Section FourAssessment Centers
Assessment centers are another selection procedure that offers
relatively high predictive validity for managerial and supervisory
jobs. Assessment centers are intensive selection procedures
that may last one to two days, in which multiple assessors
observe the abilities of applicants in a wide range of settings.
These procedures can be used for selection and are particularly
useful for promotions to supervisory-level positions where there
is no prior experience to assess; they are also well suited for
development. Assessment centers combine several traditional
selection procedures, such as interviews and tests, with
procedures that simulate managerial work in a job setting. For
example, in-basket exercises are an almost universal feature of
assessment centers. In-basket exercises ask applicants to
prioritize and describe the actions they would take to deal with
the items that would be typically encountered in a manager’s
in-basket. Such items might include memos, phone messages,
requests from employees, and short internal reports.^41
Other examples of simulation components in assessment
centers include business games and the leaderless group, in
which applicants may be asked to make a presentation to a
group of other applicants in an attempt to support a
hypothetical employee for a promotion. Because none of the
applicants have any authority, only their personal abilities to