely predicted leaders' goal performance. However, both leadership dimension and rater perspective moderated these relationships. Leadership behaviors associated with Consideration were stronger predictors of goal performance for supervisor ratings, whereas behaviors associated with Initiating Structure were stronger predictors of goal performance for self and other ratings.     

Effects of Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: Evidence from Production Supervisors

Based on a sample of production workers in a textile firm, supervisory ratings of employee performance were found to be influenced by supervisors' perceptions of employees' organizational citizenship behaviours as well as by employees' objectively measured performance. Regression analysis indicated that supervisory ratings were influenced by two dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviour — conscientiousness and altruism — as well as by objective performance. These three variables explained 53% of the variance in ratings. A third dimension of OCB, sportsmanship, did not affect supervisory ratings.     

Effects of Nonlinearity and Heteroscedasticity on the Validity of Conscientiousness in Predicting Overall Job Performance

Most research on the relationship between personality and overall job performance assumes linearity and homoscedasticity. This study investigated the prevalence and nature of nonlinearities and heteroscedasticies in relationships between conscientiousness and supervisory ratings of overall job performance across five independent samples using both concurrent (k = 4) and predictive (k = 1) designs. Hierarchical polynomial regression analyses found evidence of robust linear effects but no evidence of statistically significant quadratic or cubic effects. A statistically and practically significant heteroscedastic effect was found in only one sample such that lower errors of prediction were evidenced in the ends in comparison to the middle of the bivariate distribution. Implications for the use of conscientiousness in personnel selection are suggested. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are noted.     

The Validity of Assessment Centres for the Prediction of Supervisory Performance Ratings: A meta‐analysis

The current meta‐analysis of the selection validity of assessment centres aims to update an earlier meta‐analysis of assessment centre validity. To this end, we retrieved 26 studies and 27 validity coefficients (N=5850) relating the Overall Assessment Rating (OAR) to supervisory performance ratings. The current study obtained a corrected correlation of .28 between the OAR and supervisory job performance ratings (95% confidence interval .24≤ρ≤.32). It is further suggested that this validity estimate is likely to be conservative given that assessment centre validities tend to be affected by indirect range restriction.     

To Be,or Not to Be,Linear: An expanded representation of personality and its relationship to leadership performance

In this study, we tested for a set of complex, nonlinear relationships between derailing/dark side personality composites and leadership performance using two independent samples of managers/leaders (N=1306 and N=290 for Study 1 and 2, respectively). Based on the structure and characteristics of the derailing/dark side trait composites, we expected the relationship between these composites and leadership performance would best be described with an inverted U function. In Study 1, we found evidence of a nonlinear relationship between the derailing composite, as measured by the Global Personality Inventory^©, and behaviorally based, structured ratings of leadership performance in an assessment center. Similarly, Study 2 found evidence for a nonlinear relationship between dark side composites, as measured by the Hogan Development Survey^©, and supervisory/other ratings of leadership performance. We discuss the implications of these complex, nonlinear findings with respect to the continued use of personality for the selection and promotion of future leaders. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are noted.     

Perceptions of the Supervisory Relationship: Recovering and Nonrecovering Substance Abuse Counselors

The unique set of dynamics found in the substance abuse field (i.e., recovering and nonrecovering counselors and supervisors) calls for a separate examination of the supervisory relationship within this context. The authors examined differences in counselors' perceptions of the supervisory relationship based on counselor and supervisor recovery status, and the match or mismatch of counselor and supervisor recovery status. Substance abuse counselors (N = 547) working in a statewide public mental health system located in the Southeast rated satisfaction with supervision and reported perceptions of various dimensions of the supervisory relationship. Results of the 2 (counselor recovery status: nonrecovering and recovering) × 2 (supervisor recovery status: nonrecovering and recovering) multivariate analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in ratings of satisfaction or relationship dimensions based on either the counselors' or supervisors' recovery status. A significant interaction effect for counselor and supervisor recovery status (i.e., match or mismatch of recovery status) was found for all satisfaction and relationship measures.     

