Do You Need Dimensions? Dimensions Limited or Unlimited
When traditional assessment centers are used in situations that involve professional employees, they are usually positioned at the beginning of what is intended to be a developmental effort. Typically they provide input for management selection decisions and/or identify management development needs. Issues having to do with validity (a maximum of 0.40) and the construct validity of the measurement variables (exercise effect) combine to challenge many important but generally ignored aspects of these programs.
In this session, some significant problems associated with traditional assessment centers will be reviewed and contrasted with a very non-traditional application of assessment center methodology. In the programs described, development precedes the "assessment events" which are designed as high-fidelity (job sample) simulations and used as achievement (not aptitude) measures. The evaluation processes are designed to take advantage of exercise effect, and since they do not measure dimensions, cannot be classified as "true" assessment centers. The design and application of these programs will be described and discussed. Research recently conducted on the unique evaluation process will be presented.
Speaker
Joseph D. Thoresen
President
Cornerstone Human Resource Systems
Joe Thoresen has been a consultant specializing in applications of assessment center methodology since he joined DDI in early 1974. He left DDI to start what later became Cornerstone Human Resource Systems in 1983. Cornerstone, which is located in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, USA, specializes in the design and delivery of management development systems for pharmaceutical companies. Many aspects of these systems differ significantly from traditional assessment center based programs. The program that Joe developed with Glaxo Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) was given special recognition by the Sales Executive Council of the Corporate Executive Board in their July 1999 Executive Inquiry.
Speaker
George C. Thornton, Ph.D.
Professor
Colorado State University
Dr. Thornton is Professor of Psychology, Colorado State University. Dr. Thornton earned his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1966. He is a Diplomate in Industrial/ Organization Psychology awarded by the American Board of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, and a Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational.
Dr. Thornton specializes in assessment centers, selection practices, test development and validation, and implications of employment discrimination law for personnel psychology. He has developed, validated, and implemented assessment centers and other situational exercises for selection and development for numerous jobs.
Dr. Thornton is the author of over 55 publications in refereed journals, 6 book chapters, and 3 books, namely Assessment Centers and Managerial Performance (with William Byham) and Assessment Centers in Human Resource Management. He is currently writing a book on methods of constructing simulation assessment exercises with Dr. Rose Mueller-Hanson. Dr. Thornton has made presentations on the assessment center method to professional conferences such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Congress on Assessment Center Methods, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and to professional audiences throughout the United States, and in Germany, Switzerland, England, Israel, South Africa, and Indonesia.
