Development and validation of situational judgment tests for evaluating Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Contextual Performance Behavior in a professional context : methodological issues.

Strategic Human Resource Management typically raises appraisal issues (Analoui, 2007;
Jackson, Schuler & Werner, 2009 ; Teo & Crawford, 2005) mostly related to the HRM
relationship with organizational performance (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004 ; Cascio, 1996 ;
Wright, Gardner, Moynihan & Allen, 2005). Hence workforce assessment remains a key
success factor for many organizations. Thus this paper takes place in the early beginning of a
PhD Thesis which aims to the development and validation of an assessment test of
Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and Contextual Performance (CP) in a
professional selection context.
The managerial concept of OCB refers to “individual behavior that is discretionary, not
directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes
the efficient and effective functioning of the organization” (Organ, Podsakoff & MacKenzie,
2006, p. 3). CP is a closely related construct, distinct of task performance, that encompasses
behaviors supporting the psychological and social context in which task activities are
performed (Stone-Romero, Alvarez, & Thompson, 2009). If these two frameworks look much
alike, they contrast on several points: conceptual dimensions, discretional characteristics of
behavior, etc. Therefore, it seems interesting to apprehend both commonly. Situational
Judgment Tests (SJTs) show a good validity concerning prediction of job performance in
employment settings (Lievens, Peeters, Schollaert, 2008 ; Whetzel & McDaniel, 2009).
Furthermore, they are a multidimentional measurement method suited to assess different
construct like job knowlege and skills, applied social skills, and some basic personality
tendencies (Christian, Edwards, & Bradley, 2010). Taking into account its characteristics,
SJTs seem to be an appropriate method to enable OCB & CP evaluation.
This communication pursues three goals. The first is a theoretical issue: we need a
straightforward vision of OCB & CP concepts. Accordingly, after a consistent review on the
vast amount of work that have been written on these two concepts, we have to specify what
we seek to appraise and make the inventory of existing measurement tools related to these
focus. We have already worked out a structured methodology to develop and validate SJTs in
selection and career management context (Lothe, Hansez & Bertrand, Submitted). So the
second issue is a methodological one. How to improve and/or to adapt this methodology in
order to create a new SJT measuring OCB & CP ? Thirdly, some research related issues
conclude this paper. Through this PhD project, we should be able to examine several main
issues that will shape the thesis. Are SJTs being able to provide a valid assessment of OCB &
CP in a personnel selection context ? Does the discretionary nature of one behavior impact the
quality of its measurement ? What is the effect of response instructions on OCB/CP
situational judgment test performance ? Each issue will be illustrated and discussed in
connection with the development and validation opportunities and constraints.