Better Late than Never? The Relationship between Ratings of Attendance,Punctuality, and Overall Job Performance among Nursing Home Employees

This study examined the relationship between lateness, absenteeism, and overall job performance among nursing home employees. We addressed four issues: (a) agreement between subordinate and superior in their ratings, (b) the stability of rated lateness and rated absenteeism over 6 months, (c) the correlation between ratings of lateness and absenteeism assigned by the worker to himself or herself and the corresponding ratings from supervisors, and (d) the relationship of rated lateness and rated absenteeism to impressions of overall job performance. Neither attendance nor punctuality showed inter‐rater agreement between the worker and his/her supervisor on either of the two occasions. Ratings of attendance were not stable across time for either the subordinate (r=.16) or the supervisor (r=.04), but punctuality ratings showed moderate temporal stability over 6 months for both subordinate (r=.59) and supervisor (r=. 41) impressions. On the first administration of the rating form, attendance and punctuality were not significantly correlated to each other in either the workers' self‐ratings (r=.17) nor the supervisors' ratings of the workers (r=.08). On the second administration, however, these two facets were moderately correlated with each other in both workers' (r=.54) and supervisors' (r=. 39) impressions of employee behavior. Compared with attendance, punctuality was somewhat more highly correlated with impressions of overall job performance from the perspective of the worker herself/himself as well as the supervisor.     

SELF-APPRAISAL BASED UPON SUPERVISORY FEEDBACK

Self-appraisals of job performance have historically proven to be weakly related to appraisals conducted by supervisory personnel. Two studies sought to facilitate rater agreement by invoking supervisory performance feedback as a frame of reference for subordinate raters. In the first study, a sample of 401 branch managers from a large lending institution performed a conventional self-appraisal and an appraisal containing instructions referencing supervisory feedback (Feedback Based Self-Appraisal). Feedback Based Self-Appraisals exhibited significantly smaller leniency error, greater total rating variance, and more agreement with superior ratings than conventional self-appraisals. FBSAs produced small improvements over conventional self-appraisals in predicting objective criteria of managerial job performance. Study 2 examined FBSA-supervisory appraisal agreement for two samples of military organization personnel. The relative degree of feedback available in a work environment was found to moderate FBSA-superior agreement.     

Introduction

This article reports a comprehensive meta-analysis of the criterion-oriented validity of the Big Five personality dimensions assessed with forced-choice (FC) inventories. Six criteria (i.e., performance ratings, training proficiency, productivity, grade-point average, global occupational performance, and global academic performance) and three types of FC scores (i.e., normative, quasi-ipsative, and ipsative) served for grouping the validity coefficients. Globally, the results showed that the Big Five assessed with FC measures have similar or slightly higher validity than the Big Five assessed with single-stimulus (SS) personality inventories. Quasi-ipsative measures of conscientiousness (K = 44, N = 8794, ρ = .40) are found to be better predictors of job performance than normative and ipsative measures. FC inventories also showed similar reliability coefficients to SS inventories. Implications of the findings for theory and practice in academic and personnel decisions are discussed, and future research is suggested.     

Self‐Ratings of Political Skill in Job Application: A within‐ and between‐subjects field experiment

Political skill is the ability to understand others and use that knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one's personal and/or organizational objectives. The Political Skill Inventory ( Ferris et al., 2005 ) assesses this talent, and has potential for use in personnel decision making. However, central organizational stakeholders are concerned about the distortion of self‐rating scores in job application; consequently, we examined the effects of a job application situation on self‐ratings of political skill in a field experiment with 205 job incumbents. The findings showed consistently that the relationship of self‐ratings of political skill and job performance ratings by supervisors (ρ=.30, p<.01) were not distorted in job application. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Replication and Extension of Models of Supervisory Job Performance Ratings

This study tested causal models of job knowledge, job proficiency, and supervisor ratings in a sample (N = 838) of U.S. Air Force enlisted personnel. Results indicated that (a) effects of ability and experience were linear, not interactive; (b) different conceptualizations of "experience" play somewhat different causal roles in the determination of job knowledge, job proficiency, and supervisory ratings; (c) general support for the mediational roles of job knowledge and job proficiency; and (d) supervisory ratings reflect both technical (task-based) and motivational (contextual) aspects of performance.     

Organizational Concern,Prosocial Values,or Impression Management? How Supervisors Attribute Motives to Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Although prior studies have indicated that organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) tend to be positively related to supervisory ratings of employee performance, only a few studies have investigated how the motives attributed to OCB (e.g., impression management, prosocial motives, organizational concern) might influence such evaluations. Based on Weiner's (1995 ) attribution model and a study of supervisors in varied industries, we found that attributions regarding employees' motives for engaging in OCB are related to supervisors' emotional reactions to such behavior, which are, in turn, related to ratings of employee performance. Implications of the study for management research and practice are discussed.     

