Criteria For The Evaluation Of Product Managers -- An Application Of Multiple Group Solution.

The article presents a study to illustrate application of Multiple Group Solution for verifying hypothesized factors and determine underlying criteria for evaluating product manager performance. Questionnaires have been mailed to 130 organizations listed in the magazine "Fortune 500," where product managers were known to be practiced. These questionnaires have been sent to senior marketing executives, responsible for evaluating product managers. Respondents have been asked to state their degree of agreement regarding the importance of nineteen performance appraisal variables. A matrix of correlations among variables have been computed and communalities have been estimated. The reduced correlation matrix has been used for Multiple Group Solution, while the full correlation matrix was used for Multiple Group Solution, while the full correlation matrix has been subject to Principal Component Analysis. The Multiple Group method has been employed to verify a hypothesis relating to identification and nature of factors. The hypthesised factors have been sales performance, customer penetration, over-all planning capabilities, a management potential expertise and product planning.