Computerized Adaptive Rating Scales for Measuring Managerial Performance

Computerized adaptive rating scales (CARS) had been developed to measure contextual or citizenship performance. This rating format used a paired-comparison protocol, presenting pairs of behavioral statements scaled according to effectiveness levels, and an iterative item response theory algorithm to obtain estimates of ratees' citizenship performance (Borman, Buck, Hanson, Motowidlo, Stark, and Drasgow, 2001). In the present research, we developed CARS to measure the entire managerial performance domain, including task and citizenship performance, thus addressing a major limitation of the earlier CARS. The paper describes this development effort, including an adjustment to the algorithm that reduces substantially the number of item pairs required to obtain almost as much precision in the performance estimates