SUPERVISING PARAPROFESSIONAL TUTORS IN A REMEDIAL READING PROGRAM1

Applied researchers increasingly report the use of paraprofessionals to implement key program components. However, despite such apparent advantages as increased availability and lower salaries, problems in maintaining acceptable levels of on-the-job performance in these workers have been reported. This study assessed the effects of a supervisory package on the work behavior of five paraprofessional tutors in a remedial reading program. The package consisted of written handouts and instructions, tests of tutor understanding, a video tape, mention of tutor performance by supervisors, and publicly posted feedback on work performance. One randomly chosen tutor received feedback each day on (1) his degree of completeness in tutoring one student's answers to comprehension-check questions, (2) his accuracy in tabulating that student's data sheet, and (3) his promptness in beginning the first student's tutorial session. The supervisory package produced marked improvement in completeness, some improvement in accuracy, but no improvement in promptness. Application of the supervisory package seemed practical, as an average of nine daily tutorial sessions (approximately 270 min of tutoring) required a total daily average of only 28 min of supervision. It was concluded that completeness performance by nondegreed, paraprofessional tutors was closely related to the extent to which they were supervised. Despite the fact that no improvement was observed in tutor promptness, and only partial improvement was observed in tutor accuracy, the improvement to near-perfect levels in tutor completeness suggests that further research is warranted to develop supervisory packages that might ensure the reliable and efficient use of paraprofessional workers.     

The Five‐factor Model of Personality and Knowledge Transfer in the United Arab Emirates

Knowledge transfer has emerged as an important criterion in organizations for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. While research has examined contextual determinants of knowledge transfer, very little research has considered the role of individual differences. In the present study, we addressed this issue by testing the relationship between the five‐factor model of personality and supervisory ratings of knowledge transfer in a sample of employees from the United Arab Emirates (N = 294). Our findings indicated that the extraversion (r = .22), conscientiousness (r = .18), and openness (r = .14) were significant predictors of knowledge transfer. Implications for knowledge management practices are discussed.     

Test–Retest Reliability of Ratings of Job Performance Dimensions in Managers

This article examines the test–retest reliability of supervisory ratings for several dimensions of job performance and for overall job performance. We found that the test–retest reliability of overall job performance is .79 (SD = .08), a value very close to the one found by Viswesvaran, Ones and Schmidt (1996), and that the average test–retest reliability for specific dimensions of job performance is .57 (SD = .07). We also found that some dimensions of job performance appear to be easier to rate than others. We suggest some implications of these findings for research and practice of personnel selection.     

Simple Co‐Occurrence Statistics Reproducibly Predict Association Ratings

What determines human ratings of association? We planned this paper as a test for association strength (AS) that is derived from the log likelihood that two words co‐occur significantly more often together in sentences than is expected from their single word frequencies. We also investigated the moderately correlated interactions of word frequency, emotional valence, arousal, and imageability of both words (r's ≤ .3). In three studies, linear mixed effects models revealed that AS and valence reproducibly account for variance in the human ratings. To understand further correlated predictors, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis and examined the predictors of four clusters in competitive analyses: Only AS and word2vec skip‐gram cosine distances reproducibly accounted for variance in all three studies. The other predictors of the first cluster (number of common associates, (positive) point‐wise mutual information, and word2vec CBOW cosine) did not reproducibly explain further variance. The same was true for the second cluster (word frequency and arousal); the third cluster (emotional valence and imageability); and the fourth cluster (consisting of joint frequency only). Finally, we discuss emotional valence as an important dimension of semantic space. Our results suggest that a simple definition of syntagmatic word contiguity (AS) and a paradigmatic measure of semantic similarity (skip‐gram cosine) provide the most general performance‐independent explanation of association ratings.     

OBTAINING VALID PREDICTORS BY MINIMIZING RATING ERRORS IN THE CRITERION1

The correlations between each of five predictors and supervisory ratings of job effectiveness were not significantly different from zero. On the basis of the job analysis that preceded the validation study, the author concluded that the low correlations between each of the five predictors and the criterion were not due to problems inherent in either the tests or the performance appraisal instrument. Rather, it was hypothesized that the low correlations were a result of rating errors made by supervisors. The results of an eight hour training program (Latham, Wexley, and Pursell, 1975) designed to minimize rating errors supported this hypothesis. Four of the five predictors correlated significantly with the performance ratings that were conducted after the supervisors had received the training.