Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: bentsonc@scarlatti.CS.ColoState.Edu (C Bentson)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: assessment centers
Message-ID: <11921@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 4 Dec 89 01:42:33 GMT
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Organization: Colorado State University
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From: bentsonc@scarlatti.CS.ColoState.Edu (C Bentson)

I am an industrial/organizational psychologist in Fort Collins, CO.
I need some help. I am conducting a survey (along with a colleague
who teaches at Rice University in Houston) on assessment center
practices in the public sector, the private sector, and the nonprofit
sector. We're trying to get as wide and as large a sample for
our survey as possible.

An assessment center is a method that is used for making selection,
promotion, and/or training and development employment decisions.  The
assessment center method is a standardized evaluation of job-related
behaviors.  The evaluation is based on multiple behavioral observations
made by multiple, trained observers on several categories of behaviors
(dimensions) who observe several candidates/participants undergo
several exercises, situations, and/or tests. The behavioral
observations made of the candidates by the assessors is pooled at an
integration meeting and some evaluation of each candidate is ultimately
made.

That, in a very small nutshell, is a description of the assessment
center method. Our questionnaire asks questions such as:

- how many dimensions do you use?
- which dimensions do you use?
- are your exercises or simulations off-the-shelf or custom-designed?
- what is your assessor-assessee ratio?
- how long is assessor training?
- which types of exercises do you use?

If you or someone you know uses assessment centers, I'd appreciate
some E-Mail giving me your surface mailing address so we can send
you our survey. Survey results will be made available to you if
you fill out a coupon on the questionnaire. We'll also be presenting
our findings at the 17th International Congress on the Assessment
Center Method in Orange, California in March. (E-Mail me too if you'd
like information on this conference - we're a small (less than 200
people), friendly, interesting bunch of practitioners and academics
interested in the assessment center method - you'd be welcome to
join us!).

Again, we want responders from fire departments, police departments,
military organizations, DoD - related organizations, retail stores,
hospitals, large industries, small industries, public, private,
nonprofit organizations. The more variety, the better snapshot we can
take on what's going on in assessment centers today. I appreciate
any mailing addresses/lists you can get to me. THANKS!

EMAIL:   bentsonc@scarlatti.cs.colostate.edu
         ncar!scarlatti.cs.colostate.edu!bentsonc

SURFACE: Cindy Bentson, PhD
         Bentson Associates
         1712 Sagewood Drive
         Fort Collins, CO 80525-2072
         (303) 493-3474


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