1. Development of a Causal Model of Processes Determining Job Performance.
- Author
-
Schmidt, Frank L. and Hunter, John E.
- Subjects
- *
PERFORMANCE standards , *EMPLOYEE testing , *INDUSTRIAL management , *LEARNING ability , *PSYCHOLOGY ,COMPETITION - Abstract
The research described here moves personnel psychology beyond the blind empirical search for correlates and predictors of job performance and toward an understanding of the psychological processes and mechanisms that determine the wide variation in job performance that has long been observed and measured for all jobs studied. Based on studies of workers' output in jobs of many kinds and levels, this variation has recently been formally quantified and shown to be very large. On a typical lower level job, a worker at the 85th percentile in performance produces about 20% more than average worker. On the typical medium-complexity job, this figure is 32%. For professional and managerial jobs, it is about 48%. Thus, improvements in selection, placement, and training that findings from the sort of research described here may make possible could lead to large and economically significant improvements in output and economic competitiveness.
- Published
- 1992
- Full Text
- View/download PDF