Easing the Inferential Leap in Competency Modelling: The Effects of Task‐related Information and Subject Matter Expertise*

Despite the rising popularity of the practice of competency modeling, research on competency modeling has lagged behind. This study begins to close this practice–science gap through 3 studies (1 lab study and 2 field studies), which employ generalizability analysis to shed light on (a) the quality of inferences made in competency modeling and (b) the effects of incorporating elements of traditional job analysis into competency modeling to raise the quality of competency inferences. Study 1 showed that competency modeling resulted in poor interrater reliability and poor between‐job discriminant validity amongst inexperienced raters. In contrast, Study 2 suggested that the quality of competency inferences was higher among a variety of job experts in a real organization. Finally, Study 3 showed that blending competency modeling efforts and task‐related information increased both interrater reliability among SMEs and their ability to discriminate among jobs. In general, this set of results highlights that the inferences made in competency modeling should not be taken for granted, and that practitioners can improve competency modeling efforts by incorporating some of the methodological rigor inherent in job analysis.     

The Therapeutic System as Viewed by Depressive Inpatients and Outcome: An Expanded Study

In an expansion of a previous study, we examined in which way depressive inpatients' views of psychiatrists' and significant others' attitudes toward the severity of their illness were related to outcome. Fifty-six patients were asked a two-part question —“Who regards your illness as being more severe: (a) you or your significant others; (b) you or your psychiatrist?” Two subsamples of patients were identified: those who viewed the psychiatrists' and significant others' attitudes as similar and those who viewed them as dissimilar. Both groups showed substantial and significant improvement during hospital treatment; but the group that viewed the attitudes held by psychiatrists and significant others as dissimilar had significantly fewer depressive symptoms by the end of a 3-month followup period. The findings were consistent with those of the original study, and with the hypothesis as derived from the Mental Research Institute brief therapy principles.     

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION DECISIONS THAT MAXIMIZE THE UTILITY OF A PROBATIONARY SELECTION TO OBTAIN A FIXED QUOTA OF SUCCESSFUL SELECTEES

This article addresses the recruitment and retention decision problems that the selection practitioner faces when the objective is to maximize the utility of a fixed quota of successful selectees. Because the objective can be achieved by either a one-cohort or a multiple cohort with replacement approach, two optimizing procedures are presented. Given information on the selection predictor and the available recruiting sources, both procedures identify the criterion cutoff value (i.e., the critical value of the observed job performance at the end of the probationary period) that makes the best differentiation between successful and unsuccessful selectees. In addition, the proposals indicate the combination of recruiting sources (one-cohort approach) or the sequence of recruiting source combinations (multiple cohort approach) that, in combination with the optimal retention decision, result in the maximum possible utility of the predictor selected workforce. So, the article extends the previous contribution of, among others, Martin and Raju (1992) and Law and Myors (1993) to the case where not all the selectees are considered as successful. Also, the proposal recognizes the fact that the average quality of the applicants may vary across the recruitment sources.