The purpose of this study was to determine if different groups of job incumbents would provide different job analysis outcomes. Patrolpersons from 12 university police departments served as subjects. Subject-matter-expert groups were formed on the basis of a multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure, seniority level, and educational level. The job analysis technique used was the critical incident technique. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that MDS groups differed on ratings and rank orderings of job dimension importance. These MDS group differences were probed via discriminant analysis, which revealed that the MDS groups differed on one discriminant function for the job dimension importance ratings and on two discriminant functions for the job dimension importance rank orderings. The MDS group's discriminant function differences were also related to supervisor rank orderings. Job analysis outcomes were not affected by subject-matter-expert groups of seniority and educational level. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the job analysis practitioner.
Subjects were placed into groups on the basis of either trait homogeneity or heterogeneity with the other group members and were given a group task to complete. The results indicated group answers of superior quality when the group was composed of heterogeneous individuals rather than homogeneous individuals.
Two methodological problems in sports personality research have been the non-segmentation of athletic types and the lack of variety in the personality measures that have been used. The current study investigated the personality profiles of 51 non-athletes, and baseball, football, and track team members ( ns = 29, 36, and 23) using the Personal Profile System. Analysis indicated baseball players did not differ from the non-athletes and football players and track team members were more dominant and less patient than the non-athletes. The only significant difference between groups of athletes was in greater dominance of track team members over baseball players.
An important issue in personnel psychology concerns the methods that are used to combine multiple criteria and/or multiple predictors into a single composite. Fralicx and Raju (1982) looked at five methods of combining multiple criteria and concluded that with the exception of canonical weights, the results obtained from four of the methods were almost identical. The present study differed from Fralicx and Raju (1982) in that it used predictors rather than criteria, was composed of a different type of sample, used different types of weighting methods, a smaller number of dimensions, and included a cross-validation procedure. In spite of these differences the conclusion drawn in both studies is similar. That is, most weighting methods are highly related. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that no weighting method was superior to another in terms of protection from validity shrinkage.
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