Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management

George C. Thornton Iii, Nigel Povah

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317177876
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Globalization, innovation, market share, identifying visionary leaders and, particularly, talent management ...are just some of the issues that benefit from using assessment and development centres. Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management focuses on topics that influence the design of the assessment centre in terms of the competencies being assessed, the exercises that are used and the nature of the event, so that they can deliver what is required; often to change organizational culture and values. Practical examples and case studies are sprinkled throughout the book as international contributors explore cross-cultural implications, and consider how the design, development and use of assessment centres should be adapted to different cultures. Some of the world's leading researchers and practitioners outline their research into new applications for assessment centre methods, showing how they have used it to design and implement specific assessment and development centres. This is a book from which practitioners can see how science informs good practice, and scholars will find the 32 chapters a rich source of ideas for conducting research into emerging issues in the field.

PART I AC Best Practice

CHAPTER 1
Three Themes that Explain Our Passion for Assessment Centres as Tools for Talent Management

NIGEL PQVAH AND GEORGE C. THORNTON III

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to a unique book aimed at those with a keen interest in assessment centres (ACs). It is unique for a number of distinct reasons.

Firstly, unlike most books on ACs which aim to cover every conceivable aspect of AC design and practice in equal measure, we have chosen to focus on three major themes which are becoming increasingly important in how ACs are deployed in the modern world, namely corporate strategy and talent management, cross-cultural implications of international human resources (HR) practices, and the interplay of science and practice. In this respect we have assumed that the reader already has a good grasp of the basic principles of AC practice and is interested in some of the critical factors that impact on how ACs are implemented within a global organizational context. Readers who are less familiar with the basics of theory, research, and practice related to the AC method may wish to refer to books by Ballantyne and Povah (2004), Thornton and Rupp (2006) and Schlebusch and Roodt (2008).

Secondly, it moves beyond the traditional treatment of published material on ACs, which is either the production of highly technical material for the academic researcher or a sterile, highly practical ‘how to’ guide for the practitioner. This book aims to plug a gap in the literature by creating a unique blend between these two different approaches. This is exemplified in the theme of the book showing the reciprocal interplay between scientific research and practical implementation. Another source that explores theory, research, and practice in alternative approaches of the AC method is Jackson, Lance, and Hoffman (in press).

Thirdly, and perhaps most important of all, this book is able to boast a significant number of the world’s leading authorities on ACs amongst its contributors, either in their capacity as highly-regarded academics and/or highly experienced practitioners. In addition to this extensive level of knowledge and experience (collectively around 1,000 years) they bring a truly global appreciation of AC practice, as our 48 contributors come from 18 different countries spanning all continents.

Finally, we selected contributors on the basis of their reputations and expertise or experience with regard to a number of key AC-related issues. These included things such as:

• different approaches to centre design and implementation;

• exercise simulation design;

• diversity challenges;

• candidate motivation;

• the use of ACs to support different Talent Management strategies;

• establishing AC practice in different countries with varying levels of maturity in the world of assessment.

However, all of our contributors had one thing in common: their undeniable passion and enthusiasm for their work in the AC field, which we hope will be passed on to you!

The Three Themes and Why We Chose Them

We have chosen to focus on three major themes for this book and we now explain what they are and our rationale for choosing them.

THE INTERPLAY OF SCIENCE AND PRACTICE

This theme tackles the productive interplay of science and practice and how it helps to create top quality assessment centres and it is therefore featured throughout the whole book. Authors were asked to describe their own research and its implications or how they have used the research of others to design and implement specific assessment and development centres. In addition, researchers and practitioners alike propose research that is needed to provide guidance for new applications of the assessment centre method, especially how assessment and development centres contribute to corporate strategy and talent management. This theme perpetuates the long history of basic and applied research into the assessment centre method. Specific questions that contributors were asked to address included:

• What theories of psychology, management, leadership, organizational development, learning, and so forth, guided your development and implementation of the AC?

• What prior research studies or theories gave you guidance in designing the essential features of the AC?

– Dimensions;

– exercises;

– observation and evaluation procedures;

– method of integrating the observations;

– feedback to assessees;

– integration of the behavioural observations with other assessment information.

• What challenges did you face that have not been addressed in prior research? What future research would you like to see conducted to provide guidance for issues you faced?

The theme also exemplifies a more recent and broader emphasis on evidence-based management (Pfeffer and Sutton 2006). Practitioners will see how science informs good practice; scholars will find the chapters a rich source of ideas for conducting research into emerging issues in the field.

