In-Basket Assessment by Fully Objective Methods: Development and Evaluation of a Self-Report System

The feasibility and efficacy of employing self-report response methods with an In-Basket exercise were examined via two studies. In Study 1, with 258 managers, dimension scores obtained by both self-report and traditional scoring (of the same exercise) were cross-correlated, with most correlations between corresponding scores reaching unity after disattenuation. Internal consistency coefficients were higher for the self-report form than for the traditionally scored form, a finding also true with the test-retest stability coefficients calculated on 55 university students in Study 2. Criterion-related validities obtained in Study 1 were approximately equal between the two forms. The results suggest that the high face validity of the In-Basket exercise can be combined with the scoring ease and objectivity of other self-report measures.