Improving Participants' Evaluations while Maintaining Validity by a Work Sample‐ Intelligence Test Hybrid

Abstract

A type of selection measure is presented which combines the psychometric characteristics of an intelligence test with the surface and content validity characteristics of a work sample for clerical occupations. Consequently, this measure – AZUBI‐BK – is more positively evaluated by participants than a conventional measure of general mental ability (N=1375). Preferences for the work sample‐intelligence test hybrid applied for potential applicants from different school types, for job‐experienced as well as for inexperienced subjects and for members of the ethnic majority as well as for ethnic minorities. AZUBI‐BK showed high correlations with total scores (uncorrected r=.77 and .73) and corresponding factors of two intelligence tests, respectively. Criterion‐related validity was equal to the reference measure in predicting theoretical examinations (uncorrected r=.61) and higher in predicting supervisory ratings (uncorrected r=.43). In the latter case, the new instrument shows incremental validity over an intelligence test but not vice versa; in a regression equation, AZUBI‐BK can fully account for the variance in supervisory assessment. Adverse impact of AZUBI‐BK for ethnic minorities is small which, however, was also true for a conventional intelligence test.