Page 84 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

the role of personality scales in the development and progress 63
TABLE 3.1 Internal consistency reliability for the Occupational
Personality Questionnaire (N = 146) (Saville, Cramp, & Henley, 1995)
Scale Alpha Scale Alpha

Relationships with people Thinking style (contd.)
Persuasive .76 Conceptual .77
Controlling .86 Innovative .84
Independent .74 Forward planning .75
Outgoing .81 Detail conscious .81
Affiliative .86 Conscientious .76
Socially confident .80
Modest .68 Feelings and emotions
Democratic .78 Relaxed .80
Caring .75 Worrying .73
Tough minded .80
Thinking style Emotional control .85
Practical .79 Optimistic .86
Data rational .84 Critical .79
Artistic .88 Active .83
Behavioural .83 Competitive .72
Traditional .80 Achieving .68
Change orientated .76 Decisive .76

developed during the early 1980s and was supported by organizations in the private and
public sectors. The development of the OPQ progressed via literature surveys, critical
incident techniques and repertory grid analysis. The theoretical basis is similar to that of
other trait-based measures of personality. It proposes that cross-situational, stable dif-
ferences in temperament and disposition, which play a role in determining behavior, can
be identified and measured with the help of self-report questionnaires (cf. Robertson &
Kinder, 1993).
The OPQ attempts to measure psychological traits of particular relevance to the normal
working population. As such, it may be particularly appropriate for attempting to pre-
dict job-relevant behavior. The questionnaire is widely used and has been translated into
some 15 different languages for use around the world (Saville, Sik, Nyfield, Hackston, &
MacIver, 1996). Several versions of the questionnaire have been developed. Normative
data, factor analyses, reliability coefficients, validity coefficients, and construct valida-
tion evidence are available (Saville & Holdsworth, 1990).
As depicted in Table 3.1, this personality questionnaire consists of 30 different scales.
They can be analyzed at the scale level or aggregates of scales. Each scale is related to
one of the three general areas “relationships with people”, “thinking styles”, or “feelings
and emotions”. Internal consistency reliability coefficients (i.e., Cronbach’s alpha) are
calculated to ensure the stability of rank-ordering individuals on the measures. The
reliability of the measurement for the scales is good, as Table 3.1 (Saville, Cramp, &
Henley, 1995) shows.
The research of Robertson and Kinder (1993) has revealed criterion-related validity
for single OPQ personality scales (not corrected for unreliability or range restriction)
of up to .32 with the highest values for criteria such as creativity, analysis, and judg-
ment. Their results showed that personality variables added unique criterion-related
information beyond that provided by measures of ability alone. The construct validity