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EFFECTS OF CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS ON MANAGEMENT PROMOTION DECISIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Author(s) -
LONDON MANUEL,
STUMPF STEPHEN A.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
personnel psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.076
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1744-6570
pISSN - 0031-5826
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1983.tb01435.x
Subject(s) - promotion (chess) , psychology , position (finance) , perception , value (mathematics) , applied psychology , social psychology , rating scale , statistics , business , developmental psychology , mathematics , finance , neuroscience , politics , political science , law
This study examined the effects of candidate characteristics on simulated management promotion decisions. Seventy‐two managers from three organizational levels participated as decision makers in a half‐day exercise. Four candidate characteristics were manipulated: potential for advancement, the availability of assessment center information, current position, and sex. Other characteristics such as tenure and past performance were controlled by randomly distributing levels of the attributes across candidates or holding the attributes constant. The results showed that potential, assessment center information, and position were important in selecting finalists and rating the extent to which a candidate was considered. Two interactions, potential by position and sex by position, indicated that configural relationships played a significant role in the promotion decisions. Participants' perceptions of the importance of the information paralleled the statistical importance of the information. The external validity of the study was supported by comparing the results to data on actual promotion decisions. The results are discussed in terms of the value of different information and how it is processed in evaluating and selecting candidates for promotion.