A comparison of economic utility estimates for alternative SDy estimation procedures.

Compared the per-selectee and total utility estimates for an assessment center that was used to select midlevel sales managers when 2 consensus-seeking procedures, the F. L. Schmidt et al (see record 1981-02231-001) procedure and 40% and 70% of mean salary, were used for estimating the standard deviation of job performance in dollars (SDy). Using the Schmidt et al procedure as the base, the overall utility estimates varied from 21 to 125% of the Schmidt et al values. For most cases, the different SDy estimation procedures produced somewhat similar utility estimates. The resulting estimated dollar gains from the use of the assessment center to select sales managers were substantial in all cases. The dollar gains from the current selection strategy were, at a maximum, only 63% of estimated top-down selection utility gains. Findings illustrate the value of economic utility analysis for evaluating human resource programs regardless of the type of SDy estimation procedure used. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)