Abstract
M.Com. (Industrial Psychology)
The quality of its managers is of great importance to any
organisation and therefore it is essential that only suitable
persons are appointed in managerial positions. Various techniques
have been developed for the identification of managers
of which some are very expensive. If managers are characterized
by certain biographical traits, this information, which can be
obtained cheaply, can be used to identify persons with managerial
potential at an early stage. The hypotheses that have been
formulated are that persons with managerial potential and persons
without managerial potential differ significantly with regard
to a number of biographical variables, and that managerial
potential can be significantly predicted by means of certain
biographical variables.
In order to test these hypotheses information was obtained by
means of two instruments. Managerial potential scores were
obtained by means of an assessment centre whereafter it was
transformed and summed. The upper and lower 27% were used
as cut-off points in order to identify the managerial potential
group and the non-managerial potential group, respectively.
Biographical information was obtained by administering a biographical
inventory consisting of 40 questions to persons
attending the assessment center...