Municipal employees (n=269) ranked 15 motivational factors. Supervisors were significantly dissatisfied with about half; nonsupervisory workers were satisfied with only one. The latter expressed less interest in learning new things, benefitting society, and having autonomy and more interest in advancement, security, exercising leadership, and…

Suggests a process for setting a cutoff score on knowledge tests for promotion, certification, and licensing: a modified Angoff method, in which a competency estimate is determined by subject matter experts, is combined with analysis of potential impact on any groups protected by the Civil Rights Act. (SK)

Results of a study correlating work behaviors, performance appraisals and results of civil service promotion examinations suggest that exam scores are not sufficient and should not be the sole determinant of promotions. Work behaviors and job performance are time consuming to assess but should also be considered as civil service promotion…

Traditional promotion examinations provide limited knowledge of candidates' decision-making, administrative, and leadership skills. Having assessment center evaluators review documentation of work history related to dimensions of the job adds additional information that can improve the effectiveness of prediction of future performance. (SK)

The authors provide guidelines for the development and implementation of role-play simulations used for employee selection and promotion. Exercises are presented to illustrate the development of practical content-valid procedures. Suggestions on developing relevant ideas, working with role players, facilitating raters, and minimizing candidate…

The New York State Division of Budget uses a decentralized system to assess promotion candidates by comparing their training, experience, and recent performance to the proposed position. Managers and candidates find the system more effective than traditional written/oral exams. (SK)

A comparison of earnings, education, mobility, interactions with subordinates and supervisors, job satisfaction, promotion, and turnover of men and women in middle-management federal civil service found that women have more problems with supervisors, are overall as satisfied with their treatment as men are, but are more likely to say they lost a…

A survey of 192 managers and professionals in the Quebec public sector indicated that the absence or inadequacy of practices linked to career planning, development, and support, as well as lack of opportunity to play new roles and participate in work groups, accentuates the perception of career plateauing. (JOW)

Describes a system, based on job analysis, to assess costs of reasonable accommodation to guarantee compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Illustrates how job analysis is used to list and rate job functions and requisite abilities and to estimate costs of accommodation. (SK)

Provides a variety of approaches to administering individual salaries on the basis of evaluated performance. Describes methods of precalculating and controlling salary expenditures while simultaneously administering salaries on a "relative" rather than "absolute" performance rating system. (Author)

Assessment of the role of training and development in the careers of 14 female administrators in federal agencies determined that training had limited impact on mobility. Women's mobility was restricted by low-ceiling jobs and organizational cultural values emphasizing hands-on instead of classroom-developed competencies in promotion decisions.…

When knowledge, skills, and abilities of four job classes (secretarial/clerical, managerial/administrative, professional/technical, service) were identified, 68% of those determined important for managerial/administrative were also important for secretarial/clerical. Job analysis proved useful in identifying possible career paths, and potential…