Search results

Presents a review of assessment‐centre practice and evaluates its overall effectiveness as a method of selection. There is a specific evaluation of an assessment centre in the banking industry for the selection of graduates. The results do not in general support the findings on validity found in the general literature. There was a lack of construct validity specifically in respect of an exercise effect. Criterion validity was similarly poor.

The issue of assessment centre prescreening is very important for both practical and legal reasons: some kind of prescreening must take place, and organisations using assessment centre technology was felt to be ideally suited for integrating complex individual variables such as personality, ability, motivation, needs, symptoms, coping preferences, etc. Four of these were seen as an aberration and entitled: “Stress Adaptors”, “Stress Seekers” and “Stress Avoiders”, and the findings suggested that Stress Seekers may be viewed as ideal managers, but Stress Adaptors should be recognised and cultivated.

Despite objections to, and frustrations of, cross‐cultural research, there are commonalities, these being that assessment centre methodology is seen as a better tool for decision making, resulting in lower staff turnover rates, involving management to a greater degree, and demonstrating to individual employees the organisation's interest in upgrading their personal skills. Assessment centre cost remains a large obstacle, but attempts to justify this cost by means of documenting gains might be helpful. In addition to the different forms of feedback from assessees the assessment centre concept needs to be more widely marketed; and supporting technologies and personnel need to be developed to sustain the concept. Cultural stereotypes (regarding managers) need to be allowed for at a regional level. Assessment centres have been found to generalise across levels, organisations and industries; they can also, from this evidence, be extended across cultures.

In my first article for this journal I outlined what an assessment centre is, its history and how the method works. I shall not attempt to argue here the validity of the method nor to provide case studies of actual applications. Future articles will consider the relationship of assessment centres to psychological testing, validity and accuracy, and some case studies of unusual or unique applications.

A fair amount of evidence has been amassed concerning the reliability, validity and fairness of assessment centres when used for selection purposes. Selection‐oriented assessment centres provide valid predictions of managerial performance and success, and seem not to generate significant adverse impact against black or female candidates. Assessment centres increasingly, however, seem to be used for purposes other than immediate job selection. In particular, they are often used for the identification of long‐term managerial potential, and for the diagnosis of training and development needs, perhaps as a part of an overall audit of managerial strengths and weaknesses or as a part of a wider organisational development effort. Two studies of participants′ reactions to development centres are presented. These are followed by two longitudinal studies of the impact on a range of career and organisational attitudes held by participants of two development centres run by two major UK financial services organisations.

The complexity of the assessment process and variations in the assessment process across organisations are such that many unanswered questions remain. Although review of recent assessment centre research highlights the fact that there is now stronger evidence that centres are effective for women as well as for men; that there is empirical support for the developmental value of serving as an assessor; and that there is more insight into conditions under which coaching may affect performance, over 70 issues in need of further investigation have been identified. These range from assessor selection and certification, to the use of different types of exercises, matching job and exercise complexity, and effect of feedback on subsequent performance. While acknowledging the success of the assessment centre approach, researchers and practitioners should adopt a spirit of active enquiry into understanding and improving the assessment process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a collaborative agent-based web architecture and an agent-based green IS assessment tool to aid information technology (IT) practitioners in data centers assess their current green information systems (IS) practice toward attaining sustainability.

The methodology comprises that the collaborative agent-based web architecture, agents’ algorithm and the green IS assessment tool, which is validated by employing focus group questionnaire targeting IT practitioners in seven Malaysian-based enterprises that have an in-house data centers. With 105 valid samples at hand, descriptive analysis and exploratory factor analysis was utilized to determine the applicability of the implemented agent-based green IS assessment tool.

Findings reveal that the agent-based green IS assessment tool possesses the capability to evaluate benchmark and rate enterprise data centers current green IS practice. Additional findings indicate that the agent-based green IS assessment tool provide suggestions on how green IS practice can be improved in enterprise data centers.

This study only collected data from 105 IT practitioners in enterprise data centers based in Malaysia; as such results from this research cannot be generalized to other countries. Moreover, the developed collaborative agents for green IS practice assessment can only be fully deployed after domain experts has added green IS practice assessment questions and alternative answers.

This study presents an autonomous agent-based green IS assessment tool that supports the assessment of enterprise toward inclusion of sustainability considerations to enhance enterprise environmental performance.

This study provides empirical evidence for data centers efficacy leading toward a greener society for environmental conservation for future generations to come.

This study creates awareness by presenting the green IS practice to be implemented by IT practitioners in data centers. In addition, the agent-based green IS assessment tool provides a web-based platform for promoting environmental sustainability by supporting data centers toward evaluating, benchmarking and rating their current green IS practices.

Assessment centres have been around for just over forty years now; however, their acceptance in industry, whilst increasing, is still rather sporadic. One reason for this is that the words “Assessment Centre” conjure up an image of mysticism. What is it? How does it work? etc. So, apart from the fact that many organisations are unwilling to commit the finance and resources to assessment centres, the other major obstacle is the scepticism and mistrust which surround the process, simply because it is misunderstood.

Assessment centres as a total system, involving theoretical, practical and technical aspects, are focused on. Recent research findings on assessment centres, their processes and practices, are discussed and the implications for practice are examined.