CORPORATE STRATEGY AND TALENT MANAGEMENT

This theme describes the use of assessment and development centres which are linked to corporate strategy and in particular talent management. These corporate strategies will often relate to issues or topics such as:

• globalization;

• innovation (products and markets);

• increased competition (for market share, the ‘war for talent’ and so forth);

• identifying leaders who are visionary, inspirational and/or entrepreneurial;

• customer service (greater focus on service or knowledge-based economies) and so forth.

The book focuses on how these strategies influence the design of the assessment centre in terms of the competencies, exercises and nature of the event, so that they can deliver what is required. Some of the questions that the contributors were asked to address included:

• What was the impetus for your development of the AC?

• What organizational problems were you trying to address?

• What opportunities were you trying to capitalize on?

• What business challenge(s) was the AC designed to meet?

• What top level executives or boards were involved in deciding to use the AC and shape its direction and scope?

• How did you get their support for this admittedly complex and costly human resource practice?

• What other HR practices was your AC linked with?

• How does your AC impact other HR interventions?

• What follow-up HR activities were needed for your AC to be successful?

Typical applications involve the use of assessment and development centres to screen external applicants, promote internal managers, diagnose developmental needs, or develop behavioural skills, often with the intention of changing organizational culture and values. It becomes clear as we read these accounts, that no matter what the ostensible reason for the AC, the intervention often results in a broader ‘OD’ (organization development) process. Practical examples/case studies are sprinkled throughout the book.

CROSS-CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL AC PRACTICE

The third theme explores cross-cultural implications for the design of assessment centres and development centres. We are fortunate to have an impressive cross-section of international contributors from around the world who have described the special issues faced when designing an assessment or development centre in non-traditional cultures, moving an AC from one country to another, or assessing persons from different countries in the same assessment programme. Some of these issues relate to questions such as:

• How did the specific characteristics of the culture/country influence the ways you designed and implemented the essential features of the AC in relation to the:

– dimensions;

– exercises;

– observation and evaluation procedures;

– method of integrating the observations;

– feedback to assessees;

– integration of the behavioural observations with other assessment information.

• If your AC was carried out in two different cultural settings, how did you deal with any cross cultural considerations? In particular:

– Did you produce materials (such as exercises) in different languages and how did you ensure linguistic and conceptual equivalence?

– What training did you provide assessors to make reliable and valid observations and evaluations when faced with cultural differences?

• What special challenges did you face in your cultural setting to demonstrate the effectiveness of this AC in different countries?

A Brief Word About Language and Nomenclature

With an international set of contributors we needed to make some arbitrary decisions about the language and terminology that would be adopted. In order to cater to a global readership we decided that each chapter would be written in either UK or US English, depending on the author’s preference, so you will find both centre and center and other words with different UK and US spellings used throughout the book.

Also the assessment centre (center) and its various derivatives are often referred to in a variety of different ways, so we have adopted a set of standard abbreviations throughout the book to refer to the different types of programmes, generally with their different primary purposes (see Table 1.1). However, we hasten to point out that the actual purpose does not always match the ostensible purpose.

Table 1.1 Overview of the different types of Assessment Centres

Otherwise we have left the contributor to explain their own choice of terminology as appropriate.

Structural Outline

The book is divided into three parts, with each part principally focusing on one of the three themes described above. Each part contains 10 or more chapters covering a wide range of issues relating to that particular theme. However, it should be noted that the content of many of the chapters naturally relates to more than one of the themes.

We would also like to point out that this is not the type of book that you need to read from cover to cover. You should feel free to dip in and out of the different chapters, depending on your interest. Each chapter can be read independently of the others, although we have asked our contributors to highlight relevant links with other chapters.

We briefly describe each part below and highlight some of the issues covered within each chapter.

PART I: AC BEST PRACTICE

This part addresses specific technical matters and best practice principles, as well as highlighting some of the most interesting recent research, such as the debate around the relative merits of a dimensions-based approach versus a task-based approach. Although the interplay between science and practice is a recurring theme throughout the book, it is clearly most evident in Part I.

Chapter 2 by an international team of Guenole, Chernyshenko, Stark, Cockerill, and Drasgow provides evidence that ratings in an AC demonstrate construct validity to measure intended dimensions. The authors describe a large international assessment programme which provided extensive assessor training and certified assessor competence to assess distinct competencies. Using unique analytic procedures, the results reveal that dimension ratings show considerable evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of post-exercise dimension ratings. The reasons why these results differ from the results of previous studies finding a lack of this form of construct validity are described in the chapter.

