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Purpose
This document is intended to establish professional guidelines and ethical considerations for users of the assessment center method. These guidelines are designed to cover both existing and future applications. The title "assessment center" is restricted to those methods that follow these guidelines.
These guidelines will provide: (1) guidance to industrial/organizational psychologists, organizational consultants, human resource management specialists and generalists, and others designing and conducting assessment centers; (2) information to managers deciding whether or not to institute assessment center methods; (3) instruction to assessors serving on the staff of an assessment center; and (4) guidance on the use of technology in assessments.
History of Guidelines
The rapid growth in the use of the assessment center method in recent years has resulted in a proliferation of applications in a variety of organizations. Assessment centers currently are being used in industrial, educational, military, government, law enforcement and other organizational settings. Practitioners have raised serious concerns that reflect a need for standards or guidelines for users of the method. The 3rd International Congress on the Assessment Center Method, which met in Quebec (May 1975), endorsed the first set of guidelines. These were based on the observations and experience of a group of professionals representing many of the largest users of the method.
Developments in the period 1975-79 concerning federal guidelines related to testing, as well as professional experience with the original guidelines, suggested that the guidelines should be evaluated and revised. Therefore, the 1979 guidelines included essential items from the original guidelines but also addressed the recognized need for: (1) further definitions, (2) clarification of impact on organizations and participants, (3) expanded guidelines on training, and (4) additional information on validation.
Since 1979 the use of assessment centers has spread to many different organizations that are assessing individuals representing diverse types of jobs. During this period pressures to modify the assessment center method came from three different sources. First, there had been attempts to streamline the procedures to make them less time-consuming and expensive. Second, new theoretical arguments and evidence from empirical research had been interpreted to mean that the assessment center method does not work exactly as its proponents originally had believed, suggesting that the method should be modified. Third, many procedures purporting to be assessment...