THE RELATION BETWEEN EFFECTIVENESS RATINGS AND SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RATING DYADS,
Abstract
Because officer effectiveness reports (OERs) are the principal basis for many personnel actions, especially selections for promotion and assignment, continuing effort is being expended to improve the accuracy of the ratings. Since empirical studies have found that the degree of similarity in characteristics between individuals influences their attraction to and interaction with one another, this study was initiated to determine if the relationships between the superior and subordinate in selected background and non-performance characteristics might influence the ratings of performance: i.e., is the rating score a function of the degree of similarity in characteristics between the rater and ratee. Using data from both the OER and UOR files, variables were generated to describe the relationships between the rater/ratee pairs or dyads (N = 31,518) in fourteen characteristics: are, race, religious preference, marital status, current military grade, professional career status, source of commission, aeronautical rating, professional military schooling, educational level, major academic field, primary and duty career specialties, and mean score of all previous ratings. Difference-between-means and variances analysis was employed to investigate the various relationships. Although higher ratings were reflected when the raters and ratees were of the same rather than different race or marital status, lower ratings were found when the rating dyads were similar vis-a-vis dissimilar in many other characteristics. Generally, however, relatively little bias in effectiveness ratings of Air Force captains could be attributed to the intradyadic relationships in the background and non-performance characteristics investigated. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0683726
Entities
People
- James L. Quinn