Effectiveness of Assessment Centres in predicting Future Performance of employees in Petroleum Development Oman

Table of Content

LITERATURE REVIEW1

WHAT ARE ASSESSMENT CENTRES2

Key Features of Assessment Centres2

Multiple Candidates3

Combination of Methods3

Team of Assessors3

Functions of Assessment Centres7

Assessment Centres for Selection7

Assessment Centres for Development8

The Assessment of Different Kinds of jobs8

Human Resource8

Finance9

Engineering9

Information Technology10

How Are Assessment Centre Results Being Used?13

Design and Validation Processes of Assessment Centres14

Advantages of Assessment Centres24

Disadvantages of Assessment Centres25

Empirical Findings about the Assessment Centre Dimensions26

Global Trends in the Use of Assessment Centres26

REFERENCES31

LITERATURE REVIEW

During the last couple of decades, assessment centres have become very popular in the research of human resource management. The implications of assessment centres are discussed by both practitioners and researchers. Since 1986 to 1991, the popularity of assessment centres has increased from 21.4% to 58.9% (Robertson and Makin, 1986, pp. 45). The increase in the popularity of assessment centres could be because of an increased interest in the objective methods of hiring and selection. However, the most essential reason that has led towards increasing the importance and acceptance of assessment centres is the impressive validity of assessment centres (Anderson and Herriot, 1995, pp. 56).

Despite the increasing popularity of assessment centres, there are some disturbing findings related to the content and construct validity of assessment centres. There are some findings that have highlighted problems associated with the strategies and decision-making processes of assessors and observers in assessment centres (Anderson, Payne and Ferguson, 1993, pp. 52). According to the research, the assessors concentration more on the exercises provided to candidates than the over-all approach. Moreover, the arguments also highlight the use of only subsets of different job analysis dimensions. This approach of assessors, again increase the doubts about construct and content validity of the assessment centres. The most common demonstration for these arguments is the limitation of information processing capacity of human beings. In assessment centres, assessors are often required to evaluate multiple candidate at the same time on different dimensions. In order to cope up with this situation, the beleaguered assessor unintentionally concentrationes on simplified set of dimensions (Payne et al, 1992, pp. 48). These kinds of strategies are often utilised by human beings when they come into contact with cognitive challenging tasks. It has also been argued in different research that when assessors are observing or evaluating the behaviour of several candidates at a time, they provide limited chances to candidates. As a result, candidates are able to exhibit certain dimensions of their behaviours only.

What Are Assessment Centres

There are different definitions of assessment centres which have been presented so fat. Assessment centres involve a number of techniques which are utilised to assess the skills and abilities of candidates. Assessment centres utilise different techniques that allow candidates to demonstrate their skills and abilities in standardised conditions (Norton, 1977, pp. 422). Assessment centres are based on standardised and comprehensive procedures in which multiple assessment techniques are used for instance, job simulation and situational exercises. These techniques are utilised to evaluate job candidates for a different jobs and ...