The role of assessment center work simulation exercises in determining or influencing assessors’ judgments of leadership competencies.

Abstract

The study purpose was to examine how leadership skills and abilities are measured using the assessment center method. The specific question addressed was whether the work simulation ratings made unique, incremental contributions to the overall competency ratings over and above those from the testing. Archival data from a consulting firm specializing in leadership assessment were used to address the research questions. The population consisted of 200 manager and executives assessed for selection or development over 3 years. For each of the 8 competencies, a preliminary backwards stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to eliminate personality and motives inventory scales that did not significantly contribute to the overall leadership competency rating. Upon determining which variables should remain in the full analyses, eight multiple regression analyses were conducted in which variables were introduced in two blocks, the first of which contained the remaining cognitive ability testing and personality and motives inventory scales, while the latter added work simulation ratings. Results showed that work simulation exercises made significant contributions to assessors’ ratings of 7 of the 8 overall leadership competencies. Assessors considered half of the 8 competencies to be trait-based, and thus expected to draw more heavily on the personality and motives inventory scales and cognitive ability test score when making judgments of these overall competency ratings. Similarly, assessors considered the other four competencies to be skill-based, suggesting greater reliance on the performance-based simulations when determining overall competency ratings. These assumptions were upheld for 6 of the 8 competencies. Assessors expected to rely more on simulation data for 2 of the competencies they considered to be skill-based, but in fact, ended up placing more weight on the personality and motives inventories and cognitive ability test results. Implications for future research include conducting similar analyses of individual assessors’ overall competency model determinations, doing predictive validity studies, such as on-the-job performance studies that seek to determine the most predictive sources of data, and studying how these findings could be applied to design simulations in such a manner as to yield the most useful information to assessors when making their judgments of overall leadership competencies.