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Accepting and Applying Developmental Assessment Center Feedback: A View From the Middle East

Recent research presented at both the International Congress on Assessment Center Methods and SIOP has examined those factors that influence whether assessment center (AC) participants will accept and act upon their AC feedback. In fact, over the last couple years, we have made great strides in better understanding these challenges. Moreover, as evidenced by participants’ favorable reactions to last year’s general session, “Where Do We Go From Here? Accepting and Applying Assessment Center Feedback”, AC professionals seem particularly interested in the findings and prescriptions from this stream of applied research.

The research that we would like to present at this year’s Congress continues to build upon recent efforts to examine determinants of both acceptance and behavior. Specifically, this study incorporates lessons learned from recent qualitative efforts by examining additional contextual factors that may influence acceptance. We are also attempting to replicate and extend recent efforts to examine those factors that affect positive change in people’s performance and positively impact business goals. Lastly, this study offers a truly unique and exciting contribution to the literature by responding to calls from last year’s Congress participants for cross-cultural examinations of this framework. To the best of our knowledge, our study represents the first attempt to do so.

Overall, this should be an extremely interesting session that appeals to our culturally diverse AC Congress audience. Using data from multiple developmental ACs in the Middle East (representing engineering and telecommunications organizations in Kuwait), this session will hopefully shed some light on whether our research findings in the United States can be generalized to AC applications across the globe. The session should also provide Congress participants with additional prescriptions for getting the most out of their ACs, while simultaneously highlighting potential barriers to success. Finally, we will revisit the question, “Where do we go from here?"

Dr. Kudisch is Teaching Professor in the Management and Organization Department at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. He also is a co-founder and Principal Partner of Personnel Assessment Systems, Inc., a human resource consulting firm specializing in management and executive assessment.

Dr. Kudisch received his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his M.S. in I/O Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Prior to joining the Smith School faculty in the Fall of 2002, he was an Assistant Professor and Director of the University of Southern Mississippi's I/O Psychology Doctoral Program and Center for Applied Organizational Studies.

Dr. Kudisch has provided consulting services in the areas of leadership assessment, succession planning, assessment centers, testing and selection, training and development, organizational change, employee attitudes, customer satisfaction, and performance management (e.g., performance appraisal, multi-source feedback) to both public- and private-sector organizations since 1988. Before venturing into academia, Dr. Kudisch spent several years working in various human resource-related functions at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Dr. Kudisch has written articles in the areas of assessment centers, personnel selection, managerial credibility, charismatic leadership, and multi-source feedback, and he has presented his research at national and international conferences. He is a member of the Academy of Management, Society for I/O Psychology, and the American Psychological Association.