Predicting Success in Higher-Level Positions: A Guide to the System for Testing and Evaluation of Potential

In Chapter 3, successive analyses of variance were applied to the job function scores obtained from the Managerial and Professional Job Functions Inventory (MP-JFI) in order to identify the functions performed by incumbents in the different hierarchies and at different levels of organizational functioning, and even more narrowly, in the twelve occupational groups in the classification matrix. This chapter reports the results of the same statistical procedures applied to the measures obtained from the tests in the managerial and professional test battery in order to identify the abilities, skills, and attributes of the incumbents in the different occupational groups. An attempt is also made to interpret the statistical results by developing the representative behavior profiles for the occupational groups. In order to position our results with respect to the mainstream of research in this area, some comparisons are made with results obtained by other investigators.

An early study of managerial talent by Ghiselli ( 1971) included some procedures that were similar to those employed here. Ghiselli selected 13 measures consisting of 3 abilities, 5 personality traits, and 5 motivational needs that were obtained through the administration of a Self-Description Inventory. He postulated two requirements that had to be satisfied for a measure to be regarded as indicative of managerial talent. One requirement was that the measure should show significant differentiations across three levels of organizational functioning, in this case, line workers, line supervisors, and middle managers. This corresponds, in our study, to analysis of variance of the test battery scores across the three levels of organizational functioning described in the classification matrix. Ghiselli's second requirement was that the measure should be related to

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