Interactive Video Assessment of Conflict Resolution Skills

Abstract

In this research we developed and validated an interactive video assessment of conflict resolution skills. A model of conflict management was used to develop the conflict scenarios and part of the scoring key. Computer assessments of conflict resolution skills and two cognitive abilities were administered to 347 supervisors and job performance ratings were collected from their managers. The conflict skills assessment was found to be significantly related to supervisory ratings of on‐the‐job performance in managing conflict but to be unrelated to the measures of cognitive ability. In addition, the conflict skills assessment had no adverse impact for women. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Test of Motowidlo et al.'s (1997) Theory of Individual Differences in Task and Contextual Performance

“…Other scenarios include ensuring a well-organized, clean workshop; managing team relations; dealing with concerns about boring, routine jobs; handling cross-departmental problems; and managing work quality and timeliness. As is common for multimedia SJTs (Dalessio, 1992;Olson-Buchanan et al, 1998), the LSA was scored empirically. To create this key, an option was scored as +1 if it correlated .10 or higher with the supervisory rating of leadership ability, at least 20 respondents selected that option, and at least 20 respondents selected other options for the item.…”

“…A computerized multimedia SJT, the Leadership Skills Assessment (LSA), was developed following a method similar to Olson-Buchanan et al (1998). Leadership situations were scripted following interviews and surveys with employees and leaders using Flanagan's (1954) critical incidents technique.…”

“…The hallmark of SJTs is that they present a variety of situations that require the test taker to indicate the appropriate response within the specified context. SJTs have been constructed to assess different procedural knowledge sets, such as conflict resolution (Olson-Buchanan et al, 1998), customer service (McHenry & Schmitt, 1994;Weekley & Jones, 1997), and passenger relations (Jones, 1987). SJTs present respondents with scenarios that draw upon a domain of knowledge; respondents indicate the best resolution to the scenario (McDaniel et al, 2001;Weekley & Jones, 1997).…”

Event criticality, urgency, and duration: Understanding how events disrupt teams and influence team leader intervention

“…To identify what event characteristics influence the degree to which an event disrupts team functioning, we drew from the literature on team routines and other event-based research (Dohrenwend, Raphael, Schwartz, Stueve, & Skodol, 1993;Gersick & Hackman, 1990;Lee & Mitchell, 1994;Olson-Buchanan et al, 1998;Thomas, 1992;Trevino, 1992;Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). This research concerns the central role events play in a host of different outcomes.…”

Situational judgment tests: a review of recent research

“…This modality implies that all applicants are not asked to respond to the same items. These SJTs are called "branched", "nested", or "interactive" SJTs (Olson-Buchanan et al, 1998). The technological possibility of developing interactive SJTs is inherent in multimedia SJTs which present different video fragments to an applicant, based on the applicant's response to earlier video fragments.…”