Centres (Assessment Centres)

Origin of the Assessment Centre (AC) Methodology

Beginning in the second half of the past century (see McClelland et al., 1958), all evaluation technology which took this simple principle as a reference point – with variations and technical differences at various points and according to different specialists – was called situational assessment method and, in its application to the Psychology of Organizations, ‘Assessment Centre Method’.

Professor D. McClelland's contributions are considered the most significant source in experimental and conceptual development for building current AC methods.

Current AC Concept

Though AC's basic concept can be applied in evaluating behaviour in any type of situation (e.g. in a clinical environment, to evaluate ability in stressful situations; in an educational environment, to evaluate students' learning behaviour regarding specific pedagogical contents; in a social environment to evaluate group behaviour in emergency situations; etc.), in practice, its current usage is basically related to organizational psychology.

Currently, AC is a process aimed at evaluating and predicting the behaviour of professionals whether in a job position which needs to be filled (selection), in a professional position which is being performed (performance assessment) or in a position the subject can perform in the future and in which he must show competence and extensive knowledge (potential assessment).

In all cases, the results of the individual and group assessment are used to plan development and training programmes, aimed at improving worker skills and eradicate deficiencies involving technical knowledge in handling personal and professional situations.

AC Determining Elements

AC is a logical and ordered process of observation, registration, classification and evaluation. It assesses the behaviour of one or various subjects who are faced with a series of situations in a standardized manner and where they must answer with a result or specific out-put.

In general terms, the elements which differentiate the assessment process centre from other evaluating techniques are the following:

• Evaluation is done through situational tests.
• The subject is asked to solve a specific problem or situation within standardized parameters.
• The situation has been designed so that specific characteristics can be observed in the subject's behaviour (called COMPETENCIES), either in general or technical knowledge.
• The criteria delimits whether the behaviour being observed draws near or far from the model of abilities being evaluated; the latter have been previously established and described in detail as ‘observable behaviour’.
• The subjects perform the tests before a group of observers who carefully record the behaviour.
• Potential as well as current ability is evaluated.