Using Assessment Centres to Select Team Leaders

Assessment centres have been used extensively to select and develop personnel for managerial and other positions. This paper describes an assessment centre suitable for selecting team leaders, and addresses some of the issues in deter-mining standards for their performance. This assessment centre was the first step in a program directed towards changing the role of supervisors from one of directing staff responsible for production to one of emphasizing team pro-duction and team development. Assessment centres can provide insights into the behaviour of individuals and groups that can be related to job situations. Because of their focus on group activities and problem-solving, they are particularly suitable for assessing team leaders. An assessment centre is a procedure that involves a number of participants engag-ing in work-related exercises, activities, and written tests. Participants are required to use skills relevant to their work position, and are observed and evaluated by trained assessors. These task assessments are pooled to arrive at an overall consen-sus of the participant’s team leadership potential