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Survey of Assessment Centre Practices Around the World

Despite the importance of assessment centers (ACs) for personnel selection and personnel development purposes, no recent study exist that describes the AC use in different countries.  The purpose of the present study was therefore to describe the design, execution, and evaluation of AC in organizations in Western Europe and the North America and to compare it with past AC use and with the Guidelines for professional AC use.  We report findings regarding AC design, job analysis and dimensions, exercises and additional psychometric testing procedures, types of information provided to participants, and AC evaluation.  

PDF of Krause/Thornton Presentation

 

Dr. Diana E. Krause, born in 1972, is an Assistant Professor for Organizational Behavior at The University of Western Ontario (Canada).  After having studied Psychology and Economics and Management in Germany, she received her Ph.D. in Economics and Management at the Technical University of Berlin in 2003.  Thereafter she worked on assessment centers at the Colorado State University (U.S.), Department of Psychology and finished her second Ph.D. (Habilitation) in Psychology in 2005 at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich.  Her research focuses on power, influence, and trust in organizations; innovation management; and assessment centers.  She has published two books and more than 40 papers on these topics.

Dr. Thornton is Professor of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. 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 Psychology.

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 (with Deborah Rupp), Developing Organizational Simulations: A Guide for Practitioners and Students (with 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, Indonesia, Brazil, Korea, and China.