Person/Situation Selection Research: The Problem of Identifying Salient Situational Dimensions.

摘要

A persistent problem in conducting person/situation selection research has been the identification of relevant dimensions or features of the situation. The usual strategy of asking organizational employees to respond to a set of predetermined questions as the preferred methodology for discovering relevant perceptual dimensions of organizational life is questioned and an alternative, the open-ended interview, is proposed. Sixty-seven employees were interviewed (and taped) and responded to a questionnaire. Fifteen interview content categories were identified and all interviews were coded for (a) mention of the issue (frequency), (b) importance of the issue, and (c) affect with which the issue was raised. Interviews were reliably (interrater) coded; only coding for affect converged with questionnaire responses. Only 4 of the 15 issues were mentioned by 60 percent or more of the interviewees.