As an assessment company with multiple measurement tools it is extremely important that our tools are consistent with each other. For example, our Work Behaviors Inventory (WBI) assess personality traits such as leading, innovation and influence. We also have a 360 development tool that asses core competencies such as leadership, innovation, and communication & influencing. It would make sense that an individual’s innovation assessed by the WBI is related to an individual’s innovation assessed by our 360 degree assessment .
At AAI we are constantly refining and assessing our tools to make sure they held to these standards. We just completed a study of 100 high-potential employees at a large American organization. Each (organization pre-designed) high-potential employee took the WBI and was the target of a 360 degree assessment. As expected the personality facets and the organization’s core competencies (as assess through the 360 degree assessment) were significantly related in the expected directions. For example, an individuals’ innovation assed through the WBI has a moderate positive relationship with their score on the innovation competency. A moderate relationship is considered very meaningful in assessment research because each assessment asks only so many questions and no measure can perfectly assess an abstract concept.
Even more exciting, we found significant positive relationships between theoretically related qualities of high potential performers. For example, the leading change competency is related to personality traits such as leading, energy, innovation, analytical thinking, independence, and achievement. These positive relationships are important because they show the WBI and the 360 degree assessment identify similar employees, in this case all from a pool of high potentials. This evidence supports the future use of the WBI as a selection tool for high potential employees.