In Chapter 3, Jackson, Ahmad, Grace, and Yoon describe task-based assessment centres (TBACs), which adopt a different approach to research and practice of the AC method by focusing on task lists and roles within exercises, rather than dimensions across exercises. Although TBACs are designed in much the same way as traditional dimension-based assessment centres (DBACs), the authors argue that performance on the tasks is as important (if not more so) than performance on the dimensions. The authors’ claims are supported by a case study describing a TBAC employed within a New Zealand-based organization and some further examples of similar practices employed in South Korea.

In Chapter 4, Lievens and Schollaert show how the concepts of Trait Activation Theory (TAT) can guide the development of assessment simulations and the actions of role players to ensure that participants display behaviours relevant to specified assessment dimensions. The theory of TAT explains that behaviours relevant to traits (that is, dimensions in the case of ACs) will be displayed if the situation (that is, exercises in the case of ACs) provides cues to elicit such behaviour. Situations can be made relatively ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ and thus provide different insights into individual differences in performance on dimensions. Practical examples are given, along with results of research studies showing the effects of different AC designs.

In Chapter 5, Prichard and Riley discuss the pros and cons of using off-the-shelf versus customized exercise simulations and highlight a range of factors that should be considered when deciding between the two options. Central to the decision is the concept of fidelity and the legitimacy of this approach is discussed and brought into question. In short they question the usual stance that customized exercise simulations are always best and reveal that the decision isn’t quite as straightforward as had previously been thought. Thirteen questions provide the framework for considering when these two options are appropriate.

Chapter 6 by Meiring and van der Westhuizen provides insight into the long history of the applications of the AC method in South Africa and the recent challenges of human resource management in a diverse population. They show how computer-based technology can be used as a part of an AC programme to identify and develop individuals for a newly created role of service advisor in a financial institution. The chapter gives details on the process of working with IT colleagues to develop methods of presenting exercise materials, recording responses, scoring performance, integrating objective and behavioural judgements, and preparing reports. Other chapters that provide information on the history and culture of South Africa and how ACs have been implemented there include Chapters 13 by Buckett and 23 by Krause.

Chapter 7 by Dewberry discusses the relative merits of consensus meetings as opposed to pure arithmetic scoring, as a means of determining participant performance in an AC. It raises some interesting issues around the informal, latent processes that can occur within a consensus meeting which can have unforeseen impacts on the outcome, despite the use of a formal methodology within the meeting. It goes on to suggest ways of mitigating these effects and debates the relative merits of the two different approaches.

In Chapter 8, Fletcher covers the impact that an AC or DC can have on a candidate’s motivation, well-being and self-awareness. It examines how attending an AC or DC can impact the candidate’s emotional state (for example anxiety) during the event and how it can affect his/her performance. It also reviews the longer term effects on candidates of having been through an AC and how this can impact their psychological well-being, motivation and self perceptions.

Chapter 9 by Woodruffe raises the question as to whether ACs do enough to ensure they are sufficiently diversity-friendly. It looks at how ACs compare with other assessment methods in terms of addressing typical diversity concerns and reviews how certain aspects of diversity are unique to ACs, such as the diversity awareness of assessors, given the critical nature of their role in determining final AC outcomes. This is one particular topic where the often stated need for more focused research is strongly justified.

Hoffman and Baldwin, in Chapter 10, provide an integration of research and practice on assessment centres and multi-source performance rating (MSPR) systems. Similarities and differences in the two interventions are described. The strengths in the approaches and research findings of both ACs and MSPRs are highlighted. Lessons from MSPRs that can improve AC methodology are noted.

Chapter 11 by Thornton traces the 50-year history of reciprocal influences of theory, research, and practice of ACs and DCs. It shows how practice has been influenced by laboratory and field research in measurement, social cognition, judgement, and learning in four time-periods. In return, researchers have been stimulated by practices in job analysis, exercise development, ratings, and feedback, and issues of fairness and efficiency in ACs operations. Questions about the construct validity of AC ratings have stimulated an exchange of research studies and practice innovations in an attempt to improve the accuracy of diagnosis of performance on distinct dimensions of performance. A call for research on ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Editors
• Notes on Contributors
• Reviews of Assessment Centres and Global Talent Management
• Preface
• Part I AC Best Practice
• Part II Corporate Strategy and Talent Management
• Part III International Issues and Implications
• Subject Index
• Author Index