Implicit Trait Policies in Multimedia Situational Judgment Tests for Leadership Skills: Can They Predict Leadership Behavior?

Abstract

To explain why situational judgment tests are often correlated with personality measures, Motowidlo, Hooper, and Jackson (2006a, 2006b) developed the implicit trait policy theory. Implicit trait policies are beliefs about causal relationships between personality traits and behavioral effectiveness. Among 180 employees, this field study examined whether a multimedia situational judgment test that was intended to assess leadership skills can capture individual differences in such policies. Furthermore, it was examined whether these implicit trait policies were able to predict leadership behavior. Results confirmed that the situational judgment test was able to capture individual differences in implicit trait policies for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Furthermore, results showed that implicit trait policies for Extraversion can predict leadership behavior over and above leadership experience and the associated personality trait.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Paul E.A.M. van der Maesen de Sombreff and Barend P.N. Koch for providing the multimedia SJT materials and Nienke van Bentveld for her help with the data collection. We acknowledge Stephan J. Motowidlo for his valuable suggestions on an earlier version of this article.