Ausgabe 13: Atlanta, USA - Report on International Congress on Assessment Center Methods
In early October, delegates from 13 countries gathered in Atlanta for the 31 st International Congress on Assessment Center Methods. The focus of this year's conference was on maximizing the benefits of assessment and development centers.
Increasing the acceptance of assessment center feedback
Described below are some of the key research findings presented at the meeting:
- Encourage participants to put their developmental action plan in writing.
- Involve the participant's managers in the creation of a developmental plan and in ongoing discussions to support progress ("get them to psychologically own the participant's development").
- Suggest that participants use a diary to track their developmental efforts (research shows a correlation between this method and more rapid developmental progress).
- Provide a mechanism for follow-up support and monitoring of developmental plans (have participants turn something in every two months).
- Build the participant's ownership and accountability for development and improvement.
- Increase motivation by measuring results.
- Focus on strengths as well as developmental needs (leverage strengths but avoid "overplaying" them).
As in Europe there is a growing use of psychological testing as an additional component to assessment centers.
- The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal is commonly used.
- Various personality inventories are also in regular use.
In US the use of 360 degree feedback is far more common than in Europe, however the trend seems to go already backwards:
- Over three hundred studies show no improvement in performance in successive administration of the inventories.
- Only five studies show improvement.