Douglas G. Schultz

Progress and problems in the measurement of individual differences in on-the-job performance

Abstract Recent progress and present problems in the measurement of individual differences in on-the-job performance are considered. Job performance appraisal techniques discussed are production records, interviews and questionnaires, work sample and situational tests, appraisal of executive performance, and rating scales. Analytic techniques reviewed are intercorrelation and factor analysis, scaling, and reliability, including job performance changes over time. Important current issues are associated with the dimensionality of performance criteria, their selection and evaluation, their predictability, their ultimacy, and the role of environmental factors. It is concluded that there is a need for an integrating conceptual framework to order and organize the field and to provide a more satisfactory basis for evaluating individual differences in on-the-job performance.

Empirical Evaluations of Scaling Method and Scale Transformation in Multidimensional Scaling Analysis

Successive intervals scaling and equal intervals scaling as a preliminary step to multidimensional scaling analysis were compared. The effects of an exponential transformation on the resultant structure were also investigated. For judgments involving similarity of electronics job tasks, neither scaling method nor exponential transformation seemed to affect the emergent structure to any great extent.

Factors Affecting Control Activation Time

Control activation time as a junction of control number, control density, activation sequence, control complexity, and link multiplicity was investigated. Although activation time was found to be significantly related to each factor, the number, density, and link multiplicity factors were considered to exert the greatest operational significance.