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Article: Personality tests for salesforce selection: worth a fresh look.
- Article from:
- Review of Business
- Article date:
- June 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 St. John's University, College of Business Administration. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What personality traits predict success in sales? This question has been a focus of discussion since the systematic study of sales effectiveness first began early in the century (Oschrin, 1918). Sales managers seem to have always nurtured the hope of finding quick, inexpensive and accurate personality tests to use in salesforce selection. Unfortunately, the research literature has not supported that optimism. In an article that had a strong impact on selection research and practice for the past quarter-century, Guion and Gottier (1965) reviewed the empirical evidence across employment contexts. Based on generally weak criterion-related validity, they concluded that ...