Abstract
In order to navigate the political and cultural realities of modern organizations, individuals must possess an accurate self-perception (Ostroff, Atwater, & Feinberg, 2004). One way to gauge the accuracy of a person's self-perception is to compare that individual's self-assessment against other people's assessments of him or her. This technique is known as self-other rating agreement (SORA). Heneman (1980) posited that development centers are an ideal setting in which to study self-assessment and SORA. The present study examined self-assessment and SORA in development centers. Particular attention was paid to exercises, competencies, and gender differences in self-ratings and SORA. Correlations and t-tests were conducted to investigate gender effects, self-rating tendencies, and SORA of participants' self-assessments of performance. Results revealed that men self-rated higher than observers on 4 of 6 exercises and 4 of 7 competencies, women self-rated accurately on 4 of 6 exercises and 6 of 7 competencies, and men self-rated higher than women on all competencies and all but one exercises. This study's sample size was undesirably small, which unfortunately precluded the investigation of two proposed hypotheses. While these findings do little to advance the theory behind SORA, they still contribute to existing literature about gender, self-assessment, and development center exercises and competencies. Provided a much larger sample size could be obtained, future research should further investigate gender effects, self-rating tendencies, and SORA of participants' self-assessments of development center performance, in the hopes of helping participants improve their self-perception.
Advisor
Andrea Lassiter
Committee Member
Daniel Sachau
Committee Member
Chris Brown Mahoney
Date of Degree
2017
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Powley, R. (2017). Participant Self-Assessment of Development Center Performance [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/704/
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