Search results

This study was an exploratory investigation of the development of a multirater instrument to measure employee problem-solving skill. The instrument consisted of two parallel forms: an employee self-assessment and a supervisory assessment. For the self-assessment, twenty employees rated the degree to which they engage in activities commonly associated with seven stages of effective problem solving: (1) problem identification, (2) goal selection, (3) generation of alternative solutions, (4) consideration of consequences associated with alternative solutions, (5) approach to decision making, (6) implementation of solutions, and (7) evaluation of solutions. For the supervisory assessment, each employee's supervisor rated the employee on the same activities. Analysis of the data found that supervisors rated their employees significantly lower than the employees rated themselves on three of the seven problem-solving stages (problem identification, goal selection, and consideration of consequences). In addition, an examination of the paired scores for each employee and his or her supervisor found significant differences for eleven of the twenty employee-supervisor pairs on one or more of the seven problem-solving stages. Analysis of the data also found that the ratings of supervisors were more stable than the self-ratings of employees. Possible explanations for these findings and their implications for human resource development (HRD) theory, practice, and research are discussed.