Organizational testing and assessment tools are used frequently in the field of psychology. Business sometimes borrows these assessment methods to evaluate leadership, survey managers and their effectiveness, and critique employee performance. Since psychology incorporates the study of human nature, such applications are relevant and may help businesses become more transparent in their evaluation processes.
Successful business leaders know that dedicated employees are a valuable asset. How does an employer determine which employees are valuable? How does an employer know which employees are the most productive? Some of the tools that have proven to be effective in the business marketplace include performance assessments and appraisals, behavioral observational scales, personality scales, and meta-analysis. These tools, if used in the right manner, can help business leaders make informed decisions about their employees and their futures.
Performance appraisal is conducting regular assessments of the performance of employees at work (Perform, n.d.). The goals of such assessments usually includes ranking employees for advancement opportunities, calculating raises, deciding on increased responsibilities, and department feasibility studies. The outcomes are supposed to be without bias and provide a systematic review as a guideline for supervisors to follow for the upcoming period, usually six months or a year. For minors, this assessment is based on academics or certain exhibited behaviors.
Employers use behavioral observational scales to record rate and frequency of certain actions of employees. These scales should have positive and negative performance ratings included. The intention of these scales is to track the positive skills of certain employees and capture why their rate is so high so that this rate can be transferred successfully to others. Likewise, positive highly frequent behaviors can be identified and demonstrated to other employees. In the same manner, employees that have a low rate of positive behaviors or a low frequency of desired behaviors can have such identified and be counseled to improve their performance (Blume, Baldwin, & Rubin, 2009).
The Big Five Theory of Personality involves using five broad factors to account for most differences in personalities. These factors that account for the differences included emotional stability, agreeableness, consciousness, openness, and extraversion. This model is used across a wide-range of applications and throughout most age groups. It is effective because it covers a wide continuum of personality types, follows a framework of established framework on which it can be adjusted for an indefinite number of specific applications, and enables even the strongest of personality types to be classified into a category. Additional uses of the Big Five tool have been for employee relations, supervisor interactions with employees, and leadership traits identification.
There are times when the Big Five tool can address areas of friction in the workplace. When dominant situational forces are present, it is inevitably the person with agreeableness as a part of their personality type that will succumb to the other in almost all situations. If neither person possesses this trait, friction will exist or openness or emotional stability will dominate any resolution (Mark & Canger, 2004).
Merriam-Webster defines meta-analysis as “a quantitative statistical analysis of several separate but similar experiments or studies in order to test the pooled data for statistical significance” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). In business, meta-analysis is usually associated with affective organizational commitment (AOC). Businesses use data gathered to analyze employee behaviors to determine job performance, potential retention, and rates of attendance. The concept behind a strong AOC is that an employee who feels a strong connection to their employer will work harder and be more dedicated to the success of the business. This is also tied to the businesses rational to foster organizational commitment and structures for long-term servitude (Riketta, 2002).
The three stratum theory is a concept by John Carroll which analyzes a person’s cognitive ability based on narrow, general, and broad abilities. Supervisors often watch over several different departments. In turn, they also frequently have a wide range of abilities and talents. Having a higher level of intelligence may also drive the individual to seek advancing their education to become even more advanced in their field and career. The more intellectual one is, often, but not exclusively, the more driven one is to pursue advanced certificates, degrees, and attend workshops and seminars in their field of interest. These same individuals may also desire further training and specialization in the areas within their company where they are most interested of feel the most valuable. This does correlate with Carroll’s three stratum theory that people who possess a higher level of intelligence often demonstrate a wide differentiation in their broad mental abilities. In understanding that such differences exist, it may be more readily understood as to why some people are more effective leaders than others (Kane, Oakland, & Brand, 2006).
Employee retention is an expense that businesses need to evaluate on a constant basis. Good employees are difficult to find and harder to keep. If a company has effective tools in place to evaluate their employees and know which ones are the most valuable, then efforts can be made to try a keep the morale of those employees high, fill positions that involve promotions that match their strengths when possible, and keep them in the company for as long as feasible. A company is only as good as its most valuable resources, the individuals who work for and represent it.
References
Blume, B. D., Baldwin, T. T., & Rubin, R. S. (2009). Reactions to different types of forced
distribution performance evaluation systems. Journal of Business and Psychology 24(1),
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Kane, H. D., Oakland, T. D., & Brand, C. R. (2006). Differentiation at higher levels of cognitive
ability: Evidence from the united states. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 167(3), 327-
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Mark, A. S., & Canger, J. M. (2004). Effects of supervisor "big five" personality on subordinate
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Meta-analysis. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meta-analysis
Performance appraisal. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com online dictionary. Retrieved from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/performance+appraisal?s=t
Riketta, M. (2002). Attitudinal organizational commitment and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(3), 257-266. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224867831?accountid=35812
