Section Fourprofessional levels. However, large organizations may have
sufficient numbers of managers at lower levels, such as sales
managers, store managers, and the like to justify their
development. Likewise, many organizations have lower-level
professional jobs with many incumbents, such as staff
accountants, insurance claims adjusters, and registered nurses,
who could be evaluated with BARS.^8
Behavioral Observation Scales
Behavioral observation scales (BOS) are a variation of the BARS
approach in that they add graphic rating scales to the
observable behaviors that are developed from critical incidents
as in BARS. Each of these observable behaviors and their
response scales constitute a rating item, and there are multiple
items for each dimension of performance. Ratings on each item
are summed to produce a quantitative evaluation of
performance in each dimension. Thus, instead of choosing
which observable behavior within a dimension is the most
characteristic of the employee’s performance, the evaluator
rates several observable behaviors.^9