Situational judgment testing: a review and some new developments

Abstract

Although situational judgment tests (SJTs) have a long history in the personnel selection literature, there have been some recent developments in how they are designed, administered, and scored. An SJT is a measurement method typically composed of challenging work-related situations and a list of plausible courses of action. Test takers are asked to evaluate each course of action for either the likelihood that they would perform the action or the effectiveness of the action. In this book chapter, we first briefly review current practice regarding the development of SJTs in personnel selection. We also review evidence concerning reliability, construct-related validity, criterion-related validity, subgroup differences, fakability, and acceptability by test takers. Then, we focus on several promising new developments regarding the way SJTs are designed and scored. The chapter concludes with a list of areas that need to be addressed in future research. INTRODUCTION Situational judgment tests (SJTs) have been used for employee selection for about 80 years (e.g., McDaniel, Morgeson, Finnegan, Campion, & Braverman, 2001; Moss, 1926). A typical SJT presents test takers with job-related dilemmas that require relevant knowledge, skills, abilities or other characteristics to solve. The dilemmas are followed by alternative courses of action from which the test taker chooses the most appropriate response. SJTs were originally designed to sample behaviors (Motowidlo, Dunnette, & Carter 1990). Samples or simulations are based on the assumption that one can predict how well an individual will perform on the job based on a simulation of the job (McDaniel & Nguyen, 2001). As a measurement method, SJTs can be used to assess a variety of constructs (Arthur & Villado, 2008). Christian, Edwards, and Bradley (2010) showed in a review of SJT research that a