Technical Affairs

Mike Aamodt, Associate Editor

This month's column will address two questions that I received from ACN readers. As usual, the column will also include an attempt at HR humor.

What does the research say about the validity of grades in predicting employee performance?

As a faculty member, I always tell my students that grades are important and that a high grade in my class will make them rich, famous, and good looking. Though my advice may not be entirely true, grades actually seem to have validity in predicting success in several areas. As you can see in the table below, meta-analyses indicate that grades predict job performance, training performance, and promotions. Grades are most valid in predicting work-related criteria when the GPA was from a bachelor's (r_cr,rr,pr = .36) or master's degree (r_cr,rr,pr = .50) rather than a doctoral degree (r_cr,rr,pr = .15), the work-related criteria were measured within a year of graduation (r_cr,rr,pr =. 49, and the results were reported in an older study (Roth, BeVier, Switzer, & Schippmann, 1996).


	uncorrected validity	corrected validity	95% CI
Work-Related Criteria
Job performance (Roth et al., 1996)	.16	.35	.17 - .53
Training performance (Dye & Reck, 1989)	.29
Promotions (Cohen, 1984)	.16		.05 - .27
Salary (Roth & Clarke, 1996)
Starting Salary	.13	.20	.05 - .27
Current Salary	.18	.28	.02 - .54

As you can also see from the table, the meta-analysis by Roth and Clarke (1996) indicates that grades predict starting and current salaries. Grades were more valid for the field of engineering (r_rr,pr = .51) than the field of business (r_rr,pr = .27), and more valid for post-1960 studies (r_rr,pr = .29) than older studies (r_rr,pr = .18).

The nation's expert on this topic is probably Philip Roth at Clemson University. His email address is rothp@clemson.edu.

References

Cohen, P. A. (1984). College grades and adult achievement: A research synthesis. Research in Higher Education, 20(3), 281-293.

Dye, D. A., & Reck, M. (1989). College grade point average as a predictor of adult success: A reply. Public Personnel Management, 18(22), 235-242.

Roth, P. L., BeVier, C. A., Switzer, F. S., & Schippmann, J. (1996). Meta-analyzing the relationship between grades and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(5), 548-556.

Roth, P. L., & Clarke, R. L. (1996). Meta-analyzing the relationship between grades and salary. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Diego, CA.

We are considering the use of personality tests to select police officers. Are there any you can recommend?

As former president George Bush might say "It wouldn't be prudent for me to make a recommendation on a particular test." However, we are completing a meta-analysis on the validity of personality tests in police selection and I think I can give you some general information. If you want some detailed charts and a complete bibliography, email me at maamodt@runet.edu and I will send them to you as an attachment (I just learned how to do this!).

Perhaps the best way to begin would be to point out that personality tests come in three main varieties: tests to measure psychopathology (e.g., MMPI, MCMI-III), tests to measure normal personality (e.g., CPI, Hogan Personality Inventory, NEO), and tests to use in training seminars (e.g., Myers-Briggs, Personal Profile System). I will limit my discussion to the first two categories of personality tests as the third type was not designed to predict employee performance, nor does it. Besides, I took one of these tests and it said I had no personality (could this be evidence of validity?).

In law enforcement selection, tests to measure psychopathology are used to screen applicants who have psychological disorders that might cause problems. Since passage of the ADA, these tests must be given after a conditional offer of hire. Prior to the ADA, when we gave the MMPI to every applicant, we found that about 10% of our applicants "failed" the psychological. Because these applicants are never hired, we don't have much information about how well these folks would have done had they been hired. Instead, we have lots of studies addressing the validity of scores in the "normal range." The results of our meta-analysis offer no support for the validity of the tests for psychopathology. But again, keep in mind that applicants with elevated scores were never hired. Thus, we make the assumption that applicants with five personalities or applicants who are hearing voices would not make good cops; an assumption I have no problem living with! However, beyond psychopathology considerations, our results are clear that clinical psychologists using tests such as the MMPI are not able to make valid predictions about law-enforcement performance.

In law enforcement, tests to measure normal personality are also commonly used. Based on our review, the two most common tests seem to be the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the 16-PF. Based on our meta-analysis, the most promising personality scales are the tolerance (r =.20) and achievement via conformance (r = .20) scales of the CPI. But, as a word or caution, let me point out that many of the personality tests on the market might be valid predictors of police performance but have not published consistent validity information. For example, one test comes to mind in which several articles have shown significant validity coefficients, but the scales that predicted performance were different in each article.

At this point, my interpretation of the vast literature on this topic is that personality does not generalize across departments or localities. It might be a predictor of person-organization fit, in which case, one would not expect to see consistent results across studies. I hope this brief response gives you the bottom line needed to answer your question. Again, we are finished with our meta-analysis but are still in the writing process. So, we hope to publish lots of good info in the coming year (or at the rate I am going, in the coming decade). If any of our readers have any validity info (raw data or completed analyses) related to law enforcement selection, we would love to have it and include it in our meta-analyses.

HR Humor

An ACN reader sent the following piece of HR humor that she found on the Internet. Keep that HR humor coming!

The Boss Asked for a Letter Describing Bob Smith

Bob Smith, my assistant programmer, can always be found
hard at work in his cubicle. Bob works independently, without
wasting company time talking to colleagues. Bob never
thinks twice about assisting fellow employees, and he always
finishes given assignments on time. Often Bob takes extended
measures to complete his work, sometimes skipping coffee
breaks. Bob is a dedicated individual who has absolutely no
vanity in spite of his high accomplishments and profound
knowledge in his field. I firmly believe that Bob can be
classified as a high-caliber employee, the type which cannot be
dispensed with. Consequently, I duly recommend that Bob be
promoted to executive management, and a proposal will be
executed as soon as possible.

Project Leader

A Memo Was Sent Following the Letter

That idiot Bob was reading over my shoulder while I wrote the report sent to you earlier today. Kindly read only the odd numbered lines (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13) for my true assessment of him.

Regards, Project Leader

Mike Aamodt, a Professor of Psychology at Radford University serves as our Associate Editor for the Technical Affairs column and as our unofficial humor editor. If you have a technical question you want answered/discussed, wish to comment on this month's article, or want to share a humor item please contact Mike. He may be reached by email (maamodt@runet.edu), phone [(540) 831-5513)] or fax [(540) 831-6113].