We’re Doing Better than You Might Think: A Large Scale Demonstration of Assessment Center Convergent and Discriminant Validity

An assessment centre (AC) is a standardized evaluation of behaviour based on inputs from multiple assessment methods (International Taskforce 2009). In a typical AC, trained assessors rate candidates’ performance on a predetermined set of behavioural dimensions across several exercises. Ratings for the same dimensions in different exercises, known as post exercise dimension ratings (PEDRs), are then combined into a set of dimension scores, as well as into a single performance score, known as the overall assessment rating (OAR). Because ACs are believed to measure managerial-level skills and abilities, and are known to predict future job performance, their use for personnel selection and executive development is widespread in applied settings (Thornton and Gibbons 2009). Despite their popularity, an increasing number of academic researchers in recent years have raised concerns over findings that ACs do not seem to measure what they purport to measure