is research study involved both the selection of individuals for inclusion in and organiza tion's management development program, and organizational con flict management. More precisely, one strategy designed to reduce the level of organizational conflict associated with the selection of individuals to be included in an organizational management development program was examined.
Although there exists wide disagreement among theoreti cians, analysts, and managers as to the precise definition of leadership in an organizational context, there exists a una nimity of opinion as to the significance of the quality of organizational leadership to both the continuity and the effec tiveness of organizations (Campbell, Dunnette, Lawler, and Weick, 1989). How best to develop new organizational leaders, and how best to select those individuals to be devel oped are the subjects of additional areas of disagreement within organizations.
The disagreement as how best to develop excellent leaders within organizations is as great as that pertaining to the pre cise definition of leadership (Schmitt, Gooding, Noe, and Kirsch, 1984). Once again, however, there exists a unanimity of opinion on one crucial point. This crucial point is that the quality of the leaders developed within any organization is a function of the quality of the individuals selected for the leadership development programs conducted by the organization (Wernimont, and Campbell, 1985).
The selection of individuals within organizations for leadership development programs is accomplished by a variety of methods, most of which depend upon the composite results of several factors recommendations of organizational superiors, educational background, past performance, and so forth. One factor which is found in most selection procedures, however, 3is the performance evaluation, or performance appraisal (Schmitt, Gooding, Noe, and Kirsch, 1984). The manner in which perfo...