The Influence of Time on the Prediction of Performance

There is a mounting literature substantiating the importance of both cognitive ability and conscientiousness as valid predictors of job performance across job domains (e.g., Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hogan & Ones, 1997; Hunter & Hunter, 1984; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998); however, relatively little is known about the predictive validity of these factors over time where time reflects tenure on a job or trials on a task. The minimal research suggests that validities of cognitive ability decrease over time (e.g., Henry & Hulin, 1987; Hulin, Henry, & Noon, 1990; Keil, & Cortina, 2001). Practically nothing is known about personality and performance relations over time. This project was designed to study longitudinally the relationships of cognitive ability and conscientiousness with performance to investigate the possible dynamic nature of these relationships. I posited that, unlike cognitive ability, the relationship between performance and conscientiousness will increase over time for consistent tasks, such that the correlation will become increasingly larger in magnitude and positive in direction over trials. The reasoning is that when a task is new, learning must occur, which will be a function of cognitive ability; but the importance of personality will surface once the task has been learned. A pilot study provided initial support for these predictions, and the main study investigated them further. Results revealed that conscientiousness did not become positively correlated with performance over trials; however, the findings suggest that this relationship may emerge over many more trials. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Burrus, Krista Dervan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Drasgow, Fritz

• Psychology, Industrial

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3242804

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/82113