| Abstract: | The purpose of this study was twofold. One was to identify the basic criteria used by District Extension Directors-Agriculture (DEDs-Ag) in Texas in the selection of entry level County Extension Agents-Agriculture (CEAs-Ag). The second was to examine the relationships between the selected qualifications of CEAs-Ag at hiring and their professional success as determined by the performance evaluation instrument used by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service (TAEX). The population to determine the basic selection criteria was 11 DEDs-Ag in the TAEX who had conducted performance evaluations with the CEAs-Ag that they supervised during the 1984 and 1985 calendar years. The sample to determine the actual qualifications that the CEAs-Ag possessed at the time they were employed by the TAEX was 134 CEAs-Ag who had from 5 to 15 years experience with the TAEX. The performance evaluation scores of these CEAs-Ag for 1984 and 1985 were used as the dependent variable. The DEDs-Ag identified 17 objective criteria that they rated as average or higher in importance in selecting entry level employees into the TAEX. Nine objective criteria were rated below average in importance. They identified 10 subjective criteria as being average or higher in importance while only one subjective criterion was rated below average in importance. The subjective criteria as a group were rated as more important to the DEDs-Ag in making selection decisions than the objective criteria as a group. The data revealed that there were no significant relationships between any of the identified criteria and the ultimate performance of the CEA-Ag as determined by the TAEX performance evaluation instrument. There was a significant relationship between tenure and performance evaluation scores of the CEAs-Ag. Since the data indicated that there were no significant correlations between any of the selection criteria and the success of the CEAs-Ag, multiple regressions were not computed on the data. |
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